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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4641-h.zip b/4641-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..26678ed --- /dev/null +++ b/4641-h.zip diff --git a/4641-h/4641-h.htm b/4641-h/4641-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b4e4c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/4641-h/4641-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2575 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Starr King in California, by William Day Simonds + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +Project Gutenberg's Starr King in California, by William Day Simonds + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Starr King in California + +Author: William Day Simonds + +Release Date: January 28, 2010 [EBook #4641] +Last Updated: February 6, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STARR KING IN CALIFORNIA *** + + + + +Produced by David Schwan, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + STARR KING IN CALIFORNIA + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By William Day Simonds + </h2> + <h3> + Author of <br /> <br /> "The Christ of the Human Heart"<br /> "Patriotic + Addresses"<br /> "Sermons From Shakespeare" + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + Dedicated to the Memory of Honorable Horace Davis of San Francisco as the + only Tribute of Respect Now Possible to one whose Friendly Interest and + Assistance the Author Here Gratefully Acknowledges + </p> + <p> + Up to the time of Starr King's death it was generally believed that he, + more than any other man, had prevented California and the whole Pacific + Coast from falling into the gulf of disunion. It is certain that Abraham + Lincoln held this opinion + </p> + <p> + Edwin Percy Whipple + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <h4> + <a href="#link2H_INTR"> Introduction </a> + </h4> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_PART1"> Part I. </a> + </td> + <td> + In Old New England + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_PART2"> Part II. </a> + </td> + <td> + California in 1860 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_PART3"> Part III. </a> + </td> + <td> + California's Hour of Decision + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_PART4"> Part IV. </a> + </td> + <td> + Philanthropist and Preacher + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2H_PART5"> Part V. </a> + </td> + <td> + In Retrospect + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + Introduction + </h2> + <p> + This book is the result of the author's strong desire to know the truth + relative to a critical period in the history of California, and a further + strong desire to deal justly by the memory of a man recent historians have + been pleased to pass by with slight acknowledgment. + </p> + <p> + What was the nature and measure of Starr King's influence on the Pacific + Coast during the Civil War? To be able to answer that question has cost + more time and study than the reader could be brought to believe. It has + necessitated a thorough examination of all published histories of + California, of numerous biographies, of old newspapers, memoirs, letters + and musty documents. It has involved interviews with prominent persons as + well as a careful study of earlier writings upon Starr King in books and + magazines. Best of all it has compelled the writer to the delightful task + of renewing his acquaintance with the published sermons and lectures of + the patriot-preacher. + </p> + <p> + It is believed that no important data has been overlooked, and it is hoped + that a genuine service has been rendered to all students of California + History, and to all lovers of Starr King—he who was called by his + own generation, "The Saint of the Pacific Coast." + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PART1" id="link2H_PART1"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Part I. In Old New England + </h2> + <p> + When Starr King entered the Golden Gate, April 28, 1860, he had passed by + a few months his thirty-fifth birthday. A young man in the morning of his + power he felt strangely old, for he wrote to a friend just a little later: + "I have passed meridian. It is after twelve o'clock in the large day of my + mortal life. I am no longer a young man. It is now afternoon with me, and + the shadows turn toward the east." + </p> + <p> + There was abundant reason for this premature feeling of age. Even at + thirty-five King had been a long time among the most earnest of workers. + Born in New York City, December 17, 1824, of English and German ancestry, + son of a Universalist Minister who was compelled to struggle along on a + very meager salary, the lad felt very early in life labor's stern + discipline. At fifteen he was obliged to leave school that by daily toil + he might help to support his now widowed mother and five younger brothers + and sisters. Brief as was his record in school, we note the following + prophetic facts: he displayed singular aptitude for study, he was + conscientious yet vivacious, he was by nature adverse to anything rude or + coarse. Joshua Bates, King's last teacher, describes the lad as "slight of + build, golden haired, with a homely face which everybody thought handsome + on account of the beaming eyes, the winning smile and the earnest desire + of always wanting to do what was best and right." + </p> + <p> + This is our earliest testimony to the lovable character of the man whose + life-story we are now considering. It will impress us more and more as + East and West, Boston and San Francisco, in varying phrase tell again and + again, of "the beaming eyes, the winning smile, and the earnest desire of + always wanting to do what was just and right." + </p> + <p> + A bread-winner at fifteen, and for a large family, surely this is the end + of all dreams of scholarship or of professional service. That depends on + the man—and the conditions that surround him. Happily King's mother + was a woman of good mind who knew and loved the best in literature. + Ambitious for her gifted son, she read with him, and for him, certain of + the masters whom to know well is to possess the foundations of true + culture. It is a pretty scene and suggestive—the lad and his mother, + reading together "till the wee small hours" Plutarch, Grote's History of + Greece, Bullfinch's Mythology, Dante and the plays of William Shakespeare. + Fortunately his mother was not his only helper. Near at hand was Theodore + Parker who was said to possess the best private library in Boston, and + whose passion for aiding young men was well known. He befriended King as + he befriended others, and early discovered in the widow's son superior + talents. In those days very young men used to preach. Before he had + reached his majority, King was often sent to fill engagements under + direction and at the suggestion of Parker. The high esteem of the elder + for the younger man is attested by the following letter to an important + church not far from Boston. + </p> + <p> + "I cannot come to preach for you as I would like, but with your kind + permission I will send Thomas Starr King. This young man is not a + regularly ordained preacher, but he has the grace of God in his heart, and + the gift of tongues. He is a rare sweet spirit and I know that after you + have met with him you will thank me for sending him to you." + </p> + <p> + This young dry-goods clerk, schoolmaster, and bookkeeper, for he followed + all of these occupations during the years in which he was growing out of + youth into manhood, was especially interested in metaphysics and theology. + In these, and kindred studies he was greatly impressed and inspired by the + writings of Victor Cousin, whose major gift was his ability to awaken + other minds. "The most brilliant meteor that flashed across the sky of the + nineteenth century," said Sainte-Beuve. + </p> + <p> + When Thomas Starr King was eighteen years old, William Ellery Channing + died. Of that death which occurred amid the lovely scenery of Vermont upon + a rare Autumnal evening, Theodore Parker wrote, The sun went toward the + horizon: the slanting beams fell into the chamber. Channing turned his + face toward that sinking orb and he and the sun went away together. Each, + as the other, left "the smile of his departure' spread on all around: the + sun on the clouds, he on the heart." + </p> + <p> + Channing's "smile on the heart," his pure philosophy, his sweet Christian + spirit so influenced King that his best sermons read not unlike the large, + calm utterances of Channing when he spoke on the loftiest of themes. To + other good and great men our student preacher was deeply indebted. To Dr. + Hosea Ballou (2d) for friendship and wise counsel. To Dr. James Walker for + the inspiration of certain notable lectures on Natural Theology. Most of + all to Dr. E. A. Chapin, his father's successor in the Universalist Pulpit + at Charlestown, Mass. Dr. Chapin—but ten years King's senior—was + then just beginning his eminent career as pulpit orator and popular + lecturer. He recognized the undeveloped genius of his young friend, he + knew of his earnest student-ship, he delighted to open the doors of + opportunity to him. It was a gracious and honorable relation and most + advantageous to the younger man. Writing to a good Deacon of a neighboring + church Chapin said: "Thomas has never attended a Divinity School, but he + is educated just the same. He speaks Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and + fairly good English as you will see. He knows natural history and he knows + humanity, and if one knows man and nature, he comes pretty close to + knowing God." + </p> + <p> + In 1846 Chapin was called to New York, and through his influence Starr + King, then twenty-two years old, was installed as his successor in the + pastorate of the First Universalist Church of Charlestown. If his + preparedness for an important New England pulpit is questioned it must be + admitted that he entered it wholly without academic training, but we need + not be distressed on that account. From the first he had adopted a method + of study certain to produce excellent results, thorough acquaintance with + a few great authors, and reverent, loving intercourse with a few great + teachers. Little wonder that the "boy preacher" made good in the pulpit + from which his honored Father had passed into, the Silence, and wherein + the eloquence of Chapin had charmed a congregation of devoted followers. + </p> + <p> + Two years pass and he is called to Hollis Street Church in Boston, a + Unitarian Church of honorable fame but at the time threatened with + disaster. It was believed that if any one could save the imperilled + church, King was that man. Not yet twenty-five years of age, established + as minister of one of Boston's well known churches; a co-laborer of + Bartol, Ballou, Everett, Emerson, Theodore Parker and Wendell Phillips,—surely + he is to be tried and tested as few men so young have ever been, here in + the "Athens of America," the city of beautiful ideals and great men. + </p> + <p> + It is certain that King regarded the eleven years he gave to Hollis Street + as merely preparatory to his greater work in California. Writing playfully + from San Francisco to Dr. Bellows in Boston he said: "At home, among you + big fellows, I wasn't much. Here they seem to think I am somebody. Nothing + like the right setting." The record shows that even among the "big + fellows" Starr King was a very definite somebody, for although crowds did + not attend his preaching in Boston as in San Francisco, he was able to + congratulate himself upon the fact that he preached his last sermon in + Hollis Street Church to five times as many people as heard his first. Nor + do we need to await the judgment of California admirers to be convinced of + his ability as a preacher or his popularity as a lecturer. It was said of + him that "he was an orator from the beginning:" that his first public + address "was like Charles Lamb's roast pig, good throughout, no part + better or worse than another." "His delivery," says a candid and scholarly + critic, "was rather earnest than passionate. He had a deep, strange, rich + voice, which he knew how to use. His eyes were extraordinary, living + sermons, a peculiar shake and nod of the head giving the impression of + deep-settled conviction. Closely confined to his notes, yet his delivery + produces a marked impression." + </p> + <p> + Hostile criticism, which no man wholly escapes, enjoyed suggesting that + King had been educated in the common schools of Portsmouth and + Charlestown, and that he had graduated from the navy yard into the pulpit. + A Boston correspondent passed judgment upon him as follows: "He was not + considered profoundly learned; he was not regarded as a remarkable orator; + he was not a great writer; nor can his unrivalled popularity be ascribed + to his fascinating social or intellectual gifts. It was the hidden + interior man of the heart that gave him his real power and skill to + control the wills and to move the hearts, and to win the unbounded + confidence and affection of his fellow-beings." + </p> + <p> + William Everett is authority for the statement that in those early years + in Hollis Street Church "Starr King was not thought to be what a teacher + of Boston Unitarianism ought to be. He was regarded rather as a florid + platform speaker, one interested in the crude and restless attempts at + reform which sober men distrusted." Another reviewer mingles praise and + criticism quite ingeniously. "He astonishes and charms his hearers by a + rare mastery over sentences. He is a skilful word-marshal. Hence his + popularity as a lyceum lecturer. However much of elegant leisure the more + solid and instructive lecturers may have, Mr. King is always wanted. He + is, in some respects, the most popular writer and preacher of the two + denominations which he equally represents, being a sort of soft ligament + between the Chang of Universalism and the Eng of Unitarianism." + </p> + <p> + This last criticism invites us to notice—all too briefly—a + phase of King's experience in New England fitting him most admirably for + the larger work he was to do on the Pacific Coast. From 1840 to 1860 the + Lyceum flourished in the United States as never before or since. Large + numbers of lecture courses, extending even to the small cities and towns, + were liberally patronized and generously supported. In many communities + this was the one diversion and the one extravagance. To fill the new + demand an extraordinary group of public speakers appeared; Emerson, Edward + Everett, Wendell Phillips, Dr. Chapin, Oliver Wendell Holmes, George + William Curtis, Henry Ward Beecher, Frederick Douglas, Theodore Parker and + others, whose names are reverently spoken to this day by aged men and + women who remember the uplift given them in youth by these giants of the + platform. + </p> + <p> + That he was always wanted with such rivals as those is proof enough of + King's power with the people, of his fame as an orator, even before his + greater development and his more wonderful achievements in California. His + lecture circuit extended from Boston to Chicago. His principal subjects + were "Goethe," "Socrates," "Substance and Show," a lecture which ranks + next to Wendell Phillips' "Lost Arts" in popularity. Not withstanding the + academic titles King gave his lectures they seemed to have been popular + with all classes. "Grand, inspiring, instructive, lectures," said the + learned. "Thems' idees," said unlettered men of sound sense. It was + thought to be a remarkable triumph of platform eloquence that King could + make such themes fascinating to Massachusetts farmers and Cape Cod + fishermen. In fine phrase it was said of him that he lectured upon such + themes as Plato and Socrates "with a prematureness of scholarship, a + delicacy of discernment, a sweet innocent combination of confidence and + diffidence, which were inexpressibly charming." + </p> + <p> + It may be claimed with all candor that few public teachers have ever been + able so to enlist scientific truth in the service of the spirit. That + spirit and life are the great realities, that all else is mainly show, at + best but the changing vesture of spirit, is set forth in King's lectures + so completely that he may be said to have made, even at this early age, a + genuine and lasting contribution to the thought of his time. All this be + it noted before he had set foot upon the Pacific Coast, where he was + destined to do his real work. + </p> + <p> + One other service King had rendered the country, and especially New + England, should here be gratefully recalled. Always in delicate health, he + had formed the habit of spending his vacations in the White Hills of New + Hampshire. Benefited in mind and body, and charmed by the rare beauty of a + region then unknown, he endeavored to reveal to the people of Boston, and + other Eastern cities, the neglected loveliness lying at their very doors. + The result was King's "The White Hills, Their Legends, Landscape and + Poetry." Although this pioneer nature-book is now probably quite + forgotten, even by the multitudes who visit the scenes it so glowingly + describes, it is well to remember that it was, indeed, one of the first + attempts to entice the city dweller "back to nature." Published in 1859, + it followed Thoreau's at that time unread "Walden" by only five years, + while it preceded Murray's "Adventures in the Wilderness," and the + earliest of John Burroughs' delightful volumes, by a full generation. It + was in every way a commendable, if not great, adventure in authorship. + </p> + <p> + From this brief review it is evident that when Starr King preached his + last sermon in Boston, March 25, 1860, he had made for himself an enviable + reputation in three difficult fields of work, as preacher, lecturer and + writer. The feeling of Boston and New England upon his departure was + fittingly expressed by Edwin Percy Whipple in a leading journal of the day + in which this eminent author "appealed to thousands in proof of the + assertion that though in charge of a large parish, and with a lecture + parish which extended from Bangor to St. Louis, he still seemed to have + time for every noble work, to be open to every demand of misfortune, + tender to every pretension of weakness, responsive to every call of + sympathy, and true to every obligation of friendship; all will indulge the + hope that California, cordial as must be the welcome she extends him, will + still not be able to keep him long from Massachusetts." + </p> + <p> + On the day before he sailed from New York a "Breakfast Reception" was + given him at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, at which three hundred guests were + seated at the tables. The poet, William Cullen Bryant presided, and other + men hardly less distinguished testified to the nature of King's work, and + to the varied charm of his unique personality. Best of all, perhaps, was + the tribute of his friend and neighbor, Dr. Frederick H. Hedge. "Happy + Soul! himself a benediction wherever he goes; a living evangel of kind + affections, better than all prophecy and all knowledge, the Angel of the + Church whom Boston sends to San Francisco." + </p> + <p> + Such was the man who came to California in the greatest crisis of her + history to exert upon her destiny an influence unequalled and unexampled + even in that most romantic and eventful story of the Golden West. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PART2" id="link2H_PART2"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Part II. California in 1860 + </h2> + <p> + The federal census of 1860 gave California 379,984 inhabitants and San + Francisco 56,802. Historian Bancroft informs us that here was "a gathering + without a parallel in history." It may be said that the whole history and + development of California is without parallel. The story reads not so much + like the orderly growth of a civilized community as a series of unrelated + and episodical events. There is little of logical order or sequence, and + much of surprise, adventure, of conflict and crisis. Said an aged + philosopher, "It is the unexpected that happens," a saying illustrated if + anywhere in the world, in the history of the Golden State. + </p> + <p> + Although discovered early in the sixteenth century by adventurous + Spaniards, no serious attempt was made at settlement of any portion of the + territory now included in the boundaries of California until the year + 1769, when Father Junipero Serra arrived at the Bay of San Diego. Then + followed a half century constituting the Mission Period of California + history, during which Spanish Governors and Franciscan Friars ruled the + land. Inspired more by religious zeal than by lust of conquest, or hope of + gain, the Spanish Padres planted a chain of missions extending from San + Diego to the Bay of San Francisco. At these missions, consisting often, at + the beginning, of nothing more than a rude cross and altar, with some + miserable make-shift of tent or huts as protection from the heat of summer + and the cold of winter, the faithful priests labored to convert the + surrounding Indians. They tried to make of them not alone good Catholics, + but good farmers, and vineyardists, and according to the need of the time, + capable carpenters and builders. As the result of their labors a long + period of simple prosperity was enjoyed at the missions. Buildings were + erected that still delight the traveler. They were for the most part of + Moorish architecture, built of adobe, painted white, with red-tile roofs, + long corridors and ever the secluded plaza where the friar might tell his + beads in peace. Around the missions, some twenty in number, lying a day's + journey apart between the southern and the central bay, Indian workers + cultivated immense fields of grain, choice vineyards, olive orchards and + orange groves; great herds of horses, cattle, and sheep were cared for, + and the women became adept at weaving and spinning. Nor were the Spanish + Governors idle. They encouraged the immigration of settlers both from the + mother country and Mexico by a most liberal policy, assisting the newcomer + to build a home, acquire stock, and establish himself in a country where + there was an abundance of game, and where the earth yielded her bounty + with the minimum of labor. Thus in the half century between 1770 and 1820, + these Pius Padres laid the foundations of California, as they believed + securely, after Catholic and Spanish tradition. + </p> + <p> + Not securely so it proved, for in 1822 Mexico won her independence from + Spain, both political and religious. The California Padres being Spaniards + naturally suffered persecution at the hands of successive Mexican + Governors, who were envious of the lands, orchards and herds of domestic + animals belonging to the various missions. Ruthlessly the Friars were + plundered of their well tilled fields, their fine vineyards, their flocks + and herds, and their Indian converts were enticed or driven into the + service of the new Masters of the country. Some of these officials were of + Spanish blood and some of Mexican but now they proudly called themselves, + Californians. And proudly they lived, these Spanish and Mexican Dons. + Owning immense tracts of land, riding upon fleet horses, relieved of all + necessity of honest work, they soon became in their manner of living, + veritable hidalgoes. + </p> + <p> + Vain, ridiculously boastful, pleasure chasers, they loved above all else + the frolic, the dance, and a good horse. All the way from San Diego to + Shasta were located the immense ranchoes, more than six hundred in number, + ever since celebrated in song and story. This was the period so often + called by poetic writers the Romantic Age of California. Although much of + the glamor of the dear old days of plenty and pleasure has been dispelled + by the careful researches of conscientious scholars, it must still be + admitted that here also were developed certain characteristics and here a + kind of foundation for the future laid, ignorant of which we can not + understand either the California of 1860 or even the State as we of today + know and love it. If it is true that the first settlers in any community + leave a lasting impress upon after generations it is evident that the + Franciscan and Spanish background of California must be reviewed as we + approach the more serious days of American conflict and conquest. + </p> + <p> + Although the first American settler arrived in California in 1816 his + example seems to have been without effect for in 1822 there were but + fourteen persons not of Mexican or Spanish blood in all the province. In + the early '40's emigrants from the "States" began to come in parties, but + so slowly that by January 1, 1848, the entire population (not including + Indians) numbered only 14,000, and Yerba Buena (San Francisco) the only + Pueblo of any size contained barely 900 inhabitants. This be it noted was + but twelve years before the arrival of Starr King, so close was the old + aristocratic rule of Spain to that stirring conflict in which he was to + become a central figure. + </p> + <p> + As we have already observed it is the unexpected that happens in + California history. In this same month of January, 1848, gold was + discovered in the upper Sacramento Valley, an event that rivals the + discovery of America by Columbus, if regarded in the light of results + affecting the development of modern society. "The Gold that Drew the + World" so Edwin Markham heads his story of that strange hegira which + converted far-away California into a new Mecca and made of San Francisco, + that sleepy Spanish Pueblo, in a few months' time a cosmopolitan city of + fifty thousand people. Two years earlier, as a result of the Mexican War, + California had been declared an American Territory, though not formally + ceded to the United States until February 2, 1848. It was generally + believed that the Mexican War had been waged and California acquired in + the interest of negro slavery. James Russell Lowell voices this belief in + the Bigelow papers as follows: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "They just wanted this California + So's to lug new slave states in, + To abuse ye and to scorn ye, + And to plunder ye like sin." +</pre> + <p> + However this may have been, it is certain that among the immigrants of the + fifty's there was a large number of forceful and brilliant men, loving the + old South, and fully determined to swing the new state into line as a + pro-slavery asset. It is true they were not strong enough to prevent the + adoption in 1849 of a constitution prohibiting slavery, yet for all that, + as Southern men they rejoiced when September 9, 1850, California was + admitted to the Union. + </p> + <p> + It is no part of our purpose to give in detail the strange story of + California during her first ten years as an American Commonwealth. By 1850 + her population had increased to 120,000 people, mostly young men drawn by + the lure of gold from every quarter of the civilized world, including not + less than 4000 Chinese. Yet the majority were Americans, and of the + Americans the larger number were from the slave states. Nor was this + condition much altered up to the outbreak of the Civil War. Trustworthy + authorities estimate that not less than forty per cent of her entire + population were at that time of Southern birth, naturally Democratic in + politics and for the most part pro-slavery in sentiment. It should be + remembered that during the decade under consideration the national + government was under the brilliant leadership of the slave-masters who + were ever alert as to the attitude of this new Eldorado of the West. + Consequently every position of trust and honor under national control in + California was given to "safe men" whose attitude towards the "peculiar + institution" was favorable beyond suspicion. To such an extent was this a + matter of public knowledge that the Customs Station of San Francisco was + popularly dubbed the "Virginia Poor House." During all these years + California was under the absolute control of the Democratic Party, and the + party was under control of its Pro-slavery leaders. + </p> + <p> + "The common people," says a late historian, "stood in awe for many years + of these suave, urbane, occasionally fire-eating and always well-dressed + gentlemen from this most aristocratic section of the Union. The + Southerners, born leaders of men, and with politics the paramount interest + in their lives, controlled both San Francisco and California." + </p> + <p> + J. W. Forney, a politician and reporter of the time, is more emphatic and + declares that "California was a secession rendezvous from the day it + became a part of the Union." + </p> + <p> + That the State was strongly Southern in sympathy is proven by the fact + that of fifty-three newspapers published within her borders only seven + advocated the election of Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860. A stronger + proof still is found in the character and conduct of the public men of + California during all the period under consideration. With one or two + exceptions, of whom honorable mention later, every official of any + importance, state or national, favored the South and voted in her + interest. This condition was partly due, without doubt, to the political + leadership of Senator Wm. M. Gwin. A Tennessean by birth, he was forty-six + years of age, when he landed in San Francisco, June 4, 1849. Almost + immediately active in politics he became the most brilliant and + unscrupulous leader California has ever had. He held the reins of power + and of national patronage until the war brought chaos to the old order and + always Wm. M. Gwin was a faithful servant of the old aristocratic South of + John C. Calhoun. He was ably seconded in his efforts to hold California to + the pro-slavery cause by David S. Terry, Chief Justice of the State, and a + fiery Texan, fearless and fierce in every conflict which might affect + adversely Southern Chivalry. After these distinguished leaders there + followed in monotonous succession Senators, Representatives, Governors, + Legislators, representing doubtless their constituents in opposition to + every movement looking to the abolition, or even serious limitation of the + slave power. + </p> + <p> + The first man to challenge the almost solid cohorts of pro-slavery + Democracy in California was David C. Broderick, United States Senator from + 1857 until his untimely death in 1859. Broderick was the son of a stone + cutter and in early life followed his father's trade. Born in Washington, + D. C., he grew to manhood in New York City. When only twenty-six years old + he became "Tammany's candidate for Congress." He was defeated and in June, + 1849, he too arrived in San Francisco, determined never to return East + unless as United States Senator. Plunging into the political life of the + state as a loyal Democrat he was sent almost at once to the legislature in + Sacramento, where he speedily became an influential member. In 1851 he was + made presiding officer of the Senate and by 1852 his leadership within the + State was so firmly established that it was said of him "he is the + Democratic Party of California." January 10, 1857, after years of bitter + struggle, Broderick was elected United States Senator, and the following + March was duly received as a member of that august body. From the first + his had been a strenuous career, he had been the storm center of heated + contests, personal and political, in which he had commanded the suffrages + of his fellows so completely that it was said, "men of all ages followed + him like dogs." He had made many bitter and unrelenting enemies, and now + that he had reached the goal of his ambition, he was to enter upon a last + dread battle, the most severe and deadly of all he had known. + </p> + <p> + Stripped of all misleading complications the question then agitating + Congress and the country was simply this: Shall Negro Slavery be forced + upon the new territory of Kansas against the will of a majority of her + people? This, of course, was only preliminary to the larger question: + Shall the National Government, under lead of the Slave Oligarchy, be given + power to spread over new territory, at will, the blight and curse of human + bondage? Upon this foremost question of the day, Senator Broderick stood + side by side with Stephen A. Douglas in opposition to the Buchanan + Administration, and its mad attempt to force slavery upon the people of + the New West. The attitude of California politicians on this matter is + evidenced by the fact that the legislature in session at Sacramento + promptly instructed Broderick to vote for the administration program, and + a later legislature condemned him by resolution for failing to comply with + the instructions of its predecessor and declared that his attitude was a + disgrace and humiliation to the Nation. They demanded his immediate + resignation. Let it be noted clearly that Broderick was condemned, not for + opposing negro slavery, but simply and solely for opposing the extreme + southern contention. Not long, however, was Broderick permitted to display + his antislavery sympathies. During the exciting campaign of 1859, David S. + Terry, believing himself aggrieved because of certain utterances of + Broderick, challenged the latter to deadly combat. Reluctantly, but + thereto compelled by long usage in California, Broderick met Terry upon + the so-called "field of honor," September 13, 1859. Three days later + Broderick was dead, a sacrifice, so all forward-looking men believed, to + the wrath of the slave power. "His death was a political necessity, poorly + veiled beneath the guise of a private quarrel." This was said at his + funeral, and widely accepted among the people. It has been claimed that + the death of Broderick saved California to the Union; that the revulsion + of feeling following his bloody death was so great that his beloved State + became good soil for the new teaching of Lincoln and the Republican Party. + Generously one would like to accept this theory were not the evidence so + strongly against it. To Broderick belongs the high honor of inaugurating + the fight on the Pacific Coast against the extension of slavery. In the + outset of that conflict he perished, and the manner of his taking off gave + to his message something of the force of martyrdom. But not to the extent + his admirers have imagined. It should be clearly noted that Broderick + believed in local self-government regarding slavery. He believed that the + people of Kansas, and the people of Virginia (as of all other states) + possessed the right under our national constitution, of deciding this + question for themselves without let or hindrance by the general + government. Farther than this he did not go. To the day of his death, he + was a loyal Douglas Democrat. It should be further noted that in this last + campaign of Broderick's life the pro-slavery Democracy swept the State, + its candidate for Governor being elected by a vote nearly twice the + combined vote of the Douglas and Republican candidates: And, also, that a + year after Broderick's death Abraham Lincoln polled only twenty-eight per + cent of the popular vote in California for President of the United States. + Whatever may have been the influence of the Senator's brave conflict in + Congress, or his untimely death, it is evident that the crisis in + California's attitude toward the Union had not yet arrived, that the hour + in which any man might change the course of events still lay within the + unknown future. + </p> + <p> + The same may be said of the life and work of a still more brilliant + opponent of slavery on this Coast, Col. Edward D. Baker, a man of + phenomenal eloquence, with a well earned reputation as a successful lawyer + and politician, with an honorable record for gallant service in the + Mexican War, and for useful service in the House of Representatives in + Washington. When he located in San Francisco in 1852, an immigrant from + the great State of Illinois, he brought new strength to the minority who + were in conscience opposed to the growing dominion of the Slave Power. For + certain reasons, well understood at the time and which do not concern us + here, Col. Baker did not wield the influence which his talents would + naturally have secured for him. Yet as the contest deepened, his majestic + eloquence was beyond question a force for freedom in a community where the + love of oratory amounted to a passion. In the Fremont Campaign, at the + grave of Broderick, and in his own canvass for Congress in 1859, he + rendered most valuable service in laying the foundations of Republicanism + on the Pacific Coast. But it should be remembered by all who would deal + with those great days fairly that the work of Edward Dickinson Baker at + its best was only the work of a brilliant forerunner. Before the real + battle was on he removed from the State, and as the newly elected United + States Senator from Oregon, from this Coast. It is true that on his + journey to Washington a few days before the National election in November, + 1860, Baker delivered in San Francisco an effective speech on Lincoln's + behalf, but it is foolish hero-worship to say, of California! Not only had + Baker been defeated overwhelmingly a few months earlier as Republican + candidate for Congress, but Lincoln himself received the electoral vote of + California only as the result of a three-sided contest in which the + combined opposition polled nearly three-fourths of all the votes cast. In + fact Lincoln distanced his nearest Democratic rival by only 711 Votes. Out + of one hundred and fourteen members of the state legislature but + twenty-four belonged to the party of Lincoln. The Congressional Delegation + was solidly Democratic, and the Governor was a Southern sympathizer. Such + was the condition after Baker's work was done in California, and when the + greater work of Starr King was just beginning. + </p> + <p> + In justice to Colonel Baker, though it is no part of our duty here, we + make grateful mention of the fact that not on the Pacific Coast but in + Washington, as the friend and adviser of President Lincoln, and on the + floor of the United States Senate, this gallant defender of Union and + Liberty rendered a unique and memorable service to his country. His + replies in the Senate to those giants of the Confederacy, John C. + Breckenridge and Judah P. Benjamin attained the dignity of national + events, and his heroic death early in the war on field of battle renders + it forever impossible for any just man to belittle the deeds or influence + of Edward D. Baker. What he might have effected had he remained in + California, or had his life been longer spared, we may not say. The fact + remains that after his mission among us was over Southern and Democratic + sentiment was still in the ascendant. It was reserved for another,—the + privilege and the honor of "saving California to the Union." + </p> + <p> + One other phase of the situation merits careful attention. Almost from the + very beginning of American Settlement in California a dream of Pacific + Empire, separate and independent of "the States" had fascinated many of + her strongest men. And little wonder, for here by the Pacific Sea was a + vast territory walled away by lofty mountains and wide deserts, two + thousand miles west of the frontier settlements of Minnesota and Kansas. + Not until after the outbreak of the Civil War was there telegraphic + communication with the East, and the nearest railway ended somewhere in + central Missouri. Mail was received regularly once in twenty-six days, + sometimes as often as once in two weeks. But there was little direct + communication and less unity of purpose between the older sections of the + United States and far away California. In fact there was considerable + antagonism felt and expressed toward the government of Washington. The + original Mexican population cordially hated, and with good reason, the + national authority. Foreigners in the mines cared nothing for the Union or + the quarrel between the states, and many of the settlers from the East, + which they still lovingly called "back home," felt that they had a real + grievance against the general government. This feeling, which was of long + standing, was naturally intensified by the troubled outlook in 1860. Men + prominent in state and national politics openly advocated independence as + the proper policy for the Pacific Coast. + </p> + <p> + "Why depend on the South or the North to regulate our affairs," wrote our + junior Senator from Washington. "And this, too, after they have proved + themselves incapable of living in harmony with one another." Starr King + had been a resident of the state nearly a year when the San Francisco + Herald published the following letter received from Congressman John C. + Burch: + </p> + <p> + "The people of California should all be of one mind on this subject of a + Pacific Republic. Raise aloft the flag of the hydraheaded cactus of the + western wilds and call upon the enlightened nations of the earth to + acknowledge our independence and protect us from the wreck of a once + glorious Union." + </p> + <p> + Governor John B. Weller, a man not only holding the highest office within + the gift of the people of the state, but also one who had represented + California in the United States Senate made deliberately this declaration: + </p> + <p> + "If the wild spirit of fanaticism which now pervades the land should + destroy the magnificent confederacy—which God forbid—California + will not go with the south or north, but here on the shores of the + Pacific, found a mighty republic, which may in the end prove the greatest + of all." + </p> + <p> + These quotations which might be greatly extended are sufficient to prove + that a strong feeling existed in favor of a Pacific Republic standing + wholly aloof from the coming struggle. It is unthinkable that a Senator + and a Congressman, and especially the Governor of the State, should have + voiced such sentiments had there not been at least a probability that this + might be the course adopted in case the Union was broken up. + </p> + <p> + James G. Blaine, whose history of the time must be regarded as impartial + so far as California is concerned, makes this statement: + </p> + <p> + "Jefferson Davis expected, with confidence amounting to certainty, and + based, it is believed, on personal pledges, that the Pacific Coast, if it + did not actually join the South, would be disloyal to the Union." + </p> + <p> + This beyond reasonable doubt was the situation in the Spring of 1860: Our + immense State with its coast line of more than seven hundred miles, + sharply divided as between Southern and Northern California; the majority + of our people in Los Angeles and neighboring counties frankly favoring the + proposed confederacy of slave-holding states; many of the larger towns in + the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys of a similar mind; the political + leaders of the State almost solidly Democratic and the majority with + strong Southern leanings; many of our foremost men believing that the time + had come to launch the long dreamed of Pacific Republic, and our ranches + and mines containing a large population either hostile or indifferent to + the cause of Union and Liberty. Over against these varied forces a + probable patriotic majority scattered from one end of California to the + other, some belonging to the new Republican Party and some to the Douglas + Democracy, and many without party affiliation, unorganized, badly + scattered, and now that Broderick was dead and Colonel Baker away, without + competent leadership. If ever a situation called for a man who might at + once command the confidence of the people and arouse the latent patriotism + of our wide-spread population, a man who might do the work of years in a + few months' time, who might in his own persuasive personality become a + center of patriotism around which Union-loving men of all parties, and of + no party, could unite in defense of the imperilled country; one unfettered + by old antagonisms, or misled by personal ambition, a heaven-sent man + destined to a work no other could accomplish—this the situation + plainly demanded. + </p> + <p> + The record, impartially examined, shows, we believe beyond reasonable + doubt, that California's destiny in this critical hour was chiefly + determined by the word and work of her patriot-preacher, Starr King. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PART3" id="link2H_PART3"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Part III. California's Hour of Decision + </h2> + <p> + The period that determined California's attitude during the Civil War, + coincides almost exactly with the first year and a half of Starr King's + residence in the State. Less than a month after he had preached his first + sermon in San Francisco, Abraham Lincoln received the presidential + nomination at Chicago, and the great debate was on. + </p> + <p> + It should be remembered that King's reputation as a lecturer had preceded + him, and that he was hardly settled in his new home before he was flooded + with invitations to lecture here as he had done in the East. As soon as + possible, and as far as possible, he accepted these invitations regarding + them as calls to service in the interest of an enlightened patriotism. + Choosing as subjects such themes as "Washington," "Webster," "Lexington + and Concord," he made of them all a plea for a united country, one + glorious land from Maine to the Sierras. He seems to have perceived the + danger hidden in the perfectly natural ambition of leading men to take + advantage of the troubled time to launch the Pacific Republic, and thus + avoid all danger of the coming conflict between North and South. A free, + independent California, which should practically include the entire Coast,—surely + here was an inspiring and seductive dream. By a method peculiarly his own + he did not directly combat this fascinating idea, but rather sought to win + his hearers to the larger vision of an empire extending from ocean to + ocean, every mile of it dedicated to liberty and progress. + </p> + <p> + "What a privilege it is to be an American," he exclaims in a favorite + lecture, often repeated. + </p> + <p> + "Suppose that the continent could turn towards you tomorrow at sunrise, + and show to you the whole American area in the short hours of the sun's + advance from Eastport to the Pacific! You would see New England roll into + light from the green plumes of Aroostook to the silver stripe of the + Hudson; westward thence over the Empire State, and over the lakes, and + over the sweet valleys of Pennsylvania, and over the prairies, the morning + blush would run and would waken all the line of the Mississippi; from the + frosts where it rises, to the fervid waters in which it pours, for three + thousand miles it would be visible, fed by rivers that flow from every + mile of the Allegheny slope, and edged by the green embroideries of the + temperate and tropic zones; beyond this line another basin, too, the + Missouri, catching the morning, leads your eye along its western slope + till the Rocky Mountains burst upon the vision, and yet do not bar it; + across its passes we must follow, as the stubborn courage of American + pioneers has forced its way, till again the Sierra and their silver veins + are tinted along the mighty bulwark with the break of day; and then over + to the gold-fields of the western slope, and the fatness of the California + soil, and the beautiful valleys of Oregon, and the stately forests of + Washington, the eye is drawn, as the globe turns out of the night-shadow, + and when the Pacific waves are crested with radiance, you have the one + blending picture, nay, the reality, of the American domain! No such soil, + so varied by climate, by products, by mineral riches, by forest and lake, + by wild heights and buttresses, and by opulent plains,—yet all bound + into unity of configuration and bordered by both warm and icy seas,—no + such domain was ever given to one people." + </p> + <p> + In many communities and in varying phrase—always earnest and + eloquent—King returned to the central theme of all his thinking and + speaking, the greatness and glory of the Union,—"one and + indivisible." The following but illustrates the constant tenor of his + teaching: + </p> + <p> + "If all that the past has done for us and the present reveals could stand + apparent in one picture, and then if the promise of the future to the + children of our millions under our common law, and with continental peace, + could be caught in one vast spectral exhibition, the wealth in store, the + power, the privilege, the freedom, the learning, the expansive and varied + and mighty unity in fellowship, almost fulfilling the poet's dream of + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 'The Parliament of man, the federation of the world,' +</pre> + <p> + you would exclaim with exultation, 'I, too, am an American!' You would + feel that patriotism, next to your tie to the Divine Love, is the greatest + privilege of your life; and you would devote yourselves, out of + inspiration and joy, to the obligations of patriotism, that this land so + spread, so adorned, so colonized, so blessed, should be kept forever, + against all the assaults of traitors, one in polity, in spirit, and in + aim!" + </p> + <p> + In a way we may say that King found himself in these first months in + California. He was forced by the number of his engagements, as well as by + the more direct demands of a new country, to throw aside his manuscripts, + and, making such preparation as conditions would permit, launch boldly out + upon the dangerous sea of extempore speech. He was constantly addressing + audiences in whole, or in part, hostile. Writing to an Eastern friend of + his experiences in the Sacramento Valley, he says, "You see in glaring + capitals, 'Texas Saloon,' 'Mississippi Shoe Shop,' 'Alabama Emporium.' + Very rarely do you see any Northern state thus signalized." Men of + substance, natural leaders of the people, were in most communities either + for Breckenridge or Douglas. The man was grappling with the intellectual + soldiery of disunion. The same forces that had transformed Lincoln, the + Illinois politician into a national figure, the standard bearer of a great + party, were working upon King. And the same method which caused Horace + Greeley to write of Lincoln, "He is the greatest Convincer of his day" was + followed by the younger patriot, face to face as he was with incipient + disloyalty. He was accustomed, even as Lincoln, to state his opponent's + argument fully and fairly, and then without unnecessary severity, demolish + it. An old miner, listening to one of Starr King's patriotic speeches, + delighting in the intellectual dexterity displayed, exclaimed, "Boys, + watch him, he is taking every trick." The necessity of "taking every + trick," and this so far as possible without offence, quickened his powers + and led to the full development of his many sided eloquence. + </p> + <p> + How he was regarded during these early months when he had literally + plunged into the life of a community where nothing was as yet fixed, where + everything was in the making, where the most serious questions of duty and + destiny were stirring the hearts and consciences of men,—is made + clear to us by the testimony of contemporaries whose sole desire must have + been to render honor where honor was due. + </p> + <p> + The latest and most complete history of California based upon the most + trustworthy evidence extant gives cautious tribute to the Starr King of + this period as follows: + </p> + <p> + "The Republicans had lost their most effective orator since the campaign + of the preceding year, Colonel Baker, but his loss was in some degree + compensated for by the appearance of an unheralded but equally eloquent + speaker, Thomas Starr King, who arrived in April, 1860, and later toured + the state, giving lectures on patriotic subjects but always declared for + the Union and the Republican candidates as the surest guaranty of its + preservation." + </p> + <p> + Tuthill, in his history of the time writes with more warmth, and probably + more truth: + </p> + <p> + "There was a charm in King's delivery that few could resist. He was + received with applause where Republican orators, saying things no more + radical, could not be heard without hisses. Delicately feeling his way, + and never arousing the prejudices of his hearers, he adroitly educated his + audiences to a lofty style of patriotism. The effect was obvious in San + Francisco where audiences were accustomed to every style of address; it + was far more noticeable in the interior." + </p> + <p> + The celebrated critic and writer, Edwin Percey Whipple, made a careful + examination of King's record in California and sums up his impressions as + follows: + </p> + <p> + "As a patriotic Christian statesman he included the real elements of power + in the community, took the people out of hands of disloyal politicians, + lifted them up to the level of his own ardent soul, and not only saved the + state to the Union, but imprinted his own generous and magnanimous spirit + on its forming life." + </p> + <p> + Writing a little later and with even more enthusiasm, another authority, + speaking of King's charm of manner, says: + </p> + <p> + "I am persuaded that could he have gone through the Southern states, + shaking hands with secessionists, he would have won them back to their + allegiance by the mere magnetism of his touch." + </p> + <p> + It is, perhaps, impossible at this late date to estimate the effect of + Starr King's appeal to the voters of California in the presidential + election of 1860. As we have already noted, Lincoln carried the State by a + very narrow plurality, and we need not ascribe the swaying of many votes + to the eloquence of King's advocacy to make it appear that his influence + was marked in that memorable campaign. + </p> + <p> + But here must be emphasized a fact, quite often overlooked, and always to + the serious perversion of history. In California, as in every doubtful + state, the Hour of Decision did not precede, but in every instance, + followed the elevation of Lincoln to the presidency. It was upon this rock + that the nation split. Shall a Black Republican be permitted to sit in the + seat of Washington? Shall a man elected, as a matter of fact, by a + sectional minority rule over Virginia—mother of Presidents—over + imperial Texas, or the Golden West? To us the case seems clear. Abraham + Lincoln, who commanded 180 votes in the electoral college to 123 divided + among his opponents, was by our constitution President-elect of the United + States. To the men of that day the case was by no means settled. The + national bond was weak. The local, or state bond was strong. It was a time + of intense political passion. The irrepressible conflict which had clouded + the closing days of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster must now be decided, + either for, or against, the extension of human slavery; either for, or + against, a National Union. + </p> + <p> + Well meaning, but mistaken, writers have claimed that California was never + a doubtful state, that the great majority of her people were ever loyal to + the Northern cause, to Lincoln and Liberty. As a matter of sober truth let + it be here written that the attitude of no state north of Mason and + Dixon's Line gave Northern leaders so grave concern. Nor was the matter + once for all decided until the election of Leland Stanford in September, + 1861, as the first Republican Governor of California. During all the + Spring and Summer of that great year the battle waged with the issue, up + to the last hour, uncertain. These were the months that tried men's souls + in California, as in the Border States. Communities were divided. Party + ties severed. Families broken up. Old friendships sundered. All lesser + questions were lost sight of as Union, or Dis-union, became the all + absorbing theme. The battle of ideas, preceding the battle of bullets, was + on. + </p> + <p> + What was the state of public opinion in California? How runs the evidence? + </p> + <p> + In March, 1861, General E. V. Sumner was given command of United States + regulars on the Pacific Coast, replacing Albert Sidney Johnston, whose + well known attachment to the Southern cause led to his removal by the + Lincoln Administration. In General Sumner's reports to the War Department + in Washington we have impartial and official testimony as to conditions in + California during the period under consideration. Naturally he came first + in contact with the people about San Francisco Bay, a majority of whom + were loyal to the North, and consequently, Sumner's first reports were + encouraging. "There is a strong Union feeling," he writes, "with the + majority of the people of the state, but the Secessionists are much the + most active and zealous party." + </p> + <p> + A little later, better informed, he reported: "The Secessionist party in + this state numbers about 32,000 men and they are very restless and + zealous, which gives them great influence." Still later: "The disaffection + in the southern part of the state is increasing and is becoming dangerous, + and it is indispensably necessary to throw reinforcements into that + section immediately." + </p> + <p> + In this connection it should be remembered that when President Lincoln at + the outbreak of the war called for 75,000 men, California was expected to + furnish her quota of 6,000 soldiers, but so threatening was the local + situation that not a loyal man could be spared from the State. On the + contrary it was found necessary to retain in the State certain regiments + of the regular army badly needed elsewhere. In the summer of 1861, the War + Department proposed to transfer a portion of the regular army stationed in + California to Texas, where the situation demanded immediate succor for the + friends of the Union. How grave the situation had become in California may + easily be determined by a fact which seems to have escaped so far the + attention of historians. On August 28, 1861, the leading men of San + Francisco sent a communication to Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, + remonstrating against the withdrawal of United States troops from + California for the following reasons: + </p> + <p> + 1. "A majority of our present state officials are avowed secessionists, + and the balance being bitterly hostile to the administration are advocates + of a peace policy at any price." + </p> + <p> + 2. "About three-fifths of our citizens are natives of slave-holding states + and are almost a unit in this crisis." + </p> + <p> + 3. "Our advices, obtained with great prudence and care, show us that there + are about 16,000 Knights of the Golden Circle (a secret military + organization of secessionists, said by many authorities to have been much + stronger than was at the time believed) in the state, and they are still + organizing even in our most loyal districts." + </p> + <p> + 4. "Through misrepresentation the powerful native Mexican population has + been won over to the secession side." + </p> + <p> + This document, remarkable in itself, becomes weighty evidence, when it is + stated that after full and careful consideration, the petition was heeded + and the regulars remained on the Coast. + </p> + <p> + General Sumner held command nearly a year, until, as we are accustomed to + think, all danger of a disloyal California was over, yet as the date of + his departure for the Army of the Potomac drew near, he was very anxious + that Col. Wright, an able and loyal officer, should fill his place, and + wrote to the authorities in Washington, "Col. Wright ought to remain in + command. The safety of the whole coast may depend upon it." (italics + ours). + </p> + <p> + A few weeks after the death of Starr King, the Pacific Monthly, leading + magazine of the day, reviewed the situation at the beginning of the great + conflict, as it was then known and understood by all intelligent + Californians: + </p> + <p> + "On the breaking out of the rebellion, public opinion on this coast was + sorely distracted at the issues raised. The great majority of the people + were warmly attached to their Government; but they had drunk deep at the + fountains of Southern eloquence, and had been measurably debauched by the + dangerous teachings of the able men who had ruled the state from its + infancy. When we consider the critical condition of public sentiment at + that dark hour (1860-1861); how the public mind had been thrown off its + poise by the false teaching of a long succession of political charlatans; + how the insidious doctrine of separation and a Pacific Republic had been + hissed by serpents into the ears of the people; how the great dark cloud + of impending ruin hung over our central Government; how legions of armed + patricides were almost battering at the gates of our National Capital; how + rebellion had baptized itself in blood and victory at Bull Run—when + we think how the effect of all these adverse teachings and adverse + fortunes had rendered the public mind plastic to whoever had the genius to + seize and direct it, and reflect that a man of King's abilities, but + without his patriotism, might have grasped the opportunity to drift us + upon shoals and rocks and quicksands of treason, we cannot feel too + thankful that the man and the hour both arrived. His was a noble task, and + nobly did he fulfill it. What he did for California and the Union can + never be fully estimated,—the work he wrought in saving her to the + country, and engraving upon her heart, the golden word—'Union'." + </p> + <p> + Leaving aside for a little space this fervent tribute to King's work, the + quotation just given is evidence of a grave situation, of a state divided + in opinion, of just such an "hour of decision" as gives the strong man his + opportunity. There can be no doubt that the verdict of the Visalia Delta, + a loyal and well-known newspaper, as to conditions in its own community + would apply to every considerable town in the State: + </p> + <p> + "Treason against the Government and constitution is preached from the + pulpit, printed in the newspapers, and openly advocated in the streets and + public places." + </p> + <p> + A work just from the press, "California—Men and Events"—by Mr. + G. H. Tinkham, affords valuable testimony to the necessity and value of + King's mission as patriotic leader: + </p> + <p> + "At a time when some Union men were paralyzed with dread, and others + undecided which way to turn, Thomas Starr King traveled over the state + bolstering up the weak-hearted, and urging loyal men to stand firmly for + the Union. In his lectures, 'Washington,' 'Daniel Webster,' 'The Great + Uprising,' and 'The Rebellion in Heaven,' in unanswerable arguments and + matchless eloquence he kindled the patriotism of the people into a glowing + flame. It is conceded that no individual did more to keep California in + the Union than did Thomas Starr King." + </p> + <p> + How necessary it was that some one should "kindle the patriotism of the + people into a glowing flame" is further evident from the fact that the + California Legislature of 1861 numbered as its members 57 Douglas + Democrats, 33 Southern Democrats, and but 24 Republicans. What this + alignment signified may be judged from the following incident. Edmund + Randolph, (a former Virginian, and a man of fiery eloquence) on July 11, + 1861, delivered unrebuked in the State Democratic Convention at + Sacramento, this diatribe against Abraham Lincoln: "For God's sake speed + the ball, may the lead go quick to his heart—and may our country be + free from this despot usurper, that now claims to the name of President of + the United States." + </p> + <p> + A few days earlier, July 4, 1861, a Confederate flag waved undisturbed in + Los Angeles, as well as in other nearby towns, the Union men in that + section being largely in the minority. For a considerable time in the + United States Marshal's office in San Francisco, a Confederate flag waved + from a miniature man-of-war named "Jeff Davis." + </p> + <p> + In Merced County, Union men were in a sorry minority! A favorite campaign + song in that region was entitled, "We'll Drive the Bloody Tyrant Lincoln + From Our Dear Native Soil." A little later, the Equal Rights Expositer of + Visalia characterized President Lincoln as "a narrow minded bigot, an + unprincipled demagogue, and a drivelling, idiotic, imbecile creature." + </p> + <p> + Unpleasant testimony of this sort, demonstrating the presence and power of + a bitter spirit of disloyalty, running all through the State, but most in + evidence in certain localities peopled from the South, might be given at + great length. But enough. We have no wish to reproduce the evil passions + of an evil time further than to make it absolutely clear that a real + danger of disunion existed, and that friend and foe alike recognized that, + under God, the undaunted leader of Union sentiment in California was none + other than Starr King. + </p> + <p> + A prominent San Francisco paper, indulging in the partizan speech of the + period, calling all friends of the Administration at Washington, + "Abolitionists," gave ungracious testimony to King's standing and + influence as follows: + </p> + <p> + "The abolitionists are bent on carrying out their plans, and will not + hesitate to commit any act of despotism. If the constitution stands in + their way, they will, to use the words of their champion in this state, + Rev. T. Starr King, drive through the constitution." + </p> + <p> + "Their champion in this state." The opprobrium rested upon him then; let + the honor be his now. This in simple justice to the truth of history. + </p> + <p> + It is infinitely to be regretted that what men called "the irresistible + charm of his eloquence" cannot by any manner of speech be here portrayed. + If excuse is necessary let these words from King's lecture on "Webster" + plead for us: + </p> + <p> + "Alas for the perishableness of eloquence! It is the only thing in the + higher walks of human creativeness that passes away. The statue lives + after the sculptor dies, as sublime as when his chisel left it. St. + Peter's is a perpetual memorial and utterance of the great mind of Angelo. + The Iliad is as fresh today as twenty-five centuries ago. The picture may + grow richer with years. But great oratory, the most delightful and + marvelous of the expressions of mortal power, passes and dies with the + occasion." + </p> + <p> + Not wholly, for even in "cold type" some measure of the power and + persuasiveness of the orator's argument is suggested. It is easy to + imagine the force and fire of patriotism that must have glowed in such + words as these: + </p> + <p> + "Rebellion sins against the Mississippi; it sins against the coast line; + it sins against the ballot-box; it sins against oaths of allegiance; it + sins against public and beneficent peace; and it sins, worse than all, + against the cornerstone of American progress and history and hope,—the + worth of the laborer, the rights of man. It strikes for barbarism against + civilization." + </p> + <p> + The intense fervor of King's loyalty to Union and Liberty is seen in his + righteous indignation against an Oregonian who would not fight to save the + country unless he could be shown that his own personal interests were + involved. "For one wild moment," wrote King, "I longed to throttle the + wretch and push him into the Columbia. I looked down, however, and saw + that the water was clean." + </p> + <p> + Think of the force of the following declaration uttered to men who meant + well, but were undecided: + </p> + <p> + "The Rebellion—it is the cause of Wrong against Right. It is not + only an unjustifiable revolution, but a geographical wrong, a moral wrong, + a religious wrong, a war against the Constitution, against the New + Testament, against God." + </p> + <p> + Thus did he condemn all forces within the State at war with liberty and + right. Stern words he used,—words that like Luther's were half + battles. Of peace-at-any-price-men he said: + </p> + <p> + "The hounds on the track of Broderick turned peace men, and affected with + hysterics at the sniff of powder! Wonderful transformation. What a + pleasant sight—a hawk looking so innocent, and preaching peace to + doves, his talons loosely wound with cotton! A clump of wolves trying to + thicken their ravenous flanks with wool, for this occasion only, and + composing their fangs to the work of eating grass! Holy Satan, pray for + us." + </p> + <p> + When the report reached California that Robert Toombs had said, "I want it + carved over my grave,—'Here lies the man who destroyed the United + States Government and its Capitol,'" King replied, "Mr. Toombs cannot be + literally gratified. But he may come so near his wish as this,—that + it shall be written over his gallows, as over every one of a score of his + fellow-felons, 'Here swings the man who attempted murder on the largest + scale that was ever planned in history.'" + </p> + <p> + That our orator knew how to be sarcastic as well as severe must have been + plain to those who heard him exclaim: + </p> + <p> + "There are those who say that they are Union men, and in favor of the + Government, and yet they are bitterly opposed to the administration, and + cannot support its policy. But in a war for self existence, this divorce + is impossible. One might as well say at a fire, while his house is + beginning to crackle in the flames, 'I am in favor of this engine, I go + for this water; the hose meets my endorsement. Certainly, I am for putting + out the fire, but don't ask me to help man the brakes, for I am + conscientiously opposed to the hose pipe. Its nozzle isn't handsome. It + wasn't made by a Democrat.'" + </p> + <p> + How ardently King longed for the liberation of the Blacks is seen in the + following, addressed in all probability more to the President of the + United States than to the people: + </p> + <p> + "O that the President would soon speak that electric sentence,—inspiration + to the loyal North, doom to the traitorous aristocracy whose cup of guilt + is full! Let him say that it is a war of mass against class, of America + against feudalism, of the schoolmaster against the slave-master, of + workmen against the barons, of the ballot-box against the barracoon. This + is what the struggle means. Proclaim it so, and what a light breaks + through our leaden sky! The war-wave rolls then with the impetus and + weight of an idea." + </p> + <p> + Closing his greatest patriotic lecture, most in demand by the public along + the entire Coast, "Daniel Webster," Starr King quotes Webster's noble + peroration in the "Reply to Hayne," "Liberty and Union, Now and Forever, + One and Inseparable," and in lofty strain of patriotic prophecy announces + that: + </p> + <p> + "Mr. Webster's thought breaks out afresh in the proclamation of the + President that America is one and cannot be broken; it bursts forth in the + banners thick as the gorgeous leaves of the October forests that have + blossomed all over eighteen or twenty States; it shows itself in the + passion of the noble Union men of the South who will not bow to Baal; it + floats on every frigate that rides the sea to protect our shipping; it + leaps forth and brightens in the sacred steel which patriots by the + hundred thousand are dedicating, not to ravage, not to murder, not to + hatred of any portion of the southern section of the confederacy, but to + the support of the impartial Constitution, to the common flag, to the + majestic and beneficent law which offers to encircle and bless the whole + republic; it utters itself in the thunder-voice of twenty millions of + white citizens of the land, that in America the majority under the + Constitution must rule, and the public law must be obeyed. + </p> + <p> + "And when the work of the government shall be accomplished,—when the + stolen money of the nation shall be refunded; when hostile artillery shall + be with-drawn from the lower banks of the Mississippi; when the flag of + thirteen stripes and thirty-four stars shall float again over Sumter, over + New Orleans, over every arsenal that has seen it insulted, over Mount + Vernon and the American dust of Washington, over every State Capitol and + along the whole coast and border line of Texas; when every man within the + present limits of the immense republic shall have restored to him the + right of pride in the American Navy, and of representation on common terms + in the National Capitol, and of citizenship on the whole continent; when + leading traitors shall have been punished, and the Constitution vindicated + in its unsectional beneficence, and the doctrine of secession be stabbed + with two hundred thousand bayonet wounds, and trampled to rise no more,—then + the debate between Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster will be completed, the + swarthy spirit of the great defender of the Constitution will triumph, and + a restored, peaceful, majestic, irresistible America will dignify and + consecrate his name forever." + </p> + <p> + "A restored, peaceful, majestic, irresistible America,"—this was the + vision that nerved King to herculean labor, to a most real martyrdom. + Condemned to the slow suicide of over-work, he gave his life a conscious + offering to freedom. "What a year to live in," he writes, "worth all other + times ever known in our history or any other." Again,—"I should be + broken down if I had time to think how I feel. I am beginning to look old, + and shall break before my prime." + </p> + <p> + Why is the song so sweet, and why does it move us so strangely? The + singer's heart is breaking. Why is the word so effective? It is laden with + love and winged with sacrifice. A man is dying that others may live in + verity, not longer in shadow; a hero is suffering crucifixion that the sad + ages may a little change their course. Not only is it true that the "blood + of martyrs slain is the seed of the church," but it is also true that a + man never touches the heights of power until he has made a total, + irreversible, affectionate surrender to the cause he professes to serve. + When he has done this the cause becomes incarnate in the man; and he + speaks as one inspired. And this was the power of Starr King in that great + Summer and Fall of 1861 in California. Of course he did not speak in vain. + Leland Stanford, backed by a Union Legislature, was elected Governor of + California, and by October, King joyfully writing an Eastern friend was + able to say "the State is safe from southern tampering." + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PART4" id="link2H_PART4"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Part IV. Philanthropist and Preacher + </h2> + <p> + "As a philanthropist, Starr King raised for the most beneficent of all + charities the most munificent of all subscriptions." These words were + spoken at the King Memorial Service held in the city of Boston, April 3, + 1864. They call our attention to a unique service our Preacher-Patriot + rendered the cause he loved. + </p> + <p> + It seems almost beyond belief that the North rushed into the Civil War + wholly unprepared to care for the Nation's Defenders, either in health or + in sickness. Transportation facilities were of the poorest! Young men just + from the home, the farm and the college were crowded into cattle cars as + though they were beasts, frequently with no provision whatever for their + comfort. And rarely were proper arrangements made for their reception in + camp. The bewildered soldiers stood for hours under broiling southern sun, + waiting for rations and shelter, while ignorant officers were slowly + learning their unaccustomed duties. At night they were compelled to lie + wrapped in shoddy blankets upon rotten straw. Under such conditions these + brave volunteers suffered severely and camp diseases became alarmingly + prevalent. But the miserable makeshifts used as hospitals were so bad that + sick men fought for the privilege of dying in camp with their comrades + rather than undergo the privations, and sometimes the brutality of + inexperienced and careless attendants in the crowded and poorly equipped + quarters provided by the government. The largest hospital available + contained but forty beds, and not one afforded a trained, efficient, + medical staff. Competent nurses, sanitary kitchens, proper medicines, + means of humanely transporting the sick and wounded, all were wanting + during early months of the war. + </p> + <p> + This condition which the government did almost nothing to remedy led to + the organization of the United States Sanitary Commission. Strangely + enough the founder of this most necessary and timely organization, Rev. H. + W. Bellows, of New York, encountered the opposition of high officials who + deemed the whole plan quixotic. Even President Lincoln at first regarded + the Commission unnecessary and called it "a fifth wheel to the coach." + Brief experience, however, demonstrated that the government could not + provide all that was necessary for the soldier, either in sickness or in + health, and the Sanitary Commission became often the only hope of brave + men in dire distress. In fact, at this day, it is difficult to see how the + Northern cause would have triumphed at all but for the widespread and + wholly helpful activity of the army of Sanitary workers. + </p> + <p> + The greatest difficulty encountered by the leaders of this noble + philanthropy was to provide necessary funds. Again and again it seemed + that the work must stop because the heavily burdened people could give no + more. At sundry critical junctures California came to the rescue, and made + possible the continuance of this "most beneficent of all charities." But + at whose motion, and under whose influence? + </p> + <p> + Fitz Hugh Ludlow says, "Starr King was the Sanitary Commission of + California." This is but slight exaggeration, for King made it his + peculiar mission to raise money as rapidly as possible for the suffering + soldiers. In the interest of the Commission he traveled to every part of + the Coast, and in the face of the greatest obstacles became the principal + factor in raising $1,235,000, about one-fourth of the entire sum + contributed by the country at large. Under the most favorable + circumstances this would have been a phenomenal achievement, but when we + learn that in 1862 a flood destroyed over fifty million dollars' worth of + property in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys; that California + shipping to the extent of six and one-half millions was also destroyed; + that in 1863 a drought entirely ruined the wheat crop, and made hay so + scarce that it sold for sixty dollars a ton, resulting in a stagnation in + business which threw thousands of men out of employment, in view of these + multiplied disasters, we wonder by what fire of patriotism and by what + charm of eloquence, Starr King drew from the people so large a sum for use + on distant battle fields. Old Californians still remember those thrilling + appeals which few could resist. We are almost led to believe in the sober + truth of such extreme eulogy as we find in "Lights and Shadows of the + Pacific Coast," by S. D. Woods, a venerable San Franciscan, who vividly + recalls King's heroic service in that far off time: + </p> + <p> + "King's personality was magnetic and winning. Gentleness radiated from him + as light radiates from the sun. No one could resist the charm and + fascination of his presence. It is hard to make a pen picture of his face, + for there were lines too pure, lights too fleeting to be caught by words. + In the poise of his head there was nobility and power inexpressible. There + was in his face the serenity of one who had seen a vision, and to whom the + vision had become a benediction. At the time of his death he was the first + pulpit orator in America, and without doubt had no superior in the world." + </p> + <p> + This large praise might lead to incredulity were it not for the deliberate + judgment of Rev. Dr. H. W. Bellows, that as an orator "Beecher and Chapin + were his only competitors. He was the admirer and friend of both, and both + repaid his affection and his esteem. He had the superior charm of youth + and novelty, with a nature more varied, and more versatile faculties and + endowments than either. He had a far more artistic and formative nature + and genius. His thoughts ran into moulds of beauty." + </p> + <p> + The judgment of California as to Starr King's unequalled service to the + State and the Nation was officially rendered when upon the announcement of + his death, the Legislature adjourned for the space of three days after + resolving "that he had been a tower of strength to the cause of his + country." + </p> + <p> + Brilliant as was the record of King as the champion of the Sanitary + Commission in California it was by no means the beginning and end of his + philanthropic labors. The forlorn condition of the Chinese—as men + without rights of citizenship—stirred his sympathy and he made + earnest effort to secure for them such civic rights as belong to industry. + The cause of labor, seldom thought in those days to come within the scope + of a minister's interest or duty, commanded his eager attention, and he + improved every opportunity to declare his reverence for the world's + workers in earth, and stone, and iron. In a fine passage in a lecture on + "The Earth and the Mechanic Arts," he writes: + </p> + <p> + "If we were to choose from the whole planet a score of men to represent us + on some other globe or in some other system in a great human fair of the + universe, it would not be kings, dukes, prime-ministers, the richest men, + we should appoint as ambassadors to show what our race is, and what it is + doing here, but the great thinkers, artists, and workers, the thinkers in + ink, the thinkers in stone and color, the thinkers in force and homely + matter, the men who are bringing the globe up towards the Creator's + imagination and purpose; and on this mission the leaders of mechanic art + would go side by side with Shakespeare and Milton, Angelo and Wren, Newton + and Cuvier. + </p> + <p> + "In England, now, they are preparing statues of Brunel the engineer, and + the Stephensons, father and son, to be finished and erected about the same + time with those of Macaulay and Havelock. The nation is beginning to bow + to the occupations and the genius that have added to her power ten + thousand fold,—is beginning to bow to labor, noble, glorious, sacred + labor." + </p> + <p> + Not alone in public pleas for unpopular causes but in private charity King + seemed tireless. "He had the rare facility in everything he said and did + of communicating himself; the most precious thing he could bestow." We are + told that a multitude in distress came to this overburdened man. Ringing + his doorbell they found entrance, and always as they came back, the "step + was quicker which was slow before, the head was up which was down before, + and the lips wreathed in smiles that were sad before." + </p> + <p> + Thus we can see that it was not solely his eloquent defense of liberty and + justice which caused a San Francisco journal, reporting his funeral, to + say, "Perhaps more deeply beloved by a vast number of our people than any + other who has lived and toiled and died among us." His good deeds made him + worthy of this, one of the most beautiful eulogies ever given mortal man, + "No heart ever ached because of him until he died." This was Starr King + the philanthropist, a friend to all who needed his friendship. + </p> + <p> + It would almost appear that in telling the story of "Starr King in + California" we were altogether forgetting that he did not come to the + State to influence its political action, or even to alleviate poverty and + distress. He came as a preacher of Liberal Christianity, and to build up + the church that had honored him with a call to its pulpit. Long before he + left Boston it was written concerning him, "That he loved his calling, and + that it was his ambition to pay the debt which every able man is said to + owe to his profession, namely to contribute some work of permanent value + to its literature." At that early period a discriminating critic bears + testimony, "that his piety, pure, deep, tender, serene and warm, took hold + of positive principles of light and beneficence, not the negative ones of + darkness and depravity, and—himself a child of light—he + preached the religion of spiritual joy." + </p> + <p> + It was King's first and chief ambition to be an effective preacher. In a + letter, written in 1855, he says, "How we do need good preaching. Would + that I could preach extempore." A wish that six years later "came true" in + his San Francisco pulpit. In the inspiring atmosphere of his new field, + and under the stress of a great era, King cast his manuscript aside, and + though he made careful preparation, as every man must who speaks worthily, + he never again submitted to the bondage of the "written sermon." To a man + of King's gifts and temperament this was an immense gain. Indeed, + Bostonian Californians were a unit in declaring that Easterners could have + no conception of the man and orator Starr King became in those last great + years of his brief life. + </p> + <p> + Speedily the little church in which he preached proved too small for the + throng of eager listeners who gathered to hear him, and on the 3d day of + December, 1862, the corner stone of a larger and more beautiful edifice + was laid. + </p> + <p> + We shall find it no easy matter to analyze the sources of his power and + popularity. Often-times success and failure are equal mysteries. Doubtless + no small part of his triumph arose from the peculiar character of the new + society to which he brought talents that commanded instant attention. The + eager temper of the time fitted his sincere and earnest spirit. It was a + perfect adjustment of the man and the hour, the workman and his task. + </p> + <p> + No small part of his popularity arose from the fact that he insisted upon + his right and duty as a minister to discuss great questions of state in + the pulpit. The vicious gulf churchmen discover between the sacred and the + secular was hidden from his eyes. All that affected the humblest of his + fellow men appealed to him as part and parcel of the 'gospel of + righteousness he was commissioned to preach. In the old Boston days he had + discussed freely in the pulpit such themes as the "Free Soil Movement," + "The Fugitive Slave Law," and "The Dred Scott Decision." Burning questions + these, and they were handled with no fear of man to daunt the severity of + his condemnation when he declared that in the Dred Scott Decision the + majority of the Supreme Court had betrayed justice for a political + purpose. It was not likely that such a man would remain silent in the + pulpit upon the so-called "war issues" of 1861. Early in that memorable + year he boldly informed his people as to the course he intended to pursue + so long as the war lasted. He would not equivocate and he would not be + silent. Henceforth stirring patriotic sermons, as the demand for them + arose, were the order of the day in the congregation to which he + ministered. The character of these discourses may be partly determined + from such titles as, "The Choice between Barabbas and Jesus," "The Treason + of Judas Iscariot," "Secession in Palestine," and "Rebellion Pictures from + Paradise Lost." "After the lapse of more than sixty years," so the Hon. + Horace Davis assured the writer, "I can distinctly remember the fire and + passion of those terrible indictments of treason and rebellion." + </p> + <p> + "Terrible indictments" truly, and in the storm and tempest of the time + irresistibly attractive to men and women whose sympathies were on fire for + the Northern cause. King's patriotism won for him a liberal hearing on + subjects that otherwise the people would have declined to consider. + </p> + <p> + But we must not forget that "our preacher" was endowed with that rare and + radiant gift, an altogether charming and persuasive personality. + Appearance, manner, voice, were all instruments of attractiveness, fitting + modes of expression to a gentle and noble spirit. When a friend and + comrade of King's earlier ministry was asked to name the preacher's + preeminent gift, he immediately answered, "his voice." The reply seems + trivial. Yet it was seriously spoken by one whose knowledge of King during + his Boston ministry was close and personal. William Everett, who had + listened to New England's renowned orators, to Emerson's sweet and + satisfying voice, and to the music of Wendell Phillip's speech, said of + King, "His was one of the noblest and sweetest voices I ever heard." + Edward Everett Hale once wrote, "Starr King was an orator, whom no one + could silence and no one could answer." Says another, "There was argument + in his very voice. It thrilled and throbbed through an audience like an + organ carrying conviction captive before its wonderful melody." If it is + true that William Pitt once ruled the British Nation by his voice, as good + authority affirms, if it is true, that Daniel O'Connell's voice + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Glided easy as a bird may glide, + And played with each wild passion as it went, +</pre> + <p> + may it not also be true that Starr King's clear, penetrating, musical + voice, answering to the moods of the soul as a loved instrument to the + hand of the player, was in itself a kind of gospel of good will to men? + </p> + <p> + Horace Davis, Starr King's son-in-law, was accustomed to insist that + writers had wholly failed to note one element of the great orator's power, + namely, his humor. Not wit, Mr. Davis would remark, but a most genial and + kindly, and at the same time illuminating humor. A careful examination of + King's published sermons, speeches and lectures gives but slight evidence + of this gift, owing doubtless to false ideas of what constitutes decorum + in the work of a preacher. Occasionally satisfying evidence is found of + the truth of Mr. Davis' judgment, as in the following: + </p> + <p> + "On many a tombstone where it is written, 'Here lies so and so, aged + seventy years', the true inscription would read 'In memory of one who in + seventy years lived about five minutes and that was when he first fell in + love.'" + </p> + <p> + Writing of his lecture work in California which he called "detestable + vagrancy," he says: + </p> + <p> + "There is a great flood in the interior. California is a lake. Rats, + squirrels, locusts, lecturers, and other like pests are drowned out. I am + a home bird, and enjoy it hugely." + </p> + <p> + King greeted the mention of his name as candidate for United States + Senator with the statement, "I would swim to Australia before taking a + political post," and added, "a dandy lives from one necktie to another, a + fashionable woman from one wrinkle to another and a politician from one + election to another." + </p> + <p> + Certainly there is a smile, as well as a truth, in the following: + </p> + <p> + "Our popular definition of a ghost is just the reverse of truth; it makes + one consist of a soul without a body, while really a specter, an illusion, + a humbug of the eyesight and the touch, is a human body not vitalized + through and through with a soul." + </p> + <p> + "King was the best story teller of his time," thought Dr. Bellows. "Gifted + with an exquisite, a delicious sense of the ludicrous, and given to bursts + of uncontrollable merriment, happy as childhood and as innocent," this is + the verdict of one of his earliest biographers,—E. P. Whipple. That + sunny mirth and infectious laughter was no mean element of his power over + the people, we can readily believe. + </p> + <p> + Another explanation of his far reaching influence both in the pulpit and + on the platform, is found in the rare skill with which he made the + discoveries of science, and the beauties of nature, serve his need as a + teacher of morals and religion. And here, again, he was helped by the + spirit of his age. Darwin's "Origin of Species" was published in 1859, a + kind of crown and culmination of a half century of brilliant progress in + science. Starr King but shared the temper of his time as he turned with + delight to the writings of the masters and reveled in the new universe + there revealed. Modern science, which troubled the faith of many, only + deepened and strengthened his own, as he idealized and spiritualized each + new wonder of earth and heaven. The comet of July, 1861, gave noble + opportunity to enforce in his pulpit the religious lessons of that mother + of all the sciences, Astronomy. "I am glad," he began, "at every new + temptation to consider in the pulpit and the Church the wonders and laws + of modern astronomy." + </p> + <p> + "Does it ever occur to you, brethren, how we waste truth? Have you ever + felt what a sad thing it is that so little of the vast accumulation of + inspiring knowledge should reach our deepest, our religious sentiments, to + kindle and feed them? The most certain knowledge which men now hold is + that which is gathered from the sky. Astronomy, dealing with objects + thousands of millions of miles away, and with forces that rule through + limitless space, is the most symmetrical and firm of all the structures of + science which have been reared by the human mind. Immeasurably more than + David could have known, the heavens, as Herschel reads them, declare the + glory of God. Yet how seldom do we think of the splendors and harmonies + which a modern book of astronomy unveils as part of God's appeal to our + wonder; how seldom does the solemn light from the uppermost regions of + immensity, the light of nebulae which science has broken up into heaps of + suns, converge upon a human soul with power enough to stimulate devout awe + and make the heart bend before the Creator of the universe." + </p> + <p> + A few days at Lake Tahoe, when not a hundred white men had visited its + shores, inspired a sermon long remembered by those who heard it, and + today, after numerous nature-sermons by the world's most gifted preachers, + this discourse remains an almost perfect example of what such a sermon + should be. The following single excerpt must suffice to suggest its + beauty: + </p> + <p> + "I must speak of another lesson, connected with religion, that was + suggested to me on the borders of Lake Tahoe. It is bordered by groves of + noble pines. Two of the days which I was permitted to enjoy there were + Sundays. On one of them I passed several hours of the afternoon in + listening, alone, to the murmur of the pines, while the waves were gently + beating the shore with their restlessness. If the beauty and purity of the + lake were in harmony with the deepest religion of the Bible, certainly the + voice of the pines was also in chord with it. + </p> + <p> + "The oracles of Greece are connected with the oak. And the lightness, the + gaiety, the wit, the suppleness, of the Greek mind find in the voice of + the oak their fit representatives; for the oak, though so stubborn and + sinewy in its substances, is cheery and gay in its tone when the wind + strikes it. But the evergreen trees, though so much softer in their stock, + are far deeper and more serious in their music; and the evergreen is the + Hebrew tree. The Cedar of Lebanon is the tree most prominent when we think + of Palestine and the clothing of its hills. As I lay and listened to the + deep, serious, yet soft and welcome sound of those pines by the lake + shore, I thought of the inspiration of old which had wakened such lasting + and wonderful music from the great souls of Israel. When we want knowledge + or the quickening of intellect, we enter the groves of Greece; when we + would find quickening, when we would feel the deeps of the soul appealed + to, we enter the deeper and more sombre woods of Palestine. The voice of + the pine helps us to interpret the Hebrew genius. Its range of expression + is not so great as that of the oak or the elm or the willow or the beech, + but how much richer it is and more welcome in its monotony! How much more + profoundly our souls echo it! How much more deeply does it seem to be in + harmony with the spirit of the air! What grandeur, what tenderness, what + pathos, what heart-searchingness in the swells and cadences of its + 'Andante Maestoso,' when the wind wrestles with it and brings out all its + soul." + </p> + <p> + To the graces and gifts we have mentioned it is but necessary to add that + King's gospel of religion was in itself a veritable glad tidings to the + people. Not a mere deliverance of doubt, or morality veneered with icy + culture, but faith clear, strong and radiantly beautiful. His thought of + God, of Man, of Immortality, was full of comfort and inspiration. "God is + the infinite Christ," he was wont to say. "Jesus revealed under human + limitations the mercy and love of the Father." + </p> + <p> + King rivalled Theodore Parker in the strength and tenderness of his faith + that "man is the child of God." Saint and sinner, master and slave, + learned and ignorant, rich and poor, all are children of the Infinite God,—born + of His love ere the world was, certain of His love when the world shall + have passed away. He felt that if this is not true, there is not enough + left of religion to so much as interest an earnest soul. Religion is + everything,—the sun in the heavens,—or it is a star too + distant, faint and cold, to cast upon our path a single ray of light. + </p> + <p> + And the unseen world! How very real it was to this man of faith and + prayer. The immortal life is the life. These earthly years but lead us + thither. Such was his faith. In excess of world-wisdom we say, "Eternity + is here and now." Well and good. But if we lose for a kind of technicality + the dear old trust in a higher and nobler life beyond the swift-coming + night of death, what have we gained? Said our beloved preacher, our "Saint + of the Pacific Coast," as he lay dying, "I see a great future before me." + Without that vision he would not have been Starr King. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_PART5" id="link2H_PART5"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Part V. In Retrospect + </h2> + <p> + Above that of all other men the fame of the orator is transient. Eloquence + may be "logic on fire" as Dr. Lyman Beecher defined it. Oratory may be, as + Emerson said, "the noblest expression of purely personal energy." But it + is so far personal, so allied to grace of gesture, to charm of manner, to + melody of voice, to perfection of speech, to a commanding presence, that + it carries to the future but a fraction of its power. The cold type and + the insentiate page constitute at best only the record of nature's rarest + gift. + </p> + <p> + Moreover oratory today is at its ebb, as it has been a hundred times + before, and with us the man of eloquence passes to quick oblivion. It + would be futile to deny that the common fate of orators has overtaken + Starr King. Even in California the present generation knows painfully + little of his great services to the State. This is the first serious + attempt, let us hope it will not be the last, accurately to measure the + extent and value of that service so nobly rendered. It is gratifying, + however, to recall that Californians of his own time, and the years + immediately following, paid ample tribute to his work and his memory. + Extraordinary honors, such as never have been given to any private + citizen, were freely and lovingly accorded the patriot-preacher. + </p> + <p> + On the evening of March 4, 1864, the day of King's death, the San + Francisco Bulletin, then, as now, one of the leading papers of the city, + contained the following tribute: + </p> + <p> + "The announcement of the death of Rev. Thomas Starr King startles the + community, and shocks it like the loss of a great battle or tidings of a + sudden and undreamed of public calamity. Certainly no other man on the + Pacific Coast would be missed so much. San Francisco has lost one of her + chief attractions; the State, its noblest orator; the country one of her + ablest defenders." + </p> + <p> + Scarcely forty years of age, a Californian only from 1860 to 1864, he had + in this brief period so won the hearts of men that in honor of his funeral + the legislature and all the courts adjourned, the national authorities + fired minute guns in the bay, while all the flags in the city and on the + ships hung at half-mast, including those of the foreign consuls and those + on the vessels of England, Russia, Hamburg, Columbia and France. It is + believed that in American history no private individual has been so + honored by the federal army and by foreign nations. + </p> + <p> + That Starr King's tomb might serve as a daily reminder to the people of + his unique devotion to Union and Liberty, a city ordinance forbidding + burials within certain districts of the city was set aside, and to this + day his grave can be seen close to one of San Francisco's busy + thoroughfares. Nor is this all. One of the giant trees of the Mariposa + bears his name and a proud dome of the Yosemite is called Starr King. On + the 27th of October, 1892, a beautiful and impressive monument was + dedicated in Golden Gate Park to his memory. Its base bears the + inscription: + </p> + <p> + "In him eloquence, strength and virtue were devoted with fearless courage + to truth, country and his fellow-men." + </p> + <p> + The dedication address was given by the Hon. Irving M. Scott, a leading + business man of San Francisco. Speaking with the care and sobriety the + occasion demanded, Mr. Scott made the following statement, which the + writer believes will also be the sober verdict of history: + </p> + <p> + "We do not say that Starr King determined for California the course which + she pursued; but we do say that he was the most potent factor in effecting + that determination." + </p> + <p> + "The most potent factor in effecting that determination," to establish + this beyond the possibility of cavil or denial, we have told here once + again his inspiring story. The fact that as late as 1913, the Legislature + of California appropriated $10,000 to place a bust of Starr King in our + National Capitol at Washington would seem to indicate that the people have + resolved that this man shall go down to latest generations as par + excellence,—"our hero." + </p> + <p> + It would be natural, and entirely proper, to close by recounting the + numerous tributes that in the years since King's death have been paid to + his memory, in magazines, memoirs, speeches and poems, but it would seem + like sweetness too long drawn out. And, perhaps, few could resist the + feeling that no human being ever really deserved such "largeness of love." + But they seem so real, they ring so true, that the conviction grows almost + to a certainty that here was one who drew men to him by the incarnate + sweetness and nobility of his nature. "Doubtless," writes his friend, and + co-worker in the Sanitary Commission, Dr. Henry W. Bellows, "he had his + own consciousness of imperfection and sin—for he was human, but I + have yet to know and yet to hear the first suggestion of what his faults + and errors were." + </p> + <p> + In no spirit of fulsome adulation did a prominent San Franciscan write, on + the Sunday following King's departure to "what lies beyond," these tender + words, "Bells sadly ringing this Sabbath morning remind me that one pulpit + stands empty; and that it must stand empty, to all intents and purposes, + until the church walls crumble, and pulpit, pillars, and all are resolved + into dust." + </p> + <p> + Another prominent resident of the State, writing a half century later,—seeing + all after the sobering lapse of years, writing as though the cloud of + sorrow for his friend had never been lifted, thus pays his sincere tribute + of respect: + </p> + <p> + "And so, in the prime of life, at the zenith of his achievement, before + its noon, this sweet, great soul passed away, leaving to those who loved + him, dust and anguish. Well do we remember that almost at his death a + minor earthquake shook the city, and men said, 'Even the earth shudders at + the thought that Starr King is dead.'" + </p> + <p> + Of the many poetical tributes, two at least, are of permanent + significance. One by his friend Bret Harte, dear companion of those great + years in San Francisco, on "A Pen of Thomas Starr King," is at once so + penetrating and so just that it well deserves here a place: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "This is the reed the dead musician dropped, + With tuneful magic in its sheath still hidden; + The prompt allegro of its music stopped, + Its melodies unbidden. + + But who shall finish the unfinished strain, + Or wake the instrument to awe and wonder, + And bid the slender barrel breathe again, + An organ-pipe of thunder! + + His pen! what humbler memories cling about + Its golden curves! what shapes and laughing graces + Slipped from its point, when his full heart went out + In smiles and courtly phrases. + + The truth, half jesting, half in earnest flung; + The word of cheer, with recognition in it; + The note of alms, whose golden speech outrung + The golden gift within it. + + But all in vain the enchanter's wand we wave: + No stroke of ours recalls his magic vision: + The incantation that its power gave + Sleeps with the dead magician." +</pre> + <p> + Could Starr King have been given the privilege of selecting his + poet-laureate we may be sure he would have named Whittier. For they were + both lovers of nature and of man. Both earnest abolitionists, intensely + patriotic, loving liberty and the rights of the humblest of God's + creatures, they were kindred spirits. So Whittier wrote not alone for New + England, not alone for East and West, but from the deeps of his own loyal + and gentle soul, as he penned, these beautiful lines: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + "The great work laid upon his two-score years + It's done, and well done. If we drop our tears, + Who loved him as few men were ever loved, + We mourn no blighted hope nor broken plan + With him whose life stands rounded and approved + In the full growth and stature of a man. + Mingle, O bells, along the Western slope, + With your deep toll a sound of faith and hope! + Wave cheerily still, O banner, halfway down, + From thousand-masted bay and steepled town! + Let the strong organ with its loftiest swell + Lift the proud sorrow of the land, and tell + That the brave sower saw his ripened grain. + O East and West! O morn and sunset twain + No more forever!—has he lived in vain + Who, priest of Freedom, made ye one and told + Your bridal service from his lips of gold." +</pre> + <p> + Whittier refuses to believe that King's life, though he lived but "two + score years" was a "broken plan." All who believe that life is of divine + ordering, our days, our duty, our destiny to the last hour will, with + resignation, accept this teaching of faith. To others it will seem in the + nature of an irreparable loss that one so good, and so greatly useful, + should have died so young. + </p> + <p> + And though he met death with a smile, and said, "Tell my friends that I + went lovingly, trustfully, peacefully," yet it is true that he was cut off + in the midst of noble dreams of service he would still render humanity. + Some one has said that "aspiration, not achievement, is the measure of + human worth." If this be true, or partly true, we may not pass in silence + the unfulfilled ambitions of Starr King. + </p> + <p> + His first great dream looked toward a career in Boston. He would found a + lectureship, somewhat like, yet most unlike, that afterward conducted by + Joseph Cook. How grandly he would have interpreted from such a platform + the spiritual significance of modern science is made evident in those + great lectures, "Substance and Show," "Laws of Disorder," and in those + memorable sermons dealing with natural phenomena. All the progress of more + than half a century has not rendered them obsolete. They can still be read + with pleasure and profit. + </p> + <p> + King also planned, when leisure should be afforded him, a work in + philosophy. Something of permanent value to all thinkers and students. One + needs but to read King's lecture on "Socrates" to understand how rich and + valuable such a work would have been. Indeed, here are paragraphs that + could have been written only by one of philosophic mood and habit of mind. + How much of modern "New Thought Philosophy" is expressed in the following: + </p> + <p> + "Few acknowledge that thoughts are as substantial as things, that a + feeling is as real as a paving stone, that the soul is a congeries of + actual forces as truly as the body is, that a moral principle is as + persistent and fatal a thing as a chemical agent, and that, in the deeps + of the mind and of society, laws are at work as constant and stern as + those which spin the planets and heave the sea and poise the firmaments." + </p> + <p> + Accepting as the ground work of his philosophy such principles as these + King tells us that "Socrates came to the conclusion that the stone which + his chisel chipped was less substantial than the soul in every human form: + and that the beauty which his cunning carved into the block was less + charming and permanent than the beauty of truth, temperance, and holiness, + which faith and culture could leave upon the invisible essence of man. He + therefore resolved to abandon the lower for the higher art of Sculpture, + and instead of being an artist in marble to be a fashioner of men." + </p> + <p> + King's aptness for historical and philosophical generalization is quite + evident as we read: + </p> + <p> + "Socrates was the father of a new method of study. His thoughts were the + seed corn of systems. His pupils were the teachers of centuries. Each bump + of his brain was the nucleus of a philosophical school. Hardly had he left + the world, than the strong and simple light he shed was scattered in + various hues by the prismatic minds that had surrounded him or that + succeeded him; and in almost every case,—as so often happens when + the strands of the solar beam are brilliantly dishevelled,—the + actinic ray was lost." + </p> + <p> + In all our reading we have never met a description of the Grecian + philosopher so complete and accurate as one brief phrase in the lecture + from which these excerpts are taken, "Socrates, the slouchy ambassador of + reason." Or what could be truer of Socrates and Plato than to say that + "Arm in arm, the stately duke and the democrat of philosophy walk down the + lists of fame?" + </p> + <p> + Read and re-read the closing paragraph of King's "Socrates" impresses the + thoughtful mind more and more by its depth and beauty, and we ask,—what + might not this man in his full maturity and in scholarly leisure have + contributed to enrich the philosophy of our time? + </p> + <p> + "Down the River of Life, by its Athenian banks, he had floated upon his + raft of reason serene, in cloudy as in smiling weather, for seventy years. + And now the night is rushing down, and he has reached the mouth of the + stream, and the great ocean is before him, dim heaving in the dusk. But he + betrays no fear. There is land ahead, he thought; eternal continents there + are, that rise in constant light beyond the gloom. He trusted still in the + raft his soul had built, and with a brave farewell to the few true friends + who stood by him on the shore he put out into the darkness, a moral + Columbus, trusting in his haven on the faith of an idea." + </p> + <p> + It was an open secret among King's friends in California that he meditated + writing of the Yosemite as he had written of the White Hills of New + Hampshire. Had he done so that region of incomparable beauty would have + been known to the people of our country at least twenty years earlier. + What a volume it would have been, "The Beauty and Glory of the Yosemite" + by Starr King! What a vision he would have given us of that mighty gorge; + of the crystal clearness of Mirror Lake; of the majesty of Cathedral Rock, + of Sentinel Dome, or El Capitan; of the bright waterfalls, Vernal and the + Bridal Veil; or in exquisite artistry of word painting how he would have + pictured for us the wonderful coloring of the Yosemite, the morning tints + of gray, the perfect white of noon shading into blue, the afternoon tinge + of silver and gold, the sunset's gauze of crimson, and then the varying + shades of approaching night. But our artist never lived to paint the + picture for us, and are we not the poorer? Is there any such thing in this + sad world as superfluous genius? Let our philosophers answer. At all + events these were the noble and the unfulfilled ambitions of Starr King. + </p> + <p> + It would seem that of American statesmen Mr. King most admired Daniel + Webster. He never shared the feeling of his fellow abolitionists that + Webster's well-known longing to be President had caused him to be false to + liberty, but rather that the great "Defender of the Constitution" + endeavored to preserve the Union for the sake of liberty. As we have + already noted, when the Civil War broke out King found in the service + Webster had rendered the Nation some of his strongest arguments for the + Northern Cause. He was quite ready to accept the judgment of the English + publicist that "Webster was not only the greatest man of his age,—he + was the greatest man of any age." No doubt he had followed every stage of + that momentous career to the very end. All thoughtful Americans went into + retirement with Daniel Webster, and in his last sickness watched in a kind + of reverent awe as his life ebbed away. From the solemn death chamber in + Marshfield, his home by the stormy Atlantic, came tidings of the great + statesman's last moments, in which he repeated, again and again, the Lord's + Prayer and the Twenty-third Psalm. Loving friends bore tearful witness to + the pathos and heavenly beauty of the old words as they fell from the + trembling lips of the dying man, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of + the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod + and Thy staff they comfort me." + </p> + <p> + If it be a coincidence, it is one of striking appropriateness that when + the last hour came to our foremost "Defender of the Constitution and the + Union," that with unclouded mind, here by the Pacific Sea, he, too, should + have passed to his rest, even as the older patriot, whispering with + untroubled faith, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Yea, though + I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." "I + will fear no evil," these were his last words, and it is good to read that + having so spoken, without a struggle or a pang, he entered upon his + exceeding great reward. His work on earth was done, and well done. + </p> + <p> + Here ends Starr King in California, as written by Reverend William Day + Simonds, Published in book form by Paul Elder and Company, and seen + through their Tomoye Press by Ricardo J. Orozco in the city of San + Francisco, during the month of April, Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Starr King in California, by William Day Simonds + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STARR KING IN CALIFORNIA *** + +***** This file should be named 4641-h.htm or 4641-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/6/4/4641/ + +Produced by David Schwan, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Starr King in California + +Author: William Day Simonds + +Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4641] +Posting Date: January 28, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STARR KING IN CALIFORNIA *** + + + + +Produced by David Schwan + + + + + +STARR KING IN CALIFORNIA + + +By William Day Simonds + +Author of + + "The Christ of the Human Heart" + "Patriotic Addresses" + "Sermons From Shakespeare" + + + +Dedicated to the Memory of Honorable Horace Davis of San Francisco as +the only Tribute of Respect Now Possible to one whose Friendly Interest +and Assistance the Author Here Gratefully Acknowledges + + +Up to the time of Starr King's death it was generally believed that he, +more than any other man, had prevented California and the whole Pacific +Coast from falling into the gulf of disunion. It is certain that Abraham +Lincoln held this opinion + +Edwin Percy Whipple + + + +Contents + + Introduction + + Part I + In Old New England + + Part II + California in 1860 + + Part III + California's Hour of Decision + + Part IV + Philanthropist and Preacher + + Part V + In Retrospect + + + + Illustrations + + Starr King Monument + + Portrait of Starr King + + + + + +Introduction + + +This book is the result of the author's strong desire to know the +truth relative to a critical period in the history of California, and +a further strong desire to deal justly by the memory of a man recent +historians have been pleased to pass by with slight acknowledgment. + +What was the nature and measure of Starr King's influence on the Pacific +Coast during the Civil War? To be able to answer that question has cost +more time and study than the reader could be brought to believe. It +has necessitated a thorough examination of all published histories of +California, of numerous biographies, of old newspapers, memoirs, letters +and musty documents. It has involved interviews with prominent persons +as well as a careful study of earlier writings upon Starr King in books +and magazines. Best of all it has compelled the writer to the delightful +task of renewing his acquaintance with the published sermons and +lectures of the patriot-preacher. + +It is believed that no important data has been overlooked, and it +is hoped that a genuine service has been rendered to all students of +California History, and to all lovers of Starr King--he who was called +by his own generation, "The Saint of the Pacific Coast." + + + + +Part I. In Old New England + + +When Starr King entered the Golden Gate, April 28, 1860, he had passed +by a few months his thirty-fifth birthday. A young man in the morning of +his power he felt strangely old, for he wrote to a friend just a little +later: "I have passed meridian. It is after twelve o'clock in the large +day of my mortal life. I am no longer a young man. It is now afternoon +with me, and the shadows turn toward the east." + +There was abundant reason for this premature feeling of age. Even at +thirty-five King had been a long time among the most earnest of +workers. Born in New York City, December 17, 1824, of English and German +ancestry, son of a Universalist Minister who was compelled to struggle +along on a very meager salary, the lad felt very early in life labor's +stern discipline. At fifteen he was obliged to leave school that by +daily toil he might help to support his now widowed mother and five +younger brothers and sisters. Brief as was his record in school, we note +the following prophetic facts: he displayed singular aptitude for study, +he was conscientious yet vivacious, he was by nature adverse to anything +rude or coarse. Joshua Bates, King's last teacher, describes the lad +as "slight of build, golden haired, with a homely face which everybody +thought handsome on account of the beaming eyes, the winning smile and +the earnest desire of always wanting to do what was best and right." + +This is our earliest testimony to the lovable character of the man whose +life-story we are now considering. It will impress us more and more as +East and West, Boston and San Francisco, in varying phrase tell again +and again, of "the beaming eyes, the winning smile, and the earnest +desire of always wanting to do what was just and right." + +A bread-winner at fifteen, and for a large family, surely this is +the end of all dreams of scholarship or of professional service. That +depends on the man--and the conditions that surround him. Happily +King's mother was a woman of good mind who knew and loved the best in +literature. Ambitious for her gifted son, she read with him, and +for him, certain of the masters whom to know well is to possess the +foundations of true culture. It is a pretty scene and suggestive--the +lad and his mother, reading together "till the wee small hours" +Plutarch, Grote's History of Greece, Bullfinch's Mythology, Dante and +the plays of William Shakespeare. Fortunately his mother was not his +only helper. Near at hand was Theodore Parker who was said to possess +the best private library in Boston, and whose passion for aiding young +men was well known. He befriended King as he befriended others, and +early discovered in the widow's son superior talents. In those days very +young men used to preach. Before he had reached his majority, King was +often sent to fill engagements under direction and at the suggestion of +Parker. The high esteem of the elder for the younger man is attested by +the following letter to an important church not far from Boston. + +"I cannot come to preach for you as I would like, but with your kind +permission I will send Thomas Starr King. This young man is not a +regularly ordained preacher, but he has the grace of God in his heart, +and the gift of tongues. He is a rare sweet spirit and I know that after +you have met with him you will thank me for sending him to you." + +This young dry-goods clerk, schoolmaster, and bookkeeper, for he +followed all of these occupations during the years in which he was +growing out of youth into manhood, was especially interested in +metaphysics and theology. In these, and kindred studies he was greatly +impressed and inspired by the writings of Victor Cousin, whose major +gift was his ability to awaken other minds. "The most brilliant +meteor that flashed across the sky of the nineteenth century," said +Sainte-Beuve. + +When Thomas Starr King was eighteen years old, William Ellery Channing +died. Of that death which occurred amid the lovely scenery of Vermont +upon a rare Autumnal evening, Theodore Parker wrote, The sun went toward +the horizon: the slanting beams fell into the chamber. Channing turned +his face toward that sinking orb and he and the sun went away together. +Each, as the other, left "the smile of his departure' spread on all +around: the sun on the clouds, he on the heart." + +Channing's "smile on the heart," his pure philosophy, his sweet +Christian spirit so influenced King that his best sermons read not +unlike the large, calm utterances of Channing when he spoke on the +loftiest of themes. To other good and great men our student preacher +was deeply indebted. To Dr. Hosea Ballou (2d) for friendship and wise +counsel. To Dr. James Walker for the inspiration of certain notable +lectures on Natural Theology. Most of all to Dr. E. A. Chapin, his +father's successor in the Universalist Pulpit at Charlestown, Mass. Dr. +Chapin--but ten years King's senior--was then just beginning his +eminent career as pulpit orator and popular lecturer. He recognized +the undeveloped genius of his young friend, he knew of his earnest +student-ship, he delighted to open the doors of opportunity to him. +It was a gracious and honorable relation and most advantageous to the +younger man. Writing to a good Deacon of a neighboring church Chapin +said: "Thomas has never attended a Divinity School, but he is educated +just the same. He speaks Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and fairly good +English as you will see. He knows natural history and he knows humanity, +and if one knows man and nature, he comes pretty close to knowing God." + +In 1846 Chapin was called to New York, and through his influence Starr +King, then twenty-two years old, was installed as his successor in +the pastorate of the First Universalist Church of Charlestown. If his +preparedness for an important New England pulpit is questioned it must +be admitted that he entered it wholly without academic training, but we +need not be distressed on that account. From the first he had adopted +a method of study certain to produce excellent results, thorough +acquaintance with a few great authors, and reverent, loving intercourse +with a few great teachers. Little wonder that the "boy preacher" made +good in the pulpit from which his honored Father had passed into, the +Silence, and wherein the eloquence of Chapin had charmed a congregation +of devoted followers. + +Two years pass and he is called to Hollis Street Church in Boston, +a Unitarian Church of honorable fame but at the time threatened with +disaster. It was believed that if any one could save the imperilled +church, King was that man. Not yet twenty-five years of age, established +as minister of one of Boston's well known churches; a co-laborer +of Bartol, Ballou, Everett, Emerson, Theodore Parker and Wendell +Phillips,--surely he is to be tried and tested as few men so young have +ever been, here in the "Athens of America," the city of beautiful ideals +and great men. + +It is certain that King regarded the eleven years he gave to Hollis +Street as merely preparatory to his greater work in California. Writing +playfully from San Francisco to Dr. Bellows in Boston he said: "At +home, among you big fellows, I wasn't much. Here they seem to think I +am somebody. Nothing like the right setting." The record shows that even +among the "big fellows" Starr King was a very definite somebody, +for although crowds did not attend his preaching in Boston as in San +Francisco, he was able to congratulate himself upon the fact that he +preached his last sermon in Hollis Street Church to five times as many +people as heard his first. Nor do we need to await the judgment of +California admirers to be convinced of his ability as a preacher or his +popularity as a lecturer. It was said of him that "he was an orator from +the beginning:" that his first public address "was like Charles Lamb's +roast pig, good throughout, no part better or worse than another." "His +delivery," says a candid and scholarly critic, "was rather earnest than +passionate. He had a deep, strange, rich voice, which he knew how to +use. His eyes were extraordinary, living sermons, a peculiar shake +and nod of the head giving the impression of deep-settled conviction. +Closely confined to his notes, yet his delivery produces a marked +impression." + +Hostile criticism, which no man wholly escapes, enjoyed suggesting +that King had been educated in the common schools of Portsmouth and +Charlestown, and that he had graduated from the navy yard into the +pulpit. A Boston correspondent passed judgment upon him as follows: +"He was not considered profoundly learned; he was not regarded as a +remarkable orator; he was not a great writer; nor can his unrivalled +popularity be ascribed to his fascinating social or intellectual gifts. +It was the hidden interior man of the heart that gave him his real power +and skill to control the wills and to move the hearts, and to win the +unbounded confidence and affection of his fellow-beings." + +William Everett is authority for the statement that in those early years +in Hollis Street Church "Starr King was not thought to be what a teacher +of Boston Unitarianism ought to be. He was regarded rather as a florid +platform speaker, one interested in the crude and restless attempts at +reform which sober men distrusted." Another reviewer mingles praise and +criticism quite ingeniously. "He astonishes and charms his hearers by +a rare mastery over sentences. He is a skilful word-marshal. Hence his +popularity as a lyceum lecturer. However much of elegant leisure the +more solid and instructive lecturers may have, Mr. King is always +wanted. He is, in some respects, the most popular writer and preacher of +the two denominations which he equally represents, being a sort of soft +ligament between the Chang of Universalism and the Eng of Unitarianism." + +This last criticism invites us to notice--all too briefly--a phase of +King's experience in New England fitting him most admirably for the +larger work he was to do on the Pacific Coast. From 1840 to 1860 the +Lyceum flourished in the United States as never before or since. Large +numbers of lecture courses, extending even to the small cities and +towns, were liberally patronized and generously supported. In many +communities this was the one diversion and the one extravagance. To +fill the new demand an extraordinary group of public speakers appeared; +Emerson, Edward Everett, Wendell Phillips, Dr. Chapin, Oliver Wendell +Holmes, George William Curtis, Henry Ward Beecher, Frederick Douglas, +Theodore Parker and others, whose names are reverently spoken to this +day by aged men and women who remember the uplift given them in youth by +these giants of the platform. + +That he was always wanted with such rivals as those is proof enough of +King's power with the people, of his fame as an orator, even before his +greater development and his more wonderful achievements in California. +His lecture circuit extended from Boston to Chicago. His principal +subjects were "Goethe," "Socrates," "Substance and Show," a lecture +which ranks next to Wendell Phillips' "Lost Arts" in popularity. Not +withstanding the academic titles King gave his lectures they seemed to +have been popular with all classes. "Grand, inspiring, instructive, +lectures," said the learned. "Thems' idees," said unlettered men of +sound sense. It was thought to be a remarkable triumph of platform +eloquence that King could make such themes fascinating to Massachusetts +farmers and Cape Cod fishermen. In fine phrase it was said of him that +he lectured upon such themes as Plato and Socrates "with a prematureness +of scholarship, a delicacy of discernment, a sweet innocent combination +of confidence and diffidence, which were inexpressibly charming." + +It may be claimed with all candor that few public teachers have ever +been able so to enlist scientific truth in the service of the spirit. +That spirit and life are the great realities, that all else is mainly +show, at best but the changing vesture of spirit, is set forth in King's +lectures so completely that he may be said to have made, even at this +early age, a genuine and lasting contribution to the thought of his +time. All this be it noted before he had set foot upon the Pacific +Coast, where he was destined to do his real work. + +One other service King had rendered the country, and especially New +England, should here be gratefully recalled. Always in delicate health, +he had formed the habit of spending his vacations in the White Hills +of New Hampshire. Benefited in mind and body, and charmed by the rare +beauty of a region then unknown, he endeavored to reveal to the people +of Boston, and other Eastern cities, the neglected loveliness lying at +their very doors. The result was King's "The White Hills, Their Legends, +Landscape and Poetry." Although this pioneer nature-book is now probably +quite forgotten, even by the multitudes who visit the scenes it so +glowingly describes, it is well to remember that it was, indeed, one +of the first attempts to entice the city dweller "back to nature." +Published in 1859, it followed Thoreau's at that time unread "Walden" +by only five years, while it preceded Murray's "Adventures in the +Wilderness," and the earliest of John Burroughs' delightful volumes, +by a full generation. It was in every way a commendable, if not great, +adventure in authorship. + + From this brief review it is evident that when Starr King preached his +last sermon in Boston, March 25, 1860, he had made for himself an +enviable reputation in three difficult fields of work, as preacher, +lecturer and writer. The feeling of Boston and New England upon his +departure was fittingly expressed by Edwin Percy Whipple in a leading +journal of the day in which this eminent author "appealed to thousands +in proof of the assertion that though in charge of a large parish, and +with a lecture parish which extended from Bangor to St. Louis, he still +seemed to have time for every noble work, to be open to every demand of +misfortune, tender to every pretension of weakness, responsive to every +call of sympathy, and true to every obligation of friendship; all will +indulge the hope that California, cordial as must be the welcome +she extends him, will still not be able to keep him long from +Massachusetts." + +On the day before he sailed from New York a "Breakfast Reception" was +given him at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, at which three hundred guests were +seated at the tables. The poet, William Cullen Bryant presided, and +other men hardly less distinguished testified to the nature of King's +work, and to the varied charm of his unique personality. Best of all, +perhaps, was the tribute of his friend and neighbor, Dr. Frederick H. +Hedge. "Happy Soul! himself a benediction wherever he goes; a living +evangel of kind affections, better than all prophecy and all knowledge, +the Angel of the Church whom Boston sends to San Francisco." + +Such was the man who came to California in the greatest crisis of her +history to exert upon her destiny an influence unequalled and unexampled +even in that most romantic and eventful story of the Golden West. + + + + +Part II. California in 1860 + + +The federal census of 1860 gave California 379,984 inhabitants and +San Francisco 56,802. Historian Bancroft informs us that here was "a +gathering without a parallel in history." It may be said that the whole +history and development of California is without parallel. The story +reads not so much like the orderly growth of a civilized community as +a series of unrelated and episodical events. There is little of logical +order or sequence, and much of surprise, adventure, of conflict and +crisis. Said an aged philosopher, "It is the unexpected that happens," +a saying illustrated if anywhere in the world, in the history of the +Golden State. + +Although discovered early in the sixteenth century by adventurous +Spaniards, no serious attempt was made at settlement of any portion of +the territory now included in the boundaries of California until the +year 1769, when Father Junipero Serra arrived at the Bay of San +Diego. Then followed a half century constituting the Mission Period of +California history, during which Spanish Governors and Franciscan +Friars ruled the land. Inspired more by religious zeal than by lust +of conquest, or hope of gain, the Spanish Padres planted a chain of +missions extending from San Diego to the Bay of San Francisco. At these +missions, consisting often, at the beginning, of nothing more than a +rude cross and altar, with some miserable make-shift of tent or huts as +protection from the heat of summer and the cold of winter, the faithful +priests labored to convert the surrounding Indians. They tried to make +of them not alone good Catholics, but good farmers, and vineyardists, +and according to the need of the time, capable carpenters and builders. +As the result of their labors a long period of simple prosperity was +enjoyed at the missions. Buildings were erected that still delight the +traveler. They were for the most part of Moorish architecture, built of +adobe, painted white, with red-tile roofs, long corridors and ever the +secluded plaza where the friar might tell his beads in peace. Around the +missions, some twenty in number, lying a day's journey apart between the +southern and the central bay, Indian workers cultivated immense fields +of grain, choice vineyards, olive orchards and orange groves; great +herds of horses, cattle, and sheep were cared for, and the women became +adept at weaving and spinning. Nor were the Spanish Governors idle. They +encouraged the immigration of settlers both from the mother country and +Mexico by a most liberal policy, assisting the newcomer to build a home, +acquire stock, and establish himself in a country where there was an +abundance of game, and where the earth yielded her bounty with the +minimum of labor. Thus in the half century between 1770 and 1820, +these Pius Padres laid the foundations of California, as they believed +securely, after Catholic and Spanish tradition. + +Not securely so it proved, for in 1822 Mexico won her independence +from Spain, both political and religious. The California Padres being +Spaniards naturally suffered persecution at the hands of successive +Mexican Governors, who were envious of the lands, orchards and herds +of domestic animals belonging to the various missions. Ruthlessly the +Friars were plundered of their well tilled fields, their fine vineyards, +their flocks and herds, and their Indian converts were enticed or +driven into the service of the new Masters of the country. Some of these +officials were of Spanish blood and some of Mexican but now they proudly +called themselves, Californians. And proudly they lived, these Spanish +and Mexican Dons. Owning immense tracts of land, riding upon fleet +horses, relieved of all necessity of honest work, they soon became in +their manner of living, veritable hidalgoes. + +Vain, ridiculously boastful, pleasure chasers, they loved above all else +the frolic, the dance, and a good horse. All the way from San Diego +to Shasta were located the immense ranchoes, more than six hundred in +number, ever since celebrated in song and story. This was the period so +often called by poetic writers the Romantic Age of California. Although +much of the glamor of the dear old days of plenty and pleasure has been +dispelled by the careful researches of conscientious scholars, it must +still be admitted that here also were developed certain characteristics +and here a kind of foundation for the future laid, ignorant of which we +can not understand either the California of 1860 or even the State as we +of today know and love it. If it is true that the first settlers in any +community leave a lasting impress upon after generations it is evident +that the Franciscan and Spanish background of California must be +reviewed as we approach the more serious days of American conflict and +conquest. + +Although the first American settler arrived in California in 1816 his +example seems to have been without effect for in 1822 there were but +fourteen persons not of Mexican or Spanish blood in all the province. +In the early '40's emigrants from the "States" began to come in parties, +but so slowly that by January 1, 1848, the entire population (not +including Indians) numbered only 14,000, and Yerba Buena (San Francisco) +the only Pueblo of any size contained barely 900 inhabitants. This be +it noted was but twelve years before the arrival of Starr King, so close +was the old aristocratic rule of Spain to that stirring conflict in +which he was to become a central figure. + +As we have already observed it is the unexpected that happens in +California history. In this same month of January, 1848, gold was +discovered in the upper Sacramento Valley, an event that rivals the +discovery of America by Columbus, if regarded in the light of results +affecting the development of modern society. "The Gold that Drew the +World" so Edwin Markham heads his story of that strange hegira +which converted far-away California into a new Mecca and made of +San Francisco, that sleepy Spanish Pueblo, in a few months' time a +cosmopolitan city of fifty thousand people. Two years earlier, as a +result of the Mexican War, California had been declared an American +Territory, though not formally ceded to the United States until February +2, 1848. It was generally believed that the Mexican War had been waged +and California acquired in the interest of negro slavery. James Russell +Lowell voices this belief in the Bigelow papers as follows: + + "They just wanted this California + So's to lug new slave states in, + To abuse ye and to scorn ye, + And to plunder ye like sin." + +However this may have been, it is certain that among the immigrants +of the fifty's there was a large number of forceful and brilliant men, +loving the old South, and fully determined to swing the new state into +line as a pro-slavery asset. It is true they were not strong enough to +prevent the adoption in 1849 of a constitution prohibiting slavery, +yet for all that, as Southern men they rejoiced when September 9, 1850, +California was admitted to the Union. + +It is no part of our purpose to give in detail the strange story of +California during her first ten years as an American Commonwealth. By +1850 her population had increased to 120,000 people, mostly young men +drawn by the lure of gold from every quarter of the civilized world, +including not less than 4000 Chinese. Yet the majority were Americans, +and of the Americans the larger number were from the slave states. Nor +was this condition much altered up to the outbreak of the Civil War. +Trustworthy authorities estimate that not less than forty per cent of +her entire population were at that time of Southern birth, naturally +Democratic in politics and for the most part pro-slavery in sentiment. +It should be remembered that during the decade under consideration +the national government was under the brilliant leadership of the +slave-masters who were ever alert as to the attitude of this new +Eldorado of the West. Consequently every position of trust and honor +under national control in California was given to "safe men" whose +attitude towards the "peculiar institution" was favorable beyond +suspicion. To such an extent was this a matter of public knowledge that +the Customs Station of San Francisco was popularly dubbed the "Virginia +Poor House." During all these years California was under the absolute +control of the Democratic Party, and the party was under control of its +Pro-slavery leaders. + +"The common people," says a late historian, "stood in awe for many years +of these suave, urbane, occasionally fire-eating and always well-dressed +gentlemen from this most aristocratic section of the Union. The +Southerners, born leaders of men, and with politics the paramount +interest in their lives, controlled both San Francisco and California." + +J. W. Forney, a politician and reporter of the time, is more emphatic +and declares that "California was a secession rendezvous from the day it +became a part of the Union." + +That the State was strongly Southern in sympathy is proven by the fact +that of fifty-three newspapers published within her borders only seven +advocated the election of Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860. A stronger +proof still is found in the character and conduct of the public men of +California during all the period under consideration. With one or two +exceptions, of whom honorable mention later, every official of any +importance, state or national, favored the South and voted in her +interest. This condition was partly due, without doubt, to the political +leadership of Senator Wm. M. Gwin. A Tennessean by birth, he was +forty-six years of age, when he landed in San Francisco, June 4, 1849. +Almost immediately active in politics he became the most brilliant and +unscrupulous leader California has ever had. He held the reins of power +and of national patronage until the war brought chaos to the old order +and always Wm. M. Gwin was a faithful servant of the old aristocratic +South of John C. Calhoun. He was ably seconded in his efforts to hold +California to the pro-slavery cause by David S. Terry, Chief Justice +of the State, and a fiery Texan, fearless and fierce in every +conflict which might affect adversely Southern Chivalry. After these +distinguished leaders there followed in monotonous succession Senators, +Representatives, Governors, Legislators, representing doubtless their +constituents in opposition to every movement looking to the abolition, +or even serious limitation of the slave power. + +The first man to challenge the almost solid cohorts of pro-slavery +Democracy in California was David C. Broderick, United States Senator +from 1857 until his untimely death in 1859. Broderick was the son of +a stone cutter and in early life followed his father's trade. Born +in Washington, D. C., he grew to manhood in New York City. When only +twenty-six years old he became "Tammany's candidate for Congress." +He was defeated and in June, 1849, he too arrived in San Francisco, +determined never to return East unless as United States Senator. +Plunging into the political life of the state as a loyal Democrat he was +sent almost at once to the legislature in Sacramento, where he speedily +became an influential member. In 1851 he was made presiding officer of +the Senate and by 1852 his leadership within the State was so firmly +established that it was said of him "he is the Democratic Party of +California." January 10, 1857, after years of bitter struggle, Broderick +was elected United States Senator, and the following March was duly +received as a member of that august body. From the first his had been +a strenuous career, he had been the storm center of heated contests, +personal and political, in which he had commanded the suffrages of his +fellows so completely that it was said, "men of all ages followed him +like dogs." He had made many bitter and unrelenting enemies, and now +that he had reached the goal of his ambition, he was to enter upon a +last dread battle, the most severe and deadly of all he had known. + +Stripped of all misleading complications the question then agitating +Congress and the country was simply this: Shall Negro Slavery be forced +upon the new territory of Kansas against the will of a majority of her +people? This, of course, was only preliminary to the larger question: +Shall the National Government, under lead of the Slave Oligarchy, be +given power to spread over new territory, at will, the blight and +curse of human bondage? Upon this foremost question of the day, Senator +Broderick stood side by side with Stephen A. Douglas in opposition to +the Buchanan Administration, and its mad attempt to force slavery upon +the people of the New West. The attitude of California politicians on +this matter is evidenced by the fact that the legislature in session at +Sacramento promptly instructed Broderick to vote for the administration +program, and a later legislature condemned him by resolution for failing +to comply with the instructions of its predecessor and declared that his +attitude was a disgrace and humiliation to the Nation. They demanded +his immediate resignation. Let it be noted clearly that Broderick was +condemned, not for opposing negro slavery, but simply and solely +for opposing the extreme southern contention. Not long, however, was +Broderick permitted to display his antislavery sympathies. During the +exciting campaign of 1859, David S. Terry, believing himself aggrieved +because of certain utterances of Broderick, challenged the latter to +deadly combat. Reluctantly, but thereto compelled by long usage in +California, Broderick met Terry upon the so-called "field of honor," +September 13, 1859. Three days later Broderick was dead, a sacrifice, so +all forward-looking men believed, to the wrath of the slave power. "His +death was a political necessity, poorly veiled beneath the guise of +a private quarrel." This was said at his funeral, and widely accepted +among the people. It has been claimed that the death of Broderick saved +California to the Union; that the revulsion of feeling following his +bloody death was so great that his beloved State became good soil for +the new teaching of Lincoln and the Republican Party. Generously one +would like to accept this theory were not the evidence so strongly +against it. To Broderick belongs the high honor of inaugurating the +fight on the Pacific Coast against the extension of slavery. In the +outset of that conflict he perished, and the manner of his taking off +gave to his message something of the force of martyrdom. But not to +the extent his admirers have imagined. It should be clearly noted +that Broderick believed in local self-government regarding slavery. He +believed that the people of Kansas, and the people of Virginia (as of +all other states) possessed the right under our national constitution, +of deciding this question for themselves without let or hindrance by the +general government. Farther than this he did not go. To the day of his +death, he was a loyal Douglas Democrat. It should be further noted that +in this last campaign of Broderick's life the pro-slavery Democracy +swept the State, its candidate for Governor being elected by a vote +nearly twice the combined vote of the Douglas and Republican candidates: +And, also, that a year after Broderick's death Abraham Lincoln polled +only twenty-eight per cent of the popular vote in California for +President of the United States. Whatever may have been the influence of +the Senator's brave conflict in Congress, or his untimely death, it is +evident that the crisis in California's attitude toward the Union had +not yet arrived, that the hour in which any man might change the course +of events still lay within the unknown future. + +The same may be said of the life and work of a still more brilliant +opponent of slavery on this Coast, Col. Edward D. Baker, a man of +phenomenal eloquence, with a well earned reputation as a successful +lawyer and politician, with an honorable record for gallant service in +the Mexican War, and for useful service in the House of Representatives +in Washington. When he located in San Francisco in 1852, an immigrant +from the great State of Illinois, he brought new strength to the +minority who were in conscience opposed to the growing dominion of the +Slave Power. For certain reasons, well understood at the time and which +do not concern us here, Col. Baker did not wield the influence which +his talents would naturally have secured for him. Yet as the contest +deepened, his majestic eloquence was beyond question a force for freedom +in a community where the love of oratory amounted to a passion. In the +Fremont Campaign, at the grave of Broderick, and in his own canvass +for Congress in 1859, he rendered most valuable service in laying the +foundations of Republicanism on the Pacific Coast. But it should be +remembered by all who would deal with those great days fairly that +the work of Edward Dickinson Baker at its best was only the work of a +brilliant forerunner. Before the real battle was on he removed from the +State, and as the newly elected United States Senator from Oregon, from +this Coast. It is true that on his journey to Washington a few days +before the National election in November, 1860, Baker delivered in San +Francisco an effective speech on Lincoln's behalf, but it is foolish +hero-worship to say, of California! Not only had Baker been defeated +overwhelmingly a few months earlier as Republican candidate for +Congress, but Lincoln himself received the electoral vote of California +only as the result of a three-sided contest in which the combined +opposition polled nearly three-fourths of all the votes cast. In fact +Lincoln distanced his nearest Democratic rival by only 711 Votes. Out +of one hundred and fourteen members of the state legislature but +twenty-four belonged to the party of Lincoln. The Congressional +Delegation was solidly Democratic, and the Governor was a Southern +sympathizer. Such was the condition after Baker's work was done in +California, and when the greater work of Starr King was just beginning. + +In justice to Colonel Baker, though it is no part of our duty here, we +make grateful mention of the fact that not on the Pacific Coast but in +Washington, as the friend and adviser of President Lincoln, and on the +floor of the United States Senate, this gallant defender of Union and +Liberty rendered a unique and memorable service to his country. His +replies in the Senate to those giants of the Confederacy, John C. +Breckenridge and Judah P. Benjamin attained the dignity of national +events, and his heroic death early in the war on field of battle +renders it forever impossible for any just man to belittle the deeds +or influence of Edward D. Baker. What he might have effected had he +remained in California, or had his life been longer spared, we may not +say. The fact remains that after his mission among us was over Southern +and Democratic sentiment was still in the ascendant. It was reserved +for another,--the privilege and the honor of "saving California to the +Union." + +One other phase of the situation merits careful attention. Almost from +the very beginning of American Settlement in California a dream of +Pacific Empire, separate and independent of "the States" had fascinated +many of her strongest men. And little wonder, for here by the Pacific +Sea was a vast territory walled away by lofty mountains and wide +deserts, two thousand miles west of the frontier settlements of +Minnesota and Kansas. Not until after the outbreak of the Civil War was +there telegraphic communication with the East, and the nearest railway +ended somewhere in central Missouri. Mail was received regularly once in +twenty-six days, sometimes as often as once in two weeks. But there was +little direct communication and less unity of purpose between the older +sections of the United States and far away California. In fact there +was considerable antagonism felt and expressed toward the government of +Washington. The original Mexican population cordially hated, and with +good reason, the national authority. Foreigners in the mines cared +nothing for the Union or the quarrel between the states, and many of the +settlers from the East, which they still lovingly called "back home," +felt that they had a real grievance against the general government. This +feeling, which was of long standing, was naturally intensified by the +troubled outlook in 1860. Men prominent in state and national politics +openly advocated independence as the proper policy for the Pacific +Coast. + +"Why depend on the South or the North to regulate our affairs," wrote +our junior Senator from Washington. "And this, too, after they have +proved themselves incapable of living in harmony with one another." +Starr King had been a resident of the state nearly a year when the +San Francisco Herald published the following letter received from +Congressman John C. Burch: + +"The people of California should all be of one mind on this subject of a +Pacific Republic. Raise aloft the flag of the hydraheaded cactus of +the western wilds and call upon the enlightened nations of the earth +to acknowledge our independence and protect us from the wreck of a once +glorious Union." + +Governor John B. Weller, a man not only holding the highest office +within the gift of the people of the state, but also one who had +represented California in the United States Senate made deliberately +this declaration: + +"If the wild spirit of fanaticism which now pervades the land should +destroy the magnificent confederacy--which God forbid--California will +not go with the south or north, but here on the shores of the Pacific, +found a mighty republic, which may in the end prove the greatest of +all." + +These quotations which might be greatly extended are sufficient to prove +that a strong feeling existed in favor of a Pacific Republic standing +wholly aloof from the coming struggle. It is unthinkable that a Senator +and a Congressman, and especially the Governor of the State, should have +voiced such sentiments had there not been at least a probability that +this might be the course adopted in case the Union was broken up. + +James G. Blaine, whose history of the time must be regarded as impartial +so far as California is concerned, makes this statement: + +"Jefferson Davis expected, with confidence amounting to certainty, and +based, it is believed, on personal pledges, that the Pacific Coast, if +it did not actually join the South, would be disloyal to the Union." + +This beyond reasonable doubt was the situation in the Spring of 1860: +Our immense State with its coast line of more than seven hundred +miles, sharply divided as between Southern and Northern California; the +majority of our people in Los Angeles and neighboring counties frankly +favoring the proposed confederacy of slave-holding states; many of the +larger towns in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys of a similar +mind; the political leaders of the State almost solidly Democratic and +the majority with strong Southern leanings; many of our foremost men +believing that the time had come to launch the long dreamed of Pacific +Republic, and our ranches and mines containing a large population either +hostile or indifferent to the cause of Union and Liberty. Over against +these varied forces a probable patriotic majority scattered from one end +of California to the other, some belonging to the new Republican Party +and some to the Douglas Democracy, and many without party affiliation, +unorganized, badly scattered, and now that Broderick was dead and +Colonel Baker away, without competent leadership. If ever a situation +called for a man who might at once command the confidence of the people +and arouse the latent patriotism of our wide-spread population, a man +who might do the work of years in a few months' time, who might in his +own persuasive personality become a center of patriotism around which +Union-loving men of all parties, and of no party, could unite in defense +of the imperilled country; one unfettered by old antagonisms, or misled +by personal ambition, a heaven-sent man destined to a work no other +could accomplish--this the situation plainly demanded. + +The record, impartially examined, shows, we believe beyond reasonable +doubt, that California's destiny in this critical hour was chiefly +determined by the word and work of her patriot-preacher, Starr King. + + + + +Part III. California's Hour of Decision + + + +The period that determined California's attitude during the Civil War, +coincides almost exactly with the first year and a half of Starr King's +residence in the State. Less than a month after he had preached his +first sermon in San Francisco, Abraham Lincoln received the presidential +nomination at Chicago, and the great debate was on. + +It should be remembered that King's reputation as a lecturer had +preceded him, and that he was hardly settled in his new home before he +was flooded with invitations to lecture here as he had done in the +East. As soon as possible, and as far as possible, he accepted these +invitations regarding them as calls to service in the interest of +an enlightened patriotism. Choosing as subjects such themes as +"Washington," "Webster," "Lexington and Concord," he made of them all a +plea for a united country, one glorious land from Maine to the Sierras. +He seems to have perceived the danger hidden in the perfectly natural +ambition of leading men to take advantage of the troubled time to launch +the Pacific Republic, and thus avoid all danger of the coming conflict +between North and South. A free, independent California, which should +practically include the entire Coast,--surely here was an inspiring +and seductive dream. By a method peculiarly his own he did not directly +combat this fascinating idea, but rather sought to win his hearers to +the larger vision of an empire extending from ocean to ocean, every mile +of it dedicated to liberty and progress. + +"What a privilege it is to be an American," he exclaims in a favorite +lecture, often repeated. + +"Suppose that the continent could turn towards you tomorrow at sunrise, +and show to you the whole American area in the short hours of the sun's +advance from Eastport to the Pacific! You would see New England roll +into light from the green plumes of Aroostook to the silver stripe of +the Hudson; westward thence over the Empire State, and over the lakes, +and over the sweet valleys of Pennsylvania, and over the prairies, the +morning blush would run and would waken all the line of the Mississippi; +from the frosts where it rises, to the fervid waters in which it pours, +for three thousand miles it would be visible, fed by rivers that +flow from every mile of the Allegheny slope, and edged by the green +embroideries of the temperate and tropic zones; beyond this line another +basin, too, the Missouri, catching the morning, leads your eye along its +western slope till the Rocky Mountains burst upon the vision, and yet do +not bar it; across its passes we must follow, as the stubborn courage +of American pioneers has forced its way, till again the Sierra and their +silver veins are tinted along the mighty bulwark with the break of day; +and then over to the gold-fields of the western slope, and the fatness +of the California soil, and the beautiful valleys of Oregon, and the +stately forests of Washington, the eye is drawn, as the globe turns +out of the night-shadow, and when the Pacific waves are crested with +radiance, you have the one blending picture, nay, the reality, of the +American domain! No such soil, so varied by climate, by products, by +mineral riches, by forest and lake, by wild heights and buttresses, +and by opulent plains,--yet all bound into unity of configuration and +bordered by both warm and icy seas,--no such domain was ever given to +one people." + +In many communities and in varying phrase--always earnest and +eloquent--King returned to the central theme of all his thinking and +speaking, the greatness and glory of the Union,--"one and indivisible." +The following but illustrates the constant tenor of his teaching: + +"If all that the past has done for us and the present reveals could +stand apparent in one picture, and then if the promise of the future to +the children of our millions under our common law, and with continental +peace, could be caught in one vast spectral exhibition, the wealth +in store, the power, the privilege, the freedom, the learning, the +expansive and varied and mighty unity in fellowship, almost fulfilling +the poet's dream of + + 'The Parliament of man, the federation of the world,' + +you would exclaim with exultation, 'I, too, am an American!' You would +feel that patriotism, next to your tie to the Divine Love, is the +greatest privilege of your life; and you would devote yourselves, out of +inspiration and joy, to the obligations of patriotism, that this land +so spread, so adorned, so colonized, so blessed, should be kept forever, +against all the assaults of traitors, one in polity, in spirit, and in +aim!" + +In a way we may say that King found himself in these first months in +California. He was forced by the number of his engagements, as well +as by the more direct demands of a new country, to throw aside his +manuscripts, and, making such preparation as conditions would permit, +launch boldly out upon the dangerous sea of extempore speech. He was +constantly addressing audiences in whole, or in part, hostile. Writing +to an Eastern friend of his experiences in the Sacramento Valley, he +says, "You see in glaring capitals, 'Texas Saloon,' 'Mississippi Shoe +Shop,' 'Alabama Emporium.' Very rarely do you see any Northern state +thus signalized." Men of substance, natural leaders of the people, were +in most communities either for Breckenridge or Douglas. The man was +grappling with the intellectual soldiery of disunion. The same forces +that had transformed Lincoln, the Illinois politician into a national +figure, the standard bearer of a great party, were working upon King. +And the same method which caused Horace Greeley to write of Lincoln, +"He is the greatest Convincer of his day" was followed by the younger +patriot, face to face as he was with incipient disloyalty. He was +accustomed, even as Lincoln, to state his opponent's argument fully +and fairly, and then without unnecessary severity, demolish it. An old +miner, listening to one of Starr King's patriotic speeches, delighting +in the intellectual dexterity displayed, exclaimed, "Boys, watch him, he +is taking every trick." The necessity of "taking every trick," and this +so far as possible without offence, quickened his powers and led to the +full development of his many sided eloquence. + +How he was regarded during these early months when he had literally +plunged into the life of a community where nothing was as yet fixed, +where everything was in the making, where the most serious questions of +duty and destiny were stirring the hearts and consciences of men,--is +made clear to us by the testimony of contemporaries whose sole desire +must have been to render honor where honor was due. + +The latest and most complete history of California based upon the most +trustworthy evidence extant gives cautious tribute to the Starr King of +this period as follows: + +"The Republicans had lost their most effective orator since the campaign +of the preceding year, Colonel Baker, but his loss was in some degree +compensated for by the appearance of an unheralded but equally eloquent +speaker, Thomas Starr King, who arrived in April, 1860, and later toured +the state, giving lectures on patriotic subjects but always declared for +the Union and the Republican candidates as the surest guaranty of its +preservation." + +Tuthill, in his history of the time writes with more warmth, and +probably more truth: + +"There was a charm in King's delivery that few could resist. He was +received with applause where Republican orators, saying things no more +radical, could not be heard without hisses. Delicately feeling his way, +and never arousing the prejudices of his hearers, he adroitly educated +his audiences to a lofty style of patriotism. The effect was obvious in +San Francisco where audiences were accustomed to every style of address; +it was far more noticeable in the interior." + +The celebrated critic and writer, Edwin Percey Whipple, made a careful +examination of King's record in California and sums up his impressions +as follows: + +"As a patriotic Christian statesman he included the real elements +of power in the community, took the people out of hands of disloyal +politicians, lifted them up to the level of his own ardent soul, and not +only saved the state to the Union, but imprinted his own generous and +magnanimous spirit on its forming life." + +Writing a little later and with even more enthusiasm, another authority, +speaking of King's charm of manner, says: + +"I am persuaded that could he have gone through the Southern states, +shaking hands with secessionists, he would have won them back to their +allegiance by the mere magnetism of his touch." + +It is, perhaps, impossible at this late date to estimate the effect +of Starr King's appeal to the voters of California in the presidential +election of 1860. As we have already noted, Lincoln carried the State +by a very narrow plurality, and we need not ascribe the swaying of many +votes to the eloquence of King's advocacy to make it appear that his +influence was marked in that memorable campaign. + +But here must be emphasized a fact, quite often overlooked, and always +to the serious perversion of history. In California, as in every +doubtful state, the Hour of Decision did not precede, but in every +instance, followed the elevation of Lincoln to the presidency. It +was upon this rock that the nation split. Shall a Black Republican be +permitted to sit in the seat of Washington? Shall a man elected, as a +matter of fact, by a sectional minority rule over Virginia--mother of +Presidents--over imperial Texas, or the Golden West? To us the case +seems clear. Abraham Lincoln, who commanded 180 votes in the electoral +college to 123 divided among his opponents, was by our constitution +President-elect of the United States. To the men of that day the case +was by no means settled. The national bond was weak. The local, or +state bond was strong. It was a time of intense political passion. The +irrepressible conflict which had clouded the closing days of Henry Clay +and Daniel Webster must now be decided, either for, or against, the +extension of human slavery; either for, or against, a National Union. + +Well meaning, but mistaken, writers have claimed that California was +never a doubtful state, that the great majority of her people were ever +loyal to the Northern cause, to Lincoln and Liberty. As a matter of +sober truth let it be here written that the attitude of no state north +of Mason and Dixon's Line gave Northern leaders so grave concern. +Nor was the matter once for all decided until the election of Leland +Stanford in September, 1861, as the first Republican Governor of +California. During all the Spring and Summer of that great year the +battle waged with the issue, up to the last hour, uncertain. These +were the months that tried men's souls in California, as in the Border +States. Communities were divided. Party ties severed. Families broken +up. Old friendships sundered. All lesser questions were lost sight of +as Union, or Dis-union, became the all absorbing theme. The battle of +ideas, preceding the battle of bullets, was on. + +What was the state of public opinion in California? How runs the +evidence? + +In March, 1861, General E. V. Sumner was given command of United States +regulars on the Pacific Coast, replacing Albert Sidney Johnston, whose +well known attachment to the Southern cause led to his removal by +the Lincoln Administration. In General Sumner's reports to the War +Department in Washington we have impartial and official testimony as +to conditions in California during the period under consideration. +Naturally he came first in contact with the people about San Francisco +Bay, a majority of whom were loyal to the North, and consequently, +Sumner's first reports were encouraging. "There is a strong Union +feeling," he writes, "with the majority of the people of the state, but +the Secessionists are much the most active and zealous party." + +A little later, better informed, he reported: "The Secessionist party +in this state numbers about 32,000 men and they are very restless +and zealous, which gives them great influence." Still later: "The +disaffection in the southern part of the state is increasing and +is becoming dangerous, and it is indispensably necessary to throw +reinforcements into that section immediately." + +In this connection it should be remembered that when President Lincoln +at the outbreak of the war called for 75,000 men, California was +expected to furnish her quota of 6,000 soldiers, but so threatening was +the local situation that not a loyal man could be spared from the State. +On the contrary it was found necessary to retain in the State certain +regiments of the regular army badly needed elsewhere. In the summer of +1861, the War Department proposed to transfer a portion of the regular +army stationed in California to Texas, where the situation demanded +immediate succor for the friends of the Union. How grave the situation +had become in California may easily be determined by a fact which seems +to have escaped so far the attention of historians. On August 28, 1861, +the leading men of San Francisco sent a communication to Hon. Simon +Cameron, Secretary of War, remonstrating against the withdrawal of +United States troops from California for the following reasons: + +1. "A majority of our present state officials are avowed secessionists, +and the balance being bitterly hostile to the administration are +advocates of a peace policy at any price." + +2. "About three-fifths of our citizens are natives of slave-holding +states and are almost a unit in this crisis." + +3. "Our advices, obtained with great prudence and care, show us that +there are about 16,000 Knights of the Golden Circle (a secret military +organization of secessionists, said by many authorities to have been +much stronger than was at the time believed) in the state, and they are +still organizing even in our most loyal districts." + +4. "Through misrepresentation the powerful native Mexican population has +been won over to the secession side." + +This document, remarkable in itself, becomes weighty evidence, when it +is stated that after full and careful consideration, the petition was +heeded and the regulars remained on the Coast. + +General Sumner held command nearly a year, until, as we are accustomed +to think, all danger of a disloyal California was over, yet as the date +of his departure for the Army of the Potomac drew near, he was very +anxious that Col. Wright, an able and loyal officer, should fill his +place, and wrote to the authorities in Washington, "Col. Wright ought +to remain in command. The safety of the whole coast may depend upon it." +(italics ours). + +A few weeks after the death of Starr King, the Pacific Monthly, leading +magazine of the day, reviewed the situation at the beginning of the +great conflict, as it was then known and understood by all intelligent +Californians: + +"On the breaking out of the rebellion, public opinion on this coast was +sorely distracted at the issues raised. The great majority of the people +were warmly attached to their Government; but they had drunk deep at the +fountains of Southern eloquence, and had been measurably debauched by +the dangerous teachings of the able men who had ruled the state from its +infancy. When we consider the critical condition of public sentiment at +that dark hour (1860-1861); how the public mind had been thrown off +its poise by the false teaching of a long succession of political +charlatans; how the insidious doctrine of separation and a Pacific +Republic had been hissed by serpents into the ears of the people; how +the great dark cloud of impending ruin hung over our central Government; +how legions of armed patricides were almost battering at the gates of +our National Capital; how rebellion had baptized itself in blood and +victory at Bull Run--when we think how the effect of all these adverse +teachings and adverse fortunes had rendered the public mind plastic to +whoever had the genius to seize and direct it, and reflect that a man +of King's abilities, but without his patriotism, might have grasped the +opportunity to drift us upon shoals and rocks and quicksands of treason, +we cannot feel too thankful that the man and the hour both arrived. +His was a noble task, and nobly did he fulfill it. What he did for +California and the Union can never be fully estimated,--the work he +wrought in saving her to the country, and engraving upon her heart, the +golden word--'Union'." + +Leaving aside for a little space this fervent tribute to King's work, +the quotation just given is evidence of a grave situation, of a state +divided in opinion, of just such an "hour of decision" as gives the +strong man his opportunity. There can be no doubt that the verdict of +the Visalia Delta, a loyal and well-known newspaper, as to conditions in +its own community would apply to every considerable town in the State: + +"Treason against the Government and constitution is preached from the +pulpit, printed in the newspapers, and openly advocated in the streets +and public places." + +A work just from the press, "California--Men and Events"--by Mr. G. H. +Tinkham, affords valuable testimony to the necessity and value of King's +mission as patriotic leader: + +"At a time when some Union men were paralyzed with dread, and others +undecided which way to turn, Thomas Starr King traveled over the state +bolstering up the weak-hearted, and urging loyal men to stand firmly for +the Union. In his lectures, 'Washington,' 'Daniel Webster,' 'The Great +Uprising,' and 'The Rebellion in Heaven,' in unanswerable arguments +and matchless eloquence he kindled the patriotism of the people into +a glowing flame. It is conceded that no individual did more to keep +California in the Union than did Thomas Starr King." + +How necessary it was that some one should "kindle the patriotism of the +people into a glowing flame" is further evident from the fact that +the California Legislature of 1861 numbered as its members 57 Douglas +Democrats, 33 Southern Democrats, and but 24 Republicans. What this +alignment signified may be judged from the following incident. Edmund +Randolph, (a former Virginian, and a man of fiery eloquence) on July +11, 1861, delivered unrebuked in the State Democratic Convention at +Sacramento, this diatribe against Abraham Lincoln: "For God's sake speed +the ball, may the lead go quick to his heart--and may our country be +free from this despot usurper, that now claims to the name of President +of the United States." + +A few days earlier, July 4, 1861, a Confederate flag waved undisturbed +in Los Angeles, as well as in other nearby towns, the Union men in that +section being largely in the minority. For a considerable time in the +United States Marshal's office in San Francisco, a Confederate flag +waved from a miniature man-of-war named "Jeff Davis." + +In Merced County, Union men were in a sorry minority! A favorite +campaign song in that region was entitled, "We'll Drive the Bloody +Tyrant Lincoln From Our Dear Native Soil." A little later, the Equal +Rights Expositer of Visalia characterized President Lincoln as "a narrow +minded bigot, an unprincipled demagogue, and a drivelling, idiotic, +imbecile creature." + +Unpleasant testimony of this sort, demonstrating the presence and power +of a bitter spirit of disloyalty, running all through the State, but +most in evidence in certain localities peopled from the South, might be +given at great length. But enough. We have no wish to reproduce the evil +passions of an evil time further than to make it absolutely clear that +a real danger of disunion existed, and that friend and foe alike +recognized that, under God, the undaunted leader of Union sentiment in +California was none other than Starr King. + +A prominent San Francisco paper, indulging in the partizan speech of +the period, calling all friends of the Administration at Washington, +"Abolitionists," gave ungracious testimony to King's standing and +influence as follows: + +"The abolitionists are bent on carrying out their plans, and will not +hesitate to commit any act of despotism. If the constitution stands in +their way, they will, to use the words of their champion in this state, +Rev. T. Starr King, drive through the constitution." + +"Their champion in this state." The opprobrium rested upon him then; let +the honor be his now. This in simple justice to the truth of history. + +It is infinitely to be regretted that what men called "the irresistible +charm of his eloquence" cannot by any manner of speech be here +portrayed. If excuse is necessary let these words from King's lecture on +"Webster" plead for us: + +"Alas for the perishableness of eloquence! It is the only thing in the +higher walks of human creativeness that passes away. The statue lives +after the sculptor dies, as sublime as when his chisel left it. St. +Peter's is a perpetual memorial and utterance of the great mind of +Angelo. The Iliad is as fresh today as twenty-five centuries ago. +The picture may grow richer with years. But great oratory, the most +delightful and marvelous of the expressions of mortal power, passes and +dies with the occasion." + +Not wholly, for even in "cold type" some measure of the power and +persuasiveness of the orator's argument is suggested. It is easy to +imagine the force and fire of patriotism that must have glowed in such +words as these: + +"Rebellion sins against the Mississippi; it sins against the coast line; +it sins against the ballot-box; it sins against oaths of allegiance; it +sins against public and beneficent peace; and it sins, worse than all, +against the cornerstone of American progress and history and hope,--the +worth of the laborer, the rights of man. It strikes for barbarism +against civilization." + +The intense fervor of King's loyalty to Union and Liberty is seen in his +righteous indignation against an Oregonian who would not fight to save +the country unless he could be shown that his own personal interests +were involved. "For one wild moment," wrote King, "I longed to throttle +the wretch and push him into the Columbia. I looked down, however, and +saw that the water was clean." + +Think of the force of the following declaration uttered to men who meant +well, but were undecided: + +"The Rebellion--it is the cause of Wrong against Right. It is not only +an unjustifiable revolution, but a geographical wrong, a moral wrong, +a religious wrong, a war against the Constitution, against the New +Testament, against God." + +Thus did he condemn all forces within the State at war with liberty and +right. Stern words he used,--words that like Luther's were half battles. +Of peace-at-any-price-men he said: + +"The hounds on the track of Broderick turned peace men, and affected +with hysterics at the sniff of powder! Wonderful transformation. What +a pleasant sight--a hawk looking so innocent, and preaching peace to +doves, his talons loosely wound with cotton! A clump of wolves trying +to thicken their ravenous flanks with wool, for this occasion only, and +composing their fangs to the work of eating grass! Holy Satan, pray for +us." + +When the report reached California that Robert Toombs had said, "I want +it carved over my grave,--'Here lies the man who destroyed the United +States Government and its Capitol,'" King replied, "Mr. Toombs cannot be +literally gratified. But he may come so near his wish as this,--that it +shall be written over his gallows, as over every one of a score of his +fellow-felons, 'Here swings the man who attempted murder on the largest +scale that was ever planned in history.'" + +That our orator knew how to be sarcastic as well as severe must have +been plain to those who heard him exclaim: + +"There are those who say that they are Union men, and in favor of the +Government, and yet they are bitterly opposed to the administration, and +cannot support its policy. But in a war for self existence, this divorce +is impossible. One might as well say at a fire, while his house is +beginning to crackle in the flames, 'I am in favor of this engine, I +go for this water; the hose meets my endorsement. Certainly, I am for +putting out the fire, but don't ask me to help man the brakes, for I am +conscientiously opposed to the hose pipe. Its nozzle isn't handsome. It +wasn't made by a Democrat.'" + +How ardently King longed for the liberation of the Blacks is seen in +the following, addressed in all probability more to the President of the +United States than to the people: + +"O that the President would soon speak that electric +sentence,--inspiration to the loyal North, doom to the traitorous +aristocracy whose cup of guilt is full! Let him say that it is a war of +mass against class, of America against feudalism, of the schoolmaster +against the slave-master, of workmen against the barons, of the +ballot-box against the barracoon. This is what the struggle means. +Proclaim it so, and what a light breaks through our leaden sky! The +war-wave rolls then with the impetus and weight of an idea." + +Closing his greatest patriotic lecture, most in demand by the public +along the entire Coast, "Daniel Webster," Starr King quotes Webster's +noble peroration in the "Reply to Hayne," "Liberty and Union, Now and +Forever, One and Inseparable," and in lofty strain of patriotic prophecy +announces that: + +"Mr. Webster's thought breaks out afresh in the proclamation of the +President that America is one and cannot be broken; it bursts forth in +the banners thick as the gorgeous leaves of the October forests that +have blossomed all over eighteen or twenty States; it shows itself in +the passion of the noble Union men of the South who will not bow to +Baal; it floats on every frigate that rides the sea to protect our +shipping; it leaps forth and brightens in the sacred steel which +patriots by the hundred thousand are dedicating, not to ravage, not +to murder, not to hatred of any portion of the southern section of the +confederacy, but to the support of the impartial Constitution, to the +common flag, to the majestic and beneficent law which offers to encircle +and bless the whole republic; it utters itself in the thunder-voice +of twenty millions of white citizens of the land, that in America the +majority under the Constitution must rule, and the public law must be +obeyed. + +"And when the work of the government shall be accomplished,--when the +stolen money of the nation shall be refunded; when hostile artillery +shall be with-drawn from the lower banks of the Mississippi; when the +flag of thirteen stripes and thirty-four stars shall float again over +Sumter, over New Orleans, over every arsenal that has seen it insulted, +over Mount Vernon and the American dust of Washington, over every State +Capitol and along the whole coast and border line of Texas; when +every man within the present limits of the immense republic shall +have restored to him the right of pride in the American Navy, and +of representation on common terms in the National Capitol, and of +citizenship on the whole continent; when leading traitors shall have +been punished, and the Constitution vindicated in its unsectional +beneficence, and the doctrine of secession be stabbed with two hundred +thousand bayonet wounds, and trampled to rise no more,--then the debate +between Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster will be completed, the swarthy +spirit of the great defender of the Constitution will triumph, and a +restored, peaceful, majestic, irresistible America will dignify and +consecrate his name forever." + +"A restored, peaceful, majestic, irresistible America,"--this was the +vision that nerved King to herculean labor, to a most real martyrdom. +Condemned to the slow suicide of over-work, he gave his life a conscious +offering to freedom. "What a year to live in," he writes, "worth all +other times ever known in our history or any other." Again,--"I should +be broken down if I had time to think how I feel. I am beginning to look +old, and shall break before my prime." + +Why is the song so sweet, and why does it move us so strangely? The +singer's heart is breaking. Why is the word so effective? It is laden +with love and winged with sacrifice. A man is dying that others may live +in verity, not longer in shadow; a hero is suffering crucifixion that +the sad ages may a little change their course. Not only is it true that +the "blood of martyrs slain is the seed of the church," but it is also +true that a man never touches the heights of power until he has made a +total, irreversible, affectionate surrender to the cause he professes to +serve. When he has done this the cause becomes incarnate in the man; and +he speaks as one inspired. And this was the power of Starr King in that +great Summer and Fall of 1861 in California. Of course he did not speak +in vain. Leland Stanford, backed by a Union Legislature, was elected +Governor of California, and by October, King joyfully writing an Eastern +friend was able to say "the State is safe from southern tampering." + + + + +Part IV. Philanthropist and Preacher + + +"As a philanthropist, Starr King raised for the most beneficent of all +charities the most munificent of all subscriptions." These words were +spoken at the King Memorial Service held in the city of Boston, April 3, +1864. They call our attention to a unique service our Preacher-Patriot +rendered the cause he loved. + +It seems almost beyond belief that the North rushed into the Civil War +wholly unprepared to care for the Nation's Defenders, either in health +or in sickness. Transportation facilities were of the poorest! Young men +just from the home, the farm and the college were crowded into cattle +cars as though they were beasts, frequently with no provision whatever +for their comfort. And rarely were proper arrangements made for their +reception in camp. The bewildered soldiers stood for hours under +broiling southern sun, waiting for rations and shelter, while ignorant +officers were slowly learning their unaccustomed duties. At night they +were compelled to lie wrapped in shoddy blankets upon rotten straw. +Under such conditions these brave volunteers suffered severely and camp +diseases became alarmingly prevalent. But the miserable makeshifts used +as hospitals were so bad that sick men fought for the privilege of dying +in camp with their comrades rather than undergo the privations, and +sometimes the brutality of inexperienced and careless attendants in the +crowded and poorly equipped quarters provided by the government. +The largest hospital available contained but forty beds, and not one +afforded a trained, efficient, medical staff. Competent nurses, sanitary +kitchens, proper medicines, means of humanely transporting the sick and +wounded, all were wanting during early months of the war. + +This condition which the government did almost nothing to remedy led +to the organization of the United States Sanitary Commission. Strangely +enough the founder of this most necessary and timely organization, Rev. +H. W. Bellows, of New York, encountered the opposition of high officials +who deemed the whole plan quixotic. Even President Lincoln at first +regarded the Commission unnecessary and called it "a fifth wheel to +the coach." Brief experience, however, demonstrated that the government +could not provide all that was necessary for the soldier, either in +sickness or in health, and the Sanitary Commission became often the +only hope of brave men in dire distress. In fact, at this day, it is +difficult to see how the Northern cause would have triumphed at all but +for the widespread and wholly helpful activity of the army of Sanitary +workers. + +The greatest difficulty encountered by the leaders of this noble +philanthropy was to provide necessary funds. Again and again it seemed +that the work must stop because the heavily burdened people could give +no more. At sundry critical junctures California came to the rescue, +and made possible the continuance of this "most beneficent of all +charities." But at whose motion, and under whose influence? + +Fitz Hugh Ludlow says, "Starr King was the Sanitary Commission of +California." This is but slight exaggeration, for King made it his +peculiar mission to raise money as rapidly as possible for the suffering +soldiers. In the interest of the Commission he traveled to every part +of the Coast, and in the face of the greatest obstacles became the +principal factor in raising $1,235,000, about one-fourth of the entire +sum contributed by the country at large. Under the most favorable +circumstances this would have been a phenomenal achievement, but when we +learn that in 1862 a flood destroyed over fifty million dollars' worth +of property in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys; that California +shipping to the extent of six and one-half millions was also destroyed; +that in 1863 a drought entirely ruined the wheat crop, and made hay so +scarce that it sold for sixty dollars a ton, resulting in a stagnation +in business which threw thousands of men out of employment, in view of +these multiplied disasters, we wonder by what fire of patriotism and by +what charm of eloquence, Starr King drew from the people so large a sum +for use on distant battle fields. Old Californians still remember those +thrilling appeals which few could resist. We are almost led to believe +in the sober truth of such extreme eulogy as we find in "Lights +and Shadows of the Pacific Coast," by S. D. Woods, a venerable San +Franciscan, who vividly recalls King's heroic service in that far off +time: + +"King's personality was magnetic and winning. Gentleness radiated from +him as light radiates from the sun. No one could resist the charm and +fascination of his presence. It is hard to make a pen picture of his +face, for there were lines too pure, lights too fleeting to be caught +by words. In the poise of his head there was nobility and power +inexpressible. There was in his face the serenity of one who had seen a +vision, and to whom the vision had become a benediction. At the time of +his death he was the first pulpit orator in America, and without doubt +had no superior in the world." + +This large praise might lead to incredulity were it not for the +deliberate judgment of Rev. Dr. H. W. Bellows, that as an orator +"Beecher and Chapin were his only competitors. He was the admirer and +friend of both, and both repaid his affection and his esteem. He had the +superior charm of youth and novelty, with a nature more varied, and +more versatile faculties and endowments than either. He had a far more +artistic and formative nature and genius. His thoughts ran into moulds +of beauty." + +The judgment of California as to Starr King's unequalled service to the +State and the Nation was officially rendered when upon the announcement +of his death, the Legislature adjourned for the space of three days +after resolving "that he had been a tower of strength to the cause of +his country." + +Brilliant as was the record of King as the champion of the Sanitary +Commission in California it was by no means the beginning and end of +his philanthropic labors. The forlorn condition of the Chinese--as men +without rights of citizenship--stirred his sympathy and he made earnest +effort to secure for them such civic rights as belong to industry. The +cause of labor, seldom thought in those days to come within the scope +of a minister's interest or duty, commanded his eager attention, and +he improved every opportunity to declare his reverence for the world's +workers in earth, and stone, and iron. In a fine passage in a lecture on +"The Earth and the Mechanic Arts," he writes: + +"If we were to choose from the whole planet a score of men to represent +us on some other globe or in some other system in a great human fair of +the universe, it would not be kings, dukes, prime-ministers, the richest +men, we should appoint as ambassadors to show what our race is, and +what it is doing here, but the great thinkers, artists, and workers, the +thinkers in ink, the thinkers in stone and color, the thinkers in force +and homely matter, the men who are bringing the globe up towards the +Creator's imagination and purpose; and on this mission the leaders of +mechanic art would go side by side with Shakespeare and Milton, Angelo +and Wren, Newton and Cuvier. + +"In England, now, they are preparing statues of Brunel the engineer, and +the Stephensons, father and son, to be finished and erected about the +same time with those of Macaulay and Havelock. The nation is beginning +to bow to the occupations and the genius that have added to her power +ten thousand fold,--is beginning to bow to labor, noble, glorious, +sacred labor." + +Not alone in public pleas for unpopular causes but in private charity +King seemed tireless. "He had the rare facility in everything he said +and did of communicating himself; the most precious thing he could +bestow." We are told that a multitude in distress came to this +overburdened man. Ringing his doorbell they found entrance, and always +as they came back, the "step was quicker which was slow before, the head +was up which was down before, and the lips wreathed in smiles that were +sad before." + +Thus we can see that it was not solely his eloquent defense of liberty +and justice which caused a San Francisco journal, reporting his funeral, +to say, "Perhaps more deeply beloved by a vast number of our people than +any other who has lived and toiled and died among us." His good deeds +made him worthy of this, one of the most beautiful eulogies ever given +mortal man, "No heart ever ached because of him until he died." This +was Starr King the philanthropist, a friend to all who needed his +friendship. + +It would almost appear that in telling the story of "Starr King in +California" we were altogether forgetting that he did not come to the +State to influence its political action, or even to alleviate poverty +and distress. He came as a preacher of Liberal Christianity, and to +build up the church that had honored him with a call to its pulpit. Long +before he left Boston it was written concerning him, "That he loved his +calling, and that it was his ambition to pay the debt which every able +man is said to owe to his profession, namely to contribute some work +of permanent value to its literature." At that early period a +discriminating critic bears testimony, "that his piety, pure, deep, +tender, serene and warm, took hold of positive principles of light +and beneficence, not the negative ones of darkness and depravity, +and--himself a child of light--he preached the religion of spiritual +joy." + +It was King's first and chief ambition to be an effective preacher. In a +letter, written in 1855, he says, "How we do need good preaching. Would +that I could preach extempore." A wish that six years later "came true" +in his San Francisco pulpit. In the inspiring atmosphere of his new +field, and under the stress of a great era, King cast his manuscript +aside, and though he made careful preparation, as every man must who +speaks worthily, he never again submitted to the bondage of the "written +sermon." To a man of King's gifts and temperament this was an immense +gain. Indeed, Bostonian Californians were a unit in declaring that +Easterners could have no conception of the man and orator Starr King +became in those last great years of his brief life. + +Speedily the little church in which he preached proved too small for the +throng of eager listeners who gathered to hear him, and on the 3d day of +December, 1862, the corner stone of a larger and more beautiful edifice +was laid. + +We shall find it no easy matter to analyze the sources of his power +and popularity. Often-times success and failure are equal mysteries. +Doubtless no small part of his triumph arose from the peculiar character +of the new society to which he brought talents that commanded instant +attention. The eager temper of the time fitted his sincere and earnest +spirit. It was a perfect adjustment of the man and the hour, the workman +and his task. + +No small part of his popularity arose from the fact that he insisted +upon his right and duty as a minister to discuss great questions of +state in the pulpit. The vicious gulf churchmen discover between the +sacred and the secular was hidden from his eyes. All that affected the +humblest of his fellow men appealed to him as part and parcel of the +'gospel of righteousness he was commissioned to preach. In the old +Boston days he had discussed freely in the pulpit such themes as the +"Free Soil Movement," "The Fugitive Slave Law," and "The Dred Scott +Decision." Burning questions these, and they were handled with no fear +of man to daunt the severity of his condemnation when he declared +that in the Dred Scott Decision the majority of the Supreme Court had +betrayed justice for a political purpose. It was not likely that such a +man would remain silent in the pulpit upon the so-called "war issues" of +1861. Early in that memorable year he boldly informed his people as to +the course he intended to pursue so long as the war lasted. He would +not equivocate and he would not be silent. Henceforth stirring patriotic +sermons, as the demand for them arose, were the order of the day in the +congregation to which he ministered. The character of these discourses +may be partly determined from such titles as, "The Choice between +Barabbas and Jesus," "The Treason of Judas Iscariot," "Secession in +Palestine," and "Rebellion Pictures from Paradise Lost." "After the +lapse of more than sixty years," so the Hon. Horace Davis assured +the writer, "I can distinctly remember the fire and passion of those +terrible indictments of treason and rebellion." + +"Terrible indictments" truly, and in the storm and tempest of the time +irresistibly attractive to men and women whose sympathies were on fire +for the Northern cause. King's patriotism won for him a liberal hearing +on subjects that otherwise the people would have declined to consider. + +But we must not forget that "our preacher" was endowed with that rare +and radiant gift, an altogether charming and persuasive personality. +Appearance, manner, voice, were all instruments of attractiveness, +fitting modes of expression to a gentle and noble spirit. When a friend +and comrade of King's earlier ministry was asked to name the preacher's +preeminent gift, he immediately answered, "his voice." The reply seems +trivial. Yet it was seriously spoken by one whose knowledge of King +during his Boston ministry was close and personal. William Everett, who +had listened to New England's renowned orators, to Emerson's sweet and +satisfying voice, and to the music of Wendell Phillip's speech, said +of King, "His was one of the noblest and sweetest voices I ever heard." +Edward Everett Hale once wrote, "Starr King was an orator, whom no +one could silence and no one could answer." Says another, "There was +argument in his very voice. It thrilled and throbbed through an audience +like an organ carrying conviction captive before its wonderful melody." +If it is true that William Pitt once ruled the British Nation by his +voice, as good authority affirms, if it is true, that Daniel O'Connell's +voice + + Glided easy as a bird may glide, + And played with each wild passion as it went, + +may it not also be true that Starr King's clear, penetrating, musical +voice, answering to the moods of the soul as a loved instrument to the +hand of the player, was in itself a kind of gospel of good will to men? + +Horace Davis, Starr King's son-in-law, was accustomed to insist that +writers had wholly failed to note one element of the great orator's +power, namely, his humor. Not wit, Mr. Davis would remark, but a most +genial and kindly, and at the same time illuminating humor. A careful +examination of King's published sermons, speeches and lectures gives +but slight evidence of this gift, owing doubtless to false ideas of what +constitutes decorum in the work of a preacher. Occasionally satisfying +evidence is found of the truth of Mr. Davis' judgment, as in the +following: + +"On many a tombstone where it is written, 'Here lies so and so, aged +seventy years', the true inscription would read 'In memory of one who in +seventy years lived about five minutes and that was when he first fell +in love.'" + +Writing of his lecture work in California which he called "detestable +vagrancy," he says: + +"There is a great flood in the interior. California is a lake. Rats, +squirrels, locusts, lecturers, and other like pests are drowned out. I +am a home bird, and enjoy it hugely." + +King greeted the mention of his name as candidate for United States +Senator with the statement, "I would swim to Australia before taking a +political post," and added, "a dandy lives from one necktie to another, +a fashionable woman from one wrinkle to another and a politician from +one election to another." + +Certainly there is a smile, as well as a truth, in the following: + +"Our popular definition of a ghost is just the reverse of truth; it +makes one consist of a soul without a body, while really a specter, an +illusion, a humbug of the eyesight and the touch, is a human body not +vitalized through and through with a soul." + +"King was the best story teller of his time," thought Dr. Bellows. +"Gifted with an exquisite, a delicious sense of the ludicrous, and +given to bursts of uncontrollable merriment, happy as childhood and as +innocent," this is the verdict of one of his earliest biographers,--E. +P. Whipple. That sunny mirth and infectious laughter was no mean element +of his power over the people, we can readily believe. + +Another explanation of his far reaching influence both in the pulpit +and on the platform, is found in the rare skill with which he made the +discoveries of science, and the beauties of nature, serve his need as +a teacher of morals and religion. And here, again, he was helped by the +spirit of his age. Darwin's "Origin of Species" was published in 1859, a +kind of crown and culmination of a half century of brilliant progress in +science. Starr King but shared the temper of his time as he turned with +delight to the writings of the masters and reveled in the new universe +there revealed. Modern science, which troubled the faith of many, only +deepened and strengthened his own, as he idealized and spiritualized +each new wonder of earth and heaven. The comet of July, 1861, gave +noble opportunity to enforce in his pulpit the religious lessons of that +mother of all the sciences, Astronomy. "I am glad," he began, "at every +new temptation to consider in the pulpit and the Church the wonders and +laws of modern astronomy." + +"Does it ever occur to you, brethren, how we waste truth? Have you ever +felt what a sad thing it is that so little of the vast accumulation of +inspiring knowledge should reach our deepest, our religious sentiments, +to kindle and feed them? The most certain knowledge which men now hold +is that which is gathered from the sky. Astronomy, dealing with objects +thousands of millions of miles away, and with forces that rule through +limitless space, is the most symmetrical and firm of all the structures +of science which have been reared by the human mind. Immeasurably +more than David could have known, the heavens, as Herschel reads them, +declare the glory of God. Yet how seldom do we think of the splendors +and harmonies which a modern book of astronomy unveils as part of +God's appeal to our wonder; how seldom does the solemn light from the +uppermost regions of immensity, the light of nebulae which science has +broken up into heaps of suns, converge upon a human soul with power +enough to stimulate devout awe and make the heart bend before the +Creator of the universe." + +A few days at Lake Tahoe, when not a hundred white men had visited its +shores, inspired a sermon long remembered by those who heard it, +and today, after numerous nature-sermons by the world's most gifted +preachers, this discourse remains an almost perfect example of what such +a sermon should be. The following single excerpt must suffice to suggest +its beauty: + +"I must speak of another lesson, connected with religion, that was +suggested to me on the borders of Lake Tahoe. It is bordered by groves +of noble pines. Two of the days which I was permitted to enjoy there +were Sundays. On one of them I passed several hours of the afternoon +in listening, alone, to the murmur of the pines, while the waves were +gently beating the shore with their restlessness. If the beauty and +purity of the lake were in harmony with the deepest religion of the +Bible, certainly the voice of the pines was also in chord with it. + +"The oracles of Greece are connected with the oak. And the lightness, +the gaiety, the wit, the suppleness, of the Greek mind find in the voice +of the oak their fit representatives; for the oak, though so stubborn +and sinewy in its substances, is cheery and gay in its tone when the +wind strikes it. But the evergreen trees, though so much softer in their +stock, are far deeper and more serious in their music; and the evergreen +is the Hebrew tree. The Cedar of Lebanon is the tree most prominent +when we think of Palestine and the clothing of its hills. As I lay and +listened to the deep, serious, yet soft and welcome sound of those pines +by the lake shore, I thought of the inspiration of old which had wakened +such lasting and wonderful music from the great souls of Israel. When +we want knowledge or the quickening of intellect, we enter the groves of +Greece; when we would find quickening, when we would feel the deeps +of the soul appealed to, we enter the deeper and more sombre woods +of Palestine. The voice of the pine helps us to interpret the Hebrew +genius. Its range of expression is not so great as that of the oak or +the elm or the willow or the beech, but how much richer it is and more +welcome in its monotony! How much more profoundly our souls echo it! How +much more deeply does it seem to be in harmony with the spirit of +the air! What grandeur, what tenderness, what pathos, what +heart-searchingness in the swells and cadences of its 'Andante +Maestoso,' when the wind wrestles with it and brings out all its soul." + +To the graces and gifts we have mentioned it is but necessary to add +that King's gospel of religion was in itself a veritable glad tidings to +the people. Not a mere deliverance of doubt, or morality veneered +with icy culture, but faith clear, strong and radiantly beautiful. +His thought of God, of Man, of Immortality, was full of comfort and +inspiration. "God is the infinite Christ," he was wont to say. "Jesus +revealed under human limitations the mercy and love of the Father." + +King rivalled Theodore Parker in the strength and tenderness of his +faith that "man is the child of God." Saint and sinner, master and +slave, learned and ignorant, rich and poor, all are children of the +Infinite God,--born of His love ere the world was, certain of His love +when the world shall have passed away. He felt that if this is not true, +there is not enough left of religion to so much as interest an earnest +soul. Religion is everything,--the sun in the heavens,--or it is a +star too distant, faint and cold, to cast upon our path a single ray of +light. + +And the unseen world! How very real it was to this man of faith and +prayer. The immortal life is the life. These earthly years but lead us +thither. Such was his faith. In excess of world-wisdom we say, +"Eternity is here and now." Well and good. But if we lose for a kind of +technicality the dear old trust in a higher and nobler life beyond +the swift-coming night of death, what have we gained? Said our beloved +preacher, our "Saint of the Pacific Coast," as he lay dying, "I see +a great future before me." Without that vision he would not have been +Starr King. + + + + +Part V. In Retrospect + + +Above that of all other men the fame of the orator is transient. +Eloquence may be "logic on fire" as Dr. Lyman Beecher defined it. +Oratory may be, as Emerson said, "the noblest expression of purely +personal energy." But it is so far personal, so allied to grace of +gesture, to charm of manner, to melody of voice, to perfection of +speech, to a commanding presence, that it carries to the future but a +fraction of its power. The cold type and the insentiate page constitute +at best only the record of nature's rarest gift. + +Moreover oratory today is at its ebb, as it has been a hundred times +before, and with us the man of eloquence passes to quick oblivion. It +would be futile to deny that the common fate of orators has overtaken +Starr King. Even in California the present generation knows painfully +little of his great services to the State. This is the first serious +attempt, let us hope it will not be the last, accurately to measure the +extent and value of that service so nobly rendered. It is gratifying, +however, to recall that Californians of his own time, and the years +immediately following, paid ample tribute to his work and his memory. +Extraordinary honors, such as never have been given to any private +citizen, were freely and lovingly accorded the patriot-preacher. + +On the evening of March 4, 1864, the day of King's death, the San +Francisco Bulletin, then, as now, one of the leading papers of the city, +contained the following tribute: + +"The announcement of the death of Rev. Thomas Starr King startles the +community, and shocks it like the loss of a great battle or tidings of +a sudden and undreamed of public calamity. Certainly no other man on the +Pacific Coast would be missed so much. San Francisco has lost one of her +chief attractions; the State, its noblest orator; the country one of her +ablest defenders." + +Scarcely forty years of age, a Californian only from 1860 to 1864, he +had in this brief period so won the hearts of men that in honor of +his funeral the legislature and all the courts adjourned, the national +authorities fired minute guns in the bay, while all the flags in the +city and on the ships hung at half-mast, including those of the foreign +consuls and those on the vessels of England, Russia, Hamburg, Columbia +and France. It is believed that in American history no private +individual has been so honored by the federal army and by foreign +nations. + +That Starr King's tomb might serve as a daily reminder to the people of +his unique devotion to Union and Liberty, a city ordinance forbidding +burials within certain districts of the city was set aside, and to +this day his grave can be seen close to one of San Francisco's busy +thoroughfares. Nor is this all. One of the giant trees of the Mariposa +bears his name and a proud dome of the Yosemite is called Starr King. +On the 27th of October, 1892, a beautiful and impressive monument +was dedicated in Golden Gate Park to his memory. Its base bears the +inscription: + +"In him eloquence, strength and virtue were devoted with fearless +courage to truth, country and his fellow-men." + +The dedication address was given by the Hon. Irving M. Scott, a leading +business man of San Francisco. Speaking with the care and sobriety the +occasion demanded, Mr. Scott made the following statement, which the +writer believes will also be the sober verdict of history: + +"We do not say that Starr King determined for California the course +which she pursued; but we do say that he was the most potent factor in +effecting that determination." + +"The most potent factor in effecting that determination," to establish +this beyond the possibility of cavil or denial, we have told here +once again his inspiring story. The fact that as late as 1913, the +Legislature of California appropriated $10,000 to place a bust of Starr +King in our National Capitol at Washington would seem to indicate +that the people have resolved that this man shall go down to latest +generations as par excellence,--"our hero." + +It would be natural, and entirely proper, to close by recounting the +numerous tributes that in the years since King's death have been paid to +his memory, in magazines, memoirs, speeches and poems, but it would seem +like sweetness too long drawn out. And, perhaps, few could resist the +feeling that no human being ever really deserved such "largeness of +love." But they seem so real, they ring so true, that the conviction +grows almost to a certainty that here was one who drew men to him by the +incarnate sweetness and nobility of his nature. "Doubtless," writes his +friend, and co-worker in the Sanitary Commission, Dr. Henry W. Bellows, +"he had his own consciousness of imperfection and sin--for he was human, +but I have yet to know and yet to hear the first suggestion of what his +faults and errors were." + +In no spirit of fulsome adulation did a prominent San Franciscan write, +on the Sunday following King's departure to "what lies beyond," these +tender words, "Bells sadly ringing this Sabbath morning remind me that +one pulpit stands empty; and that it must stand empty, to all intents +and purposes, until the church walls crumble, and pulpit, pillars, and +all are resolved into dust." + +Another prominent resident of the State, writing a half century +later,--seeing all after the sobering lapse of years, writing as though +the cloud of sorrow for his friend had never been lifted, thus pays his +sincere tribute of respect: + +"And so, in the prime of life, at the zenith of his achievement, before +its noon, this sweet, great soul passed away, leaving to those who loved +him, dust and anguish. Well do we remember that almost at his death a +minor earthquake shook the city, and men said, 'Even the earth shudders +at the thought that Starr King is dead.'" + +Of the many poetical tributes, two at least, are of permanent +significance. One by his friend Bret Harte, dear companion of those +great years in San Francisco, on "A Pen of Thomas Starr King," is at +once so penetrating and so just that it well deserves here a place: + + "This is the reed the dead musician dropped, + With tuneful magic in its sheath still hidden; + The prompt allegro of its music stopped, + Its melodies unbidden. + + But who shall finish the unfinished strain, + Or wake the instrument to awe and wonder, + And bid the slender barrel breathe again, + An organ-pipe of thunder! + + His pen! what humbler memories cling about + Its golden curves! what shapes and laughing graces + Slipped from its point, when his full heart went out + In smiles and courtly phrases. + + The truth, half jesting, half in earnest flung; + The word of cheer, with recognition in it; + The note of alms, whose golden speech outrung + The golden gift within it. + + But all in vain the enchanter's wand we wave: + No stroke of ours recalls his magic vision: + The incantation that its power gave + Sleeps with the dead magician." + +Could Starr King have been given the privilege of selecting his +poet-laureate we may be sure he would have named Whittier. For they were +both lovers of nature and of man. Both earnest abolitionists, intensely +patriotic, loving liberty and the rights of the humblest of God's +creatures, they were kindred spirits. So Whittier wrote not alone for +New England, not alone for East and West, but from the deeps of his own +loyal and gentle soul, as he penned, these beautiful lines: + + "The great work laid upon his two-score years + It's done, and well done. If we drop our tears, + Who loved him as few men were ever loved, + We mourn no blighted hope nor broken plan + With him whose life stands rounded and approved + In the full growth and stature of a man. + Mingle, O bells, along the Western slope, + With your deep toll a sound of faith and hope! + Wave cheerily still, O banner, halfway down, + From thousand-masted bay and steepled town! + Let the strong organ with its loftiest swell + Lift the proud sorrow of the land, and tell + That the brave sower saw his ripened grain. + O East and West! O morn and sunset twain + No more forever!--has he lived in vain + Who, priest of Freedom, made ye one and told + Your bridal service from his lips of gold." + +Whittier refuses to believe that King's life, though he lived but "two +score years" was a "broken plan." All who believe that life is of divine +ordering, our days, our duty, our destiny to the last hour will, with +resignation, accept this teaching of faith. To others it will seem +in the nature of an irreparable loss that one so good, and so greatly +useful, should have died so young. + +And though he met death with a smile, and said, "Tell my friends that I +went lovingly, trustfully, peacefully," yet it is true that he was +cut off in the midst of noble dreams of service he would still render +humanity. Some one has said that "aspiration, not achievement, is the +measure of human worth." If this be true, or partly true, we may not +pass in silence the unfulfilled ambitions of Starr King. + +His first great dream looked toward a career in Boston. He would found a +lectureship, somewhat like, yet most unlike, that afterward conducted by +Joseph Cook. How grandly he would have interpreted from such a platform +the spiritual significance of modern science is made evident in those +great lectures, "Substance and Show," "Laws of Disorder," and in those +memorable sermons dealing with natural phenomena. All the progress of +more than half a century has not rendered them obsolete. They can still +be read with pleasure and profit. + +King also planned, when leisure should be afforded him, a work in +philosophy. Something of permanent value to all thinkers and students. +One needs but to read King's lecture on "Socrates" to understand +how rich and valuable such a work would have been. Indeed, here are +paragraphs that could have been written only by one of philosophic +mood and habit of mind. How much of modern "New Thought Philosophy" is +expressed in the following: + +"Few acknowledge that thoughts are as substantial as things, that a +feeling is as real as a paving stone, that the soul is a congeries of +actual forces as truly as the body is, that a moral principle is as +persistent and fatal a thing as a chemical agent, and that, in the deeps +of the mind and of society, laws are at work as constant and stern +as those which spin the planets and heave the sea and poise the +firmaments." + +Accepting as the ground work of his philosophy such principles as these +King tells us that "Socrates came to the conclusion that the stone which +his chisel chipped was less substantial than the soul in every human +form: and that the beauty which his cunning carved into the block was +less charming and permanent than the beauty of truth, temperance, and +holiness, which faith and culture could leave upon the invisible essence +of man. He therefore resolved to abandon the lower for the higher art of +Sculpture, and instead of being an artist in marble to be a fashioner of +men." + +King's aptness for historical and philosophical generalization is quite +evident as we read: + +"Socrates was the father of a new method of study. His thoughts were the +seed corn of systems. His pupils were the teachers of centuries. Each +bump of his brain was the nucleus of a philosophical school. Hardly +had he left the world, than the strong and simple light he shed was +scattered in various hues by the prismatic minds that had surrounded him +or that succeeded him; and in almost every case,--as so often happens +when the strands of the solar beam are brilliantly dishevelled,--the +actinic ray was lost." + +In all our reading we have never met a description of the Grecian +philosopher so complete and accurate as one brief phrase in the lecture +from which these excerpts are taken, "Socrates, the slouchy ambassador +of reason." Or what could be truer of Socrates and Plato than to say +that "Arm in arm, the stately duke and the democrat of philosophy walk +down the lists of fame?" + +Read and re-read the closing paragraph of King's "Socrates" impresses +the thoughtful mind more and more by its depth and beauty, and we +ask,--what might not this man in his full maturity and in scholarly +leisure have contributed to enrich the philosophy of our time? + +"Down the River of Life, by its Athenian banks, he had floated upon +his raft of reason serene, in cloudy as in smiling weather, for seventy +years. And now the night is rushing down, and he has reached the mouth +of the stream, and the great ocean is before him, dim heaving in the +dusk. But he betrays no fear. There is land ahead, he thought; eternal +continents there are, that rise in constant light beyond the gloom. He +trusted still in the raft his soul had built, and with a brave farewell +to the few true friends who stood by him on the shore he put out into +the darkness, a moral Columbus, trusting in his haven on the faith of an +idea." + +It was an open secret among King's friends in California that he +meditated writing of the Yosemite as he had written of the White Hills +of New Hampshire. Had he done so that region of incomparable beauty +would have been known to the people of our country at least twenty years +earlier. What a volume it would have been, "The Beauty and Glory of the +Yosemite" by Starr King! What a vision he would have given us of that +mighty gorge; of the crystal clearness of Mirror Lake; of the majesty +of Cathedral Rock, of Sentinel Dome, or El Capitan; of the bright +waterfalls, Vernal and the Bridal Veil; or in exquisite artistry of word +painting how he would have pictured for us the wonderful coloring of the +Yosemite, the morning tints of gray, the perfect white of noon shading +into blue, the afternoon tinge of silver and gold, the sunset's gauze +of crimson, and then the varying shades of approaching night. But our +artist never lived to paint the picture for us, and are we not the +poorer? Is there any such thing in this sad world as superfluous genius? +Let our philosophers answer. At all events these were the noble and the +unfulfilled ambitions of Starr King. + +It would seem that of American statesmen Mr. King most admired Daniel +Webster. He never shared the feeling of his fellow abolitionists that +Webster's well-known longing to be President had caused him to be false +to liberty, but rather that the great "Defender of the Constitution" +endeavored to preserve the Union for the sake of liberty. As we have +already noted, when the Civil War broke out King found in the service +Webster had rendered the Nation some of his strongest arguments for the +Northern Cause. He was quite ready to accept the judgment of the English +publicist that "Webster was not only the greatest man of his age,--he +was the greatest man of any age." No doubt he had followed every stage +of that momentous career to the very end. All thoughtful Americans went +into retirement with Daniel Webster, and in his last sickness watched +in a kind of reverent awe as his life ebbed away. From the solemn death +chamber in Marshfield, his home by the stormy Atlantic, came tidings +of the great statesman's last moments, in which he repeated, again and +again, the Lord's Prayer and the Twenty-third Psalm. Loving friends bore +tearful witness to the pathos and heavenly beauty of the old words as +they fell from the trembling lips of the dying man, "Yea, though I walk +through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou +art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." + +If it be a coincidence, it is one of striking appropriateness that when +the last hour came to our foremost "Defender of the Constitution and +the Union," that with unclouded mind, here by the Pacific Sea, he, too, +should have passed to his rest, even as the older patriot, whispering +with untroubled faith, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Yea, +though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no +evil." "I will fear no evil," these were his last words, and it is good +to read that having so spoken, without a struggle or a pang, he entered +upon his exceeding great reward. His work on earth was done, and well +done. + + +Here ends Starr King in California, as written by Reverend William Day +Simonds, Published in book form by Paul Elder and Company, and seen +through their Tomoye Press by Ricardo J. Orozco in the city of San +Francisco, during the month of April, Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Starr King in California, by William Day Simonds + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STARR KING IN CALIFORNIA *** + +***** This file should be named 4641.txt or 4641.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/6/4/4641/ + +Produced by David Schwan + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +The "legal small print" and other information about this book +may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this +important information, as it gives you specific rights and +tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used. + +*** +This etext was produced by David Schwan <davidsch@earthlink.net>. + +Starr King In California + + + +By William Day Simonds + + + +Author of + +"The Christ of the Human Heart" +"Patriotic Addresses" +"Sermons From Shakespeare" + + + + +Dedicated to the Memory of Honorable Horace Davis of San Francisco as +the only Tribute of Respect Now Possible to one whose Friendly Interest +and Assistance the Author Here Gratefully Acknowledges + + + +Up to the time of Starr King's death it was generally believed that he, +more than any other man, had prevented California and the whole Pacific +Coast from falling into the gulf of disunion. It is certain that Abraham +Lincoln held this opinion + +Edwin Percy Whipple + + + +Contents + + + +Introduction + +Part I +In Old New England + +Part II +California in 1860 + +Part III +California's Hour of Decision + +Part IV +Philanthropist and Preacher + +Part V +In Retrospect + + + +Illustrations + +Starr King Monument + +Portrait of Starr King + + + +Introduction + + + +This book is the result of the author's strong desire to know the truth +relative to a critical period in the history of California, and a +further strong desire to deal justly by the memory of a man recent +historians have been pleased to pass by with slight acknowledgment. + +What was the nature and measure of Starr King's influence on the Pacific +Coast during the Civil War? To be able to answer that question has cost +more time and study than the reader could be brought to believe. It has +necessitated a thorough examination of all published histories of +California, of numerous biographies, of old newspapers, memoirs, letters +and musty documents. It has involved interviews with prominent persons +as well as a careful study of earlier writings upon Starr King in books +and magazines. Best of all it has compelled the writer to the delightful +task of renewing his acquaintance with the published sermons and +lectures of the patriot-preacher. + +It is believed that no important data has been overlooked, and it is +hoped that a genuine service has been rendered to all students of +California History, and to all lovers of Starr King - he who was called +by his own generation, "The Saint of the Pacific Coast." + + + +Part I +In Old New England + + + +When Starr King entered the Golden Gate, April 28, 1860, he had passed +by a few months his thirty-fifth birthday. A young man in the morning of +his power he felt strangely old, for he wrote to a friend just a little +later: "I have passed meridian. It is after twelve o'clock in the large +day of my mortal life. I am no longer a young man. It is now afternoon +with me, and the shadows turn toward the east." + +There was abundant reason for this premature feeling of age. Even at +thirty-five King had been a long time among the most earnest of workers. +Born in New York City, December 17, 1824, of English and German +ancestry, son of a Universalist Minister who was compelled to struggle +along on a very meager salary, the lad felt very early in life labor's +stern discipline. At fifteen he was obliged to leave school that by +daily toil he might help to support his now widowed mother and five +younger brothers and sisters. Brief as was his record in school, we note +the following prophetic facts: he displayed singular aptitude for study, +he was conscientious yet vivacious, he was by nature adverse to anything +rude or coarse. Joshua Bates, King's last teacher, describes the lad as +"slight of build, golden haired, with a homely face which everybody +thought handsome on account of the beaming eyes, the winning smile and +the earnest desire of always wanting to do what was best and right." + +This is our earliest testimony to the lovable character of the man whose +life-story we are now considering. It will impress us more and more as +East and West, Boston and San Francisco, in varying phrase tell again +and again, of "the beaming eyes, the winning smile, and the earnest +desire of always wanting to do what was just and right." + +A bread-winner at fifteen, and for a large family, surely this is the +end of all dreams of scholarship or of professional service. That +depends on the man - and the conditions that surround him. Happily +King's mother was a woman of good mind who knew and loved the best in +literature. Ambitious for her gifted son, she read with him, and for +him, certain of the masters whom to know well is to possess the +foundations of true culture. It is a pretty scene and suggestive - the +lad and his mother, reading together "till the wee small hours" +Plutarch, Grote's History of Greece, Bullfinch's Mythology, Dante and +the plays of William Shakespeare. Fortunately his mother was not his +only helper. Near at hand was Theodore Parker who was said to possess +the best private library in Boston, and whose passion for aiding young +men was well known. He befriended King as he befriended others, and +early discovered in the widow's son superior talents. In those days very +young men used to preach. Before he had reached his majority, King was +often sent to fill engagements under direction and at the suggestion of +Parker. The high esteem of the elder for the younger man is attested by +the following letter to an important church not far from Boston. + +"I cannot come to preach for you as I would like, but with your kind +permission I will send Thomas Starr King. This young man is not a +regularly ordained preacher, but he has the grace of God in his heart, +and the gift of tongues. He is a rare sweet spirit and I know that after +you have met with him you will thank me for sending him to you." + +This young dry-goods clerk, schoolmaster, and bookkeeper, for he +followed all of these occupations during the years in which he was +growing out of youth into manhood, was especially interested in +metaphysics and theology. In these, and kindred studies he was greatly +impressed and inspired by the writings of Victor Cousin, whose major +gift was his ability to awaken other minds. "The most brilliant meteor +that flashed across the sky of the nineteenth century," said +Sainte-Beuve. + +When Thomas Starr King was eighteen years old, William Ellery Channing +died. Of that death which occurred amid the lovely scenery of Vermont +upon a rare Autumnal evening, Theodore Parker wrote, The sun went toward +the horizon: the slanting beams fell into the chamber. Channing turned +his face toward that sinking orb and he and the sun went away together. +Each, as the other, left 'the smile of his departure' spread on all +around: the sun on the clouds, he on the heart." + +Channing's "smile on the heart," his pure philosophy, his sweet +Christian spirit so influenced King that his best sermons read not +unlike the large, calm utterances of Channing when he spoke on the +loftiest of themes. To other good and great men our student preacher was +deeply indebted. To Dr. Hosea Ballou (2d) for friendship and wise +counsel. To Dr. James Walker for the inspiration of certain notable +lectures on Natural Theology. Most of all to Dr. E. A. Chapin, his +father's successor in the Universalist Pulpit at Charlestown, Mass. Dr. +Chapin - but ten years King's senior - was then just beginning his +eminent career as pulpit orator and popular lecturer. He recognized the +undeveloped genius of his young friend, he knew of his earnest +student-ship, he delighted to open the doors of opportunity to him. It +was a gracious and honorable relation and most advantageous to the +younger man. Writing to a good Deacon of a neighboring church Chapin +said: "Thomas has never attended a Divinity School, but he is educated +just the same. He speaks Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and fairly good +English as you will see. He knows natural history and he knows humanity, +and if one knows man and nature, he comes pretty close to knowing God." + +In 1846 Chapin was called to New York, and through his influence Starr +King, then twenty-two years old, was installed as his successor in the +pastorate of the First Universalist Church of Charlestown. If his +preparedness for an important New England pulpit is questioned it must +be admitted that he entered it wholly without academic training, but we +need not be distressed on that account. From the first he had adopted a +method of study certain to produce excellent results, thorough +acquaintance with a few great authors, and reverent, loving intercourse +with a few great teachers. Little wonder that the "boy preacher" made +good in the pulpit from which his honored Father had passed into,the +Silence, and wherein the eloquence of Chapin had charmed a congregation +of devoted followers. + +Two years pass and he is called to Hollis Street Church in Boston, a +Unitarian Church of honorable fame but at the time threatened with +disaster. It was believed that if any one could save the imperilled +church, King was that man. Not yet twenty-five years of age, established +as minister of one of Boston's well known churches; a co-laborer of +Bartol, Ballou, Everett, Emerson, Theodore Parker and Wendell Phillips, +- surely he is to be tried and tested as few men so young have ever +been, here in the "Athens of America," the city of beautiful ideals and +great men. + +It is certain that King regarded the eleven years he gave to Hollis +Street as merely preparatory to his greater work in California. Writing +playfully from San Francisco to Dr. Bellows in Boston he said: "At home, +among you big fellows, I wasn't much. Here they seem to think I am +somebody. Nothing like the right setting." The record shows that even +among the "big fellows" Starr King was a very definite somebody, for +although crowds did not attend his preaching in Boston as in San +Francisco, he was able to congratulate himself upon the fact that he +preached his last sermon in Hollis Street Church to five times as many +people as heard his first. Nor do we need to await the judgment of +California admirers to be convinced of his ability as a preacher or his +popularity as a lecturer. It was said of him that "he was an orator from +the beginning:" that his first public address "was like Charles Lamb's +roast pig, good throughout, no part better or worse than another." "His +delivery," says a candid and scholarly critic, "was rather earnest than +passionate. He had a deep, strange, rich voice, which he knew how to +use. His eyes were extraordinary, living sermons, a peculiar shake and +nod of the head giving the impression of deep-settled conviction. +Closely confined to his notes, yet his delivery produces a marked +impression." + +Hostile criticism, which no man wholly escapes, enjoyed suggesting that +King had been educated in the common schools of Portsmouth and +Charlestown, and that he had graduated from the navy yard into the +pulpit. A Boston correspondent passed judgment upon him as follows: "He +was not considered profoundly learned; he was not regarded as a +remarkable orator; he was not a great writer; nor can his unrivalled +popularity be ascribed to his fascinating social or intellectual gifts. +It was the hidden interior man of the heart that gave him his real power +and skill to control the wills and to move the hearts, and to win the +unbounded confidence and affection of his fellow-beings." + +William Everett is authority for the statement that in those early years +in Hollis Street Church "Starr King was not thought to be what a teacher +of Boston Unitarianism ought to be. He was regarded rather as a florid +platform speaker, one interested in the crude and restless attempts at +reform which sober men distrusted." Another reviewer mingles praise and +criticism quite ingeniously. "He astonishes and charms his hearers by a +rare mastery over sentences. He is a skilful word-marshal. Hence his +popularity as a lyceum lecturer. However much of elegant leisure the +more solid and instructive lecturers may have, Mr. King is always +wanted. He is, in some respects, the most popular writer and preacher of +the two denominations which he equally represents, being a sort of soft +ligament between the Chang of Universalism and the Eng of Unitarianism." + +This last criticism invites us to notice - all too briefly - a phase of +King's experience in New England fitting him most admirably for the +larger work he was to do on the Pacific Coast. From 1840 to 1860 the +Lyceum flourished in the United States as never before or since. Large +numbers of lecture courses, extending even to the small cities and +towns, were liberally patronized and generously supported. In many +communities this was the one diversion and the one extravagance. To fill +the new demand an extraordinary group of public speakers appeared; +Emerson, Edward Everett, Wendell Phillips, Dr. Chapin, Oliver Wendell +Holmes, George William Curtis, Henry Ward Beecher, Frederick Douglas, +Theodore Parker and others, whose names are reverently spoken to this +day by aged men and women who remember the uplift given them in youth by +these giants of the platform. + +That he was always wanted with such rivals as those is proof enough of +King's power with the people, of his fame as an orator, even before his +greater development and his more wonderful achievements in California. +His lecture circuit extended from Boston to Chicago. His principal +subjects were "Goethe," "Socrates," "Substance and Show," a lecture +which ranks next to Wendell Phillips' "Lost Arts" in popularity. Not +withstanding the academic titles King gave his lectures they seemed to +have been popular with all classes. "Grand, inspiring, instructive," +lectures," said the learned. "Thems' idees," said unlettered men of +sound sense. It was thought to be a remarkable triumph of platform +eloquence that King could make such themes fascinating to Massachusetts +farmers and Cape Cod fishermen. In fine phrase it was said of him that +he lectured upon such themes as Plato and Socrates "with a prematureness +of scholarship, a delicacy of discernment, a sweet innocent combination +of confidence and diffidence, which were inexpressibly charming." + +It may be claimed with all candor that few public teachers have ever +been able so to enlist scientific truth in the service of the spirit. +That spirit and life are the great realities, that all else is mainly +show, at best but the changing vesture of spirit, is set forth in King's +lectures so completely that he may be said to have made, even at this +early age, a genuine and lasting contribution to the thought of his +time. All this be it noted before he had set foot upon the Pacific +Coast, where he was destined to do his real work. + +One other service King had rendered the country, and especially New +England, should here be gratefully recalled. Always in delicate health, +he had formed the habit of spending his vacations in the White Hills of +New Hampshire. Benefited in mind and body, and charmed by the rare +beauty of a region then unknown, he endeavored to reveal to the people +of Boston, and other Eastern cities, the neglected loveliness lying at +their very doors. The result was King's "The White Hills, Their Legends, +Landscape and Poetry." Although this pioneer nature-book is now probably +quite forgotten, even by the multitudes who visit the scenes it so +glowingly describes, it is well to remember that it was, indeed, one of +the first attempts to entice the city dweller "back to nature." +Published in 1859, it followed Thoreau's at that time unread "Walden" by +only five years, while it preceded Murray's "Adventures in the +Wilderness," and the earliest of John Burroughs' delightful volumes, by +a full generation. It was in every way a commendable, if not great, +adventure in authorship. + + From this brief review it is evident that when Starr King preached his +last sermon in Boston, March 25, 1860, he had made for himself an +enviable reputation in three difficult fields of work, as preacher, +lecturer and writer. The feeling of Boston and New England upon his +departure was fittingly expressed by Edwin Percy Whipple in a leading +journal of the day in which this eminent author "appealed to thousands +in proof of the assertion that though in charge of a large parish, and +with a lecture parish which extended from Bangor to St. Louis, he still +seemed to have time for every noble work, to be open to every demand of +misfortune, tender to every pretension of weakness, responsive to every +call of sympathy, and true to every obligation of friendship; all will +indulge the hope that California, cordial as must be the welcome she +extends him, will still not be able to keep him long from +Massachusetts." + +On the day before he sailed from New York a "Breakfast Reception" was +given him at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, at which three hundred guests were +seated at the tables. The poet, William Cullen Bryant presided, and +other men hardly less distinguished testified to the nature of King's +work, and to the varied charm of his unique personality. Best of all, +perhaps, was the tribute of his friend and neighbor, Dr. Frederick H. +Hedge. "Happy Soul! himself a benediction wherever he goes; a living +evangel of kind affections, better than all prophecy and all knowledge, +the Angel of the Church whom Boston sends to San Francisco." + +Such was the man who came to California in the greatest crisis of her +history to exert upon her destiny an influence unequalled and unexampled +even in that most romantic and eventful story of the Golden West. + + + +Part II +California in 1860 + + + +The federal census of 1860 gave California 379,984 inhabitants and San +Francisco 56,802. Historian Bancroft informs us that here was "a +gathering without a parallel in history." It may be said that the whole +history and development of California is without parallel. The story +reads not so much like the orderly growth of a civilized community as a +series of unrelated and episodical events. There is little of logical +order or sequence, and much of surprise, adventure, of conflict and +crisis. Said an aged philosopher, "It is the unexpected that happens," a +saying illustrated if anywhere in the world, in the history of the +Golden State. + +Although discovered early in the sixteenth century by adventurous +Spaniards, no serious attempt was made at settlement of any portion of +the territory now included in the boundaries of California until the +year 1769, when Father Junipero Serra arrived at the Bay of San Diego. +Then followed a half century constituting the Mission Period of +California history, during which Spanish Governors and Franciscan Friars +ruled the land. Inspired more by religious zeal than by lust of +conquest, or hope of gain, the Spanish Padres planted a chain of +missions extending from San Diego to the Bay of San Francisco. At these +missions, consisting often, at the beginning, of nothing more than a +rude cross and altar, with some miserable make-shift of tent or huts as +protection from the heat of summer and the cold of winter, the faithful +priests labored to convert the surrounding Indians. They tried to make +of them not alone good Catholics, but good farmers, and vineyardists, +and according to the need of the time, capable carpenters and builders. +As the result of their labors a long period of simple prosperity was +enjoyed at the missions. Buildings were erected that still delight the +traveler. They were for the most part of Moorish architecture, built of +adobe, painted white, with red-tile roofs, long corridors and ever the +secluded plaza where the friar might tell his beads in peace. Around the +missions, some twenty in number, lying a day's journey apart between the +southern and the central bay, Indian workers cultivated immense fields +of grain, choice vineyards, olive orchards and orange groves; great +herds of horses, cattle, and sheep were cared for, and the women became +adept at weaving and spinning. Nor were the Spanish Governors idle. They +encouraged the immigration of settlers both from the mother country and +Mexico by a most liberal policy, assisting the newcomer to build a home, +acquire stock, and establish himself in a country where there was an +abundance of game, and where the earth yielded her bounty with the +minimum of labor. Thus in the half century between 1770 and 1820, these +Pius Padres laid the foundations of California, as they believed +securely, after Catholic and Spanish tradition. + +Not securely so it proved, for in 1822 Mexico won her independence from +Spain, both political and religious. The California Padres being +Spaniards naturally suffered persecution at the hands of successive +Mexican Governors, who were envious of the lands, orchards and herds of +domestic animals belonging to the various missions. Ruthlessly the +Friars were plundered of their well tilled fields, their fine vineyards, +their flocks and herds, and their Indian converts were enticed or driven +into the service of the new Masters of the country. Some of these +officials were of Spanish blood and some of Mexican but now they proudly +called themselves, Californians. And proudly they lived, these Spanish +and Mexican Dons. Owning immense tracts of land, riding upon fleet +horses, relieved of all necessity of honest work, they soon became in +their manner of living, veritable hidalgoes. + +Vain, ridiculously boastful, pleasure chasers, they loved above all else +the frolic, the dance, and a good horse. All the way from San Diego to +Shasta were located the immense ranchoes, more than six hundred in +number, ever since celebrated in song and story. This was the period so +often called by poetic writers the Romantic Age of California. Although +much of the glamor of the dear old days of plenty and pleasure has been +dispelled by the careful researches of conscientious scholars, it must +still be admitted that here also were developed certain characteristics +and here a kind of foundation for the future laid, ignorant of which we +can not understand either the California of 1860 or even the State as we +of today know and love it. If it is true that the first settlers in any +community leave a lasting impress upon after generations it is evident +that the Franciscan and Spanish background of California must be +reviewed as we approach the more serious days of American conflict and +conquest. + +Although the first American settler arrived in California in 1816 his +example seems to have been without effect for in 1822 there were but +fourteen persons not of Mexican or Spanish blood in all the province. In +the early '40's emigrants from the "States" began to come in parties, +but so slowly that by January 1, 1848, the entire population (not +including Indians) numbered only 14,000, and Yerba Buena (San Francisco) +the only Pueblo of any size contained barely 900 inhabitants. This be it +noted was but twelve years before the arrival of Starr King, so close +was the old aristocratic rule of Spain to that stirring conflict in +which he was to become a central figure. + +As we have already observed it is the unexpected that happens in +California history. In this same month of January, 1848, gold was +discovered in the upper Sacramento Valley, an event that rivals the +discovery of America by Columbus, if regarded in the light of results +affecting the development of modern society. "The Gold that Drew the +World" so Edwin Markham heads his story of that strange hegira which +converted far-away California into a new Mecca and made of San +Francisco, that sleepy Spanish Pueblo, in a few months' time a +cosmopolitan city of fifty thousand people. Two years earlier, as a +result of the Mexican War, California had been declared an American +Territory, though not formally ceded to the United States until February +2, 1848. It was generally believed that the Mexican War had been waged +and California acquired in the interest of negro slavery. James Russell +Lowell voices this belief in the Bigelow papers as follows: + +"They just wanted this California +So's to lug new slave states in, +To abuse ye and to scorn ye, +And to plunder ye like sin." + +However this may have been, it is certain that among the immigrants of +the fifty's there was a large number of forceful and brilliant men, +loving the old South, and fully determined to swing the new state into +line as a pro-slavery asset. It is true they were not strong enough to +prevent the adoption in 1849 of a constitution prohibiting slavery, yet +for all that, as Southern men they rejoiced when September 9, 1850, +California was admitted to the Union. + +It is no part of our purpose to give in detail the strange story of +California during her first ten years as an American Commonwealth. By +1850 her population had increased to 120,000 people, mostly young men +drawn by the lure of gold from every quarter of the civilized world, +including not less than 4000 Chinese. Yet the majority were Americans, +and of the Americans the larger number were from the slave states. Nor +was this condition much altered up to the outbreak of the Civil War. +Trustworthy authorities estimate that not less than forty per cent of +her entire population were at that time of Southern birth, naturally +Democratic in politics and for the most part pro-slavery in sentiment. +It should be remembered that during the decade under consideration the +national government was under the brilliant leadership of the +slave-masters who were ever alert as to the attitude of this new +Eldorado of the West. Consequently every position of trust and honor +under national control in California was given to "safe men" whose +attitude towards the "peculiar institution" was favorable beyond +suspicion. To such an extent was this a matter of public knowledge that +the Customs Station of San Francisco was popularly dubbed the "Virginia +Poor House." During all these years California was under the absolute +control of the Democratic Party, and the party was under control of its +Pro-slavery leaders. + +"The common people," says a late historian, "stood in awe for many years +of these suave, urbane, occasionally fire-eating and always well-dressed +gentlemen from this most aristocratic section of the Union. The +Southerners, born leaders of men, and with politics the paramount +interest in their lives, controlled both San Francisco and California." + +J. W. Forney, a politician and reporter of the time, is more emphatic +and declares that "California was a secession rendezvous from the day it +became a part of the Union." + +That the State was strongly Southern in sympathy is proven by the fact +that of fifty-three newspapers published within her borders only seven +advocated the election of Lincoln to the Presidency in 1860. A stronger +proof still is found in the character and conduct of the public men of +California during all the period under consideration. With one or two +exceptions, of whom honorable mention later, every official of any +importance, state or national, favored the South and voted in her +interest. This condition was partly due, without doubt, to the political +leadership of Senator Wm. M. Gwin. A Tennessean by birth, he was +forty-six years of age, when he landed in San Francisco, June 4, 1849. +Almost immediately active in politics he became the most brilliant and +unscrupulous leader California has ever had. He held the reins of power +and of national patronage until the war brought chaos to the old order +and always Wm. M. Gwin was a faithful servant of the old aristocratic +South of John C. Calhoun. He was ably seconded in his efforts to hold +California to the pro-slavery cause by David S. Terry, Chief Justice of +the State, and a fiery Texan, fearless and fierce in every conflict +which might affect adversely Southern Chivalry. After these +distinguished leaders there followed in monotonous succession Senators, +Representatives, Governors, Legislators, representing doubtless their +constituents in opposition to every movement looking to the abolition, +or even serious limitation of the slave power. + +The first man to challenge the almost solid cohorts of pro-slavery +Democracy in California was David C. Broderick, United States Senator +from 1857 until his untimely death in 1859. Broderick was the son of a +stone cutter and in early life followed his father's trade. Born in +Washington, D. C., he grew to manhood in New York City. When only +twenty-six years old he became "Tammany's candidate for Congress." He +was defeated and in June, 1849, he too arrived in San Francisco, +determined never to return East unless as United States Senator. +Plunging into the political life of the state as a loyal Democrat he was +sent almost at once to the legislature in Sacramento, where he speedily +became an influential member. In 1851 he was made presiding officer of +the Senate and by 1852 his leadership within the State was so firmly +established that it was said of him "he is the Democratic Party of +California." January 10, 1857, after years of bitter struggle, Broderick +was elected United States Senator, and the following March was duly +received as a member of that august body. From the first his had been a +strenuous career, he had been the storm center of heated contests, +personal and political, in which he had commanded the suffrages of his +fellows so completely that it was said, "men of all ages followed him +like dogs." He had made many bitter and unrelenting enemies, and now +that he had reached the goal of his ambition, he was to enter upon a +last dread battle, the most severe and deadly of all he had known. + +Stripped of all misleading complications the question then agitating +Congress and the country was simply this: Shall Negro Slavery be forced +upon the new territory of Kansas against the will of a majority of her +people? This, of course, was only preliminary to the larger question: +Shall the National Government, under lead of the Slave Oligarchy, be +given power to spread over new territory, at will, the blight and curse +of human bondage? Upon this foremost question of the day, Senator +Broderick stood side by side with Stephen A. Douglas in opposition to +the Buchanan Administration, and its mad attempt to force slavery upon +the people of the New West. The attitude of California politicians on +this matter is evidenced by the fact that the legislature in session at +Sacramento promptly instructed Broderick to vote for the administration +program, and a later legislature condemned him by resolution for failing +to comply with the instructions of its predecessor and declared that his +attitude was a disgrace and humiliation to the Nation. They demanded his +immediate resignation. Let it be noted clearly that Broderick was +condemned, not for opposing negro slavery, but simply and solely for +opposing the extreme southern contention. Not long, however, was +Broderick permitted to display his antislavery sympathies. During the +exciting campaign of 1859, David S. Terry, believing himself aggrieved +because of certain utterances of Broderick, challenged the latter to +deadly combat. Reluctantly, but thereto compelled by long usage in +California, Broderick met Terry upon the so-called "field of honor," +September 13, 1859. Three days later Broderick was dead, a sacrifice, so +all forward-looking men believed, to the wrath of the slave power. "His +death was a political necessity, poorly veiled beneath the guise of a +private quarrel." This was said at his funeral, and widely accepted +among the people. It has been claimed that the death of Broderick saved +California to the Union; that the revulsion of feeling following his +bloody death was so great that his beloved State became good soil for +the new teaching of Lincoln and the Republican Party. Generously one +would like to accept this theory were not the evidence so strongly +against it. To Broderick belongs the high honor of inaugurating the +fight on the Pacific Coast against the extension of slavery. In the +outset of that conflict he perished, and the manner of his taking off +gave to his message something of the force of martyrdom. But not to the +extent his admirers have imagined. It should be clearly noted that +Broderick believed in local self-government regarding slavery. He +believed that the people of Kansas, and the people of Virginia (as of +all other states) possessed the right under our national constitution, +of deciding this question for themselves without let or hindrance by the +general government. Farther than this he did not go. To the day of his +death, he was a loyal Douglas Democrat. It should be further noted that +in this last campaign of Broderick's life the pro-slavery Democracy +swept the State, its candidate for Governor being elected by a vote +nearly twice the combined vote of the Douglas and Republican candidates: +And, also, that a year after Broderick's death Abraham Lincoln polled +only twenty-eight per cent of the popular vote in California for +President of the United States. Whatever may have been the influence of +the Senator's brave conflict in Congress, or his untimely death, it is +evident that the crisis in California's attitude toward the Union had +not yet arrived, that the hour in which any man might change the course +of events still lay within the unknown future. + +The same may be said of the life and work of a still more brilliant +opponent of slavery on this Coast, Col. Edward D. Baker, a man of +phenomenal eloquence, with a well earned reputation as a successful +lawyer and politician, with an honorable record for gallant service in +the Mexican War, and for useful service in the House of Representatives +in Washington. When he located in San Francisco in 1852, an immigrant +from the great State of Illinois, he brought new strength to the +minority who were in conscience opposed to the growing dominion of the +Slave Power. For certain reasons, well understood at the time and which +do not concern us here, Col. Baker did not wield the influence which his +talents would naturally have secured for him. Yet as the contest +deepened, his majestic eloquence was beyond question a force for freedom +in a community where the love of oratory amounted to a passion. In the +Fremont Campaign, at the grave of Broderick, and in his own canvass for +Congress in 1859, he rendered most valuable service in laying the +foundations of Republicanism on the Pacific Coast. But it should be +remembered by all who would deal with those great days fairly that the +work of Edward Dickinson Baker at its best was only the work of a +brilliant forerunner. Before the real battle was on he removed from the +State, and as the newly elected United States Senator from Oregon, from +this Coast. It is true that on his journey to Washington a few days +before the National election in November, 1860, Baker delivered in San +Francisco an effective speech on Lincoln's behalf, but it is foolish +hero-worship to say, of California! Not only had Baker been defeated +overwhelmingly a few months earlier as Republican candidate for +Congress, but Lincoln himself received the electoral vote of California +only as the result of a three-sided contest in which the combined +opposition polled nearly three-fourths of all the votes cast. In fact +Lincoln distanced his nearest Democratic rival by only 711 Votes. Out of +one hundred and fourteen members of the state legislature but +twenty-four belonged to the party of Lincoln. The Congressional +Delegation was solidly Democratic, and the Governor was a Southern +sympathizer. Such was the condition after Baker's work was done in +California, and when the greater work of Starr King was just beginning. + +In justice to Colonel Baker, though it is no part of our duty here, we +make grateful mention of the fact that not on the Pacific Coast but in +Washington, as the friend and adviser of President Lincoln, and on the +floor of the United States Senate, this gallant defender of Union and +Liberty rendered a unique and memorable service to his country. His +replies in the Senate to those giants of the Confederacy, John C. +Breckenridge and Judah P. Benjamin attained the dignity of national +events, and his heroic death early in the war on field of battle renders +it forever impossible for any just man to belittle the deeds or +influence of Edward D. Baker. What he might have effected had he +remained in California, or had his life been longer spared, we may not +say. The fact remains that after his mission among us was over Southern +and Democratic sentiment was still in the ascendant. It was reserved for +another, - the privilege and the honor of "saving California to the +Union." + +One other phase of the situation merits careful attention. Almost from +the very beginning of American Settlement in California a dream of +Pacific Empire, separate and independent of "the States" had fascinated +many of her strongest men. And little wonder, for here by the Pacific +Sea was a vast territory walled away by lofty mountains and wide +deserts, two thousand miles west of the frontier settlements of +Minnesota and Kansas. Not until after the outbreak of the Civil War was +there telegraphic communication with the East, and the nearest railway +ended somewhere in central Missouri. Mail was received regularly once in +twenty-six days, sometimes as often as once in two weeks. But there was +little direct communication and less unity of purpose between the older +sections of the United States and far away California. In fact there was +considerable antagonism felt and expressed toward the government of +Washington. The original Mexican population cordially hated, and with +good reason, the national authority. Foreigners in the mines cared +nothing for the Union or the quarrel between the states, and many of the +settlers from the East, which they still lovlingly called "back home," +felt that they had a real grievance against the general government. This +feeling, which was of long standing, was naturally intensified by the +troubled outlook in 1860. Men prominent in state and national politics +openly advocated independence as the proper policy for the Pacific +Coast. + +"Why depend on the South or the North to regulate our affairs," wrote +our junior Senator from Washington. "And this, too, after they have +proved themselves incapable of living in harmony with one another." +Starr King had been a resident of the state nearly a year when the San +Francisco Herald published the following letter received from +Congressman John C. Burch: + +"The people of California should all be of one mind on this subject of a +Pacific Republic. Raise aloft the flag of the hydraheaded cactus of the +western wilds and call upon the enlightened nations of the earth to +acknowledge our independence and protect us from the wreck of a once +glorious Union." + +Governor John B. Weller, a man not only holding the highest office +within the gift of the people of the state, but also one who had +represented California in the United States Senate made deliberately +this declaration: + +"If the wild spirit of fanaticism which now pervades the land should +destroy the magnificent confederacy - which God forbid - California will +not go with the south or north, but here on the shores of the Pacific, +found a mighty republic, which may in the end prove the greatest of +all." + +These quotations which might be greatly extended are sufficient to prove +that a strong feeling existed in favor of a Pacific Republic standing +wholly aloof from the coming struggle. It is unthinkable that a Senator +and a Congressman, and especially the Governor of the State, should have +voiced such sentiments had there not been at least a probability that +this might be the course adopted in case the Union was broken up. + +James G. Blaine, whose history of the time must be regarded as impartial +so far as California is concerned, makes this statement: + +"Jefferson Davis expected, with confidence amounting to certainty, and +based, it is believed, on personal pledges, that the Pacific Coast, if +it did not actually join the South, would be disloyal to the Union." + +This beyond reasonable doubt was the situation in the Spring of 1860: +Our immense State with its coast line of more than seven hundred miles, +sharply divided as between Southern and Northern California; the +majority of our people in Los Angeles and neighboring counties frankly +favoring the proposed confederacy of slave-holding states; many of the +larger towns in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys of a similar +mind; the political leaders of the State almost solidly Democratic and +the majority with strong Southern leanings; many of our foremost men +believing that the time had come to launch the long dreamed of Pacific +Republic, and our ranches and mines containing a large population either +hostile or indifferent to the cause of Union and Liberty. Over against +these varied forces a probable patriotic majority scattered from one end +of California to the other, some belonging to the new Republican Party +and some to the Douglas Democracy, and many without party affiliation, +unorganized, badly scattered, and now that Broderick was dead and +Colonel Baker away, without competent leadership. If ever a situation +called for a man who might at once command the confidence of the people +and arouse the latent patriotism of our wide-spread population, a man +who might do the work of years in a few months' time, who might in his +own persuasive personality become a center of patriotism around which +Union-loving men of all parties, and of no party, could unite in defense +of the imperilled country; one unfettered by old antagonisms, or misled +by personal ambition, a heaven-sent man destined to a work no other +could accomplish - this the situation plainly demanded. + +The record, impartially examined, shows, we believe beyond reasonable +doubt, that California's destiny in this critical hour was chiefly +determined by the word and work of her patriot-preacher, Starr King. + + + +Part III +California's Hour of Decision + + + +The period that determined California's attitude during the Civil War, +coincides almost exactly with the first year and a half of Starr King's +residence in the State. Less than a month after he had preached his +first sermon in San Francisco, Abraham Lincoln received the presidential +nomination at Chicago, and the great debate was on. + +It should be remembered that King's reputation as a lecturer had +preceded him, and that he was hardly settled in his new home before he +was flooded with invitations to lecture here as he had done in the East. +As soon as possible, and as far as possible, he accepted these +invitations regarding them as calls to service in the interest of an +enlightened patriotism. Choosing as subjects such themes as +"Washington," "Webster," "Lexington and Concord," he made of them all a +plea for a united country, one glorious land from Maine to the Sierras. +He seems to have perceived the danger hidden in the perfectly natural +ambition of leading men to take advantage of the troubled time to launch +the Pacific Republic, and thus avoid all danger of the coming conflict +between North and South. A free, independent California, which should +practically include the entire Coast, - surely here was an inspiring and +seductive dream. By a method peculiarly his own he did not directly +combat this fascinating idea, but rather sought to win his hearers to +the larger vision of an empire extending from ocean to ocean, every mile +of it dedicated to liberty and progress. + +"What a privilege it is to be an American," he exclaims in a favorite +lecture, often repeated. + +"Suppose that the continent could turn towards you tomorrow at sunrise, +and show to you the whole American area in the short hours of the sun's +advance from Eastport to the Pacific! You would see New England roll +into light from the green plumes of Aroostook to the silver stripe of +the Hudson; westward thence over the Empire State, and over the lakes, +and over the sweet valleys of Pennsylvania, and over the prairies, the +morning blush would run and would waken all the line of the Mississippi; +from the frosts where it rises, to the fervid waters in which it pours, +for three thousand miles it would be visible, fed by rivers that flow +from every mile of the Allegheny slope, and edged by the green +embroideries of the temperate and tropic zones; beyond this line another +basin, too, the Missouri, catching the morning, leads your eye along its +western slope till the Rocky Mountains burst upon the vision, and yet do +not bar it; across its passes we must follow, as the stubborn courage of +American pioneers has forced its way, till again the Sierra and their +silver veins are tinted along the mighty bulwark with the break of day; +and then over to the gold-fields of the western slope, and the fatness +of the California soil, and the beautiful valleys of Oregon, and the +stately forests of Washington, the eye is drawn, as the globe turns out +of the night-shadow, and when the Pacific waves are crested with +radiance, you have the one blending picture, nay, the reality, of the +American domain! No such soil, so varied by climate, by products, by +mineral riches, by forest and lake, by wild heights and buttresses, and +by opulent plains, - yet all bound into unity of configuration and +bordered by both warm and icy seas, - no such domain was ever given to +one people." + +In many communities and in varying phrase - always earnest and eloquent +- King returned to the central theme of all his thinking and speaking, +the greatness and glory of the Union, - "one and indivisible." The +following but illustrates the constant tenor of his teaching: + +"If all that the past has done for us and the present reveals could +stand apparent in one picture, and then if the promise of the future to +the children of our millions under our common law, and with continental +peace, could be caught in one vast spectral exhibition, the wealth in +store, the power, the privilege, the freedom, the learning, the +expansive and varied and mighty unity in fellowship, almost fulfilling +the poet's dream of + +'The Parliament of man, the federation of the world,' + +you would exclaim with exultation, 'I, too, am an American!' You would +feel that patriotism, next to your tie to the Divine Love, is the +greatest privilege of your life; and you would devote yourselves, out of +inspiration and joy, to the obligations of patriotism, that this land so +spread, so adorned, so colonized, so blessed, should be kept forever, +against all the assaults of traitors, one in polity, in spirit, and in +aim!" + +In a way we may say that King found himself in these first months in +California. He was forced by the number of his engagements, as well as +by the more direct demands of a new country, to throw aside his +manuscripts, and, making such preparation as conditions would permit, +launch boldly out upon the dangerous sea of extempore speech. He was +constantly addressing audiences in whole, or in part, hostile. Writing +to an Eastern friend of his experiences in the Sacramento Valley, he +says, "You see in glaring capitals, 'Texas Saloon,' 'Mississippi Shoe +Shop,' 'Alabama Emporium.' Very rarely do you see any Northern state +thus signalized." Men of substance, natural leaders of the people, were +in most communities either for Breckenridge or Douglas. The man was +grappling with the intellectual soldiery of disunion. The same forces +that had transformed Lincoln, the Illinois politician into a national +figure, the standard bearer of a great party, were working upon King. +And the same method which caused Horace Greeley to write of Lincoln, "He +is the greatest Convincer of his day" was followed by the younger +patriot, face to face as he was with incipient disloyalty. He was +accustomed, even as Lincoln, to state his opponent's argument fully and +fairly, and then without unnecessary severity, demolish it. An old +miner, listening to one of Starr King's patriotic speeches, delighting +in the intellectual dexterity displayed, exclaimed, "Boys, watch him, he +is taking every trick." The necessity of "taking every trick," and this +so far as possible without offence, quickened his powers and led to the +full development of his many sided eloquence. + +How he was regarded during these early months when he had literally +plunged into the life of a community where nothing was as yet fixed, +where everything was in the making, where the most serious questions of +duty and destiny were stirring the hearts and consciences of men, - is +made clear to us by the testimony of contemporaries whose sole desire +must have been to render honor where honor was due. + +The latest and most complete history of California based upon the most +trustworthy evidence extant gives cautious tribute to the Starr King of +this period as follows: + +"The Republicans had lost their most effective orator since the campaign +of the preceding year, Colonel Baker, but his loss was in some degree +compensated for by the appearence of an unheralded but equally eloquent +speaker, Thomas Starr King, who arrived in April, 1860, and later toured +the state, giving lectures on patriotic subjects but always declared for +the Union and the Republican candidates as the surest guaranty of its +preservation. + +Tuthill, in his history of the time writes with more warmth, and +probably more truth: + +"There was a charm in King's delivery that few could resist. He was +received with applause where Republican orators, saying things no more +radical, could not be heard without hisses. Delicately feeling his way, +and never arousing the prejudices of his hearers, he adroitly educated +his audiences to a lofty style of patriotism. The effect was obvious in +San Francisco where audiences were accustomed to every style of address; +it was far more noticeable in the interior. + +The celebrated critic and writer, Edwin Percey Whipple, made a careful +examination of King's record in California and sums up his impressions +as follows: + +"As a patriotic Christian statesman he included the real elements of +power in the community, took the people out of hands of disloyal +politicians, lifted them up to the level of his own ardent soul, and not +only saved the state to the Union, but imprinted his own generous and +magnanimous spirit on its forming life." + +Writing a little later and with even more enthusiasm, another authority, +speaking of King's charm of manner, says: + +"I am persuaded that could he have gone through the Southern states, +shaking hands with secessionists, he would have won them back to their +allegiance by the mere magnetism of his touch." + +It is, perhaps, impossible at this late date to estimate the effect of +Starr King's appeal to the voters of California in the presidential +election of 1860. As we have already noted, Lincoln carried the State by +a very narrow plurality, and we need not ascribe the swaying of many +votes to the eloquence of King's advocacy to make it appear that his +influence was marked in that memorable campaign. + +But here must be emphasized a fact, quite often overlooked, and always +to the serious perversion of history. In California, as in every +doubtful state, the Hour of Decision did not precede, but in every +instance, followed the elevation of Lincoln to the presidency. It was +upon this rock that the nation split. Shall a Black Republican be +permitted to sit in the seat of Washington? Shall a man elected, as a +matter of fact, by a sectional minority rule over Virginia - mother of +Presidents - over imperial Texas, or the Golden West? To us the case +seems clear. Abraham Lincoln, who commanded 180 votes in the electoral +college to 123 divided among his opponents, was by our constitution +President-elect of the United States. To the men of that day the case +was by no means settled. The national bond was weak. The local, or state +bond was strong. It was a time of intense political passion. The +irrepressible conflict which had clouded the closing days of Henry Clay +and Daniel Webster must now be decided, either for, or against, the +extension of human slavery; either for, or against, a National Union. + +Well meaning, but mistaken, writers have claimed that California was +never a doubtful state, that the great majority of her people were ever +loyal to the Northern cause, to Lincoln and Liberty. As a matter of +sober truth let it be here written that the attitude of no state north +of Mason and Dixon's Line gave Northern leaders so grave concern. Nor +was the matter once for all decided until the election of Leland +Stanford in September, 1861, as the first Republican Governor of +California. During all the Spring and Summer of that great year the +battle waged with the issue, up to the last hour, uncertain. These were +the months that tried men's souls in California, as in the Border +States. Communities were divided. Party ties severed. Families broken +up. Old friendships sundered. All lesser questions were lost sight of as +Union, or Dis-union, became the all absorbing theme. The battle of +ideas, preceding the battle of bullets, was on. + +What was the state of public opinion in California? How runs the +evidence? + +In March, 1861, General E. V. Sumner was given command of United States +regulars on the Pacific Coast, replacing Albert Sidney Johnston, whose +well known attachment to the Southern cause led to his removal by the +Lincoln Administration. In General Sumner's reports to the War +Department in Washington we have impartial and official testimony as to +conditions in California during the period under consideration. +Naturally he came first in contact with the people about San Francisco +Bay, a majority of whom were loyal to the North, and consequently, +Sumner's first reports were encouraging. "There is a strong Union +feeling," he writes, "with the majority of the people of the state, but +the Secessionists are much the most active and zealous party." + +A little later, better informed, he reported: "The Secessionist party in +this state numbers about 32,000 men and they are very restless and +zealous, which gives them great influence." Still later: "The +disaffection in the southern part of the state is increasing and is +becoming dangerous, and it is indispensably necessary to throw +reinforcements into that section immediately." + +In this connection it should be remembered that when President Lincoln +at the outbreak of the war called for 75,000 men, California was +expected to furnish her quota of 6,000 soldiers, but so threatening was +the local situation that not a loyal man could be spared from the State. +On the contrary it was found necessary to retain in the State certain +regiments of the regular army badly needed elsewhere. In the summer of +1861, the War Department proposed to transfer a portion of the regular +army stationed in California to Texas, where the situation demanded +immediate succor for the friends of the Union. How grave the situation +had become in California may easily be determined by a fact which seems +to have escaped so far the attention of historians. On August 28, 1861, +the leading men of San Francisco sent a communication to Hon. Simon +Cameron, Secretary of War, remonstrating against the withdrawal of +United States troops from California for the following reasons: + +1. "A majority of our present state officials are avowed secessionists, +and the balance being bitterly hostile to the administration are +advocates of a peace policy at any price." + +2. "About three-fifths of our citizens are natives of slave-holding +states and are almost a unit in this crisis." + +3. "Our advices, obtained with great prudence and care, show us that +there are about 16,000 Knights of the Golden Circle (a secret military +organization of secessionists, said by many authorities to have been +much stronger than was at the time believed) in the state, and they are +still organizing even in our most loyal districts. + +4. "Through misrepresentation the powerful native Mexican population has +been won over to the secession side." + +This document, remarkable in itself, becomes weighty evidence, when it +is stated that after full and careful consideration, the petition was +heeded and the regulars remained on the Coast. + +General Sumner held command nearly a year, until, as we are accustomed +to think, all danger of a disloyal California was over, yet as the date +of his departure for the Army of the Potomac drew near, he was very +anxious that Col. Wright, an able and loyal officer, should fill his +place, and wrote to the authorities in Washington, "Col. Wright ought to +remain in command. The safety of the whole coast may depend upon it." +(italics ours). + +A few weeks after the death of Starr King, the Pacific Monthly, leading +magazine of the day, reviewed the situation at the beginning of the +great conflict, as it was then known and understood by all intelligent +Californians: + +"On the breaking out of the rebellion, public opinion on this coast was +sorely distracted at the issues raised. The great majority of the people +were warmly attached to their Government; but they had drunk deep at the +fountains of Southern eloquence, and had been measurably debauched by +the dangerous teachings of the able men who had ruled the state from its +infancy. When we consider the critical condition of public sentiment at +that dark hour (1860-1861); how the public mind had been thrown off its +poise by the false teaching of a long succession of political +charlatans; how the insidious doctrine of separation and a Pacific +Republic had been hissed by serpents into the ears of the people; how +the great dark cloud of impending ruin hung over our central Government; +how legions of armed patricides were almost battering at the gates of +our National Capital; how rebellion had baptized itself in blood and +victory at Bull Run - when we think how the effect of all these adverse +teachings and adverse fortunes had rendered the public mind plastic to +whoever had the genius to seize and direct it, and reflect that a man of +King's abilities, but without his patriotism, might have grasped the +opportunity to drift us upon shoals and rocks and quicksands of treason, +we cannot feel too thankful that the man and the hour both arrived. His +was a noble task, and nobly did he fulfill it. What he did for +California and the Union can never be fully estimated, - the work he +wrought in saving her to the country, and engraving upon her heart, the +golden word - 'Union'." + +Leaving aside for a little space this fervent tribute to King's work, +the quotation just given is evidence of a grave situation, of a state +divided in opinion, of just such an "hour of decision" as gives the +strong man his opportunity. There can be no doubt that the verdict of +the Visalia Delta, a loyal and well-known newspaper, as to conditions in +its own community would apply to every considerable town in the State: + +"Treason against the Government and constitution is preached from the +pulpit, printed in the newspapers, and openly advocated in the streets +and public places." + +A work just from the press, "California - Men and Events" - by Mr. G. H. +Tinkham, affords valuable testimony to the necessity and value of King's +mission as patriotic leader: + +"At a time when some Union men were paralyzed with dread, and others +undecided which way to turn, Thomas Starr King traveled over the state +bolstering up the weak-hearted, and urging loyal men to stand firmly for +the Union. In his lectures, 'Washington,' 'Daniel Webster,' 'The Great +Uprising,' and 'The Rebellion in Heaven,' in unanswerable arguments and +matchless eloquence he kindled the patriotism of the people into a +glowing flame. It is conceded that no individual did more to keep +California in the Union than did Thomas Starr King." + +How necessary it was that some one should "kindle the patriotism of the +people into a glowing flame" is further evident from the fact that the +California Legislature of 1861 numbered as its members 57 Douglas +Democrats, 33 Southern Democrats, and but 24 Republicans. What this +alignment signified may be judged from the following incident. Edmund +Randolph, (a former Virginian, and a man of fiery eloquence) on July 11, +1861, delivered unrebuked in the State Democratic Convention at +Sacramento, this diatribe against Abraham Lincoln: "For God's sake speed +the ball, may the lead go quick to his heart - and may our country be +free from this despot usurper, that now claims to the name of President +of the United States." + +A few days earlier, July 4, 1861, a Confederate flag waved undisturbed +in Los Angeles, as well as in other nearby towns, the Union men in that +section being largely in the minority. For a considerable time in the +United States Marshal's office in San Francisco, a Confederate flag +waved from a miniature man-of-war named "Jeff Davis." + +In Merced County, Union men were in a sorry minority! A favorite +campaign song in that region was entitled, "We'll Drive the Bloody +Tyrant Lincoln From Our Dear Native Soil." A little later, the Equal +Rights Expositer of Visalia characterized President Lincoln as "a narrow +minded bigot, an unprincipled demagogue, and a drivelling, idiotic, +imbecile creature." + +Unpleasant testimony of this sort, demonstrating the presence and power +of a bitter spirit of disloyalty, running all through the State, but +most in evidence in certain localities peopled from the South, might be +given at great length. But enough. We have no wish to reproduce the evil +passions of an evil time further than to make it absolutely clear that a +real danger of disunion existed, and that friend and foe alike +recognized that, under God, the undaunted leader of Union sentiment in +California was none other than Starr King. + +A prominent San Francisco paper, indulging in the partizan speech of the +period, calling all friends of the Administration at Washington, +"Abolitionists," gave ungracious testimony to King's standing and +influence as follows: + +"The abolitionists are bent on carrying out their plans, and will not +hesitate to commit any act of despotism. If the constitution stands in +their way, they will, to use the words of their champion in this state, +Rev. T. Starr King, drive through the constitution." + +"Their champion in this state." The opprobrium rested upon him then; let +the honor be his now. This in simple justice to the truth of history. + +It is infinitely to be regretted that what men called "the irresistible +charm of his eloquence" cannot by any manner of speech be here +portrayed. If excuse is necessary let these words from King's lecture on +"Webster" plead for us: + +"Alas for the perishableness of eloquence! It is the only thing in the +higher walks of human creativeness that passes away. The statue lives +after the sculptor dies, as sublime as when his chisel left it. St. +Peter's is a perpetual memorial and utterance of the great mind of +Angelo. The Iliad is as fresh today as twenty-five centuries ago. The +picture may grow richer with years. But great oratory, the most +delightful and marvelous of the expressions of mortal power, passes and +dies with the occasion." + +Not wholly, for even in "cold type" some measure of the power and +persuasiveness of the orator's argument is suggested. It is easy to +imagine the force and fire of patriotism that must have glowed in such +words as these: + +"Rebellion sins against the Mississippi; it sins against the coast line; +it sins against the ballot-box; it sins against oaths of allegiance; it +sins against public and beneficent peace; and it sins, worse than all, +against the cornerstone of American progress and history and hope, - the +worth of the laborer, the rights of man. It strikes for barbarism +against civilization." + +The intense fervor of King's loyalty to Union and Liberty is seen in his +righteous indignation against an Oregonian who would not fight to save +the country unless he could be shown that his own personal interests +were involved. "For one wild moment," wrote King, "I longed to throttle +the wretch and push him into the Columbia. I looked down, however, and +saw that the water was clean." + +Think of the force of the following declaration uttered to men who meant +well, but were undecided: + +"The Rebellion - it is the cause of Wrong against Right. It is not only +an unjustifiable revolution, but a geographical wrong, a moral wrong, a +religious wrong, a war against the Constitution, against the New +Testament, against God." + +Thus did he condemn all forces within the State at war with liberty and +right. Stern words he used, - words that like Luther's were half +battles. Of peace-at-any-price-men he said: + +"The hounds on the track of Broderick turned peace men, and affected +with hysterics at the sniff of powder! Wonderful transformation. What a +pleasant sight - a hawk looking so innocent, and preaching peace to +doves, his talons loosely wound with cotton! A clump of wolves trying to +thicken their ravenous flanks with wool, for this occasion only, and +composing their fangs to the work of eating grass! Holy Satan, pray for +us." + +When the report reached California that Robert Toombs had said, "I want +it carved over my grave, - 'Here lies the man who destroyed the United +States Government and its Capitol,'" King replied, "Mr. Toombs cannot be +literally gratified. But he may come so near his wish as this, - that it +shall be written over his gallows, as over every one of a score of his +fellow-felons, 'Here swings the man who attempted murder on the largest +scale that was ever planned in history.' " + +That our orator knew how to be sarcastic as well as severe must have +been plain to those who heard him exclaim: + +"There are those who say that they are Union men, and in favor of the +Government, and yet they are bitterly opposed to the administration, and +cannot support its policy. But in a war for self existence, this divorce +is impossible. One might as well say at a fire, while his house is +beginning to crackle in the flames, 'I am in favor of this engine, I go +for this water; the hose meets my endorsement. Certainly, I am for +putting out the fire, but don't ask me to help man the brakes, for I am +conscientiously opposed to the hose pipe. Its nozzle isn't handsome. It +wasn't made by a Democrat.'" + +How ardently King longed for the liberation of the Blacks is seen in the +following, addressed in all probability more to the President of the +United States than to the people: + +"O that the President would soon speak that electric sentence, - +inspiration to the loyal North, doom to the traitorous aristocracy whose +cup of guilt is full! Let him say that it is a war of mass against +class, of America against feudalism, of the schoolmaster against the +slave-master, of workmen against the barons, of the ballot-box against +the barracoon. This is what the struggle means. Proclaim it so, and what +a light breaks through our leaden sky! The war-wave rolls then with the +impetus and weight of an idea." + +Closing his greatest patriotic lecture, most in demand by the public +along the entire Coast, "Daniel Webster," Starr King quotes Webster's +noble peroration in the "Reply to Hayne," "Liberty and Union, Now and +Forever, One and Inseparable," and in lofty strain of patriotic prophecy +announces that: + +"Mr. Webster's thought breaks out afresh in the proclamation of the +President that America is one and cannot be broken; it bursts forth in +the banners thick as the gorgeous leaves of the October forests that +have blossomed all over eighteen or twenty States; it shows itself in +the passion of the noble Union men of the South who will not bow to +Baal; it floats on every frigate that rides the sea to protect our +shipping; it leaps forth and brightens in the sacred steel which +patriots by the hundred thousand are dedicating, not to ravage, not to +murder, not to hatred of any portion of the southern section of the +confederacy, but to the support of the impartial Constitution, to the +common flag, to the majestic and beneficent law which offers to encircle +and bless the whole republic; it utters itself in the thunder-voice of +twenty millions of white citizens of the land, that in America the +majority under the Constitution must rule, and the public law must be +obeyed. + +"And when the work of the government shall be accomplished, - when the +stolen money of the nation shall be refunded; when hostile artillery +shall be with-drawn from the lower banks of the Mississippi; when the +flag of thirteen stripes and thirty-four stars shall float again over +Sumter, over New Orleans, over every arsenal that has seen it insulted, +over Mount Vernon and the American dust of Washington, over every State +Capitol and along the whole coast and border line of Texas; when every +man within the present limits of the immense republic shall have +restored to him the right of pride in the American Navy, and of +representation on common terms in the National Capitol, and of +citizenship on the whole continent; when leading traitors shall have +been punished, and the Constitution vindicated in its unsectional +beneficence, and the doctrine of secession be stabbed with two hundred +thousand bayonet wounds, and trampled to rise no more, - then the debate +between Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster will be completed, the swarthy +spirit of the great defender of the Constitution will triumph, and a +restored, peaceful, majestic, irresistible America will dignify and +consecrate his name forever." + +"A restored, peaceful, majestic, irresistible America," - this was the +vision that nerved King to herculean labor, to a most real martyrdom. +Condemned to the slow suicide of over-work, he gave his life a conscious +offering to freedom. "What a year to live in," he writes, "worth all +other times ever known in our history or any other." Again, - "I should +be broken down if I had time to think how I feel. I am beginning to look +old, and shall break before my prime." + +Why is the song so sweet, and why does it move us so strangely? The +singer's heart is breaking. Why is the word so effective? It is laden +with love and winged with sacrifice. A man is dying that others may live +in verity, not longer in shadow; a hero is suffering crucifixion that +the sad ages may a little change their course. Not only is it true that +the "blood of martyrs slain is the seed of the church," but it is also +true that a man never touches the heights of power until he has made a +total, irreversible, affectionate surrender to the cause he professes to +serve. When he has done this the cause becomes incarnate in the man; and +he speaks as one inspired. And this was the power of Starr King in that +great Summer and Fall of 1861 in California. Of course he did not speak +in vain. Leland Stanford, backed by a Union Legislature, was elected +Governor of California, and by October, King joyfully writing an Eastern +friend was able to say "the State is safe from southern tampering." + + + +Part IV +Philanthropist and Preacher + + + +"As a philanthropist, Starr King raised for the most beneficent of all +charities the most munificent of all subscriptions." These words were +spoken at the King Memorial Service held in the city of Boston, April 3, +1864. They call our attention to a unique service our Preacher-Patriot +rendered the cause he loved. + +It seems almost beyond belief that the North rushed into the Civil War +wholly unprepared to care for the Nation's Defenders, either in health +or in sickness. Transportation facilities were of the poorest! Young men +just from the home, the farm and the college were crowded into cattle +cars as though they were beasts, frequently with no provision whatever +for their comfort. And rarely were proper arrangements made for their +reception in camp. The bewildered soldiers stood for hours under +broiling southern sun, waiting for rations and shelter, while ignorant +officers were slowly learning their unaccustomed duties. At night they +were compelled to lie wrapped in shoddy blankets upon rotten straw. +Under such conditions these brave volunteers suffered severely and camp +diseases became alarmingly prevalent. But the miserable makeshifts used +as hospitals were so bad that sick men fought for the privilege of dying +in camp with their comrades rather than undergo the privations, and +sometimes the brutality of inexperienced and careless attendants in the +crowded and poorly equipped quarters provided by the government. The +largest hospital available contained but forty beds, and not one +afforded a trained, efficient, medical staff. Competent nurses, sanitary +kitchens, proper medicines, means of humanely transporting the sick and +wounded, all were wanting during early months of the war. + +This condition which the government did almost nothing to remedy led to +the organization of the United States Sanitary Commission. Strangely +enough the founder of this most necessary and timely organization, Rev. +H. W. Bellows, of New York, encountered the opposition of high officials +who deemed the whole plan quixotic. Even President Lincoln at first +regarded the Commission unnecessary and called it "a fifth wheel to the +coach." Brief experience, however, demonstrated that the government +could not provide all that was necessary for the soldier, either in +sickness or in health, and the Sanitary Commission became often the only +hope of brave men in dire distress. In fact, at this day, it is +difficult to see how the Northern cause would have triumphed at all but +for the widespread and wholly helpful activity of the army of Sanitary +workers. + +The greatest difficulty encountered by the leaders of this noble +philanthropy was to provide necessary funds. Again and again it seemed +that the work must stop because the heavily burdened people could give +no more. At sundry critical junctures California came to the rescue, and +made possible the continuance of this "most beneficent of all +charities." But at whose motion, and under whose influence? + +Fitz Hugh Ludlow says, "Starr King was the Sanitary Commission of +California." This is but slight exaggeration, for King made it his +peculiar mission to raise money as rapidly as possible for the suffering +soldiers. In the interest of the Commission he traveled to every part of +the Coast, and in the face of the greatest obstacles became the +principal factor in raising $1,235,000, about one-fourth of the entire +sum contributed by the country at large. Under the most favorable +circumstances this would have been a phenomenal achievement, but when we +learn that in 1862 a flood destroyed over fifty million dollars' worth +of property in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys; that California +shipping to the extent of six and one-half millions was also destroyed; +that in 1863 a drought entirely ruined the wheat crop, and made hay so +scarce that it sold for sixty dollars a ton, resulting in a stagnation +in business which threw thousands of men out of employment, in view of +these multiplied disasters, we wonder by what fire of patriotism and by +what charm of eloquence, Starr King drew from the people so large a sum +for use on distant battle fields. Old Californians still remember those +thrilling appeals which few could resist. We are almost led to believe +in the sober truth of such extreme eulogy as we find in "Lights and +Shadows of the Pacific Coast," by S. D. Woods, a venerable San +Franciscan, who vividly recalls King's heroic service in that far off +time: + +"King's personality was magnetic and winning. Gentleness radiated from +him as light radiates from the sun. No one could resist the charm and +fascination of his presence. It is hard to make a pen picture of his +face, for there were lines too pure, lights too fleeting to be caught by +words. In the poise of his head there was nobility and power +inexpressible. There was in his face the serenity of one who had seen a +vision, and to whom the vision had become a benediction. At the time of +his death he was the first pulpit orator in America, and without doubt +had no superior in the world." + +This large praise might lead to incredulity were it not for the +deliberate judgment of Rev. Dr. H. W. Bellows, that as an orator +"Beecher and Chapin were his only competitors. He was the admirer and +friend of both, and both repaid his affection and his esteem. He had the +superior charm of youth and novelty, with a nature more varied, and more +versatile faculties and endowments than either. He had a far more +artistic and formative nature and genius. His thoughts ran into moulds +of beauty." + +The judgment of California as to Starr King's unequalled service to the +State and the Nation was officially rendered when upon the announcement +of his death, the Legislature adjourned for the space of three days +after resolving "that he had been a tower of strength to the cause of +his country." + +Brilliant as was the record of King as the champion of the Sanitary +Commission in California it was by no means the beginning and end of his +philanthropic labors. The forlorn condition of the Chinese - as men +without rights of citizenship - stirred his sympathy and he made earnest +effort to secure for them such civic rights as belong to industry. The +cause of labor, seldom thought in those days to come within the scope of +a minister's interest or duty, commanded his eager attention, and he +improved every opportunity to declare his reverence for the world's +workers in earth, and stone, and iron. In a fine passage in a lecture on +"The Earth and the Mechanic Arts," he writes: + +"If we were to choose from the whole planet a score of men to represent +us on some other globe or in some other system in a great human fair of +the universe, it would not be kings, dukes, prime-ministers, the richest +men, we should appoint as ambassadors to show what our race is, and what +it is doing here, but the great thinkers, artists, and workers, the +thinkers in ink, the thinkers in stone and color, the thinkers in force +and homely matter, the men who are bringing the globe up towards the +Creator's imagination and purpose; and on this mission the leaders of +mechanic art would go side by side with Shakespeare and Milton, Angelo +and Wren, Newton and Cuvier. + +"In England, now, they are preparing statues of Brunel the engineer, and +the Stephensons, father and son, to be finished and erected about the +same time with those of Macaulay and Havelock. The nation is beginning +to bow to the occupations and the genius that have added to her power +ten thousand fold, - is beginning to bow to labor, noble, glorious, +sacred labor." + +Not alone in public pleas for unpopular causes but in private charity +King seemed tireless. "He had the rare facility in everything he said +and did of communicating himself; the most precious thing he could +bestow." We are told that a multitude in distress came to this +overburdened man. Ringing his doorbell they found entrance, and always +as they came back, the "step was quicker which was slow before, the head +was up which was down before, and the lips wreathed in smiles that were +sad before." + +Thus we can see that it was not solely his eloquent defense of liberty +and justice which caused a San Francisco journal, reporting his funeral, +to say, "Perhaps more deeply beloved by a vast number of our people than +any other who has lived and toiled and died among us." His good deeds +made him worthy of this, one of the most beautiful eulogies ever given +mortal man, "No heart ever ached because of him until he died." This was +Starr King the philanthropist, a friend to all who needed his +friendship. + +It would almost appear that in telling the story of "Starr King in +California" we were altogether forgetting that he did not come to the +State to influence its political action, or even to alleviate poverty +and distress. He came as a preacher of Liberal Christianity, and to +build up the church that had honored him with a call to its pulpit. Long +before he left Boston it was written concerning him, "That he loved his +calling, and that it was his ambition to pay the debt which every able +man is said to owe to his profession, namely to contribute some work of +permanent value to its literature." At that early period a +discriminating critic bears testimony, "that his piety, pure, deep, +tender, serene and warm, took hold of positive principles of light and +beneficence, not the negative ones of darkness and depravity, and - +himself a child of light - he preached the religion of spiritual joy." + +It was King's first and chief ambition to be an effective preacher. In a +letter, written in 1855, he says, "How we do need good preaching. Would +that I could preach extempore." A wish that six years later "came true" +in his San Francisco pulpit. In the inspiring atmosphere of his new +field, and under the stress of a great era, King cast his manuscript +aside, and though he made careful preparation, as every man must who +speaks worthily, he never again submitted to the bondage of the "written +sermon." To a man of King's gifts and temperament this was an immense +gain. Indeed, Bostonian Californians were a unit in declaring that +Easterners could have no conception of the man and orator Starr King +became in those last great years of his brief life. + +Speedily the little church in which he preached proved too small for the +throng of eager listeners who gathered to hear him, and on the 3d day of +December, 1862, the corner stone of a larger and more beautiful edifice +was laid. + +We shall find it no easy matter to analyze the sources of his power and +popularity. Often-times success and failure are equal mysteries. +Doubtless no small part of his triumph arose from the peculiar character +of the new society to which he brought talents that commanded instant +attention. The eager temper of the time fitted his sincere and earnest +spirit. It was a perfect adjustment of the man and the hour, the workman +and his task. + +No small part of his popularity arose from the fact that he insisted +upon his right and duty as a minister to discuss great questions of +state in the pulpit. The vicious gulf churchmen discover between the +sacred and the secular was hidden from his eyes. All that affected the +humblest of his fellow men appealed to him as part and parcel of the +'gospel of righteousness he was commissioned to preach. In the old +Boston days he had discussed freely in the pulpit such themes as the +"Free Soil Movement," "The Fugitive Slave Law," and "The Dred Scott +Decision." Burning questions these, and they were handled with no fear +of man to daunt the severity of his condemnation when he declared that +in the Dred Scott Decision the majority of the Supreme Court had +betrayed justice for a political purpose. It was not likely that such a +man would remain silent in the pulpit upon the so-called "war issues" of +1861. Early in that memorable year he boldly informed his people as to +the course he intended to pursue so long as the war lasted. He would not +equivocate and he would not be silent. Henceforth stirring patriotic +sermons, as the demand for them arose, were the order of the day in the +congregation to which he ministered. The character of these discourses +may be partly determined from such titles as, "The Choice between +Barabbas and Jesus," "The Treason of Judas Iscariot," "Secession in +Palestine," and "Rebellion Pictures from Paradise Lost." "After the +lapse of more than sixty years," so the Hon. Horace Davis assured the +writer, "I can distinctly remember the fire and passion of those +terrible indictments of treason and rebellion." + +"Terrible indictments" truly, and in the storm and tempest of the time +irresistibly attractive to men and women whose sympathies were on fire +for the Northern cause. King's patriotism won for him a liberal hearing +on subjects that otherwise the people would have declined to consider. + +But we must not forget that "our preacher" was endowed with that rare +and radiant gift, an altogether charming and persuasive personality. +Appearance, manner, voice, were all instruments of attractiveness, +fitting modes of expression to a gentle and noble spirit. When a friend +and comrade of King's earlier ministry was asked to name the preacher's +preeminent gift, he immediately answered, "his voice." The reply seems +trivial. Yet it was seriously spoken by one whose knowledge of King +during his Boston ministry was close and personal. William Everett, who +had listened to New England's renowned orators, to Emerson's sweet and +satisfying voice, and. to the music of Wendell Phillip's speech, said of +King, "His was one of the noblest and sweetest voices I ever heard." +Edward Everett Hale once wrote, "Starr King was an orator, whom no one +could silence and no one could answer." Says another, "There was +argument in his very voice. It thrilled and throbbed through an audience +like an organ carrying conviction captive before its wonderful melody." +If it is true that William Pitt once ruled the British Nation by his +voice, as good authority affirms, if it is true, that Daniel O'Connell's +voice + +Glided easy as a bird may glide, +And played with each wild passion as it went, + +may it not also be true that Starr King's clear, penetrating, musical +voice, answering to the moods of the soul as a loved instrument to the +hand of the player, was in itself a kind of gospel of good will to men? + +Horace Davis, Starr King's son-in-law, was accustomed to insist that +writers had wholly failed to note one element of the great orator's +power, namely, his humor. Not wit, Mr. Davis would remark, but a most +genial and kindly, and at the same time illuminating humor. A careful +examination of King's published sermons, speeches and lectures gives but +slight evidence of this gift, owing doubtless to false ideas of what +constitutes decorum in the work of a preacher. Occasionally satisfying +evidence is found of the truth of Mr. Davis' judgment, as in the +following: + +"On many a tombstone where it is written, 'Here lies so and so, aged +seventy years', the true inscription would read 'In memory of one who in +seventy years lived about five minutes and that was when he first fell +in love.'" + +Writing of his lecture work in California which he called "detestable +vagrancy," he says: + +"There is a great flood in the interior. California is a lake. Rats, +squirrels, locusts, lecturers, and other like pests are drowned out. I +am a home bird, and enjoy it hugely." + +King greeted the mention of his name as candidate for United States +Senator with the statement, "I would swim to Australia before taking a +political post," and added, "a dandy lives from one necktie to another, +a fashionable woman from one wrinkle to another and a politician from +one election to another. " + +Certainly there is a smile, as well as a truth, in the following: + +"Our popular definition of a ghost is just the reverse of truth; it +makes one consist of a soul without a body, while really a specter, an +illusion, a humbug of the eyesight and the touch, is a human body not +vitalized through and through with a soul." + +"King was the best story teller of his time," thought Dr. Bellows. +"Gifted with an exquisite, a delicious sense of the ludicrous, and given +to bursts of uncontrollable merriment, happy as childhood and as +innocent," this is the verdict of one of his earliest biographers, - E. +P. Whipple. That sunny mirth and infectuous laughter was no mean element +of his power over the people, we can readily believe. + +Another explanation of his far reaching influence both in the pulpit and +on the platform, is found in the rare skill with which he made the +discoveries of science, and the beauties of nature, serve his need as a +teacher of morals and religion. And here, again, he was helped by the +spirit of his age. Darwin's "Origin of Species" was published in 1859, a +kind of crown and culmination of a half century of brilliant progress in +science. Starr King but shared the temper of his time as he turned with +delight to the writings of the masters and reveled in the new universe +there revealed. Modern science, which troubled the faith of many, only +deepened and strengthened his own, as he idealized and spiritualized +each new wonder of earth and heaven. The comet of July, 1861, gave noble +opportunity to enforce in his pulpit the religious lessons of that +mother of all the sciences, Astronomy. "I am glad," he began, "at every +new temptation to consider in the pulpit and the Church the wonders and +laws of modern astronomy." + +"Does it ever occur to you, brethren, how we waste truth? Have you ever +felt what a sad thing it is that so little of the vast accumulation of +inspiring knowledge should reach our deepest, our religious sentiments, +to kindle and feed them? The most certain knowledge which men now hold +is that which is gathered from the sky. Astronomy, dealing with objects +thousands of millions of miles away, and with forces that rule through +limitless space, is the most symmetrical and firm of all the structures +of science which have been reared by the human mind. Immeasurably more +than David could have known, the heavens, as Herschel reads them, +declare the glory of God. Yet how seldom do we think of the splendors +and harmonies which a modern book of astronomy unveils as part of God's +appeal to our wonder; how seldom does the solemn light from the +uppermost regions of immensity, the light of nebulae which science has +broken up into heaps of suns, converge upon a human soul with power +enough to stimulate devout awe and make the heart bend before the +Creator of the universe." + +A few days at Lake Tahoe, when not a hundred white men had visited its +shores, inspired a sermon long remembered by those who heard it, and +today, after numerous nature-sermons by the world's most gifted +preachers, this discourse remains an almost perfect example of what such +a sermon should be. The following single excerpt must suffice to suggest +its beauty: + +"I must speak of another lesson, connected with religion, that was +suggested to me on the borders of Lake Tahoe. It is bordered by groves +of noble pines. Two of the days which I was permitted to enjoy there +were Sundays. On one of them I passed several hours of the afternoon in +listening, alone, to the murmur of the pines, while the waves were +gently beating the shore with their restlessness. If the beauty and +purity of the lake were in harmony with the deepest religion of the +Bible, certainly the voice of the pines was also in chord with it. + +"The oracles of Greece are connected with the oak. And the lightness, +the gaiety, the wit, the suppleness, of the Greek mind find in the voice +of the oak their fit representatives; for the oak, though so stubborn +and sinewy in its substances, is cheery and gay in its tone when the +wind strikes it. But the evergreen trees, though so much softer in their +stock, are far deeper and more serious in their music; and the evergreen +is the Hebrew tree. The Cedar of Lebanon is the tree most prominent when +we think of Palestine and the clothing of its hills. As I lay and +listened to the deep, serious, yet soft and welcome sound of those pines +by the lake shore, I thought of the inspiration of old which had wakened +such lasting and wonderful music from the great souls of Israel. When we +want knowledge or the quickening of intellect, we enter the groves of +Greece; when we would find quickening, when we would feel the deeps of +the soul appealed to, we enter the deeper and more sombre woods of +Palestine. The voice of the pine helps us to interpret the Hebrew +genius. Its range of expression is not so great as that of the oak or +the elm or the willow or the beech, but how much richer it is and more +welcome in its monotony! How much more profoundly our souls echo it! How +much more deeply does it seem to be in harmony with the spirit of the +air! What grandeur, what tenderness, what pathos, what +heart-searchingness in the swells and cadences of its 'Andante +Maestoso,' when the wind wrestles with it and brings out all its soul." + +To the graces and gifts we have mentioned it is but necessary to add +that King's gospel of religion was in itself a veritable glad tidings to +the people. Not a mere deliverance of doubt, or morality veneered with +icy culture, but faith clear, strong and radiantly beautiful. His +thought of God, of Man, of Immortality, was full of comfort and +inspiration. "God is the infinite Christ," he was wont to say. "Jesus +revealed under human limitations the mercy and love of the Father." + +King rivalled Theodore Parker in the strength and tenderness of his +faith that "man is the child of God." Saint and sinner, master and +slave, learned and ignorant, rich and poor, all are children of the +Infinite God, - born of His love ere the world was, certain of His love +when the world shall have passed away. He felt that if this is not true, +there is not enough left of religion to so much as interest an earnest +soul. Religion is everything, - the sun in the heavens, - or it is a +star too distant, faint and cold, to cast upon our path a single ray of +light. + +And the unseen world! How very real it was to this man of faith and +prayer. The immortal life is the life. These earthly years but lead us +thither. Such was his faith. In excess of world-wisdom we say, "Eternity +is here and now." Well and good. But if we lose for a kind of +technicality the dear old trust in a higher and nobler life beyond the +swift-coming night of death, what have we gained? Said our beloved +preacher, our "Saint of the Pacific Coast," as he lay dying, "I see a +great future before me." Without that vision he would not have been +Starr King. + + + +Part V +In Retrospect + + + +Above that of all other men the fame of the orator is transient. +Eloquence may be "logic on fire" as Dr. Lyman Beecher defined it. +Oratory may be, as Emerson said, "the noblest expression of purely +personal energy." But it is so far personal, so allied to grace of +gesture, to charm of manner, to melody of voice, to perfection of +speech, to a commanding presence, that it carries to the future but a +fraction of its power. The cold type and the insentiate page constitute +at best only the record of nature's rarest gift. + +Moreover oratory today is at its ebb, as it has been a hundred times +before, and with us the man of eloquence passes to quick oblivion. It +would be futile to deny that the common fate of orators has overtaken +Starr King. Even in California the present generation knows painfully +little of his great services to the State. This is the first serious +attempt, let us hope it will not be the last, accurately to measure the +extent and value of that service so nobly rendered. It is gratifying, +however, to recall that Californians of his own time, and the years +immediately following, paid ample tribute to his work and his memory. +Extraordinary honors, such as never have been given to any private +citizen, were freely and lovingly accorded the patriot-preacher. + +On the evening of March 4, 1864, the day of King's death, the San +Francisco Bulletin, then, as now, one of the leading papers of the city, +contained the following tribute: + +"The announcement of the death of Rev. Thomas Starr King startles the +community, and shocks it like the loss of a great battle or tidings of a +sudden and undreamed of public calamity. Certainly no other man on the +Pacific Coast would be missed so much. San Francisco has lost one of her +chief attractions; the State, its noblest orator; the country one of her +ablest defenders." + +Scarcely forty years of age, a Californian only from 1860 to 1864, he +had in this brief period so won the hearts of men that in honor of his +funeral the legislature and all the courts adjourned, the national +authorities fired minute guns in the bay, while all the flags in the +city and on the ships hung at half-mast, including those of the foreign +consuls and those on the vessels of England, Russia, Hamburg, Columbia +and France. It is believed that in American history no private +individual has been so honored by the federal army and by foreign +nations. + +That Starr King's tomb might serve as a daily reminder to the people of +his unique devotion to Union and Liberty, a city ordinance forbidding +burials within certain districts of the city was set aside, and to this +day his grave can be seen close to one of San Francisco's busy +thoroughfares. Nor is this all. One of the giant trees of the Mariposa +bears his name and a proud dome of the Yosemite is called Starr King. On +the 27th of October, 1892, a beautiful and impressive monument was +dedicated in Golden Gate Park to his memory. Its base bears the +inscription: + +"In him eloquence, strength and virtue were devoted with fearless +courage to truth, country and his fellow-men." + +The dedication address was given by the Hon. Irving M. Scott, a leading +business man of San Francisco. Speaking with the care and sobriety the +occasion demanded, Mr. Scott made the following statement, which the +writer believes will also be the sober verdict of history: + +"We do not say that Starr King determined for California the course +which she pursued; but we do say that he was the most potent factor in +effecting that determination." + +"The most potent factor in effecting that determination," to establish +this beyond the possibility of cavil or denial, we have told here once +again his inspiring story. The fact that as late as 1913, the +Legislature of California appropriated $10,000 to place a bust of Starr +King in our National Capitol at Washington would seem to indicate that +the people have resolved that this man shall go down to latest +generations as par excellence, - "our hero." + +It would be natural, and entirely proper, to close by recounting the +numerous tributes that in the years since King's death have been paid to +his memory, in magazines, memoirs, speeches and poems, but it would seem +like sweetness too long drawn out. And, perhaps, few could resist the +feeling that no human being ever really deserved such "largeness of +love." But they seem so real, they ring so true, that the conviction +grows almost to a certainty that here was one who drew men to him by the +incarnate sweetness and nobility of his nature. "Doubtless," writes his +friend, and co-worker in the Sanitary Commission, Dr. Henry W. Bellows, +"he had his own consciousness of imperfection and sin - for he was +human, but I have yet to know and yet to hear the first suggestion of +what his faults and errors were." + +In no spirit of fulsome adulation did a prominent San Franciscan write, +on the Sunday following King's departure to "what lies beyond," these +tender words, "Bells sadly ringing this Sabbath morning remind me that +one pulpit stands empty; and that it must stand empty, to all intents +and purposes, until the church walls crumble, and pulpit, pillars, and +all are resolved into dust." + +Another prominent resident of the State, writing a half century later, - +seeing all after the sobering lapse of years, writing as though the +cloud of sorrow for his friend had never been lifted, thus pays his +sincere tribute of respect: + +"And so, in the prime of life, at the zenith of his achievement, before +its noon, this sweet, great soul passed away, leaving to those who loved +him, dust and anguish. Well do we remember that almost at his death a +minor earthquake shook the city, and men said, 'Even the earth shudders +at the thought that Starr King is dead.' " + +Of the many poetical tributes, two at least, are of permanent +significance. One by his friend Bret Harte, dear companion of those +great years in San Francisco, on "A Pen of Thomas Starr King," is at +once so penetrating and so just that it well deserves here a place: + +"This is the reed the dead musician dropped, +With tuneful magic in its sheath still hidden; +The prompt allegro of its music stopped, +Its melodies unbidden. + +But who shall finish the unfinished strain, +Or wake the instrument to awe and wonder, +And bid the slender barrel breathe again, +An organ-pipe of thunder! + +His pen! what humbler memories cling about +Its golden curves! what shapes and laughing graces +Slipped from its point, when his full heart went out +In smiles and courtly phrases. + +The truth, half jesting, half in earnest flung; +The word of cheer, with recognition in it; +The note of alms, whose golden speech outrung +The golden gift within it. + +But all in vain the enchanter's wand we wave: +No stroke of ours recalls his magic vision: +The incantation that its power gave +Sleeps with the dead magician." + +Could Starr King have been given the privilege of selecting his +poet-laureate we may be sure he would have named Whittier. For they were +both lovers of nature and of man. Both earnest abolitionists, intensely +patriotic, loving liberty and the rights of the humblest of God's +creatures, they were kindred spirits. So Whittier wrote not alone for +New England, not alone for East and West, but from the deeps of his own +loyal and gentle soul, as he penned, these beautiful lines: + +"The great work laid upon his two-score years +It's done, and well done. If we drop our tears, +Who loved him as few men were ever loved, +We mourn no blighted hope nor broken plan +With him whose life stands rounded and approved +In the full growth and stature of a man. +Mingle, O bells, along the Western slope, +With your deep toll a sound of faith and hope! +Wave cheerily still, O banner, halfway down, + From thousand-masted bay and steepled town! +Let the strong organ with its loftiest swell +Lift the proud sorrow of the land, and tell +That the brave sower saw his ripened grain. +O East and West! O morn and sunset twain +No more forever! - has he lived in vain +Who, priest of Freedom, made ye one and told +Your bridal service from his lips of gold." + +Whittier refuses to believe that King's life, though he lived but "two +score years" was a "broken plan." All who believe that life is of divine +ordering, our days, our duty, our destiny to the last hour will, with +resignation, accept this teaching of faith. To others it will seem in +the nature of an irreparable loss that one so good, and so greatly +useful, should have died so young. + +And though he met death with a smile, and said, "Tell my friends that I +went lovingly, trustfully, peacefully," yet it is true that he was cut +off in the midst of noble dreams of service he would still render +humanity. Some one has said that "aspiration, not achievement, is the +measure of human worth." If this be true, or partly true, we may not +pass in silence the unfulfilled ambitions of Starr King. + +His first great dream looked toward a career in Boston. He would found a +lectureship, somewhat like, yet most unlike, that afterward conducted by +Joseph Cook. How grandly he would have interpreted from such a platform +the spiritual significance of modern science is made evident in those +great lectures, "Substance and Show," "Laws of Disorder," and in those +memorable sermons dealing with natural phenomena. All the progress of +more than half a century has not rendered them obsolete. They can still +be read with pleasure and profit. + +King also planned, when leisure should be afforded him, a work in +philosophy. Something of permanent value to all thinkers and students. +One needs but to read King's lecture on "Socrates" to understand how +rich and valuable such a work would have been. Indeed, here are +paragraphs that could have been written only by one of philosophic mood +and habit of mind. How much of modern "New Thought Philosophy" is +expressed in the following: + +"Few acknowledge that thoughts are as substantial as things, that a +feeling is as real as a paving stone, that the soul is a congeries of +actual forces as truly as the body is, that a moral principle is as +persistent and fatal a thing as a chemical agent, and that, in the deeps +of the mind and of society, laws are at work as constant and stern as +those which spin the planets and heave the sea and poise the +firmaments." + +Accepting as the ground work of his philosophy such principles as these +King tells us that "Socrates came to the conclusion that the stone which +his chisel chipped was less substantial than the soul in every human +form: and that the beauty which his cunning carved into the block was +less charming and permanent than the beauty of truth, temperance, and +holiness, which faith and culture could leave upon the invisible essence +of man. He therefore resolved to abandon the lower for the higher art of +Sculpture, and instead of being an artist in marble to be a fashioner of +men." + +King's aptness for historical and philosophical generalization is quite +evident as we read: + +"Socrates was the father of a new method of study. His thoughts were the +seed corn of systems. His pupils were the teachers of centuries. Each +bump of his brain was the nucleus of a philosophical school. Hardly had +he left the world, than the strong and simple light he shed was +scattered in various hues by the prismatic minds that had surrounded him +or that succeeded him; and in almost every case, - as so often happens +when the strands of the solar beam are brilliantly dishevelled, - the +actinic ray was lost." + +In all our reading we have never met a description of the Grecian +philosopher so complete and accurate as one brief phrase in the lecture +from which these excerpts are taken, "Socrates, the slouchy ambassador +of reason." Or what could be truer of Socrates and Plato than to say +that "Arm in arm, the stately duke and the democrat of philosophy walk +down the lists of fame?" + +Read and re-read the closing paragraph of King's "Socrates" impresses +the thoughtful mind more and more by its depth and beauty, and we ask, - +what might not this man in his full maturity and in scholarly leisure +have contributed to enrich the philosophy of our time? + +"Down the River of Life, by its Athenian banks, he had floated upon his +raft of reason serene, in cloudy as in smiling weather, for seventy +years. And now the night is rushing down, and he has reached the mouth +of the stream, and the great ocean is before him, dim heaving in the +dusk. But he betrays no fear. There is land ahead, he thought; eternal +continents there are, that rise in constant light beyond the gloom. He +trusted still in the raft his soul had built, and with a brave farewell +to the few true friends who stood by him on the shore he put out into +the darkness, a moral Columbus, trusting in his haven on the faith of an +idea." + +It was an open secret among King's friends in California that he +meditated writing of the Yosemite as he had written of the White Hills +of New Hampshire. Had he done so that region of incomparable beauty +would have been known to the people of our country at least twenty years +earlier. What a volume it would have been, "The Beauty and Glory of the +Yosemite" by Starr King! What a vision he would have given us of that +mighty gorge; of the crystal clearness of Mirror Lake; of the majesty of +Cathedral Rock, of Sentinel Dome, or El Capitan; of the bright +waterfalls, Vernal and the Bridal Veil; or in exquisite artistry of word +painting how he would have pictured for us the wonderful coloring of the +Yosemite, the morning tints of gray, the perfect white of noon shading +into blue, the afternoon tinge of silver and gold, the sunset's gauze of +crimson, and then the varying shades of approaching night. But our +artist never lived to paint the picture for us, and are we not the +poorer? Is there any such thing in this sad world as superfluous genius? +Let our philosophers answer. At all events these were the noble and the +unfulfilled ambitions of Starr King. + +It would seem that of American statesmen Mr. King most admired Daniel +Webster. He never shared the feeling of his fellow abolitionists that +Webster's well-known longing to be President had caused him to be false +to liberty, but rather that the great "Defender of the Constitution" +endeavored to preserve the Union for the sake of liberty. As we have +already noted, when the Civil War broke out King found in the service +Webster had rendered the Nation some of his strongest arguments for the +Northern Cause. He was quite ready to accept the judgment of the English +publicist that "Webster was not only the greatest man of his age, - he +was the greatest man of any age." No doubt he had followed every stage +of that momentous career to the very end. All thoughtful Americans went +into retirement with Daniel Webster, and in his last sickness watched in +a kind of reverent awe as his life ebbed away. From the solemn death +chamber in Marshfield, his home by the stormy Atlantic, came tidings of +the great statesman's last moments, in which he repeated, again and +again, the Lord's Prayer and the Twenty-third Psalm. Loving friends bore +tearful witness to the pathos and heavenly beauty of the old words as +they fell from the trembling lips of the dying man, "Yea, though I walk +through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou +art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." + +If it be a coincidence, it is one of striking appropriateness that when +the last hour came to our foremost "Defender of the Constitution and the +Union," that with unclouded mind, here by the Pacific Sea, he, too, +should have passed to his rest, even as the older patriot, whispering +with untroubled faith, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. Yea, +though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no +evil." "I will fear no evil," these were his last words, and it is good +to read that having so spoken, without a struggle or a pang, he entered +upon his exceeding great reward. His work on earth was done, and well +done. + + + +Here ends Starr King in California, as written by Reverend William Day +Simonds, Published in book form by Paul Elder and Company, and seen +through their Tomoye Press by Ricardo J. Orozco in the city of San +Francisco, during the month of April, Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Starr King in California +by William Day Simonds +******This file should be named skcal10.txt or skcal10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, skcal11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, skcal10a.txt + +This etext was produced by David Schwan <davidsch@earthlink.net>. + +*** + +More information about this book is at the top of this file. + + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. 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