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MEMOIR

DAY!]) HALE,

LATE EDITOR OF THE JOUKNAL OF COMMERCE.

SELECTIONS FROM HIS MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS.

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BY JOSEPH P£>JTH0]VIPS0N,

PiSTOR or THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE CHURCH, NEW TORK.

NEW YORK: JOHN WILEY, 161 BROADWAY,

AND 13 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

ISoO.

No, I,

Memoir.

Amid many cares and labors more than abundant, I sit down to write a memoir of a departed friend. A variety of documents must be read, collated, and classified ; oral tes- timony must be reduced to Avriting, sifted, and arranged ; letters must be perused and whatever is of value in their contents must be woven into my narrative ; and the files of a large daily newspaper for more than twenty years must be examined critically for the selection of extracts and arti- cles. Yet the task will be a pleasant one. It will bring me again, as it were, in contact with one whom I loved and honored — with a powerful intellect and a noble heart. Already do I begin to perceive how little I knew and appre- ciated in his life-time him whose life and character I shall attempt to portray. His private journal reflecting from its brief pages his early religious experience ; his letters abounding with the generous sympathies of the husband, the father, and the friend, and revealing as amid banks of flowers the deep clear- stream of a spiritual life; his arti- cles embracing a wide range of subjects — moral, political, economical, religious, ecclesiastical, — and not only equal in depth, discrimination, comprehensiveness, originality, and force, to any productions of the same class, but vieing at times with the more elaborate productions of philosophers, statesmen, and divines ; — these cause me to feel tliat I am about to delineate no common man, and, wliile I despair of

6 MEMOIR.

doing justice to his memory, most earnestly to desire that I may be enabled so to conceive of his character as fairly to impress upon these pages its bold and massive features, and if possible to transfer also its more delicate lines and gentler shades. I would have others see the inward work- ings of a mind and heart which have stamped indelibly their impress upon society and the Church.

Just now, too, there is in this church which he established, and to which he devoted the last years of his life, a revival of religion, which originated apparently in connection with his death, and the hcaveidy atmosphere around seems to bear me up toward a nearer communion with him who has put off this earthly house for " a building of God, not made with hands."

I come then cheerfully to this unusual task ; which, by God's blessing, I hope to accomplish for His glory, and the good of His Church.

The name of Hale appears in the earliest records of New England. The family has been traced back to Thomas Hale of Codicote, Hertfordshire, England, Avho lived in the beginning of the sixteenth century. The present represent- ative in England, is William Hale, Esq., of King's Wal- den, Hertfordshire ; the line being quite distinct from that of Sir Matthew Hale, and the family arms different. The Hales were among the first settlers of Charlestown and Old Newbury, in Massachusetts. Robert Hale, the first emi- gi'ant, was one of the founders of the church in Charles- town in 1632, and a deacon of the same ; his son. Rev. John Hale, was the first pastor of the church in Beverly, which office he filled with ability and favor for nearly forty years. He was somewhat distinguished as an author, and was public-spirited and influential as a citizen.* Early in

* See Appendix A.

THEHALEFAMILY. 7

the last century, the branch of the family from which the subject of this memoir was descended, emigrated from New- bury to Coventry, Connecticut. Richard, the head of this branch, was grandson of Rev. John Hale, and fatlier of Nathan Hale, " the 'hero spy of the Revolution," Avho was seized and executed by the British.* Another son of Richard was Rev. David Hale, who was for several years settled in Lisbon, Connecticut, as pastor of the Congre- gational church in that town, and who was the father of tite late David Hale of New York. Of this excellent man a memoir might be written which would be profitable to Christians in every station of life. Only the leading facts in his history can be mentioned here. After a brief but successful ministry to the church in Lisbon, the failure of his health obliged him to relinquish preaching, and he then devoted himself to the instruction of youth in a select family school. Most of his pupils were from the neigh- boring towns of New London and Norwich ; where some are still living, who cherish with grateful affection the memory of their kind and faithful teacher.

Li 1804, Mr. Hale came into possession of the ancestral estate in South Coventry, and removed thither the same year, where he continued to reside till his death. Here, while he did not wholly relinquish the congenial employment of teaching, he devoted himself principally to farming, and by the system which he introduced in every department, he soon made his farm a model for the neighborhood. So com- plete was the order with which everything on the premises was arranged, that a gentleman who in his boyhood was ah inmate of Mr. Hale's family, lately remarked to the writer, that if things remained as they were thirty years ago, he could go now in the darkest night and put his hand on the rake, the hoe, the pitchfork, or any other utensil belonging to the farm.

* Sec Appendix B.

8 MEMOIR.

The interior affairs of the househola were conducted with like method and rcguhiritj. There was a fixed liour for rising and retiring, for devotional exercises, and for every meal. Order was the law of the house and of the farm ; and whoever Avas employed in eith^, though but for one day, was required to conform to the established rules.

Mr. Hale was as rigid in exacting what was right from othei's as he was conscientious and even scrupulous in doing right himself. His strong sense of justice and propriety rendered him obnoxious as an employer to the indolent, the wasteful, and the disorderly, but such an example of prompt and upright dealing was of great value to those who were disposed to profit by it. He possessed self-government in a remarkable degree, and as he governed himself, so he sought to govern his family and all who were in any way subject to his control.

But Avith this stern adhesion to right was blended a kind- ness and a gentleness of spirit hardly less rare. He would never suffer a dumb animal to be abused. His horses and oxen were trained and guided in the field without fear of whip or goad. A generous hospitality always graced his board, and his charity, often bestowed in secret, relieved the wants of the poor.

As a severe pulmonary affection forbade his ever resum- ing the labors of the ministry, Mr. Hale accepted the oflSce of deacon in the church at Coventry, which he filled to gene- ral acceptance for many years. From this it is apparent that he entertained no notions of the dignity and the inde- feasibility of the clerical oflSce, which would hinder him from serving the church in any station or capacity to which in the providence of God he might be called. And he was no less willing to serve his neighbors in civil affairs, for he was a justice of the peace, and judge of the County Court ; and such was his character for wisdom and integrity, that who- ever was conscious of the right of his cause, was always will-

SKETCH OF REV. DAVID HALE. 9

ing to leave it to ' Squire Hale.' Ministers and cliurches too, in that region, were accustomed to resort to him for ad- vice, and to rely much upon his judgment in ecclesiastical matters. To ministers in particular he was a valuable friend. He always retained an interest in the education of the young, and especially young men of promise. A Secretary of one of our most important benevolent societies, was induced to seek a liberal education by the counsel and the proffered aid of Mr. Hale. There exists in Coventry a fund known as the " Hale Donation" for the assistance of young men preparing for the ministry.

Religion Avas eminently honored in this consistent servant of Christ. He kept the Sabbath strictly. Even in harvest- time, on Saturday afternoon his workmen were called from the field and dismissed with supper in season for each to reach his home before sun-down. Long before the tem- perance reform had become popular, Mr. Hale ceased to furnish ardent spirits to men in his employment, and gave them extra wages in lieu of that liurtful perquisite.

His regard for truth was peculiar. He seldom gave a certificate of recommendation, and when he did, as for in- stance to young men who had been under his instruction, he confined himself to few words, and to the exact facts in the case. But his recommendation was a passport to employ- ment wherever his name was known. A single line given by him to the gentleman above referred to, certifying that he was " well qualified to keep school," was worth more than a whole page of ordinary testimonials.

In sickness and suffering he exhibited firmness, pa- tience, and trust in God. On one occasion he submitted to an acute surgical operation without moving a muscle or uttering a cry of pain. As the surgeon and his attendants were conferring apart about the expediency of binding him, and friends were venting their gi'ief in tears, he exclaimed, " What mean ye to weep, and to break mine

1*

10 MEMOIR.

heart 1 for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die."

Such was the father of the late David Hale. This brief sketch of his character will enable the reader to appreciate in part the influences under which the subject of this me- moir was trained.

His mother, Mrs Lydia Hale, was the daughter of Samuel and Lydia Austin of New Haven, Connecticut. Her ster- ling character, strong judgment, and fervent piety, well qualified her to be the companion of such a husband and the mother of such a son. Having passed the limit of four- score years and grown venerable even in her widowhood she still survives her only child, and in a retired village of Connecticut, among familiar scenes and the few lingering friends of other days, with the calm assurance of the ma- ture Christian, she awaits the summons to rejoin the objects of her fondest love in an eternal home.

The" preceding paragraph was in the hands of the printer when intelligence was received that the desired summons had at length come. A paralytic shock — the last of a se- ries with which Mrs. Hale had been afflicted — terminated fatally on the morning of the 28th of April. For some time past she had resided with her granddaughter at Rockville, Connecticut, a new village in the vicinity of Coventry, whither she had gone, as she expressed it, to prepare to die peacefully. She met the approach of death with the same dignity and composure for which she Avas remarkable through life. Her remains were conveyed to Coventry and deposited by the side of those of her husband. Some interesting reminiscences of her life, from her own pen, will be found in the Appendix.*

* See Appendix C.

EARLY LITE OF DAVID HALE. 11

David, the son of David <and Ljdia Halo, was born at Lisbon, Connecticut, on the 25th of April, 171)1. It is easy to infer what must have been the early training of the child of such parents. Though he was their only child, and for that reason they may have been more indulgent to his childish faults, yet from all that can be ascertained, it woukl seem that his parents were judicious and faithful in the application of the scriptural principles of family government. His mother once remarked to the writer, when speaking to her of her son's usefulness and success, " My great desire has always been that David might do right and be a good man.^^

One or two anecdotes may be mentioned here to show that his parents did not discard the wisdom of Solomon. On one occasion Avhen David was chopping wood in the door-yard, his aunt cautioned him not to hurt himself, to which he replied in a bantering way, whereupon his father punished him severely though he was then in his 'teens.

He himself narrated this incident : " Once, mother called me, ' David, David, David !' / didnH come, and then she redded me."

There was nothing particularly noticeable in the charac- ter and conduct of David Hale in his boyhood. He was obedient, affectionate, playful, and sometimes roguish, and is said to have been characterized by timidity, gentleness, and extreme sensitiveness, rather than by their opposites. He always told the truth from infancy, and in his childhood and youth, though he gave no evidence of piety, he was at- tentive to the outward duties of religion. His only educa- tion was that of the district school and such instruction as he received from his father at home, which was limited to the common English branches. But in those days a com- mon-school education in Connecticut laid broad and well the foundations of knowledge.

12 MEMOIR.

When about sixteen years of age, David left scliool and began his business-hfc as a clerk in the store of a principal nu'rcliMut of Coventry. His employer, now a resident of Providence, Rhode-Island, says of him, " He was a faithful, trusty boy. He then manifested those traits of character, Avhich Avere in after life more fully developed, and for Avliich I believe all who had the pleasure of his per- sonal ac(|uaiutauce have, and ever will, give him full credit, viz. : frankness, truthfulness, and magnanimity, — the latter in my opinion equal to Webster's definition of the term.*

" I recollect one incident that made an impressioiv on my mind. I then thought he was chargeable with a transaction that rather displeased me. I mentioned the fact to him in private. He stood up before me with his head a little higher than mine, and declared himself innocent of the charge, and with tears running down his face respectfully exculpated himself to my full satisfaction."

After one year's experience of a clerkship in a country store, Mr. Hale began to aspire to be a merchant in the connnercial metropolis of New England. His prospects in Coventry were better than those of most young men, for he was sure of coming eventually into possession of a farm as good as any in the town. But feeling that this was " too narrow a circle for information or exertion," contrary to the preference of his parents and the advice of friends, he de- termined to go to Boston and obtain a thorough mercantile education with a view to that course of life which he had

* The following is the (lelinition referred to : Magnanimity, "Greatness of mind; that elevation or dignity of soul which en- counters danger and trouble with tranquillity and firmness ; which raises the possessor above revenge, and makes him delight in acts of benevolence ; which makes him disdain injustice and meanness, and prompts him to sacrifice personal ease, interest, and safety, for the accomplishment of useful and noble objects."

CLERKSHIP IN BOSTON. 13

marked out for himself. He was attractetl to tlie city also by a fondness for polished society.

It was in 1809, when about eighteen year.> of age, that he left the parental roof to seek his fortune by his own exer- tions. As he drove into Boston in the old-fashioned chaise in which lie had traveled from Worcester, (there was no great Western railroad then), and with an honest simplicity in- quired of the truckmen along the streets w'.iere he should find a stahh; and an irui, ;uid was niiswercd by some with curses and by others with ridicule, he had Jiis first expe- rience of the rougli and tumble of Hfe in iiio busy, selfish city. But this was oidy tlie beginning of Ins annoyances. Not readily finding employment in tiie bns'ness which he had in view, he accepted a situation in a co.nmission house Avhere he experience*! such severe treatment that he ever afterwards spoke of his employer as his old master.

On one occasion he was sent in search of a vessel whose arrival was reported ; he went to her wharf, but she was not there, and after searching for some tunc in vain, ho returned to the store and said that he could j ot find her. — " Can't find her ! Ha ! CanH find her .'" said his mas- ter with a sneer, hooting him out of the ston^, " Go to every wharf from Charles River to tlie Neck, and dou't come back and say you can't find her."

Yet this clerkship, tliough far from corresponding with his dreams of Boston life, proved to liim a very salutary and useful discipline. Alluding to it afterwards in a letter to a friend, he remarked, " God chose to place mo in a situation where under a tyrant of a master, I should karii indifference to fatigue or hardship, and unyielding perseverance in the pursuit of whatever was undertaken ; a lesson which He knew, though I did not, was absolutely necessary for me." It was there that he learned never to admit tliat a duty re- quired of him could not be done.

The occasion of his leaving this disagreeable situation was

14 MEMOIR.

an incident illusti*ative of the independence and the noble- ness of his character. A fellow clerk, a mere lad, had left tlic store on account of harsh treatment. Young Hale was ordered to go and entice him back, that his master might have the malignant satisfaction of kicking him out of the store. This he refused to do, and was turned out of his place in consequence.

Thus ended the first year of his experience of city life. Disappointed and tried he Avas on the point of abandoning the idea of being a merchant, and even went so far as to Avrite to his parents that he would return home and settle on the farm, if they would remit him money for that pur- pose. This was what his parents had long desired, and they wrote immediately their approval of his decision and inclosed the money which he requested. The letter was sent by a neighbor, but on reaching Boston, by some strange oversight he forgot to give it to David, and carried it back with him to Coventry ; and before David received it he had obtained another clerkship and had entered into engage- ments which he could not retract. His new employers, Messrs. Bartlett and Denison, were of a very different stamp from the master whom he had left, and he soon began to feel that the life of a clerk was not necessarily the life of a drudge or a slave. This little incident shaped the whole subsequent course of his life. His parents were disappointed in the result, and not a little pained at what they considered his " foolish schemes," but, as is not unfre- quently the case, the Providence of God had a work in view for David which their foresight limited by their fondness could not then compass. As he grew up to manhood he began to entertain more serious views of the future, and to desire success in business chiefly as a means of comforting his parents, and of doing good in the world. The following letter, with all its humor, is indicative of the grave transi- tion from the romance to the reality of life.

LETTER TO HIS FATHER. 15

"Boston, Aiml 2G, 1811. ** Honored Father,

" Yesterday made me twenty years old. With what pleasure I once anticipated that day. And perhaps it has brought me as much pleasure as 1 ex[)ecle(l, but not exactly of the same kind. Then, I thought what a tine thing it was to be strong, and nim- ble so as to overmat(;h all the boys, and so that I could knock a ball or {)itch a quoit like men, and so that I needn't always be doing little chores, but more than all, because I should do what I Iiad a mind to, and be free. And when I heard men talk I frequently thought and knew tlieir opinions to be wrong, and wished myself so large that what I said they would believe. But now wliat am I ? Ncjthing it ap[)ears to me, but a mere insect ciawling about on this great molehill. Some of my species are running one way, some another, each one after his favorite crumb, and few care which way I run, or what is the effect of my race. When I look round and see the vast variety of great men, little men, wise men, foolish men, fat men, and lean men, of what con- sequence can it be v/hether I am long or short, whiteheaded or auburn locked, humpshouldered, hooknosed, respected or neg- lected ; whether I ride on the Pegassus of my own folly or go on foot ; whether I am happy or miserable ? The world will still go on just so whether 1 am in it or out of it, whether I sit still or get up and stamp. Then what is to be done ? Climbing the hill of eminence is like a pismire's crawling on chalk, as soon as he makes it his dependence, down he goes with a broken head for his exertions. We may rely on the aid of a divine providence if we make it our trust. 13 ut this should not at all diminish our own exertions. Every one has many objects, and some one in particular which will involve his anxiety and command his abili- ties. To suffer that favorite object to pass unattained would bo the consequence of fear or sloth, both of which let every rational being banish. The kind care of Heaven and my affectionate parents has brought me to be almost a man. May the continued care of Heaven make me a blessing to my parents ; nor suffer them to mourn that they are the cause of a creature's existence, who had better never been born.

" Your dutiful boy,

DAVID."

Mr. Hale remained In Boston, occasionally trading a little on his own account, till after the declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812. This period embraced the non-intercourse act of Mr. Madison's administration and

16

MEMOIR.

the embargo of ninety days by wliicli the war was preceded. From brief intimations in a journal which he then kept, it wouhi seem that he sympathized with the federal party in their opposition to these measures which he represents as having " laid American glory and prosperity in the dust." We learn from the same source that he went on several expeditions — some of them not a little hazardous — in quest of imported goods then contraband of war. Of one of these, by schooner to St. Andrews, his journal gives a minute and entertaining description.

But the memorials of these few years are too scanty for a connected biography ; and yet it Avas at this time that he underwent the most momentous change of which a moral being can be the subject in this probationary state. When Mr. Hale went to Boston a young of man eighteen, though liis principles were ■\vell-formed and his habits good, he was not professedly a Christian. But he kept his morals pure. In a letter to his father, he says, " I have read Proverbs XXIII. attentivel3^ Of the virtues it inculcates I will say nothing, and only observe that I am seldom called to ' eat with a ruler,' and never join with ' wine-bibbers.' Of the rest you will be satisfied if you but put the question, Can he who most tenderly loves one female adorned with every virtue, hold intercourse with another who has clothed herself in infamy ?" He Avent indeed occasionally to the theater, and and in after life he used to say jocosely that it was by hearing actors speak that he learned how to speak himself at least loud enough to be heard on the street or in af)ublic assembly ; but how nuich ho thought of his school may be learned from his letters on the theater in a subsequent part of this volume. He never suffered himself to be contaminated with the vices which flourish in the courts of Thespis. His preservation from the common fate of young men in large cities was owing chiefly to his early education, which had firmly rooted in his mind the principles of vii'tue. He kept the

CONVERSION. 17

Sabbath ; and he continued to read the Scriptures in wliich from a child he had been taught. He attributed his preser- vation in this respect in part likewise to his connection with a singing school, Avhich occupied his leisure, and especially to virtuous female society. liut he needed a higher security than that aftbrded by early habits and good principles, or even by the society of the pure in heart. And this he found. At that time there was in Boston a preacher of the Gos- pel whose name and labors will not be forgotten in that city for many generaticas. I refer to the Rev. Dr. Griffm, then pastor of the Park Street Church. Of noble mien, of car- nest and effective eloquence, bold and zealous for the truth in times of controversy and peril, this distinguished preacher, then in his prime, drew around him a greater concourse of hearers, and especially of young men, than any other orthodox minister in Boston. Mr. Hale was an attendant on his minis- try, and to use his own words, Dr. Griffin's sermons often sent him home trembling to his room and to his knees. At length his convictions resulted in penitence and faith in an atoning Savior. This was somewhere in the early part of the year 1812. In June of that year he commenced keeping a journal in which he recorded his religious expe- rience and such secular matters as interested him personally. The entries in this journal were made at irregular intervals for about three years, when it was dropped and never re- sumed. He commonly recorded the texts with a brief out- lino of the sermons of each Sabbath, sometimes adding his own reflections. »The following extracts will serve to ex- hibit the general tenor of his thoughts and feelings.

" Sahhalh, June 12, 1812. Am sensible that T have spent lliis Sabbath very impiopcirly ; neither my thoughts nor my words have been confined to heavenly objects. I must keep myself alone on iSundays or i cannot enjoy the company of my lieavenly Fatlx^r."

" Sabbath, Sept. 0. To-day the sacraniciii. of the supper has b(!cn administ(!red ; but 1 was not at the table. Oh ! I cannot

18 MEMOIR.

sit at tlie table of the Lord in Heaven unless I am prepared here. I must first partake of that bread which came down from Heaven, here, or I cannot live on it there. Scarcely could I turn my back on that ordinance ; it indeed appeared a rich, a reviving re- past. I could have given myself away to enjoy it with ray Savior's smiles. Christ has died for me, and shall I not live for Him ? He has humbled himself and taken the form of a servant to atone for my sins, and shall I not be humbled for those sins ? He has suffered himself to be derided, spit upon, scourged and crucified for the love he bore to me who was his enemy ; and shall I return him no affection who is so much my friend ? My trembling soul scarcely durst trust itself in his hand. But I have nowhere else to go. Merciful Savior, I will throw myself at thy feet ; there will I lie till thy benevolent hand raises me up."

Mr. Hale already appears to have been a shrewd observer of public men and affairs. His correspondence with his " honored father," of which only a few specimens remain, foreshadowed some of the opinions to which he afterwards gave such prominence as a public journalist. In this view, and as indicating the vigor of his mind and the readiness of his pen, the following extracts from a letter written at twenty -one, will be read with interest.

" The politics of our country appear to have taken a different channel for a few months past. The storm appears to grow more calm, and the strife to be less for names, and more for prin- ciples. Violence is getting unpopular, and men are growing more into the practice of thinking for themselves. They see that the " Essex Junto " and federalists in other states have sometimes been rash, and that democratic proscription at home and paper cannonade on foreign nations, are but the pitiful ravings of mad- ness and the bravado bluster of cowardice. In fact, I think Americans are a;ettinfj a little wiser. If men in greneral should become so wise, as to believe their own senses even when they contradict their favorite leaders, and leave off to see with other men's eyes, to hear with other men's ears, and not refuse to feel, then demagogues must tremble and democracy tumble from its pre-eminence. Democrats have been worse to convince than " Doctor Doubty " himself. He upon receiving a good drubbing, acknowledged that some things were certain ; but democrats liave grinned and bore the cudgel, and still doubted whetlicr any tiling hurt them. But wc must not expect the time in a republic

EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL. 19

when patriotism shall govern. Legislative bodies will evor be scenes of cabal, influenced by a few demagogues, to whom in the fancied expectation of helping themselves, they will sacrifice the best interests of the people. These demagogues know Avell how to blow their own trumpets, to to,ot their own patriotism, and tell the people how infatuated they are, with love for such charming creatures. But Cassius, who for his philanthropy could slay Caesar whom he loved so much, could afterwads place t)/rants all over Judea and Syria, because they by their extortions were able to pay him the most tribute. Constitutions are but little protection against these rotten-core patriots. Different poli- ticians, like different divines, think directly contrary to each other, but all find their sentiments amply supported. No constitution can be made so tight, but that a legislature who think there is better picking the other side, will find some hole where they may crawl through. The Hon. Mr. Otis, in a very elegant speech on the reported answer to Gov. Gerry's ' Old maids' petition,' ob- served very truly, 'Paper constitutions are like paper kites, and every political boy thinks he may let them go the full lengtli of the string.'

" Buonaparte says in one of his bulletins (soon after the battle of Jenna, and the issuing of the Berlin decree), he will fight until the British acknowledge that the rights of war, are the same by water as by land, that it is as contrary to the law of nations to capture private property on the sea as it is on the land. Will you send me an answer to him ? Is private property as sacred in ships as in houses ? If not, why is the distinction ?"

In the fall of 1812 Mr. Hale returned to Coventry, prob- ably having been throAvn out of employment in Boston by the war. Under date of Sept. 18th, his journal contains tliis brief entry : " On Monday 14th, I left Boston and ar- rived at my parents on Wednesday. Thus I am placed on the ' War Establishment ' of Mr. Madison." He spent the winter of that year in teaching a district school at Coven- try. Here he became involved in a controversy with one of the most influential men in the town, whose son he had whipped severely for misdemeanor. The boy who was per- haps the largest in the school, had openly and contemptu- ously refused to do as he was bid ; Avhereupon Mr. Hale flogged him into obedience. The flogging was undoubtedly

20 MEMOIR.

severe though i*-s severity was much exaggerated by rumor.

The father of the lad, CoL , a leading Federalist and

aristocrat, was highly indignant at the insult offered to his family pride, r„tvi threatened summary vengeance upon the presumptuous teacher. Mr. Hale had already rendered himself obnoxioas in some way to the democrats of the town, and now " about half the district" was aroused against him. The character and issue of the contest may be learned from the account which he gave of it at the time in a letter to a friend.

" Every measure was tried which malice could invent to injure my character, and to drive me from the school. I kept my place, and stood I trust, firm in my own defence against all their rage, until all other measures failing, the Visitors of schools (who have power to dismiss instructors for misconduct), were called. This was just what i wanted. I had a grand trial before them in which I was accused, perhaps of twentj'' crimes, such as feeling important, and talking politics. My accusers belittled themselves all that I could -•. ish, and gave me every advantage to defend myself and whip them, which I did in a long plea. The Visitors' judgment was mn only approbatory, but highly plauditory of my conduct. The whole was a somewhat amusing, though quite in- teresting scene. All this was too much for mj' enemies to bear, and they threatc^ned mj' person with attack. And I have no doubt some of t'lc m would have gladly sucked my blood. I let them understand hat I was not scared, but as tlie judgment of the Visitors had established my cliaracter to the world, I was ready to leave then, Avhich it was thought prudent to du."

Not satisfied with the decision of the Board of Visitors, the aggrieved p-rty determined to carry the case to the civil law. A few days later Mr. Hale wrote to the same friend as follows : " "VMiat think you ? My mad Colonel has at length sued mo ! — before a single Justice ! and laid his damages at seven dollars ! I have had but few days' notice, and am determined to manage my own cause. The less no- tice I can take oi" it the better. I have no doubt what the result will be, b.it find that it requires considerable time for mc to arrange my thoughts for such an undertaking. This

SCIIOOLCONTROVERSY. 21

is the most important trial of all, and will, ii I am success- ful, elevate my character still more than what is past. To preserve and exalt my character is an object of very tender solicitude."

But the Justice before whom he was sunimoned was one of the visiting committee who had approved of Mr. Hale's conduct, and he refused to try a case upon which he had already given his opinion ; so the young advocate " lost the opportunity of whipping the Colonel in his piea."

This opportunity, however, was soon given before the proper tribunal, and the final result of the case is thus stated by Mr. Hale in his journal under date of July 3d.

" July 3d. The long contest between Col. ■ and myself,

respecting a punishment Avliich I inflicted on his son while at school in Silver street, I hope is now at an end, as it has been decided to-day in my favor by a court of law. This business as it has terminated will establish the government of scboolmasters, and it is probable that much good will result to society, as it is exactly what the ideas of many people at this time recjuire. On the whole, I trust that community has gained, and that I have suffered no loss in character, and I hope none in good nature."

This decision was approved by the great majority of the better class of inhabitants in the district, and its influence upon the discipline of schools in that vicinity was felt for years. A gentleman who resided in Coventry at the time, and who afterwards taught school in an adjoining district, observed to the writer, that when the trial came on, all good people seemed to wish for Mr. Hale's success, and that he himself felt strengthened by the decision when he came to exercise the function of a pedagogue.

This little incident was quite an afiair for a young man of twenty-one, and it brought out some of the characteristics for which Mr. Hale was afterwards so distinguished. We cannot but admire his fearlessness in the discharge of what he considered his duty to the school, his manly, independent

Of)

M K M O I R

bearing throngli the trial, and the self-rehanco and con- fiik'nce in the justice ot" his cause which led him to under- take his oAVu defence against the professional talent engaged on the other side. It should also be mentioned to his credit that it appeared from the testimony of all the witnesses, that though he chastised the boy severely, he did not inflict a stroke after the boy had submitted to his authority. The chastisement was not inflicted in a passion but as a matter of principle, to impress the scholars with the diflerence be- tween *•' I won't " and " I will."

During this temporary residence at Coventry Mr. Hale made a public profession of religion. His feelings in view of that transaction are thus expressed in his journal.

" Sabbath, Jimc Gth, 1813. I have to-day taken upon me publicly the vows of the Lord. Wliat an act have I done ! IIow have I unalterably committed myself ! Alas ! I feel that I am wholly unable to perform my solemn obligations. I have de- clared in the presence of God, angels, and men — I have called Heaven and earth to witness, that 1 take the Lord for my God, Jesus Christ for my Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit for my Sanc- titii'r ; that 1 renounce the world and embrace the cross. I have pledged myself to ' walk in all the ordinances Lord blameless.' ' But 1 know in whom I have believed,' that lie is able to keep me from falling, and to present me before the throne of grace clothed in the robes of his righteousness with exceeding joy. Blessed Redeemer do I not love thy cause ? Is it not my wish to honor thee. Oh thou who hast so much humbled thyself for me ? Kind Saviour I lean on thy almighty arm ; Avilt thou up- bold me, and make thy stiength ])erfect in my weakness. After the Su})per, the 100th hymn in Dwight's Collection was suni^. So congenial was it to my feelings that I felt myself overwhelmed, and conipt'Ued to yield m}'' emotions in tears. And so perfectly and so eloquently does it describe the feelings of my heart at that time, that 1 would ever have it connected in my memory and in my manuscripts with that transaction :

" The promise of my Father'8 love Shall stand forever good ; He said and gave His soul to death, And scal'd the grace with blood.

RETURN TO COVENTRY. 23

" To this dear cov'nant of thy Word, I 8ft my worthlcaH name, I seal the engagement to my Lord, And make my humble claim.

" Thy light, and strength, and pard'ning grace,

And glory, shall he mine ; My life and soul, my heart and flesh, And all my pow'rs are thine.

" I call that legacy my own,

Whieh'Jf-sus did bequeath ; 'TwaH purchas'd with a dying groan. And ratified in death.

" Sweet is the memory of his name Who bless'd us in his will, And to his testament of love, Made his own life the seal."

In the same connection are two other entries which illus- trate his habit of self-examination, and his views of Chris- tian duty. The first was made on his twenty-second birth- day.

" Sabbath, April 25. This day is the anniversary of my birtli. Another year has been given me by a merciful God, and my blessed Savior has been enriching me with abundant privileges that I miglit bring forth some fruit. It becomes me then not to slight this grace, but to examine whether my life has produced any ' fruits meet for repentance.' Alas, what a wretched result must such an inquiry produce ! Well may the Lord of the vine- yard say, 'Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground.' But God is abundant in goodness, therefore have I hope. Oh ! Divine Savior, do thou intercede for me at thy Father's throne, that I may be spared ' this year al.so,' and under thy gracious culture may I be no longer barren. Do thou enable me this day to renew my vows to thee, and this coming j^ear may I devote myself more unreservedly to thee, who hast loved me and given thyself for me."

The other entry was made some months previous, when, entertaining the hope that he was a Christian, he was called upon to engage in prayer in his father's family.

" My father left home yesterday to attend his duty at Tolland. T have, by his advice, taken the lead in our family devotions. How poorly I perform my part my own sensations are witness. But I trust, that with some degree of humility and confidence, I

24

MEMOIR.

am enabled to rely on that infinite fountain of wisdom, who has promised to be near all those who call upon Him. But difficult and embarrassing as this duty is, its performance affords the most heartfelt satisfaction, even in a parent's family, and surrounded with domestics. How delightful must it be then, when performed by the side of her who is most tenderly loved, and whose bosom beats with piety and congenial fondness. Strange that any whom sympathetic love has united should neglect this cement, this bliss of their affection, to raise their united hands, and present their mingled prayers to their heavenly Friend. Imagination paints the scene of family devotion adorned by love as almost up to Heaven. Religion will not destroy love but c'nasten it, and ' love will not wound religion but adorn it.' "

His correspondence at this time with the intimate friend to whom he was subsequently united in marriage abounds in expressions of sincere, humble, and earnest piety. A few extracts may not be unacceptable to the reader. Speak- ing of the best mode of influencing an impenitent person, he remarks : " It is no doubt our duty to endeavor to persuade sinners to love our dear Redeemer ; and though hints and arguments may very properly be often used, we shall be likely to make a deeper and more effectual impression by cultivating that sweet and gentle temper in ourselves, which Tfas so eminently exhibited in Him."

In respect to self-examination and the evidences of Chris- tian character he makes the following discriminating re- marks :

" In judging of ourselves and of all other things we are ex- tremely apt to be influenced by our wishes. Here we need be particularly cautious. Still we are not left to be continually in doubt. If we will accept a Savior's invitations we may have good reasons for our hope and stand fast, though with all humble and sincere Christians it will be with meekness and fear. It should be our earnest prayer that God would search our hearts, and see if there be any wicked way in them, and lead us in the way everlasting. We should not shrink from examining our hearts by any test which is sanctioned in Scriptui'O, but should endeavor to try ourselves by all tests to discover sin in all its lurking places, and be careful that there is no one which we un- knowingly roll as a sweet morsel under our tongue. We should

RESIDENCE AT COV^ENTRY: MARRIAGE. 25

bring ourselves to every test, not generally, but particularly. If we wish to know whetber we love Christians, we should not look round on Christians at large merely, nor on the polite and well-bred among them who would be agreeable to us without their piety ; but ask ourselves, Do I love that poor, ignorant, and despised servant of Christ who has nothing but his piety to recommend him ? In inquiring whether we are pleased with the sovereignty of God, it should be not generally but particularly ; not ' Am I willing He should do what He pleases with nations or with families, or bring upon me such afflictions as are common to mfen ?' but, ' Am I willing like Job to have my friends turned to enemies, and in poverty to be laid on the bed of anguish ?' Could I then say ' It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good' ? "

In tlie beginning of his Christian hfe, he manifested that delight in the Sabbath and in public worship for which he was remarkable till the close of life. On this point, he remarks : " Our pi-ivilege in the Sabbath is inestimable.. To assemble in the temple of God on earth for His praise seems the nearest approximation to the enjoyments of the blessed above."

In the fall of 1813, Mr. Hale was drafted from Coventry and joined the army at New London, where he remaingd a short time as sergeant in the company of " Connecticut Guards," but was never called into the field. Soon after the retiring of the British from New London he was dis- missed from service and returned to his father's house, where he employed himself upon the farm. While living at Coventry he planted a fine grove of maple trees, because he was determined that he would not pay taxes for sugar, nor be dependent on the British- for it. This grove still flourishes in front of the old State-house.

On the 18th of Jan. 1815, he was united in marriage to Miss Laura Hale of Canterbury, Connecticut, his cousin in the first degree, to "Whom he had long been ardently at- tached. Beautiful in person, refined in mamiers, well-edu- cated, and possessed of uncommon sweetness of disposition, and depth and fervor of piety, she was worthy of the en-

.26 MEMOIR.

thusiastic admiration witli which Mr. Halo ever regarded

her, and which was not lost even in his chastened devotion

to the companion of his later years. To her husband she

"was as the ivy that twines itself fondly and gracefully about

the oak, clothing its rugged surface with beauty, and gently

shielding it from the rough blast and the pelting storm.

His journal thus records his emotions in view of this

union.

"Jan. 20, 1815. Wednesday evening the 18th, I took upon me the sacred and tender obligations of a husband by receiving the hand of Miss Laura Hale. I pray God to ratify our mutual obligations, to confer his blessing upon our connection, which can alone render it a source of happiness. Oh that He would enable us to perform all the obligations wliicli we have taken upon our- selves, that He would be our guide in our pilgritnage here below, enable us to honor Him in our lives, and receive us at last as His children to dwell for ever with our blessed Redeemer in His presence."

His desire that this relation should be a means of spiritual improvement is beautifully expressed in the following lines which he addressed to Mrs. Hale on the recurrence of her birth-day soon after theii" marriage.

"Most gracious Gotl. Through thy beloved Son, Pardon our fhults, and bless I's as liuno own ; Support, defend us by Ahniglity power, And light our footsteps in the darkest hour. Teach us to thee, our duty ; and with zeal, May we perform the dictates of thy will ; T'he duties of our station may wo. know. What to each other and the world we owe. May we adorn the doctrine we've professed And as expectants live of glorious rest. Into thy hand our ini'rests we confide. Lord, 'tis enough if thou art glorified.

Fatigued when nature sinks, with death oppress'd Oh take us to the realms of endless rest. Then Heaven's pure air we'll breathe, its fields we'll rove, And endless ages spend in praise and love."

At the close of the war Mr. Hale again repaired to Bos- ton, but the prospect of establishing himself as a merchant appeared at first so dubious, that ho seriously debated the

L I F E I N D O S T O N . 27

question of returning finally to Coventry and settling down as a farmer. For a wliile he assisted his uncle Nathan Hale in the office of the Daily Advertiser ; but receiving favorable proposals from a gentleman who had some capital at his command, ho entered into a co-partnership for the business of importing and jobbing dry goods. The new house opened in September, 1815, with flattering prospects, and Mr. Hale was sanguine of success. In December of that year he wrote to his parents that in the four months in which he had been engaged in business, the sales liad amounted to foj-ty-four thousand dollars, and the profits to five thousand. For a time his career as a merchant was one of uninterrupted prosperity. His credit was of the highest character, and his sales and profits were large. But the current soon changed, and adverse circumstances com- pelled the firm to wind up its. affairs at the close of the second year. This was owing mainly to the fact that their stock was bOuglit at the high prices conseqiicut upon the war, and sufiercd an enormous depreciation when trade was revived by the restoration of peace. But the immediate oc- casion of embarrassment was the protracted illness of Mr. Hale from typhus fever, in the fall of 1817, which incapaci- tated him for business and produced such uneasiness in tho mind of his silent partner, the capitalist of the concern, that he hastily determined to bring it to a close. " My sick- ness," said Mr. Hale in a letter to his father, " caused mo the loss of a profitable fall business, and so entangled my

affairs, that Capt. thought it necessary to stop my

business, and though I could not see the necessity, nor can others since, yet his opinion created a necessity if it existed nowhere else. My creditors are disposed to re-instate mo handsomely, and it is a pleasure among the pains to per- ceive their strong confidence in my integrity and ability.

Capt. for the present stands in the way, and I

almost begin to think him a hard-hearted selfish maii,»but

28 MEMOIR.

must wait some days longer to make up my decision. * * * It is probable I shall resume my business. On my own ac- count these things do not trouble me ; on account of my creditors they do some, but they are most of them rich and generous men, and a good man told me I ought not to be troubled on their account, for the same wise Being had ap- pointed my misfortunes and their losses."

The principal creditors of Mr. Hale offered to release him upon the most favorable terms, and to extend him whatever credit might be necessary to re-establish himself in business. A leading merchant of Boston, after proposing a liberal

compromise, added, " If Capt. will furnish you from

three to five thousand dollars, on your individual note for a term of from three to five years to commence business upon, I will give you a credit and so would all your friends, of whom no you^ng man has more." The condition of rais- ing this amount of capital was proposed as much with a view to Mr. Hale's own benefit as for the security of cred- itors. No young man ever stood higher in the confidence of the mercantile community, or found more friends in adver- sity. Alluding to this Mr. Hale remarks in a second letter to his father, " I hope I have not munnured at this dispen- sation of an holy Providence. I have been determined to preserve a good conscience,'"and the good opinion of my ac- quaintances both of my talents and integrity has made me believe that good prospects and a fair character remain to me yet, nor have I considered my stoppage a misfortune in point of property."

But every proposition for the settlement of liis difficulties was embarrassed by the capitalist whose hasty action had complicated if it did not occasion them. This gentleman Beverely censured the active partners in the firm. Ho would accept of no compromise, and it was only by a pro tracted controversy terminating in a lawsuit and an arbitra tion^ that his claims were finally adjusted. The issue of

LIFE IN boston: CORRESPONDENCE. 29

the contest was quite favorable to Mr. Hale, both in a legal and a moral point of view. He did not however escape the tongue of slander, as no man ever did wlio was unfortunate, and even after he had removed to New York, calumnies respecting his former business transactions were occasionally revived by rival editors, though they uniformly recoiled upon their authors.

During these two or three eventful years, Mr. Hale main- tained his Christian character alike in prosperity and adver- sity. Soon after he formed his first business connection, and while elated with his prospects, he wrote to his absent wife as follows :

" The sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered at Park Street last Sabbath. It gave me pleasure to reflect that my wife was engaged with me in the delightful solemnity. Yet I cannot say I had a good day ; my mind was filled with the world, and I exerted myself in vain to banish it. Bargains filled my heart, and left the dying Savior too httle room. But it was at my commencement. I trust it will not be so when the rou- tine of business is a little estabUshed : indeed, I find the case quite different already, for now I can banish business and think of something else."

In another letter to the same dear friend, he thus gives vent to his pious emotions in reading the word of God : _

" How full of ardent and devoted piety are the Avritings of the Psalmist ! How fully does he express the desires of every Chris- tian ! How suited ai-e his petitions to our wants ! * Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth ; keep the door of my lips.' God ap- pears to have been the most intimate associate of this eminent saint, the confidant of his heart, the friend to whom he flew and unbosomed himself in every grief, on whose arm he could lean, and pour his tears and feel his griefs depart. How do they lower down religion who make it to consist in proud good works, and selfish exertions for personal good, leaving out of the account humility, charity, faith, repentance, communion with God, and all the sources of a real Christian's highest happiness."

The following extract is in quite a different vein. It is from a letter written immediately after the great gale of the

JJU MEMOIR.

23d September, 1815, when houses were unroofed, trees and chimneys blown down, and vessels dashed against the wharves or driven from their moorings :

" Our trains of reflection on the storm, though both were se- rious and appropriate, were quite diflercnt. While you wero seeking a shelter from the storm in an Almighty Savior, I was stretching my ideas and enlarging the terrors which surrounded me, luitil I could behold that more miglity display of power and wrath which shall carry creation again into chaos. I could not content myself shut up in the store. I walked out into different parts of the town, and down to the long wharf w^here I could have a satisfying view of the tumultuous ocean. Saturday seemed an epitome of the united fury of the elements, and the tremendous crash of falling Avorlds, which shall give terrible grandeur to the final judgment-day. Indeed how much will it then be necessary to have a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the storm."

The same element in the constitutional temperament of Mr. Hale, which brought him into sympathy with the wild and turbulent phenomena of the physical world, nerved him for the storms and conflicts of life, and enabled him to struggle and to conquer where many would have yielded in despair. When adversity befell him, his parents renewed their solicitations that he would return to Coventry and content himself with the peaceful occupations of the farm. But while gratefully acknowledging their kindness, and ex- pressing his desire to gratify them, he replied : " I love the storms of life. The fire-side has its charms, but it is the traveler beaten by the tempest who most enjoys them." Still it was not constitutional fii'mness alone that enabled him to face adversity. He had a devout trust in Provi- dence. " My trials in business," said he, " I feel have been hardly severe enough to do me good. We have not suffered the want of any comfort, we have not been mo- lested, and though somewhat anxious, perhaps I am not to expect ever to be less so. You know I am not apt to be concerned about the future."

LETTER OF REV. S. SPRING. 81

He did not suffer business cares to interfere with reli- gions duties. While separated from Mrs. Hale, for some months after his marriage, he observed, simultaneously with her, stated sea.sons of prayer and of meditation on selected pa,ssages of Scripture. Ho delighted in the Sabbath. Writing to his father, he says :

" I regret to hear of your illness which confines you from the house of God ; but I am glad that ma, Lydia, and the old mare, have sufficient confidence in one another to venture to meeting' together. The Sabbath is indeed a precious season, and the liouse of God a precious place. Perhaps it is useful for us some- times to be denied the refreshing streams we find there, that like the hart in the desert we may feel our need, and pant for the water brooks. Some of David's most fervently pious psalms were written when driven from the courts of his God. I feel my privileges in this respect to be peculiarly great. 'We have no such lengths to go ' as you have, and we uniformly find a rich feast when we arrive. It is this which perhaps as much as any thing makes me fond of Boston."

The correspondence of Mr. Hale even in the midst of business perplexities, whether addressed to his wife, his parents, or to others, was pervaded with the spirit of piety. The preceding extracts are but specimens of the tone of almost every letter. With him religion was not occasional but habitual ; as he himself expressed it, it was a " heart- business" and a " life-business."

A communication addressed to the Avi'iter by Rev. Samuel Spring, of East Hartford, Connecticut, a partner of Mr. Hale in his first business relations, presents a pleasing pic- ture of his character. It is given entire.

"East Hartford, May 10, 1849. "Dear Siu,

" Your note men ted an earlier reply, and would have received it, had I been fully persuaded that it were best for me to under- take any thing like a compliance in form with your request. My connection with Mr. Hale, extending through a period of two years, though it gave me the best of opportunities to become ac- quainted with his character at large, was not of essential use in

32 MEMOIR.

securing a view of his religious cliaracter especially, and doubt- less for the reason that I was not prone to contemplate him as a Christian, but rather as a business man, and as a partner and friend. I was not then a professor of religion, and had but just begun to be interested in my relations to God and eter- nity ; although before we closed our connection I had made a profession, and was with him a member of Park Street Church. All my recollections of his Christian character are honorable to him, and pleasant to myself. He was consistent and firm, and had a testimony, I believe, in the consciences of all who knew him, to the stability and elevation of his religious principles. I distinctly recollect his punctual attendance on the weekly evening prayer-meeting in Park Street Vestry, and the Sabbath-noon prayer-meeting in the same room. He was also connected with one of the Sunday-schools of the city, and a part of the time, I think, superintended it. On him devolved the greater part of the labor of conducting our mercantile concern, as the elder and more experienced man ; and yet no fatigue and no complication of cares Avere ever admitted by him as an excuse for the neglect of duty, or a reason for evading his more public responsibilities. I have said that I was not much in the habit of marking his religious character ; and yet occasionally it forced itself upon my notice in so'Vne striking and agreeable way. I recall an instance. Before I found peace in believing, we were one evening in oiu* store looking over the entries of the daj', and had been occupied till it was quite late. Before we went home, Mr. Hale said to me, ' We have been talking about business, let us now talk about something better,' and then proposed some question to me, I forget the form, designed to draw from me either the avowal of a Christian hope or the acknowledgment of impenitence. I had, as he knew, been tlie subject of concern and occasional deep im- pression for some months. In answer to his question, I tokl him I was afraid I had no religion. He then kindly directed my at- tention to some things which he thought afforded evidence of a renewed heart, and at once proposed the duty of making a pro- fession of religion. I replied that I had no thought of it, and if I had, the fear of dishonoring the cause and wounding the friends of Christ Avould deter me from such a step. With an archness of manner pecidiarly his own, and which when occasion offered, lie knew well how to assume, and yet devoid of all severity, he said, ' O what do you care about the cause and friends of Christ ?' The aptness of the inquiry, the spirit and tone of the man, gave mc at once an entirely new view of one feature of the Christian charact«r. It was the first ray of light that came to the relief of a benighted and desponding mind. I began to balance the inquiry. if I had any regard for the honor of religion, and soon

TRIALS IN BUSINESS, 33

was led to think if I liad, then I ought to admit the hope that I was a Christian. I have not been accustomed to consider that evening as the commencement of a new hfe, or that conversation with Mr. Hale as the selected instrumentality of leading me to a Savior, and not till months after this did I trust that the Holy- Spirit brought me into the liberty of God's children ; but I have often tliought of it as a pleasing instance of his readiness, his Christian solicitude, and his tender fidelity. With all that was rugged and apparently harsh in his manner and voice, Mr. Halo had a feeling heart, and I have been led to regret that so large a part of my business connection with him was spent, before I even began to appreciate the more estimable points of his character, or profit as I might have done, by his spirit and example.

" You arc at hbcrty to make what use you think proper of what I have written, and will accept my earnest wishes for your success in the service you have undertaken of preparing a me- moir of that excellent man.

" Yours with Christian affection,

" S. SPRING."

Though for years after the misfortune referred to above, Mr. Hale was obliged to struggle with pecuniary embar- rassment, he was cheerful in the family and active in the church. He did not suflfer himself to be made uiiliappy by disappointments. Blessed with a thankful heart, and with courage, patience, perseverance, hope, he enjoyed hfe and improved it in spite of trouble and care. The increase of his family, while it brought upon him new burdens and re- sponsibilities, added greatly to his joy. The frequent allu- sions to his own little prattlers, in his letters to his parents, show how fond he was of the pleasures of the domestic circle.

It was not till the spring of 1819, that he was enabled to close up his old business, though before that time he had become agent and part owner of a powder-mill, located at Chelmsford, which yielded him a fair support. " I shall have to labor," he says, " about two years in a profitable business to repair the misfortunes of the same length of time in a bad business. And for all this I care but little in solid reasoning, but it ' goes against the grain' some.

9*

34 MEMOIR.

My profits clear of all expenses for the first year are $lj500, and my business has very much increased. I feel quite safe as to this world, but have great reason to mourn that I do not, as I ought, lay up treasures in Heaven."

Towards the close of the year 1821, an explosion at the mill, Avhich did great damage to the property and suspended the business, involved his affairs somewhat seriously for a time. Still he was not cast down. He at once set about remedying his misfortune, and as a means of support until the new mill should be completed, he accepted a book agency, of which he writes as follows : " My time is pretty thoroughly occupied, but with the expectation of some lei- sure I have undertaken to get subscribers for Dr. Dwight's Travels, for which I am allowed one-third of the price. I have obtained about sixty, and made besides some arrange- ments with booksellers, so that I think the prospect is, that with continued exertion I shall make from four to five hun- dred dollars by it. On the whole I consider the last year as the one of far the greatest temporal prosperity which has ever been granted me. But wo need to see to it that tem- poral prosperity aiid the present happiness we all enjoy, do not tempt us to think or feel as if this were the place of our rest."

His prosperity, however, again proved to be short-lived. But leaving for the present the details of business, we will recur to the development of his religious, intellectual charac- ter. Mr. Hale transferred his church connection from Coventry to the Park-street Church in Boston in the fall of 181G. Here he proved to be an efficient and valuable member. He was active in the Sabbath-school, punctual in his attendance at prayer-meetings — in which he never de- clined taking the lead when it devolved upon him — liberal in his contributions for the support of religion and for benevo- lent objects, and pi'ompt and energetic in the business affairs of the church and tho society. He took great interest in

EDUCATION SOCIETY. Sf/

sacred music, and always occupied a place in the cliolr.. Says cue who was associated with him in church fellowship, " When Mr. Hale stood up in our meetings to speak or pray, he appeared both in person and intellect to be heail and shoulders above us all ; and such was his judgment, his energy, his decision, and his talent for business, that wo always put him on our committees."

While he was connected with Park-street Church, an association of young men of that congregation was formed for mutual improvement, and for incpiry as to modes of usefulness. Several of the original members of the asso- ciation wore unconverted, but eventually they all became prominently useful Christians, and the association itseli" greatly promoted the interests of Orthodoxy in Boston. Mr. Hale early joined this association, and through his in- fluence chiefly it was led to undertake the education of young men for the ministry, and thus became a valuable auxiliary in raising up an evangelical ministry when the general tendency of ministers and churches in Massa- chusetts appeared to be towards Unitarianism. On be- ing elected to an important ofiice in the society, ho wrote thus warmly to his father of his own interest in the object :

" Tlie Recorder of this week will perliaps afford you some pe- culiar satisfciction, as it will give you evidence that my character is fair at least among the most respectable, including the serious part of the young men of tlie town. Tlie society in the account of which you will find my name makes me feel that I have not lived in vain. It makes me glad that I was not contented with the space I could occupy in Coventry. Not because I am proud of the office — the cliief value I place on that is, that it will gratify you — but, because I think I have been the honored instrument of making it what it is. The society was not started by me ; it was intended as a small society at Park-street. I joined it with a determination, if possible, to change the object. I have been warmly supported, but I am extremely mistaken if my counsels and exertions have not raised it to an importance which makes its influence felt through the town. If four or five young men are

36 MEMOIR.

constantly supported in their studies, and the young men of this town are drawn together for this noble purpose, two very impor- tant objects are accomphshed — worthy the labors of many greater and better men than I. The fund left by Aunt Hale for educa- tion, I am decidedly of opinion would be much more economi- cally and effectively expended, not to say judiciously, in its ob- jects, were your large board of trustees to save themselves their laborious duties, and annually pay their income to the American Education Society. This is a society astonishingly efficient and admirably conducted. I wish you would propose it to the board. I believe there is nothing in the will to prevent.

" I would not readily consent to forego the pleasure I derive from uniting in the great plans of benevolence which are going on here. Would you not be happy to be united with those all around you, who engage heart and hand in attacking Satan's kingdom, with a firmness and zeal which shake his old and massy walls ?"

Mr. Hale was now zealously engaged for the progress of the Redeemer's kingdom. Alluding in one of his letters to a revival in Coventry, he says :

" I am much rejoiced to hear of the gracious doings of God in yom- place. It is the earnest prayer of every Christian, ' Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.' In comparison with this, all temporal desires vanish into nothing- ness when he reflects that a single soul is of more value than the whole created universe. God seems now answering this prayei so long made by His people, and is beginning to fulfil the glorious promises made to His church. I am confident that the time is rapidly hastening when Christians will break the strings v/hich have so long resisted the demands made upon their purses by a dying world. May that kingdom flourish in our hearts."

Again, speaking of the interesting intelligence received in March 1821 from the mission to the Sandwich Islands, he says :

" Our concert last Monday evening was intensely interesting, and we are to have an adjournment of the meeting to hear more of the journal. It really seems as if the Lord were determined, by astonishing acts of favor to His children in their efibrts to spread the gospel, to compel them to trust in Him."

The cause of missions had a large place in his aflfections

missions: death of rev. d. hale. 37

and prayers, and his purse-strings never resisted the de- mands of a dying world. He appreciated the influence of missionary reading, and remarked with reference to the Missionary Herald when it was started, that " parents are extremely guilty of withholding more than is meet, who do not furnish their families with this sort of reading. There is no way in which they can help the education of their children one-quarter so much at the same expense, and be- sides the money all goes to missions."

In this particular Mr. Hale possessed in a high degree an evidence of piety to which President Edwards thus alludes in his diary, as a fruit of regeneration in his own case. " I had great longings for the advancement of Christ's kingdom in the world ; and my secret prayer used to be in great part taken up in praying for it. If I heard the least hint of anything that happened, in any part of the world, that appeared, in some respect or other, to have a favorable aspect on the interest of Christ's kingdom, my soul eagerly catched at it ; and it would much animate and refresh me. I used to be eager to read public news letters mainly for that end ; to see if I could not find some news favorable to the mterest of religion in the world."

About this time Mr. Hale was called *o mourn the loss of his father, who died in February, 1822. The death of a parent whom he so much revered, whose advice he had sought on all occasions, and to whom he had been accus- tomed to submit all his private aifairs, was a very serious affliction. He had for some time expected the event with painful solicitude ; but when it occurred he was sustained by the consolations of the gospel, and became at once the stay and comfort of his widowed mother. In his first letter to her after he had returned from the funeral, he calmly directs her thoughts to Heaven.

" I tnist, my dear mother, that we shall be enabled much to reflect upon the providence which calls us to mourn ; to reflect

88 MEMOIR.

with self-examination, and in such a manner that we shall be purified as gold. I think that the assurance we have that my father is now in Heaven will serve to give more fixedness to oui views of that world, and enable our thoughts to rest more steadily there. It is calculated to make us think more of the joys of Heaven, and to desire them more, although we are to love Heaven for its holiness, and because God is there, rather than because our friends are there."

Mr. Hale always spoke of his father with profound re- spect and often with deep .emotion, acknowledging his great indebtedness to the example and instructions of his deceased parent.

He once narrated to me an incident which showed how quick were his own sensibilities, and how deep was his rev- erence for his father's memory. Mr. Gough had been speaking very eloquently of the ineffaceable marks of past misconduct on the memory and the conscience. " Ah ! " said Mr. Hale, " I know well what that means. Onco when I was at home, my father, who had just undergone a severe surgical operation, requested me to shave him. I began to do so, but as he was nervous he complained that I did not do it right. This vexed me, and I threw down tho razor. Without saying a word lie took it up and with his trembling hand finished shaving himself. I don't think," he added, and here his voice choked, and his eyes filled with tears, " I don't think I have over shaved myself from that day to this without being reminded of my improper treat- ment of my father and feeling sorry for it."

Such an acknowledgment, coming with the freslmess of boyhood from one who had seen half a century, showed how deep and strong had been the current of filial affection in his heart.

In the year 1822 a new church was organized in Boston by the union of colonies from the Old South and Park-street Churches, with a fragment of the old Essex-street Church then on the verge of dissolution. To mark the transaction,

THEUNlONCHUaCH. 39

and for the purpose of a distinct designation, the name of Union Church was given to the new organization. This was the first aggressive movement of any importance on the part of the Orthodox since the development of Socinianism in Boston. It was therefore a movement of pecuhar interest and responsibility. A gentleman familiar with the enter- prise observes, " There was plenty of work to be done by the infant church, for the whole current of popular influence was against them. A congregation was to be collected ; Sabbath-schools were to be gathered and instructed ; reli- gious meetings were to be held, in the conference-room and in private houses ; and a multitude of benevolent enter- prises, yet in their infancy, presented strong claims for aid."

Mr. Hale was of the number from Park-st. Church who united in forming the Union Church. In this new field there was a demand for all his talents and all his zeal. He was a member of the choir ; he was chosen superintendent of the Sabbath-school and was very efficient in that capacity ; he was on the business-committees both of the church and the society, ..nd assisted in compiling their manual and laws ; he was accustomed to visit the poor, to hold meetings in halls and in private houses, and in every way to labor for the kingdom of Christ. A gentleman of Boston, who was associated with Mr. Hale in the Union Church from its organization to the time of his leaving the city, says of him, " He was one of the most active and efficient members of the church — always present at our public and private meet- ings— always ready to lead in our devotions and instruct us by his exhortations — ^unwearied in his labors on our several committees, for visiting families — examining candidates for admission to the church — and conducting our church music. Of his labors as superintendent of the Sabbath- school I cannot speak from personal knoAvledge, having had the charge of another school. We admired him for the ability

40 n MEMOIR.

with A\hich lie presented truth in his addresses in our meet- ings, and for the clearness and soundness of his judgment in matters of business. In the language of our pastor, he was a ' strong man armed.' He was noble and gentlemanly in his deportment — upright and honorable in his dealings. He was warm-hearted and generous as a fi-iend — humble and devoted as a Christian. No Christian brother ever called forth more fully my confidence and my love. None ever laid upon me such heavy obligations of gratitude by his deeds of kindness and princely generosity, and in regard to no one have I a more unshaken belief that he ' sleeps in Jesus,' and has a ' part among all them that are sanctified.' "

Another gentleman, who was for some time a deacon in the Union Church, says of Mr. Hale, " I was nearly asso- ciated with him, and we often took sweet counsel together. He was an active and efiicient Christian, labored in the church and Sabbath-school, and was highly esteemed by those who best knew his worth."

But it was not only in the church that Mr. Hale rendered himself useful, though that was the sphere. of his highest activity. As a citizen he was pubHc-spirited, and zealous for the promotion of good morals and measures of reform.

He labored in various ways, and at length successfully, to abate the nuisance of booths and liquor-stands about the Common. Being grieved at the desecration of the Sabbath, especially by parties riding for pleasure, he sought to coun- teract the evil by keeping a livery-stable which should be closed on the Sabbath, hoping by the result of this experi- ment to persuade the proprietors of such establishments to regard the Lord's day. He wrote occasional articles for the newspapers on this and kindred subjects. A scries of articles against the erection of a new theater in Boston, which he furnished for one of the daily papers under the signature of " A Father," attracted much attention by their vigorous style, cogent reasoning, and elevated morality.

FIRST EDITORIAL LABORS. 41

For a time Mr. Hale was a regular contributor to the Boston Recorder, and had, in fact, the editorial charge of one department of the paper, that of political affairs and foreign and domestic intelligence. EQs labors in this depart- ment attracted the favorable notice of several prominent citizens of Boston, who were interested in the project of a daily newspaper to be conducted on Christian principles, and undoubtedly led to his being invited to take charge of a similar enterprise in this city. In allusion to this project he remarks, in a letter under date of May 5, 1821 : —

" My editorial labors do not much interfere with m};- other pur- suits ; they take a little of my time which I should otherwise spend at my store ; but most of what I do is at intervals of leisure. I think it is important for me to do it, as I i^^et five dollars a week of Mr. Willis. I am fond of a little such employmcait, and especially if what I do is well done, it may fit me, by the experience I get, and by showing my friends what I can do, for more important services of the same kind. There is a very strong disposition among leading Christians here to establish a daily mercantile newspaper to be conducted on sound principles. Mr. Evarts [then Secretary of the A. B. C. F. M.] has inquired of me if ray business would permit me to engage in the imder- taking in connection with some man whose pursuits are entirely literary. I should not be disposed to relincpiish my present busi- ness for any uncertain enterprise ; but I could do a great deal towards the editing of a paper without any infringement of con- sequence on my daily avocations. You will see what 1 contribute to the Recorder, by a pencil mark I have drawn under my articles."

The project here alluded to was not carried into cifect, though Mr. Hale was generally regarded as a fit person for such an enterprise. In this connection an incident narrated by Gerard Hallock, Esq., the surviving editor of the Jour- nal of Commerce, is interesting as an illustration of the generous spirit of Mr. Hale and the course of Providence by which he was brought into a more intimate connection with the public press.

" The circumstances," says Mr. Hallock, " which brought

42 MEMOIR.

Mr. Hale and myself into connection Avith each otlier, as joint editors and proprietors of this paper, are a little re- markable. I became acquainted -with him in Boston in 1823. He was then in prosperous business as a merchant ; I was a stranger, comparatively very young, -without pecu- niary resources, yet resolved, if a few himdred dollars could be loaned me, to establish a weekly paper there, for which there appeared to be an opening. Scarcely had I made kno-w^i my object, plan, and wants, when the money was handed me by David Hale, who had collected it from a few friends, himself included, with the condition that I should ' return it when convenient.' In a little more than a year I did return it, with interest."

Though Mr. Hale seldom took part in public meetings, and never aspired to be an orator, he spoke occasionally in Faneuil Hall upon mcasui'es in Avhich he felt a special inter- est. He was prominent in a movement in relation to the public schools. The school inspectors of Boston were elected by general ticket, and as the Unitarians were a majority in the city at large, they had tlie control of the public schools. To neutralize or weaken this Unitarian power, Mr. Halo suggested that the inspectors should be chosen by wards, which would ensure the election of some Orthodox men. By a speech at a public meeting in Faneuil Hall, in connection with more private efforts, he secured the adoption of his plan, and thereby effected a permanent change in the mode of electing these officers. For his efforts in this matter ho was assailed personally through the columns of the Daily Advertiser,, and ridiculed for having " coined words" in his speech, to which he replied over his own name. He also advocated at a meeting in Faneuil Hall the change of the government of Boston from town to city, and his speech on that occasion was reported with favor in the journals of the day. Public speaking, however, was not his forte, and

DEATH OFMRS. HALE. 43

he commonly preferred to express his views on public af- fairs through the newspapers.

The year 1824 was to Mr. Hale a year of peculiar sor- row. Slie who for years had shared in all his vicissitudes, and whose sweet companionship had relieved so many anx- ious hours, was called to the rest and enjoyment of heaven. A lingering and painful disease, which she bore with Chris- tian patience and submission, terminated in death on the evening of the Sabbath, July 25, 1824. Says a female friend who was much with Mrs. Hale in her last sickness ; " She was not only patient but happy ; she remarked to me one day when I called to see her, not long before her death, that it was pleasant to think of the grave as a resting-placo for the body, asked me to put my hand on her emaciated frame, and with a sweet smile said, ' see how sickness is pre- paring it for the grave ;' she also spoke of a sermon of Dr. Dwight on the resurrection of the body, which had afforded her much comfort in her sickness, and repeatedly desired that certain familiar hymns, relating to death and heaven, inight be read or sung in her hearing. She met every one who entered her room with a smile ; and it was her constant practice, when the children came in to see her in the morning, to speak to them with her accustomed cheer- fulness, as if nothing was the matter ; because she did not wish any gloomy impressions of her sickness to be left on their minds. She made all her preparations for leaving her family, when she should be called away from them, with the greatest composure, as much so as if she had been only going on a journey ; every little thing that would relieve any one of care and anxiety she attended to ; she seemed to lay aside her own feelings to relieve others."

It was the fervent prayer of this departed saint that her children, four in number, might " in the dew of their youth be devoted to God;" and she died expressing her strong confidence that they would all be early brought within the

44 MEMOIR.

fold of the Redeemer — a confidence which time has shown was not misplaced.

I shall not draw aside the veil to picture the loneliness and grief of the widowed husband, left with the manage- ment of a young family, with no sister nor other female relative to assist him. A delightful home soon offered itself for his childi'en in the family of Rev. Levi Nelson, of Lisbon, Conn. ; Mrs. N. being a relative of their deceased mother, with whom she had ever been on terms of the most intimate friendship. But while Mr. Hale was thus relieved of the immediate care of four motherless little ones, of whom the eldest was not yet nine years of age, his loneliness was pro- portionally aggravated by their absence. He doated much upon his children, and though they were too young to cor- respond with him, he used occasionally to write them letters full of simple affection and good counsel. One of these, ad- dressed to his eldest daughter, is inserted here as a speci- men of the methods by which he endeared himself to their young hearts :

Boston, March 5, 1825. My dear little Daughter,

It is a very long time since I have written to you or heard anything about you. I suppose you liave in this long time grown some taller, and I hope some wiser, and some better. 1 wish very mucli to know how you spend your time ; what you do at school and what yoii do at home. I want to know, too, what my other little daughter is doing — she whom I used to call Miss Little Fudge. Indeed, I liave called you both by this name, for when you Avere three or four years old, you were so busy in doing nothing, so earnest to do a thing one moment and to undo it the next, that Little Fudge seemed quite descriptive of your charac- •ters. Now that you have grown nTore sedate and more steady in your purposes, I do not know but I must give up the old name of Little Fudge and call you little Misses Amicable, or Indus- trious, or some such thing ; but I can tell better when 1 hear what characters Aunt Nelson gives you. And I wish to know, too, what my little son Richard is doing, whether he learns any thing at school, and my little son David, whether he is sober and industrious as he used to be, and yet wears that grave counte-

LETTER TO HIS CHILDREN. 45

nance, so honest and so calm. It is not because I do not think of you, that I have not written ; but because I have so many things to take up my time and attention. I think of you very tenderly- many times a day, and I pray for you at least every morning and evening. For when I get up in the morning, I think that you are about rising, too ; and that you will get up with sprightly countenances and full of hfe and run about full of joy, and not think of a great many dangers that may be near to you. Even Uncle and Aunt Nelson, careful as they are of you, cannot always see the dangers and they cannot always be with you. But I re- member that God is all the time with you, and that He sees every danger to which you are exposed, and it is very delightful to ask Him to preserve you. When I go to bed at eleven o'clock, I think of you, and seem almost to see you fast asleep in }^our beds all quiet and secure ; but I know that if you open your eyes in the morning, it will be because God preserves you.

I have lately given out to the Sabbath-School, as a story to tell in their own words, the account of the great quantity of fishes taken by the disciples. The account is in the last chapter of John. And I have asked the children a great many questions about it, most of which they have answered very correctly. I will tell you a few things which the children have agreed upon : One is that Jesus was one hundred yards from the disciples while they were conversing with him from the ship. You can easily measure a hundred yards and see how far it is. Another thing which they have concluded upon is, that the sh'q') in which the disciples were, was not such a great vessel with three masts, as we call ships in Boston, but a httle boat four or five yards long. I asked the children to give me an account of the Sea of Tiberias.

After a moment's pause, Sarah T rose and stated the various

names by which it was called, what sort of gravel the bottom is of, what river runs through it, how wide it is and how long, and a great many more things, which she seemed to understand as well as you would understand how to describe, the brook between your house and Esq. Jewett's. And what would you say if you were called upon to describe that brook ? I used, when I was as large as you, to play in that brook, to fish there and build littla dams to stop the water ; and once in the summer I went barefoot into the brook to play, and a water-snake bit one of my toes, which frightened me very much, but did me no hurt as he had none of that poison which rattle-snakes have. I believe, however, that I had presence of mind enough to kill the poor snake for his impudence.

I am coming to see you as soon as the roads are a little better, and shall bring the things of which Uncle N. gave me a memo- randum.

4G . M K M o I n .

May tho Lord watcli over you, my dear child, and over all of you, my dear children, iind keep you by day and by night. Your ailcctionate father,

DAVID H^LE.

That his painful discipline proved to Mr. I Tale a means of higher sanctificatiou was manifest to all "vvho knew him inti- mately ; and so far from seeking to dispel its influence, ho rather sought to cherish and to deepen it through life. More than twenty years afterwards, while on a visit in Bos- ton, he went to his former residence and requested of the occupant permission to enter the chamber in Avhich his wifo died ; and there he shut himself up for hours to communo with tho Past, with the departed, with his own heart, and with God.

This severe domestic affliction was followed not long after by reverses in business. Mr. Hale, still retaining his agency for the powder-mill before referred to, and which of itself yielded sudicient for his comfortable support, had also en- tered into a partnership for tho auction and commission busi- ness, and had become concerned in a woolen factoiy located in Worcester county. Jiut the general connuercial reverses of 1825, and especially the unfavorable state of the market for woolens, reduced the house with which he was connected to bankruptcy, and threw him once more penniless upon the world. So liard is it for a young merchant to build up a stable business and amass a fortune in a great city. But Mr. Hale's life had not been thrown away ; in fact he had only begun to live, and tho samo Providence which had sub- jected him to so many trials had in store for him the most ample blessings in a new and congenial field of labor and usefulness.

Meanwhile, he had formed a connection which restored to his domestic life its comfort and joy. On the 22d of August, 1825, ho Waa miited in marriage to Mis3

JOURNAL OF C O M M E R C K . 47

Lucj S. Turner of Boston ; the blessings of which union ho continued to enjoy till the close of life.

In 1827, Mr. Arthur Tappan, with his princely liberality and Kcalous regard for the public good, resolved to establish in Now York a commercial new-spapor, to bo conducted upon principles of sound morality and true independence, and with a scrupulous regard for the Sabbath. Some friends of Mr. Hale, learning of the movement, recommended him to Mr. Tappan as a suitable person to take charge of the commercial and business department of the paper, to which post he was accordingly invited. lie ent(!red upon his duties at the commencement of the enterprise, Sept. 1, 1827 ; W. Maxwell, Ii^sq., of Norfolk, Va., a gentleman of high lite- rary reputation, being associated with him as the literary editor. The Journal of Commerce (as the new paper was called) was then about the size of the New York Tribune, or one half its own present dimensions ; and its daily cir- culation was only a few hundred copies — in fact much of its circulation the first year was gratuitous. Its editorials were generally upon literary subjects ; but its columns wcro principally devoted to business and news, the latter being diversified every few weeks by the arrival of a vessel from Liverpool, Havre, or New Orleans.

Such was the expensiveness of the cnt(;rpri8e, that towards the close of the first year, Mr. Arthur Tappan, who had already advanced upon the Journal, thirty thousand dollars, determined to abandon it ; and to rid himself of further responsibility he presented the entire establishment to his brother, Mr. Lewis Tappan, whom he had just associated with himself in business. Several changes followed this arrangement. Mr. Milxwell retired from the editorship, and Mr. Horace Bushncll (now Rev. Dr. Bushnell, of Hartford) — who already evinced much of his peculiar spirit and power as a writer, and who had been an assistant of Mr. Maxwell —

48 MEMOIR.

was employed for some months as editor, while Mr. Hale, in whoso name alone the Journal was published, continued to manage the business department. The paper was under the general direction of Mr. Lewis Tappan, who thus an- nounced the principles on which it should be conducted ;

From the Journal of Commerce, Sejyt. 1, 1828.

" It will be a primary object to render the Jounial a first rate commercial paper, worthy of this city. To this end an extensive correspondence will be maintained, the most ably conducted peri- odicals will be taken, and no pains nor expense Avill be spared to procure authentic reviews of the markets, prices current, &c. It will be necessary also to maintain a boat establishment for the collec- tion of marine news ; and this must be done at our individual cost, as the pubHc and our establishment will be benefited by a competi- tion, and as it will be contrary to the principles of this paper to be associated with similar establishments which devote Sundays to the collecting- of news. By a vigorous competition we expect to prevent any deficiency arising fi-om an observance of the Sab- bath, by which we mean the hours consecrated as holy time by the general usage of Christians in this city, viz., from 12 o'clock, on Saturday night to 12 o'clock the night succeeding.

" We shall avoid all participation in the gain of those fashionable vices which sap the foundations of morality and religion, on which the best interests of the nation depend. We profess to be friends of Christianity ; — not enthusiasts, nor sectarians — and by a liberal and firm support of the moral and religious institutions of the country, we shall hope to merit the patronage of all good citizens. Nor shall we fear, for the Journal, the sneering impu- tation of its being a religious newspaper, because it will refuse to derive emolument from advertisements that are at war no less with the political and commercial prosperity, than with the inno- cence, integrity, and moral weal of the community ; nor because it will seek to promote the purity and elevation of public senti- ment.

" In short, it will be our endeavor to pursue an independent, courteous, and honorable competition ; to come out plainly against moral delinquencies ; while we hope to furnisli a paper, whicli will instruct and gratify the merchant, the politician, the literary reader, and the moral and patriotic of all callings and professions. On the cooperation of such we confidentl)'- rely. Let the experi- ment be fairly made, and who can doubt that, in the metropolis of this great nation, a daily paper, striving to excel its contem- poraries by a dignified discussion of all the leading topics of

AN INDEPENDENT EDITOR

49

public interest, excluding vice in all its forms, will be extensively patronized."

Such was the original plan of the Journal of Commerce^ as devised by Mr. Tappan. Mr. Hale differed from him on some minor points relating to advertisements and measures of reform, but in the main tlic principles stated above were his also. The attempt to establish a paper on such a basis excited the opposition and contempt of mere men of the world, while on the other hand some good men, with more zeal than discretion, were dissatisfied because the paper did not go as far as they desired, in its opposition to certain specific evils, or did not 'oppose them in the manner which they prescribed. Some who at the outset are loudest hi their acclamations for an independent journal, are most bit- ter in their denunciations whenever that journal has sufficient independence to differ from themselves! Their idea of an independent editor is an editor who will always take their advice, express their views, carry out their policy, publish their articles, defer to their opinion. And if at any time he refuses to publish communications from them which he deems erroneous or injurious, or to make his journal the ve- hicle of their extravagances, their unjust and slanderous imputations, or even of their mistaken though well-meant views, then, forsooth, he is sacrificing his independence and courting popular favor, and must be made to feel their righteous indignation. They will coerce him into their no- tions of independence by stopping the paper.

An extract from a letter written by Mr. Hale soon after the Journal of Commerce was started, will show to how many petty annoyances of this sort he was subjected, how imprac- ticable it was for him to comply with the wishes of all his patrons, and how much wiser was the general course which he prescribed to himself than what others were so ready to suggest. The letter was written before Mr. Hale had any

ownership in the Journal.

3

60 MEMOIR.

" We are very glad to know all the objections which good people make (and bad too) to our measures. We have heard many objections. One good man says that our police reports are making light of iniquity and trifling with matters which ought to make us weep ; another says we ought to attack theaters and lotteries, and keep up a fire of hot shot until the whole fabric is overthrown ; another that we ought not to advertise rum ; an- other, that we ought not to advertise novels ; and ever so many others something else. And all, with one consent, say that the wrong of which they complain is a great deal worse than theaters. As to the novels, I have never heard it mentioned except in your letter ; and if I were set to answer the gentlemen who make the complaint, I should perhaps say, that they have never been at the theaters, nor read the novels, and they had better abstain from both, but that at any rate they know nothing of the matter whereof they affirm. But if I were to use circumlocution, I would say, that in advertising we promised to exclude but two things, and to these we have added publicly all transactions upon the Sabbath ; and we exercise a censorship with regard to quack medicines and several other things, not however pretending to ex- clude every thing which is abused, or with which sin is committed — for then must we needs go out of the world ; but taking no more ground than we can maintain, and hoping to help so to push for- ward public opinion, that by and by some other things may in the exercise of a sound discretion be added to our list of exclu- sions. But I am very willing to say that I have no idea of pro- scribing novels, if by the word is meant works of fiction ; for we must then exclude a large part of the best religious tracts and other publications. The effort which Chiistians once made against novels, when they consisted of little else than licentious love stories, was certainly praiseworthy. But to proscribe the historic and literary works of fiction of the present day, merely because they are called novels, would be as unwise as to proscribe the clergy of the present day because they are called by some of the same names, and discharge the same offices with the Catholics. The abstract question of the right or expediency of using fiction I need not discuss, or undertake to determine ; and there is no probability that those questions will be decided at present ; at any rate none that all modern novels will be so reprobated by the united voice of the religious and moral community, that the high ground can be taken against them that they shall or ought not to be advertised in the columns of business."

As it was not the wish of Mr. Lewis Tappan to retain the control of the paper, he endeavored to procure an editor

EDITORIALLABORS. 51

to be permanently associated with Mr. Hale. In a few months an arrangement was made by which Mr. Hale and Gerard Hallock, Esq., then editor of the Jfew York Ob- server, became joint proprietors and editors of the Journal of Commerce. A guarantee fund of twenty thousand dol- lars was subscribed by several gentlemen for the support of the paper, and the editors were allowed two years to deter- mine upon purchasing the property by returning principal and interest. This they subsequently did, and thus the Journal was established on a safe and independent basis. But Mr. Hale passed through years of privation and self- denial before he began to receive an income of thousands.

Although it was expected that Mr. Hale would devote himself rather to the commercial and business department of the paper, than to the departments of literature and politics, yet neither his thoughts nor his pen could be idle, and by the vigor and pertinence of his articles upon a great variety of subjects, he soon proved himself to be one of the ablest edi- tors in the Union. Self-taught as he was in every thing be- yond the rudiments of education, unskilled in the rhetoric of the schools, he yet wrote Avith a precision, a correctness, and force of language, to which few attain. Elegance of com- position he never attempted ; but his words " fitly spoken" were sometimes "like apples of gold in pictures of silver." He always expressed himself clearly, concisely, forcibly ; and sometimes with that nice discrimination, both in words and ideas, which indicates the true philosopher. When we consider that he had no editorial sanctum; that his articles were written — not in a quiet study at home — nor in a private office accessible only by tortuous staircases and labyrinth passages, and guarded by spring-locks against all who could not give the magic ' Sesame' — but in the business office of the Journal, of late years on the corner of Wall and Water Streets, at a desk directly facing two doors, amid the rum- bling of carts, the cries of street venders, the hum of con-

52 MEMOIR.

versation, the receiving and disbursing of money, and inces- sant interruptions from calls and questions requiring his personal attention — when we consider that his articles were written by snatches, in such a position, and were often sent to the compositor without revision, we are filled with aston- ishment at their excellence both of thought and style, and at the power of abstraction and of self-government which must have been acquired in order to produce such composi- tions in circumstances so unpropitious.

As an editor Mr. Hale observed the courtesies of the pro fession; he never indulged in low personalities ; even in the heat of controversy, and while giving full play to his extra- ordinary powers of humor and satire, he maintained the dignity of the gentleman and the Christian. And yet pro- bably no editor was ever subjected to a greater amount of personal abuse. He was ridiculed, he was caricatured, he was assaulted, his private character was calumniated, his religious profession and acts were derided. And this malig- nant opposition was commonly excited by the fearless utter- ance of truth in the discharge of duty. The remark of the late Mr. Adams might be applied to him : " To be slan- dered is not peculiar to me, but is the common lot of all men who have attracted the attention of the age in which they live."

This treatment Mr. Hale never retaliated. His conduct towards his bitterest enemies was magnanimous. He could turn off their sneers and their curses with a laugh, — not be- cause he was indifferent to the opinions of others, — not be- cause he courted opposition, — not because his heart was ribbed in steel, — but because he had a consciousness of recti- tude which raised him above the shafts of slander, and be- cause he knew that the most malignant prejudice would yield, at length, before a stern integrity and a dignified self-con- trol.

An incident of a personal nature occurred in the early

ASSAULT AT THE EXCHANGE.

53

history of the paper, which occasioned some public scandal, but which illustrated some of the noblest traits in Mr. Hale's character, and won from him the general approbatioij of good men. An article appeared in the Journal of Com7/ierce, which, though not personal, was construed by a French merchant as a reflection upon himself. The aggrieved party demanded of Mr. Hale the name of the author of the com- munication, which he refused to give, though he offered to publish an explanatory article, if couched in proper terms. Hereupon the excited Frenchman assaulted Mri Hale with a whip in the crowded Exchange. The deportment of Mr. Hale, who had received some intimation that such an attack was intended, is thus described by one who was conversant with the facts :

"Mr. Hale, who was by far the most powerful man of the two, received the blows Avithout resistance, and without ex- citement. He knew the writer of the communication, who was not an intimate friend, but rather the contrary.' By his conduct in this affair, he stood as the honored represen- tative of the peaceful principles of Christianity, as a mag- nanimous upholder of the freedom of the Press, and as one who preferred to be laughed at by ungodly men rather than to do wrong. I have never known, since living in this city, a more heroic act. Many who disliked Mr. H. reverenced his conduct on that trying occasion."

The following is Mr. Hale's account of the affair, as it appeared under his own signature in the Journal of Com- merce of the next morning. After stating the circumstan- ces connected with the publication of the article, he thus proceeds :

" In what followed the occurrences above-mentioned, one of the editors acted alone, and may as well act alone in stating the reasons of his conduct: though he cannot but feel that the mo- tives which actuated so unimportant an individual must be of very little consequence to the public. The undersigned pro-

54 MEMOIR.

ceeded to the Exchange with the paragraph which had been prepared, and with a sincere desire to make all suitable repara- tion for the unintended Avound Avhich had been inflicted on the feelings of Mr. M., presented it to him and his friend. After a few minutes consultation, Mr. M. inquired whether the paragraph which his friend had written, or anotlier which I then saw for the first time, would be inserted. As he insisted on an answer, I replied, that exactly in the phraseology which they then had, I thought they would not.

" It is not my object to display the conduct of Mr. M. in an unfavorable light ; suffice it to say, that on receiving my answer, he at once assumed the appearance of heated passion, called on some one to hold his overcoat, which he took off with great vio- lence, and commenced a furious attack upon me with a rattan cane. I acted as I had long since deteimined to act, if I should ever be so unfortunate as to be placed in such circumstances. From the beginning, I perceived that I was in no danger of per- sonal injury — and reallj^ for such a flurry of boy's play I was not disposed, and am not now, to be angry. If the object was to inflict on me bodily pain, it failed entirely ; for I suffered none. If it was to disgrace me, I have long since made up my mind, that my own actions, and not those of other men, can do me that injury. No doubt the feelings of many of the gentlemen present demanded that I should fight. Perhaps all would have justified me in doing so ; though I have the pleasure to know, that my con- duct was approved by a large number, and for myself I find nothing in it to regret. Why should I have fought? To prove myself courageous ? Courage is that which enables a man to act well when in danger ; but in this case the essential of danger was lacking. If to prove myself superior in muscular strength, why, I suppose nobod)^ doubts that now. Besides, why should men be proud of that in which they are so much inferior to other animals ? I know men whom either Mr. M. or myself could overpower, who yet are entitled to our highest respect ; and others who could overpower us both, and who yet are despised by the whole community.

'DAVID HALE."

The commercial department of the Journal of Commerce, to which Mr. Hale gave his chief attention, soon began to attract the notice of business men as a most reliable source of information upon commercial affairs. At the time of the establishment of the Journal there existed a combination of the leading newspaper establishments of the city for obtain-

ENTERPRISE OF THE JOURNAL. 55

ing foreign intelligence ; but it appears to have been rather a combination of laziness than of enterprise — the object being not so much to obtain news promptly as to insure that no one should obtain news to the disadvantage of the rest. From this association the Journal of Commerce was jeal- ously excluded. But its proprietor, Mr. Arthur Tappan, was determined that nothing should be wanting for the suc- cess of the paper ; and accordingly he employed a separate news-boat, well-manned, to cruise in the harbor for the pur- pose of hailing vessels as soon as they hove in sight and bringing their news to the city with the utmost dispatch. This boat, which bore the name of the Journal, was sustained at great expense for several years. Her cruising was always suspended on the Sabbath. By ^ood luck, as men of the world would say, but rather by the blessing of Providence on industry and enterprise controlled by right principle, the Journal of Commerce in numerous instances obtained im- portant intelligence in advance of the entire commercial press of New York, and thus established a character for energy and promptitude which proved invaluable. This was particularly noticeable with regard to the French Revolution in 1830 ; the news of which was brought to the city by the Journal's news-boat, and was read by Mr. Hale from the steps of the Exchange, while " extras" were preparing at the Journal office.*

During the exciting scenes of Jackson's administration, when the markets were affected by President's messages, cabinet councils, and senate debates, Messrs. Hale & Hal- lock established an express from Washington to New York, by relays of horses, thus bringing Congressional news to the

* As the Journal was then printed on a hand-press, not more than two or three hundred extras could be struck off in an hour, — a fact illustrating the wonderful improvements in machinery made within twenty years. Now ten or twelve thousand sheets can be worked in an hour by Hoe's Cylindrical Press.

66 MEMOIR.

Journal of Commerce from twelve to twenty-four hours in advance of the mail. By this bold and energetic policy, together with a strict regard for accuracy and veracity in all statements of fact, and a careful avoidance of panic and imposition, this Journal gained the confidence of the public in a degree seldom attained. Probably no Journal of the time has upon the Avhole exerted more inlluencc on the poli- tics of the country. Its entire independence of party poli- tics has given more weight and authority to its opinions. As a matter of course it has been accused of vacillation and hypocrisy, by whichever party was obliged, for the time being, to encounter such a formidable opposition ; but all parties have in turn been proud of its advocacy and aid. It was a circumstance which gave peculiar satisfaction to Mr. Hale in his last illness, that neai'ly every question of political economy and of public policy which he had discuss- ed for twenty years had been settled in accordance with his own views of what Avas wise and right. This was particu- larly the case with the bank and tariff questions, in which he had taken a deep interest. He was a firm believer in the Free-trade system, and one of its ablest expounders. These subjects he had studied profoundly ; not in books — for he had no leisure for that — but m facts and principles scrutinized and shaped in the laboratory of his own philo- sophical mind. Nearly every great truth Avhich he uttered was, therefore, Avith him a discovery, an original thought ; and he was wont to trace the deepest principles of his poli- tical economy to the Word of God.

There were questions of a mixed character, questions at once political, economical, social, and moral, upon which Mr. Hale's opinions and the course of the Journal of Commerce differed widely from those of the early friends and patrons of the paper, and of many leading philanthropists. His views on certain aspects of the temperance and anti-slavery movements were to some a matter of surprise and to others

MR. H ale's opinions AND INFLUENCE. 57

a matter of grief and vexation. This is not the place to discuss those views ; they will bo given in full in a sub- sequent part of this volume. Suffice it to say — and this is the opinion of one who differed from him essentially upon these points — that, in treating of those vexed questions, Mr. Hale spoke and wrote in accordance with his own honest conviction of Avhat wisdom, justice, philanthropy and Christianity required. It will be admitted that he discussed such questions witli great ability. His course in relation to the late war Avith Mexico elicited the wiunn commendation of the Christian community. His appeal to his fellow-citizens to desist from that unrighteous war is a speaking monument of his boldness, integrity, and magnanimity.

His connection with a leading commercial paper in the commercial emporium of our country made Mr. Hale a pro- minent man in the community ; and yet he owed his position to his own energy, perseverance, al)ility, and worth, rather than to any outward circumstances. Few men have come into .this great metropolis who have made themselves y<?/^ as he did, — who have, to the same extent, attracted the attention and influenced the opinion of the public. It was a common inquiry with reference to any important public question, " What does David Hale say?" And though David Hale did not always say what pleased others, or what seemed to them right, he always did say something worthy of atten- tion, and something which made an impression on the com- munity. He had the reputation, too, of saying many un- gracious things which he never did say ; in short every thing severe, stern, positive, radical, in the Journal of Commerce, was imputed to him ; and he was often distinguished from the Journal and made personally, and by name, the object of tirades on account of articles which perhaps he had not sec^i till they appeared in print. But he was little affected by such assaults, and least of all could he bo deterred by

popular clamor, or personal abuse, or threats of the with- 3*

68 MEMOIR.

dx*awal of patronage, from a course upon whicli he had de- termined.

It was tlie endeavor of Mr. Hale to give to the Journal the highest possible value as a commercial newspaper ; for he felt that its prosperity depended more upon a good repu- tation in that particular than upon the ability of its loading editorials. To accomplish this ro(i[uirod years of enterprise, perseverance, and toil ; but these were rewarded in the end with complete success. And here it should be noted that the success of the Journal of Commerce has fully demonstrated that a daily connnercial newspaper of the largest class can be published without any work being done in connection Avith it on the Sabbath. This was a prime object with Mr. Arthur Tappan, in sotting up tlie Journal ; and Mr. Lewis Tappan, when he had control of the paper, was in the habit for months of closing the office, in person, on Saturday night, and opening it on Monday morning, so as to insure the ces- sation of all labor on the premises for twenty -four hours. The proprietors of the paper have always had regard to the Sabbath in their arrangements for procuring intelligence, even when they had a private express rumiing in competition Avith tlie mail. This good oxanipk' has had a happy influence on the newspaper press. The Sabbath is much less dese- crated than formerly in connection with the daily press, though of late years the day has been more grossly violated by the publication and sale of Sunday newspapers. The interests of eomnievce can plead no necessity for the viola- tion of the Sabbath. The publication of the Journal of Commerce, on Monday, is hardly delayed an hour by the in- termission of labor at the office on the Lord's da}^ and its columns on that morning are as fresh and full as those of other newspapers. Mr. Hale always performed extra labor on Saturday in order to keep inviolate the day of rest. •

But it is the religious character and life of Mr. Hale

HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 69

that will possess the highest interest for most who read this volujne. He did not lose his activity as a Christian in the laborious life of an editor. Action was his ele- ment,— in nothing more than in the high theater of God's purposes and of Christ's kingdom. On coming to New York he entered immediately into church relations here, and into the various departments of active Christian eftbrt. He made his daily occupation subservient to the cause of Christ. Says Mr. Ilallock, " His connection with the Journal of Commerce was doubly agreeable to him, be- cause it gave him a two-fold power of doing good ; first, by the moral, social and political influence of the paper itself, and secondly by the pecuniary emolument which it yielded." Soon after the starting of tlie Journal, Mr. Hale removed his family to New York, and lived for some time in a plain way in the nortli-eastern part of the city. He united with the Seventh Presbyterian Church, then under the pastoral care of Rev. Elihu VV. J3aldwin, afterwards President of Wabash College, Indiana. At that time Mr. Halo attached but little importance to the distinctive prhiciples of Congrega- tionalism ; he had never made them his study, and had no thought of becoming in any way an innovator upon the eccle- siastical usages of the city. In the opinion of one well qualified to judge, he probably did not then understand the diftercnce between Congregationalism and Presbyterianism, and if he thought on the subject at all, it was only to adopt the current opinion that the former system was suited to New England alone, and never could be established on this soil. It is important that this fact should be distinctly marked. Mr. Hale loved Christian liberty, and had always enjoyed it. He felt it to be the duty of church-members to bo active in all the affairs of the church, and he had never met with any official or ecclesiastical restriction upon his plans of usefulness. He was accustomed to pray and speak in social religious meetings, and to speak and vote in the busi-

60 MEMOIR.

ness meetings of the church ; and this full Christian liberty was so natural and proper, so much a matter of course, that he had not been accustomed to trace it back to certain prin- ciples of church polity. He expected to find substantially the same freedom in the Presbyterian Church, and it was not till he had been hampered in various ways under the constitution of that Church, that he began to study the New Testament with a view to ascertain what principles were there laid down for the constitution and government of churches. Mr. Hale did not come to New York as a secta- rian or a propagandist. The principles of Congregational- ism were in a sense as original with hhn, as truly the result of his own reflections on the New Testament, as if he had been ignorant of the existence of such a system ; for when investigating the subject of church polity, he went for infor- mation and authority, not to New England usages, but to the Word of God.

He was first led to scrutinize the Presbyterian mode of government by the summary manner in which he was elected an elder in the Seventh Church. Not having yet raised an inquiry as to the Scriptural warrant for the ofiice of ruling elder, he had regarded the office with peculiar solemnity, and was therefore surprised at being informed in one breath, that he had been designated to this office, and that the con- gregation would be publicly notified of it on the next Sab- bs.th morning, and he would be ordained in the evening. He not only felt that he needed time to weigh the question of acceptance, but that it was due to the congregation to allow them more time to form their judgment of his fitness, and to bring forward any objections to his ordination. He finally accepted the appointment, and was ordained an elder on the 11th January, 1829 ; and as the office of ruling elder is "perpetual, and cannot be laid aside at pleasure," and " no person can be divested thereof but by deposition," whatever

CHURCH RELATIONS

61

virtue and sanctity his ordination imparted must have ad- hered to him tln^ough life.

Soon after this event Mr. Hale removed his residence to the lower part of the city, at too great a distance for his family to attend the Seventh Church. Accordingly, much as they were attached to the church and its pastor, they were obliged to seek a more convenient place of worship, and as the first question with Mr. Hale always was, "where can I be most useful ?" he decided to unite in a mission en- terprise, then in its infancy, for building up a church (Pres- byterian) in the Bowery. There he remained for some years, though with no little inconvenience, till several of the leading members of the church had withdrawn, and the church being heavily burdened with debt, there seemed no longer any hope of sustaining the enterprise. In 1836 the pastor — Rev. Dr. Woodbridge, of Hadley, Mass. — was dismissed, and in the year following the church was disband- ed. Mr. Hale now attended on the ministry of Rev. Dr. Spring, but did not unite with the church under his care. Here for a time he was treated with marked attention, and was often invited to take a part in social meetings ; but having on one occasion indulged in a freedom of remark about the state of the church, which gave offense to some present, he was thereafter doomed to silence by the most pointed neglect. In this situation he saw no prospect of use- fulness for him in the Brick Church, and the question came up with renewed interest, " Where can I be useful?"

After wandering from church to church in quest of one that should be both congenial in its spirit, and promising as a field of labor, Mr. Hale began to attend worship at the Broadway Tabernacle, and much against the in- clination of his family at the time, he decided to unite with the church there worshiping because he thought that there he might he useful. Little did he dream what great inter- ests in the future were depending on that decision.

62 MEMOIR.

The Broadway Tabernacle was erected in the years 1835-6, at an expense of upwards of sixty-six thousand dollars, exclusive of a portion of the land on which the building stands. The chief design of the founders of the Tabernacle was the extension of the Free Church plan, which at that time had been in successful operation for two or three years. A very large building, it was supposed, would furnish the means of instruction to the largest num- bcr of persons, at the smallest expense of money and minis- terial labor. Anotlier design was the accommodation of large bodies of Christians on anniversaries and other occa- sions. The building is one hundred feet square, with capa- cious galleries extending the entire circuit. About twenty- five hundred persons can be comfortably seated in it, and upwards of three thousand contained Avithin the walls. It stands back from Broadway one hundred feet, having an en- trance from the street twenty-five feet in width. By this arrangement a house of Avorship is placed in the very heart of the city, on its principal thoroughfare, and yet removed from the noise of the street.

The Tabernacle was first occupied by the Sixth Free Church, which adopted the name of the building. This church was mainly Congregational, though the deacons were made trustees of the property, and the board, for the sake of being better comprehended by the public, was denomi- nated a session. This board of seven deacons, chosen an- nually, had, together with the pastor, the general oversight both of the spiritual and temporal interests of the church ; but all ecclesiastical power, in the last resort, was vested in the church itself. The first pastor of the Tabernacle Church was Rev. Charles G. Finney, Avho, however, resign- ed the charge in the spring of 1837, in consequence of ill health. He was succeeded by Rev. George Dufiield, who officiated as minister without being formally installed pastor

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THETABERNACLECHURCH 63

of the church. It was at this time that Mr. Hale united with the Tabernacle.

It soon became apparent that the pecuniary strength of the church and congregation was inadequate to the manage- ment of so large an establishment ; and in February, 1838, an arrangement was made by which the Free Church, then worshiping on the corner of Dey and "Washington streets, united with the Tabernacle Church. The Dey- street brethren insisted, as a condition of the union, that the united church should be Presbyterian ; and this was assented to, with the proviso, that such principles of the Congregational order should be ingrafted " as should bo ap- proved by the united churches." The Dey-street Church brought with them their pastor. Rev. Mr. HelfFenstein ; but both he and Mr. Duffield not long after retired, and in the autumn of 1838 Rev. Joel Parker became the pastor of the church. At the same time the Free Church plan was abandoned in part, and the letting of pews substituted. The church was harmonious and prosperous for some months after Mr. Parker's settlement, and until some disciplinary movements on the part of the session produced dissatis- faction.

As this case was one of great notoriety at the time, and led to important changes in the Tabernacle Church and property, tlie leading facts connected with it should have a place in this narrative.* An anti-slavery society was about to be formed in tiie Tabernacle Church. The session being opposed to the movement, cautioned the church against it. This produced

* A regard for persons now living who were engaged in this con- troversy would lead me to avoid any allusion to it, were it not neces- sary for the proper vindication of Mr. Hale's character and con- duct that the facts should be stated. I have omitted all personalities, and have given only a statement of facts from the best means of in- formation at my command. It would not be strange if the recollections of the opponents of Mr. Hale should on some points be at variance with the memoranda which he made at the time.

64 MEMOIR.

much excitement among the friends of the society, one of whom, in particular, Mr. Lcnvis Tappan, then a member of the church, pubhcly denounced the course of the session as arbitrary, and insisted upon the right of forming such a society. At h^ngth JNIr. Tappan was cited before the ses- sion as a disturber of the peace of the church, and a slan- derer of its officers ; but without being tried on the original charges, he was condonHied for contumacy, and suspended from church privileges. From this sentence he appealed to the higher judicatories of the Presbyterian Church, and tho decision of the session was finally reversed by the General Assembly. One great point in controversy was the right of Mr. Tappan to employ a reporter to attend on his trial before the session, and take notes of whatever should trans- pire. This right the session denied.

Mr. Hale, with his ardent love of liberty of thought and speech, and above all, liberty of Christian action, and with some personal experience of ecclesiastical dictation, could not remain an indiiVerent speetator of such an affair. He had no sympathy with Mr. Tappan's anti-slavery ophiions or measures, and was not then on very friendly terms with Mr. Tappan himself. But he felt that great principles were involved in the trial, and that Mr. Tappan was wrong- ed and oppressed by the session. After expostulating with the elders in vain, he availed himself of the provision in tho articles of agreement between the united churches for oc- casional meetings of the whole church for business, and had a church meeting called by public notice " for the prayer- ful consideration of a case of discipline." At this meeting, held January "21, 1880, he introduced the reporter for tho Journal of Commerce to take notes of the discussion. This was objected to by several, partly as a novelty, and partly because it was inexpedient to give publicity to church trans- actions. To the objection, that if reporters were allowed to attend church meetings, the ' penny papers' might have them

CASK () !•' L 10 W IS r A P P A N .

66

always present, Mr. Hale replied, " I should be happy if all the penny papers in the city would fill their sheets with re- ports of our prayer-meetings at all times. I fear they Avould find the matter too good for their purposes. Instead of telling that our prayer-meetings are private, and report- ers cannot be admitted to them, I should be glad if the whole city were here on such occasions — and if we could not ac- commodate them all, I should be glad to have all we say and do reported everywhere through the newspapers."

By a vote of the churcli, the reporter was allowed to re- main, and the debates of the evening were thus preserved. These were afterwa-rds published by Mr. Ilalc, on a loose sheet, under the title of "'Facts and Reasonings," which was very widely scattered.

The following is the report of the main speech of Mr. Hale at that meeting. It develops many important princi- ples of church government :

Mr. II.vi.e fhoii addressed tlie meeting as follows :

Mr. MoDEiiATOR, — I ask the kind attention of my brethren and sisters to tlie rcnnaiks I am about to make. It was for tlic pur- pose of making tliese remarks before them that 1 sought tliis meeting. We are in difliculty, and the best way to extricate our- selves appeared to me to be to hold a free discussion on tlie subject, to Hnd out if possil)le tlio causes of our troubk;, and if possil)le iix on some principles wliicli will counternct these causes, and so guide us to harmony, and maintain that harmony horciaf- ter. I am happy to see so large ;m assembly of my l)rethr(ni, for the matt(!rs in hand concern us all, and T have been accustom- ed to put confidence in the Avliole church for the manag(\mcnt of its adairs in times of diiliculty, over and above any pitrt or small proportion of the members. When all are asscml)led in a spirit of benevolence, wc seek to promote the common good by tin; adoption of principles, which, in their bearing, are e(pial upon :ill ; but when a portion of the commimity act in tlie name of the whole, it is often the case that the advantage of tlu; few is too much consulted. Towards this church, in })articular, my con- fidence has been constantly increasing ever since f IkkI the privi- lege of becoming one of its members. 1 have found in all its course an earnest desire to do right, guided by a liberal intelli-

66 MEMOIR.

gence. Especially have recent events put the wisdom and kind- ness of its members to a severe test. We have passed through events which might have shaken any church. We have within a short space, upon prudential considerations, dismissed two pas- tors, to one or other, or both of whom, we were all warmly at- tached. When I saw my brethren come together affectionately, and sacrifice their individual feelings of attachment to those pas- tors, on the altar of the common good, I said within myself, " this church is worthy of my confidence, it may always be trusted." We are called upon now again, to sacrifice all personal considera- tion for our common good, and the honor of our common Lord. We are again in difficulty. Our minds are full of anxiety. When I contrast our present condition with the peace and har- mony and joy which prevailed so recently, and which had been procured by our united action, I am overwhelmed Avith the con- trast, and I resolve that if God will deliver us again, and bring us back to those heavenly places, I will try to be a better man than I have ever been. Such is the feeling, as I trust, which pervades the whole church.

It is painful to proceed to discuss in detail the causes of our unhappiness ; but it is a necessary process, and I shall endeavor to go through it, speaking with the kindness and the frankness with which a friend and a brother ought to speak.

Our peace was first interrupted by the commencement of an anti-slavery society, to be formed in the Broadway Tabernacle Church. I do not impute moral blame to the brethren who were engaged in this, nor do I question their abstract right to do what they did : still I think it was an error to introduce the subject in this form, and an error exceedingly dangerous to our peace. This is the Broadway Tabernacle Church of Jesus Christ, not of Anti- Slavery ; and it must always be dangerous for a church as such to depart from the single design of its formation. We are asso- ciated as a church, only for the worship of God, and an atten- dance on the ordinances he has established. There may be in our number some of all the various parties which divide our country. We have Whigs and Van Buren men, tariff and free trade men, abolitionists, and colonizationists. We differ about all these things and many more, yet there is one thing about which we all agree, and on this we unite. This is the corner-stone of our fabric, and while we adhere to it alone, we shall be likely to remain harmonious. In maintaining this unity of purpose, we sacrifice nothing of our opinions or our rights with regard to other topics. We are pledged to each other as a band of Christians, and whoever introduces any thing else into our association, however good or honorable it may be, perverts the ends of the association. This he ought not to do, and his covenant with the church does

SPEECHOFMR.HALE. 67

in my judgment fairly preclude him from doing it. The same principle applies to all associations, and is necessary for their peace. If this were a society for literary improvement, there would be no doubt many other good things to wliich it might turn its attention, but if a member should attempt to appropriate the society to other purposes, he would introduce discord, and to that extent violate the spirit of his pledge given on entrance. I wish particularly to impress it on the minds of my brethren, that we are associated for one purpose and no other ; and this truth must be far more widely considered than it has been, if the churches of our country are to have rest. Those things are no exceptions to this rule which are thought by their especial advo- cates to grow out of the Gospel, or to be essential adjuncts with it, or even forerunners of it. If they are not in the pattern as shaped by the Master, they have no business here. However good they may be, and however excellent their machinery, if it is thrust into the workings of the church, our machinery will be in- terrupted in its peaceful movements, or stopped entirely or broken to pieces. I hope with these views that our brethren who pro- posed the formation of the anti-slavery society will see the propriety of withdrawing it from this church, to set it up in greater strength, if they can, elsewhere, but in independence of this chui'ch.

I now turn to the other side, and it is with much pain that I feel myself obliged to animadvert on the conduct of brethren with whom I have acted in the closest intimacy, and whom I have been accustomed to love and respect. I allude to the measures of the session. It may be said perhaps, that what has been done by the session is not within the cognizance of the church, and not our business coUectivelj', and that if wrong has been done, the party wi'onged has the right of appeal to another judi- catory, where every thing will be corrected. But in my judg- ment it is not only our right, but our indispensable duty, to look into the treatment which every brother receives at the hands of the session. We have covenanted with each other, not with the session. You all stand pledged to me and I to you, that we will not see each other wronged, but will defend and watch over and pro- tect each other. Under such a pledge, if I stand by and see my brother wronged, without interfering for his deliverance, my bro- ther's wrongs will be required of me as a tacit accessory by his God. When we stood before the altar, we made a covenant with each other and with God, the keeping of which we cannot dele- gate to the hands of others. We must see to it for ourselves, that the covenant is fulilled.

On Sabbath morning the 16th of December last, after listen- ing to a sweet discourse from our pastor, and when our feelings

68 MEMOIR.

were in as hfippy a state almost as is consistent with earth, the members of the church were requested to remain after the con- gregation liad dispersed. On incjuiring what was the subject to be brought before us, of an elder who sat by my side, I was told that the session had prepared a paper which they wished to read relative to the proposed anti-slavery society. I perceived at once that we were about to be plunged into a sea of trouble, and I well nigh resolved' to step forward before the paper was read, and beg the church to retire, and save themselves from incalculable miscliief.

But it required more courage to act thus in the face of my superiors, than at the moment I was able to muster. The ad- monitory letter of the elders was read, and I need not describe the instant and dreadful change which it produced in our feel- ings and our pi-ospects. Tlie sad excitement which immediately followed is fresh in the recollection of us all. There was no ne- cessity for creating all this evil, on the part of the session. The circumstances required no such advice. The anti-slavery society had not been started with hostile intentions against the peace of the church. No such thing was suspected of more than a very small number ; and if it had existed (which is wholly denied), it could not have been carried out, for there was too much good sense and good feeling among the members of the church, that such a design should have been in the least degree dangerous. I admit that the session had the abstract right to give advice, so have Ave all the same right ; and others also have the same right to take or reject the advice. But the session were bound to think wisely and generously, and coolly, before they gave advice, which it was easy to see beforehand, would produce great com- motion. Tlie result of that Sabbath noon's advice, I thought then, would convince the session, that the advice I had previ- ously given them, to let the anti-slavery society alone, would be seen to be judicious; but to my great regret I learned a day or two after, that the session had made another plunge, and cited Mr. Tappan to appear before tliem, to answer to charges which they would prefer. I thought it my duty to expostulate with the session on the course they were pursuing, and with the deep grief which I felt, to beseech them in the name of our peace, our use- fulness, and the influence of the Gospel, by every thing dear to us as a Christian church, to desist from the perilous com'se in Avhich they had started. It did seem to me that the path of duty was so plain, that no way-faring man had need to make any mis- take. IBut my expostulations were on the whole set aside, as were all the calls of peace and usefulness, and a bill of indict- ment was found against our brother Tappan, and his trial com- menced. I do not pi-opose going into the investigation of the

SPEECH OFMR. HALE. 69

cliarges. The trial of them will probably go on elsewhere. But of the manner of the proceedings on tlie part of the session, I will speak and speak fully, for that it is, which has brought the saddest afilictions upon us.

Christian discipline ought to be exercised with the greatest kindness. Never for purposes of party, or to gratify personal feelings, but for the two ends alone of the honor of religion, and the especial benefit of the brother accused. Church discipline is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ, and is in fact a part of His own system of means to bring His people to Himself. It should certainly be exercised in His spirit, and with all that gene- rous compassion which He exercises always towards us all. Every thing should be done and construed in kindness and liber- ality. At least should there be as much lenity exhibited as is shown in the criminal courts of civil society, towards accused persons brought before them. But I am sorry to be compelled to the belief, that a very different course from all this was pur- sued by the session.

The session have not thought it best to lay before us any statement of their doings, and so in commenting upon them I am compelled to go partly upon what I know from my own observa- tion— and partly upon such hearsay testimony as I can rely upon.

When the trial of Mr. Tappan came on, the session, not con- fining themselves to the bill of charges of which the accused had been notified, selected various expressions of his, uttered on the trial, and directed them to be entered -on the record, as evidences of his litigious disposition.

[After several interruptions and explanations :]

Mr. Hale continued — In a criminal court an accused person would, under such circumstances, have been allowed to say, that he did not mean what the expression implied to whicli exception had been taken, or to express himself in so aggravated a manner. And the hberty to make sucli explanation would not be denied him in any criminal court in this country. In no such court would such illiberality be practiced, especially as, in this case, the record was the only thing which could appear before the higher judi- catory. [Here Mr. Hale was again interrupted.]

In all courts where civil liberty is protected, if a man on trial is contumacious to the court, that is one thing ; but if he says things which show a murderous disposition, they are never put on record, to prove that he committed murder. The whole trial and the penalty relate to wliat took place before the trial com- menced. Misconduct at the trial is never put on record as a proof of the crime, nor punished as part of it. If a person ma- nifest disrespect or contempt to the court, he may be sent to jail until he learns better. But what our brother said without being

70 MEMOIR.

contumacious, was written down as evidence of his litigiousness. And this was done to aggravate his guilt.

I never knew an instance, nor was there ever one, in any fairly conducted trial, in which a person on trial was refused the privi- lege of explaining what he had said. The principle is essential, not to fairness merely, but to truth, for very often a sentence, or part of a sentence, taken by itself, and without explanation, will convey an idea directly contrary to the idea in the mind of the speaker, and nothing can be more at war with simple truth, than the harsh refusal to allow an accused person the liberty to ex- plain, that what he has said was spoken imder a misapprehen- sion, in his oivn tnind, of the real state of the case, or tliat what he said was not the full expression of his meaning, but ix'ferred to something he had said before, or intended to say afterwards, and Avhich other expressions were essential to the right under- standing of his meaning.

Every explanation ought to have been received. In this case it was of essential importance from the fiict that the record of the session was to be the whole case before the Presbytery.*

Another thing. Every member of the church, who could pos- sibly be a witness for the accused, was excluded from the trial. Even the members who had been summoned were excluded.

I have it oflicially that the Moderator of the session did ex- clude the members of the church who were to be witnesses from being present at the trial, and he also excluded members who had not been summoned, as witnesses, upon the ground that pos- sibly they might aftervHirds be summoned. The " book of dis- cipline" shows gi'eat ignorance of piinciples in the rule it con- tains on this point, but it does not authorize the course adopted by tlic session. I say by the session, for orders given by the presiding judge of a court are given by the court. No such practice is allowed in civil or criminal courts, except in cases where there is supposed to exist a conspiracy among the wit- nesses either with or against the accused. The rule of the ses- sion carries on its face this unworthy charge against the mem- bers of this church, for certainly if the members who were sum-

* That this matter may be definitely understood I will instance an ex- ample. Mr. Tappan said on tlio first evening of the trial, tliat it would take until Marcli to finish it. This expression the session directed the clerk to record, as evidence of a litigious disposition. AVhen the session came to adjourn they adjourned until the next evening. On this, Mr. Tappan requested that it should be entered, that when he said it would take to March to get tlirough Avith the trial, it was under the impres- sion that the session would only sit one evening in a week as they had beeu accustomed to do ; but if they should adjourn IVom evening to evening, a much shorter time would probably be required. This ex- planation the session refused to record.

SPEECH OF MR. HALE.

ri

moned could be relied upon to speak the truth, under all circum- stances, there was no meaning in the order which excluded them from licaring the testimony of each other and listening to the trial. The principle adopted by the session of excluding those who might be witnesses, and requiring as they did the accused to enroll each particular brother or sister present as a witness at that time, or lose his right to do so afterwards, was harsh and rigorous, and a violation of the rights, both of the accused and the members of the church. The principle is ruinous to liberty, for it would be very easy to make it a pretense upon which all spectators shoidd be excluded from court.

It is a matter of no dispute that our brother was refused the privilege of having a reporter to assist him in taking down a complete record of all that was said and done in the process of the trial. Every other person present possessed tlie right of making a full report, but to tlie individual on trial it was denied. I need not prove, to persons accustomed to notice the workings of such matters, that a court which should refuse to allow a full report of its proceedings to be made by impartial hands would not be very likely to make a full and fair report itself. Are not all the courts of this countrj^, both civil and criminal, open to reporters ? Is there any one of them, where a party interested, or a party uninterested, would be prevented from taking notes of all that transpired ? Not one. It is an essential right in the protection of justice and fair dealing, and any civil or criminal judge who should infringe it would cover himself with the dark- est suspicions, and be driven from his seat. The right is not less clear, nor less important, in regard to ecclesiastical courts. Their penalties, in a great measure, relate to reputation with the whole church and the world at large. It is therefore of peculiar importance, that the individual whose reputation is" at stake should be able to sliow to all persons what was the evidence, and what were all the proceedings in the case. I should have felt alarmed, as our brotlier did, under that rule, and afraid to go on with the trial. I could not have felt secure in trusting to the records of a court, who had passed such an order. If I had been in the place of our brother, I should not only have felt at liberty to do as he did, but I should have felt compelled to do it as a matter of duty. If he had submitted to the order, he would not merely have given up his own rights, but mj^ rights and yours. He would have admitted a principle which would have rendered us all insecure.

In demanding this vital right, and demanding it as a right, ho did what every man who knows the worth of liberty, and the blood it has cost, would and ought to do. But why was this re- fusal to permit every thing to be taken down, and, if the ac«

72 MEMOIR.

cused pleased, reported to the world ? Was any thing likely to occur which would not bear the light ? Kindness and generosity do not spoil in the daylight, but become more fragrant, and even simple justice will stand the most intense rays of the sun, without losing its beauty.

If the accused had been guilty of the crimes laid to his charge, and that had been proved by the testimony, would the convicted man have desired to publish the proofs of his guilt ? And if he had, would the court have any thing to fear from it, either for themselves, or this church, or the honor of religion ? There could have been no good and honest reason for excludino: the re-i porter. God himself has His reporter. In the book of His re- membrance are written down all His dealings with each one of us, during our long and merciful trial, and He does it in order that at the last great day the record may be reported and published to the universe, to the utter confusion of all incorrigible criminals, and the vindication of God's rectitude, so that all a^ood beina's shall be surely convinced that His judgments are righteous, and so take part with Him. In the same manner will every tribunal act, whose measures are those of intelligence and rectitude.

A contrary course at once excites suspicion, and has in this case done dishonor to this church and our religion. These are my opinions of this matter of the reporter ; and I am sure that unless we act upon them, we shall never be able to satisfy our own consciences, or make the world believe that what is done here is honest and of good report.

Under the circumstances which I have described, the session passed sentence against our brother, of suspension from the com- munion for contumacy.

They wronged him once, and because he, as an American Christian was bound to do, stood by his right, they wronged him again, and consummated the wrong hy intlicting upon him the heaviest penalty within their power. This contumacy, be it re- membered, was not against Him who spreads our communion- table with the emblem of His sufferings in our behalf, but against the session — that was all. I do not see what connection there was between the crime, if it had been one, and the punishment which was inflicted on account of it. I will only add, on this point, that the book of discipline authorizes no such sentence as this for contumacy.

As another wrong in this case, I have to state that notwith- standing the appeal which our brother has taken to a higher tri- bunal, the penalty of the session has been inflicted in the mean time to its fullest extent. No such thing was ever done in any coui't, where there was the least pretense of justice. An appeal is a continuation of the trial. The decision has not been reached,

SPEECHOFMR. HALE. 73

and the " question of guilt or innocence" has not been settled until the ultimate decision has been obtained. I know very well that the book of discipline authorizes this, and it shows the ex- treme ignorance on the part of the men who made it, of the simplest elements of right and the commonest proceedings of courts. You might as well stop any where else and inflict a penalty as at the result in the first court. The plan of this pro- ceeding is to punish first and try the accused afterwards, and find out whether he ought to be punished. I have never known of more than one case in a criminal court analagous to this. That was the case of two Indians who were tried in Georgia, under an iniquitous law of that State for driving off the rightful owners of the soil. Under this law the two Indians were found guilty, and the punishment was death. Their counsel appealed to the Supreme Coui't of the United States, as they had a right to do, and if there had been justice in Georgia, the Indians would have been safe. But the Georgia court said, you may appeal as much as you please, but in the mean time we shall hang you. And so they did, and filled the whole land with abhorrence of the mur- derous deed. This to be sure is not a hanging matter, but it is a suspension of character. The news goes forth to the world that our brother is excommunicated, and yet the trial is pending, which I am sure will in the end reverse the sentence of the ses- sion. • In the mean time he is driven from the communion as if he had been convicted, and his reputation suffers. After months, and perhaps years, the unjust sentence will, I have no doubt, be reversed, but the wrong which has been done can never be fully redressed. This certainly is great injustice.

Still more, and worst of all, I know that at least one of the judges had made up his mind and determined to convict the ac- cused, before the trial commenced, for he told me that something must be done to break down the influence of Mr. Tappan. This was said to me, and repeated, without any charge of confidence being imposed upon me. Surely such a judge, or a court with such a judge upon its bench, was not fit to try any man. Such an individual would not have been allowed to sit upon the trial even of Coleman, who cut the throat of his wife at noon-day, and before a throng of witnesses. Any one who had declared beforehand that (!oleman ought to be hanged would have been disqualified from sitting on the trial. Our rights are entirely in- secure, if we may be called before men and tried by men who have, beforehand, determined that we must be broken down. I know that these statements produce painful emotions in the minds of many who hear me, as they do in my own. But it is indis- pensable that the matter should be thoroughly investigated. I respect my brethren who compose the session, and I am not dis- 4

74 MEMOIR.

posed to charge them with having done all these wronjD;s inten- tionally. But however honest they may be, I cannot feel at all secure, while the tribunal to which I may myself be responsible, so violates the principles which are the essential safeguards of ray rights. I do not consider my reputation safe in their hands, and I know that other brethren feel the same alarm. We cannot set- tle down in peace, until we are eftectually secured against such dangers. My deliberate opinion is, that if the session had re- solved at the outset to do every thing wrong, they could not have accomplished that purpose more completely.

My desire and the object of the remarks I have made and shall make, is, if possible, to remove these dangers, and fix our relationship on such principles as will make us safe, and secure to us permanent peace. And to help us in our judgment allow me to point out the radical error of the session, which has led them into all these other errors. It was the want of confidence in' the members of the church. The session feared that the ingenuity of Mr. Tappan would be sufficient to change our opinions, and bring us to act in opposition to them and our pastor. In this opinion they were probably very sincere ; but unless I entirely overrate the intelligence of my brethren, the session were utterly mistaken in their low opinion of us. I know I am right about this, and it was entirely under the influence of fears growing out of this eiTor that this prosecution was commenced. I combatted this error with the members of the session with all the power I possessed, at the commencement of this unhappy business. I assured them that they might rely on the wisdom, intelligence and piety of the church. If they had felt the confidence in us which they had reason to feel, this prosecution would never have been commenced. But they supposed us liable to be led astray — that there was a dangerous man among us, and that unless he were put down, we should all be corrupted by his influence, and brought over to wrong-doing. There are many men who can never comprehend how a community should live together in peace without being governed. A Frenchman who lands on our shores and sees no f/ens cCarmcs, thinks there is no government, and is afraid he shall be killed. He does not understand the workings of a system of liberty, where the laws being made by the people, they are for the good of the people, and all the people are en- gaged for their support. So it was with the session. They could not believe in the stabilitj^ of our ungoverned peace. This brought the pressure of their power upon it for its preser- vation and crushed it to pieces. We know that mere sincerity in rulers is no guarantee that they will govern Avell. They must add to sincerity, intelligence, liberality and purity from prejudice. We had this truth strongly exhibited the other day in a sermon.

SPEECHOFMR. HALE. 75

in which our pastor illustrated the guilt of prejudiced sincerity by supposing the case of an honest but prejudiced jury, sitting upon the trial of a fellow-being for his life, and he exhibited the climax of the illustration by the pungent inquiry, " who does not see that there was murder in that sincerity ?" So giving our ses- sion all the credit for honesty which any one may claim for them ; yet while they act under the prejudice which fills their minds respecting the real character of this church, while they believe us incapable of taking care of ourselves, there will ever be dis- order and insecurity and oppression in their sincerity. Let them take a right view of our character, and then every brother and sister seems a police officer for the protection of the peace and order of the church. The men who have kindled the fires of persecution in past ages of the church were, many of them, pos- sessed of tliis prejudiced honesty, and with many the prejudice was precisely the same prejudice wliich has led our session astray. Paul says he was honest in persecuting the church be- fore his conversion, and still he confesses tliat for the exercise of this honesty he was unworthy to be called a disciple.

1, sir, cannot afford to bear the loss which must be sustained under such an administration of our affairs. I cannot afford to have the peace of tlie church thus destroyed. I cannot afford to have my pastor brought into the circumstances of danger to his inffuence, nay, of great and certain loss, which tliis state of things necessarily brings with it. 1 have s(Km a pastor, young, and standing in the midst of his flock in all the loveliness of mutual confidence, with no other rule over them, and desiring none, but that which was secured by his pious and affectionate care for their souls. I have seen such a man, startled by some leaf of opposition, begin to put himself in an attitude of caution, and to guard against popular excitement, and thus assume a position an- tagonist to his chiu'ch, and I have seen him follow out his fears in the curtailment of their influence until he had robbed them of all their fianchise in the election of their own officers, shut them out from th(! liberty of meeting to discuss their common interests, and well nigh taken from them the liberty of speech even in their social religious meetings. We cannot afford to have the active love and youthful vigor of the Tabernacle Church fall into such decre- pitude, nor to have any part of so deadly a process pass upon us, and I will now submit three short resolutions, which I think will be an effectual bar to such a process, and will go far to secui-e our peace and prosperity hereafter. But first allow me to read sundry rules which were prepared by the session, and adopted by the church on a Sabbath morning, some time last summer, as I understand, for I was not present at the time, nor

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was any other brother present who would be expected to take an active part in framing the proposed modifications. The paper is as follows :

1st That God alone is Lord of tho conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which arc in any thing con- trary to his word, or bind it in matters of faith or worship— Ihercfore, we consider the right of private judgment in all matters that respect re- ligion as universal and unalienable. , , . ,. , „ , -

2d That the Bible is tho supreme and only binding code of laws for the government of the Churcli— so that in all matters of government and discipline the Church is bound to follow the rules of Christ, and no obligation can exist to do and submit to that which violates them.

3d That each body of Christians meeting in one place, and united by love to walk together according to the rules of Christ's house, i,n sub- jection to him, is a church deriving from him the right to choose its own pastor and church officers, and to discipline its members—but that in tho exercise of those rights, churches may agree to act through their representatives or elders, chosen out from among themselves lor the purpose of promoting the general interest and the enforcement of the laws of Christ. And when difficulties may arise in the administration of discipline, application may be made for the aid ot'^othcr churches, either through their representatives in Council, or in Presbyteries and in Synods, &c., agreeable to some plan approved and adopted by them

for this purpose. . i. ^i -n

4th That the form of government, and forms of process of the Pres- byterian Church of the United States of America, as amended arid rati- fied by the General Assembly, in May, 1821, and adopted by the Pres- bvtcrics, meet our approbation, and will be submitted to as iar a.s the application and enforcement of the same shall not violate any ot the rules of Christ's house. , v *,

6th That in the administration of the discipline of the church by the ciders or congregational assembly, who are the representatives of the Church, we hold the following to be the legitimate and proper applica- tion of Presbyterian government as laid down in that form oi government ami book of discipline. Ist-The pastors, elders, ami deacons are to be chosen by a majority of the votes of the members of the church, -d— That the authority of the session is ministerial or declarative, ana should be exercised by them under a sense both ol then-responsibility to the Head of the Church, and of the fact that they are the representa- tives of the people. 3d-That in all cases of oliense discipline should be commcnco.l and proceed on the rule laid down in Matthew xviii. lo— 18 4th— Tiiat in cases of process against a member ol the church, tho meetin- of the session shall be free to the entrance of any of the mem- bers of the church, who may wish to hear the testimony and witness the proceedings. ,. , ,, , • i

0th Applicants for admission to sealing ordinances shall be examined by the session as to their knowledge and piety, and when npproyed sha 1 be publicly propounded at least one Sabbath before their uniting with

^TtV^An ' annual meeting of the church shall be held on the first Monday in April, when the session shall make an annual report in re- lation to the spiritual interests of the church ; the deacons in relation to their trusts, and the trustees in relation to the funds and expenses ol the congregation.

SPEECHOFMR.HALE. YT

To this I propose to add tlie following as permanent rules :

Resolved, That the following be added to the permanent rules of the Tabernacle Church :

1. in the discipline of this church no member shall be obliged to make his defense before any judicatory other than the session of this churcli, and any member tried by the session shall have the right of ap- peal to tlie whole body of his brethren assembled in church meeting.

2. The first cliurch prayer-meeting in each season of the year shall be a business meeting, at which any member of the church may introduce any proposition which he deems proper, and meetings for business shall be held at any otiier time by direction of a majority of the members present at any weekly prayer-meeting; but such meetings, other than at the commencement of each season, sliall be notified on tlie Sabbath pre- ceding their occurrence. The covenant or confession of the churcli or its permanent rules may not be changed, except at a meeting specially notified for important business.

8. At the annual meeting in April, a church clerk shall be chosen who sliall record all the resolutions and other proceedings of the church in a book, which book shall always bo accessible to any member of the cluiTch during ordinary business hours.

I have drawn the first of these resolutions in accordance with the principle which I have laid down, that it is the duty of the church to see to it, that its discipline is administered according to th(^ principles of righteousness and the order of the Gospel. Without this rule we are none of us secure, for we are destitute of that essential guarantee of liberty, a trial by jury, or in other words, a trial by those who are of the same class with tlie accus- ed. A member of this church, as the matter now stands, may be summoned before a court of Presbyterian elders for trial, and if he thinks they do him injustice, he may appeal to more Presby- terian elders, and then again to a still higher court, and then, if he pleases, to one still higher, but he everywhere finds himself in the presence of Pi-esbyterian elders. However many times he may be tried, it is alwa3's by a class to which he does not belong. The sympathies of each court are with the other courts. The accused nowhere finds himself in the hands of the class who sympathize with him. Very seldom indeed, under such circum- stances, will justice be done. In all governments where there is any pretense to liberty, in England, France, and the United States, this principle of trial by equals is held to be the very corner-stone of justice. In none of these countries would the citizens trust tliemsclves in the hands of law judges merely. A jury is the palladium of liberty.

Another inalienable right of American Christians is, that of meeting. freely for the discussion of all public measures. I have drawn my second resolution in accordance with this right. This right has in some churches been studiously abridged, lest the free discussions of the members should produce rebellion against the

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eldership. Even in this church our young brother, Avho is both an elder and a trustee, stated to us the other evening, that it was incompetent to the church to hold meetings for business unless those meetings were called by the trustees, and anotlier member affirmed that meetings could not be held unless with the appro- bation of the session. Notwithstanding tlicse judicial opinions, it is necessary that we should have meetings whether the session or trustees will it or not. The house is ours, the business is ours, the interests are all ours, tlie session and the trustees are but our ministers. What authority liave they to interrupt us, merely be- cause we have committed to them the keeping of our key ? Our young brother, who thinks we cannot meet without his consent, has no more right to prevent us fi'om meeting, than his minister to whom he commits the keeping of his store key, has to assume, that liberty must be granted by iiim before the owner can enter his place of business.

My third rule provides for the safe keeping of our records, and their being kept always accessible to the brethren. All our re- cords are now kept, so far as they are kept at all, by the clerk of the session. Those records are not within our reach. Although the book belongs to the church, and to me as much as to any brother of the session, yet I was unable to get access to it for the purpose of obtaining the information which I needed for this evening.

I have tried to see the book of records, and could not. It is no fault of mine if unfavorable inferences are drawn from the fact.

Now, in conclusion, I ask to have it remembered, that how- ever much of mismanagement I have thought it my duty to lay at the door of the session, I have in no case charged them with improper motives, or an intention to do wrong. I have taken care not only to speak of them courteously and kindly, but to feel so towards them. I have, at the same time, stated to the church frankly my views of the origin and causes of our present disturbed and unhappy condition. I have also pointed them to the principles which, if adopted, according to my judgment, will bring back our peace, and insure its perpetuity.

[After a protracted and animated discussion, the Moderator put the question on the resolutions submitted by Mr. Hale, and declared the vote by voices to be in the negative. The result was doubted and a count loudly called for, but the Moderator did not notice the call, and so the meeting was immediately adjourned.]

Some months later Mr. Hale addressed to the members of the Broadway Tabernacle Church, a second number of

ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH

79

" Facts and Reasonings on Church Government," from which the following extracts, explaining and enforcing his own views and principles, arc of general interest :

" To the Members of the Tabernacle Church.

" Dear Brethren, — On the evening of January 21st, 18.39, I had the satisfaction of stating to you my views of the origin and causes of the divisions which had so suddenly sprung into existence among us, and of offering to you, in the form of resohitions, the rules of practice which it seemed to me would restore the peace we had so recently possessed. I am still of opinion tliat those resohitions if adopted would have produced the good effects I promised, and so have saved us from much subsequent mischief. Whether they failed for want of a majority of votes at that meet- ing will never be certainly known, for the Moderator declared the result upon the general answer of ' yes' and ' no,' and silenced the calls for a count, by praying. On the first Monday evening of April afterwards, our annual business meeting occurred. I have annexed a report of the proceedings at that meeting, chiefly for the purpose of recording in a definite form the arbitrary claims set up by our session, and illustrating their operation. The question between us and the session is precisely the same with that between Luther and the Pope ; the Puritans and the lliei'ar- chy ; the revolutionary patriots' of "70, and Lord North. It is the question whether sovereignty is in the people or in their rulers ; ' whether nations were made for kings and churches for priests, or priests for churches and kings for the people.' The doctrine that the people are the sovereigns, and have the right to manage their own affairs, is the doctrine of the Gospel, and of the most intelligent friends of its advancement. It was the doc- trine of the men who landed at Plymouth, and will be maintain- ed by theii descendants, I trust,

"Till the waves of the bay where the Mayflower lay, Shall foam uud freeze no more.'

At our meeting to which I have referred, in January, '39, the claim set up by the session was, that we had no right to control their proceedings. At the meeting in April, they took the higher attitude that we had no right to discuss tliem. I supposed that sober reflection must convince all intelligent men, not only of the falsehood of this doctrine, but of the folly of attempting to set it up, among Christians who had been taught from their infancy to abhor it. I waited therefore after the April meeting until the particular excitement of the day had subsided, and tlien called upon our pastor and several of the elders, in the hope that they

80 MEMOIR.

would be ready to take back, or at least to modify and define tlieir pretensions in such a manner, that we could live together peacefully, and still be a free and active church. My hopes were disappointed. * * * * *

" This is not a question whether one set of officers or another shall be in the administration. Nor is it a question between Con- gregationalism and Prcsbyterianism. The constitution of Pres- bytorianism no more authorizes such absolutism than it authorizes the elders to burn us at the stake." * ^- * * " The noise and confusion of our April meeting was not made to keep me down particularly, but to keep you doAvn, or rather to keep us all in a state of subjugation together. It will depend upon the lift- ing of our hands, whether Ave are thus subjugated, for whatever the eldership may arrogate, they know the fact, that the whole control over them is in the members of the church, and cannot possibly be taken away. ■ You can do as you like, brethren, but I am free to say, that while I live, Avhether in church or state, whether in large communities or small, I will always resist such claims as are set up by our ciders. Liberty has cost too much to be pusillanimously resigned. I love liberty in the churches. It is the bond of union and the spring of energy. I love it in all my fellow-men. I love it in myself, and I mean to keep it. I was born free and I mean to die free. I received liberty, civil and religious, from my parents ; I intend to leave it if I can to my children. I contributed largely to the state of things which en- abled this usurpation to be set iip over us, and I do not intend to rest imtil I have fairly and fully thrown on you the responsibiHty of maintaining your riglits or giving them up.

" As we are forbidden the privilege of conferring about our affairs Avhen together, I have no alternative but to address you in this Avay ; for although I have lost the pi-oper liberty of speech when within the walls of the Tabernacle, I have a press in my OAvn building which goes by steam, and the elders cannot stop it. " Let us reason together then respecting the interests of our be- loved church, and the measures of our officers, so far as reasoning can be useful, and find out Avhat we ought to do. If you turn away from the discussion, you do it at your peril. You all love peace, and so do I. But we are enlisted as ' soldiers,' and if our Master commands Ave must contend. Ma)iy a soldier has become a^trenuous advocate for peace Avhen he Avas afraid of the battle, and many a Cliristian has thought himself entitled to the blessing Avhich belongs to the ' peace-maker,' who Avill be disappointed by getting only the reward of the 'slothful servant.' It is cow- ardice and indolence in his bosom Avhich many a man mistakes for Christian love of peace. If we really love peace according to its inestimable Avorth, Ave shall take care that it is established on

ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH. 81

the eternal basis of truth. There is no peace to the wicked — there is no desirable peace in falsehood — there is no peace worth having to a slothful or an enslaved church. Righteousness and peace must meet and kiss each other, if we are to enjoy the in- fluence of either. With the action of such a falsehood as tlie session have introduced as the main principle of their relation to us, there never can be any peace but the peace of death. The great interests of the Tabernacle have been committed to our hands. We have solemnly promised to watch over them and each other, and woe unto us if we fail to understand our duty !

" It would be impossible to follow our officers into an ex- amination of all their measures. I shall only touch upon several events well attested. The two churches (Tabernacle and Dey- street) were united upon the basis of a written covenant adopted at a meeting of delegates and afterwards ratified by the churches respectively. The fourth article of the covenant is in the follow- ing words : ' The two churches to be connected with the Third Presbytery of New York, it being understood that such j^rinciples of the Congregational order shall be engrafted, as shall be a^')- 2)roved b>j the united churches. The brethren who now assume to rule us say that the condition in italics they never intended to comply with. They acknowledge that I, and those who acted with me, refused to consummate the union, without this condi- tion ; but that the committee who met them said that after all, nothing was meant by it. I deny this verbal nullification. The story is absurd on its face, though honestly stated, I dare say. Our written covenant of union, therefore, though fulfilled on the one part, remains broken on the other. I claim of tlie members from Dey-street, that the church should be assembled calmly to deliberate on tliis covenant. If, on coming together, the church prefer to make no modifications, the covenant will, notwithstand- ing, have been kept. The stain of unfaithfulness will have been wiped away.

" The administration of the session is but little known to us, except in their measures towards Mr. Tappan. There are certain jn-ominent points in that matter which demand our consideratic^n. Tiie long details have been attended to by Mr. Tappan himself. They have been managed by him with a degree of talent, energy and good temper which have seldom been equaled. He has tri- umplied amply. I rejoice in his triumph, for his sake and the sake of religious liberty, and Christian rights everywhere. The con- ti'oversy was for pi-inciples, as important for me as for him. Ho fought the battle alone, but for us all ; and I thank God that a mouth and wisdom were given to him which all his adversaries were unable to gainsay or resist. The verdict of the highest Presbyterian judicatory has stamped the whole prosecution as 4*

82 MEMOIR.

wrong and oppressive. The opinions and arguments which I

spread before you on the 21st of January, therefore, have been

sustained, not <as mere Congregationalism, as you were told, but

as sound Presbyterianism also. ********

" By the events which have taken place, our session have, ac- cording to their own declaration, lost the power of conducting dis- cipline, and so we are in fact without this most important preroga- tive. Mr. Tappan you will recollect was never tried on the charges tabled against hirn, but was ' excluded for contumacy,' he having in- sisted on retaining u reporter at the trial, contrary to the order of the session. The General Assembly reversed the decision of the session ; and then Mr. Tappan demanded to be tried on the original charges, alleging that as those charges had been promul- gated to the world, it was due to his own reputation that the truth in the matter should be judicially ascertained. This de- mand was most reasonable ; and as necessary for Mr. I^arker as for Mr. Tappan. The session however refused to take up the trial, and recorded a set of reasons for the refusal, among which was the following : — ' The session are deeply convinced that it is beyond their power to attain the ends of salutary discipline in the trial, inasnuxch as the General Assembly have not sustained them,' and again — ' while therefore the session /«•/ as strongly as ever the im2)ortance of investigating these charges, yet they do not see any other course which they can wisely adopt, but to dis- continue the prosecution, because, painful and humiliating as it is to abandon the investigation of grave charges on account of the tur- bulence of the person accused,' Ac. ' Painful and humiliating' truly. It seems impossible that the members of a court should i-ecord their inability thus, without giving up their claims, not merely to peculiar and exclusive wis{U)m, but to any competency for their otHce. But whatever the session may think of them- selves, the chiu-ch is evidently without the power of discipline, for although this broken-down court might possibly manage the sisters of the church, or the poor brethren, yet if there be a ' turbulent' spirit among us, a brother who will contend for his rights as a giant, then the session mut t again come to the pain- ful and humiliating conclusiiin, that such a man is too much for them. But how preposterous is the plan upon which our disci- pline is conducted, even when successful ! In tlieir annual report the session said, if I remember right, that 'four' had been cut off. But who they are, whether it is you, or I, or brother B, or brother C, nobody knows. They summon a member into the secresy of the session-room and there excomnuuiicate him, and he cotmts one in the list of subjects ; but the transaction is kept a profound secret, and the book on which the record is made no-

ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH. 83

body can see ! Was ever such innocent discipline heard of before ? The whole force of church (lis(;ipline so far as penalties go, consists in public exposure and condemnation : for let us re- member that our relationship to an exscinded brother is not end- ed, nor our duties done. The Gospel points out the manner in which such persons are to be treated when discipline is right- eously administered. Is it true, then, that the session are so irre- sponsible to the church as not to be obliged to tell us the names of the excommunicated ? Ought a report, so deficient, to be ac- cepted? Methinks the tremendous responsibility of exercising discipline in Christ's house is sometimes but httle appreciated. There is too much reason to believe that in many churches it is made an instrument of partisanship, of shutting up opposition and of destroying rivals. Often its hottest violence has been ex- ercised towards the most conscientious members of the church if their regard for their Savior forbade tliem to submit implicitly to the chief priests and elders. What can men be thinking of, who touch with careless or selfish or angry hands the ark which has written upon it, ' whoso shall offend one of these httle ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hang- ed about his neck and he drowned in the depths of the sea.'

" Let us look now a little at our condition. 'J'he peace we pos- sessed immediately after tlie settlement of Mr. Parker, and wliich might now have been flowing like a river, is di'ied up, never to return, without a great change of management. About sixty members of the church, comprising a most important portion of its active piety, have left us under deep feelings of injury. Our religious conference-meetings are ended. Eighteen months ago we conversed freely together in our religious mecjtings, and the members of the church were invited to speak often one to ano- ther. . Now no voice is heard but that of the pastor, and at in- teivals that of an elder, and no opportunity is given for any other. The only exception to this is, that three times, if I recol- lect right, in nine months, I have felt impelled to say a few words myself, thougli during all that time my pastor has not invited me to take any part at all, not even to pray on any occasion, though he formerly called on me as often at least as on any other brother. I have not, so far as 1 know, remitted any courtesy due to him, nor done any thing which ought to forfeit tlie esteem of a gene- rous mind. Yet it would seem that controversy and personality have been brought into all our meetings. Such is our social con- dition. The large number of colored persons which once filled a whole section of our house, and by their presence testified to the kind and paternal character of the church, have withdrawn. Their presence was to me a more honorable testimony to our Christian character than an equal number of persons would have

84 MEMOIR.

been, whose coaches wore drawn up before our door. They have been treated sevcrel3^ Our trustees refused them leases of pews, except on the condition, that if they allowed a white person to sit with them but for once, the lease should be forfeited. Their children were disobliged in the Sabbath-school, and their feelings in various ways needlessly, and I think ungenerously, wounded. Our Sabbath-school has dwindled to a small affair. The few ac- cessions to the church must be hardly sufficient to keep our re- maining numbers good. And still the kindest counsel which those who urc not j)leased can get, is, that they had better go away. Not an iota of concession is thought of; nothing but a harder and still harder turn of the screws. To sustain this ruin- ous usurpation, we are forbidden to express our views to each other, even in our annual business-meeting. I have good reason for belie\ing that our last annual meeting was conducted on a plan previously agreed upon by the pastor and elders. I stood on the floor for an hour and a half, contending for our common right of speech, aiid during that time, while according to well- settJed principles, 1 had the exclusive right to speak, motions were made and received by the Moderator, and by him put to vote, and the whole business of the evening forced through. It is the chief duty of a chairman to preserve order, and maintain individual rit/hts, and luifaithfulness and partisan acting in a chair is considered by all honorable men, as dishonorable above ordinary dishonor."

After alluding to the financial condition and prospects of the church as requiring harmonious action, and making a strong appeal to the church to rally and sustain the enter- prise, the address proceeds :

" If you ask me why I do not leave the church as I have been so liberally advised to do, ray answer is, tirst, I choose to stay. I choose to do so, because I have been here longer than most of my brethren wlio wish to get I'id of me, and there is not another church to wliich I wish to go. Because I love the Tabernacle Church, its choir, its services. The example of good men teaches me to staj' where I am, and seek to correct what is wrong. I have no doubt that my opinions and feelings substantially agree with those of the gi-eat mass of the church, except when a contrary feeling has been induced by misapprehension. I know you are tlie friends of liberty. No church is moie democratic than the Tabernacle. I ha\-e never yet proposed that the church should become Congregational in its organization, nor do I sup- pose that my brethren and sisters have the strong opinions which

ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH. 85

I have on that subject, or that many of them have troubled tlicmselvos to study the difTcrcuce between Congregationalism and Presbyterianism. Yet I know, that generally you believe in the right and the capacity of tlie people to govern themselves in accordance with the earliest lessons of infancy throughout our country. If you do, you are Congregationalists, whatever you may call yourselves. At any rate, I cannot doubt that you will retain the liberty of thought, speech and action, committed to your hands. If you ask me the motive which stimulated me to so much labor in opposition to the policy of the session, I answer, it is not that I want their offices, for they were offered to me and urged upon me at the organization of the united church, but I de- clined them. I do not know the office on earth which I desire for its personal importance or consequence. I am exceedingly well satisfied and happy in all the allotments of Providence. 1 have not separated from my former friends of the session and resisted their measures, carelesslj^ or for small reasons, or for selfish ends. If any Christian Avere to take the responsibility which I liave taken without much prayer, severe self-examination, and perfect disinterestedness, he would be exceedingly culpable. But it has cost the blood of better men than I, and thousands of them, to secure my liberty and yours, and cost it in contending for just the same principles for which I contend against the ses- sion. My blood will not be called for in maintaining these prin- ciples, but, if it were, I should feel that the cause was worth the sacrifice.

" Our security in both our civil and political relations depends on the maintenance of correct principles. If the constitution be good and carefully maintained, the men who administer govern- ment can do no great mischief. So ' principles, not men,' is the sound truth which all political parties are desirous of inscribing on their banners, though to be sure, they generally act upon ex- actly the reversal of the motto. The patriots of the revolution commenced th;it war for this as a prominent reason, that the Parliament of Grreat Britain imposed a duty of a penny a pound on tea imported into the colonies. Tliey did so, not to make tea cheaper, for the war cost more than all the tea they used during the whole course of their lives ; but b(!cause the duty was de- manded in violation of a principle, Avliich piinciph; was the essen- tial protector of all their property and rights. We hold our pro- j)erty securely because it is a well settled principle, that what a man buys, and pays for honestly, is his, and no one has a right to interfere with his possession of it. The multitude who throng Broadway pass unmolested and secure, because it is a well settled principle tliat every one shall turn to the right. What if some charioteer should get the notion that he was king, and every one

86 MEMOIR.

must turn out for Idm, and so should drive pell-mell through Broadway ? What cries, what fleeing, what upsetting, what ruin would strew his course. If there were to come into your house at evening, a man who you knew claimed all your fur- niture as his, could you go to rest quietly ? There have come into the Tabernacle a set of men who claim that all our rights are theirs. Rights worth more than household furniture : the right of speech, the right of deliberating together, the right of understanding and managing our OAvn affairs. If an individual gets the notion that he is a king, we call him crazy. Though never so sane on all other subjects, we refuse to trust him, espe- cially in any matter touching his derangement ; and we even con- sider his delusion so dangerous that his best friends will watch him closely, and perhaps confine him in a mad-house, for no one can tell what he may do. He may perhaps think it right to cut oft" the head of some refractory subject, and that subject of his imaginary kingdom may be his wife, or his son, or neighbor. We had a most melancholy story in the newspapers lately, of a very good man who under some such delusion murdered his wife. Our session have imbibed the notion that they are something- like little kings in the midst of us, and it renders every one around them insecure. Under the influence of this delusion the}'^ did attack Mr. Tappan, but he was a strong man and so escaped. If we ask them for information, they tell us we are accountable to them, not they to us ; and if we ui'ge our right to speak and vote, they call it lynch law. They seem to count opposition to them a crime, conducted never so courteously. No present calm, no seeming or real kindness, can ever satisfy a wise man, while he knows the ^^ri/ic/^j/es of those around him are unsound.

" I cannot think of any privilege which the session acknow- ledge as ours on the ground oi 2^rinci2)le and right, which Popery does not allow to its votaries. We are denied the right of speech, and the right of voting, so as to have our votes really ascertain- ed, and of voting at all in fact, for our pastor asserts the right of putting an end to church meetings at his own will. I was told, to be sure, by my pastor, and some of the elders, that I could talk with the members of tlie church individually, but now that I have set about it as my only way of conferring with them, it is intimated to me that this is a disturbance of the peace of the church, for which I am liable to discipline. I am taunted pub- licly with inviting the brethren to my house, and meeting them elsewhere, for consultation, as if this were not my right. Be- cause I oppose measures which seem to me ruinous to the church, I am charged with opposing my pastor, and called a ' dema- gogue.' Every thing is attempted to be made into a personality. The courteous expression of my opinion is called ' vituperation/

ADDRESS TO THE CHURCH. 87

Is not every thing perverted in this way and all rights denied ? I may not address you orally — think you the sRssion would let me print this address if they could help it ? The prosecution against Mr. Tappan was avowedly ' to put him down,' and it was avowed by several of the elders that it was necessary to do so, because if something was not done Mr. Tappan would poison the minds of the church and 'get a majority.' All this was said freely at the time, without any apparent consciousness that it was wrong. Why should not I be put down, also ? I am laboring for the same end, and hope to accomplish it, and I claim it as my right, secured to me as an American Christian, and it is one I mean to use as far as duty requires it, however much it may be denied, and, when it can be done, trampled on. I ask now what right any one of lis possesses, as a member of the Tabernacle Church, and with the acknowledgment of the session, but just the right to listen and to obey ; and as to the first of these it is just as easily taken away as the rest. The last I think the session will never deny us. The right to personal liberty and life we possess under the guarantees of civil law. If we held them only by the guarantee of principles recognized by the Tabernacle session, they would stop short of most other ecclesiastical courts who have possessed civil power. Thousands of Christians have paid the penalty of liberty and life, for having dared to exercise the rights which God gave them, in opposition to ecclesiastical . usurpation. Our session have gone in the same path until the wall of civil protection has stopped them. How much farther they would go if they could, it is not of great importance to de- termine. In my judgment, no one of us will retain the right to oppose their measures but by his oiun strength and GocVs blessing

on the means within his own power. ********

" In some respects the proper character of a church is illus- trated by the quiet, inoffensive, and docile temper of sheep. But they should not in all respects resemble sheep. They should not allow themselves to be sold as sheep are, nor should they with the same heedless confidence follow a leader, lest they fare like the flock which was quietly trotting across a covered bridge over the Connecticut, when the leader perceiving something omi- nous before him, and an open window at his side, leaped out of the window — the next followed, and the next, in regular succes- sion, and directly the whole flock found themselves floating down the cold stream together. Whatever else got wet on that occa- sion, I presume the self-complacency of the leader was not at all damped.

" The remedies I have to propose are in substance the same which I proposed at the great meeting on the 21st of January,

8» MEMOIR.

1839. Not tli.at you should make me king. That would be as foolish as to allow any other brother to fill that oflice. Not a re- volution, not popular excitement, not Congregationalism necessa- rily, nor any of those things which have been held up to terrify you into voting your i-ights away and turning your backs on your duty. To be sure, I think Presbyterianism in all its distinguishing roots and branches bad. Not so much, as it hes in the hook, but as it is acted out by those who in its name assume to set its con- stitutional restraints aside. But whatever avo may be, let us maintain the clear truth, that our house belongs to us, not to the trustees, that our spiritual interests and all our affairs are at least to be understood and watched over by the whole church, and that we have and will ever use the liberty of speech freely, and at least claim the right to express our opinions and give our advice. To insure this, we want

" 1st. A church clerk, in whose hands the records of the church shall be accessible to each member at all proper times, and a church orixiinization, and the means of holdinof church meetino-s, without so exceedingly improper a surveillance as asking leave of the session or trustees.

" 2d. A regular succession of business-meetings recurring once in three months, for instance, at which any member shall be at libert}^ courteously and according to the established rules of order, to present his views on any church matter without hinder- ance or offense.

" 3d. The enforcement of the standing rule now in existence, which requires each board of officers to make a report at the an- nual meeting. These reports should be full, extending to all matters wliichliave occurred, especially if interrogations are sus- tained by a majority of the church.

" Tliere is nothing anti-Presbyterian in all this. Farther, it is a reform recommended by many Presbyterians, that elders should be elected annually. This would be a most desirable and proper change.

" Still farther, we shall never be safe in our rights, according to the united voice of all the advocatcis of liberal institutions, until we have the trial by jury. It is monstrous that Christians should be liable to excommunication by a court which is a jHirig in the controversy. It would be a simple thing to let the church clerk draw a panel of twelve brethren, whenever so desired by any member ai-raigned for discipline, which panel should pronounce guilty or not guilty, the session conducting the trial as a court and adjudging penalties. No one of us can be mulct- ed in any of our criminal courts until twelve men, not law judges, but our equals, have pronounced us guilty. Should not a mem- ber of the church be treated with as much care as any other

APPEAL TO THE SESSION. 89

citizen, and should not church courts be as liberal as the Record- er's Court at the halls of justice in Center street ?

" Adopt these principles and they will make no uproar. If you lift your hands it will be done, and instead of confusion they will bring us peace. If they had been adopted by the church soon after the union, it is my firm belief, that we should now have been a united, vigorous and happy church. The reason is that these are the principles of everlasting truth, and truth brings peace. " Brethren of the Session —

" I have looked over all I have written with great care, and in my judgment the statements are quite within the truth. If I have fallen into the least error unfavorable to you, I shall be ready at all times and with all the means in my power to correct it. If there is severity in what I have written, it is not in the manner but in the matter, and that 5'^ou made, not I. If religion is dishonored by the exposition of your proceedings, that fault is yours again, not mine. But I have made up my mind that religion has suffered more by covering the faults of its professors than from a fair and manly exposure and condemnation of them. The iniquity of David was not hidden to save God's honor. You and I may have a dreadful account to give for the manner in which we have conducted as members of the church, but the re- ligion of Jesus Christ will not die with us, nor on our account; nor will great scandal be fastened upon that, necessarily, because it is fastened on you or me. I acknowledge my obhgation to treat you with kindness as brethren, and not interrupt or hinder you in the proper discharge of your official duties, nor even need- lessly to expose the wrongs of your administration. But there is nothing in our relationship which elevates you above fair and can- did scrutiny, whenever the good of the church requires it. In- deed all offices are taken with that consent. Then, cease to talk of ' great scandal' being brought on religion by ' Facts and Reas- onings,' or ' reports,' truly made, of what you have done. And cease to talk so much of 'contumacy' as if it were a mighty sin to refuse obedience to your ecclesiastical usurpations. Such con- tumacy has been a distinguishing characteristic of the Christian religion from its foundation. No people were ever so contuma- cious as Christians. The martyrs have all died in it and generally for it. When the apostles were imprisoned and beaten for con- tumacy, and the High Priest and Council demanded of them, * Did we not straitly command you ?' their answer, always man- fully given, was ' we ought to obey God rather than man.' Jesus Christ uniformly took part with the conscientiously contu- macious, and many a martyr has gloried in the loss of all things for this cause and in death itself, knowing that the torch of frown-

90 MEMOIR.

ing priests and councils would light him to the smiling commen- dation of his Savior. In His high court of last resort, the doc- trine of ' submission right or wrong' was never recognized.

" Now let me ask you, what you desire to bring about ? Would you transform the Tabernacle Church into a company of unthink- ing, servile automatons ? Is that what Presbyterianism demands ? I would rather be pastor of a little thinking, scrutinizing and in- telHgently affectionate church, in any valley of New England, or hold influence there, ' by the divine right of superior piety and wisdom,' than to sit on the throne of Rome and be obeyed and hated through an empire. God will have none but a willing obedience towards his government. When men complain of his government, his reply is, 'come let us reason together,' and he has appointed a day in which before the assembled universe the books shall be opened and he will make his great report. Then every mouth shall be stopped, not by rules of order, but by the revelation of the righteousness of his judgments. Does Presby- terianism elevate you to an irresponsibility above that which Jehovah claims ? He does not call popular opinion lynch law. Then open your book and put down those who oppose you, as He will those who oppose Him, by showing that you, hke Him, have been long suffering and slow to anger, and of great kindness, not willing that any should be excommunicated, but that all should be brought to repentance. Suppose you could succeed in establishing the doctrine of absolutism which you have got up ; there is no lineal descent of authority here, and my sons will per- haps be elders in the next generation, to domineer over yours. Is it a speechless obedience to my children which you would leave as an inheritance to yours, for the sake of exercising autho- rity over me yourselves ? But what have you to gain by putting down discussion ? There can be but three possible reasons for it. Either your measures are bad, or you have not ability to de- fend them, or the church have not intelligence and honesty to ap- preciate your defense. Your unwiUingness to have your meas- ures discussed will in itself be very apt to create the impres- sion beforehand, that your weak point is a consciousness that your measures Avill not bear investigation. But whether they will or not, do you gain anything by transferring the discussion from the leoture-roora to the press ? from free and amicable de- bate, where all parties are present, to ex-parte conversations out of doors ? I can say sincerely that the perfect success of your arbitrary doctrines would bring nothing with it which has the least charm for me. To stand up in the church and by good reasons persuade it to adopt wise measures, has interest about it, but to compel submission to measures good or bad, by violence, or trick, or official force, is so out of place among brethren m the

APPEAL TO THE SESSION. 91

Church of Christ, that, painful as it is, I had rather be the slave than the master. I declare to you, that, from the beginning of the controversy, I have never been able to perceive anything de- sirable which you could possibly gain by your measures, and cer- tainly there is nobody who is less exposed to personal loss from your success than myself. On the contrary, I am sure of success in m}^ plans. Whether the Tabernacle Church asserts its rights or not. Christians elsewhere will be put on their guard. I have already seen triumphs of truth enough to teach me, that if it is slow it is nevertheless sure.

" Our real interests in the Tabernacle are all the same, if only w^e all had the libe)"ility to understand them right. This fact is so very clear to my mind, that I cannot but hope that at some day not very distant, we shall all labor together again with a better, spirit than ever before. Yet I do not hesitate to say, though no man should stand with me, my hand, feeble as it is, shall ever be against every man who seeks to rob the church of its birthright, liberty of thought, speech and action. My motto in religion as well as politics shall be, ' Liberty and union, one and inseparable.' " Brethren of the Church —

" Whitefield said of things in his day, ' The Pope has turned Presbyterian.' It is easy to find him in all denominations, for every man by nature would be a pope if he could. So let us not waste our ammunition in long shots against an evil in Italy which may be growing up at our own feet. Pardon this long address. I could not make it shorter, and it is but little labor for you to read it, compai-ed with what it has cost me to write it. I shall certainly expect from you this requital. All I have to say more is, examine for yourselves. Divest your minds of all prejudice and personality. Study your duty to yourselves and your Master in Heaven. As intelligent and independent Chris- tians, worthy of your high vocation, find out what is right, and DO IT."

Thcvse " Facts and Reasonings" will enable the reader to judge how far Mr. Hale was responsible for the controversy which distracted the Tabernacle Presbyterian Church. His conduct in bringing the case of Mr. Tappan and the doings of the session before the body of the church was neither presumptuous nor disorderly. When the Tabernacle and Dey-street churches were united, the right of holding church-meetings for business was distinctly reserved, and also the privilege of engrafting on the constitution of the

92 MEMOIR.

new church such principles of the Congregational order as should be opproved by the united churches. Mr. Hale felt deeply that the liberty and peace of the church were endan- gered by the course of the session towards Mr. Tappan ; he saw that the interests of the Tabernacle must greatly suffer from a controversy which threatened to agitate the whole Presbyterian Church; he was anxious to avert these evils, and being convinced that the policy of the session could not be justified — as it was not by the General Assembly — he ex- postulated with the elders individually and entreated them to desist ; when these efforts failed, he brought the matter before the church at a meeting duly notified for the prayer- ful consideration of the case ; in liis remarks on that occa- sion he violated no rule of Christian decorum, but spoke calmly and kindly, though with great plaiimess and decision, setting forth his views of the causes of existmg difficulties, and suggesting a remedy. In all tliis he acted on his own responsibility, without consulting with Mr. Tappan or form- ing a party in advance. Deeming individual liberty inse- cure under such a precedent of discipline as that which the session were then establishing, he laid down certain prin- ciples in the form of resolutions to guard the church in future. This was in accordance with the terms of agree- ment between the united churches, and Mr. Hale was al- ways of opinion that the majority of the church would have sustained his resolutions if the vote had been taken by count.

After this meeting Mr. Hale was looked upon as inimical to