William H. McGuffey Entered Into Glory 150 Years Ago

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The young are on the voyage of life; the old have reached the harbor. - William H. McGuffey

It was 150 years ago today on May 4, 1873 that Presbyterian minister and educator William Holmes McGuffey entered into glory. Author of McGuffey’s Readers, his name lives on in many ways, and today we remember the man who has been referred to as “America’s Schoolmaster.”

Born on September 23, 1800, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, to a family of Scottish emigrants, he was educated at Greersburg Acadamey in Darlington, Pennsylvania. By the age of 14, he was working as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in Calcutta, Ohio. In 1826, he graduated from Washington College in Washington, Pennsylvania, and went on to join the faculty there. Three years later, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister by Robert H. Bishop.

After teaching at Washington College, he joined the faculty of Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. In 1836, he became President of Cincinnati College. Three years later, he became President of Ohio University. In 1843, he became President of the Woodward Free Grammar School in Cincinnati. After serving as a professor at Woodward College from 1843 to 1845, he accepted an invitation to serve as the chair of moral philosophy and political economy in the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he remained for the rest of his life.

It was in 1835, while teaching at Miami University — at the recommendation of his friend Harriet Beecher Stowe — that a Cincinnati publisher asked him to to create a series of four graded readers for young students. Thus, the eclectic series of McGuffey’s Readers was born. He authored the first four readers, while his brother Alexander H. McGuffey authored two more after that. These volumes were the first early reading books to gain wide-spread popularity in the American educational system. The series consisted of stories, poems, essays, and speeches. They included extracts from John Milton, Lord Byron, Daniel Webster and other highly-regard writers, as well as frequent allusions to the Bible. From 1836 to 1960, over 120 million copies were sold, and they remain in print today. They were a favorite of Henry Ford who in 1934 relocated the actual Pennsylvania log cabin where McGuffey was born to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan to create a McGuffey schoolhouse. Frequently seen in the popular TV show, Little House on the Prairie, McGuffey’s Readers have long been a household name symbolizing Christian education, much like Noah Webster’s Dictionary.

McGuffey spent nearly three decades in Charlottesville where an elementary school built in 1915 was named after him (it is now known as the McGuffey Art Center). His name adorns other institutions and buildings, and a state in his honor can be seen at Miami University. After he died there was some talk of burying his body alongside that of his first wife, Harriet, who in 1850 was buried in Dayton, Ohio, but the University of Virginia prevailed upon his family to have his earthly remains laid to rest at the University of Virginia Cemetery and Columbarium.

For McGuffey, the bond between religion and education was sacred. Christians were people of the Book, and education was essential to reading the Scriptures and understanding the world which God made. We are thankful for his labors in promoting both education and the Christian religion in a busy, productive life on earth, which came to a peaceful end 150 years ago today.

Introducing the Century Club at Log College Press

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Among the nearly 2,000 authors found at Log College Press there are at least three centenarians (Arthur Judson Brown [1856-1963, 106]; William Rankin III [1810-1912, 102]; and George Summey [1853-1954, 101]), as well as at least three authors who were 99 years old when they entered into their eternal rest (Littleton Purnell Bowen, David Caldwell, and Maria Fearing). But the Log College Press Century Club which we are introducing today has to do with something a little different.

To be a member of this club, there must be at least 100 works by (and sometimes about) the author on their particular pages. At this point in time, there are 27 such individuals in the LCP Century Club, as follows:

There are some other prolific writers who we anticipate may join this club at some point in the future, such as Isabella Macdonald Alden, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Finley Milligan Foster, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge and Cleland Boyd McAfee, to name a few. As the Lord gives us strength and ability, we continue to add works by these and many other writers. We still have our work cut out for us, especially, for example, with respect to T.L. Cuyler, who penned over 4,000 separate published articles. Meanwhile, if viewed as a snapshot of our most prolific authors, the LCP Century Club invites readers to explore a representative cross-section of early American Presbyterianism. We hope you will take this opportunity to see what’s available among these prolific writers’ pages (as well as those not-so-prolific), and to enjoy a visit to the past, which we trust will be a blessing to you in the present.

James Bradley's Brief Account of an Emancipated Slave

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The story of James Bradley has many curiosities, unanswered questions and fascinating details. Born around 1810 in Guinea, Africa, he was enslaved at a very young age and transported to the United States via Charleston, South Carolina, before he was purchased by a Mr. Bradley of Kentucky (whose last name he assumed), before the family moved to the Arkansas Territory.

There the Mr. Bradley passed away, but James continued to toil in servitude. Although he had not been taught of God, he longed for liberty, and began the laborious effort — by working at night to make horse collars, and by means of growing tobacco and selling pigs — to purchase his own freedom, which after eight years, he accomplished in 1833 for the sum of just under $700. In his own words, he tells of where he went next as a free man.

As soon as I was free, I started for a free State. When I arrived in Cincinnati, I heard of Lane Seminary, about two miles out of the city. I had for years been praying to God that my dark mind might see the light of knowledge. I asked for admission into the Seminary. They pitied me, and granted my request, though I knew nothing of the studies which were required for admission. I am so ignorant, that I suppose it will take me two years to get up with the lowest class in the institution. But in all respects I am treated just as kindly, and as much like a brother by the students, as if my skin were as white, and my education as good as their own. Thanks to the Lord, prejudice against color does not exist in Lane Seminary! If my life is spared, I shall probably spend several years here, and prepare to preach the gospel.

Bradley’s Brief Account of an Emancipated Slave, published in 1834, reveals a man who, in the Lord’s providence, despite many obstacles, managed to learn how to read and write, became knowledgeable of his need for a Savior, and with a longing for liberty, achieved his personal goal of emancipation from slavery and sought rather to serve the Lord.

Bradley’s admission to a Presbyterian seminary in 1834, came just a few years after Theodore S. Wright, a free African-American, graduated from Princeton in 1828, and later was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. It was in 1837 that Titus Basfield graduated from the Canonsburg Theological Seminary of the Associate Presbyterian Church and went on to serve as a minister in that denomination. Sadly, events transpired at Lane which would derail Bradley’s aspirations to pursue the gospel ministry.

In 1834, a series of debates were held among students and faculty concerning the appropriateness of immediate abolition of slavery, and the question of the work of the American Colonization Society, which aimed to send free blacks to Africa, to build the new nation of Liberia. Although the general sentiment of opposition to slavery was held by many at Lane, these were controversial matters which raised tensions at the seminary and in the surrounding area, which were magnified by nationwide newspaper coverage. Many notable people were present, including Lyman Beecher, President of the seminary; Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor, and his future wife, Harriet Beecher; John Rankin; and others. James Bradley spoke at these debates, and he was the only black person and only former slave to do so; although some slaves, owned by Southern students, were also present at the debates. He recounted the oppression he experienced, and answered objections to immediate abolition, such as the concern that slaves would be unable to care for themselves.

In a March 10, 1834 letter, fellow student Henry B. Stanton recount Bradley’s role at the Lane Debates:

James Bradley, the emancipated slave above alluded to, addressed us nearly two hours; and I wish his speech could have been heard by every opponent of immediate emancipation, to wit: first, that “it would be unsafe to the community;” second, that “the condition of the emancipated negroes would be worse than it now is; that they are incompetent to provide for themselves; that they would become paupers and vagrants, and would rather steal than work for wages.” This shrewd and intelligent black, cut up these white objections by the roots, and withered and scorched them under the sun of sarcastic argumentation, for nearly an hour, to which the assembly responded in repeated and spontaneous roars of laughter, which were heartily joined in by both Colonizationists and Abolitionists. Do not understand me as saying, that his speech was devoid of argument. No it contained sound logic, enforced by apt illustrations. I wish the slanderers of negro intellect could have witnessed this unpremeditated effort. I will give you a sketch of this man's history. He was stolen from Africa when an infant, and sold into slavery. His master, who resided in Arkansas, died, leaving him to his widow. He was then about eighteen years of age. For some years, he managed the plantation for his mistress. Finally, he purchased his time by the year, and began to earn money to buy his freedom. After five years of toil, having paid his owners $655, besides supporting himself during the time, he received his “free papers,” and emigrated to a free State with more than $200 in his pocket. Every cent of this money, $855, he earned by labour and trading. He is now a beloved and respected member of this institution. Now, Mr. Editor, can slaves take care of themselves if emancipated? I answer the question in the language employed by brother Bradley, on the above occasion. “They have to take care of, and support themselves now, and their master, and his family into the bargain; and this being so, it would be strange if they could not provide for themselves, when disencumbered from this load.”

Bradley acquitted himself admirably at the debates, but the seminary trustees were soon moved to ban further discussion of these controversial issues. Local threats of violence against abolitionists were a great concern. Unable to abide by these restrictions, the so-called “Lane Rebels” resigned from the school en masse in October 1834, publishing A Statement of the Reasons Which Induced the Students of Lane Seminary, to Dissolve their Connection with that Institution, signed by 51 persons, including James Bradley.

Bradley moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where he studied at the Sheffield Manual Labor Institute. But after 1837 nothing further is known of Bradley, except that he assisted in the liberation of other slaves possibly via the Underground Railroad. He never became a gospel minister. We do not even have a picture of the man or a physical description, although a statue was erected in his honor at Covington, Kentucky in 1988. Bradley was portrayed by Jaylen Marks in the 2019 docudrama Sons & Daughters of Thunder.

Although he was lost to history, in that the final chapters of his life are unknown, he is remembered still, as a passionate advocate of freedom for all, and the autobiographical account of his emancipation is a brief but stirring read. Read more about and by James Bradley here.

Some Pastors' Wives who were Prolific Writers

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The Child’s Story Bible [by Catherine Vos] was such a success that it sold more copies than all Geerhardus’s books combined. — Danny E. Olinger, Geerhardus Vos: Reformed Biblical Theologian, Confessional Presbyterian, p. 273

When we think of the most prolific or best-selling writers on Log College Press, names like B.B. Warfield, Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller may come to mind. But some of the most prolific writers were often pastors’ wives, and, in some cases, as writers, out-sold their husbands. It is worth taking notes of some of their names and stories.

  • Isabella Macdonald Alden — The wife of Rev. Gustavus Rosenberg Alden, Mrs. Alden was the author of over 200 books, most written under the pen name “Pansy” (a childhood nickname), and contributed as a journalist and editor as well. Her literary fame was world-wide and she received much fan mail, responding to each letter individually. Rev. Francis E. Clark once said, “Probably no writer of stories for young people has been so popular or had so wide an audience as Mrs. G. R. Alden, whose pen-name, ‘Pansy,’ is known wherever English books are read.”

  • Charlotte Forten Grimké — Both before and after her 1878 marriage to Rev. Francis James Grimké, Charlotte was a poet, diarist and author of articles and essays. Her contribution to African-American literature is still greatly appreciated today.

  • Elizabeth Payson Prentiss — Mrs. Prentiss, author of Stepping Heavenward, was the wife of Rev. George Lewis Prentiss, author of her biography. Elizabeth wrote dozens of books, as well as poetry and hymns. Stepping Heavenward sold over 200,000 copies in the 19th century, and since a 1992 reprint was issued, at least another 100,000 copies have been sold.

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe — The wife of Rev. Calvin Ellis Stowe, Harriet is best known as the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. But she also wrote around 30 novels, plus articles and letters. She was a celebrity to many, infamous to others, but her writings were an important factor in the momentous events of 1861. Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold over 2 million copies worldwide by 1857 (5 years after its publication) and to date it has been translated into 70 languages.

  • Mary Virginia Hawes Terhune — Mrs. Terhune, wife of Rev. Edward Payson Terhune, was known by her pen name, Marion Harland. She was the author of many novels, short stories, cookbooks, books on etiquette and more. She gave birth to six children, three of whom survived into adulthood - all three became successful writers as well. Her autobiography contains many fascinating insights into the Presbyterian circles in which she participated in Virginia, such as her remarks on the anti-slavery convictions of Mrs. Anne Rice, wife of Rev. John Holt Rice.

Other prolific female Presbyterian writers, married (whose spouses were not ministers) or unmarried, include:

  • Pearl Sydenstricker Buck — Mrs. Buck, daughter of a missionary, Rev. Absalom Sydenstricker, and the wife of agricultural missionary John Lossing Buck (until they divorced) and Richard J. Walsh, is well-known for her liberal convictions and for her role in the upheaval that led to Rev. J. Gresham Machen’s departure from the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Her 1931 novel The Good Earth won her a Pulitzer Prize, and in 1938 she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in recognition of her writings on China.

  • Martha Farquaharson Finley — The author of the Elsie Dinsmore series and many more novels, Ms. Finley was a descendant of Samuel Finley and of Scottish Covenanters. Of the Elsie Dinsmore series, it has been said that it was “‘The most popular and longest running girl’s series of the 19th century,’ with the first volume selling nearly 300,000 copies in its first decade, going on to ‘sell more than 5 million copies in the 20th century.’”

  • Grace Livingston Hill — Niece of Isabella M. Alden, and daughter of Rev. Charles Montgomery Livingston and Mrs. Marcia B. Macdonald Livingston, she was a popular writer of over 100 books on her own, but also compiled the Pansies for Thoughts of her aunt, and they collaborated on other works as well.

  • Julia Lake Skinner Kellersberger — The wife of medical missionary Eugene Roland Kellersberger, both served the Presbyterian mission to the Belgian Congo. Mrs. Kellersberger wrote many books based on her experience, including a noted biography of Althea Maria Brown Edmiston.

  • Margaret Junkin Preston — Known as the “Poet Laureate of the Confederacy,” Mrs. Preston was the wife of Major John Thomas Lewis Preston, a professor of Latin at the Virginia Military Institute; the daughter of Rev. George Junkin; and the brother-in-law of Stonewall Jackson. Her literary productions were many, and she was a beloved poet of the South.

  • Julia McNair Wright — A very popular writer of books for children, including historical novels and introductions to science, and more, Mrs. Wright (wife of mathematician William James Wright), was a remarkable author, whose works were translated into many languages. Her The Complete Home: An Encyclopedia of Domestic Life and Affairs, Embracing all the Interests of the Household sold over 100,000 copies.

These brief notices show that there are a number of popular women Presbyterian writers from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Their bibliographies are lengthy, their legacies in some cases enduring to the present day, and their impact has been culturally significant. The work of adding all of their published writings is ongoing and in some cases far from complete at the present. We hope to make much more progress with each of these writers. The corpus of their literary productions is a real treasure.

Judith G. Perkins: The Flower of Persia

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Although we have previously highlighted the letter of 10 year-old A.A. Hodge and his younger sister Mary Elizabeth to the “heathen” of India, both went on to live full lives on earth to the glory of God. Today we highlight a young lady who lived her full life on earth to the ripe age of twelve years old.

Judith Grant Perkins was the daughter of Justin and Charlotte Perkins, missionaries to Persia, the fourth of seven children in the family. Her biography was primarily authored by Joseph Gallup Cochran: The Persian Flower: A Memoir of Judith Grant Perkins of Oroomiah, Persia (1853). Judith was born on August 8, 1840 at Urmia, Persia (now Iran).

She visited America once as a child. The story of that journey is found in Justin Perkins, A Residence of Eight Years in Persia, Among the Nestorian Christians (1843). But otherwise, she lived in Persia the rest of her life.

Judith was a precocious girl, who learned to read and write very well (her biography includes a number of letters that she wrote, and Log College Press has one letter in her own hand — written at the age of eight — which shows her excellent penmanship). She was interested in music, an avid reader (one of the last books she read — out loud to her mother — was Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin), and she assisted her father in his translation labors. She had a heart for advancing the gospel in other parts of the world, even thinking of one day laboring in China as a missionary.

Judith's interest in the cause of missions, was of early growth. When quite a small child, she often spoke of becoming a missionary, and was then particularly interested in China, as a prospective field of labor. And to the last, she always seemed to assume, that she should be a missionary somewhere, if her life were spared. Reading the memoirs of female missionaries, as the memoir of Harriet Newell, and that of Mrs. Dwight and Mrs. Grant, and of Mrs. Van Lennep, and others, served to quicken that desire, and strengthen that impression; and her circumstances on missionary ground, naturally kept the subject fresh before her mind. She said to some of the older Nestorian girls of the seminary, the last time she ever saw them, and only four days before her death, "I hope, after I return from Erzroom, to study very hard, and afterward go to America, and attend school awhile there, and then return and be a missionary here; or, I would prefer to go and labor where there are no missionaries."

In an important sense, Judith had long been a missionary helper. She ever manifested a very deep interest in all the departments of the good work among the Nestorians, and sought to aid in its progress in every way in her power. She had sat patiently many an hour, and assisted her father in adjusting the verses of the translation of the Bible according to the English version; reading the latter verse by verse; and she seldom seemed happier than when aiding him in that great work, which she longed to see accomplished. During the last year of her life, she assisted her mother in teaching a few Nestorian females connected with the Sabbath school, and .eagerly engaged in the loved employment.

Perkins, Judith Grant photo 2 smaller.jpg

It was while traveling with her family that she was stricken with illness. While lingering like the fragile flower she was, her father later recounted a conversation with Judith that reveals her inner spirit.

Once when I asked her, 'Dear Judith, is Jesus precious to you?' ‘O yes,' she replied; 'I have just had a view of Him; O how lovely!' What a balm was that reply to our writhing hearts! At another time, I inquired, 'Dear Judith, have you a desire to get well?' She replied, 'O, yes, papa, if it be God's will.' 'Why, dear Judith?' I inquired. '‘That I may do good,' she answered. ‘And if it is His will to take you now to Himself, are you not satisfied?' I inquired. 'O yes, papa; His will be done,' was her reply.

Towards the end, her father records a prayer that she uttered:

About this time, her papa and mamma kneeled over her and prayed in succession. She remained silent a few moments after we closed; and then, without any suggestion from us, uttered the following short prayer, slowly and distinctly, and evidently from the depths of her soul — 'O Lord, accept me; if it be thy will, make me well again; if not, oh let me not murmur.' We responded an audible amen.

She died of cholera on September 4, 1852 at the age of twelve, and was buried at the American Mission Graveyard outside of Urmia, where it is reported of the 60 or so individuals interred there, around 40 are children.

Her witness to the grace of Jesus Christ, who worked in her and through her, touched the lives of those who knew her, and many others who have read her life story over the years. We remember her as a flower who grew in Persia, and was transplanted to a more a beautiful garden above.

The Underground Railroad at Log College Press

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Reformed Presbyterian minister William Sommerville once wrote that “The Bible does not discourage the slave from making his escape; and the underground railroad is built in the very spirit of God's counsel” (Southern Slavery Not Founded on Scripture Warrant, p. 5). The Underground Railroad — an informal system whereby “agents” and “stations” comprised an avenue of escape for American slaves in bondage — was a tool employed by many in the North to aid slaves seeking freedom, including Presbyterians, and very often, Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters).

Among the resources found here at Log College Press, there are many perspectives on the slavery issue which were held by 19th century century Presbyterians in various parts of the country. Today’s post focuses on those who were supportive of, active on, or otherwise connected to the Underground Railroad. We highlight a few here in alphabetical order, although more could be mentioned.

  • Caroline Still Anderson — Caroline was the wife of Matthew Anderson, pastor of the Berean Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, and daughter of William Still, whose book on the Underground Railroad is a valuable record of material Caroline’s father is sometimes known as “The Father of the Underground Railroad,” and he helped over 800 slaves escape to freedom.

  • Titus Basfield — Basfield, a former slave, studied at Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, an institution founded by John Walker, Presbyterian minister and abolitionist, which was a haven for those traveling on the Underground Railroad. A friend and classmate of his, John Bingham, was the principal author of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  • Philo Carpenter — Carpenter was a Chicago pharmacist and abolitionist. His home was a station on the Underground Railroad, and it is reported that he helped approximately 200 slaves reach freedom, often by rowing them across Lake Michigan to Canada by night.

  • Theodore Ledyard Cuyler — Cuyler was an outspoken abolitionist, and it is reported that his Brooklyn, New York congregation — the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church — was a hiding place for escaped slaves seeking freedom.

  • Alexander Dobbin — Dobbin was a Covenanter who helped found the first Presbytery of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in America, and later, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. He died in 1809, but his house, located at the site of the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, endured, serving as a waystation along the Underground Railroad.

  • James Faris — A Covenanter minister from South Carolina, he attempted to have the South Carolina legislature pass a law which would encourage emancipation, but failed. After moving to Bloomington, Indiana, his home became a waystation on the Underground Railroad.

  • Amos Noe Freeman — Freeman was an African-American Presbyterian minister, who was also a conductor along the Underground Railroad at his congregation in Portland, Maine.

  • Henry Highland Garnet — Garnet was an African-American Presbyterian minister who was born into slavery, but escaped with the aid of others, including Underground Railroad stationmaster Thomas Garrett.

  • William Hayes — Hayes was a Covenanter layman who aided slaves in Illinois who were escaping to freedom. He was successfully sued in 1843 by a neighbor, who objected to Hayes’ role in the escape of his slave, Susan “Sukey” Richardson. The well-documented story of that lawsuit and Hayes’ heroic role in the freedom of many slaves is told by Carol Pirtle, Escape Betwixt Two Suns: A True Tale of the Underground Railroad in Illinois (2000).

  • Erastus Hopkins — Hopkins was a Presbyterian minister who was active politically in the Free-Soil Party. His home in Northampton, Massachusetts has been documented as a waystation along the Underground Railroad.

  • John Black Johnston — A Covenanter minister, Glasgow reports that Johnston “was a fearless advocate of the cause of the slave, and was a distinguished conductor on the ‘Underground Railroad.”

  • James W.C. Pennington — Pennington was a “fugitive slave” who escaped by means of the Underground Railroad before later becoming a Presbyterian minister and an outspoken abolitionist.

  • John Rankin — Rankin was a Presbyterian minister and an active conductor on the Underground Railroad in Ohio. It was Rankin’s account — given to Calvin Stowe — of Eliza Harris’ 1838 escape to freedom that inspired the character Eliza in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (see below). It is reported that when “Henry Ward Beecher was asked after the end of the Civil War, ‘Who abolished slavery?,’ he answered, ‘Reverend John Rankin and his sons did.’"

  • Thomas Smith — Smith was a Covenanter layman who Bloomington, Indiana home was a station on the Underground Railroad.

  • Calvin & Harriet Beecher Stowe — Calvin was a Presbyterian minister, and his wife Harriet achieved fame with the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), a fictionalized account of a slave who escaped on the Underground Railroad. The Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Brunswick, Maine is officially part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

  • Theodore Sedgwick Wright — Wright was an African-American Presbyterian minister who studied (and suffered — see his 1836 letter to Archibald Alexander) at Princeton. His home in New York City was a waystation for the Underground Railroad.

These connections to the Underground Railroad at Log College Press may serve to whet the appetite for further study of a fascinating and heroic chapter in American history, and shows how passionately some Presbyterians felt about the cause of freedom for those bondage.

Who wrote "Exodus" (as quoted by H.H. Garnet)?

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At the conclusion of Henry Highland Garnet’s February 12, 1865 memorial address to Congress (the first time an African-American ever addressed Congress), he recites a poem titled “Exodus” (although the title is not given). The origins of this poem are worth noting.

Emancipate, Enfranchise, Educate, and give the blessings of the gospel to every American citizen.

These are the words of Garnet. And then a poem that follows begins thus:

Hear ye not how, from all high points of Time, —
From peak to peak adown the mighty chain
That links the ages — echoing sublime
A Voice Almighty — leaps one grand refrain,
Wakening the generations with a shout,
And trumpet-call of thunder — Come ye out!

Who wrote those memorable lines? The source for the poem in the published address is cited as the Atlantic Monthly, 1862. In that journal, the verses appear without attribution. But later, authorship of the poem is made clear in the 1872 volume of poems by Adeline Dutton Train Whitney (1824-1906) called Pansies “… For Thoughts” (the title being inspired by a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet:) This book is a collection of her poetic contributions to the Atlantic Monthly. She was an accomplished and prolific author and poet, but just getting started in her publishing career in the 1860s. She also wrote more than 20 books for young girls, which aimed to inculcate traditional values in her readers. A biographical sketch of her by Harriet Beecher Stowe (who like, Mrs. Whitney, was both a contributor and a subject of this volume) appears in Our Famous Women: An Authorized Record of the Lives and Deeds of Distinguished American Women of Our Times (1884). She was raised under the teaching of Congregationalists and Unitarians, but ultimately affiliated with the Episcopal church. Stowe writes of her: “Mrs. Whitney is intensely spiritual. All her sympathies and judgments are baptized with the spirit of Christianity, and we cannot imagine any one reading her works without being made purer and better.”

Source: Our Famous Women: An Authorized Record of the Lives and Deeds of Distinguished American Women of Our Times (1884).

Source: Our Famous Women: An Authorized Record of the Lives and Deeds of Distinguished American Women of Our Times (1884).

Here is the poem as published by the Atlantic Monthly, as recited by Garnet (who omitted the next-to-last stanza) and, finally, published under the author’s name, A.D.T. Whitney.

Exodus

Hear ye not how, from all high points of Time, —
From peak to peak adown the mighty chain
That links the ages — echoing sublime
A Voice Almighty — leaps one grand refrain,
Wakening the generations with a shout,
And trumpet-call of thunder — Come ye out!

Out from old forms, and dead idolatries!
From fading myths and superstitious dreams;
From Pharisaic rituals and lies,
All the bondage of your shows and seems;
Out, on the pilgrim path, of heroes trod,
Over earth’s wastes to reach forth after God!

The Lord hath bowed his heavens and come down!
Now, in this latter century of time,
Once more his tent is pitched on Sinai’s crown;
Once more in clouds must Faith to meet Him climb;
Once more his thunder crashes on our doubt
And fear and sin, “My people! come ye out!

“From false ambitions and vain luxuries;
From puny aims and indolent self-ends;
From cant of faith, and shams of liberties,
And mist of ill, that truth’s pure day-beam bends;
Out, from all darkness of the Egypt land,
Into my sun-blaze on the desert sand!

“Leave ye your flesh-pots! Turn from filthy greed
Of gain that doth the hungry spirit mock;
And heaven shall drop sweet manna for your need,
And rain clear rivers from the unhewn rock.
Thus saith the Lord!” And Moses, meek, unshod,
Within the cloud stands hearkening to his God!

Show us our Aaron, with his rod in flower!
Our Miriam, with her timbrel-soul in tune!
And call some Joshua, in the Spirit’s power,
To poise our sun of strength at point of noon!
God of our fathers! over sand and sea,
Still keep our struggling footsteps close to thee!

Mrs. A.T.J. Bullard: Peeress for a Day

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In 1850, Rev. Artemas Bullard, Jr. traveled to Europe, with his accomplished wife Anne Tuttle Jones Bullard, to serve as a delegate at the International Peace Congress in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The couple spent six months traveling in Europe. She wrote letters to the Missouri Republican back home in St. Louis, Missouri, which were later published as Sights and Scenes in Europe: A Series of Letters From England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, in 1850 (1852), which she dedicated “to the ladies of the First Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Mo.”

There are interesting literary connections to the Bullard family. Anne herself was a gifted writer who often published under pseudonyms. Her husband’s younger sister, Eunice Bullard, married the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (both Eunice and Henry were noted writers), which meant that Anne also had family ties to Harriet Beecher Stowe. And, further, the Rev. Henry Bullard (son of Artemus and Anne), was a fellow transatlantic passenger with Mark Twain. It has been noted before that Anne’s Sights and Scenes in Europe bears a similarity to Twain’s Innocents Abroad (1869), inspired certainly by the 1867 voyage, but perhaps Anne’s 1852 book was known to him, since Twain also was from St. Louis and it is thought that he had heard Artemas preach (before Artemas died in 1855 during the Gasconade Bridge train disaster).

One little snapshot of the Bullards’ trip through Europe has to do with the day that Mrs. Bullard was an invited guest for a speech given by Queen Victoria to the House of Lords in London on August 15, 1850. A Mr. R . Cobden procured for her admission to the one of the most-sought after seats in the city (she writes: “A ticket of admission is obtained only from the Lord Chamberlain through a Peer”).

Mrs. Bullard’s ticket of admission to hear Queen Victoria’s speech.

Mrs. Bullard’s ticket of admission to hear Queen Victoria’s speech.

Mrs. Bullard’s description of the event takes up many pages (see Letter No. IV), but we can glean how momentous the occasion was from this extract:

The streets were lined with people to see the Queen pass. I understood it is three years since she has prorogued Parliament in person. Temporary seats, three tiers or more, were built up on each side, for which some persons paid three shillings (or seventy-five cents) each.

No gentlemen are admitted to the floor of the House of Lords except peers, Bishops, and Ambassadors, and there are seats for only about two hundred ladies. It was announced that the Queen would arrive at 2 o’clock, and to be in season I took a carriage at half-past eleven. There were about fifteen carriages in advance of mine, and as the House was not opened until 12 o’clock, the ladies must of course sit in their carriages until their turn came to be admitted. Precisely at twelve the door was opened, and when all the carriages before me were emptied and my turn came, I was allowed to pass in, but without the escort of any gentleman. Only about thirty ladies were seated before me, and I was shown one of the most desirable places for observation in the room, near the Queen, and for two hours and a half I had an admirable opportunity to scan the novel scenes before me.

The House of Lords is a most gorgeous place. The ceiling is magnificently gilded in raised figures, and the galleries are formed of very open iron-work, also gilded. The Queen’s throne, or chair of State, her canopy &c., have also all the appearance of the most elegant carved work, covered with gold. The seats, arranged lengthwise of the room in four rows, were without backs and covered with crimson morocco. One of the most beautiful young ladies in the rooms [was] at my right hand, and, very fortunately for me, she was agreeable and communicative, and pointed out many persons of rank, whom I could not have recognized but for her politeness. In answer to one of my inquiries, whether such a lady was a Peeress, my companion replied, “Oh, yes, we are all Peeresses, you know.” I smiled, but did not undeceive her, thinking as it was the first and last time I should ever pass for a Peeress, I would enjoy my rank.

She went on to enjoy the privilege of hearing Queen Victoria’s speech, which was a rare opportunity for the wife of an American Presbyterian minister. For the full story, see her account, and read about her other experiences in Europe, here. Peeress for a day!