LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER LIFE THE RIGHT REVEREND John Baeeett Keefoot D. D., LL. D. FIRST BISPIOP OF PITTSBURGH WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS DIARIES AND CORRESPONDENCE By hall HARRISON, M. A. Hector of St, John'' a Church, Howard County, Md. Vol. I. 1816-1864 New York JAMES POTT & CO. 1886 Copyright, 1886, By HALL HARRISON. Press, Lith and Bind, of Uaac Fricdcnwald, Baltimora. PREFACE. In the work now presented to the public, which has been a continuous but far from uncongenial labor for the past two years, I have tried to let Bishop Kerfoot describe himself by his own diaries and letters. Con- siderable use has also been made of the letters of his two friends, Dr. Muhlenberg and Bishop Whittingham, partly because of the interest which is so generally felt in these two remarkable men, and partly because letters to a man, no less than letters from him, shed light in an interesting and delicate way upon traits of character, and help ,to show the impression which he has made upon his contemporaries. In using the large mass of material placed unre- servedly at my disposal, I have endeavored to put out of sight, as far as possible, my own personal agreement or disagreement with the sentiments expressed, cover- ing as they do such a variety of topics, social, political and theological. I have considered that the individual opinions of the biographer were of no consequence or interest to the public, and should not be needlessly obtruded upon the reader. At the same time, I have IV PREFACE. not thought it necessary or advisable to try to write a colorless record of bare facts, or to conceal my opinions when the expression of them seemed natural and unobjectionable. The attempt to write with colorless impartiality is apt to be as unsuccessful as it usually is insipid. The questions which I have kept before me have been, whether a sentiment expressed in a letter, or in a passage in a diary, is really characteristic of the writer, and is, furthermore, of sufficient general interest and importance to justify its insertion. But even in carrying out this rule I cannot hope to have avoided errors, and must ask the indulgence of the candid reader — an indulgence which will be readily granted by those who are able to appreciate the difficult and delicate questions which sometimes arise in works of this character. I desire to express my indebtedness to the family of Bishop Kerfoot for invaluable aid in copying and arranging much of the bishop's voluminous corre- spondence and diaries. Without that assistance the work would have been delayed much longer than it has been. It is proper to add that for the use of all this material — both for what is inserted and for what has been omitted — the responsibility must lie, where it properly belongs, solely upon the author of the work. To the friends of the bishop, both in and out of Pittsburgh, who have so generously aided in defraying PREFACE. V a part of the expense of this publication, my sincere thanks are due, as well as to the Rev. J. P. Norman, M. D., for aid in copying letters and for other useful assistance. To my friend and former colleague, the Eev, Joseph Howland Coit, of St. Paul's School — Bishop Kerfoot's trusted friend and associate for so many years at St. James's — who has laid me under deep obligations by contributing what many readers will justly regard as the most interesting and valuable chapter of the work, I beg to record my grateful acknowledgments. I wish also to acknowledge the courtesy and kind- ness of the venerable Presiding Bishop in sending me several interesting letters in regard to the Reform Movement in Mexico, as well as for his own valuable letter on the subject, which will be found in the twenty-third chapter. Hall Hakrison. St. John's Rectory, Ellicott City, Maryland, May, 1886. CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. CHAPTER I. PAGE Eakly Life and Education. Ordination to the Diaconate, 1816-1837. Aetat. 1-31 1 CHAPTER II. College Point. Maryland, 1833-1843. Aetat. 31-36 . . 31 CHAPTER III. Opening of St. James's Hall, Etc., 1843-1843. Aetat. 36-37 . 44 CHAPTER IV. Visit to England, 1843. Aetat. 37 .64 CHAPTER V. Return Home. Life at St. James's, 1843-1850. Aetat. 37-34. 96 CHAPTER VI. Muhlenberg, Whittingham and Kerfoot. PAiiT I. — Letters from Br. Iluhlenherg 131 Part II. — Correnpondence with Bishop Whiitinfjham . . . 155 CHAPTER VII. The Burning of Kemp Hall, 1857 180 CHAPTER VIII. Breaking Out of the Civil War, 1860-1861. Aetat. 44-45 . 188 CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1. Vll CHAPTER IX. Second Year of the War. Battle of Antietam, 1863. Aetat. 46 233 CHAPTER X. The Third Year of the War. The Retreat from Gettys- burg, 1863. Aetat. 47 253 CHAPTER XI. Last Year of St. James's. Dr. Kerfoot Taken Prisoner, 1863-1864. Aetat. 47-48 370 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI. Account op Dr. Kerfoot's Arrest, by His Fellow-Prisoner, Rev. Joseph H. Coit, M. A 303 CHAPTER XII. (By Rev. Joseph H. Coit, M. A., of St. Paul's School.) Part I. — Recollections of Bishop KerfooCs Life and Work at St. Jameii'ii 319 Part II. — Recollections, etc., continued 344 ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME I. 1. Bisnop Kerfoot in 1873, aetat. 57.— Frontispiece. 2. Addkess to La Fayette. — Facsimile. To face p. 4. 3. John B. Kerfoot, aetat. 24. — To face p. 27. 4. College of St. James, Fountain Rock, Md. — To face p. 45. 5. A Page of Dr. Muulenberg's "Farewell to Kerfoot."— Fac- simile. To face p. 54. 6. College of St. James, Baltimore Co., Md.— To face p. 232. 7. Bishop "WuiTTiNGHAM to President Lincoln.— Facsimile. To face p. 299. ERRATA. p. 26, 1. 18, for leaving read leaning. P. 62, 1. 19, for Mr. read Mrs. P. 70, 1. 18, for five read fine. P. 73, 1. 29, for Henry VII read Henry VIII. P. 131, note, /or nephew by marriage read brotber-in-law. P. 168, 1. 22, for said read laid. P. 311, 1. 16, for our read your. P. 337, 1. 1, for sufficient read insuflicient. Life of Bishop Kerfoot. CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. ORDINATION TO THE DIACONATE. 1816-1837. Aetat. 1-21. John Barrett Kerfoot, Rector of the College of St. James in Maryland, and afterwards First Bishop of Pittsburgh, was born on the 1st of March, 1816, in the city of Dublin, and was baptized in private by a Presbyterian Minister, His parents were Richard Kerfoot, of Castle Monegan, Ireland, and Christiana Barrett, daughter of George Barrett, of Armagh. They were Scotch-Irish by descent, brought up in the Church, but afterwards connected with the Wesleyans. Richard Kerfoot settled with his wife in Dublin, but in 1818, two years after the birth of John, their third son, he removed to this country, making his residence in the town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. His family, consisting of his wife and four children, followed him to America in 1819. He was at first successful in business, but afterwards lost a considerable sum of money from endorsing notes for his friends — a practice which even the well-known warning of Solomon^ has ' Fioverbs xi. 15. 2 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. 1. Dr. Muhlen- berg. never yet taught kind-hearted men to avoid. He died of inflammatory fever in 1825. His son John used to say that he distinctly remembered his father's taking him, then nine years old, in his arms as he lay in bed, blessing him and giving him his dying counsels. These vs^ere the simple, old-fashioned ones, "to be a good boy, to say his prayers regularly, to read his Bible, and to obey and take care of his another.'''' The eldest son was then a student of medicine, and graduated in Philadelphia in 1830; the younger sons went to school in Lancaster. The children loved and reverenced their mother, who lived respected and honored to a good old age, dying in Dayton, Ohio, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lewis,^ in the summer of 1858.2 Among the influences for good in his life which Kerfoot ever valued most, was his friendship with the Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg. This well- known man, unequalled in some respects as an educator of youth, and never to be forgotten while the Church of the Holy Communion, St. Luke's Hospital, and "St. Johnland" last, came to Lancaster in 1820, and opened a Church Sunday-School. This Sunday-School young Kerfoot had the good fortune to attend when a lad of six years old. Mr. Muhlenberg's benevolent eye (aided by his intuitive reading of character) at once singled out the promising child, and • Mother of the Rev. John Ker- foot Lewis, Chaplain in the U.S.N. " In a letter written in 1844, from Ireland to his wife by the Rev. J. B. Kerfoot, mention is made of a visit to the home of his mother: "I went to see my uncles near Armagh, my mother's relatives on her mother's side. The Cum- mingses are among the oldest gentry in the North of Ireland, and the Barretts were large land- holders near Armagh." 1825.] EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. won his affection by the kind interest and tenderness he displayed towards him. Their relations can be best described by an expression used by or of Kerfoot, that " he became devotedly in love with Dr. Muhlen- berg from the very first." Unlike many "first loves," this did not change. No one ever took Dr. Muhlen- berg's place, warm and devoted as were several of Kerfoot's subsequent friendships. The attachment deepened at Flushing and College Point ; it grew with time, and was never interrupted until the pupil, then Bishop of Pittsburgh, gave him his last earthly Communion, and laid to rest in St. Johnland the mortal remains of his venerable and noble-hearted master and school -father.^ The boy's earliest secular education was begun at a visit or school in Lancaster, under the so-called " Lancastrian" " "^^ *' or Monitorial system, conducted by the Rev. Mr. Varian. In the year 1825 the Marquis Lafayette, while making his famous tour through the United States, paid a visit to this school, and Kerfoot, then a boy of nine years old, was selected, doubtless on account of his precocity and handsome appearance, to deliver a short address of welcome to the distin- guished visitor. Mr. Muhlenberg placed the little fellow on a large table, under a sort of canopy of green boughs and oak leaves, and stood beside him to encourage him. Then, in the presence of a large company, the future educator and bishop addressed to Lafayette the following words of welcome and sage counsel : ' See the toucbiug accouut of I Life and Work by Miss Ayres, Dr. Mubleuberg's I'uuerul iu his | pp. 506-513. 4 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. I. Getieral, — We are bappy to welcome you vvithiu tlie walls of our school. We hope that you will always recommeud learning, and that 3'^ou will always cherish such valuable institutions as this. Remember that schools are of great importance to a free people, and that education is the best security for Virtue, Liberty and Independence. We thank you for your kindness in coming from your native country, France, to help us in getting the Liberty we now enjoy. We wish you Health, Honour and Prosperity as long as you live in this world, and in the world to come eternal Happiness ; and if it is your intention to return to France, we wish you a safe and pleasant voyage.' Flushing. Dr. Muhlenbcrg left Lancaster and went to Flusbinoj, on Long Island, in the year 1826, and two years after- wards opened the well-known "Flushing Institute," which soon made him celebrated among churchmen. By the kindness of a dear and generous friend, Miss Yeates, of Lancaster, Kerfoot was enabled to go to Flushing, and thus he found himself, to his great delight, again under the care and instruction of his old Sunday-School teacher. His goal had always been the holy ministry, and the extracts that follow from his early diaries and letters will show plainly the bent of the boy's mind, and the training to which he was subjected. lie was influenced not only by Dr. Muhlenberg's character and his intense personality, but also by the genius loci. There was a sort of atmosphere pervading Flushing and College Point (and the same may be said of their successors, St. James's College and St. Paul's School, in New Hampshire), which, if • Tiie original MS. ul this address is still extaut in the uuformedhand ot a boy of nine years old. /Ura 'jl/yyii-^yi^ ^^&^^^^^^^^>^.ir ,*e^^, ^ ^^-^.2^^^'/Z/^^^^/z2^^:^^^^ f,c^ 'i 23-:^^^^ ^t^ ,o^afi:z^ ^^^2 /^^'"'''^'^^'^^-^^^'^ /^i ^' ^<^^^ y -y /> /C,. ^ /•„y,^^. ^^rcJ, ,Ot a-y^ Q**i-t.t^ e^yri^Li*^ v/-y£J' yMiA/yOi^i ue^rJ^Zi'^hJ to '/f^ey6<:'iy^^~Z^ ^^^'zv-'j^ Cji^ ^jins^ linJ *■<- H f~^ '^-^ckXcj *y— 1830.] EARL Y LIFE AND ED UCA TION. did now and then repel a few, attracted many of the better natures, and created an impression for good which, in after years, they never failed to acknowledge and be grateful for. As would be expected by all who knew Dr. Muhl- enberg at that stage of his interesting and varying career, Kerfoot's youthful piety was, at first, some- what of the "Evangelical" type. His boyish diary is somewhat introspective, and the emotions and reli- gions impressions of the moment, his struggles and failures, his aspirations and disappointments, his unceasing efforts to do good to his companions and to the pupils under his charge, are recorded when, before retiring at night, he took up his pen and opened his daily journal. Dr. Muhlenberg kept such diaries him- self, and seems to have encouraged the practice among his favorite pupils. Moreover, Sargent's well-known Memoir of Henry Martyn was one of the popular religious books of the day, and the style of its diaries as well as the devoted piety of their writer doubtless exerted considerable influence. Kerfoot, whose habits were remarkably business-like and methodical, con- tinued to keep a diary all his life. But, as he grew to manhood, and the demands of his profession and work increased, his records assumed more and more the character of a very terse summary of actual facts and important occurrences — brief notes of interviews held, of letters written, and of the various business of the day. In fact, after he went to Maryland, as Rector of St. James's College, his hurried jottings — very condensed in expression — bear a close resemblance to those recently published in the Life of Bishop Samuel Wilberforce of Oxford and Winchester. 6 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. I. In one respect indeed these youthful effusions possess a particular interest. Not only do they show the developuient of the boy's mind, but they give an insight — perhaps clearer than anything yet published — into the school-life at Flushing and College Point, and the peculiar religious influence which Dr. Muhl- enberg succeeded in exerting. Ketfoot'f The daily life at those institutions (comparing it With what has been published of Eton, Rugby, and othei' great English public schools) seems to have been wholesome and happy, homelike to a great degree, but remarkably free from any exciting inci- dents. The faggings, floggings, " tundings," rebellions more or less successful, " barrings out," etc., and the various escapades that we are in the habit of associ- ating with school-life, seem conspicuous by absence in Dr. Muhlenberg's system. As to Kerfoot's own boy- hood, we know from the testimony of his schoolmate, Bishop Bedell, as well as from Dr. Muhlenberg's letters, that it was remarkably pure and good, — un- usually uniform in industry and integrity. Conscien- tiousness and truthfulness were marked characteristics of his earliest years. The truth was that the realities of life pressed with severity rather soon upon the impressionable boy, fresh from a home where religion and love had prevailed. His father had died when he was but nine years old, leaving his family in narrow circumstances, and his dying charge was still fresh in his son's memory. Having the unexpected and much-prized advantage of being sent to Flushing to " get his education " and make his own way in the world, he could not throw away these opportunities. 1830.] EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 7 Having had " put into his hand a price to get wis- dom," he could not, like a " fool who had no heart to it," misuse the chance that was offered him.' Moreover, Dr. Muhlenberg fascinated him by the elevation of his sentiments, by the strictness of his reli- gious life, and by the marked confidence he reposed in his pupil. If his friend and master expected so much from him, how could he disappoint him? Earnestness and faithfulness, therefore, characterized him from the first, both as a schoolboy, and as prefect and instructor, positions to which he was rapidly pro- moted. From the early age of sixteen he relieved his mother of the burden of supporting him, and soon had at school with him his younger brother, to whom he ever acted a father's part. Such unusual responsi- bilities interfere with the ordinary carelessness — though not necessarily with the happiness of child- hood, and it is not surprising that a tone of seriousness should be found in many passages of his diary. But all this never seemed to take from him his keen sense of humor, nor his delightful joyousness of disposition ; he loved fun, and in a good-natured way liked to tease and play jokes upon his friends. The cheerfulness that was so marked a characteristic of the man must have been a prominent trait in the boy. As early as his 14th year, in an entry made Feb. 24:th, 1830, he records his grateful feelings for the blessing of being at Flushing under Dr. Muhlenberg's care, and then adds : Reviewing all the dispensations of God's Providence, I see that He has undoubtedly intended me for His service in a • Prov. xvii. 16 — a text from flue serraou ou Education, in the which Kerfoot once preached a 1 Chapel of St. James's. 8 LIFE OE BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. I. peculiar manner. Ii is His will, and I praj' that I shall always make His will mine. March, 1830. . . . M}' dear Mr. Muhlenberg spoke to me last evening ; asked me what was my besetting sin. I did not know any particular. He said it was on account of my self-ignorance. Alas, it is too true ! I desire self-knowledge, and pray God to give it me. This morning I was No. 1 in my classes ; would wish to keep so, but fear I am not diligent enough. I ought to be, surely. May God help me ! Don't keep good order in the stud}-, play too much with my neigh- bors ; but it is my fault, for I begin generally. Had a better meeting last night at the '* Association " than for some time before. After silent prayer, we all joined hands together and made a resolution each to take under our eyes some of the boys, especially the younger ones, to advise them and benefit them. Received a letter from Mr. Bowman this evening ; all well there and at home. Letter from The Rev. Samuel Bowman^ to John B. Kerfoot. Rtv.S. Bow- "*«"• Lancaster, June 15, 1830. My Dear John, — I have been highly gratified to learn your standing and progress at the Institute, and hope you ma}' always continue to do justice to yourself and credit to your friends. Never think that I am indift'erent about your welfare, or forget you, but letter-writing is so irksome to me yon must expect my communications to be '' few " and '' far between." As the time draws on when you are to be a monitor in the institution, I hope you will use every exertion to fit yourself for your new duties. You will never regret hereafter any exertions you ' How little did Mr. Bowman clergy would always reflect on dream that he himself, some 28 the influence they may exert on years later, was to be Bishop of the most casual contact with Western Penusylvauiii, and that youth."— Bishop Coxe'sCowimw?- the bright young lad whom he orative Sermon on Bp. Kerfoot, was befriending was destined to p. 11, where he records his own be his successor in the Episco- first accidental meeting with pate. " Oh ! that the reverend Kerfoot and Dr. Muhlenberg. 18B1.] EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 9 may now make in the acquisition of knowledge. On the con- trary, having laid a good foundation now, will wonderfully facilitate 3'our progress in all your future studies. I would not cherish in you a vain spirit of ambition, but there is a laud- able desire to excel in all useful and virtuous pursuits, with- out which no one will ever attain eminence. Whilst then you strive to do whatever you can do better than others, be at the same time careful to cultivate an humble and modest spirit. Beware lest success should beget pride — the brightest genius in the world loses half its brillianc}' if its possessor appears conscious and vain of it. My love to Mr. Muhlenberg and Mr. Yarian, and be assured tliat I am, and, so long as you shall deserve it, shall continue to be. Your true friend, S. Bowman. June 10, 1830. Last Monday evening had a conversation with Mr. Muhlenberg. He always talks so kindly to me about religion ; encourages me to lay open as far as I can my heart to him. ask his advice and counsel,' that for weeks after I feel the immediate influence of his conversation on my feelings. December., 1830, Flushing. On account of Mr. Muhlenberg's arranging our recitation so that we had to recite in the even- ing, we were compelled to dispense with our Association meetings at that time, but made a resolution to meet at 4 o'clock a. m. [!] every Tiiursday. But the watchman not waking us, we overslept ourselves, and lost one meeting for this week. To his Mother. Flushing, January 1, 1831. My Dear Mother., — I must not let New Year's Day pass without wishing you many happy New Years. Our holiday ' This practice of having con- fidential talks with his boj's, Kerfoot kept up as Rector at St. James's College. Hence arose reports that he encouraged and practised habitual "sacramental confession" in the sense of the modern ritualists. This he never did ; it was abhorrent to him as it was to Dr. Muhlenberg. See later on, his letter on the subject to the Rev. Dr. Jackson, President of Trinity College, Hartford. 10 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. has been very pleasant. All the boys went to New York this week, and I spent a very pleasant day there. This day I commenced a new book in my journal, solemnly dedicated myself to God and His ministry, and entered resolutions for the New Year Closing a letter to you seems like slopping a pleasant conversation with you, but unless I close it will never reach you. Tell my dear little brothers that as it is a new year, they must make good resolutions, and pray God to help them to keep them The Chapel of the Institute was dressed up elegantly on Christmas, and seats have been put in like pews, so that it looks like a little church. Mr. Muhlenberg is still very kind to me. I can make free with him and tell him all that is in my mind. Believe me, dearest mother, your truly loving and ever aft'ectionate sou, John B. Kerfoot. March 1, 1832. This day 1 entered my 17th year Have just returned from a most delightful conversation with Mr. Muhlenberg, my dear father in God. If on earth there is a perfect man, my dear Mr. Muhlenberg is that man. He gave me good advice and blessed me. If God had deprived me of every other blessing, and given me but the friendship and advice of such a man, I should be rich. I resolve from henceforth, with God's assistance, through Christ my Re- deemer, 1. That my devotions shall be more strictly attended to. 2. That my temper and disposition shall conform more to God's laws and requisitions. 3. That I Avill be more strict in attending to my duties as monitor, pupil and school- fellow. Humbly praying for God's help and support, I make these resolutions. John B. Kerfoot. Ash-Wednesday, March 7, 1832. About the beginning of this month I sent a paper on "Private Prayer" to the Churchman, edited by the Rev. Messrs. Whittingham and Van Ingen. It was inserted with some slight alteration. Vonfirmatiott. April. Our class for Confirmation numbers ten, viz.: 1832.] EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 11 Walter E. Franklin, John S. Breneman, John B. Kerfoot, all from Lancaster; John Jay, James S. Biddle, Charles Newbold, Henry M. Sheali', Wm. S. Walcott, Geo. Q.Pome- roy and George Williams. April 19, 1832. 5 to 6 p. m. " 'Tis done, the great transac- tion done. Deign, Gracions Lord, to make me Thine." These words just suit me. 'Tis done, and yet it is but begun, so far as relates to my Christian life. Mr. Muhlenberg read tlie prayers, Mr. Seabury, the lessons, Bishop Onderdonk, the Ante- Communion service and preached. I was God's before, but I am now His by public profession October 31. Flushing. Mr. Muhlenberg allowed me to go to New York to-day to witness the consecration of four bishops,' viz.: the lit. Rev. John H. Hopkins, D.D., Vermont, first bishop of that diocese; the Rt. Rev. B. B. Smith, D. D., first bishop of Kentucky ; the Rt. Rev. Charles P. Mcllvaine, of Ohio, and the Rt. Rev. G. W. Doane, A. M., of New Jersey. The sermon was preached by the Rt. Rev. H. U. Onderdonk, of Pennsylvania. There were seven bishops present, besides the venerable Bishop AVhite, and an immense congregation, crowding even St. Paul's Church. Bishop White seems fast hastening to his rest. He has consecrated twent3^-five bishops T/mrsday, December 13, 1832. This is the day appointed by the Governor of the State and Bishop Onderdonk, as a day of thanksgiving, for the blessings with which we have been crowned, and especially for the removal of the dreadful pesti- lence of cholera which had appeared in our land. In the afternoon Mr, Seabury preached. Mr. Seabury held a meet- ing of those connected with the Institute, in Mr. Diller's room, and it is proposed to meet once a week. The objects ai'e devotional exercises and familiar conversation on our duties as teachers and members of the Institute. The welfare, spiritual and temporal, of our common friend and father, Mr. ' Two of these bishops, Hop- kins, then Presiding Bishop, and Mcllvaine, took part in the conse- cration of Kerfoot, thirty-three years later, and the venerable Bishop Smith survived him more than two years. 12 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOl. [Chap. I. Muhlenberg, is to be made the subject of special prayer. Mr. S. said that the familiar and friendly advice of such a man as Mr. M. was invaluable, and we ought to prize the privilege more and more. 1833. Mr. Bowman came to see us yesterday afternoon, and he and I had a long talk on the Methodist doctrines — or rather ideas of the doctrines of Justification, Assurance, etc. It was satisfactory and comfortable to me, thrown as I am so much among Methodists. (jandidafefor In the year 1833 he became a candidate for Holy Holy Orders. ._ . '^ ^ . i . , i . i t in. Orders, and began ins theological studies under Messrs, Samuel Seabury and Samuel Roosevelt Johnson, for both of whom he ever retained a high regard and profound admiration. November^ 1833. Yesterday the theological class handed in to Mr. Seabury essays on " the character of Christ as a branch of evidence." After the recitation was over, Mr. Seabury called me aside and said he would like to print mine in the Churcliman^ of wliich he is editor. Of course I consented, for it was very gratifying to me that he thought thus much of a piece of mine. I had looked upon my production as the poorest in the class. December^ 1833. Mr. Muhlenberg preached this morning on the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, and this afternoon read a sermon of Bickersteth on Judgment. Plain Calvinism in one passage put me on my guard ; I am an Arminian. March 1, 1834. My testimonials of character for the min- istry were drawn up to-day and signed by William Augustus Muhlenberg, Dr. Frederick Aug. Muhlenberg, Mr. Bowman and others. Mr. Diller and I entered into a mutual agree- ment to write to and pray for each other every year on the birthday of each." ' This agreement was closely I ing of the steamboat Seawhanaka kept year by year, until the sad in East River, in July, 1880. death of Dr. Diller by the burn- 1834-36.] EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION. 13 November., 1834. I rise regularl}^ at four o'clock. Read a chapter, generally with a commentary, and afterwards read Butler's Analogy. This work I intend studying only before daylight, and when I get done, I shall have the satisfaction of seeing what I can accomplish by early rising. It appears from various entries in these diaries that the Holy Communion was administered at Flushing only a few times a year. Jn a paper which Dr. Muhlenberg wrote, to be read in the chapel, he appears evidently desirous of having more frequent administrations, and it is a striking illustration of the tone of churchmanship in those days that he felt it necessary to explain and apologize for his new depart- ure. After the day when Newman's influence had begun, the administrations became much more numer- ous, and Anally, as is well known, Dr. Muhlenberg instituted the first weekly celebration in our country at the Church of the Holy Communion in New York. November, 1835. Mr. Muhlenberg has been obliged to go to Lancaster, but everything goes on well here. A moral phenomenon ! Eighty-two boys, many from 16 to 18 years old, governed so completely by three, a young man. Barton, twentj'-two and a half years old, and two boys, L. Van B. and myself, twenty and nineteen. A conclusive proof of the effect of discipline. A dreadful conflagration took place in New York on Wednesday night, destroying $20,000,000. Mr. Muhlenberg made it the occasion of a most splendid and useful discourse this afternoon. 1836. We have just heard of the death of the venerable Deaikof Bishop White. He visited the Institute six or seven years ago, and when Van B. and I were introduced to him in the pallor he gave us his blessing. I had seen him before that at a Confirmation in Lancaster, when he confirmed Squire BUhop White. 14 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. 1. Light, a man as aged as himself~a beautiful sight ; and again at the consecration of Bishops Hopkins, Smith, Mcllvaine, and Doane ; and afterwards in Philadelphia, when he was too feeble to hold a Prayer-book and Bishop Mcllvaine rose and held it, and supported him while he gave the blessing. I had hoped to be ordained by him. February^ 1837. Mr. Bowman writes aft'ectionately on the subject of my becoming a missionary. He is disposed to give "home duties" strong claims. He is so good and truly sensible and always so very kind to me that his words must have force with me. I must examine myself again and again, but as yet I feel not the least disposition to alter my views. February 26, 1837. My last Sunday as a layman I think I have abundant reason to regard my call by God to the ministry as full and clear Kindness meets me on every side. The Freshmen Class have sent me an atiectionate paper signed by all of them. The younger boys are giving me a gown, and my dear friend in Lancaster, Miss Yeates, also offered me one. To Miss Yeates, the Sunday-School teacher of my youth, and my kind and helpful friend for all these years, I owe more than I can express in words. February 28, 1837. The last day of my minority, and of my laymanship. Tuesday night, 11.30 o'clock. I now mal<:e the last record in the journal of my boyhood. My examination has passed satisfactorily; none but the Bishop questioned me. I am going to my rest now a la3'^-boy ; to-morrow night I shall be a clergy-man ! May new grace come with the new character ! 1 desire to record my humble, hearty gratitude to God for all the mercies of my youth, and I solemnly devote to Him all my life in the ministry of Christ, hoping for accep- tance only througli His merits, and depending for success only on the influence of His blessed Spirit. Now farewell happy, favored, blessed days of my youth ! Welcome more arduous, toilsome days of manhood. May all my days be Christ's! Ordination. The ordinatioii to the diaconate took place on March 1, 1837, Bishop Onderdonk kindly consenting 1837.] ORDINATION. 15 to bold a special ordination on that day, though a week day, to gratify Kerfoot's ardent desire to be ordained on his 21st birthday. Immediately after the ceremony he wrote the following entry in his diary: March 1, 1837, near 2 p. m. The solemn service is over aud I am a minister of Jesus Christ. Those solemn responsibili- ties are resting upon me, and the vows of God upon my soul, and in humble reliance upon His strength I am resolved to labour to fulfil them. I am glad to have given myself to Christ. May God bless me by giving me souls sanctified through His grace, and then take me to Himself for ever and ever. Amen. My holiday of two weeks will be very accept- able to me now ; part of the time I shall be with my mother and near friends in Lancaster and York. March 5. My first Sunday in the ministry. I have read the service and preached twice to-day, morning and evening, in St. John's Church, York, for my friend Walter Franklin. . . . I will now record with grateful feelings to God and man, the great kindness that greeted me on every side at the Institute, on Wednesday last [the day of his ordination]. The warmth and kindness of Mr. Muhlenberg and my fellow-instructors, the hearty good wishes received from all my dear companions, showed more than mere complimentary politeness ; their con- gratulations were warm and attectionate. One little fellow did not like to come in, but staid at my door until I called and talked to him ; another, not wishing to come to my room, waited at the dormitory door at night until he had an oppor- tunity to speak to me most lovingly. The small dormitory all sent a good-night message to me by their prefect. After evening family prayers in the chapel, Mr. Muhlenberg gave me the opportunity to thank them all for their kindness and sympathy. My very handsome black silk gown was accompa- nied by a note signed by one member of each class in behalf of the others. My friend, Libertus Van Bokkelen, gave me a very handsome copy of the Clergyman's Companion. Mr. Diller gave me Brittan's Guide to Church Fellowship. All 16 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. I. showed me the sympathy of brothers. If I am disheartened or vexed, I will think of my ordination day and take new courage. COBRESPONDENCE. The Bev. Dr. Muhlenberg to " Master John Ker/oot.^' Flushing, September 24, 1830. AHat. 14. Dear John, — I received your letter by Mr. Diller, and had I not been so unsettled would have answered it sooner. I hope you have improved some of the vacation in reading and profitable employment : for the mind, left so long neglected, would resemble your garden here, from the same cause, full of weeds. ... I suppose you have heard of the loss of the Church in the death of Bishop Hobart, whose place, in his Diocese, will not be easily filled again. I send you a copy of my new pamphlet, from which 30U will find that we open the 1st Monday in October, when I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you, and learning that, during your absence, you have been a good boy. I often think of you, especially at those times when I know you would desu'e to be remembered. Afte'ctionately yours, Wm. Augustus Muhlenberg. Flushing, June, 1833. My Dearest John, — Or rather, my dearest sou, for I love to have you call me '' Father " : " Call no man Father "' indeed, says the Saviour — but in the ties of spiritual att'ection, in the love that shall outlive death, it delights me to call you son, and om* Father in Heaven, I trust, will be glorified in your afl'ection for me, as the spiritual parent who through His grace — " has begotten you in the Gospel." No other oflspring am I likely to have, and therefore my heart clings with the warmer attachment to my children in Christ. It is very grateful to my feelings that you thought of spending in writing to me a part of a day consecrated to the holy object to which you have devoted your life — the sacred ministry — and for a reply I wish I had a day to pen a communication 1836.] CORRESPONDENCE. 17 that might be a lasting record of the share I have had in helping yo\x to the important decision. I will endeavour not to neglect the admonishing of you, as you may need it. I am so much disposed to turn away from the minor faults of those whose hearts are true in the main, that I am not as vigilant a censor as Christian friendship requires. If I cannot be sure that I will tell you of every fault, as I may observe it, yet this much I will promise, never to censure you in any particular to another, before I have spoken to 3'ourself. " The Lord bless thee and keep thee " — " The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee " — '' The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." From my inmost heart and forever, Your Father in Christ Jesus, Wm. Aug. Muhlenbekg.' To his Mother. J- "■ A", to his mottitr, March Institute, Flushing, March 17, 1836. My Dearest Mother, — Last night as usual I went down to my friend Mr. Van Kleeck to recite my theological lesson, and signed as witness to an unexpected marriage. When I returned at half past 10 Barton joined me. and we went down together to the housekeeper's room and lightened her shelves of the last of her late batch of pies, managing to discuss the whole of it between us. I was further refreshed on going to my room by finding a letter from you, which S. had opened, however, as he said he could not wait until my retui-n. If 1 do not write frequently it will not be from sickness ; so don't be worried. I am very busy at tliis time, working often six- teen hours a day, so let that be my excuse. I am well, and have far more than I deserve for both soul and body. Your lovinij Son, J. B. K. ' This letter enclosed a number bis boys for special needs or of Utile leaflets of prayers, such ; occasions, as Ur. Muhlenberg often gave to | laie. 18 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. 1. To his Mother. I am kept quite busy now, get up quarter before 6, Chapel quarter after 6. Then we all walk about a mile, then break- fast. I keep the Junior Study from quarter past 7 until 9, then hear a class until 10. Then recite myself (Logic) until 11, then hear a class until 12. Dine at half past 12; recite Classics from 1 to 2 ; keep the smaller boys from 2 to 4J [this was recreation and playtime]. Study from 4^ to 6^. Tea ; hear a class from 7 to 8 ; keep study from 8 to 9 ; Chapel ; bed at 10. Most go to bed soon after 9, but to have any leisure I must go later. It is now nearly 10. So you see I am kept quite busy. But I am very happy Out of a large number of remarkably sensible letters of the Rev. Samuel Bowman, room can be made only for the following. Like all the others, it is a proof of his affectionate interest in the progress of the young man whose early promise as a boy had attracted his attention, and who so thoroughly repaid the generous regard which his kind pastor and friend bestowed upon him. The Rev. Samuel Bowtnan to John B. Kerfoot. Lancaster, May 11, 1832. My Dear John, — I was pleased to hear from you a few days since, and embrace the opportunity of Mr. Conyngham's visit to riushing to assure you that I feel undiminished interest in your welfare. Experience will teach you not to estimate the regard of your friends by acts of mere courtesy and civihty. These, you will find, abound most in those who care least for you. The last man in the world to be applied to, in real difficulties, is he who is most lavish of fair speeches and civilities when they are not wanted. They cost nothing ; but with the young and inexperienced they often pass for sterling coin. There are no opinions you will more frequently change 1832.] REV. S. BOWMAN. 19 as you advance in life than those which respect men and manners. But, as I have found, there are some lessons that we never learn perfectly till experience hath taught us. You have been confirmed ; you have taken those solemn vows that equally oblige you to renounce the world and to devote yourself to God. May you have the grace to keep them ! Do not think the business of religion done when you have made a public profession of it. That is indeed an important step, but it is only a step Your mind, I suppose, is fully made up as to the point of making the ministry your profession. Your own reason will teach you the propriety of cultivating those studies and those pious affections on which so much of your future usefulness and happiness will depend. Let me advise you on one or two matters generallj' treated as of inferior moment, but which, from my own experience, I can say are of very high importance. The first is, that you begin now to cultivate the habit of composing rapidly. Reflect well upon your subject before you begin to write, but when you take up your pen dash on, and never stop to balance between the choice of words diflering a shade from each other in meaning. After you have written, revise as carefully as you please. This was Dr. Johnson's advice : "I would say to a young divine,'' said he, " here is your text ; let me see how soon you can write a sermon upon it." He averred, what is undoubtedly true, that it is far more easy to improve in correctness^ than in rapidity of composition. The other point is, that you cultivate the habit of extempore speaking. You have a society, have you not? where you will find an opportunity for this ; and if you have not such a society, this object alone is of sufficient importance to authorize the institution of one. The ability to deliver one's thoughts extemporaneously is natural to some persons. But it may by every person almost be acquired. It will not only lighten the labors of the Pulpit to a great extent, but it will render those labors vastly more efficient. Even those 20 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. I. persons who have no prejudice against a written discourse, must acknowledge the advantage which a practised spealier has in delivering his thoughts without the stiflness and form- ality of writing. My paper warns me to conclude. Mr. C. will give you all the news. Assuring you of my unabated interest in your prosperity and happiness, I am, my dear John, Very sincerely yours, S, Bowman. CHAPTER II. COLLEGE POINT. MARYLAND. 1838-1843. Aetat. 31-26. On the first of March, 1838, the young deacon made the following entry in his diary: The first year of my ministry is finished, and I have been allowed to perform the following duties : Read prayers in full 80 times; preached, 85 times; partial services, 15; assisted at Communion 8 times ; marriages, 2 ; baptisms, 4 ; two adults, two infants ; funerals, 4 ; besides the incessant and really arduous duties of a teacher, and frequent services in " voluntary meetings." My way for the coming year is not quite decided, but, if I remain here, I will, I think, take Zion Church, Little Neck, near College Point, which was oftered me last summer. I long for real, ministerial duty. I think constantly of the Eastern Churches, hoping to be labouring before many years, in their behalf. I use my Greek Testa- ment in my devotions, and purpose doing so more and more. This practice was diligently kept up, morning and evening, to the last year of his life. He knew his Greek Testament well, and the close study of its text was always a great delight to him. His diary shows that his ideal of the teacher's Ker/ooiasa vocation was a high and noble one. He could never be content with simply imparting Latin and Greek, or any other branches of study, though all this he did with exceptional success. His heart yearned to do all he could for the moral improvement and spiritual growth of tlie pupils under liis charge. Dr. Muhlen- 22 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. II. berg's system allowed for this. Jealousy and self- esteem were utterly alien to the character of that admirable man (as they were also to that of his pupil, Kerfoot), and any capacity which a young teacher might evince for acting as a pastor, for preparing the boys for confirmation, for gaining their confidence and influencing their moral and religious character, was heartily encouraged by Dr. Muhlenberg. Kerfoot frequently laments in his diaries that he cannot do more in this way for his boys; he resolves to give more and more time for private talks with them, "knowing from his own experience with his dear Mr. Muhlenberg how much good can be effected in this way." His recitations were made extremely interesting; the boys were kept wide awake by the rapid fire of questions, by his clear and interesting explanations, and by the sharp attention that was required to what was going on. An idle or superficial student was soon discovered, and he had to mend his ways or else pass an uncomfortable time. It is probable that this in- cessant daily use of his voice all the week and on Sunday as well, laid the foundation of the-disease of the throat which so much troubled and disabled him a few years later. Religious The Chapel Services at Flushing and at College influences, . . ^ tt t itt t -x r^^ • 1 romt durmg Holy Week, and at Christmas and Easter and all the greater festivals, were highly im- pressive and, for that day, something remarkable. If by the much abused term " ritualist," we may under- stand one who has a vivid sense of what is fitting in worship; one who knows the value of splendid archi- 1838.] COLLEGE P0IN1. 23 tecture, of beautiful and appropriate music, of dignity and grandeur in ceremonial, and, above all, of genuine reverence accompanying every word and action in divine service, then Dr. Muhlenberg was almost a ritualist by nature. He had an inborn sense of all these things, and the keenest appreciation of the true, the beautiful, and the good. Moreover, he was a poet, and his imagination entered into the meaning of all the Church festivals, and seized at once the leading idea of the Prayer-Book services. So far, on the other hand, as ritualism may be thought to denote a secret longing for doctrines and practices Roman rather than Anglican, for the mere outside show of " ecclesias- tical millinery,"^ or for theatrical attitudinizing, " bow- ings" and ''prostrations," that phase of churchman- ship was abhorrent to Dr. Muhlenberg's tone of mind as well as to Kerfoot's. Reality — the sternest reality — was a most striking characteristic in both these men. Yet the services at College Point, and after- wards at St. James's, would certainly have been called ritualistic — had the word at that time been known. "Tractarian" and "Paseyite," and even "Popish," they were sometimes named by the critics, or rather gossips, of the period. Dr. Muhlenberg's ecclesiastical and theological views and opinions, his varying phases of • This expression is borrowed from Bishop WTiittingham. In a conversation, which must have taken place somewhere between 1867 and 1872, the Bishop speak- ing of another clergyman, said : carried away by fondness for this ■man-mxlVxntry that is be- coming so popular." It is im- possible to represent on paper the peculiar emphasis, strongly tinged with contempt, with which " In fact, H., the only thing I have , Bishop Whittingham turned ever heard to his disparagement round and pronounced these is that he has been somewhat ' words 24 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. II. "churehmanship" — and withal, his essential consist- ency from first to last — are portrayed with admirable skill and penetration, by Miss Ay res, in her charming and valuable book. The Life and Work of Dr. Muhlen- herg. Indeed, Dr. Muhlenberg has himself truthfully sketched his own ecclesiastical position in a remarkable autobiographic paper, printed by Miss Ayres, in the 11th chapter of her volume, p. 171. This paper was drawn up by Dr. Muhlenberg, in 1872, and begins with the words: "I was never a High Churchman." It is deeply interesting and will well repay perusal, but as it is easily accessible in his Life, it need not here be quoted, though it shows plainly enough some of the influences that were concerned in forming Ker- foot's ecclesiastical position and character. Such as they were, they gradually made him a High Church- man, though never an extreme partisan. Dr. Muhlen- berg's services and sermons made a marked impression upon him. Thus he records his enjoyment of Easter, 1838; This morning is a beautiful one. All nature is bright and cheerful, and seems rejoicing with the happy Cliurch, happy in the resurrection of her Lord. ... I do love my own dear Church more and more. Good, indeed, were the men who framed her Liturgy. Our Chapel is dressed in white ; a large white tablet, with tlie word RESURREXIT above a large cross of white and pink flowers. We all, both from the Point and the Institute, unite in the Communion to-day in the chapel of the Institute, and for the last time. In a month we shall all be at the Point. Evening. — This has been a very interesting day to us all. Tlie Chapel beautifully decorated, the music most impressive, as also Mr. Muhlen- berg's remarks 1838.] COLLEGE POINT. 25 The Rev. J. B. Kerfoot to his Mother. Philadelphia, Sept. 9, 1838. My Very Dear Mother, — How truly can I say, as I have f^^'S^^ often since here said, "it is good for us to be here.'' My love for my dear Church seems from time to time, as if it could increase no more, and yet it is ever increasing. Many and many a time do 1 thank God most heartily that His Holy Spirit has led me into the ranks of her ministry. It does my heart good to listen to the earnest debates conducted in so Cliristian and friendly a spirit. A crowded house listened on Sunday morning, for one hour and twenty minutes, to a sermon from Bishop Meade, of Virginia. After the sermon, we all, hundreds of ministors, with the lay members of the Convention, knelt at the Table of the Lord, and received from our venerated bishops the sacred emblems of His Body and Blood. All of our bishops, sixteen, are now here. That morning fifteen were present, and it was a grand and beautiful sight to see them, all robed and in pro- cession, the eldest leading, nearly eighty years old, down to the youngest but little past thirty years, pass along the wide aisle of the Church to the Chancel, then bow down in prayer together, and lovely was the sight when after the services were over, they were returning, still robed, and were long indeed in passing down the aisle, for friend after friend grasped their hands in love and veneration. There was a bishop whose bending form and hoary head told of years spent in the work of the ministry, long before many brethren in the work, then crowding around him, were born. And one old man. Bishop Moore of Virginia, was a truly lovely object as he passed slowly on among delaying crowds, his long white hair reaching below his shoulders. His gray- headed son had that morning read the Prayers, and that son, himself venerable in years, is now daily seen supporting the noble old Patriarch to the Convention. I have heard noble sermons from several of the bishops. This morning I preached for a friend in Moorestown, New Jersey, and will preach in Lancaster next Sunday. Dr. Muhlenberg is here, 26 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. II. and I enjoy myself very much. We are in a nice boarding house with several clergy and their families, and are very comfortable, paying $6 per week. Your loving son, John B. Kerfoot. Eif desire tobe During all this period there are constant references a Missionary. . in his journals to mission work among the Nestorian Christians in the East. It had been Kerfoot's desire from early years to be a missionary. In his diary repeated mention is made of the matter, but duties right at his feet seemed ever to detain him at home. He desired to join the Rev. Horatio Southgate in his missionary labors, and several times his departure for that distant field seemed imminent. But Dr. Muhl- enberg was never ready to part with his favorite pupil and valued assistant, for whom he was ever devising new and engrossing plans of school- work ; in fact he was leaving more and more upon him. Bishop Onderdonk at length positively interposed with his episcopal veto, and assured his young deacon that it was his duty to stay at home; there was plenty of work for the Church at home, in this growing coun- try, for which he was specially qualified, and which would engross all his powers. The purpose was at length finally abandoned, but with many regrets and even some misgiving lest the decision should have been a selfish one. Dr. Muhlenberg, with his charac- teristic common sense and sound judgment, gently laughed at these misgivings, telling Kerfoot that from the way he worked and spent himself for others he would soon find he had taken up quite as hard a task at home as that which he had resigned abroad. £a^^/. /f^r^/^ From a Miniature on Ivory dy George Baker. 1840.] COLLEGE POINT. 27 Having been ordained deacon on his 21st birthday, ^fp^^H^, his diaeonate could not be less than three full years. He had arranged with Bishop Onderdonk that his 24th birthday (March 1, 1840) should be the day of his ordination to the priesthood, and the time was now drawing near. February 23, 1840. This is the last Sunday of my diaeon- ate Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday being Ember Days. I purpose observing them by fasting and prayer, and may the Holy Spirit illuminate my heart and conscience, and fill me with that deep and abiding sense of my responsible calling, without which I cannot hope to please my Master. One matter has been long in my mind ; it is that I have Ee-bapUzed received only Presbyterian baptism. I am not convinced of ^'<>"''''^'^«%- the invalidity of lay-baptism, but I have doubts, though these are not very serious. Still, if I doubt at all, I ought to banish such doubts by receiving Episcopal baptism : and if ever, it is manifestly proper it should be now, before this my final ordination. My doubts are not great, yet enough to make me feel it more secure to receive indisputable baptism now. Not that 1 slight the pious dedication of my pious parents in my infancy, but I desire to fill up what they did desire for me, the Episcopal and truly catholic character of my baptism. One very weighty consideration is this : I expect to live and labor among Christians [the Nestorians] who are strict in their adherence to episcopacy. My ministerial authority might be affected in their eyes, did they know of any such deficiency in my baptism. Therefore I have asked Mr. Muhlenberg to give me hypothetical baptism before my ordination. Mr. M. approves, but thinks the Bishop the proper person to administer it. . . . March 1, Sunday Morning. This is to me a most solemn day. I feel much, but can say but little. My dear father, Dr. Muhlenberg, has spent some time with me in prayer. May God bless him for all his love and kindness to me, and 28 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. II. make me like him, as he is like Christ My views of the Church are materially altered, and, I hope, improved. They are certainly such as to give me lowlier views of the man, while I have higher and more awful ones of the office. Sunday evening, 11 o^ clock. Thank God ! I am now a Presbyter of His Holy Church. This has been the happiest day of my life. " Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, praise His Holy Name." By the Bishop's permission, Dr. Muhlenberg privately baptized me, hypothetically, Mr. Van Bokkelen the only one present. At the Church (St. George's Church, Flushing) the service was read by Dr. Cruse, the Psalms and Hymns given out by Mr. Goodwin, and Dr. Muhlenberg preached the best sermon I or others here have ever heard on the answer of Christ to the young man: " If tliou wilt be perfect," etc. His concluding address to me was aflfectionate, solemn, and almost overpowering. I never so saw and felt the awful, eternal responsibility of my work, or so trembled at the view of it. I could only look up for wisdom and strength to Him by whom I felt and believed myself called. Far more solemn was the whole act and the vows than those of my diaconate. Faint, yet happy, humble and grateful did I rise from my knees Christ's priest until death ; I trust and believe for ever. I went to Clintonville for service directly after luncheon, and found my Sunday-School well taken care of; held service there, and walked home to the College, where I preached at the afternoon service in the (Chapel. After this service, set out with our College choir and a few others to Whitestone, where we had a very crowded church, and ten were con- firmed. Hearty indeed was the Amen to each blessing of the Bishop. Five ... I had baptized. I then walked home happy but fatigued. A short talk with my friend Van Bokkelen (who had been too unwell to go to the service of the morning) and private prayers ended this, the holiest, happiest day of my life. This, the first Sunday of his priesthood, was almost a fair specimen of all his Sundays until his last illness. views. 1841.] COLLEGE POINT. 29 Nearly every hour was incessantly occupied in tho direct work of the ministry. When enough of such work did not come in the regular and prescribed line of his duty (as when he was President of Trinity College), he would make work by taking duty in the hospitals in Hartford and ministering to the sick. He makes mention in one place of his views of the '\ootford Church undergoing a change, and, as he thought, improving in tone. One of the sources of this may, perhaps, be found in another entry in his diary in October, 1839 : " I find very pleasant and profitable Mr. NewTnan^s Sermo7is — so much spoken against, but they must fill the soul of any sincere believer and devout Christian with resolutions of greater holiness. As to the ' Oxford views,' I like many, very many of them — some I eschew. But they are misunder- stood by many good men ; I may not yet understand those I dislike, and may speak difierently of them hereafter." * In February, 1841, he was gratified by an unex- pected proposition through Bishop Kemper from Messrs. James Lloyd Breck, J. H. Hobart, Miles and Adams, of the General Theological Seminary, who had associated themselves as a religious house [Nashotah] in Wisconsin, to be their head. "Were prior obligations not existing, I should unhesitatingly (after they knew me better) accede to their plan so rational and so devoted. Messrs. Breck and Miles came up last night on this business, and I feel a deep interest in the plan, though my duty is clearly not to unite in it." 'Compare Dr. Muhlenberg's I man's Sermons upon himself, account of the influence of New- | Life and Work, p. 178. 32 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. II. though the Bishop himself is far from having the thought, much less the wish that it should be so. The address, which, by the by, he delivered to the confirmed while yet kneeling, immediately after the imposition of hands, was much plainer, very excellent and fervent. The Holy Communion was administered directly after to about one hundred persons, white and colored (among them most of those just con- firmed, seventeen white and six colored). . . . The Bishop's devout and fervent manner was in itself a sermon to us all. His bright and excited countenance made up for his voice, really too weak for his duties. And then, he seemed to catch every interval for prayer, during the Communion. Each time that he returned to the Holy Table, after distributing the Bread, and when probably none but myself could see him, he would stand before the Table, his hands clasped, his eyes closed, and his lips rapidly moving, evidently absorbed in deep and earnest devotion. I have within these few days seen much to strengthen my conviction that this Diocese is blessed in a Bishop who, perhaps beyond any man I know — certainly beyond all, save one (my dear Dr. M.) — lives simply and singly for the glory of his Master, and the good of the Church November, 1841. College Point. Bishop Kemper has just visited us and has had letters fx-om young Mr. Hobart in Wisconsin, modestly telling their plans and doings. It made me feel humble. Bishop Kemper had also the loan of a letter from Mr. Southgate, with much cheering intelligence of his work. I felt disappointed that it was not to be my work. Ups and downs in thoughts and feelings I must look for, but my heart aches at the thought that I may have tm-ned away from God's own truest work January \st, 1842. My intercourse with Dr. Muhlenberg is more frequent and delightful than ever before. I love him more than ever, and often feel how deeply I shall regret my separation from him. March \sU 1 842. My birthday and day of both ordinations ; 26 years of my life have passed. I reviewed carefully the 1841.] MARYLAND. 33 ordination office of Priests, and prayed for grace to remember and keep my solemn vows. Well do I remember this day two and five years ago ! . . . . St, James's Hall, in Maryland, was not o-penedst.james'8ffau. until the end of September, so that Mr. Kerfoot did not leave his old home finally until that time. In the interval he was constantly busied with the prepa- rations for his new work. The following letters of the years 1841-1842 relate to the opening of St. James's Hall, and to Bishop Whittingham's invitation, first to Dr. Muhlenberg, and then to Mr. Kerfoot, to remove to the Diocese of of Maryland. It should not be forgotten that the very idea of a Church School, as held by Dr. Muhlen- berg, was, at that time, an entire novelty in our country. The Rev. Dr. MuMenherg to the Bishop of Maryland. College Point, N. Y., March 9th, 1841. Right Rev. and Dear Sir, — The more I think of the pro- posed branch of om* institution in your diocese, the more disposed I feel to attempt to realize it. I believe it would operate favorably on the cause of edu- cation in various ways, and not the least by showing the true way of beginning a Church School. I have often wished for an opportunity of starting de novo, with a few select men and with perfect independence as to patronage. This, it appears to me, we could do at " Fountain Rock." We would send out a colony of pious, intelligent, respectable young fellows, with Kerfoot at their head, who would care nothing about their support, and enter upon their work con amore. They would be the soul of the thing and gradually they would generate the body around them. I have the whole arranged in my mind, and I believe we would realize the very beau ideal of a TSftLzBC ir "^iViTg Tifirr re 3i£- varif- X'flL shSc I jtacie sit. Ijve 1 VTir ty -v^is:: rsrr ^ OIIDt^ I fr.j«r & ^^JMll'llM CT^R^ SdbooL urc £ ir'SEi liiecair* imcaxiciar-. .... I essietB 31 cc e^scEsal --^- liDtJ TT.A-M: ST rrf^ Dr. lEriife: r^r' Cl "It odDEs fj:- a; ^a. __ ■■4 liter fir,— II fees ill 1941-3 XABTILLSZ'. -So If jocr recovery has been in pr ' i :r brethren- yoa most aow be qai:^r ^'r. I have wntteitoltr. TT. B.; Lvmaz iz : . oust of aH Aat need be done a: 7 i far o^ pirpaee, wMcfa. I hope ^«~— ddaj. Of this. howev«. I an i llwTdiitg committee ha ----- ■ _:----_- doAt of &eir obtain:-. I gave th-: . . - .: I Qaa c i _ - _ : :■- _-^-..aie wtth ' '^^"^ilc in Maryland I ~ rmponance o: ±ere 'tr-ein^ i. ^-'M _^^:-i ^- 1??It it a Triviles^ tha: I ■*'is ^"-r' r^^ it"^- a- I shall therefore, l- ;____-_-_;. with the un-iers:- : . _ premises are in ooniple:sf or'ier before we are Kel a liitle .:._.- 1 as tfaey will rwenxy acres. :: lie:- - ;. hBTeteCB the VcTT -^ . W. A. Mrsun ri« Ea, Dr. Jfalhmltrff ia At Aui^ CoOese Point. IS". Y» Augrist 25, 1*41. Bijii Stv, ^atd Ikur Sir. — Mr. Kertoot teHs me yoa wiH eipev:t to hear from me aboct a classical teacher, who desired a sitoatioa some months ago. I cannot a: diis moment recall his name, bat he wished ^e place of an assfsans. and co be in die nei^borhoodof^ew York- . . . Mr. Worth ington of Toor t£ocese has also written to me ^or a a»«±..X^ U/ U-A--v^A.'^>L*| <^i^ 1842]. OPENING OF ST. JAMES'S HALL. 55 date for Holy Orders in the Diocese of New York (being thereto authorized by his Bishop), and Dwight E. Lyman, a candidate for Holy Orders in this Dio- cese, to act as Lay Readers in St. James's Hail and the vicinity, under the direction and advice of the Principal, with the consent of the Rector of St. John's Parish, Washington Co." The letters which follow will give some account of the first year, which, although the financial difiiculties were serious,' ran its course happily until the health of the Rector completely broke down. A recurrence of his former complaint — bronchitis — made preaching and teaching an impossibility, and necessitated a short voyage to England. His absence, as will be seen, was a great loss to the Hall, and the little ship came near foundering before it was well launched. Correspondence, 1842-1843. The Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg to the Rev. J. B. Kerfoot. Kew York, Octob. 25, 1842. My Dear John.— {Th&i\^,\i yowv wife will allow anybody ,^^^f '''"'''■ to call j'ou "My dear" but berself — please remember me most lovingly to her) — I have too much faith in you to fear that you have construed my silence into indifference to the delightful beginning you have made at St. James's. What j'ou have told me and Van B. has afforded me the highest gratification, and, I may add sincerely, a cause of devout thankfulness to God. May the breath of His favor continue ' The Kector and his assistant which speaks volumes for the lack teachers were obliged to work of interest in Bishop Whitting- without salaries at flrst, receiv- ham's plans on the part of the ing onh' their board and lodg- diocese in general in those early ing from the Institution — a fact days. 66 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. III. to fill your sails, and carry you prosperously on the voyage which I know you have begun so entirely in His name ! You do right to enjoy the present, and to feel as much encouraged as if things would go ou always as smoothly as they have beguu, as if ihe boys would always be as kind and docile, as if little — who is it? — would come for his kiss, and the boys all come to " noons " ' of their ovvn accord to tiie end of the story. What good would it do to be thinkin?, ''It won't last." Carpe diem. If Eden is smiling around us, why stretch our eyes into the future to discern clouds to darken its sun- shine? Now is the time to enjoy your garden, for if now — It be not redolent with opening sweets, With buds of seeming fruit and hopeful flowers, Coatiding love, ingenuous honesty. Nature's religion, imitative prajers. What shall It be when poison weeds spring up, And the old serpent — scarcely entered yet — Shows bj' some mischief done that he is there? If now the scene be not supremely fair. When hope and zeal, still fresh, and buoyant hearts, Make sunshine for the day What shall it be when time and things have run Their holiday V — Esto perpetua I You see the very thoughts of your fairy land won't let me write prose. Whether T shall get to see you is now a little uncertain, for I have lost ten days [by sickness, as he proceeds to explain]. Thus Van B. has been Major Domo, preacher and everything else, so that I shall need to make up for lost time as soon as I get back. Still I have not given up the journey The new arrangements here work well Remember me to Rowland and to Lyman. I'll copy the music for the latter and send it in my next Write often. Yours as ever, W. A. M. ' The short voluntary service at mid-day in the chapel. 1842.] OPENING OF ST. JAMES'S HALL. 57 The Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg to ike Rev. J. B. Kerfoot. College Poiut, Dec. 13, 1842. Brother icell beloved,— A. happy Christmas to you, to Eliza, Affairs at to Jimmy,' to that dear fellow, Lyman, to all in the Faith. ... I hear in difl'erent ways that 3-ou are getting on ver}' happily, in which I need not say how sincerely I rejoice. I should certainly have come down to see you, but the new state of things here, together with a week's indisposition, render it quite inconvenient. I know you have not miscon- strued it. Our new professor has turned out a mean fellow. By a manoeuvre of his own to get more salary, he gave me a fair chance of parting with him, and he goes at the beginning of the year. He came from an enemy's camp, and has been doing us harm, but of this say nothing. And who do you think takes his place until I have time to look about me 't Barton ! verily, J. G. B. himself has kindly consented to spend three months here and go on with five hours a day in the old style, so that I shall have a fine chance of making a choice I am beginning to be afraid of Newman. I saw part of a. Begins to be letter from him to Williams of Schenectady, in which he says, %iwman. " Whether the Church of England has valid sacraments is a question of fact ; she says she has " — as if he were not sure of it. Again: "It is a question whether they ma}' not be defective from want of active connection witli Rome," or words to that eftect. The letter is about L. Woods's coming into the Church, who, Newman thinks, ought to consider the claims of the Roman Church as well as the English. You had better not speak of this, except confidentiallj', unless you have heard it from another source. I confess it has made me very sad. However, before that, I lost ni}^ faith in the British Critic as a Church of England journal. With them everything in our Church is wrong, and all is right, or at least defensible, in Rome. ' James Kip Andersou, hiif old pupil. 58 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. III. I have seen Johns's manifesto' on the night of his institu- tion. "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." In the last Churchman I was talcen with Coxe's verses, and set to work to alter them for a ballad [" Go Ye to the Mountains "] for the boys while making greens for the chapel. I have set them to simple music and give it to you as my Christmas ofiering. If you care about using it, L5'man can arrange it for the piano. ... I shall think next week that your boys and ours are singing together of an evening. . . . With my love and Van Bokkelen's (we never fight now) for all. Yours, most aft'ectionately. W. A. M. Mr. Milo Mahan to the Rev. J. B. Kerfoot. Episcopal High School [Philadelphia], October 22, 1842. Vkurch qne^ ^V Dear Mr. Kerfoot, — I have been rather long about con- da'tf,etc^'^ gratulating you on two subjects of congratulation, as they are generally estimated in this world — your accession to a post of so much responsibility in God's Kingdom as that which you now occupy, and your arrival at that happy state of double blessedness which the Apostle calls a great mystery, and which we poor, disconsolate, onesided, ribless bachelors can only look upon with awe and admiration. I have the greatest feeling of sympathy for all connected with our old brotherhood, I look with sincerest interest upon every movement at the Point, and I not unfrequently run the risk of being called Oxfordite and Puseyite, and all sorts of ' Alluding to a sermon by the Rev. H. V. D. Johns, Rector of Christ Church, Baltimore, enti- tled, "The Protestant Episcopal Pastor." It was preached on a Sunday night (the 23d Sunday after Trinity, 1842) and was de- eigned as a reply to a sermon on the " Priesthood in the Church," which had been preached that very morning by Bishop Whit- tingham in Christ Church, on the occasion of the institution of Mr. Johns as rector! — a fair speci- men of the opposition to the new Bishop which prevailed in Mary- land at that time among church- men of a certain party. 1842.] OPENING OF ST. JAMES'S HALL. 59 jaw-cracking epithets, merely for defending " Old Billy" (for by that irreverent name I can't help calling him to mind, it brings up so vividly the scenes of the past) from the insinua- tions of those who scatter all sorts of suspicion, like mud, upon every one who professes to love Christ's holy Bride, or to guide their footsteps in the well-trod paths of the Prayer- Book. My own mind is by no means at ease on most of the weighty subjects of inquiry which God has laid open to the Church. On many of them I have read and searched the Scriptures, and prayed and endeavored to set my face unto the Lord God by spiritual exercises and honest obedience to what I judge to be the will of Christ. But it troubles me to find that my most honest and solemn convictions are often so difl'erent from those of others who love the Lord Jesus, and who are in every way entitled to my reverence and regard. At the same time I can truly say that since the time when I first set ni}- heart towards learning more definitely ray duties and responsibility as a member of Christ's Bod}- — the Church — I have felt a confidence and consolation in believing, which I never experienced before : that I have felt as forcibh' as though it were some new thing untaught, unheard of before, the beauty and serenity of soul which follows on unhesitating obedience ; that my mind has been freed from many of those, cares and fitful feelings and imperfect notions which I used to battle with before I had learned the lesson, which I presume you are now becoming versed in, of simple-hearted fidelity to the commands of the Church and her noble Book of Worship. But still I am grieved that so many excellent persons around me diflfer from me toto coelo in their notions, and I may add too, in their practice ; they cannot see how a dutiful following of the Church's directions, in matters confessedly unimportant in themselves, but important as enjoined by her and calculated by God's blessing to fix the soul and keep it " tethered " to the truth, may be consistent with perfect faith and love Is it not passing strange that when young lambs of Clirist's 60 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. III. fold, baptized into His Holy Name, but wandering and famish- ing for want of proper keeping^ come among us, we dare not tell them they are Christ's; that they are sealed as God's, received into sonship with God and membership with Christ, and are therefore bound to do what their sponsors promised for them, but are obliged to explain away the catechism by means which any clear-headed boy will see are disingenuous, and to teach that when the Prayer-Book sa3's positicely "made members of Christ and heirs of eternal life," it only means conditionally — I say is not all this strange and wonderful to think of? .... I have said a good deal more than I bargained for when I began this letter. Again I say, that God may prosper you in the work which you have com- menced in His name is the earnest prayer of one who looks with interest to all that comes from St. Paul's. Your sincere friend, M. Mahan. P. S. — I hear a great deal about Mr. Lyman' and his Oxford doings. Among other things I learned the other day from very high authority that on Good Fridays he walks in solemn manner up the aisles with two lighted candles, which he formally sets upon the altar with various ceremonies of an impressive character. Is this so? And if so, what does it mean? And may I take the liberty to enquire do you think this is right? Is it calculated to promote Christ's Kingdom at this time when men have to be '" working at the walls with one hand, and wielding the sword with the other," to be prejudicing people against solemn truths by ceremonies which, however signifi- cant or impressive, are not worth a stiver compared with the weightier matters in which this age, holding the truth in tt«x"ighteousness, is deficient? If you can spare me a moment in your many cares, I should like to hear your answer to these questions ; not that I want to catechise you, but I am an enquirer, and anxious to know the tendency of doctrines ' Rector of St. John's Cburcb, Hagerstown. The passage is given as a specimen of the gossip then current about church mat- ters in Maryland, and also for the sake of Mr. Mahau's reflections. 1843.] OPENINe OF ST. JAMES'S HALL. 61 which everybody around me abuses, and which, partly from old-fashioned liking for Dr. M., and partly that I see a great deal in them that pleases me, and I think has done me good, I am sometimes forced to defend. Very truly. M. M. The Bisliop of Maryland to the Rev. J. B. Kerfoot, Baltimore, July 11, 1843. My Dear Kerfoot, — I have long been wishing to write to you, progpects of but induced to postpone it b}' various occurrences. 'cL^chafair-s. In the first place, let me thank you for your continuation oi~^^P''J'J ■^^''' Education Catholic. [Two articles in the True Catholic, edited by Hugh Davey Evans.] Through evil report and good report, with the warm friendship of a noble-hearted few, and the bitter, rankling enmity of many, I trust in God and a good cause to see our Education Catholic finally triumphant. Among other encouragements, it was no small one to receive last Friday a present of $200 towards the present needs of the Hall from B. O.'s fatlier ; sent, too, of his own mere motion, when on the point of leaving the country. It suffi- cientl}^ indicates what he thinks of the advantages his boy enjoys, for that, I have reason to fear, is, if not the only, at least the main spring of his generosity. You may well feel cheered onward by such tokens of satisfaction from those who alone can testify from knowledge of the character of the school. The indications around us of a fierce and wide-spread storm are many. Thank God, our cork boat has a snug harbor so near in view, when it is about arising. The Hall is now almost started, and once started it cannot fail, let what con- troversies may distract the Church, with due prudence on the part of those who manage it You have, no doubt, heard of our triumph in the Board of Missions. I should fill sheets were I to narrate all the ins and outs of it. They must be reserved either for conversation or for another letter. I now write on business, and it is enough to say that we can rejoice together in the continuance 62 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. III. of the Constantinople Mission {not as tiie Eecorder falsely has it, "for the present" merely), and of Southgate as its worth}' manager. Of the miserable affair about Carey, too, I could tell much — some things that would make your heart ache, but I took my pen for another purpose. It was to say that now I have an approaching prospect of a settlement of the pecuniary matters of St. James's Last, not least, let me share your joy and thankfulness at taking a 7iew place in the Kingdom of our Lord, that of the fatlier of an immortal spii-it.' Beautiful is the expression of the Eastern tale : ^ and he went in and congratulated his wife on her safety, and said to her, Where is God^s deposit 9 Whereupon she presented to him an infant of surpassing love- liness, the work of the Ever-Present Governor." (Lane's Thousand and One Nights, II, 252.) May your precious deposit become in your keeping a goodly jewel for the Lord's own treasury! Mr. Tilghman, too, has a man child, though of the second race, to be thankful for. If she is with you (which, strange to say, I do not know whether she be or no), please to con- gratulate her from me. To you and yours I offer my most hearty congratulations. To Russell, Dvvight, Kip, Samuel and all the boys my hearty love Affectionately your W. R. \V. The Rev. J. B. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. St. James's Hall, July 13, 1843. My Dear Bishop, — Both your letters reached me last evening, and call for my thanks. We all unite in thanks for your prompt acquiescence in the proposition for October. I will myself be on the spot until our vacation, which, by advice of all, begins this year on the 25th, St. James's Day. You will be in charge during October, and Mr. Trevett will easily hold ' Referring to the birth of Mr. Kerfoot's first child, Abel Andersou Kerfoot, born July 3, 1843. 1843.] OPENING OF ST. JAMES'S HALL. 63 the helm when the ship is fairly at sea for the one month of November All the arrangements of duties, classes, etc., are under- stood to be, of course, subject to you when here, and alterable to accommodate any wish you may have as to teaching, etc., etc Will you prepare and enclose to me a commendatory letter in general, with such allusion to my peculiar work as may open school doors to me? and any letter to individuals will be very acceptable to me, though my short stay will limit my use of such testimonials. Mrs. Kerfoot unites with me, dear Bishop, in the grateful acknowledgment of your kind wishes and Christian blessing upon us and our dear child. Both mother and child are doing very well ; so well that I feel deeply — would that I might alwajs feel practically — my great debt to our merciful Parent. Mrs. K. will return with her parents to New York about the end of August, and await my arrival from Europe early in November. Would it be right in me to ask of you the favor to request Bishop Doane to commend one of your clergy to the notice of some whom he met— Dr. Hook, Mr. Newman ? Any such letters might be sent to the care of A. T. Anderson, Esq., 5 Broad Street, N. Y Your aftectionate son in Christ, John B. Kebfoot. CHAPTER IV. VISIT TO ENGLAND. 1843. Aetat. 27. The " Hall " had opened with about twenty schol- ars, and the first year was fairly prosperous, although some people opposed the whole scheme, as they at first did many of Bishop Whittino;ham'8 plans, as being "Tractarian" and "Puseyite." The Rector's assistants during the first year were Rev. Russell Trevett, Dwight E. Lyman, Robert S. Howland, J, Kip Anderson, and Samuel H. Kerfoot : to these were added in a few years, Reuben Riley, George W. Coaklay, Professor of Mathematics; R, H. Clarkson, and Joseph C. Passmore. In the spring of 1843, as has been already men- tioned, tlie Rector's health became enfeebled by a return of his old enemy, bronchitis, which had given him much trouble during the last two years at College Point. A voyage to Europe having been decided upon, he sailed in the packet Independence (Captain Nye), reaching Liverpool in seventeen days. He took with him some valuable letters of introduction, some of them to the prominent leaders in the " Oxford movement," Dr. Pusey, Mr. Newman' and others, ' "Right into the arsenic-bot- I he mentioned these letters on the tie!" said Mr. Raymond, one of eve of sailing, his friends in New York, when 1843.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 65 "who received him courteously, and in whom Kerfoot was much interested. In London he had the gratification of joining his dear friend and school-father, Dr. Muhlenberg. With him he made several delightful visits, especially one to Oxford. Of this visit a brief account will be found in the delightful memoir of Dr. Muhlenbergby Miss Ayres. Unfortunately several important letters relating to this visit to England have been lost — in particular one describing his visit to Dr. Newman, made in com- pany with Dr. Muhlenberg.' After this, Kerfoot spent a few days in Scotland, and then visited his mother's relatives in Ireland. The return voyage was made in the ship Sheffield : ^'^^p^''^^'^- it was long and stormy. Just at the end of it, when near land, and while the vessel was in charge of the pilot, they were stranded on the Romer Banks, and were for thirteen hours in imminent danger of death. The ship gradually settled in deep water ; the boats were found worthless, and the rockets sent up were not seen. The last rocket was reserved for some time. Meanwhile the passengers had been driven by the intruding water to the deck, seeking refuge on boxes, tables and chairs piled up as high as possible, and their only hope now was that this last rocket might attract notice. With much trepidation and after solemn prayer, it was at length sent up and ' Dr. Muhlenberg'3 acute obser- of Newman." The K. in Dr. M.'s vation and comments on New- i letter, quoted on p. 167 of his man's conversation and demean- j Life, stands for Kerfoot, and it or will be read with interest. would have added to the interest Kerfoot, at that time, did not ■ of a very graphic letter if the altogether agree with Dr. M. He name had been printed out in thought Dr. M. " too suspicious full. 66 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IV. was seen. A gentleman driving along the shore in his bnggy, some miles off, saw the signal, knew at once what it meant, and hastened to the city to give notice. In the meantime the pilot's mate was begin- ning to be alarmed at the long delay, and a steamboat had been sent in search of the missing vessel. The boat returned after an unsuccessful search of two or three hours, but, on receiving the gentleman's message, another was immediately despatched, which found the sinking vessel just in time to save the passengers and crew. The ship was afterwards raised and the water-soaked boxes and baggage returned to the owners. Many a stained volume recalled in after- times the thrilling experience of that day. The captain and passengers gave grateful testimony to the comfort and help given them in their time of sore anxiety by the example, prayers and teaching of the young clergyman who was their fellow-passenger. Many a warm letter or remembrance came to him in after-years. One touching incident of those hours of peril Mr. Kerfoot often spoke of. A bright little girl of three years had been the delight and pet of all on the ship. When the water began to come over the floor of the cabin she ran to the captain in great indignation, to ask why he did not send some one to mop up the water from the floor ! Her perfect unconsciousness of the awful danger, which was so present to the minds of all the anxious company, brought a burst of tears and sobs from the captain and many even of the men ; after that, all were quiet and orderly and composed, though death was expected every instant. 1843.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 67 The rough voyage ending in such excitement, ar- rested the benefit received from the previous voyage and travel, and Mr. Kerfoot, though obliged to hurry at once to St. James's, where his presence was much needed, was not able to resume his full duties as a teacher and preacher for some months. Forty years ago a visit to England was not the common thing that it now is. The year 1843, too, was a memorable period in the history of the English Church, and the home letters of Kerfoot give a pleasing account of the first impressions of England upon an enthusiastic churchman, bright, intellectual, fully alive to all the new and interesting objects around him, and enjoying keenly every moment of his travel. Correspondence. To Mrs. Kerfoot. Cabin of the Independence, Aug. 11, 1843. .... Thus far everything has been delightful. In spite of all my anticipations, I have not been sea-sick My room-mate is a very kind and cheerful gentleman, a merchant of Mobile — evidently a pious, warm-hearted Presbyterian. .... I cannot convey to you, dearest E., my impression of the exceeding beauty of the ocean, as it now is. and borne onward as we are by such steady strong winds, specially on full, bright moon-light evenings. O ! how I long when I walk the decks to have you with me. M}' room-mate and several others are in the same predicament with myself — lonely widowers ; wives and little ones are frequently and fondly mentioned among us. Captain Nye is a splendid officer, but he says such weather as this will make him rusty. Not an oath has yet been heard among our men, and but one of our cabin company has approached it. I have had one Puseyite battle; did no harm. 66 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IV. was seen. A gentleman driving along the shore in his buorgy, some miles off, saw the signal, knew at once what it meant, and hastened to the city to give notice. In the meantime the pilot's mate was begin- ning to be alarmed at the long delay, and a steamboat had been sent in search of the missing vessel. The boat returned after an unsuccessful search of two or three hours, but, on receiving the gentleman's message, another was immediately despatched, which found the sinking vessel just in time to save the passengers and crew. The ship was afterwards raised and the water-soaked boxes and baggage returned to the owners. Many a stained volume recalled in after- times the thrilling experience of that day. The captain and passengers gave grateful testimony to the comfort and help given them in their time of sore anxiety by the example, prayers and teaching of the young clergyman who was their fellow-passenger. Many a warm letter or remembrance came to him in after-years. One touching incident of those hours of peril Mr. Kerfoot often spoke of. A bright little girl of three years had been the delight and pet of all on the ship. When the water began to come over the floor of the cabin she ran to the captain in great indignation, to ask why he did not send some one to mop up the water from the floor ! Her perfect unconsciousness of the awful danger, which was so present to the minds of all the anxious company, brought a burst of tears and sobs from the captain and many even of the men ; after that, all were quiet and orderly and composed, though death was expected every instant. 1843.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 67 The rough voyage ending in such excitement, ar- rested the benefit received from the previous voyage and travel, and Mr. Kerfoot, though obliged to hurry at once to St. James's, where his presence was much needed, was not able to resume his full duties as a teacher and preacher for some months. Forty years ago a visit to England was not the common thing that it now is. The year 1843, too, Avas a memorable period in the history of the English Church, and the home letters of Kerfoot give a pleasing account of the first impressions of England upon an enthusiastic churchman, bright, intellectual, fully alive to all the new and interesting objects around him, and enjoying keenly every moment of his travel. CORRESPONDENCK. To Mrs. Kerfoot. Cabin of the Independence, Aug. 11, 1843. .... Thus far everything has been delightful. In spite of all my anticipations, I have not been sea-sick My room-mate is a very kind and cheerful gentleman, a merchant of Mobile — evidently a pious, warm-hearted Presbyterian. .... I cannot convey to you, dearest E., my impression of the exceeding beauty of the ocean, as it now is, and borne onward as we are by such steady strong winds, specially on full, bright moon-light evenings. O ! how I long when I walk tbe decks to have you with me. My room-mate and several others are in the same predicament with myself — lonely widowers ; wives and little ones are frequently and fondly mentioned among us. Captain Nye is a splendid officer, but he says such weather as this will make him rusty. Not an oath has yet been heard among our men, and but one of our cabin company has approached it. I have had one Puseyite battle; did no harm, 70 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IV. England^ written some seven or eight years later, when Bishop Coxe, too, was young and enthusiastic. But one is also struck with the young traveller's intelligent curiosity and good judgment about many other matters — every new thing, in fact, that he met— and with his acute observations upon the people and customs of which he had read much, but which he had never before seen. The whole correspondence shows him to have been, even at that early age, a well-read, highly cultivated man. He was charmed with the scenery on his first stage- coach journey. " It was raining more or less all day — true English weather ; but the country was beautiful beyond anything I had ever seen. Deep rich green, every inch fully cultivated ; rich hedges of thorn, or smooth, strong walls of stone, and very few wood fences; innumerable residences, displaying great taste and care, and a few splendid mansions ; five old churches, with their tall grey spires, and now and then an old English town or hamlet — all combined in making my day's journey of 120 miles very gratifying to me." The next night (Aug. 29th) he writes from Coventry to his wife, telling her that he feels entitled to a good night's sleep, inasmuch as since he rose he had explored Stratford-on-Avon, Warwick Castle and Church, Keuilworth Castle, and Old St. Michael's Church in Coventry. His description of Stratford-on- Avon may be given as a specimen of many like instances of his minute observation : "Truly this has been a day of days to me, full of excite- „ . ment and deep "[ratification. Before breakfast I walked to house. " Shakespeare's house,'' where he was born. It would be not 1843.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 71 only difficult for me to attempt description of that and most I have seen to-day, but useless, as books and plates are abundant, over which you and I, I hope, will, ere long, pore and talic. Well, I entered the old house of the poet, opening with the old-fashioned two half-doors into the room long used as a butcher shop, floored with flag stones. Then up stairs, under the old lady's guidance, into the veritable natal room, remaining apart, a sacred spot. Of this and the house I bought lithographs from the old lady, in the very room. These, as well as lithographs of the fine old Church and chancel where he lies buried, and which I visited after breakfast, I will bring ho'me with me. The Church is a noble pile, more than 200 feet long, built at or before the Norman Conquest, in 1060 to 1070, repaired lately ; but the chancel, with the stalls of the monks, remains now as for 750 years before. Before the chancel lie Shakespeare, his wife, his daughter and son-in-law (Dr. Hall), who wrote the wife's epitaph (for her daughter). The avenue to the church is fine, wide, paved with flags and arched over with lime trees. But I hurried on to the stage for Warwick . . . Soon after leaving Stratford, a gentlemen inside stopped the coach to get on the outside. I was already there (and it will rain hard before I again coop myself inside through this fine country), when, looking down, I recognized Mr. Conrad, of Louisiana, a fellow-passenger in the Independence. We hailed each other with no little joy, found our plans coincide, and so kept together all day. We are now sitting together in our little parlor at the Craven Arms. Warwick Castle is described at some length, and next comes Kenilworth. The village of the same name is a long hamlet, nearly a Kenilworth. full semicircle of a mile. The castle, in its wild ruins, is the most deeply thrilling sight, of all secular ones, which I have ever seen or expect to see. We bought the plans and roamed there more than three hours, until we explored and fixed the localities of every ruin. One we missed seeing, a part of the 72 LIFE OE BISHOP KERFOOT. ;[Chap. IV. large hall, to which no stranger is likely to find access. We thought when we left we had seen everything ; what we missed was not much. We both searched and gazed, and recalled its history until we agreed that the sight was pay in full for crossing the ocean. Our romance cost us our dinner. .... Here, in Coventry, we have as yet seen only tlie noble old pile, the Cathedral, the most ancient, mighty, solemn House of the Most High I ever entered. O, there is religion in its very walls ! They seem as though unearthly from their mas- siveness and height and distance of view. Strange tombs and knightly figures, often defaced at the Reformation, are here ; but not these, but the mighty House of Jehovah, the accumulated offerings of piety — now alas! no more — this engrosses the mind. But good-night ; my love to dear wife, and boy, and all. London, Fenton's Hotel, Aug. 31, 1843. St. JUariin'n Well, dear wife, after a day and a half here I must dot '«« /y. down. Yesterday morning before breakfast I went to see a church in Coventry still older than St. Michael's I hunted up the old sexton, down a lane I could have stepped across (for many of the streets of this ancient city are very narrow), and found a very comical old shoemaker, who was quite ready to do the honors of St. Martin's. He pointed out some old mural tablets, and the huge font, and amused me by showing how Dr. 'ook (Hook, now of Leeds,) the former rector ''used to duck the adults' heads down into the font" . . . We went into a chapel in a transept, whose ceiling, like that of the church is of most curiously carved wood ; but the chapel is now a lumber-room ; and upon my remarking a trap-door in the floor, the old man, con amore^ got down on his knees, opened the trap-door, saying there were bones down there ; and there he showed me the packed repository of all the bones of centuries, of those found beneath the church at its repair. The cellar was filled up to the door, and the old man very coolly picked up some specimens of mightier bodies than most of ours now-a-days are, and showed them. I experimented upon his superstition, but found he had none, gave him his sixpence and went back to my breakfast. 1843.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 73 Hence to London by the railroad through a fine country — all, all like a well cultivated garden, not an inch lost. At Messrs. Barings he found letters — " O how precious ! " — from home, and several from Dr. Muhlen- berg from Paris. The Doctor was going with his two companions to Brussels, but dropped the plan to see Kerfoot as soon as he heard of his coming over. They met in London early in September. "And what shall I say of this mighty world ? — for London is a world by itself. All my ideas 2ivefar transcended ; my surprise and delight, and entertainment and profit, I will not waste room in telling. As to descriptions — guide-books, and these notes jogging memory by-and-bye, will do it far better." The day on which he wrote this (Aug. 31) was, like Tuesday, " a day never to be forgotten ; having been devoted chiefly to Westminster Abbey." Mr. Lowndes, of New York, led the party. We Avere Wtsimimter happy in securing through Mr. L. the attention of the chief ^^' superintendent of the Abbey, who told us everything. Henry VII's Chapel you have a plate of, but I can only say that one overpowering feeling after another filled the hours from 12 to 4 we spent there. As we left, the superintendent overtook us, and, having evidently taken a fancy to us, pro- posed a visit to the Chapter House, where all the old state records are kept. You will imagine our delight at a privilege usually obtained only by an order from some high state officer. Well, we saw and handled the original Dome's Day Book of William the Conqueror, now 750 years old. one folio, and one 8vo volume ; the original treaty between Henry VII and Francis of France, and the Golden Seal of the treaty, beautifull}' cut, with the words on one side Phirima servantur foedere^ cuncta Jide, " Yery many things are preserved by a league, all things by faith." .... [Many other curiosities are 74 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IV. then meutioned.] This evenuig weut with Mr. Lowudes to call on Mr. Everett ;' very polite. To-morrow ofl' to Windsor, but never forgetting my dear home, all dearer to me now than ever. But I do enjoy myself very much, and I have right good company Teuton's Hotel, London, Sept. 2, 1843. .... Yesterday morning we six — Messrs, Lowndes, Conrad, Folsom, Pell, Johnson and J. B. K. — met at Pad- dington, whence the railway cars took us to the Windsor station. Windsor, town and palace, are three miles distant. According to the horse-killing practice here, we six and the driver went in a "•%" with one horse. This was the only vehicle at hand, and the poor beast seemed used to it. How- ever, very many of English di-ay-horses are elephants in size and power. Just at the entrance of the town we passed Eton, the famous school ; but there, as everywhere now, vacation has made the place desolate. So we saw nothing but what was visible as we passed the tine old buildings. Windsor. Very unfortunately, too, we came to Windsor Palace on the very day of the week when much of it is closed to visitors — Friday, when the Queen is there, Tuesday also. However, we saw all the outside, ascended the Round Tower, and went into St. George's Chapel. This is line rather than grand — too much gew-gaw on the ceiling. The most striking sight was in the nave, where the most beautiful and im- pressive piece of sculpture any of us has seen here, met our view — the cenotaph of Princess Charlotte, daughter of George IV. She is represented as she lay dead upon her bed a few hours after the birth of her child. Her full form appears perfect as nature itself through the sheet thrown over her. Four female attendants bow in grief, covered like herself, at the corners of her bed. Above she is bursting from the gates of the tomb, ascending upwards, an angel on either side, one of whom bears her infant with her to heaven ; every figure ' Hon. Edward Everett, the American Minister at the Court of St. James. 1843.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 75 as large as life. In the choir the present Prince of Wales was baptized. I then stood on the tombs of Henry VIII, Charles I, etc., and at another place on the present royal vault, where lie George I and II, etc. .... This morning Mr. Lowndes wrote us word that he st. James's ' P(1-IQC€ had secured us an entree to St. James's Palace and the gardens of Buckingham Palace. We went at 11 A. M. The former is plain rude brick outside, but the suite of rooms within is royalty indeed. Gilt and crimson damask make up the furniture, rich Turkey carpets cover the floors ; yet now, (says Ml'. Halse, the Queen's state page, who admitted and conducted us) they are about expending £30,000 in refitting the four rooms. The paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and others earlier and later, are very fine. Every monarch from Henry VIII, and some before him, hang on the walls. There are besides numerous historical paintings. Mr. Halse described the whole ceremony of the Queun's levees as we stood at the foot of the throne, and, among the others, I took my seat on the throne of Great Britain^ as well as on Her Majesty's grand cliair in another room. We saw everything tliere, old and new ; only tlie chapel we could not i?ee, as the person having charge was unfortunately absent. In it the Queen was married. Thence to Buckingham Palace gardens. Buckingham Buckingham Palace is now the royal town residence. St. "'^''^' James's is used only on state occasions, as the suite of rooms is better than any in Buckingham Palace. Of the gardens here, covering 40 acres, I can write no description ; they are beautiful indeed. Tamed fowls of many kinds throng the land and lakes, and flowers grovv in regular but profuse rich- ness. Uf these flowers I plucked some for you. You will value them. I know, less as coming from the Queen's gardens than as from me. We peeped into her conservatory, library, etc.; of course, no admission to this palace. An admission to St. James's and to these gardens is a privilege seldom allowed even to Englishmen ; but Mr. Lowndes's polite zeal, and the very great coiu-tesy evidently accorded to us as respectable 76 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IV. Americans, opened us the doors. We saw next the royal mews or stables. The greatest sight were the twelve state horses, six cream-colored, six jet black, of Hanoverian breed, the fiercest-looking horses I had ever seen. Also the Queen's carriages, four costing each dElOOO ; the one she rode in at her wedding, and in which she was when the third attempt at her life was made, was shown us. Also the huge state carriage, of which I got a description. It is immense — 24 feet long, 8 ft. 3 in. wide, 12 ft. high, etc., splendidly gilt and its panels covered with Italian paintings ; it is now 81 years old. The old keeper softened his heart and told us we might take a seat in it if we only said nothing of it about here. We did so ; but don't tell any one who will betray the old gentleman over here. Her Majest}'' only uses tliis in going to Parlia- ment, etc. We slipped into her riding-school building, where she and others exercise even after dark, there being gaslights there. This afternoon I set out to see about my books. On the way I stopped to see Rev. Mr. Hawkins, who called on me Archdeacm yesterday. There I met at the door Rev. Benjamin Harrison, Harruon. Archbishop of Canterbury's chaplain, who, suspecting who I was, accosted me, saying he was just on his way to see me. So we three chatted awhile. Mr. Hawkins engaged me to breakfast with him on Monda}', and dine on Thursday next, at which latter time he will get together all he can to meet me — most folks are out of town. I meet Mr. Harrison at Lambeth on Tuesday next. So you see I am, one way and another, well attended to. Englishmen are anything else than cold and reserved. Ask me about the Queen's charac- ter, temper, mind, etc. ; her domestic doings and hours ; Prince Albert, etc., and I shall be able to tell you much which I cannot find time to write. But good-bye, dear wife, and boy and all, for the present. Tuesday^ Sept. 5, 2 P. M. — I have just returned from a very gratifying visit to Lambeth Palace, where I had the honor, and still more, the pleasure of an introduction and quite a pleasant, familiar talk with the venerable Archbishop of Can- 1843.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 77 terbury. But first to keep the tliread of ray story. On Satur- day afternoon I rode to several booksellers and left lists of such books as I wished to buy, they promising to send me prices, etc., etc. While on this errand, passed through Paternoster Row, though I did not know it, until afterwards recalling the number of bookstores I found where I had been. All the bookstores here fall far short of those in New York in point of show. Rivington's is a very second-rate store in appearance, and Wiley So Putnam's not one-sixth the size and show of their house in New York. In the evening Mr, Conrad, Mr. Johnson and myself went Mad. Tusmud. to Mad. Tussaud's wax-figure rooms in Portman Square, doubtless the greatest of the kind in the world. Of this, as of every sight I visit, I try to preserve the catalogue and thus secure the best and fullest memoranda. Here are in full the coronation scene of the Queen, her marriage ; Napoleon grouped among all who aided or opposed him, the mighty man clad in the identical ordinary dress ; George IV at his coronation, in Ms coronation robes, etc., etc. Often, amid the crowd, I, as well as others, was for a while in doubt as to which were and which were not living forms. Madame Tus- saud was at the entrance, and I sat down and talked with her before leaving. She is 82 ; has been 42 years in England, and framed all these figures herself. She was in prison three months with Josephine, and told me slie knew that putting her away was Napoleon's downfall ; before that he always con- sulted her. Napoleon she knew intimately ; conversed with him the evening after his return from Egypt. She was in all the horrors of the French Revolution, as her " Room of Horrors" shows — where, not feeling well, my nerves could not sustain me amid figures, almost living, of wasted, haggard prisoners, the murdered, the suicide, and in the centre Marat, taken by herself within half an hour after his deatli, his hand grasping the knife still in his right breast, covered in blood. I hurried away. Below is the veritable travelling carriage of Napoleon. "Get in, sir," said the boy; so in I went, and saw one by one all the conveniences for eating, resting, 78 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IV. writing, etc., of one who, with the mightiest intellect, proved his race's greatest foe. Another room yet is full of his relics, of which I have the printed list. Amid them he lies, in wax, on the very bed on which he died — a death, who that looks beyond the grave could wish to share ? . . . . Sunday morning I attended service at 8 o'clock in the Ch(ij)ei Boyai. Cha.pe\ Royal in St. James's Palace, feeing the porter a shilling, to be one of four who made up the congregation. Full service (except Is^ Lesson and Te Deum) and sermon, plain but good, on "Submit yourselves to God." There are two other services here on Sundays, at 12 and 5.30, which are better attended. The Duke of Wellington never misses the 8 o'clock service when in town This morning I rode to 79 Pall Mall (pronounced Pell Mell), to call on Mr. Hawkins — (who had just called on me and missed me). There I met Mi\ Jacobson,' vice-principal of one of the colleges at Oxford, of some high repute as a iamftew. scholar. Went to Lambeth Palace, where Mr. Harrison, his Adp. Hmvley. Grace's chaplain, was expecting me. After some time spent in conversation, Mr. H. who was watching some interval in the Archbishop's engagements, in the meanwhile took me through the palace, where I saw the chapel where Bishops White, Provost and Madison were consecrated by Archbishop Moore, whose portrait, with all those of the Archbishops from the Reformation to this time, I saw ; also the Lollard's Tower, the rings for the prisoners, and their names cut there, &c. At last Mr. H. found the moment of leisure, and soon returned with word that " his Grace would be happy to see me." Arclibishop Howley gave me a warm and familiar welcome, and talked ver}' kindly of my tour and my health, the English and American Churches. I handed him Bishop Whittingham's commendatory letter, which he said he liked very much — it was very right, ju^t like the old commendatory letters of primitive times. He charged me witli very kind messages to Bishop VV., with many thanks for his Charge and Sermons on the Priesthood which I gave him ; and gave me, * Tbe late Bishop of Chester. 1843.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 79 very warmly^ as we parted, his best wishes for my full restora- tion to a full measure of health, &c. So that among all the crowded incidents of my stay here thus far this may rank first. I aft'ect no indifl'erence to the honor, but I do feel much greater delight at the proof of kindly feeling to our Church ; and the whole demeanor of this venerable apostle, now 77 years old, who, next in rank to the Queen, is of marked simplicity in manner, address and dress^ the latter being that of a very plain — not a gay — Quaker. Mr. Harx-ison rode with me to Pall Mall, where he gave me a letter to Rev. Dr. Mill at Cambridge, where I go to-morrow. Dr. Mill was head of the (Church) College at Calcutta, and is reputed the most learned man in England. While writing here now I have received letters (from Liverpool) introducing me to the Vice- Chancellor and to Prof. Sedgwick, of Cambridge. Kindness crowds upon me. England and her Church will be pleasant, very pleasant in the remembrance to me. I look now for Dr. Muhlenberg every hour. I feel well now and have no fear of my being otherwise. Good-bye, dear Friday, 9 A. M., Sept. 8. st. PavVs CathedTal. .... Thence to St. Paul's, where I saw all that its vast nave and mighty dome presents. The monuments are fewer and less interesting by far than the older Abbey of West- minster. The arcliitect, Sir Christopher Wren, lies nearly under the choir door ; of him they significantly say nothing — after his name, &c. — but '^ Lector, si requiris monumentum, cu-cumspice." "Reader, if thou askest his monument, look around." To ascend the dome was my wish, but I felt un- equal to the fatigue AVednesday morning I set out at 7.30 o'clock in a cab 4J miles to the railroad's terminus in London for Bishop Strat- ford — 33 miles — accomplislied in \\ hours. Theuce by stage to Cambridge, 26 miles in 3 Iiours. I had the day before ,. . ., . , . "^ L niversity of received letters to the Vice-Cliancellor of Cambridge, and Cumbridi,e. Prof. Sedgwick from Rev. Mr. Conybeare, of Liverpool, and one to Rev. Dr. Mill, residing there, formerly piiucipal of 80 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IV. Bishop's College, Calcutta. The Yice-Chancellor I found Dr. Wheireii. residing in Trinity College Lodge. He is Rev. Dr. Whewell, author of the first Bridgewater Treatise, reputed to be a very superior scholar — tall and dignified in his personal manners, though not of a prepossessing face. He was very polite to me, asked me at once to dine in the College Hall at four, and soon rose to lead me through his parlors, adorned with portraits of their great men, and then through the grounds to the College Library. This occupies a magnificent room, and, like all their great libraries here, is arranged in alcoves, each filled with books of one kind. Some of these alcoves were locked. These he opened and showed me very curious manuscripts — a book full of letters of Sir Isaac Newton, chiefly, I saw, referring to his Principia ; Barrow's Sermons in the volumes in which he wrote them, of very small page, but in a clear hand ; but most curious, the original drafts in Milton's own hand of his Comus and other smaller pieces, odes, &c., and his Jlrst sketch of Paradise Lost in the shape of a drama, which it seems was his first idea Next I saw the Chapel ; in the ante-chapel is the famous statue of Sir Isaac Newton. Little else was remarkable there but the altar arrangements — the same everywhere in England — " so horridly popish !" How I should love to see a pack of Baltimore gossips' turn pale at the fine altars, and paintings, and generally the two tall candles on the altar — and all this too in Cambridge, not Oxford ! ' The allusion is to the oppo- sition in those days on part of Rev. H. V. D. Johns and his friend to Bishop Whittingham. Every improvement in church architecture recommended by the Bishop, even in matters seen in all churches, High and Low, in England, was stigmatized as " Tractarian," Puseyistic, Popish, etc. So it was in Hagerstown, when the Rev. T. B. Lyman made a few very simple changes in the chancel — among other things, introducing a Bishop's chair, with a mitre carved upon it. The Diocese of Maryland was shaken to its very foundations by " the Hagerstown question" for two or three years. Hagerstown has now one of the most beauti- ful, churchly edifices in the whole diocese, recently completed by Mr. Baldwin, of New York, as a memorial to his wife, formerly Miss Roman, of Hagerstown, 1843.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 81 N'ext I walked by myself through the University Library, and saw and recognized the original portrait of Henry Martyn, My visits to libraries were of course a slow walk to gaze at thousands of precious books, well arranged and preserved, and to remember how such places look. After some rest at the Eagle Hotel I set out to dine, stopping half an hour at King's College Chapel, the finest building at Cambridge. It was built by the Henries, 6th, 7th, and 8th, and in some respects surpasses any such edifice I have seen. I went up on its roof and had a full view of Cambridge. The Chapel is 300 feet long, of great height ; inside one has the full view the whole length of its curiously-wrought stone ceiling, all arched work of cut stone. Trinity Church in New York will not approach it, I am sure. Kext, — to Kev. Mr. Carus. -St-r. Mr. Cams. Dean of Trinity, to whom the Vice-Chancellor had introduced my name by a note ; but of my pleasant evening I must write again, to-day if I can. Good-bye all. Ill P. M. same day, Sept. 8. — To anticipate, dear E., a little, after a busy day, I found at 3 P. M., at Dr. Muhlenberg's bankers, that he had been there and got a note I had left there for him : so hastening home I found he had called at Fenton's and left me a note naming the hour when he would be in here at Wood's Hotel. So I not only came to see him, but brought my trunks too, and found him standing at the entrance looking for me. I need not say how rejoiced we both are to meet, how vre have walked and talked together. We are both right happy.— But to go on. I have met nowhere, to say the least, a warmer reception than from Mr. Carus ; he took my hand in both of his and I was at home with him at once. We went to the College Hall— a fine old room, some three stories high, with an old oak ceiling, all built 250 years since. There I met several Fellows, and after a Latin grace read from a tablet responsively by Mr. Carus and one of the Fellows, we sat down, only some 15 of us, as it is now vacation, to a very excellent dinner and pleasant con- versation. The tables were around the large room, and women in bonnets were at side tables to make ready the 82 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IV. dishes which the genteel old men-waiters brought us. A Latin grace, read by two scholars, ended the meal, at which all sat in their college robes. Mr. Carus then devoted himself to me, and we went to his rooms, where he showed me the manu- scripts he is preparing for a life of good old Mr. Simeon, his well-known predecessor in the University Church. He read me extracts from Mr. Simeon's diary, a letter of Henry Martyn, etc., etc. Walked along the Cam, which would do for a little creek at home, but is here as beautiful as it is famous. We went to his church, where Simeon, Martyn, and Thomason had labored, and where their tablets stand ; where much good has been done the last 50 years. After promising to breakfast with Mr. Carus next morning I called on Rev. Dr. Mill, to whom I had a letter, formerly Principal of Bishop's College, Calcutta, a thorough Church- man, which Mr. Carus is not. With him and Mrs. Mill I spent the evening and took tea. They were very kind, and Dr. Mill gave me a letter to the Bishop of Edinburgh. Next morning I set out for London. The ride was very delightful, through fine country and romantic old villages with their neat thatched cottages. One thing is seen everywhere in Evglish lore for England — great love for flowers — the poorest cottage has 1 oiven. them; I do not know that I have seen one without them. The harvest is not yet all in ; but one is struck by seemg women and children, often more than 100 in a field, gleaning after the reapers, a proof at once of the poverty of* the poor and the charity of the farmer, who, I believe, is expected to leave something behind in his field for the gleaners. England is all a beautiful garden, but the poor are very many and very destitute. I spent the afternoon in running about on business, and the evening in dining at Mr. Hawkins's with a pleasant company of Oxford clergymen, whose talk of old times at their college amused and informed me very much. While at table in came Rev. Mr. Sewall, of Canada, whom we met at Lake George, you will remember, and he and I talked over our home and fri» nds. He too is here for his tliioat. But I feel lired and dull, and so wil. stop now, with love and good-night to you and all. 1843.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 83 London, Wood's Hotel, Saturday Evening, Sept. 9, 8-9 o'clock. Well, Dearest E., I am now going to continue my prosy letters — for prosy I know they often are — yet I feel the less anxiety, as I am sure the one for whom they are especially written will not think them so. Dr. Muhlenberg is soon to come to my room, so I must move my pen rapidly. Yester- day morning I wrote for you until about 10 A. M., when I went up to the British Museum — (here I resume after two hours' very pleasant conversation with my good old father, who has just left my room). At the Museum I asked for Rev. Mr. Richards, who was at BniMii Mr. Hawkins's dinner the evening before and offered his ^ useful services to me in the Museum, of which he is an officer. I wished first to see about an investigation which Bishop Whittingham had asked me to make for him, so Mr. R. at once took me to the Rev. Thos. Hart well Home, the author of the '■'■Introduction,^^ which you well know. Mr. H. met me very kindly — a right neat and venerable old man. As the books needed were in his department, we set out at once and walked through rooms immense in length and height, filled with books to the ceiling, in all 300,000 volumes, yet any one of these is found and brought at once to a visitor by means of catalogues marking fully the exact place on the exact shelf of every volume and every tract. The book I asked to see was Archbishop Parker's presentation copy of his Antiquities given by him to Queen Elizabeth. Mr. Home got it, and we looked over it — in vain so far as the enquiry went — but it is a very curious and beautiful book. Mr. H. looked on, and at last indexes guided us to a little 18mo book, some eighth of a mile fartlier off, which satisfied us. Mr. H. then showed me very curious and splendid editions and works of which here I can onlv give you a list : Cardinal Ximenes's Cnmplulensian Polyglott. printed in the time of Isabella in Spain ; the Antwerp Polyglott, on vellum, 1866 ; a presentation copy lo Henry VIII of the Biltle, 6ta7-^- particular mention — Clarkson, afterwards Bishop of Nebraska. Robert Goodlow Harper Clarkson," one of the best known of all Kerfoot's pupils, was born in the now 1 Compare a valuable letter in Mr. Keble's Letters of Spiritual Counsel. It was written to a lady whose parents, being Dis- senters, objected to her being baptized in the Church of Eng- land. See, also, Bishop J. Tay- lor, Ductor Dubitantiurn, Bk. Ill, Ch. V, Rule 4. ''The Father's Power doth not extend to Matter of Religion and Persuasions of Faith.'" 2 In later years he dropped Goodlow, not wishing to have so long a name, and signed himself Robert H. Clarkson. 1847.] BISHOP CLARKSON. 115 renowned village of Gettysburg, on the 19th of November, 1826. Graduating at Gettysburg College in 1844, he became tutor in St. James's College, and there began the study of theology under the guidance and instruction of Kerfoot, and was ordained in the College Chapel with his cousin J. C. Passmore, on June 13, 1848. Shortly afterwards he married Miss Meliora McPherson, of a family well known and much esteemed in Maryland, and became rector of St. James's Church, Chicago, a new church in what was then a new town. He grew up with the great city to which he had emigrated, and soon became from his high character and devotion to duty (especially his unselfish care for the sick and poor during the frightful epidemic of cholera in 1849) one of the most respected and beloved clergymen in all the western country. His department at St. James's was history, and without any pretensions to extensive learning, or wide reading, he was a popular, interesting and very useful teacher. The boys were fond of him, and he could impart what he knew in an entertaining manner. His true vocation, however, was pastoral work ; and the eminent qualifications which he manifested, his strong practical sense, the absence of all affectation, and his unbounded sympathy and zeal, led to his election by the House of Bishops, in 1865, as Mis- sionary Bishop of Nebraska and Dakota. The appointment, which was made during the session of the General Convention, was received with universal approval, and as the first Bishop of Nebraska his name has become widely known over the whole American Church. His consecration in St. James's 116 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. V. Church, Chicago, preceded that of Dr. Kerfoot bj a few weeks only. On his frequent journeys from Nebraska to the East he would constantly stop for a few hours at least in Pittsburgh, and run up to the Bishop's house on CliiF street, to talk over old times, to consult on present church questions, or to grasp the hand and look in the face of the guide of his early manhood and friend of his maturer years. He was full of merry humor, and his visits were regarded as great treats by all Bishop Kerfoot's family. Bishop Clarkson, as was natural from his genial, afiectionate temperament, was a capital letter- writer; his letters are always entertaining, not unfrequently highly amusing. Out of a considerable number written from Chicago, the following is appended to this chapter as a memorial of the man and of his warm affection for Kerfoot. The Rev. R. H. Clarkson to the Rev. J. B. Kerfoot. Chicago, Illinois, June 12, 1849. First immes- ^V -^^^^ ^^' Kerfoot^ — I have been waiting until we were sions of all quiet and settled to write you a good long letter. I have Chicago. , -, ■, ' i • • been here now nearly a month, and have a pretty clear visiou of men and things. The congregation is rather larger than I had supposed. The church building is older and not so fine as I imagined, but we hope to accomplish the contemplated repairs during the summer or fall. The number of com- municants is nearly one hundred, and the average morning attendance is now between three and four hundred. Trinity congregation is larger, though it is more floating, and the number of church members much less. It is right in the business heart of the city, whilst we are ofl" in the quiet retirement of the Lake Shore among the residences. It is on the south side ; St. James's on the north side. Rev. Mr. Unonius has a congregation of one hundred communicants, 1849.] BISHOP CLARKSON. 117 but no chvu-ch. I see a great deal of him : he is a thorough Xashotah Churchman, and he must have a church. His people ai'e poor. On the west side of the river there is a fine field for a young man. It is more populous than the north side, and without a chui:ch service. We think of starting an after- noon service there, and a congregation can be collected we have no doubt, and a church built. People here worship "' the dollar " more idolatrouslv than I ^orshipof - •' ifi^ dollar. ever could imagine men with reason and souls could do. In the East our Church would be called wealthy and influential. The pecuniary condition of the Church is very gratifying to me: it owes nobody and pays as it goes, and will not become liable beyond its abilit}'. The principal men are men of enterprise, influence in society, and in good business. The religious tone throughout the parish is very gratifying to me also. I think that they are good people, that they want to love God and serve Him, and to bring up their children religiously. As churchmen they are not well informed, but they seem to be docile, teachable, and desirous to know what they, as chm-chmen, ought to believe. We hope for much, through God's good Spirit, from our Parish Library which is to be started. The people are very warm-hearted and kind. When I was sick I was waited upon, and caressed, and cared for with as much tenderness and real anxiety as if I had been the child of each one of them. Do not think me extravagant, but I do really believe that for unity of feehng and purpose, devotion to right for right's sake, attachment to theu: church and parish, and true-heartedness, there is not a better set of people in any church in the country. I might give you particular instances of all these characteristics that would make you think so too, but such things are not for letters. Mr. B. is an affectionate man in his manners, but a radical. He is quite kind and fatherly to me, but I keep my eye open. It is quite hard for you to believe, is it not, that I am married and really in my own house, writing now in my own parlor, with M. reading Longfellow's Spanish Student by my side ? . . . . Our house is all furnished, though we three are 118 LIFE OF BISHOP EERFOOT. [CiLVP. V. not enough to fill it. Will you not come in the summer and sit by our table with us and be one of us ? ... . The Cholera in The cholera is all around us It has only reached one or two cases in the higher classes, but the lower are dying more rapidly than people know and want to know. We have a sov- ereign preventive, founded on chemical principles. I wrote of it to Mr. Passmore — do pay regard to it, it is no quackery. .... A great many persons have left the city, and are leaving every day. I want M. to go to the East with her sister until the danger is over, but she will not go without me, and, of course, I will not leave my post. We have both had, what every one here has had, the disease in its earlier stages, but when taken then, it is as easily cured as a common diarrhoea. The weather has been exceedingly cold, and even now we use fires con- stantly; this is one reason why the cholera has only pre- vailed among those who live imprudently and uncomfortably. In some cases that have come to my knowledge it has been sadly rapid in its work. Yesterday a young man at 10 o'clock was walking along Water street in perfect health — at one, a coffin was carried into his house. He had been seized and died and his coffin made in those three hours. The disease is not one for which a clergyman can do much, there is so much excitement and alarm among the friends, and the victim is in so much pain and cries out so constantly, that it is with extreme difficulty that even the prayers of the Church can be said over him. Last week our washerwoman was here with two as fine and rosy-looking children as can be found, running about our yard all day. To-day she is here at her wash-tub, and they are both in their graves. I have been seriously thinking of opening the church for daily prayers and having but one sermon on Sunday until the epidemic has passed. If I had not been here so short a time and there were not other arrangements that I desire to make I would have no hesitancy. But I do not want to seem too full of new things yet awhile, until we know each other better, and have more mutual acquaintance and confidence. Bishop Phiian- The Bishop has postponed our Convention which was to have der Chase. j^een held in St. James's Church on the 18th of June (next Mon- 1849.] BISHOP CLARKSON. 119 day). The time and place have not been designated. It is generally thought here that the Bishop will never meet another convention. He is very frail and failing and childish, though I have received a letter from him that did not evidence dotage, except that he hoped I would prefer "the Bible to mediaeval traditions ! " — to which, of course, I assented. The Bishop and our parish are on good terms, though the parish refused to obey an injunction he laid upon it — to elect a clergyman who could be his assistant. How his assistant will be supported no one can tell, unless at the College. Oh, if we had St. James's regimen and rule at Jubilee, the whole Church in Illinois would clap its hands in delight. It owns $60,000 worth of property and is perfectly unencumbered. But it is also, unfortunately, unencumbered with the confidence and respect of the people. No one will send a child there whilst it is in the present hands, though there are now gentle- men in my parish who want to send their sons to a college. Thus far I have no reason to regret my coming, indeed most abundant cause in every way to be glad and thankful and satisfied that I was right. Of course I have often still long- ing memories of dear old St. James's, and hope to have as long as I have a memory. Your brother and family are very well ; he is very much engaged in his business now and I do not see him often, but whilst I was sick he was here every day once or twice. I do wish we could see you at our little gate coming in. When shall it be? .... M. and M. send their best love to you and to Mrs. Kerfoot. As we are just now returning our visits it would give us great pleasure to step in and see you, but as you might not be at home M. says she will leave her card. Tell Mrs. Kerfoot to put it in her card-basket, and keep it until she can bring it to us, or we go in person and claim it. The Romanists have a college here and a splendid church and a nunnery, and almost all the poorer classes. The Presbyterians are the strongest. All kinds of heresies are rife. The Swedenborgians are very numerous and respectable. The Episcopalians are looked upon, and they look upon 120 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. V. themselves, as a very respectable class of people, that say their prayers out of a book and listen to a preacher who wears either a white gown or a black gown. Remember me very kindly to all the gentlemen, and if you have time write to me, but do pray for me. Believe me, dear sir, very truly your attached and faithful friend, R. H. C. CHAPTER YI. MUHLENBERG, WHITTINGHAM AND KERFOOT. Part I. — Letters from Dr. Muhlenberg. Nothing is more striking and interesting in survey- ing the character and career of" a man like Kerfoot than his long, intimate and unchanging friendship with two remarkable men — Muhlenberg and Whit- tingham. The Lives of both these men have already been given to the world, and that of Kerfoot, their friend, pupil and associate, in an interesting supple- ment. Bishop Coxe, in his eloquent Commemorative Sermon/ with great discrimination, points out how Kerfoot was indebted to these two teachers, while he yet retained his own marked individuality and inde- pendence : The sources of a good and grand life often lie out of sight, BUhap Coxe's like the springs in the mountain whirh expand into mighty sermon. rivers. Great authors have delighted to trace the concur- rences that made St. Paul what he could not have been with- out his exceptional nationality and training. So the Church's saints may be accounted for; notably its Athanasius and its Augustine. So we may edify ourselves by the lives of our own worthies, in this Apostolic Church of America; of la}'- nien like William Welsh and Clement Moore and Hugh Davey Evans ; of priests like Bedell and Wilson and Jarvis and W3'att ; of bishops like White and Hobart and Seabury. ' The WorliVs Benefactors. A commemorative sermon, picach- ed in Trinity Church, Pittsburg, October 18th, 1881, before the Special Convention of the Dio- cese. 122 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. Never shall we be a truly great church till we make more of such examples ; till, on occasions like this, we open our diptychs, and recite such precious names with a holy emula- tion to follow theii" bright examples. And take now the fresher memory of Kerfoot. Without denying that he had native gifts and gracious properties original with himself, I feel that we can discern in his history a fashioning hand which ordered his surroundings and shaped all the antece- dents of the educator and the bishop. Crediting him with a base of excellent natural endowments, I think he is a con- spicuous instance of what older benefactors can do, in creating benefactors to follow them. In his ways of thought, in his manner of life, and even in his speech and gesture, I used often to recognize something of the two holy and eminent men who were his patterns, under Christ. You anticipate me when I cite the dear names of Muhlenberg and Wliitting- ham.' These eminently great and pious men were utterly dissimilar, save as they were both godly and Christ-like ; yet something of each was visible in Kerfoot, and he blended in a remarkable degree certain elements of their characters, apparently the most diverse. To his loving relations with the one we owe the qualities which enabled him as a Christian school-master to surpass his teacher ; to his Timotheus-like association with the Pauhne genius of the other, I think he was beholden for much of that martyr-spirit which made him so devoted and so successful a bishop in a missionary diocese. Bo not mistake me. Bishop Kerfoot was no imitator ; quite the reverse. Like all strong men, he was always him- self; he could assimilate, but he could not copy. What we may even admire in a Muhlenberg would be insuflferable in another sort of benefactor ; what was praisewortliy in a Whittingham might be oflensive if imitated by any one less than his equal in intellectual stature, in learning, in ascetic self-denial, in views of life and duty far removed from those ' [To these might have been I degree, the name of Bishop Sam- added, though not in the same ' uel Bowman.] 1849.] BISHOP COXE'S SERMON. 123 of less extraordinary men. To catch something from such great examples and yet to make up something wholly his own, was the instinct and faculty of Kerfoot. It is forty years since I met him, in his early manhood, accompanying Dr. Muhlenberg, on a summer tour amid lakes and mountains. A mere boy myself, just freed from college life, and hardly daring as yet to think of the sacred ministry as ray subsequent destiny, I recall with gratitude the influ- ence of their society. Oh I that the reverend clergy would always reflect on the influence they may exert by the most casual contact with youth. Little could I then foresee our rela- tions in after-years, much less this solemn hour when I stand before you to review his career as complete and his example as that of departed worth. But this long knowledge of his life and labor quaHfies me to speak of him in his fundamental character as a man. Manhood first and to begin with ; then the baptized man, the Christian ; after that, the Christian hero, the benefactor of the world. His was eminently an unselfish stock, and it was grafted with a fruitful scion of grace. His ambition was to be largely useful. He lived for no private ends ; emphatically his was that spirit so elo- quently eulogized by Burke — a "public spirit." No sordid coveting of wealth, no petty eagerness for distinction, much less was his a capacity to intrigue for promotion, to pant for place, to envy more fortunate brethren, or to exalt self by base detraction. I believe his master-motive was the love of Christ, the love of souls and a burning zeal for the service of that Church in which he believed are garnered up the treas- ures of grace that is sacramental, with all that comes to us from a primitive antiquity and the long line of Truth's witnesses and a divine succession of the benefactors of the human race. I have often observed in him, conspicuously, the workings of these noble elements of Christian manhood. To a personal bearing always dignified and manners wholly free from artifice and devoid of aft'ectation, time and experience, not unmixed with sorrows, imparted an expression of earnestness which occasionally was almost painful. He deeply felt what he said or did. His nature was aflectionate and sincere, and it 124 LIFE OF BISHOP KEBFOOT. [Chap. VI. prompted the kindling eye and tlie open hand. To a primitive simplicity he added a chastened beauty of behaviour, which shone out in his love of children and his sympathy with the poor. He was inflexible without narrowness or bigotry. He could not be less than devoted to any task that he undertook for God, or for God's children. As a preacher, the force of his convictions made him always interesting and often elo- quent ; but his was the eloquence not of the actor, but of the evangelist. He cared not to please men ; he burned to per- suade them. So he could censure without bitterness and contend without malice. He discharged his duty fearlessly, and left the rest to his Master. The warm affection of Kerfoot for Dr. Muhlenberg, BO fully reciprocated by the latter, has been brought out to some extent in the previous chapters. Bishop Coxe was quite within the mark in all that he said in his sermon ; had he read the actual correspondence he might have expressed himself even more strongly. It remains to complete this part of the subject by printing a selection from the letters of Muhlenberg to Kerfoot. Less than one- third of the number, extend- ing over many years, is presented in this chapter. As all of Kerfoot's letters were unfortunately destroyed with Dr. Muhlenberg's MSS, the tenor of his replies can only be imagined. Most of Dr. Muhlenberg's letters, even his shoi-test and most hurried notes, are interesting, either as touching on some topic of the day, or containing some characteristic opinion or turn of expression ; and they all shed light upon his relations with Kerfoot, which for the purposes of this volume is the point chiefly to be considered. After Dr. Muhlenberg had passed through the Tractarian phase (as described by himself. Life and 1840.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBERG. 125 Work, p. 171, etc.), and had reverted to Ms former evan- gelical turn of thought (though with a difierence, which he denoted by his favorite expression, " Evan- gelical Catholic"), he was ever fond of poking fun, in his kindly way, at his old pupil for the High Church views, which he had himself first instilled, by praising Newman's sermons and reading them in the chapel at College Point. Under Bishop Whittingham's influence and his own further reflection Kerfoot's High Church principles were in some respects, perhaps, intensified, in others somewhat modified, especially after the shock of Newman's secession to Rome. Kerfoot kept up this good-humored banter with his old school-father (with now and then a serious argumentation), but it never in the least degree aflected the love and respect of each for the other. The very foibles of Dr. Muhlenberg (so far as he had any) were amiable, and he died as he had lived, honored and venerated by all — almost wor- shipped as a saint by those privileged to live in close contact with him and know somewhat of his inner life. If Kerfoot's letters were extant we should per- haps know just where and why he felt bound to difler in speculative theology from his old master and friend. The points of difi"erence, however, come out pretty plainly in some of Dr. Muhlenberg's amusing letters. Where it seems desirable a note will be appended to explain some allusion that might not be clear to readers of the present day ; otherwise the letters will be given in chronological order without comment. New York, Feb. 24, 1840. My Dear John, — I have not forgotten you this week, and should have returned on Monday, but I hope to perfect my 126 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. cure by staying until Thursday. I cannot disapprove of your f^''(P°'''^ intention to be baptized, with your views of the matter ; at any rate it is erring on the safe side. The rite should be per- formed by the Bishop, and as you propose, in private, there- fore, of course, we will say nothing about it — more when I see you. I expect to preach, hoping my throat will be sufficiently well. Kemember me to Libertus and Dr. Hawks. The Lord be with you. Most aftectionately, W. A. M. College Point, N. Y., Nov. 12, 1845. Secession of My Dear John, — .... For a week or two, if not more, the church [of the Holy Communion] will make it necessary that I should be in New York, but I still hope to see you. I trust you will believe me when I say that, reluctant as you know I always am to leave home, I look forward to spending a little time with you as a great pleasure in reserve. I want to have some long talks with you, more especially on this crisis of the "Catholic movement'' — for so I regard the de- parture of Newman. I was expecting it, but still, from some little things I heard, or rather from some vague feeling in my mind, I was in hopes it might not happen ; so that when I was abruptly assured he had gone, ray heart, for the moment, died within me. I can understand everything but his re- baptism, and that is too bad. I have a good deal to tell you, which I have got from Forbes Jan. 29, 1847. Birth of Wm. jjfy Dear John, — Thank you for the honor. As I grow Mnhlenbercj J i J & Kerfoot. older I value more and more the marks of aftection m my " children," among whom I believe there is not one truer than yourself. Amari ah amato is better than laudari a laudato. But my namesake (do kiss the sweet child a hundred times for me) must have the whole of my name. He must be an August namesake. I hope this will come before his baptism. He was born too on the eve of St. Paul's — a good sign for 1847.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBERG. 127 the college — whicli college ?— either ; or perhaps a sign that St. Paul's is to be developed on St. James, and that is the right order, for works are the development of faith. Excuse my writing in such haste. I have stopped in the midst of a sermon. Remember me most affectionately to Mrs. K. and your mother. My regards to all the faculty, not forgettiug Clarkson. Yours as ever, W. A. M. New York, March, 18, 1847. My Bear John., — Thank you for Blanchy's music, tell him it is very pretty. A little too secular for us grave folks at the Communion Church. I did not mean to urge the adoption of my whole name for your little boy, I only wanted him to have the hest part of it. It has always been a sad misnomer for me. Billy has been the true name. I hope Mrs. K. is well, please make her my congratulations on being the mother of another Christian. Has Bishop Whittingham a place in his diocese for Milo ^I'^^o Maiian. Mahan ? If he has not, he had better make one and secure Milo, for he is the first man, in intellect, in the Church, young or old, I had almost said. I do not believe he will stay at St. Paul's after August next (this I say in confi- dence, strictly in confidence), and I think he would rather be in your diocese than in most others. He ought to have a bishop whom he could respect for his learning and abilities, as well as his office, for, like all men of talent, he may have too much confidence in his own powers, though I must say he is quite modest. He can do the Church good service under right direction, and Whittingham is the only man we have in the Episcopate capable of directing him, and therefore I think, for the good of the Church, he ought to be in your diocese. He would like to raise a congregation in Baltimore. If, in connection with some duty of that kind, he could be a sort of examining chaplain to the Bishop, for his candidates for orders, it would be exactly the thing for Milo. I have no objection to your writing to Bishop W., but without speaking positively as to Milo's leaving St. Paul's, 128 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. you might say, from what you know, you think it likely he would come to Maryland. He would want a salary of some $600 If the Bishop could hear some of his sermons I am sure he would say he must have him. He would be a grand fellow in battling the Romanists. He is tired to death of teaching, or there would be a chance of his going to St. James's ; with him as an examining chaplain, the Bishop could have the advantage of a theological school, without the name of one. Dr. M. a \^Su- Where are you now in these times of ecclesiastical meta- morphosis ? Still a Jew ?^ Well, if I am a Samaritan, the chances are pretty good. When the Jews said to our Lord, "Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil," He took no notice of the first charge, as if it were not so very bad, at least compared with the latter. Now I believe the Church of Rome is possessed with the devil. I cannot find that the Church of the elect has ever been confined to the walls of the Church Catholic on earth. Those Samaritan Quakers, how gloriously they have been doing in Ireland, angels of mercy in the midst of the famine. Their subscriptions amounted to as much as all the nobility with the Queen at their head, and here they have been the most liberal con- tributors. The committee of all denominations here, Bishop Hughes among them, unanimously agreed to send the amount collected by them to the central committee of Quakers in Dublin. It is strange to see Bishop Hughes and Jacob Harvey, a leading Quaker, working together so heartily, and somehow, notwithstanding I am such an extremel}' High Churchman, it is refreshing to my soul. Did you ever think of all that generation in the wilderness that were uncircum- cised. Do you think they were out of the covenant 7 Moses does not speak to them as if they were, nor does the Lord deal with them as aliens. They partook of the manna, that ' [Dr. Muhlenberg is probably making a playful allusion to a High Church sermon preached request. It was entitled, "The Confidence of a Certain Faith," and the text was St. John iv. by Mr. Kerfoot in the College 22, We know what we worsJnp: Chapel in 1845, and published by | /or salvation is of the Jews.} 1848.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBERG. 129 sacramental bread of the wilderness, being in uncircumcision; you might, however, draw an argument for admitting those who have received only lay baptism (supposing you even think it no baptism) to the Holy Communion. I should like very much to talk with you as in olden times. I believe there are but two systems— Aut Papa, aut Christus. Our Anglo- ^«^ Pct^a, Catholicism I fear is a fiction. It wants substantiality. It is a nice thing for the intellect, but it has nothing for the heart. Wherever it seems to work, the active power is some- thing foreign to it. Take your own school — you are the life and soul of it : you leave, and what vitality is there in the church system you talk of to keep things going ? And tcAai is the life and soul olyour religion but that same good old gospel stuff that would have sent you to Mardin' if Bishop Whit- tingham had not come that night — that memorable night — to College Point. Good-bye, it's most time to go to church. We have large congregations in Lent, three lectures, or readings, or sermonettes a week. The people are at a loss to classif}' our churchmansliip. The Evangelicals like us better than the High-and-drys, but they are puzzled. A lady said to another, "I like all I hear at your church very well, but I see &o Tsxach. I do not like." "Your ears, then," replied the other, "must discipline your eyes ; we walk by Faith, not by sight ; and Faith cometh by hearing." Good-bye again, you see how well I like to chat with you. If the bell were not ringing, I might keep on another page or sheet Ever your W. A. M. New York, May 9, 1848. My Dear JoTin, — Your letter is so horribl}' written I can scarce decipher it. I might well ask you to write it over again before answering it ! I can imagine your grief and that of your household at the first death among your school-children, and I am sure it will not be yot(r fault if the affliction is not converted into a 1 [To join Dr. Southgate.] 130 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. blessing. I need not add that for that you have my prayers. I would say more to assure you of my sympathy, but I have time only to answer the enquiries of your letter. I can get you quite a rich circular window, 4 feet in diameter, for about $30, and will order it when you say so. I fear I shall not be able to visit you in June, as my sister intends to go travelling that month, and I cannot be away from m}' mother at the same time ; so that my advice with Daily service, regard to the daily service I must give you in few words on paper. If you inti'odzice it, hy no means make attendance com- pulsory on tJie boys, not even on the communicants. A short ser- vice morning and evening is enough for any of them. I tell my own people that I do not icish to see them twice a day at church, except those who have leisure thus to consecrate. Family and private devotions I know are suffering frovi this ■ fashion {for I fear it is getting to he such) for church-going. Besides, ^'•Dearly Beloved''^ twice a day is an absurd formality both for minister and people, and the confession and absolu- tion so constantly repeated is tinfavorable to genuine penitence and any due appreciation of the ^''pardoning power of the priest." Whatever it be, all our services, of course, must he penitential more or less, and the frequent use of '■'■ Ki/rie eleison" in all liturgies is very proper. But that is very different from a solemn and regular confession and absolution at every morning and evening prayers. You know it was not so in the first Book, and it was not until after several reviews that these additions were made to the evening prayer. If I had time I would write a tract on this subject that would convince everybody that I am right. Be mainly concerned about your boys entering "into their closets " and their using themselves to ejaculatory prayer wherever they are. ISTevertheless, whenever it is practicable, I thinlc that a parisli church should be open every morning and evening, that the people may repair thither whenever they can, and find the priest minis- tering there in his place in behalf of the whole congregation. So great is my dread of frequent and long public services upon children that it is my chief objection to .choristers chanting the service daily. Look at the English cathedral boys. I enquired 1848.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBERG. 131 of the organist at Westminster u-hether some of them did not become clergymen. He never heard of such a thing! If I hear of any one suitable for you in sacred music, French, etc., I will tell him of tlie place. I took it very hard, my dear John, that you could aflford so little time to spend with me when you were last here. I have shown that I am ready to serve you at the expense of time and convenience ; something more, then, than some twenty minutes might have been afforded me out of several days. The Andersons certainly have large claims upon you, but are those of your old friend, patron and father so small ? However, I am quite used to such things. It is " Billy's " lot. With my love for your family, ever yours, W. A. M. New York, May 15, 1848. My Dear John, — I have just read the obituary in the Church Times of your first pupil,' gone to his rest, with great satis- faction. It is done very beautifully, and with so much naturalness and feeling, yet in a way peculiarly your own. To a discerning and feeling mind it tells more for the College than anything else you have written. I thank God most devoutly that St. James's is an offspring of St. Paul's. Your notice of death's entrance among you at Eastertide is full of meaning and very touching. The crape among the emblems of the Resurrection is an answer to any one prejudiced against the use of such outward and visible signs in divine service. I liked especially the way in which you state your ground of hope in regard to the deceased. You do not say he was baptized he preserved his baptismal robe of innocence undefiled, therefore he is safe, as an "ortho- dox" churchman would have said. You dwell with satis- faction on the evidences of McP.'s piety, like a good evangelical. By the way, " Evangelical Catholic " would he Eiangdical a good name. You say it would be tautology, and, strictly ^°'^^''^- 1 [Thomas McPherson, nephew by marriage of Bishop Clarlison.] 132 LIFE OF BISHOP EERFOOT. [Chap. VI. speaking, it would, but not as the terms are understood. The Evangelical and the (catholic element are both in our Church, and it is the peculiar excellence of our branch of the Church that they both are there, not as antagonistic principles, but one as the vivifying and the other as the conservative element. I have to thank you for your tribute of justice to St. Paul's in your communication to the Churchman. It is right thus to keep the folks in mind of what they might otherwise forget, and to inform some of what they never knew. I will attend with pleasure to getting you a church window, as I mentioned in my last. Yours as ever, W. A. M. New York, June 20, 1848. My Dear John, — From my prompt letters about this matter of stained glass I fear you think that my zeal in Catholicism is only about its ribbands and flounces; my churchmanship, a matter of taste, as you told me when you were last here. But I am sure you know better. Ever yours, W. A. M. New York, June 27, 1848. Dear K., — Evidently you have the window wrong .... so please alter it ; the rough side is put in, it not being observed against the light. Thank you for j'^our account of your two happy days, so far as I can make it out. Your handwriting gets worse and worse. In haste yours, W. A. M. P. S. — Your work wears hard on you, but you work on for the Master's sake. Thrice blessed the work that we do 07ily for His sake : such can never be easy work. There is no fol- lowing of Him without more or less of suffering; that is the price we pay for the honor of being His servant ; and yet how we all shrink from the cross. We lean upon it, as truly we must, but we want to lounge upon it. Dr. Schroeder's arm-chairs 1849]. LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBERG. 133 with a cross for the back, on which the sitter comfortably leaned, were truly symbolical, not of what he meant, but of the Christian life of too many of us. Perhaps after a while you will have a call to some other work, as distinct as the voice which now keeps you where you are. God give us grace to be attentive to the divine word always. W. A. M. New York, Sep. 25, 1849. My Dear John, — To write you a long letter has been one of the things I have been going to do all summer, and the autumn is likely to pass away leaving it among the things undone. (Query. — Has the absolution, now so cheap with Absolution. us daily-service folks, any eflect in making us easy in leaving things undone ?) At present I can ofl'er no more than an apology for a letter I lost one of the anticipated pleasures of the vacation in not seeing you. I say vacation from old habit, but the summer has had no vacation for me ; except a day or two now and then at College Point, and three or four days lately at Saratoga, I have not been absent from the city. The cholera prevailed principally in our part of the The cholera. town, indeed my neighborhood was quite an infected district. Never has my ministry been more of a reality ; not so much among my own congregation as among the poor generally. On the Fast day the collection amounted to $326, and it enabled me to do a great amount of good, partly in prevent- ing sickness. One of the cholera hospitals was made part of our pastoral care. None of the regular members of my church were carried off (although many were sick, indeed we all were more or less) except one of my singing boys, a lovely little fellow, whose loss has aflected me more deeply than I could have imagined. His dying kiss seems to have imprinted his image on my mind indelibly.' I am happy in hearing of your good spirits for your work and your encouraging pros- ' [See Life and Work of Dr. Muhlenberg, p. 219, for a further account of the death of this little boy, to whom Dr. M. was tenderly attached.] 134 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. pects. Christian education is the work of the Lord, but it is not that in which we can most neariy follow Christ. I did think this summer I was walking more in the footsteps of my Master than ever before. Please excuse this hasty letter. There are several things in yours I have not noticed. My very affectionate remembrances for Mrs. K. and my name- sake. Ever yours, W. A. M. New York, Oct. 10, 1849. My Dear John^ — I send you a line to say that I have heard of a man who I think will suit you as musician. He can train a band, is a tolerable pianist, plays on several instru- ments, can train a choir, etc., etc., has a good moral character, is a German with the distinguished name of Mendelsohn. . . . You see a majority in our convention are willing to have B. Bishop B. T. 0. T. 0. back again, though by no means all who voted for what looks like it. So be it. I hope, however, the Bishops will understand their duty better than to throw our Diocese in the condition which must follow from thus ending the suspension; not that I would be a rebel: while I would hold up an hundred hands against a reinstatement of Bishop O., I would hold up a thousand against not acknowledging him when duly restored. Hoping you open with bright propects, ever yours, W. A. M. New York, Oct. 11, 1849. My Dear John^ — I have seen Mr. Mendelsohn of whom I spoke in my last, and am much pleased with him. He has been used to teaching in a college in Germany, loves his business and can do all you want. He speaks English suffi- ciently well, and is quite a gentleman in his manners. Moreover, to cap the climax of his qualifications for St. Jeivs and James's, he is a Jew! I feared he might be a Samaritan^ i. e. a I cms. Ly^jjgj-an^ a Presbyterian, or a schismatic of some kind, but no, he is actually a Jew. So now you are suited ! I thought I might engage him, as he is satisfied with the terms without 1849.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUELENBERG. 135 waiting to hear from you, but as he asked me whether his being a " Yew " (as in his German dialect he expressed it) would be any objection to him, I concluded I had better make the enquu'y. The man is an Israelite, but a very liberal one, has no objection to teaching on Saturday, has trained choirs in Lutheran and Roman Catholic chapels, composed music for Christian words. Now such a Samaritmt Jew might not suit ! To be serious, this is the solitary objection to the man, and you must let me know whether it be an objection I promised him an early answer. He says he is a Jew in religion, not in ceremony. Yours, W. A. M. New York, Oct. 30, 1849. My Dear John, — .... I am very sorry to hear all vow: ""^(olyJie- -.,„„. loved" young boys are to be driven mornmg and evenmg to the lull service ; brethren. they must be " Dearly Beloved " young brethren indeed if they come voluntarily. " Est modus in rebus " in religion as well as in other matters. Have you heard that Forbes is going over to the Roman "sect"? He has resigned St. Luke's and is now doing nothing. I have reason to believe that his mind is made up ; others, however, think diflerently. .... We had a delightful time on St. Luke's Day, which Firs/ menfion Z . of tit. Luke's was kept in our congregation as a special thanksgivmg tor jio-^pitai. deliverance from the cholera. A good congregation and a large number of communicants, though on a week day. Several clergy were present. Three addresses, one from Dr. Wainwright on the subject of a church hospital, to which the thank-ofierings were appropriated, $300. I said my say about this Apostolical Chm-ch of ours without a soli- tary asylum for the sick poor — her own sick poor, within her bounds — which the clergy liked so much that they want me to say it again before a larger congregation on some Sunday evening, which D. V. I intend doing. The poor "Yew'' was quite heart-broken that he lost the chance of getting into a college. Yours as ever, W. A. M. 136 LIFE OE BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. New York, Dec. 10, 1849. PauiKrikm-ian. My Dear John, — What AM I to do with Paul?' There are no vessels sailing from this port to Smyrna ; from Boston I learn that there is one in two or three weeks hence, meaning probably four or five weeks. Now, in the meanwhile, how is Paul to be disposed of? My house is so full that I have been obliged to turn a young man out of his room to put Paul in, supposing it would be for only a day or two. Under these circumstances I wrote to Mr. Anderson to keep him, but he declines principally on account of Alen What am I to do? Don't be surprised to see Paul back again, though I doubt if he would go — so I am fixed there again. What am I to do with Paul Krikorian ? I cannot help wishing, with Mr. Anderson, that "the good people at St. James's had been a little more deliberate in their action." With Paul Krikorian what am I to do ? W. A. M. New York, Jan. 28, 1851. My Dear John, — So I hear you have been packing off lots of boys. That's right ; there is no other way. A chm'ch A church school school is not a garden to raise weeds in ; but alas ! as long not a garden to i i i i • t xi i -i i p xi • i raise weeds in. as church schools can receive only the children oi the rich, they will be raising crops of weeds. You can only do your best by rooting out the most noxious. "The sower goes forth to sow the seed : the field is the world." A church is a little field within tliat field, where you find all the varieties of soil — the beaten highway, the thin layer of earth over the rock beneath, the ground where the seeds of thorns and ' [Paul Krikorian was the first of the Greek Cliristiaus sent over by Mr. Southgate to be educated, in response to Mr. Kerfoot's desire to do something in aid of the mission in the East, in which he had once hoped to be personally engaged. His ungovernable tem- per made him a difficult subject to deal with, and led to his being consigned, rather hastily, to the temporary care of Dr. Muhlen- berg preparatory to his return to Constantinople. Another student from Greece, whose career was somewhat more successful, was named Hatchadoor Utygian.] 1851.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBER&. 137 thistles abound, and the soil of the honest and good heart. And hence you find the seed picked up, or withering for depth of earth, or choked by the weeds springing up together with it, or bearing fruit some twenty, some thirtyfold, and only a proportion is productive. So it would be in a school of little children, a church nursery of an hundred baptized little ones. The same phenomenon in the end would appear. This does not look as if feop^ism made the "honest and good heart." Yours as ever, W. A. M. New York, April 14, 1851. My Dear xS'on,— And so the good Shepherd has taken youat Death of Di-. your word. You said you gave Him up Willie, at his baptism, ndnmaie. You then put the dear child in His arms, and now you see "g"^,^'^' what that meant. Now you are tried whether you really felt what you were then doing. Yes, I know you were sincere in surrendering the boy to Him who loved him better than yourself, and would have deliberately made no reserve ; but now that you have actually given him up, nature of course feels the separation. Heart-strings cannot be rent without a pang. There would be no worth in the offering if it cost nothing. I do not rebuke your tears, much less the bereaved mother's ; but you both have faith, and the faith which your very tears will strengthen will dry up your tears ; though indeed it hardly requires faith, or at least a high degree of it, to reconcile you to your loss, when you think what the beloved one has escaped in so early a translation from a world of sin ; at best, how much sorrow and temptation ! and how much worse you cannot tell. Had he stayed with you and grown up, you might sometimes have had fearful doubts whether his name were written in the Book of Life. But now you are told it is. That all children dying in infancy are among God's elect, is the confidence of Charity ; that all baptized children are, is the assurance of Faith ; they have upon them the seal of the covenant, though the covenant embraces all for whom Christ died. 138 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. This is a cold letter, but I have attended the funerals, within the past year, of so many little ones that I have almost got into the way of congratulating their parents rather than condoling with them. How can I condole with you that my bright little namesake has been called by Him who called His own sheep by name? I cannot grieve, nor will you and his mother very soon, l^ay, you do not 71010 grieve that he has his place in the flock amid the green pastures and the still waters. May the Lord manifest Himself unto you not as He doth unto the world. I got your telegraph in the midst of duty, so that I could only send it immediately to Mr. Anderson's. I am now going there to see them, though probably I shall find them gone. I sent you the tracts you desired, and will make what use I can of your circular. With my aflectionate sympathy for yourself and wife, W. A. M. April 15, 1851. My Dear John, — .... I hope you did not think my letter of yesterday wanting in feeling. It would have been better a week hence, perhaps, than when your grief is so fresh. You must not call it the condolence of a monk. I preached a sermon on the death of children some time ago which some of my congregation thought could have been written only by a parent. For you the joys of Easter are at hand. "Woman, why weepest thou?" is my text for that morning. Mary did not know it was Easter, or she would not have continued at the sepulchre weeping. God give you all the comfort of that Easter message which Mary was told to carry to the disciples : " I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Yours as ever, W. A. M. New York, July 1, 1851. Death of Dr. Thank you, my dear John, for telling me in your letter to 'vnother. ^^ * ^^^ ^7 mother s orders about coming down to St. James's. It is your testimony that I have been in the habit of obeying 1852.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBERG. 139 her even in things about which men of my age seldom consult a mother. Now that she is no more — as I dare say you have heard ere this — it is a sweet reflection that I have been a dutiful son ; not indeed always so dutiful as I ought to have been. I recollect times when I have spoken impatiently and for a moment seemed regardless of her wishes, that now fill me with painful regret. I look back and try myself whether 1 have been what I ought to so loving and wise a mother. The words in your letter are evidence in my favor, and you don't know what joy they gave to my self-accusing heart. I know she would have been pleased with what Bishop Whittingham said, and would desire me to go. So, not to say I have no other motive, I will, please God, be with you on the 29th. I shall be glad of the opportunity of saying in a natural way what I think of St. James's.' I expect to travel with my sister this summer, and possibly we may at that time be on our way from the Virginia Springs, which have been recommended for her health. I hope you and I will make a trip to Saratoga this summer. By speaking to Mr. Anderson and several of the trustees of the Seminary I have got Dr. Cruse appointed Librarian — very happy shall I be to have my old friend near me. The salary allowed is but $100, but I have pledged myself to Mr. Anderson to make it $300. With my love to Mrs. K. and Abel, ever yours, W. A. M. New York, Nov. 26, 1852. My Dear John. — I was a few moments ago thinking about ''p;]">\9e(icai, St. James's, when your letter was handed me, and xii\x.c\\ mtneUdng more delight it gave me as I read it. Thank you for thinking of ' ''' writing it to me. I am just making up the matter for the next E. C, and why may not this go in? It tells more of the Eedeemer's grace than all that the ministers have been saying of Webster and Wellington. I am glad to hear what you say of William Passmore. Do drop me a line to say ' It was on this occasion that he I ing of the corner-stone of Kemp delivered his address at the lay- I Hall. See ante Chap. III. 140 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. where I can see him or write to him. I should like to have an hom-'s talk with him. At the same time tell me what that work on Mental Philosophy was in which I once heard Joseph Pass- more examining his class. It has a clear statement of the distinction between the "objective and subjective,'' which I should like to transfer to my paper, preparatory to one of my letters on Evangehcal Catholicism, for one view, and indeed the leading one of E. C, is that it is a recognition equally of the objective and the subjective in religion. If I had time I could write a book that would con- vince the whole Church there is something more than a fancy in Evangelical Catholicism. I am not a metaphysician, and therefore see it only in the concrete. I can illustrate it but not demonstrate it in the abstract. I should like to set Pass- more's mind on this track. It explains the two systems that now divide the Church, and harmonizes them. For example, the Sacraments — the Catholic regards them as God coming to us in them, and hence cannot say too much of their efficacy — he considers them objectively. The Evangelical thinks only of his coming to God in the Sacraments, and hence is taken up with his own faith and dispositions in order to their efficacy ; he considers them subjectively. The Roman Catholic, and the Anglo-Catholic too, though not in so great a degree, is intensely objective in his view of the Sacraments. The Evangelical, or rather the Ee-vangelical, is intensely sub- jective; the E. C. considers them both objectively and sub- jectively, and hence is right. So of Faith — the Catholic asks what he is to believe, the Evangelical, how he is to believe. One deals with "Fides, gwa/w credimus," the other "Fides, qua credimus " — neither must be lost sight of. All through Catholicism is objective, as you will see on trial. Evangeli- calism, considered as relative to the facts of the Gospel, is, of com-se, likewise objective ; but, as the word is used, refers mainly to the moral dispositions required in the Gospel. But I must not trespass on your time with this — show it to Pass- more and ask him whether he will not write an essay on the subject, or write a little to me about it. Catholicism, un- 1854.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUELENBERO. 141 checked, leads to consolidated churchism and superstition ; Evangelicalism to individualism and rationalism. Tt Beum for youx full school I Xo doubt you rejoice witli trembling. The good Lord give you grace in proportion to your numbers. I'll try to find my talk to young communicants, but have not seen it for a great while It is hardly more than half an hour since I got your letter, so you will not complain of my tardiness this time Frank Lawrence is my assistant, and an excellent preacher. Have you heard of J. McX. walking back to the West with a wife ? If you have, probably you have also heard that he ran away with one of my "Sisters of Charity," but which is not the fact. Miss G. icanted to be a sister for several yeai*s. Her mother com- pelled her, with Dr. T^-ng's assistance, to give it up. For more than a year she had no connection with the sisterhood. She resolved to do the next best thing by marrying a mission- ary. But I MUST stop. As ever yours, W. A. M. Xew York, June 15, 1854. Thank you, my dearest John, for your kind note. I should not have written so long a talk about the hymn, but the folks here would give me no rest. Have you seen the last Banner -^j iroyia not of the Cross ? Bishop H. U. O. has a long letter in it about ^;^f,^^^^,^ the part he took in compiling our Iwmns. From it any one'''"'" would suppose that it was all his work. His statements are true, but so partial as to need a supplement if the history of the h3-mns be of any consequence. He says, " Quorum pars magna fui ": if so, then I beg to say that I was the quorum. I should love to spend a week with you : perhaps I may, after the meeting of the Commission of Bishops on the Memorial, which takes place on the 29th, if only to tell you all about it, for I think there will be something to tell. Bishop Otey, the chairman, is already here— full of the subject. You would be shocked to hear how far he is willing to go for the sake of union with our sound Protestant brethren. My "Catholic Union " of eighteen years ago need be suppressed no longer. 142 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. I am preparing an elucidation and defence of the Memorial' to be read before the Commission, which will be plain talk, and there are others who will speak as plainly. We go for emancipating the Episcopate and unsectarizing the Church. In that I am sure you will bid us Godspeed. My love to your family. W. A. M. The '^Memo- rial" etc. New York, July 15, 1854. My Bear John^ — I have a bare recollection of Dr. Jarvis's letter, but none whatever of what I did with it. You can easily make out yourself the Episcopal right to confer degrees in a diocesan school. And now don't you want to hear about the Commission on the Memorial ? » The ' ' Memorial to the House of ^isAops" (1853) and a very interest- ing account of it will be found in the 16th chapter of The Life and Worlc of Dr. Muhlenberg. This really great and far-seeing move- ment did not receive at the time the attention it deserved, though men like Bishop Otey and Dr. Bowman appreciated the thing itself, and Dr. Muhlenberg's motives. It was the fashion of the High Church party of the day to decry the Memorial as an abomination, and Dr.Muhlenberg was for some years one of the best abused men in the whole Church. But all High Churchmen did not talk in this strain. One of the memorialists was that eminent High Churchman, Prof. S. R. Johnson, not less well known than respected and esteemed. The names of A. Cleveland Coxe, E. T. Higbee and Francis Vin- ton will also be found there — though with some slight qualifi- cation. Dr. Muhlenberg speaks of his " getting up the memo- rial." It is not written, how- ever, in his straightforward, charming, simple style. It is a labored production, and could scarcely have come from his graceful pen. The reputed author was the Rev. Philip Berry of the Diocese of New York, whose name stands third in the list of signers. (Journal of General Con- vention, 1853, p. 183.) One result of refusing to act boldly on Dr. Muh- lenberg's suggestion has been that the Ritualistic wing of the High Church party have claimed and used a greater liberty in dealing with the rubrics of the Prayer Book and the accessories of Divine Service than ever Dr. Muhlenberg dreamed of as pos- sible. Dr. Muhlenberg wanted that very " flexibility " in the use of the Prayer Book which all par- ties at present seem disposed to desire, if not to concede. 1854.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBERG. 143 All the Bishops were present, they sat four days, and a very interesting time they had of it, as they have said them- selves. Several of the memorialists read papers before them ; of course I had something to say. My talk lasted nearl}' two hom-s, and never had I a more attentive audience. As Bishop Doane had come out in his Charge against the Memorial (as probably you have seen), I had an opportunity of answering his objections, which I did with some eft'ect, as he very graciously acknowledged to me himself. He feels, I am sure, that his Charge was premature. As they sat on the 4th of July (all except Bishop D.) I went in again and made a short speech suited to the day, on Episcopal freedom. I told them Emancipation that the central idea of this movement is the emancipation of ^^/''/ Episco- the Protestant Episcopate from the bondage of sect ; that there are times when men must throw themselves boldl}^ on first principles, and that such a time had now come for the Bishops of our Church, that they must fall back on the magna charta, the original commission. Go ye into all the world, etc. Of course they will act deliberately : they have made a beginning by propounding a series of questions to be sent to the principal clergy, and will meet again in October, again in February. So you see they are in earnest. I hope for great results. The most important thing I ever did in my life was the getting up of that Memorial, as results will prove. " Catholic Union" and the pamphlet in its defence that lay so long among the rubbish at College Point, was waste paper no longer. Each of the Bishops asked for a copy, as I had referred to it in my talk. They have opened a communication with the Committee of Convocation in England on partly the same subject. Don't repeat what I have said of myself at the Commission. I thought you would like to hear of your old school-father's doings. I have a great deal to tell you, and were I not kept here by the dilatory building committee of the hospital, I would come down and see you. Yours W. A. M. 144 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. Nov. 18, 1854. My Dear John, — .... I am writing the preface to my His '•■Pvseyite Exposition of the Memorial, and in it I have occasion to say aberration." ^^ follows. I want you to tell me whether it strikes you as in accordance with facts : " In 1836 he printed a little book on Catholic union, and, as it met with rough handUng in some quarters, soon after a pamphlet in defence of it. In both these publications he advanced the views here maintained of our Episcopate as a means of union among orthodox Protestants and of the duty of our Church in that regard. His mind underwent no change on the subject until a subsequent period of some three years, during which he sympathized with certain theological writers of the English Church, particularly with one of them, whose system, practicably developed, finds the unity of the Church only in communion with the See of Rome. Returning (now nine years ago) to the Protestant ground, which he now saw to be Gospel ground more clearly than ever before, and from which he had been partially drawn by the attraction of minds that beguiled stronger men than himself, he returned to his former estimate of the office of our Bishops in its Catholic extent, and its consequent availableness for the end of unity and concord beyond our own Communion." Have I stated fairly my Puseyite aberration ? I care more for your recollections than any one's else. As I am putting the manuscript in the printer's hands, I should like a line in reply at once. Yours very sincerely, W. A. Muhlenberg. New York, June 13, 1855. My Dear John, — Please say prayers in your chapel for your school-father, who sails on the 20th from Boston in the Africa, for a visit to England and a short trip to the Conti- nent to see the hospitals, etc., and to converse with wise and good men in the hope of gaining something of their goodness and wisdom. I saw Clarkson oft" on Saturday. He and I hope to meet 1855.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBERG. 145 iu London and to travel together up the Rhine, in Switzer- land, etc., and to come home together in October. Can I do anything for you abroad ? Have you seen Dr. Bowman's sermon ? He went for the Di'- Bowman ■«i- -1 1 -.-i-i -■• -11^ ■ approves the Memorial out and out.' I had a good time with the Commis- "■Me-manal." sion in Philadelphia. They'll make a more favorable report than you would gather from the notices of their doings in the newspapers. If it pleases God, I shall return, and I'll devote myself to the movement more earnestly than ever. I believe I have something yet to do for the Church. Did not you like Washburn's pamphlet, " The Catholic Movement of the P. E. Church." It is the ablest thing on the Memorial that has yet appeared. Dr. McVickar spoke to me iu the strongest terms of it, and said he assented to every word of it. Dr. Vinton leaves Brooklyn for Trinity here. Hoping you are all well, good-bye. W. A. M. Won't you preach for me sometimes this summer ? Would it be impossible for you to run over in August ? We could have a nice time in England. New York, Nov. 7, 1855. Thank you, my dear John, for your kind note, which I ought to have said sooner. I rejoice to hear of your pros- pects for the year. How I should like to talk with you about some of the great schools I saw in England, the new ones I mean, particularly the Bishop of Oxford's at Radley ; not to Haciky Sclwol. give you any new ideas, for you as Rector of St. James's could tell Mr. Sewell, the warden of St. Peter's, Radley, a ' Dr. Bowman was a man of great wisdom as well as zeal. The tone of his mind was emi- nently conservative ; yet his High Churchmanship saw nothing dan- gerous in Dr. Muhlenberg's Me- morial. In a letter or paper which Dr. Bowman published on the subject he used this language, well worth recalling just at this time: "I have never considered myself at all bound by the Prayer Book when I have found myself in a position for which evidently the Prayer Book has not pro- vided. In all such emergencies I feel myself as free as a Methodist or a Presbyterian." 146 LIFE OF BISHOP KEBFOOT. [Chap. VI. thing or two. I was amused at their showing me features in their S3'^stem at the last-named school, on which they piided themselves as peculiar to them ; the dormitory, for example, with which we were familiar years ago. I must contrive to let you see Sewell's sermons to his boys, in which there are some good things, but from which you will learn what an unreal, artificial, overstrained thing their system is — a perfect application, and the only one in the world they say, of the sacramental system to education. The eyes of the Church are upon it, and in a few years if it does not prove an entire failure, 1 am greatly mistaken, and so are some very sound churchmen with whom I conversed on the subject. Ordination by I saw Trench, Maurice (a lovely fellow), the Bishop of Oxford, Oafm-d. a,n extraordinary man. I was at an ordination of the latter's, the most impressive one I ever witnessed ; eighteen were ordained. At the imposition of hands, each one of the candi- dates came up in turn and bowed down before the Bishop sitting in his chair in front of the altar. It was very solemn and beautiful. In consecrating the elements the Bishop stood at the north end of the table, sideways towards the people, and I observed that in distributing what remained of the elements he gave them to the persons standing. I spoke to him afterwards about it. He said he made a point of doing so, and would not give the bread or cup to any one on his knees, that he had sometimes passed by those who wished to take them in that attitude. He feared, he said, to countenance any notion akin to transubstantiation ; not so, however, with some of the Puseyites in his diocese, who seemed to endeavor to make the Eucharist as like the Roman mass as possible. The perversions to Rome are not yet done in the Church of England. Manning is active in making proselytes among the laity, and so are the Brothers of the Oratory in Birmingham. I saw one of them, the brother of Caswall, who has con- tributed all his property to the Oratory. The people see that they are in earnest, which of course will have its efi'ect. Rely upon it, Justification by Faith is the dividing doctrine between us and Rome. I could not help calling upon good Dr. Pusey. He asked so many questions about things 1856.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBERG. 147 among us that I could not get much out of him of his own Dr. Fusey. views of things there. One remark he did make, and that was that he feared the weekly Eucharist had been introduced in places in England where the people were not prepared for it. But I can't tell you a tithe of what I should like to say to you. How much should I enjoy your company while we chatted together over my stories. Your note which I got in London was very gratifying. My love to your family. Ever yours, W. A. M. New York, Jan. 26, 1856. My Dear John., — I am too delighted that you think so well The '■■Mtmo' of my pamphlet. Your note coming after the pleasure Qf ''<''■" '^onti'med. last evening, has been almost too much for me. Thank you for it a thousand times ; because my vanity is gratified — per- haps so ; but there is something more. The approbation of men like you augurs the success of the cause, the cause, I believe, of the Gospel. In nothing I have ever done have I been so able to look up to my Blessed Lord and appeal to Him, against so much misrepresentation, that I am actuated by a concern for the glory of His Name. You difter from me only in one point. I would have no uncertainty about the Holy Trinity in public worship, and I regret that there is Bcay appearance of it in what I have written. I should prefer, however, to have the doctrine expressed in the language of Scripture, not, however, to the disparagement of the Creeds. We difler only as to whether our Bishops are in bondage. You would require the action of the General Convention. I think the Bishops are competent to act themselves. So you see I am the higher churchman ! We had about fifty of the old scholars, some from Philadelphia, and a right pleasant time. We went into the chapel for a voluntary meeting, and the boys all came. It was proposed we should have a grand reunion at the Point next summer, when I hope you will be able to come I invited Houghton in last evening, and he came 148 Li:^E OP BISHOP KERPOOT. [Chap. VI. New York, Jan. 26, 1857. Burning of My Dear John, — I see by the papers what a sad calamity Kemp HaU. j^g^g befallen you. We have learned no particulars, only that you were spared the loss of life. What confusion you must be thrown into. How do you manage with so much less room than you are accustomed to. Was the building insured ? I suppose the walls are standing, so that you can be repaired with, I hope, your insurance. In what diflerent ways you are tried !— and how unexpectedly ! Encouraged that the institu- tion suffered nothing from the affliction that ended your last session, and having the fairest prospects for the present, suddenly the devouring flames make havoc in your midst. You know how to look at such things, and to practise the lesson of faith which you teach your pupils. We have new exercises in the life-long school, which we should often think very hard if we did not know that the Master is our Father. I have thought much of you, and hope to hear that the disaster will not be attended with disad- vantage. I'll call and see Mrs. Anderson to learn more about it. With us all things go on as usual, and so I trust they will be as far as possible with you before long. With my affectionate remembrance for your family, and for Pass- more and his, I am yours alwa3^s, W. A. Muhlenberg. Rev. Dr. Kerfoot. St. Luke's Hospital, N. Y., Jan. 7, 1860. New Year's My Dear John, — I thought of you too at midnight '59 and '60, and was sure you remembered me, and now your loving letter is the best New Year's greeting I have had — a pure gift from heart to heart. What you say, in no flattering words I am sure, does me good; stu's new emotions of thank- fulness for the Grace whereby I am what I am, and have done what I have done as an instrument of some good in my day and generation. God knows with what penitence I habitu- ally look back on the past. I feel as if I want only to forget it. Then to know that I am loved by those who love God, for what they knew of me in the past is reviving, and assures 1861.] LETTERS FROM DR. MUHLENBERG. 149 me anew that there is something in me besides my sinful and miserable self. But I must not go on in this way ; but I do prize such letters from you as signs of my election in Christ. God bless the little one' that comes a new light in your house: may it shine more and more unto the perfect day. I joy in your happiness in your children ; and with what gratitude for what comes so direct from God do you begin the year, and with so many children of Grace among your pupils? I should be delighted to be among them, and to christen little Helen, but I dare not say I will. It is now more diflS- cult than ever to leave home, I never had so confining a charge. I heard nothing of the laying of your corner-stone until it was all over. If you sent me an invitation it never reached me, of which I am not sorry, as it spared me the pain of refusal. With my love to your wife, Abel and Annie, ever aflFectionately, W. A. M. St. Luke's Hospital, Jan. 8, 1861. Thank you, my dear John, and I thought of you at mid- ^ew Year's Eve. ■'•'•' ' ,. Prospects oj night '60 and '61, and of no one more, for I was sure you dimmion. were praying for me. I had some boys with me, among them three interesting young converts from the accident ward, whom I told of our old college custom — sure you were keeping it up. God give you and yours a happy year. It opens indeed with clouds and darkness in the firmament of the land, but the Lord reigneth, be the people never so impatient. He sitteth between the cherubim be the earth never so unquiet. He stilleth the noise of the waves and the madness of the people. There are mad people on both sides, but it is not any Northern madness which now makes the trouble, but the deliberate and determined sentiment of the North in regard to slavery, which the South will not endure. That cannot be changed. In any rupture of the Union, Maryland will sooner or later be found with the free States. St. James's may suffer for awhile, but will be found ' [Dr. Kerfoot's daughter Helen.] 150 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI, in a good position ultimately. With my love for Mrs. K. and your children, yours always, W. A. MUHLENBEBG. St. Luke's Hospital, N. Y., July 27, 1861. "This horrid , ^V J^^ar JoJin^ — Probably by the time this reaches you, you hmridwar."' ^ju have found your request for books, tracts, etc., complied with As soon as they can get it ready the sisters here will send a box for the hospital. We have been caring in the same way for soldiers at Fortress Monroe, where I have three boys to whom I had become much attached, in Duryea's Zouaves. They write to me very good letters, lamenting the demoralizing eflect of camp life, and a comfort they have in a prayer-meeting among themselves. This horrid, horrid war ! when and how will it end? — not I fear with leaving you in the Union, as I once believed. I don't say this because of our recent repulse [Bull Run] — that! expected ; nor from doubting the righteousness of our side, but from the irreconcilable enmity which must henceforth exist between the North and the South. I rejoice with you in your happiness in Abel. My love for Mrs. Kerfoot. In haste yours, W. A. M. You write worse and worse. St. Luke's Hospital, N. Y., Aug. 18, 1863. Invites Dr. Ker- My Dear John, — Fearful times indeed you have passed ■d^'o/ll.Sf',fancy. ^^^y^^ and some of which appeared in St. Luke's Church and its arrangements, while clear, simple, individual faith in Christ did somehow find itself among the truths so thoroughly taken for granted, that it was generally not deemed necessary to press that truth prominently forth. Now, you never let it slip back ; but there have been too many of our super- Catholics who did and who do. And while sober men ought never to abandon a truth because foolish ones pervert it, and 1856.] BISHOP WHITTINQHAM. 167 therefore sound churchmen have no new truths to learn, nor old docti'ines to cast away, yet I do feel that some of us may, with profit to preacher and people, reproduce some of these half- forgotten axioms in the scheme of each one's salvation. Then Popery will not flourish in the Church. There is danger of recoil into error, and into some dread of adhering to the whole truth ; but still we owe it to ourselves and our charge to take due warning from such results Oct. 13, 1855. My Dear BisJiop, — We are afloat now, and though it is late prof. Alex. this evening, I will write a line to let you know of our well- ^^^^ p^.d. doing. As to numbers my expectations are just fulfilled. . . . But our new professor. Dr. Falk, is the great gain. He is far beyond any expectations I had formed. As a gentleman, a Christian, a scholar and a teacher he is peculiarly the right man for us. His general acquirements and information are very great ; so are his classical attainments. He is very gentle and courteous, very firm and exact, and enters cor- dially and earnestly into the spirit of our work here. The boys are very much taken with him ; so am I ; so are we all. . . . The Bishop of Maryland to the Rev. Dr. Kerfoot. Baltimore, Feb. 20, 1856. Dear Kerfoot,— I got last evening on my return your own Death of Ms announcement of the sad news which I had heard from Evans ^/^^ 3^' on the cars a few hours before. May He whom you serve in dispensing blessings to other parents now reward you by enabling you to feel and know the comfort with which He comforts Christian parents when He takes away their treasures to lay them up in the secret storehouses of His rich love ! The heart cannot but be rent in giving them up, even to Him, so long as poor flesh and blood claim their power over us ; but oh how rich a consola- tion there is in resigning them to Him who hath loved them and written their names in His book of life, and called them home too early to be stained again with the sin which He 168 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. has washed away from them in his own blood and the bap- tismal waters ! I have one with Him, and I feel assm'ed you need no attempt of mine to draw for you from the precious Gospel of our Lord the ricli stores it fur- nishes for times of trial like that in which you are now being schooled. As little, I trust, will she, whose trial is even harder than yours, need mere human support to bear her up; yet you cannot but remember that one of the merciful alle- viations and compensations of your own sufterings under this bereavement is to turn the inferior impressibility of our sex to account by becoming the double comfort of the sorrowing mother and sympathizing wife. Your manifold other cares, too, must soon sear over your wounded heart. Her concen- tration in her domestic life leaves her more subject to the continuing pressure of her sorrow, and therefore more in need of your teaching and help to rejoice ; yes, as loving, docile children of Him who is dealing with you, to rejoice in bearing what your P'ather in heaven sees it good and wise to lay on you. You have many, many prayers to go up for you, and draw down blessings in your sorrows. One, at least, feels more than ever drawn, in gratitude for recent obligations said on a father's heart, to endeavor what he can for the repay- ment of debt beyond his own power of discharge, in a better form, from a higher source. May God reward you for your care of my child by comforting you for the loss of yours ! Poor Passmore, too, has been suflering, oh how deeply ! in a double blow. Of this, too, I heard only yesterday. It seems as if the last provision had been made for giving depth and earnestness to the tone of spiritual life in this Lenten season at the College. Oh may it indeed be a season fraught with blessings to you all, and most of all, to those who, because they most need them, are least sensible of their need! Your loving friend, W. R. Whittingham. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. Dayton, Ohio, May 3, 1858. lUnessofDr. jj^y jy^ar Bishop^ — I am writing from my dear aged mother. mother's sick-room. I have been here nine days, and set 1858.] BISHOP WHITTINGHAM. 169 out, God willing, on my return to the College to-morrow. But for that duty I would give up all others and stay here. I have scarcely a hope of ever seeing my mother alive again. She possibly may live on till my vacation in July ; probably one month more will be the limit of her stay, and she may not continue a week. Were there any very strong indication of her very early removal, I would trust the College to God and stay on here. But this very uncertainty makes my trial as to when I ought to go one of the sorest I have ever had. I cannot stay on indefinitelj'. My sister (with whom mother is) and my two brothers, with their families, give her every love and care ; but my company and nursing, and the religious services I can give, are very precious to my dear mother, and to me, too, the privilege is bej'ond estimate. I have prayed to be guided aright. It would be sad to me if the end were to come soon after ray leaving : it may be post- poned many weeks. Samuel was here from Chicago last week and left on Saturday. We are both to be recalled at any moment, though we can hardly hope to find our mother alive. We had a family communion with our mother on Wednesday last I administered. All of mother's children, three of their wives, and one son-in-law and three grandchildren communed with her. Our last joint com- munion on earth, we all believed. O that I may yet have the comfort of being with her in her last hours ! Mother Just spoke of 3'our having . confirmed her in our chapel. She knows all her situation, and has full confidence in Him whom she has served so long She has been a mother such as not many families have had to bless them, and few mothers have so much to gladden old age as she has In Brand's Life of Bishop Whittingham, vol. II. p. 102, will be found a letter from tlie Bishop to Dr. Kerfoot on marriage and divorce, with reference to the case of a colored woman, one of the domestics of the College, who wished to marrj again. Her hus- band, in times of slavery, had been separated from 170 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. her, and was living with another woman, but there had been no legal divorce, and none could be obtained in such a case, according to the laws of Maryland, by a colored person. The following is Dr. Kerfoot's reply to the above-mentioned letter: The Rev, Dr. Kcrfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. April 7, 18G1. Marriage and My Dear Bishop, — While waiting an engagement of other duty I will at least begin a note to you about the case you wrote of to me. I must have failed to express the full state of things to you ; for your letter seems to refer to a very different case. If I understand it, it was written to answer the enquir}^ whether a man and wife being separated by the sale of either, or by other act of legal owners, that (even granting it to be a final severance) would justify either in taking a new partner. Clearly not ; both must then live in single estate till one of the two die. That is not the enquiry now. The case is this. Such separation, by sale of the husband, took place. The wife lived seven years unmarried in entu-e chastity. The man took another woman after three years of the separation, and wrote to her that he had done this ; and so he did commit " adultery." He did that which our Lord declared the one only but the sufficient ground for full divorce, such a divorce as would allow the remarriage of the innocent party. I know that another theory has been and is held by some, denying the lawfulness of any marriage till death severs the two. I do not understand you as basing your judgment on that theory, but on the one which judges the new marriage to be allowed by Christ afier divorce for adultery. The question I meant to put resolves itself in this case into this : Is the action of the civil authorities, in whatever way the State law prescribes, an essential part of a divorce? That is, can there be no divorce unless the civil law and magistrate intervene? Is this true, so that, even where the 1861.] BISHOP WHITTINGHAM. 171 State ignores the whole matter (e. g. in heathendom, and among us, towards slaves, etc.), or where there ?*s no State, as in some lands where the Gospel goes, divorce for adultery is still impossible ? It is clear where there is a State ready to act under the Gospel law tliere^ our due allegiance to it settles our duty. We appeal to the civil magistrate and to the Church ; but when the sin of the one party has given the very cause named by our Lord, without and against all wish of the other party, and the State ignores them utterly, i. e. when to them there is no State tribunal nor any legal recourse or obligation, quoad hoc^ is not the whole case remanded to the Church, as though she were out on a mission to Central Africa? Are not the bishop and his presbyters then the rightful and sufficient tribunal and magistracy of Christ? Did you mean to answer this question and this case? It seems not to me. I have long and often thought of this, and now again review the question ; and my conviction grows that justice and purity require such church action as the due of the souls of our humble members. The State opposes no bar. No one would call it ecclesiastical assumption. The practical and conceded and allowed result of the other course is, that we admit these poor people to our altars, after marriages done under our eyes, though refused as unholy by our ministrations. So I was told some months ago by a most discreet and sensi- tive Southern presbyter. Still, I mean that Bishops, not separate presbyters, should so rule and sanction. I have told Margaret of your letter and of my own scruples, and said that unless I can get her a legal divorce, I will not officiate. My own conscience would hesitate unless I had episcopal recognition of what /believe does exist ever since the man took another woman — a divorce ipso facto by the law and in the eye of Christ. I advise Margaret to wait ; but I have not felt authorized to press on her conscience the doc- trine that this proposed union would be unlawful and sinful, when all that is lacking is the civil act, which, so far as I have yet (after some enquiry of lawyers) been able to learn, is denied to these people. I do not see any precept in the 172 LIFE OF BISHOP EERFOOT. [Chap. VI. Scriptures requiring the civil sentence to make the divorce real before God. Of course, where the State imposes laws and modes of action, this settles duty. No such duty rests on these Africans ; they are unknown in the State's law of marriage and divorce. These remarks indicate what I should counsel a bishop to do, were I asked by him for my advice and opinion. As a presbyter, I cheerfully conform to the advice you sent ; but I venture still to ask, did your answer refer to the case as I now, perhaps more clearly, state it? I thought your original letter answered quite a different enquii-y. And I am strongly impressed that as a church we must meet these questions more fully, or else fail to give Christ's sheep the guidance and defence He empowers and requires His Church to give Bishop Whittingham replied as follows : Baltimore, April 10, 1861. No remarriage My Dear Kerfoot^ — In the pressure of my last day before a ivmce. fQi-^jjigfji^jg visitation, I have only time for very brief answer to your interesting letter, but am able to use Mr. Cameron [his secretary] to advantage to supplement it. I did not mistake your case ; but I did, in ignorance, mis- take your position with regard to it, and assume that you agreed with me as to the position of a divorced woman. It was in the assumption that the procedure of Margaret's hus- band could not loose her bond, or leave her free, that I wrote. I am able to send you my reasons for that assumption, as stated in another case, with reference to a woman of the highest connections in Maryland — a fact which I mention as showing that it is not mere dealing with a poor slave that makes me take the harsher view ; that the law for her is what the Church deals out to her most favored and pampered daughters. Mr. Cameron will inclose this with a copy of the two letters to which I refer The reader who desires to know more particularly the grounds of Bishop Whittingham's opinion on this 1867.] BISHOP WEITTINGHAM. 173 vexed question -will find the principal parts of the enclosures of whicli Bishop W. speaks in Brand's Z^/e, etc., vol. I, p. 486, 488. For some remarks by Dr. Brand on Bishop Whittingham's opinions on marriage and divorce, see ibid. vol. II, p. 286. The following letters, which belong to a much later period, are added at the close of this chapter to show how the intimate intercourse between the two men continued after Dr. Kerfoot left Maryland and was absorbed in the cares of his episcopate. The Bishop of Pittsburgh to the Bishop of Maryland. Pittsburgh, May 7, 1867. My Dear, Dear Bishop and Father, — I have not ^ovgoiiQU His health and 1 . T 7j i \ -ii. love of his new you or your needs, or my promise. I ought to have written, yjQj.i^[ but I waited to see my way clear to offer the time and work [for episcopal services in Maryland] . My home cares — heavy ones, owing to ill-health in my family . . . ; the pressure of a new and craving, exacting diocese ; my own strength better than for a year past, but (as I know, though I don't like to confess it before my first pair of lawn sleeves are worn out) often just enough to get on with by care — these have kept me postponing. My general health is greatly better. I look and I am, generally, "well," but now and then, even this spring, have come some of those ugly "running downs " that several times last year utterly broke me ; alarmed my new charge lest they had begun, where they left oft', with a broken-down bishop. My own agony then at such a starting was real. I have thus to talk to show that I have not forgotten, 7iever could forget, you and your long, weary weakness and oflicial need I know how dear to you would be our meeting and my help to you. I long to talk over things with you. My work here, the pleasantest of my life, grows well, and ever keeps ahead of me. If I can keep my nervous strength up (my voice never 174 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. fails now: my strength, my limbs give out) for a year or two, I have every hope. . . , Your own true, loving son, J. B. Kerfoot. To the same. Pittsburgh, Jan. 16, 1872. Comecratim ^V ^ery Dear BisJiop, — It is too long since I wrote to you, %MtTch!^ but I have been "on the go "ever since [General] Convention. My special occasion for writing now is to say that the new Trinity Cliurch, a noble house, is to be consecrated on St. Paul's Day, the anniversary of my consecration. I thought of you, of course, among the first, as one whom I should like to have with us, but it seemed so like a mere compliment to ask you to come, that I did not a few days ago, when writing some such notes, send one of them to you. I prefer writing, as I do, to say that that service on the 25th, and yet still more, far more, another on Sunday, 28th (Abel's ordination as Priest), will carry my thoughts back in time and in loving recollections to you. The new Trinity Church of course proves growth ; though that is only the accomplishment of a plan years ago made and cherished by Mr. Schoenberger, whose munificence now bears more than half the cost. But Abel's ordination as Priest, rich in mercy in itself to him and to us all, has the special and peculiar depth in his case that it means our assurance that the dreaded progress of his disease is, we believe, arrested. More than three years of full exemption from any symptoms, his able physician says, proves, with the fact of his general vigor, his deliverance by God's great pity and love. . . . He works much and vigor- ously, and is well, stroug and happy. How can we praise the Great Physician enough ! If the distance and season were not such obstacles, I would beg you to come and preach at his ordination. Would that be possible ? . . . . I know only by rumors of the changes in Mt. Calvary Church, Baltimore.' I have often thought of you in this trial ' The rector (Curtis) was at this time on the eve of seceding to Rome ; ■which soon followed. 1872.] BISHOP WHITTINGHAM. 175 of sore agony, I am sure, to you, and to our clear friends in Eutaw Place. The word is very scanty and indefinite as to what has been or is to be in the case. I hope and pray that no secessions to Rome may ensue. . . . But we can only do our part, and pray that the Lord God may overrule and restrain all whom we love. . . . The Bishop of Maryland to the Bishop of Pittsburgh. Baltimore, Feast of the Presentation, 1872. My own Dear Friend and Brother,— Day after day your most kind and welcome letter has lain before my eyes, at the desk still temporarily used in my dining-room, while the slow, slow work of getting my library into its designed per- manent order is going on, and others incomparably less valued have received answers from one to sixteen pages in length, because I have been able to do only a certain amount of work, and the other answers were tasks, while yours would have been indulgence. At last, yesterday I got up with my work, when, with Abel's most loving and acceptable reminder of my debt, came more demands, which I am now through again. My head is giving me much trouble, disabling me for con- tinuous thought, talk or writing, and ail'ectiug sight, hearing, and in slight degree, speech also. I have been voiceless, too, from tlie middle of ISTovember to the middle of January ; but that affection has in some degree passed away. When your letter came I had been already for some time under engagements for Washington, and was just setting out to try to meet them. They did not amount to much, but it was all I could do to get well through them, and the effort threw me back again. In the meanwhile I have not ceased to think of you and 3'ours, and have indeed been with you in spirit in your joys and triumph. On such a day as that of the consecration of your glorious church, indeed, my absence could be hardly appreciable, and great as the enjoyment for myself would have been, I did not care so much about the 176 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VI. loss, because it was my own. But I did regret much my utter inability to face the jouruey that might otherwise liave 46er» ordtna- enabled me to partake in the services at Abel's ordination. In them I knew that, beside yourself and your wife, none other could so truly and fully be a fellow-helper in your rejoicing as I, and with all my heart I desired to join you in the endeavor to give God glory and thanks for the crowning manifestation of His guiding, moulding, cumulating love then vouchsafed to you all. I am deeply touched with the dear boy's redoubled reminiscence of me, and shall ever feel our tie of mutual love deepened and strengthened by this re- capitulation of it, as it were (the ava/ce^aAaiwo^f of Irenaeus), in the missive of Abel the Priest taking up the relations of Abel the Schoolboy, the Collegian, and the Deacon. Singularly enough, it was put into my hands together with another of similar tenor from Daniel Heushaw, entreating me to assist at his institution into the rectorship of his lately finished fine stone cliurch, the fruit of eighteen years' patient work in building up a strong congregation on the foundations of an outskirt city mission. He pleads .... by the memory of his father, to which his church is dedicated. As his time is not until after Easter, I hardly know how to say him nay. Then I am undergoing hard pressure about taking up the mission to Germany. The English bishops of Lichfield, Lincoln and Ely, and Lord Charles Hervey,' send advice to go ; and Friedrich, Huber and Reinkens jointly sent a message to the same eflect, and removing all grounds of objection to their position — affirming (1) that they speak of the Tridentine position, not as standpoint, but as starting-point, and hold the articles of the Creed of Pius IV, each and all, liable to examination by the tests of Scripture and truly primitive tradition, and rejection on proof of inconformity, which they know to be the character of some of them, and admit may be of all; and (2) that they aim at and desire just our position as regards the State— no establishment of any kind. My own •[Brother of the Bishop of Bath and Welle.] 1875.] BISHOP WEITTINOHAM. 177 unfitness for the work holds me back, but I have consented not to say I will not go All here love you as ever. Your loving friend, W. R. Whittingham. The following touching letter from Bishop Whit- tingham was written in reply to one from Bishop Kerfoot telling him of the complete breakdown in Abel's health (the young presbyter, in his enthusiasm, had worked far beyond his strength) and expressing sympathy with Bishop "Whittingham in a great and unexpected blow that had come upon him — the attempt to present him for trial as a breaker of the law ! Bishop Whittingham, old and feeble, was under great depression by reason of this insult to his fair name, for so he could not help regarding it. How this lamentable ebullition of theo- logical party-spirit struck fair-minded churchmen gen- erally may be pretty conclusively judged from an admirable letter from Prof. W. J. Seabury, printed in ^'^'^J^- '^• Dr. Brand's Life (vol. II, p. 240) : " The idea that there should be any one in the Church who could seriously think of presenting the Bishop of Maryland for trial is one so absolutely revolting to me that I can hardly lielp thinking that the public mention of such a project must have been deeply painful even to one so far strengthened and elevated by the conscious- ness of faithfulness to right principles as yourself." How deeply wounded the Bishop was, this letter plainly shows: The Bishop of Maryland to the Bishop of Pittsburgh. Baltimore, July 24, 1875. My very dear and true Friend and Brother., — Both your most •■'■Trial" o/Bp. kind and comforting letters reached me in due course. The ^''■'■^^"'O'lam. 178 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chip. VI. first would have had early answer, if it Imd been but a word of acknowledgment, but the story of your own troubles took my heart away. What are my petty trials compared to yours! I sometimes am afraid, when I look back on my seventy years and see how little heart-anguish has been allotted me in comparison of those assigned to others on every side, lest my immunity be a mark of misdesert. I know I deserve no better than to be let alone, as a cake half dough, with Ephraim, and am sometimes almost envious when I see an almost unbroken series of afflictions coming on those whom I believe to be already far beyond me in the Christian race, mellowing, ripening, purifying, sanctifying their afl'ections and desires, their inclinations, thoughts and aspirations— mould- ing and fashioning them daily more and more into conformity with the blessed will of Him whose wisdom and love are never so fully and effectually shown as in the cliastisement of His children. God be thanked that your dear A. has been brought home' to enlighten her parents' eyes and strengthen the dear suf- ferer's knees in his walk through the valley into which the Great Shepherd is now calling him! All our hearts are with you all. Surely we are one in the Heart of Him who hath loved us and given Himself for us, that in His love we might learn to know what true love is, and how by His Spirit uniting us to Him, and in Him to one another, we can love with a love that knows no limits or hindrances of time or space. I am here awaiting my trial^ with only Mary and her hus- band and infant ; Hannah, Margaret and tlie three eldest Wilmer grandchildren being at the old house in Orange. Edward, I am sorry to have to say, is in very indifferent health, much broken by the arduousness of a country doctor's ' [Bp. Kei-foot's eldest daugh- ter had remained some months abroad, after accompanying her father to the Old (Jatholic Con- gress at Bonn.] 2 The "trial," as is well known, never came: the preliminary court of enquiry found that there was not e^en prima facie ground for making any presentment. See Dr. Brand's very interesting account, Vol. II, Chap. VII. 1875.] BISHOP WHITTINQEAM. 179 work. The rest are well. Mary sends to Mrs. Kerfoot, the girls and you, her heart's love and warmest sympathies. Give dear Abel my love and blessing. Your own loving and most grateful friend and brother, W. R. Whittingham. P. S. — I received a German (O. C.) missive similar to yours, and am glad you published yours. I am ashamed, in my present position, even to acknowledge mine. Everything in that movement still satisfies my fondest expectations, and seems to me to be full of fairest promise. W. R. W. CHAPTER YIL THE BURNING OF KEMP HALL. 1857. " St. James's Hall " had long since become " The College of St. James," with a grammar school attached to it. Several new buildings had been erected, and one of these, a small out-building, containing rooms for the college students, was regarded as so far preferable to the school-room where most of the boys had desks, that it was nicknamed " Paradise." A subsequent structure of like dimensions went by the name of "Purgatory," because the other was "Paradise." But in 1851 a new and large brick building was built, which contained the dining-hall, a large school- room, and a dormitory, etc., and in this building the great body of the students lived. It was called " Kemp Hall," after the second Bishop of Maryland, the original Ringgold Mansion being henceforth known as " Claggett Hall," after Maryland's first bishop. This building caught on fire in the early morning of the 19th of January, 1857, in the midst of a fearful snow-storm, and in a very few min- utes was entirely consumed. It was a perilous time, and some account of it ought to be given, if only to show Dr. Kerfoot's self-sacrificing bravery on the occasion, as well as his executive ability in managing to keep the College together afterwards. For this purpose the following graphic description by Bishop 1857.] THE BURNING OF KEMP HALL. 181 Whittingham will answer better than anything else. It shows how the Bishop could write when his feelings were strongly aroused. He thought he must say something to stir up his diocese to help their diocesan college and restore what was lost. He sat down at his table, knowing little more than the bare fact of the fire and the total loss, when, to his delight, a letter from St. James's was handed to him. It was simply a home-letter giving an account of the fire, and out of this Bishop Whittingham, with remarkable accuracy, worked up this interesting narrative of what was a very serious calamity, and might have proved a frightful disaster. To Hugh Davcy Evans, LL. 2>., Editor of the '■'■ Monitor. ^^ Baltimore, Jan. 26, 1857. My Dear Friend, — .... Whoever was out on the night of Sunday, the 18th, will never forget the awful rage of that wintry storm. In a degree of cold almost without example, a wind only less than a hurricane whirled in blinding and dis- tracting drifts the masses of snow falling more heavily than it had done for years. In the fiercest bitterness of that tempest, in the deadest hour of night or early morning, the Rector of St. James's College was knocked up, with the call, " Sir, Kemp Hall's on fire !" Kemp Hall, though not the original building of the College, has been, since its completion, that of most impor- tance, as containing the largest dormitory, the College study, the refectory and kitchen, four apartments of instructors, seamstress's and housekeeper's and servants' rooms, and pantry and storeroom, kitchen, etc., etc Sixty-five students, four instructors and the housekeeper, seamstress and several servants slept in the building. 182 LIFE OF BISHOP EERFOOT. [Chap, VII. By College rules a watchman makes the rounds of all the buildings every hour, a part of his duty being to give note of his watchfulness by striking the hour on the great bell of Claggett Hall. He had done so at tliree o'clock, having just before gone round Kemp Hall, seen that all was right, and especially visited the furnace, and found it safe and in good order. Mginofthe j^^^ twenty minutes past three, a Prefect' (member of the senior class in College, and bookkeeper), who occupied one of the south rooms on the ground floor of Kemp Hall, felt oppressed with heat. He rose in bed and saw flames issuing from the flue which warmed his room. Without an instant's delay, to put on a single article of clothing, he rushed to his door and up the stairs to the room of Mr. Coit in the second floor. "There's a fire from the furnace, sir!" with the instant reply, " You go and tell the Rector, and I'll go up in the dormitory and rouse the boys," was all that passed ; and down again rushed the thoughtful Prefect, to secure a lame youth below, who would be unable to help himself.' With no thought of dress, he seizes the lad, night-clad, as he was himself, and bears him in his arms, through snow waist- deep, across the College lawn to the Rectory, at once to save the boy and bring the Rector to the dreadful post of duty. Providentially, attendance on a child had caused Dr. Kerfoot to be half dressed, and in less time than it takes to tell it he was on the spot. Meanwhile, Mr. Coit had sprung out of bed, half dressed (coat under arm, and shoes on stockingless feet), and rushed with a light into the dormitory above. " Boys all ! jump up ! each wake his neighbor, and come out !" was the order shouted in his loudest tone. The dormitory-keeper, " a brave and energetic fellow," says the graphic letter-writer (himself Prefect of another hall) from whom I copy most of my detail, was in an instant up, and almost as soon dressed and ready. It was no light task to quiet and calm more than I [The Rev. John Kerfoot I « [Lucian Porter Waddell, neph- Lewis.] I ew of Maj. -Gen. Fitzjohn Porter.] 1857.] THE BURNING OF KEMP HALL. 183 threescore lads so roused. "There was great danger that the boys might become frantic and jump out at the windows or throng the stairway '' to their own destruction. (The College story is, that one did, cat-like, descend the lightning- rod. None saw him, and none tried to follow him.) The Professor and the Prefect calmed them, rallied them, and detailed them, as fast as possible, without endangering each other's lives, down the only stairway to the outer air. The burning flue which first woke the prefect in the lov^&v The stairway ® '■ becomes tm- room was but a few feet from the hall and stairs. The smoke passable. was becoming suffocating. Smoke and flame met the descend- ing boys before all were down ; and while a dozen were yet above, with the instructors, heat and smoke turned back the uppermost, and descent for anj'^ more became impossible. Then appeared the value of forecasting wisdom. When Kemp Hall was built, in view of the possibility of this very contingency, the Rector had caused at the upper end of the dormitory a large trap-door to be constructed, and a stout, sufficient ladder to be provided for keeping in the dormitor}^ Never once used, but always ready, there it had lain until the hour for which it had been made came, when least expected. In the study beneath, a corresponding trap-door communicated with the refectory, and thence through the kitchen, out of the north end of the building, with the open air, at the cor^ler remotest from the fire. The brave Prefect and Professor were prepared for the emergency. The heavy ladder was seized and i)laced, and one by one the half-sufibcated boys were sent through the trap-door to the room below. All were down. The Professor was just putting his foot on the topmost round, when he heard through the smoke the Redor^s voice! All this had taken up just the time needful for Prefect /?r. /i^/oor* Lewis with his burden to get across the lawn, and bring back ^*'* the ready dressed and instantly started Rector. Dr. Kerfoot met the boys thronging out of Kemp Hall by the south door, fire and smoke bringing up their rear. Two, on the very threshold, reply to the question, "Are the boys all out?" " No! there are some up there still." Up rushed the Rector 184 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. Vll. by the way which the boys had found impassable. At the second story fresh volumes of smoke and flame compel him, for a moment, to recede. But he thinks of his charge, and even fire cannot keep him back. Holding his breath, he bursts through the barrier and gropes his way up the second flight into the dormitory door. The way is closed behind him, but he will save those above, or die with them. As he shouts to them through the murky substance which shuts out all power of vision, and almost transmission of sound, the well-known voice catches the ear of Mr. Coit at the other end. He stays his descending foot on the ladder, which has yet to be used below to save the lives of all there gathered and his own. He turns to meet the Rector, and calls out, "They are all out, sir!" "Let us go round and look in every alcove," is the reply. They join, and carrying the Professor's light, look (or rather feel, for the dense smoke renders the light useful only to make darkness visible) in every several alcove on each side of the long apartment. It was at the imminent peril of life to both, for, had the light gone out, the over- powering, choking, bewildering smoke would have made it hardly within the bounds of possibility that they should have found their way back to the ladder by which they and all below were yet to be saved from the burning building. God mercifully preserved them. Certain that every boy was out, they crawled back to the trai>door, and both went down — the Rector the last to leave the room. The next trap-door was to be opened, and way found, through the momently increasing smoke and heat, out of the kitchen and northern door. It took less time to do it than it would take me to tell it. At the bottom of the ladder in the lower story, the Professor and boys once safe, the Rector hurries, light in hand, to the housekeeper's and seamstress' rooms. They are roused and saved, but without even a second dress. Neither life nor limb is lost ; but all besides is gone. Bev.J.M. But was all life preserved? There were two instructors' Dashidi. x-ooms. How the occupant of one used his time I have been telling you. Opposite Mr. Colt's apartment, on the second story, was that of Professor Dashiell. Where was he ? It 1857.] THE BURNING OF KEMP HALL. 185 was the Rector's next thouglit after the deliverance of the others. Rushing round, he asks of the excited, trembling crowd, "Is Mr. Dashiellout? Is Mr. Dashiell out?" The}' know nothing of him. " Great God ! we mustn't leave him!" and a rush once more to the burning door and stairway are the word and deed that follow, without a second's hesitation. But Messrs. Mills and Harrison are ready with a ladder, if need be, to enter Mr. Dashiell's room from without, on the side where the Are has as yet made least headway. Mean- while he appears. He is safe. At the same moment that Mr. Lewis was awakened by flame bursting through liis flue, a sense of smoke in his room aroused Mr. Dashiell in the story above. That something was terribly wrong about the furnace was his instant impres- sion ; and his action, as instant, to get up to right it. In drawers and boots he rushes out to do so, and on the stairs meets Mr. Coit on his way to the dormitory. " What's the matter?" "Fire from the furnace!" is tl)e only greeting ; and each holds on his way. Straight to the furnace the Pro- fessor went, but could not get in. Presently the watchman's help enabled him to open the furnace-room, but the raging fire burst out in volumes that forbade the attempt to enter or slightest hope of saving anything Think of the position of men left in that condition, with nearly a hundred college pupils to provide for, and all means, and almost all accommodation, for the moment, gone, and in such fearful weather ! Food was to be at once provided. The slender means of the Rector's and Vice-Rector's houses must furnish it. They did. Such as could be prepared was instantly made ready. Succedaneums for coats and boots, and begged or borrowed under-clothing, were arranged for. Expedients of every kind, for everytliing, were thought of, suggested, tried. A faculty meeting, held at once, came to the brave deter- '■^Etgvlar work mination to hold "right onward." "Regular work to.<^-Tnorrow:' morrow " was the announcement before the fire had ceased to burn. " We will do as we did before we had Kemp Hall," was the answer to all despondent inquiries. 186 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VII. "How is it possible that we can ever get along?" Ah! a six-foot adult of thirty might almost as easily do with his jacket and trousers of sixteen. Most painful and wearisome strife with difficulty must those stout-hearted men and brave youths have gone through in the last fearful week ! With all conveniences and appliances, who has not found it hard enough to go on in weather that has broken up social life and intercourse over the whole face of our country to an extent unknown for many a year ? Two whole days were consumed in fruitless endeavors even to make known their destitute condition. On Monday three stout men could accomplish only one mile of travel in any direction. On Tuesday six men with teams broke through in five hours to Hagerstown, and brought out "a tailor, a shoemaker, and some other neces- saries of life." In the interim, "the Rector,'' says one of the accounts, " is cook, waiter and general policeman — on his legs all day, and good part of the night." That he was chaplain, too, and the genial pastor and spiritual teacher that he always is, shows itself in the same letter-writer's notes of the "chapel- talk" at the first service after the fire on Monday. "To thank God for all His mercies'' was the burden of the Rector's exhortations. " What ! thank Him for burning our house down ? Yes ! thank Hini for that, too ; and be sure that there was mercy behind it all, and that God was afflicting them not in wrath, but in tender looeV No doubt of it ! And that love shows itself directly in calling out the manly virtues and Christian graces for which its visitation has afl'orded such ample scope ; and in the whole- some discipline of mind and character for which such an event, with all its accompaniments and consequences, gives occasion and opportunit3\ At such a time, years of experience and mental growth may be condensed into one hour. Im- pulses may be felt and warnings taken and tendencies given in a right direction, for which "the man," of whom " tlie boy is father," shall be nobler and better through all his life; and seed sown in time which shall blossom and bear fruit through- out eternity 1857.] THE BURNING OF KEMP HALL. 187 The Bishop concluded with an indignant reproach and a glowing appeal to the diocese to come to the rescue, and do more for its college than it had ever done before. His appeal was successful. Great inter- est was aroused not only in Baltimore, but in Phila- delphia, and it was determined to make the College more accessible to both those cities by removing it to a new and very fine site, about twenty miles from Baltimore, on the Northern Central Eailway. '^\q,ti?, ^.(^f^oj to Bau ' _ '' timore County. were dra-^Ti by Mr. Condit of New Jersey, large sums were subscribed, and the buildings were actually begun and partially erected when the civil war came, blighting all these hopes and bringing all these prom- ising preparations for more extended usefulness, and a longer life, to an untimely end. The property still belongs to the corporation of the trustees, and there the partly finished buildings still remain — a neglected ruin, but destined to be completed, let us hope, at some future day, and to fulfil the bright expectations expressed by Bishop Whittingham and Dr. Kerfoot when the corner-stone was joyfully laid in the autumn of I860.' ' Things have greatly changed in Washington County, Mary- land, since 1857, -when the remo- Tal of the College was first proposed. Hagerstown, situated in a charming mountainous countrj', is now a great railroad centre, and a thriving place of business. A i-ailroad runs within an eighth of a mile from " Foun- tain Rock" itself, which, from being one of the most remote, has now become one of the most accessible points in the whole I they have been sent. State of Maryland. At the beau- I tiful old site, an able teacher, Mr. Henry Oudcrdonk, son of the late Bishop H. U. Onderdouk, has for several years, with too little encouragement from churchmen, endeavored to revive the Gram- mar School of the College of St. James. His school is an excel- lent one, as is proved by the warm attachment of his old boys to the principal, and by the good rank which his scholars have attained in the various colleges to which CHAPTER YIII. BREAKING OUT OF THE CIVIL WAR. 1860-1861. Aetat. 44-45. The secession of South Carolina, followed by the desolating civil war, had an immediate effect upon the fortunes of St. James's. Those who at that time resided far away from the actual battlefields, or where people were all of one way of thinking, can hardly realize the scene of turmoil, debate, anxiety, uncer- tainty, in which the inhabitants of a border State like Maryland were compelled to live from day to day. Friends and families were torn asunder, and scarcely anything was thought of or mentioned but the ex- citing topics of the time, the successes and reverses of the two opposing armies, or the fate of friends and relatives on one side or the other in the dreadful war that was going on. All educational enterprises, all charitable institutions and churches, at once felt the "hard times." Schools and colleges not already well endowed found it difficult to maintain themselves. St. James's College, which drew almost all its students from Maryland and the other Southern States, and which was then, with every prospect of success, solicit- ing funds for its new buildings in Baltimore County, was one of the first institutions to suffer, though the Rector and his associates did not give up until after a brave and severe struggle. 1861.] BREAKING OUT OF THE CIVIL WAR. 189 Many of the friends of the college in Maryland /^[;^j^^''^'„^ were enthusiastic supporters of the Southern Confed- . eracy, and they would no doubt have been greatly pleased if Bishop Whittingham and Dr. Kerfoot could at least have s}Tnpathized with the Southern move- ment. But this Dr. Kerfoot (like Bishop Whitting- ham) was unable conscientiously to do. He was from the first, without any misgiving, opposed to " seces- sion "; he was what was called a decided " Union man." His convictions were against the doctrine of secession as, in his judgment, without warrant under the Consti- tution, and as a mischievous remedy likely to produce worse evils than its promoters sought to remove. Not only did he deem it better to Bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of, but he thought that the secession of any State from the Union without the consent of the sister States was equivalent to revolution or " rebellion," which soon became the popular term throughout the North. Such secession, he thought, could be justified or entertained only as those exceptional remedies for oppression might sometimes be justified. As the war went on, and men were compelled by the march of events to become more pronounced in their views on one side or the other, the difl*erence of political sentiment between the Rector and some of the trustees of the college became more and more marked. The relations between them had always been particularly friendly and inti- mate. Especially was this true of the intercourse between Dr. Kerfoot and Mr. William G. Harrison, of Baltimore, one of the earliest and warmest of the 190 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. friends of St. James's. It was natural that the two friends, who had kept np frequent correspondence for more than fifteen years, should wish that they could think and act in harmony in the great crisis that was impending. Several earnest letters passed between them in 1861, in which each endeavored to explain his views and convince the other. But this harmony was not to be. On this question their sentiments and sense of duty proved irreconcilable, though the real friendship and entire respect of each for the other was too deeply rooted for any difiierence of this kind seriously to interfere with it. The old perfect freedom of intercourse was to some extent temporarily inter- rupted, but this was only the natural and inevitable consequence of the excitement of those sad and trying times. BiffieuUies. But the most serious difiiculty in the way of the College of St. James was that the majority of its students came from the South, and the war at once cut oif the main source of supply. The result was that, after three years of patient struggle (during part of which Dr. Kerfoot and his coadjutors served with little or no remuneration and under difficulties which no description can easily exaggerate), the attempt to continue the college was necessarily abandoned. Two great battlefields — Antietam and Gettysburg — were only a few miles distant from the site of the institu- tion; soldiers of both armies passed and repassed over the play-grounds, and Chambersburg, burnt by Gen. Early in 1864, as an act of retaliation, was only some twenty miles across the border in Pennsylvania. "What, however, caused an instant decision and com- 18G1.] WM. G. HARRISON. 191 pelled the abrupt closing of the college was the arrest of Dr. Kerfoot and of his friend and associate, the Rev. Joseph H. Coit, Professor of Natural Science and Mathematics, by Gen. Early in the summer of 1864, of which some account will be given later on. The opinions of Dr. Kerfoot on some of the absorbing political questions of the day will be easily gathered from the correspondence that follows. The extracts from his diaries, too, in this and the following chapters, will give some idea of the dangers and excitements of the time, as they were noted by an observer of excep- tional intelligence and honesty, on the very spot where some of the most interesting and famous events of the war took place. A few quotations from the letters of his friend, Mr. W. G. Harrison, will show both the intimacy of their friendship and the views widely entertained by Southern men, from which Dr. Kerfoot, after careful and even painful consideration, felt obliged to dissent. Both correspondents were men of strong character, of great acuteness and of inflexible honesty ; each was equally incapable of the slightest disguise — especially on questions the roots of which lie deep down in the bottom of the heart. Their correspondence affords another proof that, whatever else may happen, men of such sincerity and fearless- ness never misunderstand, and need never cease to respect, one another. Correspondence. W. G. Harrison, Esq., to the Rev. Dr. Kerfoot. Baltimore, Jan. 3, 1861. My Dear Friend, — Your letter of the 2d is this evening before me. In reply I must repeat what we have often 192 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. Eemovai^SL expressed together, that the effort making is one, we trust, tinwre. under God's guidance, and in trust in Him we must go on with it through good and bad times. If we wait for the appear- ance of plenty we shall never make progress. Already have we had full experience ; our earliest efforts were delayed by the counsel of those who thought the times were bad to begin in. We lingered, and at last started in bad times. Now, I do say, go on through bad times and we shall find good times at the other side, and our work finished to receive the welcome guest. What you get [in the way of subscription towards the new buildings, etc.] will be earnest of more, and we must go over the field again and again in the unfaltering faith of the widow who ever found her daily meal in tlie barrel, and was thankful without surmising if next day there would be found a larger supply. Most heartily are your kind wishes reciprocated by all here '^'umk^^^'^^ ■"■ ^^^^6 sti*ong trust in God's guidance in our political storm now raging To-night I heard of Mr. Douglas's speech in the Senate, and think it will tell favorably. He has decidedly committed himself to peace. He waived all considerations of secession, etc., and applied himself to facts. South Carolina, he believed, throughout its borders had decided to withdraw, and had done so, and was now as much a government de facto as any other in the world ; certainly as much so as Lamartiue's government of France, which, at three days old, was recognized by the U. S. of America as a government. Why should Carolina be ignored? He asked the Senate, were they prepared for war, if in a few days seven more States should retire, and, in a few moi'e, seven others should be added to their number? Prepared, he said, not in materials of men and money and munition, but could they lay their hands on their hearts and say they were ready io fight their brothers 1 It must be a war of conquest, if under- taken, not a war for union, etc. I trust the effect of the speech will be felt at the White House, where new counsellors are urging coercion upon the President [Buchanan] and he is yielding to the evil 1861.] WM. G. HARRISON. 193 suggestions. As to forcing South Carolina to return and submit, it is as idle and wicked an idea as ever was dis- tilled by the devil, and if attempted, every State south of Mason and Dixon's line will instantly start, and every fort, etc., will be seized, and reconciliation become imprac- ticable. The only fear now is that the North has pressed too far already, and the miserable dallying between two opinions by tlie border States will nullify their influence when they do join. Had the secession been simultaneous, the trouble would have passed in two months. I did not intend to inflict so much pohtical talk, but you will have patience with me, I am sure. If Mr. Benjamin's speech is published in extenso, I shall send you a copy, which I trust you will read. I have heard from those present tliat it was electric upon the audience. . . . Aflectionately your friend, Wm. G. Habrison. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to Wm. G. Harrison^ Esq. Jan. 5, 1861. My Dear Friend,—! wrote a few days ago to ask you how opposes far the present tlireatening state of adairs may or must attect **"''**'^*' my etibrts [for the new college in Baltimore County]. The sky grows darker. Perliaps God in His mercy may hear our prayers and scatter the clouds. A war would postpone all our movements in the new college, and probably cripple our old one sorely. We must only pray, trust and wait. Love and mutual confidence, growing out of Gospel faith and duty, must lessen the difficulties of honest men now. My own reflections settle me down, more and more conclusively, against any secession. My oath [his naturalization oatb] binds me to the National Government. No contingencies or conditions entered into its terms and promises. '1 he authority of that Government seems to me God's ordinance, bubordi- natiug 10 itself all State and other autliorities. Revolution may become a duty, but only in case of wrongs so extreme as to absolve allegiance, and make resistance a duty to God. 194 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. His absolution of my oath, as my conscience slowly and reverently decides the fact— that, and nothing less, can annul my obligation. No such wrong, nor any such absolution, yet appears to my judgment and conscience. I cannot concur in the views and convictions of those who think that result now reached — or near. But I, of course, know that many better and wiser than myself view their oaths as conditional, and their conditions as now broken, and their allegiance due to their " State," not to the " U. S.''; and though I difler in those opinions, I nevertheless revere and trust the men. I trust Maryland will not secede. If she do. Providence has given me my work here, and I can and will do it, quietly, as a minister of Christ may, and I will obey the government de facto that is over me, trusting that in time my allegiance in heart and conscience may go where submission is given. My attachments to Maryland are very warm and deep. My dearest friends are among her people. My wife and children are devoted in their preference for her and her people. I should never, now, I think, be " a^ home " anywhere else. I should be well content, if God decrees the shattering of our confederacy, to see Maryland go with the South ; though I should prefer then a middle confederac}'. I foresee only one possible bar to my conscience — the reopening of the African slave trade. I am convinced that that is one of the ends sought by extreme men South. I think they will be thwarted. I fully believe that such an enactment would compel me, and not a few besides, to withdraw from any State or nation responsible or consenting. I really meant only to write a line or two, but heart and head are full just now. It is a sad, sore trial to me to see my adopted nation (I took my natu- ralization oath twenty-four years ago) thus dashing to pieces on the rocks which infidel and lawless abolitionism and disloyal, hasty anger and terror have cast into her pathway. May our God save her yet, and pity and convert all who sin against Him and His earthly ordinances ! Truly and lovingly your friend, J. B. Kebfoot. 1861.] Fi¥. G. HARRISON. 195 Wm. G. Harrison, Esq., to the Rev. Dr. Ktrfoot. Baltimore, January 8, 1861. My Dear Friend, — Your letter of the 5tli is this Qy^mng Reply to the before iBe, enclosing Mr. Schoenberger's check for two hun- dred and fifty dollars I wish myself at your side to talk over the political view you have expressed of the existing disturbances and the General Government. I am not a good hand at expressing myself on paper ; at least I cannot satisfy myself. But I must try to urge my view upon your consideration The General Government is a compact of power delegated by sovereign, equal, free and separate iStates, confirmed by the people of the several States for mutual protection, and in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, pro- mote general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity. Now, can there be a doubt that if this compact is converted into an instrument of oppression, domestic tranquillity destroyed, justice denied, and if this fact stands out by repeated overt acts, the parties to the com- pact are justified before the Judge of all men in withdraw- ing from those who would oppress them, rather than begin a civil war for their rights ? On whom will the sin of war rest, if not on those who are determined to force submission to their tyranny ? That the South has ever asked, or now demands, further than the faithful compliance with the letter of the compact and the decrees of the Supreme Court, cannot truthfully be averred. That the reopening of the slave trade is at the base of the Southern movement is a calumny hardly worth notice, but that it has poisoned your mind. It is a base slander issued by the abolitionists and their tools. The folly of attempting it, in the face of the maritime power of Europe, by a people who scarcely own a ship, and who are purposing to establish themselves in treaties of commerce with Cliria- tendom, should alone be a sutflcient refutation. . . . A Marylander born, I owe my first allegiance to her. I am 196 LIFE OF BISEOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. The Southern bound to the compact firmly, for the purposes my forefathers situation, estabhshed it, so long as it is faithfully observed by all. But when a majority of the partners convert it to the means of oppression and threaten to destroy the liberty, property and peace of the minority, it is a Christian duty, after patient for- bearance and long sufiering (which the last forty years estab- lishes on the part of the minority), to demand a peaceable separation, and, if denied, separate at all hazards, and defend themselves, if need be, when attacked. .... The States have agreed not to make compacts with each other lohile working under the Constitution or compact ; therefore, to retire from the broken and violated agreement and reform is the on-ly alternative to submission, servile war, and all its train of horrors, and loss of civil liberty Could the movement of secession have been simultaneous, the afl'air would have been in the way of adjustment by this time. But, unfortunately, the border States especially have been under "know-nothing " sway for several years and are in a drugged condition. But I trust they are awakening. This threat of coercion is arousing them Moreover, it is arousing the people of the North and Northwest, aud you will find that the coercion party will be thrown over and the people of tlie North will yield every just demand, aud none other will be put forth. I undei-staud the greater delicacy of your position as a naturalized citizen. I believe the oath is tliat you will " sup- port the Constitution of the United States.'' You tlierefore cannot side wiih those who violate it and resist the decrees of the United Slates Supreme Court (whether you coincide with the reasoning of the judges of the court or not) ; it is the law, aud ^ou must support the decree. You cannot lind any law under the Constitution that will warrant you to urge war upon any Slate to force her to remain in the Union. . . . Secession is not revolution ; revolt is an action between dependents and superiors, not between equals. Secession is an action between equals — a drawing oti" for proper causes (such as a violated compact made by equals) from an agree- 1861.] WM. G. HARRISON. 197 ment ; it is a peaceful remedy, and in this instance, so far, has been peacefully done. I do not hold secession a rightful remedy at will., but only for causes good and suflBcient. I think to knock a man down wilful!}', a sin ; but if he were to attack me. put my peace and the safety of my family at hazard, I should be justifled (being unequal in strength to him) in using a weapon, even at the risk of killing him To sum up : I consider, honestly, the religious and civil liberty of the Southern States in danger from the Xorth, and that the struggle now going on is for religion and our hearth- stones ; and if the begun aggression is not stayed, we of the South may bid adieu to peace and happiness, truth and justice, relision and piety, and we had better seek a new country. Maryland will follow Virginia beyond a doubt. I grieve to think she follows. Virginia will secede before the month passes ; earlier if coercion be the tune I fear I have tired you, but will add that if you find any justification for the Revolution of 1776, the secession of 1860 has tenfold claims to it. Love to your wife and children from all around me, and read me as your afl'ectionate friend, Wm. G. Harbison. Dr. Kerfoot's reply to this letter and one more of Mr. Harrison's will be given a few pages later on. Several other letters, very earnest, bnt always affec- tionate, passed between the two friends, and then, finding it best to agree to differ, they let the subject drop from their correspondence, which after tliis was occupied with family matters and the business affairs of the College. These speedily became involved in difficulty and required the most prudent economy. The friendly relations between the families continued, notwithstanding the wide and increasing divergence of political sentiment. 198 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VTII. Meaatime another event had occurred which caused no small discussion and division of opinion throughout the State of Maryland. S--'S/ On the 3d of January of this year (1861) Gov. Gov. Hicks. Hicks, of Maryland, published an address to the people of the State, designed to justify his refusal to call a special session of the Legislature, and deprecating any movement looking towards the secession of Maryland from the Union. On the 9th of January Bishop Whittingham wrote a private letter to the Governor warmly thanking him for his address. The Bishop said that his travels over the State on episcopal visita- tions led him to believe that the most "respectable and influential men " agreed with the sentiments expressed by the Governor. This letter, which was soon published with the Bishop's consent, created a great sensation and much adverse comment in the Diocese. Hitherto the Bishop had carefully abstained from anything that could be called political speech or action ; until these critical times, he had even forborne to exercise his right to vote (a point upon which Dr. Kerfoot did not at all agree with his Bishop). When, therefore, he came out with this strong letter upon a subject on which public sentiment in his Diocese was so fiercely divided, it was a great surprise to everybody. The untenable ground was taken, by some who did not like the sentiments expressed, that because the writer was Bishop, he could not properly, as a citizen, utter his views publicly on matters of grave political concern. Bishop Whittingham ably defended himself, and stated the grounds of his un- usual action in a letter to his friend Dr. Kerfoot, 1861.] GOVERNOR HICKS. 199 which will be found on the 39th page of Dr. Brand's second volume. The letter of Dr. Kerfoot, to which Bishop Whittingham's letter is a reply, was as follows : The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. College of St. James, Md., Jan. 21, 1861. My Dear Bishop, — I was right glad to see your letters to ^R"''*';^* '^'^ . the Governor in the American. The satisfaction, and, if I may use the expression, the approbation I felt were such as I do not often find m^'self as keenly enjoying as I did in this case. I know your rule and habit about things political, and hence the surprise. And I had so much admired Gov. Hicks 's determined bearing and that rarely real and manly letter, and so felt for him (assailed as he was, and is, by so many im- petuous men), that the fact of his having so strong a letter from you, and of your so rightly, wisely and prudently, too, consenting to its publication, gave me very unwonted pleasure. I myself so felt with Gov. Hicks, that oq the 7th, late at night, after reading his letter, I sat down and wrote him warmly and cordially of my own earnest concurrence These are no ordinary questions of politics. Radical revolu- tion, tearing our verj' houses down over our heads, and offering our fields and homes as places for battle and plunder, rushing Maryland into ruin just because South Carolina played the part of folly and madness, when all States north of her would have waited — all this is too much. And even clergymen have a duty now to protest, as men and fathers of families and shareholders in great works and solemn inter- ests, against being dragged into needless as well as terrible evil Here in the College all is perfectly quiet and friencWy. The feeling in No hard feeling grows up. The boys are all peaceful and ^ ''^^^' friendl\% though three-fourths of our Southern boys are, as their families are, " Union men." [This is in January, 1861.] This convinces me that the solid men and homes of the South are not secessionists. The folks that send us boys are clearly not of this class. A week ago, at public "declamation," of 200 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. ten speakers, four declaimed Union speeches. One speaker was from Pemisylvania (a mild speech) ; the others were from Maryland, Missouri and Louisiana. The last spoke out a stern denunciation of disunion. I have asked them all hereafter to avoid in essays and declamations any political topics Truly your loving son, J. B. Kebfoot. The Rev. Dr. Kerfooi to Wm. G. Harrison., Esq. College of St. James, Md., Jan. 22. 1861. .... [After defending Bishop Whittiugham and mention- ing his own letter to Gov. Hicks.] All goes well here, peace- fully, orderly and affectionately. To secure this, prudence, cheerfulness and a kind word of caution, or hint to feel and speak considerately among themselves, to believe much less than rumor tells, and to hope more of men and events than telegrams and malice report, are quietly used. We never had more freedom from acerbity of feeling. Three-fourths of our boys from all parts of the South are from Union — anti-secession — families, and retain their home views and feelings. Some bring just the opposite theories, but all are good-natured with us and with each other. But the rush of events and Ihe great uncertainty of each coming day decided me, in compliance with the urgent request of the officers here, to postpone all ni}' own absences.' Any day's news might stir tlie young blood bitterl}'. Little could be done anywhere 7201c, and my absence from home might be most inopportune. Unless this latitude become the field of warfare, our work and numbers may probabh^ gain rather than lose bj^ this anxiety. Southern parents will seek the seclusion of their sons from the restlessness and distraction at home. But the man that attempts prophecies now is far from wise If we can only get through without war, tiie result will be bearable in an}- event. To war., and all that can produce it, especially that can bring it to our fields and homes, I am unalterably opposed. > [To collect funds for the new building in Baltimore County.] 1861.] OUGHT MARYLAND TO SECEDE? 201 My hopes grow of late. My iud^ment and wish are formed. True interest of •' ^ o J J o Mainland. On grounds of conscience and prudent choice, both co-equally, I vote against any secession. It is revolution ; and I can see no sufficient justification of that. Other remedies are more righteous and more hopeful. Maryland would not of herself iiave taken such a step. Therefore the haste of one or two extreme Southern States ought not to make her, for any reason, accept and assume the dire consequences of their hasty act; least of all, transfer to her cities and homes and tields the war, if an 3' come, that she never would have waged of her own choice. If the Gulf States choose to have war, let them keep it on their own soil. I^Iy whole heart and con- science repel, from my home, my wife and children, from m}' place of work, and from that work itself, this peril and provo- cation of civil war, which I pray God none maj' feel, but which, I insist upon it, none shall, with my vole, provoke hundreds of miles south, and tlien hold ics bound to take its worst woes into the midst of us. I tliink 1 have thought out my duty, and see it fully and finally on this point and ground Peace is my wish — peace everywhere, but by all means peace here in Maryland Secession would make Maryland a Xorth- ern State in ten j'ears, and Virginia, too, in twenty. It would, — which is the woe I see ju?t ahead, — involve the attempt to resume control of Washington City now. And that attempt would bring half a million, or a million if need be, from the North in two weeks, and every city and town of ours would be in ashes, and our homes and fields full of blood. I know the North, and I know tliis would be done, right or wrong. And as a man, a citizen and a father of a famil}-, I deprecate the rash measures that would bring this evil Wm. G, Harrison, Esq., to the Rev. Dr. Kerf cot Baltimore, 25th January. 1861. My Dear Friend, — Your letter of the 22d is this evening p,. j^erfooc^ before me. J71 love and sorrow I speak to you my regret tiiat ^f^jj^''* ^'^■ you have taken so active a part in politics, and partisan politics, too, as to have written to Mr. Hicks ; you say, pri- 202 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. vm. vately ; but I had heard of it, and I doubt not others will also. I trust he may not publish it. By this act you have gone further than those priests who have used their pulpits. I had hoped "The Church " would not have joined the battles of Mammon. The people at large do not and cannot separate a man from his office, and by the action of " W. E. AVhitting- hara " (for in that letter he does not speak as Bishop), I am often provoked to defend "The Church" from the charge of "being in the fray." I have been forced to deny that our Bishop has written a word ; to say — which is strictly true — that W. R. Whittingham has, in his individuality, written his private opinion, and has promised to the Governor the aid which he, W. R. W., can exercise to support him ; but that (so far as I am concerned, and many, very many more of his flock), his ajjinion in political matters has not any other weight than that of other men, and certainly not as much as that of many laymen. A more indiscreet act the Bishop never com- mitted, and it is possible, if not probable, it maybe the cause of more strife inside the Church than he will abate outside of it. I consider the advice of the fifteen Senators of Maryland to the Governor [recommending a special session of the Legislature] of more weight than if all the clergy had sent him a memorial to the contrary. You are not posted in politics, and are wrong when you suppose Mr. Hicks influenced by love of country or fear of war. It is with him love of party, and it is his party who have got up tlie cry of war, and are yet threatening it. The South have asked ^j>eace and have never threatened to go to war with the North, and never have armed for any other purpose than to defend their hearthstones, threatened as they are with " coercion," and to be provided against a servile rising. I really (serious as the subject is) am amused by your fancied security as a Middle Republic, with the pretension of driving back the millions of Northern fanatics on one side and fire-eating Southerners on the other, and that without vvarfare Now, dear friend, all these devices are I'rom very good-meaning, but from ver3'^ short- sighted .... politicians, who never had the mind of the people 1861.] GOVERNOR EICKS. 203 The Northern States (i. c, the Government of the Northern The political States) are in the hands of a minority party, known as aboli- tionists, whose numerical strength is not more than one-third of the people ; their type you have in Congress. They control the people. Xovv, in this struggle for constitutional libertij, the South is not able through Congress to reach the people, and therefore the necessity of taking the last, rightful remedy, that of reclaiming the delegated powers, and thereby imposing upon the people of the North a necessity of taking up the causes of oftense and deciding the issue. The delay in the South's thus acting in a body is the only source of anxiety. Had it been done at once, a reconciliation would have been matured by July, and less cause of difficulty in the adjustment would exist. How has the conduct of Mr. Hicks placed Maryland ? Now, when Virginia has called a convention of the Southern States on the 4th of February [the so-called Peace Conference], to consult and propose terms of adjustment, Maryland is silent. Do you suppose the people of this State will consent to be dragged into the Northern Confederacy ? If you do, you will waken up to a fearful state of things, if it be attempted. As to the idea of a forcible resistance to the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, it only had birth in the brain of Mr. Hicks and his like. The letter of our Chief of Police to the Mayor of Washington ought to satisfy honest men. I tell you, if the North does not yield, the entire fifteen States, including Delaware, will confederate ; and the longer it is put oft", the less likely will be a reunion or reconciliation. My heart and judgment go for reconciliation, and I consider any attempt to stay the tide now moving in the South as a bar to that great object, and may be the source of infinite turmoil and ruin, and possibly end in civil war. I am happy to know tliat there is not one cent in the Treasury of the United States, and that it will take twenty millions to carry on the Government to June — which must be borrowed As to the millions of Northern men who would march upon the South, I am by that idea con- firmed in the opinion that you do not know the state of feeling at the North towards the South. You could not 204 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. muster an army strong enough to make its way through the Middle Republic you think about, let alone pass into even South Carolina. ^ So be at ease on the subject of war between North and South, dear friend. My anxiety is about home; there is an intense^ smothered feeling among the people at the conduct of Mr. Hicks, and the action of the other Southern States, especially Virginia, may excite it into flame. Were it not for the loyalty to their country of those who o2jpose Ms course, it would have broken out ere this. I am most anxious on this score, and not much disturbed about having tem- porarily two confederacies, for I think great Ijenefit will spring from the move. You are right in your decision in staying at home ; I do not think much could be achieved in the way of additional subscriptions ; we must try to collect as closely as possible what has been subscribed. Work is now suspended My dear mother is easy from bodily pain, but her appetite is wretched, and we are anxious on that score. Your mes- sage shall be read to her, and be assured of the unceasing love and affection which, whether we go North or South, you and yours are bound to us by Your affectionate, Wm. G. Harrison. P. S. — Somehow or other, in my eagerness to reply to your politics and soften your war-like fears or apprehensions, I missed the postscript to your previous letter, and grieve to hear of little Katey's sickness, but rejoice to learn she is so well over it. Let us hear again soon, for I know my mother and sisters will have anxiety until she is herself again ; her symptoms were very like scarlatina. Yours, W. G. H. 1 It is not elngular that sucli an opinion could be prevalent in Maryland in Januanj, 1861, when one recollects the utterances of the New York press, and the atti- tude and speeches of many lead- ing Northern men. A great and sudden change of sentiment took place throughout the country in April, after the surrender of Fort Sumter. 1861.] CLERGYMEN AND POLITICS. 205 I read your letter as you would wish a true friend to do, and just as if you had been talking to me ; but I must add my hope that so long as you are in orders you will not write letters on party politics to partisan leaders. Your feelings, and not your judgment, governed you when you did it. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to Wm. G. Harrison, Esq. College of St. James, Md., March 20th, 1861. My Dear Friend, — It seems strange to have so long inter- mitted letters to you ; but all has been going on well and quietly here — entirely so When I have wished to write of our college plans and progress, I have been kept back from day to day in hopes of some deliuite guidance from political matters I must not let my pen run far into civil matters. I have known no change of views save advancing power of con- viction in favor of my earliest opinions, both as to National and State policy. The course of events confirms me in those opinions, both as to "the right" and " the prudent" in these events I deplore the Union lost ; but vastly more the example of action in hot haste, by conventions chosen under excitement, by doubtful majorities — in some one or more cases, by minori- ties—making radical, revolutionary changes without any direct reference to the people's vote Our commonest changes of constitution are made slowly, and by fair, full vote. This kind and mode of revolution kills all liberty and safety. To call it democratic, free, popular, or by any comforting title, is impossible By the by, it may not yet be too long after the time to correct a mihapprehension which I recollect your letter to me sliowed of wliat 1 said as to my letter to Governor Hicks being "private." I only meant, not thought of by me i^or print. I knew very well my letter could reach no such notoriety. But I never withheld the fact of my writing it. That fact, and my strong approval ■ of the Governor's " keepiug-quiet " policy, I stated wherever occasion or duty required. This 206 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. was at several times the case in conversation with persons of difi'erent views. I made no secret of the act; I felt that it was, in itself, my duty to the public good, and the avowal of it my duty to my own independence, and sometimes as a sufl'rage in behalf of the right, as I deemed it, i>efen(is Bishop The Bishop's course — or rather, as you rightly distinguish, W. R. W.'s open assurance to the Governor (who, as over him in the State, had a right to that support, if he so thought and asked it) — I wrote to him (the Bishop) to say, met my cordial support. I would not have censured any clergyman for withholding the public avowal of his personal judgment. He might on good grounds so decide. But my sympathy was, as I think my own decision would have been in like circum- stances, with W. R. W. -4s a man only, not as Bishop, he spoke out. We clerg^'men ought to, and do, abstain from mere party politics. These are not party politics ; this is revolu- tion. We are citizens, heads of families — a married clergy are not like a body of foreign, celibate priests, with no real stake in the land — we have oaths on us to the State, too. And when the flood of what we may deem revolution is threatening us, our homes and our consciences, the scope of our action changes entirely. It is still to be peaceful, patient, prudent ; but it must be open and firm. The clergy are men of intelligence in such matters. I know many who, like myself, have long and thoroughly read up on constitutional law and general history. Our country, and our homes, and the Church of Christ, demand a prudent and loving, but Irank and avowed, action. All over the land bishops and clergy have spoken out in their pulpits, and pastorals, too ; and with approval in their own sections sometimes, and sometimes not. I really believe AV. R. W. did a manly thing, and that we all will yet come to think so. But here I am running on, when I said I must not say much. I came very near writing you seriously about the proposed sovereign action of the late Conference in Baltimore, and begging you to dissent. Judge Chambers's development (though tardy) made my homily needless. I will only add now that I can claim to possess prudence 1861.] APRIL \Uh, 1861. 207 and frankness. I have, you see, successfully combined both, so far, in carrying the College safely through the four months past. My co-workers come in for full share of these two virtues. All is peace here, as well as candor. I hold that independence and kindness are the most natural friends in the world. I don't like your present 2)olitics; but I love and revere your decision and your keeping your heart above all the earnest struggles of trying times. But I must not try even your patience by writing any more Ever your sincere and loving friend, J. B. Kebfoot. Matters in Maryland soon became threatening. On Apru mn, isei, the memorable 19th of April, a regiment of Massa- '" chusetts infantry, on their way to Washington (under President Lincoln's first call for 75,000 men), were attacked in the streets of Baltimore by the angered and excited populace. The brave Mayor of Baltimore, George William Brown, Esq. (who was afterwards confined, without charges or trial, for thirteen months in Fort Warren, along with other Maryland citizens), sternly true to his duty, gave his protection to the soldiers who had been summoned by the President to the capital of the country. At the risk of his life, he marched, as Mayor of the City, at the head of the regiment, through the surging, maddened crowd.' ' This act deserves further men- i from passing through her bor- tion, not only for its braver}', but | ders V " This was the feeling that also to give a better idea of the prompted the wild outbreak of intense excitement that prevailed April 19th, which so endangered in Maryland in those days just , the lives of the unsuspecting after the surrender of Fort Sum- soldiers, who, acting under or- ter. "Ought not Maryland to ders, were attempting to march try to prevent the troops which through the streets to the Wash- the President had summoned to | ington Railroad Station. The be used against her sister States, | Mayor's sympathies (like those 208 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. During these few days Southern feeling seemed to spread like fire in Baltimore. The Union sen- timent, which had certainly existed and been out- spoken till then, seemed all at once to disappear or become silent, and very many thought that Mary- land would follow Virginia in a few days or weeks, and join the Southern Confederacy. Under these unparalleled and exciting circumstances, Bishop Whittingham, on the 23d of April, issued a circu- lar, marked ^^ private and confidential ^^^ to every clergyman in his diocese, which was strangely mis- understood by some to mean that the Bishop had himself changed his political views and sympathies.' of the vast majority of his fellow- citizens) were not with those soldiers, yet he rislied his life in marching at the head of the column to give the Massachusetts regiment the protection which he felt it was their right to claim, and his duty, as Mayor of Balti- more, to afford. What Baltiraoreans thought, and still think, of the conduct of their Mayor on this critical occa- sion, cannot be belter told than in the words of Col. Charles Mar- shall, formerly of the staff of Gen. Lee, and now an emment lawyer of Baltimore. Addressing a great audience in October, 1885, he thus echoed the universal senti- ment of his fellow-citizens: " You can recall the 19th of April, when a man of peace, who hated violence and bloodshed, fearlessly marched through Pratt street, and led the way for the troops to reach our capital. [Applause.] The passions of war have departed fn^m my heart. [Applause.] I can applaud acts of heroism, whether done by a man who wore the blue or by one who wore the gray. [Tre- mendous cheering.] I have seen charges on battlelields, swords clashing against swords, but in my humble judgment, the sight of Geo. Wm. Brown leading the Massachusetts regiment through the streets was the most gallant thing I ever saw. [Applause.] His sympathy was not witli them, but his duty overcame personal feelings." ' See Dr. Brand's Life of Bhhop Wlntthqjham, Vol. II, p. 17, where the circular is given, with an in- teresting account of the discus- • sion it caused. See especially Bishop W.'s letter in explanation to the Rev. Dr. C. S. tleury, ibid., p. ao. 1861.] THE PRAYER FOR THE PRESIDENT. 209 This harmless and judicious circular stated that it was the intention of the Bishop, in case the Legislature at its approaching convention should decide on the secession of the State, to authorize the omission from the Daily Service of the words " President of the United States." The circular concluded with these words : " Let our prayers, therefore, go up before God in such form that all can join in them with a pure conscience and single heart." The Bishop's meaning at the time was plainly, that the prayers offered by the clergyman, as representative of the congregation, should be expressed in such terms that both Union men and Secessionists could use them with equally good conscience. How much trouble and bitter feeling might have been spared if this admirable thought had been remembered and acted upon on all occasions of issuing prayers and thanks- givings in the divided Diocese of Maryland during the whole course of the unhappy conflict ! The occasion to which the Bishop referred, as is well known, never occurred, but the circular, both then and afterwards, caused much needless and unin- telligent criticism. The following letter of Dr. Ker- foot begins by referring to this matter : The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. College of St. James, April 27th, 1861. My Dear Bishop, — Your circular caiue two days since. I was just about writing to you to suggest the very action you have talien and the very wording of the change of petition which you prescribe, and, with so wise and Christian a pru- dence, explain and justify. We all sympathize with you, and shall stand by you in these sad and changeful times. The 210 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. Church must sufler. Men's opinions and passions will demand more or less than sane consciences have given or can give. We can only strive by God's grace to do our duties in meek- ness and wisdom c'fifT^ 0/' the j^\i gogg ojj perfectly well among us. Six [boys] have left us from jjarents' panic. Temper and order here are the same. It has taken, however, anxious solicitude to keep this so. No doubt our little community could blaze, if a spark fell and God did not help us to see it and quench it. Our young folk behave beautifully. Most of them are now Secessionists. They know that we are Union men. Yet obedience and harmony, and in most of the classes marked industry, prevail. Every Northern boy testifies to his comfortableness here. To God be the praise for His grace in this to them and to us. Whatever be just ahead of us, the College is surely not perish- ing from within itself. Parents' letters, too, express the warmest confidence. We must all push on. The Church is our home, be her sojourn where it may. No one's trials or disappointments can exceed, or even equal, yours noiv. We will, to tlie best of our ability, keep up our part of the work here. Still, wisdom and duty demand that we foresee its probable perils. Local churches may languish or die and yet revive. Home demand and supply will control and efl'ect that. But our College is in great peril. Border war, apparently inevitable now, must shut it up — and then how long ? When peace comes, ivJiere will Maryland belong? If to the North, will youths come to us thence? They will hardly come then from the South. If to the South, will the South trust us in the embittered feelings of recent war and distrust and antagonism? .... We cannot go on if war overruns this district, as it must if peace do not come soon All these anxieties may be dissipated by the actual result of things. But to count on this would not be wise. We are preparing to meet any emergency by calmly pondering our duty under the probable contin- gencies of the times just ahead. Every man here is bent on discovering and doing his duty. We all seek grace to think and do what is right. .... 1861.] FIRST ARRIVAL OF SOLDIERS. 211 The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to a Maryland Clergyman, a Graduate of St. Jameses. June 13, 1861. .... Our work goes on well every way. More than 80 '^'o^njeu him to ° J •' stand (rt/ nig boys are here. Some 23 have gone of late, most of them Bishop. from war alarms. We believe St. James's will live on in, through and after war anxieties. May God so grant ! And may He prosper the right, and give us all grace to have charity to believe in good men's honesty while we dissent from their views ! These are times that stir to their depths all souls that are worth liaving. But it is a poor Christianity that cannot find charity for other folks as good as and better than ourselves. To practise all this tasks my principle — for I am not one of the unmovable sort. I doubt not you have thought out all this, and I am sure you will try to practise it. Especially, I am sure, you have stood b}' our noble Bishop (whether you would agree with him, I know not) in his, as usual, honest, unselfish course. It has grieved me to know that a heart as loving as his has had to sutler the alienation of friends whose afiection a few short months ago promised to stand any test. My entii-e concurrence in his views of civil afl'airs (as far as I know them) has made, perhaps, my cordial support of him an easy dut}' to me. I have felt sure, and am sure, that yoit, would be among those who would love and help such a Bishop, though his honest, open course lay, in such secular matters, where you could not co-work. My own I'esolve is to tr}', by God's help, to be myself independent, frank and peaceable, and to keep on loving my friends who try to be so, too — though I dissent widely, perhaps, from their views about the revolution, and our interests and duty in regard to it as Marylanders In June, 1861, United States soldiers appeared ior First amvai of , „ . 1 /-I T 1 . sc^diers at the the nrst time on the College grounds, causing much college. anxiety. It was the first encampment of Union troops in a Southern State, and many of the students were ardent Secessionists. 212 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. From Dr. KerfooVs Diary. Saturday, June 15th. — Momentous day. About 5.30 p. m., United States troops appeared on the Boonsboro' road, and entered the large field just south of the college ; 4000 men, Pennsylvania regiments, Gen. Williams, encamped there. Offered the officers all courtesies, and the men, as many as we could, some refreshment. Fearful concern for our boys. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. June 19th, 1861. My Dear Bishop, — I hope that no rumors about us have made you anxious. Here, from Saturday 5 p. m. to Sunday 7 or 8 p. m., we were very anxious, and with cause. But all has gone off and gone by, safe and well ; to God, most merciful and watchful over us, be many thanks. On Saturday, 5 p. m., some tutors came hastily to my study: "The troops are coming — entering the next field." I had been most kindly assured, some days before, by Adjt.- Gen Porter ' (our Mrs. Porter's son), that they would encamp ' The well-known Maj.-Gen. ■ cated and established. With his Fitz-John Porter. His mother characteristic devotion to his was at that time matron and friends, Dr. Kerfoot lost no favor- lady-head of the College. She able opportunity of pressing his was a lovely and accomplished \ view of the injustice done Gen. woman, with the dignified and j Porter, when he met, as he often charming manners of the ladies did, influential public men. He of the old school, and the rector's | urged the reparation which family and all the inmates of the has now been partially accom- institution were deeply attached : plished, but which will never be to her. Her grandson, Lucian completed until the Government Porter Waddell, nephew of Gen. of the United States magnani- Porter, was an instructor in the i mously atones for a great wrong College. Dr. Kerfoot, it may be \ unintentionally done, by repay- mentloned, was ever a warm j ing her brave and ill-used soldier friend of the General, whom he ] the large sum of which he has knew intimatelj', and, without j been so long deprived, and which wavering or misgivings, was a j is unquestionably due to him and firm believer in his loyalty and | his family, fidelity, now so thoroughly vindi- ' 1861.] FIRST ARRIVAL OF SOLDIERS. 213 none near us. This brigade, nearly 4000 Pennsylvanians, mistook tlaeir appointed field and entered the one next us on the south. I was over in the field at once, met the head of the column, inquired for the General, &c., and introduced myself and some with me. He had been warned kindly in our behalf by Major Porter (Adjt.-Gen, to Gen. Patterson), and he and his stafl' were at once on most friendly terms with us. I told him my and our loyalty, adding that "however, we were clergymen, with special responsibilities over a most peculiar charge, and we had decided to meet courteously military from Xorth and South, give the officers ever}- courtesy as gentlemen, and their command every facility." Gen. Williams responded very pleasantly. The brigade had marched twenty-two miles — the day ver}' hot. That evening the students mixed somewhat with them, and all went on cheerfully. All of the green behind the College thronged with them, or rather, the roughest of them, but all went well. The bath-house was open to the officers, and some of them and about 70 or 80 men got supper. Gen. W. went with me and marked out the line, across our spring, over the little bridge. Sunday morning, about 4 o'clock, the sounds of 50 io 10 Jmemii. An musket-shots from the pickets coming in were tokens of a ^"/"^ '^""' strange neighborhood. About 7 or 8 o'clock the men spread up all over us — none rude, but all "at home." We felt that this would work mischief. Many of the men were of rough make, and our boys (though warned) were, some of them, silly, and might talk " South," &c. A note from me to Gen. Williams, taken by a Lieutenant from Pittsburgh (one of Swope's flock, who took to us closely on discovering his own pastor's home and chapel), soon brought an officer and a strong guard, who, not without much decision, brought the stragglers back within the lines. The officers (all militia) were all of them prompt, courteous and faithful. They came to me for my wishes and fulfilled them, but I felt fearfully anxious. At the 9 o'clock chapel I spoke to the whole con- gregation, laid down strict rules of severance, &c Just afterwards I learned from some of our German servants 214 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. that some of the soldiers were inquiring, much and threaten- ingly, why there was not a United States flag up. I took the hint, and learning (on my asking another Lieutenant, son of Judge Conyngham, of Pennsylvania, who had come up to claim my remembrance as my pupil at College Point, 19 years ago) that there were rumors of Secession, and that, though the officers and most of the men would not ask it, many would be rough and dangerous on that score, I asked Mr. Dashiell (who was to stay out of the 11 o'clock chapel ''on guard") to get out our flag. Not finding this readily, he sent, with my concurrence, to the officers for one. The officer of the day. Col. Gray, and then Gen. Williams himself, each asked, "Do you wish it?" (If not, constraint should not be allowed, they meant and said.) Of course, we like and love the flag, audit went up, and with it the cheers of the 3000 and more began from the College and rolled back to the road, three-quarters of a mile oft". It is only since then we learned our peril. Two or three malicious men had gone among the soldiers and poisoned the minds of many hundreds against the College as " Secession." Some silly, vain boys had talked among them. There was .... a plan and pur- pose among not a few of the men to enforce the flag-raising, and serious harm v/ould have come among them and to us. One crazy boy (as I afterwards heard), spoke aloud, " Haul down that flag ! " The soldiers sprang forward, but were checked. This was their first camp in a Southern State, and they suspect everything. Some six officers came to the chapel. In the midst of the service they were called out — "marching orders " had come. At the headquarters in Hagerstown, the word came to Major Porter that the brigade was close to us. Unasked by us, instant order was sent to remove, and ere the day closed the last guard was gone. Not one act of theft, or violence, or insult, had occurred. Rude men, as many were — miners, furnace-men, «&c. — and provoked by the falsehoods of neighbors, and the silly words of some boys, the day knew no harm It would be gross injustice to withhold from the brigade the due credit of a degree of order, and courtesy, 1861.] FIRST ARRIVAL OF SOLDIERS. 215 and honesty, wonderful among such a host of volunteers for three months' work All over our countr}' I hear this of them : no one is harmed. But they must see the flag ; and so they ought. I had given young tongues, and even little Secession flags (in private — i. e., in desks and rooms), pretty free scope. Two weeks ago I re- quired all the flags to disappear, as dangerous when the United States forces should come. This week I have put restraint on " tongues," so that ill temper may not overthrow the little discretion that can survive I think the College has met this emergency, too. by God's help. But there never was demand before for so much and so determined exercise of authority. None resisted, but there were dark looks, and silly pates that must be made safe. The hottest talkers for months had been young Marylanders, all sons of Union men ! Each of these I saw privately and gave them the option of abstinence from debates that excite, or a return at once to their fathers. With jealous soldiers all around, the time has gone by for tampering with topics and emblems that must provoke peril. I believe that the general feeling among our students — and the real Southerners are the foremost in this good sense — is that which common sense and conscience dictate. There is no insubordination and there has not been any ; there might have been the fearful consequences of it without much warning. "Whether .... and how far this necessary course may provoke some who long for another flag, is one of those questions that the equally imminent duty and peril of the day have put out of our concerns. We have (rightly, I believe) avoided checking too much young folks' progress ; but there could be no doubt now as to what our course must be. Thinking and quiet talking may and must be allowed ; but bitter words and denunciations of flags are perilous now to our wives and little ones, as well as to our pupils. The College seems as cheerful and orderly as ever I fear my prolix pen has wearied you. But this long story may serve to allay your anxieties for us, and give you some idea 216 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. of our days now. We think we shall run through the year safely Bishop Bowman, in a recent letter to Mr. Passmore, speaks most warmly of your course about these times, etc., in Mary- land We have just 81 boys here now I am, my dear Bishop, your loving son in the Church, J. B. Kerfoot. Bishop Whittingham's reply, dated June 26th, is largely taken up with matters of College business. At the close of his letter he says : I was spared the great uneasiness the knowledge of your "military occupation" — without knowing also that it had passed safely oft' — would have given me. Your graphic story interested us (H. and me) none the less. God be thanked that the College has thus far so nobly passed through its third great trial!^ Oh ! may it be the earnest of final blessings of good success ! Your loving, W. R. Whittinqham. The 20th session. The College of St. James reopened in October, 1861 (its 20th session), under sadly changed circum- stances, with sixteen students. It was disheartening, indeed, to see the vacant seats in the chapel, and the all but empty class-rooms. The number gradually in- creased, but never afterwards quite reached fifty. From among many interesting letters of this time, this chapter may conclude with the following, which seem specially worthy of insertion in this biography: 1 The other two trials to which ] hastily to disband, and the burn- the Bishop alludes were the sick- ness In 1856, when four students died and the College was obliged ing of Kemp Hall in January, 1857. To pestilence and Hre, the sword of civU war was now added. 1861.] BISHOP BOWMAN. 217 The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. .... I enclose you some slips from Philadelphia and Lan- Funtraiof caster papers that will tell you all about Bishop Bowman's ^^any ^^"' decease. How ripe for his change ! and how easj' and blessed that change ! Passmore, Coit and I went on to Lancaster. I met there the very friends I had met at his consecration, not three years since.' 2^o words can tell the deep and real love that spoke out from every face of the throngs in and about that parsonage, church and graveyard that afternoon. I never looked on any face of the dead at once so noble, strong, peaceful and sweet The Bishop of Maryland to the Rev. Dr. Kerfoot. Baltimore, Sept. 13, 1861. My Dear Kerfoot., — On every occasion when I have really Thanks Kerfoot needed the strength which after the grace from above is best^^p^jt^^/*^"* ""'' aflbrded by the honest, hearty approval of a friend whom one entirely trusts and loves, I have had it promptly and most lovingly given from your true heart and hand. I feel now almost as if I must regard you as filling the niche in my heart vacated a year ago, when he whom a third of a century of unbroken love had taught me to know and lean upon, as my best friend, was taken from me. [His brother-in-law, Mr. Joel W. Condit.] 1 [From Dr. Kerfoot's diarj': "Tuesday, August 6, 1861. Left home with the Rev. J. H. Coit for Lancaster, to attend dear Bishop Bowman's funeral. At St. James's Church — my own first church- home — met Drs. Muhlenberg, Wilmer, Ducachet, and Passmore and Mr. Keith — the same I met August 28, 1858, in Philadelphia, at Bishop Bowman's consecra- tion ; Bishops Lee and Oden- heimer, Urs. AL, W., D.; Van Deusen, the rector Mr. Mombert and myself, in the chancel sharing the services. I read the resolu- tions adopted by the clergy at 3 p. m. I looked at the peaceful corpse of one of my earliest, best friends. He was taken away in one moment from his well-done work to his rest and reward. In the evening with Dr. Muhlen- berg." 218 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VIII. I expected trials when the occasion came which compelled me to take the ground of my late Pastoral/ and have not been disappointed, although I fear I have as yet had only the mere antepast. But even here and now, such letters as yours are an ample compensation for all of an opposite char- acter. Some of my brethren in oflSce, too (Bishops Upfold, Williams and Burgess), have been good enough to write to me very kindly. A few such approvals outweigh any number of censures, of which I perfectly understand the springs and moving causes. Unhappily, almost every day is adding to the springs of bitterness in this faction-rent city and State. Five minutes ago I was told by a third person of a recent dialogue between poor Coxe and one of his parishioners : "Pray, sir, do you mean to have your church open on this Lincoln fast?'' "If you mean the day appointed for humili- ation and prayer recommended by the Bishop of the Diocese, I do." " Then, sir, I will never set foot in the church again." " I shall be sorry, sir, but you, not I, will have to answer for the sin." To-day, too, oil is poured upon the raging flames by the arrest, just announced, of our poor friends, Brown and Harri- son. I wish I did not think the measure just and wise. Alas ! alas ! when good men like those can be seduced into measures and plans which make their imprisonment a pre- caution needful for the public safety ! I have the great pleasure of sending you, with this, Abel's papers as a candidate. May God bless you with much com- fort in his course and its results! * [See TAfe of Bishop Whitting- Jiam, Vol. II, p. 25. The Pastoral was an urgent appeal to all citi- zens of Maryland to regard the position of the State as settled by the late elections. Accompany- ing it were prayers and services, drawn up by the Bishop, which he required all the clergy to use on September 26th, appointed by President Lincoln as a day of fasting and humiliation, for sup- plication for success to the Fed- eral armies. The difficulties of the question and the hard posi- tion in which clergymen who sympathized with the South were placed, are well explained by Dr. Brand, who also quotes part of this letter.] 1861.] DIOCESAN AFFAIRS. 219 I have not seen reason to change my views as to the prob- able course of events and its bearing on the condition of St. James's, amidst other institutions of the kind. On the contrarj', the progress of recuperation is more rapid than I hoped for. In no respect has it fallen short of my expecta- tion With heartiest love, yours ever, W. R. Whittingham. The Bishop oj" Maryland to the Rev. Dr. Kerfoot. Baltimore, Oct. 21, 18G1. Dear Kerfoot., .... I accepted most thankfully your wise moce^^ suggestion with reference to calling a special Convention, «#«"« and lost no time in writing to the members of the standing committee, asking their advice whether I should call a special Convention or not. M}' own mind was made up, and I knew privately and unofficially the opinion of a majority of the committee ; but I did not know their opinion as m}' " Council of Advice "; and the reasons you alleged satisfied me of the importance of being so shielded against misrepre- sentation, which I had reason to know would be made. Having taken this step, I wanted to be able to communicate its result when I should write to you, and hence my long delay of answer to a letter which stirred my feelings as few others from any quarter ever had done. I received to-day the formal answer of the fourth member of the standing committee, being a majority, all strongly and unhesitatingly advising against a special Convention Of course, then, a Convention for this year is out of the ques- tion. While I need not say that the assurance of such a disposi- tion of the matter relieves me mucii, other things are going badly. I much fear that Coxe will tire of his hard position, in which, thus far, he has been wonderfully able to sustain himself. Cummins, I hear this morning, is to go to Philadel- phia; Addison to Wheeling Thus man after man of the uninfected portion of the clergy is leaving the poor sail 220 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. VlII. Diocese. What is to become of it? Clirist Church, left by Addison, is but too hkely to be shut up and sold, if sale can be made. St. Peter's, strong under Cummins, is strong only in his popularity, an evaporative strength which aflbrds no security for the continuance of the congregation for a month after his departure. Mt. Calvary hangs by the eyelids ; all four mission churches are in no better condition. Certainly, the prospect of the future of the Church in Baltimore could hardly be worse. Unhappily, the marvellous delusion of the people here, making them credulous of the possibility of an occupation of Maryland by the rebels, continues, apparently, unabated. Nothing but great success, or a long series of successes, on the part of the Government, is likely to dispel it. Yet, while it continues, little if any improvement of the condition of things generally, and most especially of the Church, can be hoped for. Never before have I felt so powerless, aimless, hopeless, in my work as now. Thank God, it is most true, though Milton wrote it, They also serve who wait! I did not suspect you of the generous effort so nobly made in my behalf,' when I last wrote. Some of its expressions I had misinterpreted as implying a lay condition of the writer. When Coxe told me he thought it must be from your pen, I said he must be mistaken. There is none to whom I would rather be indebted for it than to you ; but when I spoke of your seeming to me my only resource for filling my lost brother Joel's place, it was on older, broader, deeper grounds ' [The allusion is to an abusive and ungenerous attack upon Bishop Whittingham in one of the Southern newspapers of Balti- more. A number of the clergy of their Bishop, expressing their un- feigned regret at the publication of the scandalous and unjust article. A few days after this a long, able and affectionate defence Southern sentiments chancing to ! of the Bishop, from the pen of meet in Baltimore a day or two after its appearance, they ad- dressed a sympathizing letter to Dr. Kerfoot, appeared anony- mously in the American news- paper.] 1861.] LETTER TO MR. CAMPBELL. 221 than any mere sense of single benefit, however great and tirael}-, could afford, that I ventured so to speak I hear of your affairs indirectly, favorably. Yet you are still environed b}' "war's alarms." God bless you all. Your loving W. R. Whittingham. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to James Mason Campbell, Esq., Balti- more.^ College of St. James, Sept. 30, 18G1. My Dear Mr. Campbell, — You very correctly understand ff'''iff(l.lf^"' and certify the past and future, unchangeable law and practice opinion at St. of one and all the College officers on political and civil ques- tions. These in no sense fall within the scope of our col- legiate dut}' or right. The lessous and influences on those topics always have been and shall be referred to parents. The citizen or subject of any State or king on earth (of the Sultan himself, who twice has had subjects here under our care) may come and go without any purposed or known in- fluence from us on his political views and conscience. In such matters the College neither imposes nor allows any in- structions or restraints save those of courtesy, charity and peace. We rule ourselves and our families (those of us who have families) according to our own convictions and discretion, as freely as any other citizens. There is and alwa3'S has been in these respects variety as well as freedom among us. So there is and has been among our pupils, also, former and present. This fact and the (I believe) uniform testimony of parents justify your assertion regarding us I am very respectful!}' and truly yours, J. B. Kerfoot. ' [A trustee of St. James's and son-in-law of Chief Justice Taney.] CHAPTER IX. second year of the war. battle of antietam. 1863. Aetat. 46. In the previous chapter an attempt has been made to carry the reader back to the exciting period that immediately preceded what has been called by a judi- cious and thoughtful historian "probably the grandest and saddest civil strife recorded in the annals of the nineteenth century.'" Nothing can well be more vivid than diaries jotted down at the time and letters hastily, but not thoughtlessly, written between corre- spondents who were anxiously and conscientiously considering the momentous problems that month by month, week by week, and soon day by day, presented themselves for decision. As we look back over the great contest, we are all able to take a calmer and more reasonable view of the men who were engaged in it and of the questions in dispute ; we can under- stand the doubts and perplexities which in those days harassed and agonized all except fanatics on either side, who were carried away by passion or seduced by lust of power or plunder. Ebbandfimoof The letters of Dr. Kerfoot give a fair specimen of voiua /««"'£/• ^j^g g]^^ j^jj^ £q^ qI" fgeiijjg among thoughtful men all . over the country. Many prominent Southern men, not only in Maryland and Virginia and Kentucky, but in the more distant States, earnestly, nay passion- ately, deprecated any severance of the Union ; they 1 History of the United States, by James Schouler, Vol. Ill, p. 147. 1862.] SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 223 denied its lawfulness, and foresaw the dread conse- quences that must ensue. In the very language of Daniel Webster, Southerners, no less than Northerners, derided " peaceable secession " as an " utter impossi- bility." ' But when State after State had seceded, and the " Peace Conference " and ^' Crittenden Com- promise " had failed, and when in April, 1861, war had actually begun, even " Union men " among the Southerners felt as Gen. Lee did — that they must go with their States and defend their homes and their firesides against the armies that were sent against them." ' The aft-quoted prophetic pas- sage •will bear quoting once more: "Secession! Peaceable secession! Sir, your eyes and mine are never destined to see that miracle. The dismember- ment of this vast country with- out convulsion ! The breaking up of the fountains of the great deep without ruffling the surface ! Who is so foolish (1 beg every- body's pardon) as to expect to see any such thing? .... Peaceable secession is an utter impossibility Peaceable secession ! Concurrent agree- ment of all the members of this great republic to separate! A voluntary separation, with alimony on one side and on the other! Why, what would be the result ? Where is the line to be drawn ? What States are to secede? What is to remain American ? What am I to be ? An American no longer ? Where is the flag of the republic to re- main? Where is the eagle still to tower? Or is he to cower and shrink, and fall to the ground ? Why, sir, our ancestors, our fathers and our grandfathers, those of them who are yet living among us, with prolonged lives, would rebuke and reproach x;s, and our children and our grand- children would cry out shame upon us, if we of this generation shoirld dishonor these ensigns of the power of theGoveinmentand the harmony of the Union which is every day felt among us with so much joy and gratitude. What is to become of the army ? What is to become of the navy ? What is to become of the public lands ? How is each of the thirty States to defend itself?" etc. — Webster's "Seventh of March Speech," in the U. S. Senate, 1850. 2 The following extract from an unpublished letter of Gen. Lee (dated Richmond, July 27th, 1861), to a relative in Maryland, 224 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. On the other hand, many Northern men were at first loud in their sympathy with the South. They denounced interference with her peculiar institutions and insisted upon sufficient guaranties being given by the party about, for the first time, to assume the reins of government at Washington. Above all, they depre- cated war. President Buchanan's last message (De- cember, 1860), denying any authority for making war wiU show better than anything else how conscientious men like him felt and reasoned when the war had begun, and their States had taken their side — though they would have done anything in their power, and made many sacrifices, to avert the strife and preserve the Union as it was: "For the alfection and confidence you ex- press towards myself .... I am extremely grateful, and shall not believe that you will credit the reports j'ou state are circulated to my prejudice — [viz. : that he was at that time without real sympathy with the South, that the Confederate authorities were afraid to trust him, &c.]. I have seen only those you sent me. They are pure fiction, without the slightest foundation in any particular. There has been no misundei'standing, no overslaugh- ing, but the utmost harmony and concurrence in every respect. I have had no regrets, so far as I am concerned, for the past, and have no apprehensions for the future. 1 do not pretend to see the result of this conflict into which we have been forced, but leave its direction to a merciful God, who, I know, will not afflict us unnec- essarily. As far as my voice and counsel go, it will be continued on our side as long as there is one horse that can carry his rider, and one arm to wield a sword. 1 prefer annihilationto submission. They may destroy, but I trust will never conquer, us. I bear no malice, have no animosities to indulge, no selfish pui-pose to gratify. My only object is to re- pel the invaders of our peace and the spoilers of our homes. I hope in time they will see the in- justice of their course, and return to their better nature. Since my arrival here, I have been laboring arduously to organize our armies, fortify the entrances to our rivers, and prepare for the struggle I knew was approaching. The battle of the 21st [Bull Run] is some evidence of our strength. I should have preferred to have been there than here — not that I could have done as well as was done, but I could have struck for my home and country. The President desired me here, and I am happy in believing that all was done that could have been done." .... 1862.] SECOND TEAR OF THE WAR. 225 upon a State (while he equally denied the lawfulness of secession), well expressed a feeling widely prevalent in the North. When events marched on, and President Lincoln in April, 1861, called for 75,000 three-months men " to defend the Capital," these Northern men, too, found their place, and it was naturally on the Union side. Questions that had seemed hard to decide some months before, seemed to be settled by the course of affairs. For one reason or another, according to the bent of their minds and the influences that sur- rounded them, they became eager for the success of the United States armies, and finally came to rejoice (as many Southerners have since done) in the abolition of slavery, an institution which, up to that time, con- servative Northern men of all parties had acquiesced in as an evil indeed, but one to be borne with, under the Constitution of the United States, in the spirit of Washington, Madison, Hamilton, and the fathers who had drawn up that grand and wonderful document.* All this has been in some measure set forth in the very letters of Dr. Kerfoot, written under varying moods and strong feelings of the moment. These letters show how independent and manly was his course ; how true and just he was in his dealings ' Few will dispute the judg- ment that Mr. Gladstone has pronounced: "As the British Constitution is the most subtle organism -which has proceeded from the womb and the long gesta- tion of progressive history, so the American Constitution is, so far as 1 can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man. It has had a century of trial, under the pressure of exi- gencies caused by an expansion unexampled in point of rapid- ity and range ; and its exemption from formal change, though not entire, has certainly proved the sagacity of the constructors, and the stubborn strength of the fab- ric." — Kin Beyond Sea. Gleanings of Past Tears, Vol. I, p. 212. 226 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. with all ; how firm was his final decision, and how keenly he felt the separation from old friends and the breaking up of the work of his life, which he so ardently loved. This chapter will, therefore, consist chiefly of further extracts from his diaries and letters during this sad and painful period. In this way his views and thoughts will be given in his own language, and interesting traits of character will be incidentally portrayed. Moreover, some striking incidents of the war and the upturning of domestic life and business will be described as he noted them at the very time and on the very spot where these memorable scenes occurred. Wednesday, January 1st, 8 minutes past 12 midnight. — I have just come from our usual midnight service in the chapel. A very full congregation for our present number. May God bless all the dear ones there and elsewhere ! ' . . . The scholastic year went on quietly enough, though, of course, with greatly diminished numbers, and 1 [There are very few entries for maining son, Mr. Abel A. Kerfoot, the first part of the jear 1863. It was at this time a master in St. was a year of sorrow. On the Paul's School, Concord, N. H. 18th of February Dr. Kerfoot was Dr. Kerfoot left his family in called on — for the fourth time — New York and returned to St. to suffer a very severe domestic James's on the 4th of April, afHiction. His youngest child, a having first published in the most engaging little girl of two Church Journal (edited by the years, Helena Kip, was taken away rather unexpectedly by croup. Early in March the family were summoned to New York to Rev. J. H. Hopkins) a long and able letter on the financial affairs of the General Theological Semi- nary. During the autumn his the dying bed of Mrs. Kerfoot's brother-in-law. Dr. C. Van Alen father, Mr. Abel T. Anderson, Anderson, died of consumption, whose death occurred on March making this a year of peculiarly the 23d. Dr. Kerfoot's only re- sad bereavement.] 1862.] SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR. 227 equally diminished income. On a certain Sunday in April, Bishop Whittingham, in accordance with one of £f,„.7^''"-"^a/' President Lincoln's proclamations, issued a form oiprayers. prayer and thanksgiving for one of the Federal fac- tories, which, as Bishop, he required all clergymen to use in the public services of the day. There was great excitement all over the Diocese, and the Bishop's direc- tion, as well as the canon under which he acted, was generally disobeyed. While Dr. Kerfoot was himself reading these prayers, some 18 or 20 students — among the most orderly and respectable in the College — rose and left the chapel in a body. This unprecedented occurrence the Rector met with con- summate tact and without the slightest loss of authority or personal dignity. He saw exactly what it meant, and that it really involved no insubordina- tion to the College, nor any disrespect to himself. All this he stated in a manly speech at dinner, a few minutes after chapel. Tlius an event which might easily have at once broken what was left of the College to atoms, blew over and was soon forgotten. The "seceding" students, touched by the Rector's speech at dinner, voluntarily addressed him a manly, admirable and respectful letter, explaining their con- duct and disclaiming any disrespect to him or the College authorities. This document, which does great credit to the head and heart of its writers, was found among Dr. Kerfoot's papers, but it is not necessary to reproduce it, or the Rector's affectionate reply. Dr. Kerfoot shortly after this wrote a strong letter to Bishop Whittingham ; he urged that on future occa- sions all possible discretion should be expressly allowed ; that clergy should never again be required to intro- 228 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. The last public commencement. duce into the regular Sunday services, prayers which sometimes they and their congregations could not (or at any rate would not) use ; and he pointed out that any attempt which his clergy might make to comply with his episcopal directions would only increase the sad troubles already so rife in his distracted Diocese.' On July 9th the commencement took place quietly, almost privately. There were three graduates, Messrs. Arthur George Brown and Robert John Coster, of Baltimore, and Mr. Levi Coit, of Plattsburg, N. Y. A small company assembled in Clagett Hall, instead of the usual gay gathering on the College green, and the Rector delivered an address, which was afterwards published. It is worth while to recall a few of its sad • On a subsequent occasion, when "President" Davis ap- pointed a fast-day for the South- ern Confederacy, it was exten- sively observed by his devoted adherents m Maryland, and the tables were turned. The South- ern students joyfully abandoned their games on the playground and thronged into the College chapel to the voluntanj midday service. When the Rector entered the chancel, he was surprised to see, instead of the usual ten or twelve, that the chapel was al- most filled, and among them he noticed, with suppressed amuse- ment, not a few who had never before darkened the chapel door, except upon compulsion. When dinner-time came, the fast was strictly, even ostentatiously, ob- served. Knives and forks were silent; roast beef and apple-pie for once seemed to have lost their charms, and while the "Union" boys made the heartiest meal of the session, the Southerners at- tempted, with more or less suc- cess, the feat which Shakespeare has pronounced impossible — viz.: to . . cloy the hungry edge of appetite By bare imagination of a feast I Dr. Kerfoot gives a humorous account of this in a letter to Bishop Whittingham. The mid- day service happened to be the Lita7uj, and the Rector says he hoped his young friends entered fully into the petition (which he probably took care to emphasize a little), "From all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion, good Lord deliver us !" 1862.] LAST PUBLIC COMMENCEMENT. 229 sentences, for this was really the last regular public commencement : Twenty years ago ! — and our chapel, then about half its present length, witnessed oui* opening service. Many, very many, of the neighbors and frieuds that then met there with us, have passed away. There may be here — I think there are here to-day — some who were there with our Bishop and myself on Monday, October 3d, 1842. The Bishop and I remember the day well— its bright hopes and its grave anxieties. Both hopes and anxieties have met their entire fulfillment. Our work has been greatly blessed— up to most of our hopes — beyond them in some respects. Anxieties enough have come, and have passed. We have surmounted difficulties the full foresight of which, then, might have dis- mayed us. We have had helps, encouragements and successes, the assurance of which, then, would have been very pleasant. Rarely, if ever, has a college worked its way into life, and through twenty years of vigorous action, at so little cost to the beneficence that ought to place such institutions, and usually does place them, on some pecuniary basis more per- manent than their own good fortune, or their confessed merits, from year to year. And two years ago, before our civil troubles begau, or were seriously apprehended, St. James's had as fair and ample a prospect of permanent and dignified success as any young college might desire. But for these civil com- motions, I am very confident that our noble new edifice that was to be, and is to he, would have been completed and fully paid for. This would have been to us a very bright commencement day, and 3'et, too, an honestly sad one, in view of our removal then from the pleasant neighborhood and friends so long familiar to us here. We would now be passing to the proposed scene and home of enlarged, enduring college life and work. I doubt not, too, that by this time the endowment fund then proposed would have been well advanced, and not far short of its completion. And more than one hundred students would have been now ready and 230 LIFE OF BIS30P KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. sure for our twenty-first year. That was the attainment and the prospect God had then given" us as a College. He had not suflered our work here to fail or die out. But He has laid upon us here our due and necessary share in the check and change His chastisement brings on all about us now. "We must wait, as enterprises more urgent, more sacredly neces- sary than colleges, must now wait. "We will work on wldle we wait His holy will. Just now we believe His will for us is thus to work on. Kever more than now did the community need collegiate homes, as free as the prevailing turmoil will permit from the excitements of the hour. Those excitements will destroy, needlessly destroy, many a youth. They will be a snare and luxury to too many young men who dislike hard, sober work. We see this here— how the least real, enduring and energetic take most eagerly to the pleasant stimulus of an excitement that seems to them to be a plausible excuse from honest industry in daily tasks. "Whatever be the rightful demands of the hour on young men, there ought to be enough of those worth the keeping for better times, going on with their education /or those better times. It will not do for the people to find themselves a little while hence without some fair supply of cultivated men. The fierce tasks of the day will, it is true, train many men into high degrees of excel- lence and efficieuc}' for the requirements of our future. The products of the Christian College must, however, be needed not less, but far more, than ever, when our society returns to its happier course of peace and progress. It is our hope and resolve to keep our College alive, and busy in so much of this work as God may now send it ; and ready for full work when He shall restore to us the usual scope and demand for it. To-day we choose not to measure our College by the mere present. We think of the seven hundred and twelve pupils who, through twenty years, have been under our tuition. And we remember, too, how often the hours and the youths that seemed to promise no fruit in requital for our efibrts, have turned out before our own eyes the most fruitful hours and hearts in our record. So do we care the less to-day that the times have left us but three 1862.] LAST PUBLIC COMMENCEMENT. 231 graduates, wheu we know that these make up the fair, satisfy- ing sum of ninety-one gradua'tes at fifteen commencements. We expect to send out many more good men such as we now know among the hundreds who have been here. But, even if this were not our hope now, none of us would deem the past a vain expenditure of time and work for any of us. It is not in pride or boast that we thus speak : it is in grati- tude to God ; it is to justify Him from our own experience of His mercies here ; it is to encourage and reassure our own hearts and the hearts of all who care for us and our work. How the College and its government will bear itself amid the strifes of the times, the declarations made here a year ago, and the independent, prudent, impartial accomplishment since, suflSciently show — that here, in harmony, on an equality, and amid some fair measure of efficient working, young men may yet meet and live together, to learn how personal aflections and courtesy ought to and may smooth down the ill-tempers and distrusts that ought never to have ariseri. Is not this, the one last collegiate home of such peace in this latitude, worth the eflbrt to perpetuate it? Is it not worth the mutual forbearance and self-denial required of you, mj' young friends ? May it not be your best discipline for such tasks of peace and harmony in State and Church as your God may have in early store for some of you ? We think of all this, and so we work on yet, and until God bids us stop. We hear no such bidding yet. And should that word come to us, none the less has the work thus far done been worth the while. It will stand. It will repeat itself through other agencies in better times. Other Christian Colleges, preceptors and pupils will grow out of this work here. The foundations are laid deep and sure. The walls have risen up high enough to develop the work and tell of its full outline and sober dignity. Future years and other men must and shall take up the task and complete it. So I thought and felt as I stood, a few weeks ago, and gazed on the well-developed and noble promise of our new College building. There was hope, and there was 232 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. rates crosn the Potninuc firm assurance, in the sight of that strong beginning of a massive home for St. James's. Sadness nearly vanished then in liope. The voice which past and future joined in uttering to me that day was, that work has not been so far done in vain. There is the sure outhne, the grand promise. The foundation is deep and strong, the plan distinct. The promise — none may doubt it. That work must and shall be finished. God may yet give us the task and privilege. He will give both to some agents else, if not to us. If not we nor our times, the men that come after us shall see what was well begun, and their consciences and their hearts will compel them to complete it. Jatls^amftte During the vacation the Rector and his family remained at the College. Early in September he went to New York on business, but hurried back to his home on hearing that the Confederates had crossed the Potomac. The diary continues: September 6. — Heard sure news of Confederates having been all day crossing at Point of Rocks, 28 miles southeast of us. Sad day and deep dishonor for our Government and woe to poor Maryland !' Wednesday, Sept. 10. — Sure word came at 11 o'clock a. m. that the Confederate forces of General Stonewall Jackson were advancing from Frederick, and were near Boonsboro. Thursday, Sept. 11. — Early to-day General Jackson's corps were seen passing the Boonsboro and Williamsport road, in full sight of the College, and are still passing at 2 p. m. All in excellent order and quiet. Colonel E. G. Haywood (A. B. of 1851), of North Carolina, John B. Lee (Sophomore of 18G1), of South Carolina, and a number of other old stu- > [On September 8th, Dr.Kerfoot sent bis son and eldest daughter to New York with the family silver and other valuables. They left Hagerstown on the last train that went out from that town for many days.] 1 M'^ j:,< 09- r^ %' 1862.] BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN. 233 dents, came over to see me. (Duncan C. Haywood, A. B. 1858, fell before Richmond.) Day full of excitement, but all were courteous and orderly. ( Vide Psalter and 1st Lesson for this day. — Jerem. xviii. 9, 10.) Friday, Sept. 12. — Late in the day rumors of preparations for a fight near Boonsboro. Saturday, Sept. 13.— Cannonading early in the direction of Harper's Ferry. At 10 to 10 J heavier and nearer. Cannon- ading very loud about 12. (See 1st verse of Psalter for day.) When in chapel, musketry heard. Thirteenth Sunday after Trinit}*, September 14. — Read full services in chapel at 10| a. m. and 6 p. m. Cannonading, at first distant, then nearer, from 8 or 9 a. m. till 2 p. m. Heard that the United States forces had driven Confederates out of Frederick yesterday and this side of Middletown. This firing was on and east of the top of South Mountain. After 2 or 3 p. m. ceased, and then began again and was heavy and frequent (every 10 seconds) towards Harper's Ferry 5 to 6 p. m. Reports, middle of the da}', " Harper's Ferry taken "; evening, ''Harper's Ferry surrounded," and rumor, "Cincin- nati taken and burned to the ground." Strange, excited Sun- day. Sabbath ! But all safe here, so far, and signs come now that this county and neighborhood are not to be now the seat of war and battles. This morning we fully expected this, and it may come yet. Read TertuUian and Greek Tes- tament. * 9-10 p. m. — Just learned, from messengers from GenoxvLl Battle of Smcth Lee's headquarters, that in the battle the Confederates hold ^^«'«*"- their place on the top and east side of South Mountain, but have had heavy losses of men. Hence, United States Army must have done well. Fearful battle expected to-morrow. Deus misereatur ! Monday, Sept. 15. — Momentous day ! Confederate artil- lery in large force forming across the Boonsboro road, one- half mile southeast of us, at 6J a. m. Prospect of battle. Filled trunks and put them in the cellar ; prepared to move family. Soon found this was retreat of Confederates. Re- 234 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. treating all day till 3 p. ra. About 2600 or 2800 passed through our grounds.' United States forces pursued Confederates up South Moun- tain and westward from the mountain, into, through, and this side of Boonsboro. Tlie rout of this section of the Confed- erate army was complete, stragglers passing till dark. Heavy cannonading, from 12 till dark, between General Lee's, at Keedysville, and our troops north of them, under Burnside, and, we think, McClellan. Issue not known, but confidence strong. So far, blessed, merciful deliverance ! Dr. Falk and T go (D. Y.) to-morrow to battlefield to help the wounded. Wife and Miss E. (the College housekeeper) preparing bandages to-night. God help the wounded ! Tuesday, Sept. 16. — Sounds of battle ; not such as to pre- vent Dr. Falk and me going at nine o'clock to Boonsboro. Took biscuits, spirits, bandages, tobacco. Met Rev. Mr. Edwards''; he went with us with nice stores ; heard fair word of McClellan's army on the way. Heard fighting going on. We went toward Keedysville till one and a quarter miles from Confederate pickets, then turned back and went to Boons- boro ; found there four hospitals, needing everything ; full of Confederate wounded. Gave our supplies and arranged a committee of supplies of both political parties. Then we went up South Mountain to battlefield of Sunday. Horrors upon horrors ! The Confederate dead yet lying unburied. We saw a hundred or more, and many more through the mountain. A cabin on the top crowded with fearfully wounded men, and outside, around, forty more, and the dead in scores all around it. My most fearful ideas of battlefields more than fulfilled. The daring assault by which our men stormed and took the mountain heights was wonderful. We discovered among the Confederate dead the body of Colonel J. B. Strange, of Virginia. His good clothes and the traces 1 [Mrs. K. and others stood on j the worn-out, starving, wounded the porch all day snpplj'ing iced ' men.] water, bandages, and all the food i in the house, to the last scrap, to I = [The rector at Hagerstowu.] 1863.] BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. 235 of insignia (torn oil") and initials on his stockings we noticed ; and we directed a Confederate chaplain, who was looking for his remains, where to find him. Not home till 8 p. m. Wednesday, Sept. 17. — Awakened early, 5 to 6, by fearful AntMamju-e 7thll€S off' cannonading from battlefield (as yesterday, but worse). We watched it anxiously from top of the College. At one time musketry, fearful and prolonged for an hour. Artillery more than a hundred peals a minute. Both armies seemed to hold ground. The noise lessened near noon. Fearful, anxious morning ! At 2 p. m. Dr. Falk and I took bread and biscuits and bandages and drove to the hospitals three miles this side of Sharpsburg (just in the rear of the battle- line). Our biscuits, etc., most grateful to the wounded men. We needed much more. The battle-lines were in sight. We went up nearer ; three-fourths of a mile short of our batteries ; all the first lines in full view. Strange sight for us ! We went one-fourth mile more beyond the place which the Confederates held this morning. While there, our batteries renewed terrific firing. The shells whistled fear- fully. The terror, strangeness and sadness were vast and soul-stirring. Safe home by six o'clock. Terrible work to-morrow! The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to Mr. Abel A. Kerfoot. Yesterday (Wednesday) we were early waked by terrible cannonading Dr. Falk and I set out to the hospitals of this field at 1.30 o'clock, and three miles or less from Sharpsburg we found the large barn and house and yard full of suflerers. The surgeons welcomed our rolls and fresh bread. " Just the thing ; break it up and go around and give each man some," said the doctor, and soon all we had was gone and we needed twice as much more. Eager eyes and hands (one was stretched towards us all bloody) were reached towards us for the light, fresh bread. Some were in agony too great to eat Near the hospital we saw the line of battle ; then we heard the cheers of our men. We left the buggy and struck across 236 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. the field Our liue was, with its batteries, three-fourths of a mile before us, in full view. The advancing columns and busy orderlies and messengers were full before us. Presently the batteries began again a most grand cannonade. "We were safe, but there, right before us, was the great battle of the war. We could see man by man and hear the terrible whistle of the shells. Dr. Falk and I wondered to find such a sight really before us. We stood on a high fence on a crest and the battle-line was on a crest three-fourths of a mile before us, not a tree between, though the woods before our men shut out the foe from us. The ambulances and stretchers we saw bringing in their sad freight Diary. Thursday, Sept. 18. — Strange lull of battle-sounds. Dr. Falk and I went at 12 o'clock with a quantity of fresh bread for the wounded. Met them in wagons and on the way, and gave them most acceptable relief; so in two hospitals. Sad, fearful scenes of suflering and death. Then on the battle- field of yesterday. National soldiers mostly buried ; the Confederates lying in vast numbers dead. Terrible, sicken- ing sight ! O God, arrest this war ! Caught in violent rain- storm on the field. Found Howe, Wharton, Gormly (old pupils, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) here on our return. Kept them to evening family prayer. Read 91st Psalm. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to Mr. Abel A. Kerfoot. Dr. Falk and I went again to the hospitals with a large supply of biscuit. We gave them all along the way as we met ambulances. Many touching thanks we had, and one poor boy we heard say to a fellow-suflerer as he got his biscuit, " Oh, this is like home." We soon emptied our huge basket when we reached the second hospital, and needed for more. Here and there we found dying men needing and accepting that bread that now must be their only sustenance. 1862.] BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. 237 One young man courteously but peremptorily repelled the words of spiritual counsel. We found lying side by side men of both armies, of all States and of all grades, from colonel down. I met one body on its way to the grave, and at the request of a colonel I read our service. Every here and there were the rows of new graves, with their narrow head and foot- boards marked. The body I buried had its rough board coffin ; most had to be laid in shallow graves, and covered by blank- ets, etc. We then drove on the battlefield of the day before. The Thebattiefleia. slaughter had been immense. The day's truce had been asked by the enemy for burial. They buried none of theirs, but used the day for retreat. Our dead had been mostly buried by the hour we got there, 4 to 5 p. m. The rest of ours lay there, each body labelled with its name by some comrade's care. I suppose we walked over one-fourth the battlefield — wide, vast, and strewn thick with corpses, in every posture, single and in groups, in the open ground, in the cornfield or edge of the woods, or under the fence corners. This field was less horrible than the South Mountain one. There was far greater slaughter, but it was less in heaps and more in open grounds. Perhaps the most striking thing was a horse, with eyes and mouth set open with the excitement of battle, upright on haunches and knees, as he fell when shot. And then close to each other (once on opposite sides of the same tree) were groups of men, thirty or more hours dead^ and groups of living men eager, busy, merry, preparing and eating their suppers. We went unknowingly up to our own lines and were going on, when our picket stopped us. "There !" said he, pointing to a wood one-fourth of a mile from us ; "don't you see the rebels ?" Sure enough, there they were. Truce as it was, we should have been entitled to a shot had we gone farther. The rebels and their muskets were very visible. "Yes," added a merry boy, pointing to our linen dusters, " those white coats would make good marks, too." Friday, Sept. 19.— Sick and on the couch most of the day. 238 LIPE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. Mr. P. Baldy and Earp^^ of Danville, came ; also Bakewell and Reuben Miller, of Pittsburgh. C. Howe came again. His brother-in-law, Colonel Childs, of Pittsburgh, was killed on Wednesday. A sad blow ; Howe must go home. Alarming rumors of rebels recrossing the Potomac. I am very prostrate from weakness and sickness. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to Mr. Abel A. Kerfoot. .... Saturday the rumor of crossing was confirmed : cavalry, infantry and artillery came two miles this side of Williamsport.^ General Couch's division came up, and the scouts fought. Saturday afternoon and all night our infantry lay in battle-order in the woods behind Breathed's (one-eighth of a mile distant, in the direction of Williamsport), their artillery in front of them, their cavalry this side of Andy Rowland's. The enemy was a short mile off from them, and they and we expected a fight early Sunday morning, if not before. Our men needed reinforcements — would fall back to meet them — this would bring the College right in the line of their fire, perhaps of the battle ; so I compelled (for to such extent had your mamma's courage and — discretion — grown, she wanted to stay) an early start to Hagerstown by 5.30 a. m. A man could take care of himself in such a house as this, but 1 would not risk wife and child, who could not escape should the College become the point of attack and defense. Our General fully expected battle till mid-morning Sunday, but the enemy recrossed the Potomac. Thirty thousand of our men came up. We spent the day in town. I did not go to morning church, but spent my time very usefully, I hope, in the hospitals. Poor Dr. Falk had a hard day here. The newly come and idle troops poured in by thousands. Ko guard had been sent here, nor could be got, till our spring-house had been broken 1 [The Rev. Dr. S. Earp, after- wards Rector of Trinity Hall, Washington, Pennsylvania.] 2[A small town on the Maryland side of the Potomac, four miles west from the College of St. James.] 1862.] TWENTY-FIRST SESSION. 239 open and robbed, our potato field cleaned out, and even dep- redations had been done in the College — none in the Rectory. At last a guard came, and we have a very good one now. And tho' thousands of men have swarmed all day here, and our spring is one long wash-house and bath-place, we are very safe. Only about one division are near us, and the poor fellows have been for weeks away from water to wash in. We are packing for New York, and shall get off by the end of the week, we hope. Diary. Wednesday, Sept. 24th. — Twenty-first session was to have begun to-day! God rules most wisely! We wait His will. Sent out circulars of postponement of opening to early or middle part of November. 15th Sunday after Trinity, Sept. 28th.— At 9 o'clock, left College for Major-General Porter's headquarters, one mile southwest of Sharpsburg, and then had service and preached (St. Matt. vi. 34). Visited hospitals. Chiefly Confederate wounded. At 3 p. m. rode with General Porter to General McClellan's headquarters, three miles south of Sharpsburg. Service and sermon at 5.30 o'clock. (Sermon on " Rainbow.") Pleasant, useful day. Rode home through Antietam battle- field by moonlight. Lovely, solemn ride. O God, soon end this war ! Saw much of General McClellan. He is a deeply devout, believing man. To-morrow, Deo volente, we setfout for New York. Wednesday, Oct. 22d, New York.— To Flushing, the Old Church, and Institute and College Point, with Dr. Muhlen- berg. Dined with Mrs. Chisholm. Went all over the old buildings. Wednesday, Nov. 12th, St. James's.— First day of twenty- Twenty-first first session. Twenty-four boys here, so far— far more than*^*^^"- we had dared to hope. Saturday, Nov. 15th.— Went with all the boys, and Drs. Falk, Schafi" and Mr. Coit, over the Antietam battlefield. Visited Carlyle Norris, an old pupil, badly wounded. Com- municants' meeting 6.30 p. m. Eleven out of thirty are com- municants. 240 LIFE OF BISSOP KFRFOOT. [Chap. IX. During the remainder of the year he was busy with the routine of College work, but gave every spare hour to the hospitals, where his bright, cheerful face and striking figure soon became familiar and most welcome. His strong, personal faith ; his tender, almost womanly, sympathy ; the unfaltering, inspiring confidence and firm voice with which he would pro- nounce to the penitent " the absolution and remission " of his sins; his longing to dispense wherever he could the consolations of the Gospel; his unquestion- ing trust in the goodness of the one God and Father and Saviour of all, made his visitations of the sick most acceptable and comforting to the poor soldier, dying unknown and desolate, far from home and friends. Now and then, too, among both Union and Confederate wounded, he would come across an old pupil, and the meeting would awaken in each the most affectionate recollections. On Christmas Day (1862) he held a bright service in the Smoketown Hospital of the Antietam battlefield : " I went out with S. Earp, and had service in the chapel there (a large tent). A sweet, blessed day ! Sad, sweet memories of darling Helen and our other little ones at rest." The year 1862 concludes with the following entry, made just before the customary midnight ser- vices : Dec. 31st, 11.45 p. m God be thanked ! May He forgive me and mine for Christ's sake. My little Helen at rest. O ! keep us all ! — K., A., A. and L. Correspondence. From the letters of this year, room can be found for only a few of the most interesting. 1862.] CORRESPONDENCE. 241 The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to Abel A. Kerfoot. Sunday, Jan. 15th, 1862. My Own Dear 5on,— Your letter of the 15th came last evening. We too are counting the days gone by since you left us, and till you come to us again. I am so sure that vfe all did wisel}'— you and I— that I am only more and more satisfied. I am beginning to get used to being lonely. [Re- ferring to his son's becoming a tutor in St. Paul's School, in New Hampshire.] I see from your letter (and you must always let 3'ourself ^^^^c^ ^a and your feelings freely out to me) that some sense o'i young teacher. depression had come. You were measuring yourself and your success not so liberally as at other times. I know all about that. I went through it, and have seen many a one since go through it, and hy it become a man, self-knowing, self-ruling, self- exacting. We all have in us enough to humble us ; but in such moods as you wrote in, we may do even ourselves injustice. The points we dwell upon are exaggerated. The good points are dimly seen. For we all have good points. And if, out of such hours, we could walk at once into the hearts of those about us, and get at their real, present views and feelings about us, we should often be most agreeably surprised to find that their and our estimates of ourselves and our doings and our successes were very difler- ent. Their cheerful ideas of us would scatter our gloom. All this I learned long ago, and I have lived years enough to see proof after proof that just when / had been most de- sponding, others had thought most favorably and hopefully of my work. Some of our most successful tutors and professors here now, whose success would exceed all your hopes, were, I think, much less fortunate at first than you have been thus far. Mr. H. A. Coit wrote to his brother very hopefully of your prospects as a tutor, and very warmly of his liking for yourself— your mind and character. A. B., whom I asked to tell me candidly what he had learned of you at St. Paul's, says — everything favorable. You were quite successful, indeed 242 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. quite popular, among the boys. This your own letters have led me to infer pretty confidently. I know that your mind is well trained so far, and your scholarship real and accurate, so far. These facts win respect and confidence from pupils. If, then, they see you painstaking, thorough, interested in them and their progress, the sense of reality works good will and respect. Put on no dignity, but he self-respectful, scrupulously neat, trim, courteous and aflable. You did the very thing to work at the Christmas tree. Do anything of that sort heartily, and enjoy it. Eead and study zealously and intelli- gently: you gain within and without. For boys respect a diligent student. Expect some annoyances and some unkiad- nesses, and some failures—faults of your own. These must come. No matter : they ^0 aica?/, ioo. When youare" down," — UP and take a walk, a game, a bright book, a good novel, or a merrj' romp. Always, and lovingly, pray, my darling boy. There there is sure help and hope. Your Father in Heaven knows your heart and its secrets and its needs, and He will hear, help and cheer you any moment you ask Him. The Rev, Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. February 19, 1862. Death of Ms My Dear Bishop, — We have once more — the fourth time in Helen. Aetai. less than eleven years — been bereaved of a dear child. Our two years. j-^.^^ Helen, two years old on December 30th, died of cioup yesterday morning. Symptoms that made us vigilant some days before, and which had yielded in great measure to the doctor's remedies (so much that we had deemed his daily visit not needed), retui'ned on Monday. Not even then did he or we anticipate such a result, though the doctor decided of his own motion to stay here Monday night. His preventive eflbrts were in vain, and about one or two o'clock he had to increase their vigor, croup then showing itself. Just before 8 o'clock yesterday morning our little one expired. It was a sorrow we had not anticipated. Three had left our home circle, and 1862.] CORRESPONDENCE, 243 one cuuid uoL help tiiiuking that that would be our share of such trial. This little one was strong and vigorous — more so than any of our seven. And we always thought her the brightest of them all One night changes all our vain hopes and plans I am, my very dear friend and Bishop, most heartily, your loving son, J. B. Kerfoot. The Bishop of Maryland to the Rev. Dr. Kerfoot. Baltimore, Feb. 22, 1862. My Dear Kerfoot^ — I had heard of your sore trial, by Kichard's information, the day before yesterday, and so was prepared for the sad and most touching letter which came to hand yesterday. Surely it is the same Fatherly love which is so training you, as dear children, that enables your dear wife under her fearfully heavy burden to bear up and be your comfort and example ! He who is chastening, for your good, is doubtless with you, in a more especial presence and power of the Spirit, for your strengtheuiug and support. Only this day week your earlier letter came to me, with all its kind expressions, and cheering statements and anticipa- tions, like a refreshing draught to a thirsty soul, with only one little clause of doubtful import ; and so few days have changed the scene so much ! It is a strangely mingled cup which Providence presents to the lips of all Through ill success and good success, through hindrances and gleams of retm-ning prosperity, in struggles with want of means and aids, and in thankful exultation at being strength- ened and supplied without them, your daily toil and nightly study are still to prepare and polish jewels for the Master's crown ; and He sends for one, at His own time, to lay it up in the treasure-house, where it is safe forever. It is bereave- ment, it is loss, it is poignant suffering for the time ; but it is all the one glorious work of redemption and salvation, work- ing in and for you and yours, and tlirough you, in your labors and your suflerings alike, for others Please say to Abel that his last letter gave me much satis- 244 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. faction, as being all that I ought to expect, and just what I did expect, from him. Mrs. H. Kennedy told my daughters yesterday that she thought change of air would be beneficial to Katie. We all join in entreating Mrs. Kerfoot to come here and tr}' it. Mrs. W. will be home (God willing) on Monday ; and it will be a real kindness to us to give us the chance of trying to divert Mrs. K.'s thoughts from the painful scenes through which she has been passing, by aiding in her attentions to your sweet, surviving blessing. Remember us kindly to Abel and A., to your respected and beloved associates in trust and cares, and to Dr. Evans. Ever lovingly and gratefully yours, W. R. Whittingham. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. March 3, 1862. My Dear Bishop and Friend., — Your loving and wholesome letter gave all the comfort joxx. meant it should This night it is just a fortnight since we battled for our little one from midnight till day. We have been strangely helped. Our house has been sobered, but not made gloomy. We miss the little feet, busy and active, and the merry voice and mis- chief every hour and every place. Still, what would have seemed to us in advance as the hardest blow to meet of all we have known, has thus far not proved so. We trust this is our Heavenly Father's hand. May He make sure to us the medicine for sin He has meant we should find in this sorrow ! .... Saturday I was 46 years old ; twenty-five years a man and a clergyman. I wrote my "• quarter of a century " sermon and preached it yesterday afternoon. How many thoughts, grateful, penitent, humbling, hopeful, resolute, such a review ought to beget ! Gen. Fit^ohn Gen. Fitzjohn Porter got leave of absence from his division (15,000 men) long enough to run up here to see his sick mother, just one hour, on Tuesday last. He came very anxious, but went away hopeful about her. He has always 1862.] CORRESPONDENCE. 245 been a loving, dutiful son. He is a devout Christian. As he was parting with her, she very sick, he on the eve of battles, I knelt with him by her bedside, and asked for each what they would ask for each other and themselves, and then gave them their Lord's blessing of peace. It was a moment of very rare reality in life. And I felt that the quiet, resolute soldier, who could thus weep streaming tears as he left his mother, might well wield the power his dreadful office would give him over the lives of friends and enemies. Gen. Porter's Mexican history placed him among the bravest of our officers. His wife and two 3'oung children are in New York. Generals McClellan and Albert Sidneij Johnston were godfathers to his oldest child only two j'ears ago The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to an old pupil. College of St. James, April 28, 1862. My Dear H. — Mr. C. showed me some parts of yonv Explaining Ms letter to him. You say some folks in Baltimore y;ox\^eve.di i)oys"waiked out why Dr. Kerfoot rose up in the chapel and said anything. ''^ '-''^"^^• The true reason, I suppose, was that Dr. K. abvays rises up at once and speaks out when occasion demands. But for that, St. James's would have needed other ruling long ago. What I said was simply a pastoral admonition, explaining that clergymen and congregations ought to obey the canoni- cal directions of the Bishop, etc.> 1 [Among other things, Dr. Ker- foot said that if he, with his pres- ent views, found himself in one of the States of the Southern Con- federacy, and the Bishop of the Diocese issued prayers which only Southerners could honestly pray, he would not feel bound to disturb the congregation bv with- people in Maryland who dis- sented from Bishop Whitting- ham might do, etc. It is need- less to add that this was far from being the view accepted by the majority of church people in Maryland, in those days of ex- cited feeling. The services ap- pointed by Bishop Whittingham drawing; he would attend church | (which he considered himself on Sunday, as usual, and simply \ bound to appoint) caused intense withhold his "Amen" from those j bitterness of feeling, which it prayers. And this he thought | took years to allay. In the 246 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. But, as I told you here, at the time, it would be unreal and nonsensical for me to fancy or try to make out that the act, which I was bound in every x*elation to try to check, was not a refusal to obey academic rule and authority. It was this, and a successful one ; i. e., they went through with it, and my oflBcial and personal control did fail. It is mere moonshine to try to talk this fact out of being. I did my duty — ^just what I now am thankful I did. I made no provision for error ; I met it when it showed itself. I met it kindly, promptly, frankly, justly, tenderly. I saw and said it was wrong, but a wrong done under a mistake and examples that reduced the wrong as done here by them to nearly nothing. The little that was left I forgave at once and fully. You know how they wrote to me, and I enclose the answer I read on Easter Tuesday in chapel. We had a conference of the Faculty on Monday evening, and resolutions brought in and passed by the others take the very ground I had taken in this response written by me, beforehand, that day and approved by the Faculty. I send you a copy for any private, prudent use you please. I trust your discretion, and wish you to use the paper. You befog the Bishop, or he befogs you.' "7n/bro con- scienti(B" he meant us to be bound. I know no court but that of conscience in which I obey my Bishop. The fear of ecclesiastical trial and penalty — the only other constraint — I North, some few of the Bishops felt able to pursue a more mod- erate, and certainly more conven- ient, course. They issued several prayers, some distinctly suited to ardent sympathizers with the Government; others, "non-com- mittal" prayers for peace, etc., leaving all results in the hands of the Omnipotent King of kings. The clergy were requested to use one or more of these prayers, as in their discretion might seem ad- visable.] 1 [The Bishop had said, in con- versation with Dr. Kerfoot's cor- respondent, something like this : that he had not absolutely re- quired the prayers to be used : he had issued them under the canon and left it to the conscience of each clergyman to use them as the canon directed ; and that Dr. Kerfoot had acted just as he supposed all clergymen loyal to Church and State would act.] 1862.] CORRESPONDENCE. 247 hope and mean never to be the motive or line of my duty as a presbyter. Whenever I cannot obey my Bishop without " sin to 7«g, I will obey God and my conscience and take "the trial." But for all probable cases I neither expect nor desire to know any law or fear any sentence save those promulged '•Hnforo conscientice.^^ If my Bishop can bind me there, he need look for {because he can find) no stronger bond. Give my love to all your dear circle — your dear old grand- mother, your parents .... All well here except Mr. Waddell;' he is not well, nor safe from peril of pulmonary disease. A letter from Mrs. Kerfoot says all are well except her brother. Good-bye, dear H. ; don't catch the infection any more deeply. You are a good, honest fellow, and must take civil diseases lightly! May God, mercifully, soon bring us all right and all one again! Your loving friend, J. B. Kebfoot. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to Mr. Abel A. Kerfoot. Baltimore, 11.15 p. m., June 18, 1862. Your note found me here, my own dear son, and I shall not get home till Saturday I have seen people here freely, and especially our " Seces- xjie College to sion" trustees, and have put the question directly: "We^*"*"- (t. e., the Rector and Professors) are unchangeably Union men ; we have worked and will work the College for little or for no pay to keep it alive; — what will you do? Are we to infer from the Diocesan Convention^ that three-fourths of chmxh- * [One ofthe tutors, a graduate of i drew every one to him. His nar- the College. He was the nephew of Major-GeneralFitzjohn Porter, and was much loved by all the community of the College for his many amiable traits, his sterling goodness, and his intellectual promise. His lameness and long- continued ill-health threw an ad- row escape at the burning of "Kemp Hall" has been already mentioned, p. 182.] "^ [In which Union men had been removed from the Standing Com- mittee, etc., for reasons which are well explained in Brand'sLi/e of Bishop WhiUingham,Yol. II, p. ditional interest around him, and 30, etc.] 248 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. folk will give us only indifference or cold support, or even be inimical? Will you endorse and recommend the College openly?" etc. Most cordial and unqualified was the response everywhere. The College, its management and its Rector, were never more trusted, and the lay trustees will come out in open, printed endorsement and aid. All everywhere say this. Here in Mrs. H.'s I meet more and warmer love than ever. I move as an open Unionist almost wholly among out-and-out " Secessionists," and never met more or more cordial respect. I have just been in Washington. The same there. I had President occasion to see Mr. Stanton ; and Mr. Lincoln coming in at ■ the time, I had the honor of an introduction. His like- nesses are true, but his face impressed me as that of a strong, honest, careworn man. I could reverence and trust his face and mien far more than those of some handsomer and more graceful men I have seen in high places. Sunday last I preached at the ordination in Grace Church in the morning, at St. Luke's in the afternoon, and then, at 6 o'clock p. m., to the New York 19th Regiment, encamped near Baltimore. The men were a very reverent congregation, as we stood under the trees that sweet, bright evening. But good-night, my own dear son. Your loving father. The Bishop of Maryland to the Rev. Dr. Kerfoot. Baltimore, July 18th, 1862. My Dear Kerfoot^ — .... I got down ' much more com- fortably than up, but have been quite a cripple ever since. Able to officiate last Sunday, and see some people stamp out of church at my approach .... Ugly reports are flying thickly here, and there is a good deal of unrest and dissatisfaction even among soi-disant " Union men." People talk of secret drillings, concealed arms, returned soldiers and officers of the rebel army skulking about, and concerted risings. A new flood of armed men from the North is needed to check this. » [From the College where he had been attending commencement.] 1862.] CORRESPONDENCE. 249 B., of Louisiana, called day before yesterday. Left IT. O. on 20th ult. Has been in retirement since August last, having refused to pray for the Confederate States. Says he has no doubt of the majority of Unionists in Louisiana, but that they are thoroughly and completely cowed by the bitter tyranny to which they have been subject, and cannot be counted on until the United States shall have hopelessly ruined the rebel power. H. D., of Talbot Co., just returned from Georgia, says much the same. All here well as usual, but Mrs. W. is much out of spirits. She and the girls scolded me severely (and, unhappily, I deserved it) for my gross remissness in not having been in to see Mrs. K. Pray inter- cede with her to forgive me. Ever her and your loving friend, W. R. Whittingham. The Bishop of Maryland to the Rev. Dr. Kerfoot. Baltimore, Sept. 23d, 1862. Dear Kerfoot, — With interest and anxiety I bave ''oe&n After Antietam. watching and seeking after every mode of getting tidings from you ever since the receipt of your hurried note of Wed- nesday, the lOtli, and of Abel's slightly more recent commu- nication from New York on the 10th. Both you and he speak of your intended movement towards New York, but that I suppose to have been hopelessly broken ofi' by the movement of the enemy in your direction on the 12th. [The Bishop then speaks of a rumor, which, however, proved to be erroneous, that the College had been turned into a large hospital for the Confederate wounded.] I urged Hall Harrison and Coster to go up, to serve you, if possible, either in the ministries of mercy to which I knew you would give yourself, or in the humbler, but still bounden, duty of looking after everything for preservation, if possible. But they could not get to the College. Harrison was turned back from Chambersburg, and Coster was discouraged from adventuring by what he could learn here. One line of a correspondent's letter, in which he speaks of the College as a " Catholic Seminary made one vast hospital," 250 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. is all I have been able to learn of the condition of the institu- tion. It does not allay our fears. Is there any remaining prospect of a possibility of resuming work? .... Oh how have I been with you in spirit in your cares and griefs ! It has seemed to blunt my perceptions of all else in the tremendous and momentous struggle. How wonderful that that struggle should have been brought round, at last, to occupy our poor College almost as its very centre-point! How incredible that ihere the crisis of our destiny as a nation, almost, should have been determined! We do not yet know the full proportions of the week of war, and have but little of its detail in any trustworthy form. God grant that the success may prove to be indeed decisive as regards the control of this unhappy State! Your loving, sorrowing, anguish-stricken friend, W. R. W. Pray give my warmest love to Talk. Thank God his true, manly heart and sound, clear head were with you! W. R. W. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to Mr. Abel A. Kerfoot. My Study, 11 p. m., Dec. 4, 1862. I really blame myself, my own dear son, for not writing more regularly. And yet I am very busy — double teaching,' and much more than usual business, etc., resulting from new arrangements and from the not few disarrangements arising out of the recent military occupation of our region. Scarcely one supply is or comes as before ; no matter. We now count thirty-nine. We shall grow—slowly, but really. The character of our boys is much better than last year. We had then some ugly stuff, most of which is not 1 [The Rector had taken, in ad- I Passmore, who had accepted a dition to his ordinary work, the professorship in Racine.] classes usually taught by Prof. I 1862.] CORRESPONDENCE. 251 here now. Brains and heart seem more worthy of work. May God bless om* eftorts ! . . . . I went Sunday afternoon to the Smoketown Hospital, and f^^^^f^^^,; had service and sermon in their nice tent-church — i. c, some three or four tents opened one into the other. The con- valescents had wreathed evergreens at each arch (the jointures of the tents) and over the entrance and the "desk" were evergreen crosses. The chaplain, a Presbyterian, is a devoted, cordial friend to all, and a hard worker. He gave me his place gladly, and I did feel as though it was real ministry, as I offered the Church's prayers and spoke the Word to that company— many pale, maimed, on crutches, etc.; all reverent and attentive. The Confederate wounded have nearly all gone. One, a Virginia lieutenant, I found was half a mile off, and to him I went with my word of counsel and a prayer- book. My efforts in New York have brought excellent gifts of clothing, inner and outer, books, etc Mrs. Kennedy is the active almoner, and a noble one she is. The Smoke- town Hospital is of tents— fine ones — in the woods six miles south of us. The open air is a great blessing to the men. Yesterday I was able to make a brief visit to one hospital in Hagerstown. Due care was taken ; yet the tents and country are far better than ^o2/se-hospitals. Oh that I could get away more from work here to visit among these poor fellows ! Eleven to twelve thousand are still in our county ; the}' are of all the States. But good-night : I must go to my room and bed, to be up and at work at 6 o'clock to-morrow. The clock is now getting near to 12 midnight. God bless my own dear son! Your loving father. The Rev, Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. December 30, 1862. My Bear Bishop,— It is now past eleven p. m., but your letter of the 11th has been too long unanswered. [He gives some account of the pressing occupations that have hindered his writing, and then continues] and I have helped, b}' letters of request, of acknowledgment and some statements of facts, '252 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. IX. to procure supplies from the North for our wounded and sick soldiers. Mrs. Kennedy and other ladies have sought and wrought most zealously and successfully, and my efforts have helped them. I have not felt that I could give all my time and work now to sons of wealth, health and ease, while bodies and souls within reach were in sore need I read service Christmas afternoon at Smoketown Hospital, in their bright tent-chapel, and Colt went there again on Sunday afternoon. I hope that we can pay bills and get on. In Jiope of this, I wrote, only lately, declining a very loving invitation and urgent request of Dr. Muhlenberg to take St. Luke's Hospital.' Comfortable and sure maintenance was guaranteed ; and the offer, made two or three months since, was left open to me. If I cannot go on here^ that work would suit my heart best. I was hopeful enough of my present work to say no. My dear old father writes me back sadly, lovingly, and accepts my negative for the present. My heart and hopes are first here. May our work here live ! — but bills and bank accounts are terribly stubborn facts ! . . . . > [See ante p. 150.] CHAPTER X. THE THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. THE RETREAT FROM GETTYSBURG. 1863. The first record in the diary of this memorable year, the year of the battle of Gettysburg, is as follows : 12.15 a. m., Thursday, Jan. 1, 1863.— I have just come from our home, and just before that from our dear chapel — a full attendance, and real, solemn, hopeful service there. Abel is at Concord ; A. at Smoketown Hospital.' K. I kissed for Happy New Year in her sleep ; my dear wife wor- shipped with me ; our darling Helen, with us a year ago, sleeps in Jesus. Pa, Alen, liave gone since this day a year ago. Who is to go in 1863? God orders. May He sanctify us, and all things to us ! Bless my dear Dr. Muhlenberg, and all I love, and all my boys, present and former. And oh, give us peace this year ! The College life went on as usual, with a tranquillity truly remarkable under the circumstances (the Rector giving all the time he could to the hospitals in the neighborhood), until Gen. Lee crossed the Potomac in June. In his untiring efforts to alleviate the sufi'erings of the sick and wounded. Dr. Kerfoot was greatly aided by his intimate friends, Mrs. Howard Kennedy and the Rev. Henry Edwards, of Hagerstown. He ' [Assisting Miss Hall and other I denkieff, physician in charge.] ladies in nursing, under Dr. Van- | 254 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. X. also interested bis friends in JS^ew York, and obtained valuable supplies of clothing, books, etc. to lucmegT. At the very opening of the year, however, the con- tinued existence of the College, whose life was now trembling in the balance, was imperilled by a danger for which the Rector was not at all prepared. This was nothing less than the threatened withdrawal of Bishop Whittingham from all connection with the in- stitution he loved so well, and which, to use his own expression, was, in his eyes, first in importance of all the Church works in his Diocese. Bishop Whittiugham's letter is a striking evidence of the unhealthy excitement of those times (exhibited, it should be remembered, by people on l)oih sides of the questions at issue), and of the length to which his "loyalty" in 1863 in- clined him to go, even in his administration of the Diocese. And this, while it shows the ardent character of the man, gives additional force and value to his pacificatory conduct, in concert with Dr. Kerfoot, at the General Convention of 1865, which will be mentioned in its proper place. On the 27th of January, two vacancies having occurred in the board of trustees, and the removal of another trustee, Dr. A. C. Coxe, to New York being imminent. Dr. Kerfoot proposed to Bishop Whitting- ham (who was president of the board) the names of three gentlemen who were known to sympathize with the South. Two of these were residents of Balti- more — one a clergyman, the other a well-known physician, both intimate friends of Bishop Whitting- ham; the other was at that very time a professor in the institution. The Rector's motive (for he was quite 1863.] THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 255 as strong in his political views and wishes as the Bishop) was manifest. He knew that all three gentle- men were earnest friends of the College, and he hoped that after their election it would be easier for the board (which never again assembled under Bishop Whittingham's chairmanship) to hold meetings and work harmoniously together. To his surprise and dismay, he received from the Bishop a positive refusal to consent to the proposition.' The Bishop of Maryland to the Rev. Dr. Kerfoot. Baltimore, Jan. 29, 1863. .... Would it be in any way possible for you to be here at your nephew's ordination? In that case we might have opportunity satisfactorily to discuss, in talking, a very serious question in College matters, about which, I very much fear, for the first time, there is a grave difference between us. I will rather resign my connection with St. James's than iVo wore "rfis- consent to serve in its board of trustees with the addition of ^ a single disloyal member. I have strained my conscience to the very last stretch in connivance with the disloyal element hitherto — thus far, cheerfully, and, in implicit trust in you, most heartily. But I can go no further. Every day satisfies me, more and more, of the pernicious corrosiveness of the disloyal element. It cuts out honesty from the heart of the man himself, and seems to spread a cankering atmosphere all around him. The doings in Grace Church, and in St. Luke's, sadly, most sadly, exemplify this. I imagine that Coxe misunderstood my proposal with regard to his trusteeship : it was not for his permanent continuance on the board, but for his delay of resignation. I do not under- stand his tenure of office to expire ipso facto remotionis, but suppose the terms of the charter merely to require his vaca- tion of the place within a reasonable time after removal. I * See Brand's Life of Bishop Whiiiingham, Vol. I, p. 293. 256 LIFi: OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. X. would rather, if places must be filled, put in men under arraugement for future I'esignation, to make way for others, when the times allow of a selection o^ proper lay-members, and take such men as J. M. Dashiell and Colburn, or other perfectly staunch and true men among the Maryland clergy, than botch up the board with questionable men from among the loyal laity just at present. From among the disloyal the question is not open for me. You have richly earned the right to decide it, and I will acquiesce in your decision, if so made, without a murmur ; but the question is between such and me Dr. Kerfoot wrote a kind but earnest remonstrance. College of St. James, Feb. 2, 1863. The Bishop's .... I hope I may be able to get to Baltimore at and impracticable, before the ordination ; but I must not leave till then the topic of the new trustees. We must think out and concur in the right plan Your view and purpose (I trust and pray not fixed) cause me deep anxiety. Such a resolve on youi- part inevitably ends our work here. Js'either F., C, nor myself^ continue a da}' after you withdraw. Nor can the College live a day, if this principle be avowed as essential in choosing trustees. The four laymen' now on the board will leave, and two-thirds of our boys. We who are here will not reach that pass ; we shall foresee it and avoid it by giving up our eflbrt. None of us will provoke so hopeless a struggle, so damaging an one to the Church, to our Bishop, and to our- selves. Prudent men in the North would not approve the issue. I beg you, my dear, dear Bishop, not to form any such purpose or rule for yourself and your action. I have no wish to throw responsibility on you, if I can carry it myself. I am sure you have not thought over all the workings of such a position on your part. I have carefully considered my dutj' — my inevitable necessity — in any such unexpected emergency. ' [Messrs. Campbell, Harrison, Brune and Wyman, of Baltimore.] 1863.] THIRD YEAR OE TEE WAR. 257 I can see nothing but my leaving the College and the Diocese ; either of which would be another funeral to my heart. And may I go on to say that I cannot see how you can work the Diocese, as its Bishop, on any such principle ? Every com- mittee and parish you work with, and the very convention itself, offer you the same difficulty. Does not God lay on us this trial of heart — and even of conscience— amid perplexing questions, to be loyal to the nation, and to the Church, and to His work, where the paths seem to cross, almost ? . . . . Why shall this one board, out of the hundreds you must work with, be thus restricted? If we act on any such rule, of course we must avow it. The result is clear and immediate. My proposal is (and F. and C. concur) that we honestly exclude that question. This so far modifies and improves the zet the poHHcal idea in my last letter, that we can now select and name men ^pj^'^^a'^^ on entirely another principle — a real and important one — resi- dence here, or near enough to enable us to get a quorum here. At first, most of the trustees were of this vicinity ; then, to secure Baltimore co-operation, we chose some there ; and later on, in the near prospect of going to Baltimore County, we chose more Baltlmoreaus. The three vacancies which now exist (two of College professors, Coaklay and Passmore, and this third one, Coxe) help us to secure a quorum, with you here at the College. This is very im- portant We know how nearly we failed to get the quorum of five together in Baltimore. I propose, therefore, that three who are resident here be chosen — Falk, Coit and Harrison. It so happens that (1) this renews or continues the old idea of professors being trustees ; and (2) it gives to men who devote themselves to this work a merited position, and one they are very com- petent to fulfil. It so happens, too (3), that t/ political vigi- lance starts the question of men's present views, H.'s name would show that we do not raise or intrude that test (as none ought to do it). Yet H. is so loyal to you, the College and me, that he would always work right and well. There are none outside the College that would do but Mr. Edwards and Dr. Fred. Dorsey. Mr. E. is uuUkely to stay long in Wash- 258 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. X. ington, and his successor will be — who? and what? Dr. D. has become a marked man as Unionist and officer (medical) of the United States in the draft The names you suggest would awaken the contest I spoke of; nor would they com- mand the confidence of the public otlierwise ; the one reason for their selection would be too evident. The principle I give is the true, the necessary, one at present. Please write to me soon, and if you can suggest any other principle and plan, I will gladly adopt it if I can. If trouble should be made then on this score (i. e., if any one outside tried to push in or keep out trustees on score of politics), I will not leave it to you to say no, cost what it may. I am sure, though, we shall have no trouble. God guide us all ! I have just had a letter from Dick and enclose it. You will make no mistake in ordaining Mm a priest. Your loving son, J. B. Kerfoot. Bishop Whittingliam, perceiving that an escape had been pointed out to him from the dilemma in which he had placed himself, gracefully receded from a resolution which, if persisted in, would speedily have brought matters ecclesiastical in Maryland to a deadlock : The Bishop of Maryland to the Rev. Dr. Kerfoot. Baltimore, Feb. 5, 1863. My Dear Kerfoot, — Yours of Monday came this morning. Your new proposal totally changes the ground, and greatly to my satisfaction. You know my original conception of the College was the English plan of property vesting in the Fellows. Your proposal of Professorate Trusteeships is a return to that ; and I think for got)d and sufficient reasons. .... This change of plan quite takes away my objections to H. As one of the professors, he is in the College To 1863.] THIRD- TEAR OF THE WAR. 259 his admission with F. and C. I have no objection at all. My resolve is as to futui'e action Again I say that, in the existing circumstances and mo^- Heartily aj^- o J 1 o i proves the new pects of the institution, I most heartily approve of the i.'/a«. reintroduction of Professors into Trusteeships, even to the extent, if need and opportunity occur, of mailing the whole Board to consist of them only. Not, again, that I mean any present change in our Balti- more members. They are in, and willing to serve ; so much the better. But that is enough. No more in that direction. .... On ever}' account I tliink Coit and Falk eminently fit to be joined in ownership and control of the interests of the College ; and his position giving him a right to be joined with them, I have no objection to make to H., but am personally gratified at whatever it may add to him of dignity or ease of position. I return Richard's truly gratifying letter. Would, indeed, that I could always feel as well assured of the higher call to the priesthood going before the outward admission to it, as he gives us reason to believe to be the case with him ! The 30tli of April was appointed by President Lincoln as a " National Fast Day." Bishop Whit- tingham, of course, issued prayers to be used. On this occasion Dr. Kerfoot took care to announce that any student who had "conscientious" scruples about attending chapel on that day, might remain away and spend their time, if they so preferred, in the study of Latin, Greek and mathematics. In what follows, no attempt, of course, will be made to give any adequate account of the retreat from Gettysburg, or of the social disturbances in Maryland and Pennsylvania in the eventful summer of 18G3. Only Dr. Kerfoot's connection with them will be narrated, as described in his own diary and letters. 260 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. X. The following account is taken chiefly from a letter of Dr. Kerfoot to Bishop Whittingham, with a few extracts from Dr. Kerfoot's diary interspersed : Battle of Get- tysburg. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. College of St. James, Md., July 20, 1863, 11 o'clock p. in. My Dear Bishop^ — I have not been able to write before. Poor C. H.'s' perilous illness has supervened on the ceaseless excitement of the war. I have seen him in Hagerstown to-day ; he is better, and may recover. Our alarm here began on June 14, and on the 15th came a dash of guerilla Confederate cavalry through our grounds, and a loud cheer from a score of our hoys We felt then that the crisis was on us. This must not be, under me and F. and C. and C — r. Next morning eight boys left us to join them. (Of these, two came back for temporary shelter; four went home ; two enlisted.) I plainly, strongly, reproved "the cheering " in the chapel that same morning (the 15th), and spoke of the guilt of leaving College in such a way as those lads had done, without their parents' consent, etc., etc. There was no more cheering ever after, though cavalry often passed through. Work went on pretty well ; no disorder. June 18, 19. — Tried in vain to find a way for the boys open to Baltimore. June 22. — Another boy left and enlisted, but came back sick on July 5. On Juue 24: made the way to Frederick with the Baltimore and Pennsylvania boys, and reached home safely at 10.30 p. m., passing through our scouts on the turnpike and through a rebel brigade in Boonsboro.* ' [One of the students. He was just recovering from scarlet fever when the Confederate in- vasion took place. Unavoidable exposure brought on a serious relapse.] 2 {From the Diary : June 23. After most anxious and prayer- ful reflection decided to venture the eflbrt to take the boys — twenty-one of them — to and through Frederick. Busy even- 1863.] THIRD YEAR OF TEE WAR. 261 June 26. — Resumed regular work (!) with the twelve boys left. The rebel forces now well gone into Pennsylvania. Rumors of rebel successes come to us ; no other news. June 28, 29. — Rumors of our own troops. July 2, 3, 4. — Pretty correct rumors reach us of our suc- cesses at and near Gettysburg. July 5, startled by the return, sick, of our renegade of the 22d. He reports return of baggage wagons, capture of many on the night before, etc.; hopeful signs of Lee's defeat. ' July 6. ... At 5 p. m. Buford's U. S. Cavalry came pouring along Boonsboro and Williamsport road, and soon we saw and heard fighting at Williamsport. At 9 p. m. our cavalry pass back, repulsed. July 7.— Up early, and visited 9th N. Y. Cavalry in the woods opposite our gate. Wbile there, skirmishing began. Confederates coming from Williamsport. Their advance, firing as they marched, in full view from the top of the Col- lege, right under our eyes, and the slow retreat of our cavalry. At 1 p. m. called upon by a Confederate surgeon to go out to the road and take up a mortally wounded Union soldier. Dr. Falk and I went out in a little wagon. (First saw a man dead opposite our gate ; his horse also dead.) Went on to the wounded man, and found him in agony and paral3zed on one side ; brought him to the College, and met all his wants. Then had a box made and grave dug in our graveyard, and drove out to bring the dead in and bury him." The body had just been buried at our outer gate on the Boonsboro and Williamsport road; read the service and came back. July 8.— Pretty well overrun by Confederate soldiers. Last „ , ,. . , •' *' Retreat froin night they broke open our spring-house and helped them- Oettysburg. selves to 100 lbs. of butter. The rest we saved— hid away— as well as good stores of flour, groceries, bacon, etc. Heard to-day the particulars of Ives Smedes's' death from wounds at ing and night. May God help, keep and bless them and me, and bring me safely home again ! I believe I am doing my duty to my boys. Mr. Coit goes with me.] '[A graduate of St. James's, son of Rev. Dr. Smedes, of Ra- leigh, N. C. — a youth of the vei-y highest promise morally and in tellecually.] 262 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. X. Chancellorsville. Got some guards at sundown— Georgia men. Jenkins's guerilla cavalry at 10 p. m. in the field just south of us— bad fellows. July 9.— Overrun by the guerilla cavalry at dawn, and for some hours ; had to lock every door ; importunate for food for men and horses. Most of them, personally, courteous. Our troops (we discover) hold Boonsboro and the roads west and south of it. Pretty clear that Confederate boastings about Gettysburg are unreal. But every sign now of this vicinity being a battle-ground. Our " mortally " wounded man doing well : boys, " Secesh " and Union, very kind in nursing him ; he will live. (And, now, July 20, is walking about.) July 10. — Fearful day ; cannonading coming nearer. Got our main basement ready, with supplies, etc., to retire to, in case of battle. After much consideration, we all decide to stay 171 the College, through any battle. Where shall we go? The whole vicinity unsafe, and no other house so strong. The Confederates have placed batteries just inside our hedge ; tve see their guns ; the hedge hides them from our arm}', which is now one mile east of us. At 5 p. m. Confederate signal corps men come up and announce " enemy advancing." Sent the Hagerstown boys home by a roundabout way. Stowed our best clothing, house-linen, etc., etc., in a deep cellar, so that, if the house were fired by shells, these might be saved. Slept with my family on the ground floor, north side of the house, expecting the battle by dawn. July 11.— Rose and breakfasted very early. Weary, anxious hours till noon ; no battle, though the skirmishers of the two armies were visible — many of them — and closing in on one another, and firing, about three-quarters of a mile south of us. At noon came Lieut.-Gen, A, P. Hill and Brig.-Gen.Willcox to warn Mrs. Porter to leave at once.' They kindly urged me to take every lady and child away at once. Men might, ought to stay, to protect property. My wife and daughter ' [They knew Gen. Fitzjohn Porter, having been with him at West Point. Hearing that his mother was at the College, they interested themselves about her safety and displayed great friend- liness.] 1863.] THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 263 did not wish to go. Safer here ; and battle just at hand. Can- nonading already near us. [Gen. Hill said, "If it were my wife and daughter, I would make them go."] The most har- rowing doubt and debate of my life, but decide to go. In haste packed up a few clothes and stowed away a few Takes his more valuables in the cellar, and at 1.30 p. m. drove oft" the-^^"'^,^J^',,,,^ College wagon with wife, two daughters and Miss Falk ; and my little carriage came along, Mrs. Porter, L. P. W. and C. H. in it. The cannon of our Uuited States Army were already throwing shells, visible and audible, against the bat- teries at our outer gate ; and the brigade of cavalry (Confeder- ate) wheeling into position on our lawn as we drove off. Our ride for two miles was right along the Confederate sharpshoot- ers, who were crouching under the fence, ten feet on our left. Our United States sharpshooters three-quarters of a mile on our right. God's mercy took us through safely to Hagerstown. General Hill gave me and party a pass anywhere, on parole not to give any information to their detriment. Hagerstown in full possession of the Confederates. Sunday, July 12. — No churches open. At 8 a. m. our (U. S.) cavalry dashed in and drove Confederates out of town. Skirmishing all about (not in) the town ; some bullets came into town. Streets barricaded to prevent enemy's cavalry dashes; heavy battle surely expected for Monday; hardly less in peril here than at the College ; rumors and sounds of battle in that direction. Monday, July 13. — Dark, fearful signs of popular rage against Secessionists in Hagerstown. Busy that day striving to assuage and keep Union men quiet. They had been robbed ruthlessly for weeks, and their "Secesh" neighbors had done little to protect them. At 6 p. m. General Kilpatrick's " reconnoissance in force " against enemy's (General Ewell's) left, just three-fourths of a mile west of Mrs. Kennedy's house, where we were. The Confederate shells flying and bursting in our view in the dark of the evening. " Battle to-morrow about us /" Tuesday, July 14. — Up early ; great tumult in town ; enemy gone ; full pursuit of them, etc. At nine o'clock met man 264 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. X. from College. "Enemy gone, but College and my house broken open and robbed." Hastened to set out and ex- amine, leaving family in town till to-morrow. Roads thronged by trains of wagons, artillery, etc., and of refugees going f^ttreaUn ^^ ^^^^'^^ '•> ^^^^^ blocked by trees cut down. Sad, harrowing army. sight in my own house and the College. Outer and inner doors burst open ; closets, wardrobes, trunks, broken open ; kitchen and dining-room filthy ; evidently much stolen. But no furniture broken for mere wantonness. But so, too, in the College and boys' rooms. Dormitory, wardrobes, trunks, rifled ; dining-room, store-room, etc., robbed utterly. Food wasted and scattered. All this was done despite a general's orders, who could not prevent it The Rectory was ransacked from cellar to garret, and articles stolen every- where. Not a trunk but was broken, etc The loss has been very serious More again ; good morning ! it is 12.40 a. m., July 21. Ever affectionately, J. B. K. Continuation of the Preceding Letter. Wednesday, Jul}"^ 15. — Came home by noon with my family, leaving C. H., not well, at Mrs. Kennedy's, in Hagerstown. (The feelings of my family you may imagine.) At 4 p. m. came alarming word of C. H.'s illness, and at 11 p. m. I was summoned to his side in Hagerstown. (Found him desperately ill ) The libraries, public and private, escaped pretty well, except Mr. Harrison's. His house broken open and damaged a good deal Our neighbors suffered sorely. They took all Mr. J. S. Rowland's cows (eleven in number), all his bacon and fiour. .... (^ut open bureaus and took clothes — everything Captain Weller, of Mississippi (Mrs. P.'s brother), said that General Lee had placed General Posey and a Mississippi regiment under arrest for this plundering of Mr. J. S. Row- land, and that Mr. R. should be paid at their expense ; but Mr. R. never heard anything of this. General Lee, of course, is humane, but he hardly knew and could not control such thinsfs 1863.] THIRD YEAR OF TEE WAR. 265 The account of the depredations • of the retreating army, wliich behaved as retreating armies proverbially do, is further described. It was necessary to enter into detail to Bishop Whittingham, because, if the College was to resume work in October, these losses had to be supplied. Dr. Kerfoot's language, though written under all the natural excitement of the time, and with so much mere wanton injury to property before his eyes, cannot be called extravagant or unkind. After continuing for a page or two, he ends with " ' Jam satis,'' but not of any thiug as nice as ' snow ' ! " — plajfully alluding to the second Ode of Horace. Dr. Falk, Mr. Coit and Mr. Coster stayed here all the time save Sunday night (July 12th), from 10 to 4 o'clock.' ' [That Sunday night was spent in the house of i*Ir. J. W. Breathed, curator of the College, about one-eighth of a mile dis- tant, towards the west, in the dii'ection of Williamsport. There, by request of Mr. Breathed, the present writer, who had not long before resigned his place as pro- fessor and member of the Faculty of St. James, spent most of these exciting days, until July 15th, when he was summoned to Hagerstown, along with Dr. Kei'- foot, to the sick-bed of a relative. The bullets of the Federal sharp- shooters struck against the win- dows of Mr. Breathed's house. Nothing could be kinder or more considerate than the behavior of Generals A. P. Hill and Willcox through all this trying period. During these days. General Lee and the other Confederate officers were rapidly completing the re- treat of their defeated army across the Potomac, about four miles distant. They expected General Meade to attack them before this retreat was fully ac- complished, and all preparations were made for a battle on the College grounds. This gave time for General Lee to complete his operations. General Meade seems not fully to have known his opportunity, or not to have been quite ready to use it. No atiack was made (as everybody now knows). On the contrary, the Federal army, as if anticipating an attack upon them, spent the night in felling trees in the woods east of the College, and in erect- ing barricades. The next morn- ing the Confederates were in Vir- ginia.] 266 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. X. "Battle sure to come early ou Monday," as the Confederate generals told them. They were in much peril, and entirely worn down by watching the plunderers. Sliai-pshooters were in and all about the College. The chapel windows were twice pierced by balls. The bow-room window, the porch behind my stud}', and the east sides of the houses, etc., were peppered. Four Confederates were wounded close by the College. Had any battle come on, the College would have been made a strong place of defence and attack, and the battle would have destroyed it. We dared expect no other result. We are very thankful to God, and so may all this neighbor- hood be, that no battle came on here. The enemy were most strongly entrenclied, and our army might not have dislodged them. That would have been a serious reverse. On the other hand, success would have cost 10,000 lives and the ruin of all our homes We met not a few of the Confed- erates, who were very kind and courteous ; very few personally rough and threatening ; but may they never come again ! is the honest prayer of many that used to talk secession. Busy in the ^^^' ^^^ i^Q^t few weeks Dr. Kerfoot was incessantly hosintais. \yy^^y \y^ the hospitals. His diary teems with notes of the different wounded men, their needs and their spiritual condition, etc. He ministered to many on both sides, finding among the Confederates one former pupil, who gratefully received on his dying bed the consoling oftices of the Church, which his old Rector and Pastor was only too thankful to be able to admin- ister. After this Dr. Kerfoot broke down, and was very ill with a low, intermittent fever — hospital fever the doctors termed it — which returned on him every summer for some years, both in Hartford and in Pitts- burgh. When he recovered he paid a visit to his friends, the Whittinghams and Harrisons, in Balti- more. 1863.] THIRD TEAR OF THE WAR. 267 The Bishop of Maryland to the Rev. Dr. Eerfoot. Baltimore, Monday, Jul}- 6tb, 1863. My Dear Kerfoot., — Thank God I may now hope to get a i^fjoice^ in the line to you. This morning's news, I think, establishes the Gettystmrg. discomfiture of Lee and total failm-e of his movement. I am not without anxiety lest your danger fi-om the vaga- bond mob of a beaten army be greater than it has 3-et been while that army was under discipline and, for whatever reason, kept in comparative restraint. Your lines from Frederick reached me two days after date, and the fuller note of the 27th on the 1st inst., but not a word of your verbal messages. Xot one of the 3'oung men has had the civility to show himself or send me any verbal or written message Yet all we have been able to gather, together with your own kind information, has set us measurably at ease concerning your treatment thus far by the invaders. Until the receipt of your full note (of June 27th), my mind was constantly running on the terrible anxieties and cares which, as I con- ceived, must be pressing on you Give my warmest greetings of sympathy and aflection to ^Mrs. K., Annie and your fellow-suflerers, Coit, Falk and Coster. M}' heart has been with you all throughout your tribulation, and now joins you in thanks for deliverance Your loving friend, W. R. Whittingham. From the Same. Baltimore, July 15th, 1863. Dear Kerfoot^ — Although I have much doubt whether m}^ AnxhtUsfor last note (viz. : the one preceding) has reached you, and fear '^**' '"'^*''^- that it may be y&t some days before this can, nevertheless, as this morning's paper announces the flight of the rebels, 1 will venture. Need I say how I have been tortured with the constant thought of your new increase of perils and anxieties, if not privations and miseries, as the poor College became by de- 268 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. X. grees the very pivot of the stril'e of the two armies 'i If sym- pathies and longings for knowledge could have pierced the veil of distance, we certainly should have known your situa- tion hour b}' hour ; as it is, we cannot even try to guess it. Your notes of June 17th and July 2d came to me together the day after I wrote my last [July 6th] . Since then all communication has been cut oft" I, of course, know only what I can find in the public prints, and that suffices amply for alarm on your account, but not in the least for assurance even of your existence. But now our alarms and anxieties are excited for others in another quarter, too. Mob-rule is even worse than war, and New York is now in the third day of experience of its awful horrors From the Same, Orange, New Jersey, Aug. 20th, 1863. Efforts to keep Dear Kerfoot^ — .... Both your letters — the narrative Dr. shathick.' [the letter of July 20th above] and the plan [as to how the College might possibly be resumed] — I had sent as in confi- dence to Dr. Shattuck — who had aftbrded me opportunity by inquiring about the College aud its prospects — with part of the draft of my answer. What, if anything, may come of tliat^ remains to be seen. Shattuck is a man too large of heart and too free of hand to be urged, or even to be hinted at. What he can do he will — much more likely more, than less than he ought to do I cannot sufficiently thank God for the great relief aftbrded by the bridge providentially made over our present difficulty.' Still, I cannot but feel humbled in recognizing the disparity of what is secured, to what is due from the Church to such sons as the Faculty of St. James's have shown themselves in such times as those by which their souls have been so sorely tried. God's blessing is surely with you, I fully believe. '[The Bishop refers to a promise ' liberally himself, but withal the of funds from some friends of ' salaries of the Hector and pro- his in the North. He also gave | ^essors were ridiculously meagre.] 1863.] THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. 269 He will fulfill His own gracious will in His own wise way ; and it does now seem to me no presumption to hope that He has yet more and better work for you to do than any of all the richly rewarded labor which it has yet been your privi- lege to expend so freely in His service. May His presence be ever with you all more and more ! Yom* loving, W. R. Whittingham. Some funds having been provided for the partial payment of salaries, Dr. Kerfoot made one more effort to continue his work at St. James's, and then, in the summer of 1864, his labor of twentv-two years came abruptly to a close under circumstances which will be described in the following chapter. CHAPTER XL LAST YEAK OB^ ST. JAMES's. DE. KERFOOT TAKEN PRISONER. 1SG3-1864. Aetat. 47-48. Lccs( invasion of The twentv-second and last session of the College the Uonfedei'ates. , i^ir./-\i -.^^z, .1 i opened on the 7th oi October, 1863, with twenty-three students, who after a while increased to thirty-three.' By the resignation of one of the professors and of the curator, all the College officers were now, for the first time, a unit on the political questions of the day, and though many of the students were still Southern, a wonderful degree of harmony prevailed, and every- thing went on smoothly. The Rector, in some of his letters, speaks particularly of the cordiality of the Southern students towards himself and the Faculty, of the almost entire cessation of political wrangling among the young men themselves, of the courtesy of both sides to one another, and, in general, of the quiet, orderly and pleasant course of affairs within the College, while outside all was storm and confusion. The last entry for 1863 is as follows : Thursday, Dec. 31, 11.37 p. m.— This momentous year is nearly over, full of mercies, full of perils, full of helps, as ' The principal officers of the Faculty at this time were the Rector ; the Rev. Joseph IT. Coit, M. A., Vice-Rector; the Rev. F. W. Alexander Falk, Ph. D., and Mr. R. J. Coster (now Rector of the Bishop Bowman Institute, Pittsburgh). 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 271 full of cares. The College wonderfully kept alive through its ^<'f j^^«''* perils Eleven of my boys have died this year— eight of them in and by the war. God speed a righteous peace ! I have read the 14th, 15th and 16th chapters of St. John and prayed the 51st Psalm. I soon go to the chapel to pray and • confess and praise with those who choose to come. Shall I see 1864 to its close? God knows, and I would not know. .... Few years and months may remain. Lord, make me ready, and while I live, let me, make me, work. 1863, farewell ! . . . . Bless and protect my boys and their families ! Bless my own dear, dear home ! Besides the care that arose from conducting the College, with its reduced income and from danger of raids, this year 1864 was a time of great domestic anxiety. Dr. Kerfoot's eldest child, and now his only S071, Abel, who had returned from St. Paul's School, began to show symptoms of serious disease, which caused grave apprehensions. His wife also v.-as several times alarmingly ill, so that the mental strain from all these causes must have been very great. The Rector himself, too, suffered not seldom from overwork, both in the College and in the hospitals. Yet the full routine of College work was maintained by Dr. Eerfoot and his three faithful coadjutors. Before taking up the diary, it may be well to give a few letters selected from the correspondence of the year: The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. College of St. James, Md., Jan. 11, 1864. My Dear Bishop., — Your Epiphany letter and its generous Mr. ixraei D. enclosure from Mr. Israel D. Condit came on Saturday even- ^'<>"<^*'- ing Pray again send my thanks, and the thanks of us all, to Mr. Coudit. I will write directly to him also, and shall 272 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. be able to assure that good, large-hearted man and true friend of our work and Diocese that the College is this year in all respects doing well, and in the matter of the quiet, pleasant, but most clear, predominance of loyalty, especially well. I do not mean that the majority of our boys are Unionists— though the proportion of such is decidedly growing — but Secessionism is silent, cheerful, sociable. There is a vast difference of tone. It is known here how the College is sus- tained this year Death of his From the list of our boys, twelve were known to have died, ege oys. ^j^gj^ j vesiA the roll on New Year's Eve — ten of them in and by the war; six by battle; four by disease. Two more have become known to me since (disease). One of these I have just heard of this evening, "Johnny Giles." He died of typhoid fever, near Savannah, July 5th, after twenty days' illness. We loved him here, and in my home, dearly Eight of these fourteen died communicants. Three of these were of our noblest graduates — William Creighton Mead. (Union Army), Ives Smedes (Confederate Army), John Giles. I find that I have thought much of my College sons as treasures and honors and friends here — this side the great river. I feel poorer. I shall not have so many of them as I thought I should— not so many as my old school- father has— to come around me, if I live to be old as Dr. Muhlenberg is old— and rich now.' I know that they are surer treasures above, safe forever now. ... I enclose two letters ; please return them A. will probably soon make a visit to Baltimore, giving half her time to the Harrisons, and half to Mrs. Whitting- ham and the girls. We have had the plan for months, but Mrs. K.'s health, chiefly, has postponed definite resolve and plan All of us send love to you and yours. Ever lovingly your son, J. B. Kerfoot. 1 [See the affecting account of i himself officiating, in the Life the gathering, thirteen years a7id Work of Dr. Muhlenberg, -p^. later, at Dr. Muhlenberg's funeral 506,507.] in St. Johnland, Bishop Kerfoot ! 1R64.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 273 In a letter to Bishop Whittingham, a few days later, he says : I got Alford's Gospels (X. Y. edit.), and I like it very much. 'Testmmrd!^ * Not its rules and principles of inspiration, nor its non- church theory of the ministry, fasting, sacraments, etc. But his comments are clear, direct, and meet difficulties (more than Wordsworth meets them) ; and Alford is more believing than his theory of inspiration would at all lead one to expect. On all miracles, mysteries, etc., he is very full and express in hid utterances of deep faith. I like his good things the more, because I did not expect them. But, alas ! that Stanley can exist in our ministry and be advanced to a deanery ! . . . The Bishop of Maryland to the Rev, Dr. Kerfoot. Baltimore, Jan. 21, 1864. Dear Zer/bo^— Yours of the 11th and 15th both reached ff'i^'=ci;jf«wff6w/< ■^ ' the war. me duly. I thank you heartily for the kind remembrance shown in communicating the letters from Charley P. and Dr. Meade. They both deeply interested me, though in very difterent ways. The charming ingenuousness of Charley's open-hearted outpouring of feeling and reflection, and reminiscences and resolutions, was a refreshment indeed. Nor were the sad details of the broken hopes of Willy Meade's sorrowing, yet comforted, relatives less indicative of the same kind of influences for good in past opportunities and associations. Truly you have your reward in such histories ! Yet how grievous to think that so many, called away in the very springtime of life, should have laid down their lives for naught, and worse than naught (as far as the conscious aims to which they were sacrificed are concerned), in the service of this wretched and abominable delusion of a rebellion ! Oh, what a fearful account the hoary contrivers and drivers of its miserable work will have one day to give ! Your account of the tone and temper of your present charge is encouraging. It tallies, too, with similar observa- tions in many other quarters. No doubt the hardness and 274 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. bitterness of years past are giving way, and heads and hearts appear to be receiving influences to wliicli, no longer than a few months ago, they seemed to be obdurately closed. I am ever more and more hopeful on that score. The same day that your first letter, with the enclosures, came to hand, I received a note from the Prouds sending me a long letter which Miss N. had received from Mrs. Johnston ' in Virginia. Very, very difl'erent in its details of quiet, patient, uncomplaining endurance of privations, and actual want, and isolation from all friends, and the tortures of hopes delayed and disappointed and perpetually-recurring fears ! And yet the same spirit and influences breathing in every page — even the Good Spirit from above breathing influences of peace and trust and love and holy joy into the souls of the one household, wheresoever and howsoever sundered and kept apart. I could not but reward the P.'s kindness to me by making them partakers of my own enjoyment of yours, and communicated to them and Dr. Evans both your own letter and those enclosed. It is good that we should all be bound together by such ties M. is now gone to Eutaw Place, hoping to meet A., who was expected here last evening. We all look with glad expectance for her visit. I have been as agreeably disappointed in Smith's Bible Dictionary as you have been in Alford. It is a work of great usefulness, much less tinged than I had feared with rational- istic fancies and impertinencies. Of Stanley's Jewish Church (half of which I have read) I accept your judgment fully. Yours lovingly, W. K. W. The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to an Old Pupil ivho had asked His Advice about becoming a Candidate for Holy Orders. College of St. James, Sunday Evening, Jan. 24, 1864. My Dear , — Your letter of this day a week ago gave I [Mrs. Robert N. Johnston (nee Pringle) had, a few years before, been lady-matron of the Col- lege. She was a lady of the highest breeding, and a rare ex- ample of gentleness and of every Christian grace that can adorn the character of woman.] 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 275 me too much cause for joy and hope to be thus long unan- swered, but I had not time. I write this evening (and the duty well becomes the day), lest if I wait any longer my delay may become too great. Then, too, I wished time for thinking, and I am not yet done thinking about your case. As to your personal qualifications — physical, mental, moral and religious — T cannot have a doubt. No one that knows you can. I have seen your piety and faith triumphing by, as well as over, your peculiar trials. The one only point is the philosophy of your mind touching ^J^fJnoP'^'' theology. Understand me. I by no means undertake to say Hieoiogy. that the theology and churchmanship of any man is just the thing, much less that any one seeking truth is to aim after any such model. But there is such a thing as the system, however comiirehensive and elastic, yet real., of the Church's theology, and there is such a thing as the true philosophy — mode of reasoning — in her theology. Her Prayer Book, Com- munion and Baptismal Offices, etc., and Articles, prove this. (With this one point in view, read through the Communion and Baptismal Offices, the Creeds, the Ordination Questions and the Articles. Critical architects may point out " discrep- ancies," etc., but is there not before one a house, arealhoiise, grown up through ages, but real and alive and fit for the soul's home and shelter ?) These standards are not mere fences to hedge in some and hedge out others : they are the various sides and expressions of the Church's (i. e., the Protestant Epis- copal — Anglican — Church's) doctrines of a living fruitful body of truth. The comfort and usefulness of a minister depend on his being heartily at ease and at home in this system, etc., believing and philosophizing with it. Then he has conscious liberty of mind. Some minds can do this naturally or by training, others by or after recovery from perplexities. It is well— need/wZ— that the Church's minister should be free in this sense. The question for one contem- plating her ministry and its stringent vows, is not what is, in his view, or may yet become in his view, truth., but — is his 276 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. mind clear, as far as he sees or anticipates, that this her system is truth ? Ihi>iMbeitUh£ ^ou correctly say that deacons and priests are every year right direction, ordained who have no adequate conception that any difficulties exist in theology. But then they have (or ought to have — ought by their examiners and Bishops be seen to have) in- telligence enough in the science of theology to have set out aright. The chances and risks of their future course have to be taken. But their pledge is very distinct and strong; and to take it in ignorance is an error scarcely less than to take it in carelessness of present conviction and of the mind's tendency. Anyhow, their case is not that of one who has read and thought, and who does see difficulties — radical ones, I mean. When he has wrought his way through those up to peaceful, assured acceptance of the Church's system, he will be in many respects a very peculiarly useful man ; though the risk and cost to him have been great. But while he is un- settled, how can he pledge his faith in her doctrines — and their philosophy— to the Church? His doubts ought to be solved, or to his mind surely dissolving, before he vows ; because, till then, he cannot tell but that his vows may become impossible to him. A man in the ministry may be overtaken by such trials. His duty then is to wait, pray, work on in hope and loyalty to his Church. One not yet in the office ought to pass through all or most of his struggle before he vows. And then, what he, and we all, need is not so much that all points should be solved in detail, but that the mind's hent and philosophy should be set aright. I infer from your letter that this is so— becoming so with you. You are too honest and too intelligent in this very matter, to feel free to draw nearer the ministry, without the consciousness of some such change begun or going on. EUicott. Aiford, Now, to make myself a little clearer, I instance these Stanley. f i, , ■, ,. . of the ablest livmg teachers of our Church— EUicott, Alford and Stanley. EUicott is a man and scholar whom you ought to study and follow; a real, bold philologist and interpreter; but full of true philosophical reverence. Give your mind to him. Alford, though his theory of the inspi- 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 277 ration of the books falls short (iu my view), his philos- ophy of faith is full and deep. He believes miracles mysteries (the Incarnation, Temptation of our Lord, etc.), and reads God in the very words of the Kew Testament. Stanley is out of place in the Anglican Church, and knows it ; but thinks he ought to bring the Church about. He is very fascinating, brilliant, scholarly, etc., but the surplice looks strange on him. Such a theologian, if not in the ministry, ought not to go into it; if in it, ought to be loyally quiet, though he could not be happy. If he cannot be quiet, he ought to withdraw. If Alford were a young man and my pupil in theology, I would encourage him to go on and try to correct some points in his philosophy. Stanley I would advise to remain a layman. Ellicott I would welcome as a noble, true, free type of Anglican theology and hermeneutics in this age. You see what I mean? By all means come and spend ^"'<^«^'''^'' '' ^ Coleridge. the week — several of them — with us here, anyhow. I should like you to name the hooks you desire to talk of, that I may not stumble on some unread or forgotten by me. I wish I could hope to be able to do you the service you ask. Your words to me make the eflbrt very pleasant to me. Coleridge's Aphorism XIX and Comment (in the Aids to Reflection) I have carefully read, and I think I understand his comments, etc., on that aphorism. I cannot see what he gains in the way of clearing up mystery or removing perplexity. He says the figurative language in Holy Scripture about the Redemp- tion does not mean this nor that., but he does not say what it does mean. Redemption he uses in the question he proposes to answer, in one sense — sc, our rescue from, Shi's guilt and penalty — and the same word., in his response., he takes as if it covers all Christ's work for and in us — our sanctijication and full salvatioii. He does not answer the question agreed on, but another, which he substitutes, with the same word in it, in a sense covering its previous sense, and a world of meaning besides. If his logic were drawn out into S3'llogisms, he would (I think) be found guilty of using an "ambiguous middle " in that word redemption. Then (to be still more 278 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. presumptuous) he adopts the semi- Romish (or full Romish) exaggeration of the Incarnation of Christ — apart from His death — as the fountain of all He does for us. He lauds Luther for his "justification-by-faith " doctrine, and in the same page runs oil" into this piece of Romanism, out of which springs, logically, all that excessive sacramentalism of Rome, which kills out the faith which (he rightly says) Luther duly exalted in our justification. Christ's Incarnation =: our regeneration 1= our redemption (i. e., full, entire salvation), is the ultra- Puseyism of Archdeacon Wilberforce, and logically shuts Luther and his faith out in the cold. If Coleridge be logical in that comment, then the divines of Rome and England have all been illogical. Then he certainly talks Calvinism about the limiting of Christ's redemption to the saved {i. e., to those who have faith), and forgets his own catechism when he sneers at the idea that baptism means something (put together the answers as to the meaning of "sacraments" and the "inward part of baptism"). Coleridge was a great philos- opher. Was he a soberly, widely-read theologian ? But I meant not thus to run on. The strictly vicarious theory of Atonement is not the only one held in our Church. Bishop H. U. Onderdonk held that the death of Christ was in some way a mighty exhibition of the efiects of guilt and sin. Bishop Butler {Analogy^ Part II, chap. 5, sec. 6 — last part of it, and all of sec. 7), says just what, and all, I should like to say to you. Read that, if you will (and Waterland's Doctrine of the Eucharist^ chap. 4, first half of it [in my edition, Vol. IV, p. 512-17], and his 31st sermon [Vol. V, p. 727], Oxford, 1843). Will you, dear , write me again and more fully ? Your letter, as I say, seems to me to mean more than you felt safe yet to express. I thank God with all my heart for your reviving hope that you can enter His ministry. I am sure you see more light. My prayers have been, and shall be, for your full release from every doubt and difficulty. I do believe that the habit of looking for omvSala is yom* chief trouble. Do not waste time on this and that point. Believe that you may know is not mere piety : it is sound sense and old wisdom. 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 279 Aud go to see the Bishop [Whittingham] . 1 happeu to have had knowledge that he missed j'our visits. You know his heart — no matter about his earnest manner. You trust and love him, I know. Go, in that feeling. He will welcome 3^ou and help you. Oh, if 3^ou could walk forward in the fiiith 3'our heart craves to have — out of this twilight into the bright, blessed daylight of the Church's clear, wide, real truth — you would be happy and very useful. May the Sph-it of Liberty lead you out into His own truth ! I will retain your papers now till I hear from or see you. You cannot ofler them till Lent begins. The Standing Committee does not meet till the first week of Lent. And this delay— if needful — is right and safe for you and Christ's people. The way once clear, your cheerful progress will be your gain and the Church's. God bless you, my dear son ! With warmest love, your friend, J. B. K. As the session of 1863-6-i drew to its close, it became painfully evident that it was likely to be the last session of St. James's College. The final break-up will be fonnd to be so fully described by Dr. Kerfoot's intimate friend and colleague, the Rev. Joseph H. Coit,' that it is not necessary here to do more than quote a few passages from Dr. Kerfoot's own letters and diaries. These will show that Mr. Coit perfectly understood, and has by no means overstated, the diffi- culties of the situation. In June, 1864, Dr. Kerfoot received, through Dr. Dr. shattwk. ' ' J & Trinity College. George C. Shattuck, of Boston — always a most gener- ous friend of St. James's — overtures respecting the Presidency of Trinity College, Hartford. The question of the possibility of going on with the College of St. James, on the very border-line between ' See Chap. XII, Pt. 2cl, aud Appendix to this Chapter. 280 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. the two armies, required immediate and definite settlement. In a long letter (June 18) to Bishop Whittingham, the Rector speaks freely of his per- plexity — the impossibility of keeping on, and yet his pain in giving up what he had looked upon as his life's work : Of course, this inquiry [whether he would take the Presi- dency of Trinity] seems to me not to be disregarded. Here I have loved, as I think I never can again love, any work. It seems impossible that St. James's should stop ; almost impossible that I should leave it My whole family feel just as I do. Maryland, and you, and all the ties, are very near and dear. My life's work, and — I think I may call it — righteous ambition, would keep me as and where I am. You know all this Were I still fitted for it, parish work would be my choice if St. James's ceased. But no such work would be likely to ofler itself to me in Maryland, nor perhaps anywhere, that would so well meet my needs and habits as some College work. To be free to resume St. James's, if ever it became practicable, would be my desire. Parish work would better permit this. So my mind runs on. .... I have read all this to Mr. Coit, who shares my thoughts and feelings in these matters. Think over it. We will try to bear or do as He wills, who has so long and wonderfully helped and tried our work. Pardon my haste and incoherence. I am, my dear Bishop, ever daily, more and more lovingly, your son in Christ, J. B. Kerfoot. A few days later, after a visit from Dr. Shattuck, he writes again to Bishop) Whittingham : .... Dr. S. at once entered on this matter of Trinity Col- lege. He speaks for Bishop Williams The contin- gencies that may yet prevent the offer are few and small, etc. Of course, just as ever, we long to keep up our own Col- 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JA3IES'S. 281 lege, but prudence requires me to consider such a proposition as this, and the trustees must take the responsibility of sa}'- ing whether the College is to go on. I must not be left to decide the question, nor to solicit, year by year, salaries for myself and others. Dr. Shattuck's past and present deeds and gifts to St. James's, his present offer to the College, if it continues, and his errand for Trinity, bring this whole matter up before the trustees I have but one personal reason of force that makes me (now as for eighteen months past) desire a change — my wife's health. Dr. S. thinks the change very probably desirable for her. Hard-worked as we all are, we would not refuse to work on, if we could see the promise of successful, full co-operation. Once more, July 16, to Bishop Whittingham, after the raid which had caused the College hastily to dis- band : If you think of this care on my heart for wife and son, added to the toil and anxiety for the College, you will not won- der that I sometimes look longingly for change and rest. But I have great comfort in feeling that I do wish to have God's will, not mine, wrought out. Perhaps Abel and I may drop in on Mrs. Whittingham next week. My plans must be con- tingent on many things. Among others, we have had to-day rumors of Longstreet's being at Winchester, etc In this state of doubt he made a short visit to Bal- timore after the session at St. James's had closed. He left Baltimore, en route for Boston, quite hopeless, and almost satisfied that if Trinity College should be oflered, prudence and duty to himself and his family would alike require him to accept it. All this, as well as the stirring events that followed, will be best told in the brief but graphic jottings of his own diary. 282 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. Diary. March 1, 1864. — Forty-eight years old to-day! twenty-seven years in the holy ministry. Read through in my ordination prayer-book the ordination services of deacon and priest — the same pages I read from twenty-seven and twenty-four years ago this day God has been very, very good to me these many years. He is a dear, good Father to his sinful child, through Christ. I will love and serve Him more, by His grace. All well and cheerful at home and all very loving to me to-day God bless wife and children ! . . . . June 2. — Dr. Coxe came to deliver his course of Lectures on English Literature.' Confederate Sunda}', July 3. — About 7 o'clock p. m. came strong rumors of rebel attacks on Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Neighbor- hood alarmed ; taking off their horses. Boys interested, not unduly excited ; no wrong feeling. I think it is a raid, no more. May God shelter us all ! July 4. — Bright, pleasant day. Sent out "scouts" (four students) to Williamsport and Lappan's Cross-Roads for news. By them and by others we learned that a large force was near the river, under Ewell aud Early. Signs of cross- ing ; an invasion, not a raid. About noon, our horses (nine in all) went off under Dr. Talk's care with two men and one of the students (H. Hooper) for safety. Agitating rumors all day. Known by night that the Con- federate pickets wai'e in Williamsport (four miles distant), aud the Union pickets in Hagerstown (six miles off) and at Lap- pan's Cross-Roads (two and a half miles off"). At midday, by the help of the boys and our men, we moved all our meat from the meat-house up to the attics, etc., and our butter ' [Dr. Kei'foot sajs later: "His visit and lectures most delight- ful." Farther on, he speaks of the lectures of Dr. Hugh Dave^' Evans on Law and History-, and of those of Dr. Shattuck on Anat- omy and Hygiene, etc. This shows that up to the end, and with war's alarms at the very doors, every effort was made to keep the College course of studies fully up to the mark.] 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 283 from the spring-house to the basement of Claggett Hall ; all the boys behaving quietly, well and kindly. Mr. Coster and Earp went to Hagerstown for the mail and supplies. July 5. — At 11 o'clock pretty sure word of Confederate forces at Sharpsburg and Keedysville. "Scouts" went otf for news, and Earp and Griswold to Hagerstown for addi- tional supplies. Fight and skirmish from Hagerstown to Lappan's Cross-Roads from three to four o'clock. Went through the day^sfuU work. Two Juniors, C. Pitts and Mid- dleton, sat up as watchmen. Dr. Falk and Hooper came back safe. Jul}'' 6. — Anniversary of my mother'' s death. — Quiet till 11 o'clock. Then Dr. Falk drove out to look after some matters ; soon came back; he had been stopped and robbed by 2i iier. Dr. Falk lieutenant and two soldiers of watch, cigar-case, etc. (He had a considerable sum of money with him, which he just succeeded in concealing in his boot.) Just as he was telling his story, came the same lieutenant and men for horses. They took our tvvo old grays — old Jerry and Jim (the latter out of Dr. F.'s buggy) — and Black Turk, leaving us no horse at all. The boys. Southern and all, very indignant at Dr. Falk's robbery. We at once set to work to scatter our store- room contents. The boys gave their watches to the ladies to wear on their persons. About 3 p. m. Monegan's wife (from a neighboiing farm) came over weeping and begging for help ; '' they were robbing her," etc. I started out with some boys to bring away her clothes, etc., and just then "Lieut. Jones, commanding the 115th X. Y. Hawk Eyes," so he gave his name afterwards, came dashing up over the lawn, with some six men, pistols drawn, right towards our boys (all of whom were standing outside), calling out to me : " Well, you are all in arms against us ; turn out your cadets and let's see them fight! " [The brief, hurried diary does not record all that took place. As reported by eye-witnesses. Dr. Kerfoot sprang out in front of his boys, and when the "lieutenant" called out to him, as above mentioned, he answered in his firm, strong voice, "If you will get down ofl' your horse, and speak like a gentleman, I will talk with you." The man 284 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. looked at him with a surprised countenance for a moment, and then dismounted. Dr. Kerfoot courteously lifted his hat, stepped forward and oflered his hand, saying, " You are mis- taken, sir, in supposing these young men to be cadets. I am the Rev. Dr. Kerfoot, and this is a College of the Episcopal Church. If you look up you will see the cross over the chapel. Firearms are not allowed among our students." The lieutenant changed his demeanor and turned to his men, say- ing they seemed to have made a mistake, and then introduced himself to Dr. Kerfoot. The diary continues :] He then became very courteous, quite satisfied of our character, but avowed himself and his men partisan rangers, not bound by any laws of war, took no prisoners, etc., etc. He said they had enlisted in New York to get South, and then had deserted, but kept their old name. They then went ofl', leaving us very uneasy. A perilous position, as aW felt it to be. We are in the midst of outlaw soldiers and robbers. God keep us all ! St James's not Clear now that St. James's is not to live here. God's will be to live here. done ! July 7. — First day of midsummer examination. Last night all quiet. No news till 10 and 11 o'clock. Then word came of the burning of storehouses at Williamsport, robbery of in- habitants tiiere, etc.^ Later in the day word came that Hagerstown had been forced to pay $30,000—820,000 cash, and $10,000 in clothes, stores, etc. The Confederates were going thence towards Boonsboro. Only two horsemen and ' [The italics evidently mean that Southerners no less than Unionists felt this.] "^ [Dr. Kerfoot, of course, knew that these acts, as well as the subsequent burning of Chambers- burg, were done in retaliation for the recent devastations of private property in Virginia by Gen. Hunter. Hunter's doings had increased the fears of the Mary- landers and Penusylvanians. In a letter to Bishop Whittingham, written at this very time, July 5, 1864, Dr. K. says: "The wicked and needless destruction of private and other unwarlike property by Hunter lately, made us anxious for mills and colleges if the rebels should cross the river. I wish Mr. Lincoln would repro- bate and prohibit what we should agree would be gross wrong against us, if done here by Con- federates."! 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 285 three foot-soldiers passed through our grounds to-day. We hear of robberies all around us, but God has thus far merci- fully kept us with little harm. No word 3'et of our horses, nor of U. S. armies, near or distant. Our College examina- tion (!) took place from 8.30 a. m. to 12, and from -4 to 5 p. m. We so far shortened the hours that five hours instead of six and a half were given to examination. All goes on well. The boys behave beautifully. T. Pitts, Mealey, Campbell and Chiswell watched last night. I was quite worn out by midnight, and lay down and slept. Tliese days are very wearing, but God lovingly keeps us. — Got promise of fresh beef (lately killed and salted) from Rowland to-morrow for dinner. A tierce fire at Sharpsburg at 11 p. m. July 8. — Examinations went on three and a half hours in closing daiju. the morning, one hour in the afternoon. Order, temper, work, excellent. Day quiet. About 10 o'clock Confederate cavalry in twos or threes went through the grounds. About 12 o'clock word comes of a barn of Mr. Hammond's burnt last night ; and this afternoon a squad of drunken soldiers burned down a distillery and farmhouse (" Dalton ") two miles from us. Violence and fires are now of daily occur- rence. So far, we are safe, thank God ! but we have many perils — never so man}' real ones before in any year. Houses are searched under pretense of looking for arms ; money is really the object. Some neighbors have been violently robbed under threats and attempts to kill. We have a watch to-night of six vigilant, stout "■ boys." The whole tone of our boys is noble. They do much of the work of our absent men : bring the meat, mend the pump, etc., etc. I never liked any set better — seldom as well. Southern and all are one with us in these things now. This last week (last of St. James's, on this spot) is full of zeal, warm and loving, as well as of anxieties. God bless the dear boys and us all ! July 9. — Oral examination of tlie College classes. Day quiet. No Confederates seen or heard of near us. They seem to have gone east towards Frederick. No more just now among us. Laus Maxima Deo! They may come back on retreat this way. Fred comes this evening. Our horses safe in the 286 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. mountains ; right glad. This afternoon was to have been the Confirmation by Bishop Whittingham. God has hindered ; His will be done ! July 10. — 7th Sunday after Trinity. Services as usual. (A. F., J. B. K., J. H. C, R. J. C.) Administered Holy Communion ; sixteen communicants. Preached 6 oclock p. m., extemporaneously, closing sermon of the year, on the Gospel for the day. Communicants' meeting 7 a. m. Private talks with six of the communicants [whose names are men- tioned]. Quiet day. Pony belonging to the Kennedys stolen last night from the stable. News of Frederick City being taxed $60,000, and word of Hunter's troops coming from Hancock. Mr. Coit and B. Campbell went to Hagers- town to inquire. My closing Sunday services. Probably my last as Rector. If so, His will be done ! July 11. — Examination of Senior Class from 9 to 11.30. Mr. Coit comes out from Hagerstown, bringing rumors of Con- federates burning a bridge on N. C. R. R. at Cockeysville, etc., etc. Frederick taxed $200,000, etc., etc. What does all this mean ? 4 p. m., Mr. B. [former Curator of the College, a gentleman who sympathized with the South] flies to me from threats of killing by four United States soldiers, who went to seek him at his farm on the Sharpsburg turnpike. Mr. Coit and I go over to his house, Mr. B. staying up stairs in the Rectory and not going home all night. Slept in Mr. C.'s room. Mr. C. at liis house. All quiet so far (11 p. m.). To-night rumors of Confederates at Tovvsontowu, Ellicott's Mills — hardly true. Arranged to-day to have our Commence- ment — private — to-morrow at 4 p. m., and send ofl' all on Wednesday. But we may have to keep the Baltimore boys for a while. A hmried ^"^1 1^. — Compositions and declamations from 9 to 10.30 ''Commence- 2i^ m. for College classes. About 10.30 came word that a ment. ^ large force of Confederates — 40,000— were coming from Boonsboro to Hagerstown. We decide to have "Commence- ment "at once. So, at 11 o'clock, in the chapel, all four clerg3' in tl»e chancel, with suitable, brief service and address. 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 287 I admitted S. Earp, T. D. Pitts, E. Mealey, J. B. Chesley, A. Neill (absent), Bachelors in Arts ; and Abel A. Kerfoot, Rev. L. J. Mills, Rev. R. G. Hutton and Dr. W. G. Harrison, Masters in Arts. At 2 p. m., fourteen boys went ofi' North, to Chambersburg, by stage. This evening there are twelve still here, most being Baltimoreans whose home is not accessible now. Thus my closing academic work here is done! God's will be done to His glory, in Jesus Christ! Amen! The Rev. Dr. Kerfoot to the Bishop of Maryland. College of St. James, Md., July 12, 1864, 12.30 p. m. My Dear Bishop, — You know how changed things are from my anticipations in my letter a week ago to-day. We have just had our Commencement in the chapel ; that is to say, no speeches, but only conferring of degrees on four B. A.'s and four M. A.'s — one of the last four, Abel, receiving it in person. We have gone fully through this whole examination amid much excitement all around us. The students have behaved nobly — every one obedient and quiet, and all the older ones uniting to do the work of some of the workmen who were absent keeping watch, etc. We had planned our private \)Vit full Commencement (the usual speeches, etc.) at 4 p. m. to-day, but news came of the cutting of the Phila- delphia R. R., and of large Southern force coming to Hagers- town, very near. So we decided to have the conferring of degrees in the chapel at once, and let all who could go North to their homes or to near friends' houses, do so at once. The Baltimore boys mostly stay here till more reliable word comes. All are well and safe. The details of the week past must await a future narration ; paper would be a poor medium, and I have not time. May God carry us through safely ! Our prayers and sympathies are with you and you all. If this be, as it must seem, the close of our College work here or anywhere, then old St. James's falls, by God's grace, with her hand on the plough and the plough in the furrow ; or, to speak more correctly, she finished to-day one harvest more and housed it before the storm ! Thanks be to 288 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. God ! We are by no means sure that any will get oft" to Hagerstown and beyond. This letter may not get through. The events of this hour in Hagerstown may prevent the egress of our boys from here as well as from there. Ever your loving son in Christ, J. B. Kerfoot. Diary. Wednesday, July 13. — Spent to-day reading Romola. No rumors, I think, of alarming character. Ko work done by the tvvelve boys still here, but chapel, meals, etc., at regular hours. July 14. — Busy till dinner entering records into the book of " Records of Degrees," etc, for 1863 and 1864. Home anxieties. At dinner, at 2.30, my dear wife suddenly struck with rush of blood to the head ; very ill for an hour and a half. I thought her going to die. It was a dreadful agony for the time. I used vigorous remedies (the doctor afterward approved them), and Dr. D. came at 4 p. m. and was able to bleed her and she rallied. Thank God, she is spared yet! Mrs. Kennedy and Mrs. Griswoldcame out from Hagerstown, and Mrs. K. stayed here till Friday evening. Rumors, not proving correct, of more Confederates. July 15. — Wife better. The mail of all the days (save one) since the 2d came to-day. Among my letters was one from Dr. Shattuck telling of the probable hopelessness of his visit to the trustees in Baltimore ; he despairs of St. James's, and then speaks of matters at Trinity College ; a letter from Mr. W. G. Harrison advising giving up the College during the war. I was much depressed by my alarm of yesterday and by these letters. Nice letter from S. H. K. July 16. — Day quiet. Long conference with Mr. Coit and Dr. Falk. July 17.— 8th Sunday after Trinity. 10.20 p. m. The last eleven of our boys have just set out in a stage for Frederick and Baltimore. There are yet one and a half hours of Sunday, and I regret not keeping to first plan, which was to start at 12 ; but their long delay (since Tuesday last), and the 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 289 probable dela3's on the way, etc., induced me to say they might set out now. I have talked to-day with each one of them [here follow the names of the eleven boys] . My heart is very sad. Perhaps — probably— this is the full end of my work here. I have come back to my study and prayed the Lord's Prayer, and asked pardon for all my shortcomings these twenty-two years, and will, by God's help, face the future Chapel services 10.30 a. m. Dr. Falk preached on Jacob's wrestling ; 6 p. m., J. B. K. preached brief sermon on St. Matt. xi. 28, 29, 30 ("Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden," etc.). — " Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven !" July 18. — Made anxious by rumors of "rebels crossing," and by sounds of loud cannonading a little west of us. July 19. — All quiet. Anxious, wearisome days, all these now. Anxieties for home health and College plans. July 20. — Wednesday. Getting ready to set out to-morrow with Abel for Baltimore and Boston. May God prosper my eft'orts for the College and for Abel's health, and keep my dear, dear wife and children and myself safe ! . . . . Dr. Shattuck had recommended his taking Abel to jo,ir7iey to Bai- Boston to consult Dr. Brown-Sequard, and this vfas^Zfton""'' one purpose of the journey. Of course, he could not leave his family in this part of Maryland without the gravest anxiety, which subsequent events too fully justified. They reached Baltimore on Thursday night, July 21, by the first throiigh train since the raid, and took lodgings at the Eutaw House. July 22. — Friday. Got up with bad headache. We went to Bishop W.'s to breakfast, and then had long conversation with the Bishop about the College and our hopes and plans. . The Bishop had little hope, and could name no efficient, influential, devout Union men in Maryland for the three trustees needed. Went to the Harrisons'. W. G. H. had 290 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XL gone out. Talked over all the subject with Hall Harrison and Kobert Oliver, and then with Miss M. S. H. Met Mr. W. G. H. at 4.30 p. m., and talked fully, and then Mi\ F. W. Brune came, and we had a very cordial conference ; zeal, but not very much hope. July 23. — Left Baltimore 1.10 for i^ew York. Many pon- derings on the way. Saw clearly that little hope could be had of raising the funds needed for the College, especially if it had to be moved to some safer place nearer Baltimore. Beached New York 11 p. m. July 24. — Sunday. Preached at Calvary Church for Dr. Coxe. In afternoon preached on "Naaman," at St. Luke's Hospital. Dear Dr. M. not at home. Evening, at 9 o'clock, full talk with Dr. Coxe. He m-ged my not going on with St. James's, but my taking Trinity College, if elected. July 25. — To Boston. At Dr. Shattuck's : talk about St. James's and Trinity College. July 26 Anxious, owing to startling rumors of new raid near our home. July 27. — Went with Abel to see Dr. Brown-Sequard. The doctor very hopeful, thank God ! To New York at 5 p. m. Rumors growing of raid near home. July 28. — Thursday. New York. Irving House. Telegram from wife: "No rebels this side Potomac, and no need to come." Spent evening with Dr. M. at St. Luke's. He urged me to accept Trinity College, if chosen. At U p. m. Mr. J. Elected Presi- H. Swift told me of my election as President of Trinity "'"''''"^'■*"*'^- College. Letters to wile, etc., Mr. W. G. H., Bishop VV., Mr. Coit. July 29, Friday. — Received Bishop Williams's letter, telling me of my election, and asking me to meet him next day on railroad towards Hartford Took my state-room for New Haven ; then saw bulletins of entrance of Confederates into Hagerstown. Anxious ; doubtful about my coui-se .... decided to push on to Hartford. Anxious for my dear wife and daughters, but clear that I must push on, July 30, Saturday, — At New Haven early. Walked about 1864.] LAST TEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 291 Yale College. At Berlin met Bishop Williams, who warmly welcomed me ; gave me formal call to the Presidency of Trinity College. At Hartford with Bishop Williams, Rev. Mr. Mallory and Professor Brocklesby ; visited College build- ings and site. Very pleasant. Warm welcome from Bishop Brownell and all. Much pleased with Hartford and the Col- lege My first day at my probable future home. July 31. — Tenth Sunday after Trinit}^ 8.30 a. m. Assisted at Holy Communion at St. John's Church (Rev. Mr. Doane) ; 10.45, preached at St. John's ; 3.15, preached at Christ Chui'ch (Rev. Dr. Clark). Most cordial reception by every one ; much with Mr. Mallory, whom I liked very much. Just before 10.45 service read bulletin of burning of Chambers- £i,„(i/(fir 6/ burg, but did not beheve it. Visited Bishop Brownell at <-''<('"^<^'->(>"rg. five o'clock. Got very pleasant impressions of Hartford, its people and my work there, should I come, as I frankly said I hoped to do. Left for Xew York, 11 o'clock. August 1, Monday. — In New York by 4.30. Left for New- burg to see Abel, etc.; there till 9 p. m., when Abel and I came down by barge to New York, hoping to get home by some route. August 3, Wednesday. — Left Harrisburg at 8, leaving oui- watches with Dr. Roberts, fearing Confederate raids, and oui- trunks with Adams' Express for same reason. Were kept at Chambersburg from 11.30 till 4.30. No cars would go nearer Hagerstown before. Saw all the fearful desolation of the tire. Sad, heartrending sight ! Saw, too, the poverty that needed and the abounding charity that supplied the wants of food among the hundreds thus impoverished. Reached Hagerstown at 6.30. Found wife and children well at Mi"s. Kennedy's. August 4. — Thursday. National fast-day. Rode out with family at 10 a. m. Busy reading and answering letters, etc. Fast-day services over at the chapel, but we had them among ourselves at family prayers. Conferences with Mr. Coit (Dr. Falk and Mr. Coster in Hagerstown) about our new proceed- ings. At evening alarms of Confederates coming. Made arrangements for horses going, but these failed. 292 LIFE OF BISHOP EERFOOT. [Chap. XI. August 5. — I'iiday. Early word, " JSo rebels coming," and Mr. Coster set out for Boonsboro and Baltimore. Then surer word, "They are coming." Tardy arrangements for the horses to go — Dr. F. his two, Mr. C. his, and mine. Just then four or five Confederates ride in. Dr. P. drives ofl', and Mr. C. and 1 walk up with ours to give them up, when one asks for me. It turns out to be Major B., of North Carolina, a pupil here ten years ago. He and his squad were here one hour ; very polite and cordial ; did not take the horses, but advised us to send them away.' At 11 o'clock came Major Peyton, Gen. Khodes's adjutant, asking permission to put his headquarters at oui- s|iring. Afterwards Gen. Ramseur took Gen. lihodes's place. All very polite ; good guards at once set. We put Mr. Colt's horse and mine in our cellar, and told Gen. Ramseur ; he said they would be safe. Captains Phillips and Moore (former pupils), Gen. Ramseur and others, dined at tlie College table. One .ugly fellow, a Major S , pitched his tent just in front of our parlor windows. My wife heard him m-ging the burning of the College, and he was very coarse and offensive in talk and actions. Gen. Ramseur (Va.) and several officers took tea at the rectory. At tea Gen. Ramseur was called out by an order from Gen. Early, through Major Peyton. He called me out to my parlor, and there Major Peyton very gently told me that Gen. Early An-estof Dr o^^'dered me and Mr. Coit under close arrest, to leave early to- Kerfoot and M?: morrow morning for Bichmond, as hostages for the Rev. l)r. Boyd, of Winchester, Va., now in the Wheeling military prison ! Awful word this, to me for my own sake, and dear Mr. Colt's, and far more so to me (and to him, too) for my family's sake — my sick wife and son. Sad, busy night, full of sorrow, care, thought for the futui-e, preparations, business. ' [The polite major, giving an amusing account of this scene afterwards to some of the ladies, said he saw that old gentlemen (Dr. Falli) driving his horses off, and was about to stop him, when just then the Rector came in sight. "The old feeling of awe and respect came over me, and, to tell the honest truth, I believe I was half afraid to take those horses," etc.] 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 293 etc. Mr. C. and I under close guard in my parlor, or, if we went out, a guard with us. My noble wife sat up all night, calm, quiet, loving and efficient. Sent for Mr. Breathed, who engaged to go early in the mornins to Gen. Ehodes, and with him to Gen. Early, to urge, for my wife and son's sake, that our parole be taken to secure Dr. Boyd's release, or, if unsuccessful, surrender ourselves; and that we be temporarily released. Officers and guards all tender and kind, and much sympathy shown by them. Family prayers in my "prison" about 10 p. m.; the 27th Psalm (Domiims illuminatio mea), tirst of evening Psalter for Day 5th, read. Oh how true for us all ! Lay down and dozed or slept a little on the floor. Up and down all night on this and that provision for family and self. Sad, sad night of fear and pain ; but not deserted (any of us) by God: He was near. Mr. Coit very sympa- thizing and unselfish Night wore away Saturday, Aug. 6, came after the long, weary night. A. read me the Psalter for the morning. Psalm 30 (" Heavi- ness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morn- ing," etc.) sounded so hopeful; but I dared only take it as true to my soul ; perhaps not — most probably not. just now— to my body, and family, and to Mr. Coit Had breakfast ; C. and I tried to eat, but little appetite. The two guards (with their guns) sat down with us. At breakfast, about 8 o'clock, Mr. Breathed came with General Early to the rectory. General Early detailed the history of Dr. Boyd's arrests,' and gently, firml)', showed the necessity of this act for his release. I offered my parole to secure his Released on ^ /. parole. release or give myself up; Mr. C. fully joined in. General Early said he would take our parole to secure Dr. B.'s return to his home, or we to go to Richmond. Great, merciful relief! ' [The Rev. Dr. Hunter Boyd had been arrested, released, re- arrested, etc. The treatment of this excellent o;entleman had deeply aronsed the resentment of the Confederate authorities. His was one of many cases of hardship in that part of Virginia which was repeatedly occupied by the two armies in turn. Some of the chief facts in relation to his case will be mentioned hereafter, in connection with Dr. Kerfoot's visit to Washington.] 294 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. Till then I had (all night) kept up. Then, for a moment, tears of joy would come for my wife and children. I left for a moment to tell them, and came back. General Early then clearly detailed the excessive and needless molestation of persons and destruction of private property by General Tlunter and others ; urged his unwillingness to do any such things, but the absolute necessity of them as protection by means of retaliation. His purpose clearly was to make through us, to our government and the public, a full and strong protest on these matters. His long statement (three- quarters of an hour or more) was very clear, calm and earnest, and very courteous.' He gave me a written protec- tion for all our property here, personal and collegiate (I told him of our horses). He needed no breakfast (had eaten), but his aids took breakfast. He parted with us very cour- teously, andVe with him.^ A happy household now. The 1 [The writer remembers hear- ing from one who was present that General Early's whole de- meanor was most dignified and courteous. His conversation — all about the burning of Charm- bersburg (so he pronounced it), etc. — was deeply interesting, and he displayed remarkable power in grouping his facts and present- ing his case in the strongest and clearest light.] 5 [The following is an exact copy of the parole demanded and the pass given by General Early : Hd.-Qu. C. S. Forces in Maryland, 6th August, 1864. The Rev. Jno. B. Kerfoot, D.D., of the College of St. James, and the Rev. Joseph H. Coit, of the same institution, located in the County of Washington, Mary- land, having been arrested by my order, to be held as hostages for the Rev. Hunter Boyd, D. D., of Winchester, Virginia, now held as a prisoner at Wheeling by the United States authorities, are, at their instance, released from close arrest and permitted to go at large, upon their promise on honor not directly or indirectly to disclose anything in regard to the movements or strength of the Confederate troops under my command, or any facts in rela- tion thereto which may be preju- dicial to the Confederate States, and upon their further promise that iinless the said Rev. Hunter Boyd, D. D., is released from arrest and permitted to return to bis home in Winchester, Virginia, untrammelled by any obligations to the Federal authorities, within three weeks from this date, they will, as soon as practicable, sur- render themselves into the cus- 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 295 guards (Lieutenant Larkins in charge — a very kind man) and officers came forward with warm congratulations. Then we too could eat, and be very thankful. The 30th Psalm icas true ! The whole place very busy for two hours ; then regi- ments came through ; then provost guards left. Some stragglers seen. Two pretended provost guards appeared "to prevent stealing." Soon two more joined them, and then they came to the house, " and now would take those horses out of the cellar." The)' laughed at General Early's safeguard. " Old Jube [General Jubal Early] did not mean half his orders." So, before our ej'es, they took LIr. C.'s beautiful horse and our dear " Little Mac."' No help for this : officers all gone. Well, we were here, if horses gone. K. cried for Little Mac, and we all felt as if we could have done so! A glad, but weary, day. I feel much run down. Evening. Howard K. and B. Campbell (two students) came out from Hagerstown to try to save our Tiorses. Reports of our arrest and parole had gone to town by Confederate soldiers. Sad word they bring of the arrest of Rev. Mr. Edwards and others as hostages, etc. Several Secessionists had gone after them to Williamsport to secure their release Poor Mrs. E. followed her husband on foot to Williamsport. Very anxious for poor Edwards ; God help and release him ! [They were speedil}' released ; see below.] Wrote up my journal from July 21 to 30, then went thank- tody of the Commissioner of Ex- same facts, and continued : " We change at Richmond; and, to I bind ourselves in honor to report procure said release, the said to the Commissioner of Ex- gentlemen, or either of them, change, etc., as soon as it maybe shall be permitted to pass any practicable to do so, unless the pickets or guards of the Con- said Dr. Boyd is unconditionally federate States Army that it may released .... within three be necessary to pass on the way weeks," etc. to Washington City. The official copy of this parole J. A. Early, Lt.-GeTieral. The parole signed by Dr. Ker- foot and Mr. Coit, recited the found among Dr. Kerfoot's papers is signed, A. G. Pendleton, Lt.-Col. and A. A.-O., C. S. A.] 296 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. fully to my own bed, among ray own dear ones, from whom the night before I expected a long, anxious severance ; they sick and anxious, and I very anxious, weary, suffering, and likely to be sick myself; but now all is hopeful, for I trust I shall succeed in getting Dr. Boyd's release. On Sunday afternoon wrote up the rest of this journal to this point, for we all leave on Tuesday. None of us safe here ; I am not. Hence we work hard this Sunday, of necessity. Last Sunday. August 7. — 11th Sunday after Trinity. Anniversary of my father's death, August 7, 1825, thirty-nine years ago. God's mercy to us all, how clear and full ! At 10.30 full service and Holy Communion in chapel. Our last Com- munion here. Nine communicants in all. [Here follow the names.] 6 p. m. — I baptized a child. Thus, on this last Sunday, loth sacraments. Fai'ewell, dear chapel and its services ! We all took farewell walk at 7.30 p. m. to the cemetery, to the graves of W. J. K. and H. — dear little ones ! Busy all day working to prepare to set out on Tuesday for Baltimore and the North. On the next day, August 8, he records that in the evening his dear friends in Hagerstown, "Mrs. Ken- nedy, Mrs. Campbell, and Mrs. Griswold, Mrs. L. Dorsey and Mrs. J. D., Rev. Mr. Edwards and Mrs. E.," and some of the "old boys," came out to say a sorrowful good-bye. " Busy all day, writing up letters, preparing for moving, packing," etc. The above is the last entry in the St. James's diary. On Tuesday, the 9th of August, 1864, Dr. Kerfoot and his family (his wife, son and two daughters), sad and silent, with scarcely repressed tears, bade good- bye, never to return, to the beautiful spot which had been their happy home for twenty-two years. Those years had been full of useful toil ; they had been 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 297 sanctified by sorrow and cheered by many dear friend- ships, which, after all, are the sweeteners of human life ; and although the end, when at last it came, was sudden, disappointing and even tragic in its circum- stances, the retrospect was, then and always, full of the consolation that comes from the recollections of a life of unselfish and unceasing devotion to the good of others. " I therefore go, and join head, heart and hand, Active and lirm, to fight the bloodless fight Of Science, Freedom and the Truth in Christ. Yet oft, when after honorable toil Eests the tired mind, and, waking, loves to dream, My spirit shall revisit thee, dear home ! And I shall sigh fond wishes — sweet abode ! Ah — had none greater ! And that all had such !"i The next few days were not only very anxious, but extremely busy ones for Dr. Kerfoot and his fellow prisoner, Mr. Coit. The main facts of T>y. ThecaseqfDr. Boyd's hard treatment were known from Gen. Early, ^ ' but it was all-important to obtain such proof as might be satisfactory to the "War Department in Washing- ton. After much correspondence with Maj.-Gen. Sigel, Gen. "W. P. Maulsby, and other oflBcers who had been concerned with Dr. Boyd's case, the follow- ing facts were elicited. During the winter of 1863-64 three gentlemen of Virginia, Mr. Conrad, Mr. Dandridge, and Rev. Dr. Boyd, were arrested by the Federal authorities as hostages for certain members of the West Virginia Legislature who had been arrested by the Confeder- ' From Coleridge's "Lines on Leaving a Dear Old Home." 298 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. ates. An exchange was effected, but Dr. Boyd, instead of being released as agreed upon, was retained in custody as hostage for one Dooley, who bad been captured by the Confederates and taken to Rich- mond. So great was the interest felt in Dr. Boyd's case (for he was one of the most estimable and respected gentlemen in the community), that Mr. Edmund Pen- dleton, a prominent citizen of Martinsburg, well known, too, as a " Union man," endeavored to secure his release. Mr. Pendleton submitted evidence, which he had obtained from Richmond, that Dooley had been taken with papers on his person which proved him to be in the military service of the United States, and that he was properly retained in custody, not as a political prisoner, but as a prisoner of war strictly so called. Moreover, proof was furnished that Dooley, whoever and whatever he was, had died in prison in Richmond. The retention of Dr. Boyd as a political prisoner, for Dooley, was acknowledged by the United States Judge Advocate (to whom the matter had been referred by Mr. Pendleton's exertions) to be, under the circumstances, unjust and unauthorized. Besides, it was hard to keep poor Dr. Boyd languish- ing in prison in Wheeling until the Confederates exchanged a man who had been some months dead ! One difiiculty was — too much " red tape "; the Judge Advocate's papers had been returned to h'im " because of some informality in the endorsement, and were then at headquarters in Cumberland, with which at pres- ent there was no communication." Besides this, no one cared enough about the matter to see that justice ^^-^\y\-^ t_7-v-C/C W"-w_-i ^ O-w-^ 't'X^i.^k^ ^ C»--v—t_ t»-'V-w,^,»j-,.,,_^ VL-i_X, l^w-w-vT^-T "jrs^-v-v-.^ TT1-v.,<_ ./-w-w-w^ «--v-u.*_^ t-| oc_ »M>4.>-C--L- ijj t-v^a-i .^ (JOc^Ut V.A'i-^-^j l--W»-^ t 2^1<;J^ 1864.] LAST YEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 299 was done, until the retaliatory measures of Gen. Early- forced attention to the case. Having found out all that could be known, the next thing was to secure the influence of prominent Union men in the North to whom it was supposed that President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton would not turn a deaf ear. The friends of Dr. Kerfoot and Mr. Coit were very active and did all they could. Dr. Shattuck and various prominent gentlemen in Boston and Hartford, Mr. William Welsh in Phila- delphia, Bishop Whittingham in Baltimore, and many others, wrote letters and signed papers stating the claims of Dr. Kerfoot to the considerate attention of the Government, and begged that justice might be done to Dr. Boyd, so as to secure Dr. Kerfoot's release. Armed with these documents, and able to state their case with force and clearness, Dr. Kerfoot and Mr. Coit repaired to Washington and took up their quarters at Willard's Hotel. Any one who knows what the heat of Washington is under an August sun, may imagine the vexation and anxiety of these gentle- men as they hurried from one official to another, trying to secure the purpose of their journey, upon which their fate depended. It was no easy matter. President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton had the great cares of war and the State to look after. "Red tape " was again in the way. " Who had arrested Dr. Boyd ?" " What proof was there of all these statements ?" " The proper person to see was Gen. A." Gen. A., on being found, said it was not his affair: it belonged to Col. B.; etc., etc. For some time it really 300 LIFE OF BISHOP KERFOOT. [Chap. XI. looked as if nothing was going to be done, and that when the three weeks were gone, Dr. Kerfoot would have to take up his abode in Castle Thunder or the Libby Prison in Richmond — almost equal, in his then state of health, to a sentence of death. At length, to make short a long story, after much running about from pillar to post and from post to pillar, the War Department settled the matter and set Dr. Kerfoot and Mr, Coit free, by issuing a peremp- tory order that Dr. Boyd should be at once uncondition- ally released and permitted to return to his home in Winchester. As soon as the telegram announced that this order had been complied with, Dr. Kerfoot and his friend, intensely relieved, left Washington and returned to their anxious families. After a short visit to his old friends in Maryland, where he was taken ill, owing to the fatigue and anxiety he had undergone. Dr. Ker- foot finally decided that St. James's must be given Acc^ts Trinity yy-^^ and accepted the Presidency of Trinity College, Hartford. The two following letters from Dr. Muhlenberg may be added to this chapter as reminiscences of this critical and anxious time : The Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg to the Rev. Dr. 'Kerfoot. St. Luke's Hospital. N. Y., Auir. 11. 1864. My Dear, Dear John.— IVs too bad ! Of course I'll do all I can. Mr. Swift has written to Gen. Dix, who is not far from the city. He will also see Mr. Cisco, late assistant treasurer. John Jay is a foremost man in the Union League. He, of course, will exert himself as soon as I get him word. But Bishop Whittingham is your man. Surely he has only to get an interview with the President. As to my presence, it would 1864.] ■ LAST TEAR OF ST. JAMES'S. 301 be vvorLli uuLhiug. I'll write to Mr. Seward uuder cover of a letter from some one of influence with him. I am going to see Raymond, editor of the Times. I can't doubt the exchange will be eflected. Any letters to the President had better be sent to yom-self, to be got to him. Let me know whether you will remain in Baltimore. We had been fearing for you ever since we found the rebels were about you again, but didn't expect to hear you were so com- pletely in their hands. I hope your wife and children will get safe here. As " the prisoner of the Lord " (for you w^ere taken in the discharge of your duty), trust Him for your release, which I confidently expect to hear long before the 27th. Of course you have written to Dr. Shattuck ; he'll move heaven and earth for you. You see how hurriedly I write that you may hear from me in time. Yours aflectionately, W. A. M. From the Same, St. Luke's Hospital, N. Y., Aug. 12, 1864. My Dear John., — Dr. Dyer, of the Evangelical Knowledge Society, is intimate with Stanton, the Secretary of War, who can himself, the doctor says, grant what you want. Accord- ingly I have addressed a letter to him, which Dr. D. will cordially endorse, and which he thinks will be all-sufficient, unless there be something grossly obnoxious in Dr. Boyd. But I can't imagine there will be any difficulty, with all the interest you can bring to bear among your friends immediately around you. Honest old Abe could not withstand Bishop Honest old Abe. Whittingham at the head of a procession of clergy and laity — especially if he happened to remember a pertinent anecdote. I shall be looking every day for a letter from you, telling me it's all right and thanking me for my superfluous labor. Well — you will see how many friends you have. Yours aflectionately, W. A. Muhlenberg. I wrote you yesterday. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XL [The following account of Dr. Kerfoot's arrest, of his journey to Washington, and of the various diflBculties he encountered in securing his own and Dr. Boyd's release, is from the pen of the Rev. Mr. Coit, Dr. Kerfoot's fellow-prisoner. It was not written for publication, but was kindly sent to me for my information. Being received too late to be incorporated in the preceding chapter, I have thought it best to add it as an appendix, since its story is much fuller than Dr. Kerfoot's brief and hurried diary, and gives a graphic picture of this episode in his life which is far too interesting to be lost. — H. H.] Dr. Kerfoot was arrested Friday evening, August 5th, between 7 and 8 o'clocl?. I bad taken my supper in tbe College refectory, and tben bad walked out around tbe build- ings. I noticed groups of Confederate soldiers and ofHcers gatliered at several places ; they were ill-clad, and looked tired and cross. All that day I had had a lurking fear of evil, and Dr. K., as I knew, was more discomposed by this last appear- ance of the Southern army than by any preceding visitation. We began to be in despair of ever being left in peace and quiet. The manner of these new raiders was less courteous and forbearing than bad been that of their predecessors. I returned to my study very disconsolate, and was about to light my lamp, intending to sit down and write, when there was a tap at the door. I opened it, and there stood a messenger (I cannot now recall whether a soldier or a servant, or Abel K.), who simply said, " General Ramseur wishes to see you in Dr. Kerfoot's parlor." I did not know what was coming, but I was sure that some misfortune had happened or was about to happen. When I entered the parlor, Dr. Kerfoot was standing, with a most agonized look, talking quietly with an officer. Gen. Ramseur, who was also standing with them, turned to me and first introduced me to Col. Peyton, aid of Gen. 1864.] APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XL 303 Early, and then, without further ceremony, said at once, "Mr. Coit, it is my painful duty, in obedience to Gen. Early's orders, to put Dr. Kerfoot and yourself under close Under dose o 5 1 TT 1 -i.^. 1 4- .arrest as jjriion- arrest as prisoners of war." He hesitated a moment, and «rso/?