The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-02 00:00:00

thickest of the battles fought in tho Church rind by it ;
and always have moved together in solid column. To
thine, questions of scholastic theology are mummeries
dry and attractionless; they aro practical, living in the
real present, dealing with questions which palpitate
with vitality. Temperance, foreign and home mis-
sions, the influence of commerce on public morality, the
conversion of young men, the establishment of theolo-
gical seminaries, education, colonization, abolition, the
political obligations of Christians: on matters such as
these do the Beechers expend their energies. Nor do
they disdain taking an active part in public affairs: one
of them was appointed at New York city to address
Kossuth on his arrival. What is remarkable is that,
though they have come in violent collision with many of
the abuses of American society, their motives have never
been seriously attacked. This exemption from the ordi-
nary lot of reformers is owing not only to their consist-
ent disinterestedness, but to a certain Yankee prudence,
which prevents their advancing without being sure of
battalions behind them; and also to a reputation the
family has acquired for eccentricity. As public speak-
ers they are far above mediocrity; not graceful, but elo-
quent, with a lively scorn of the mean and perception of
the comic, which overflow in pungent wit and withering
satire; and sometimes, in the heat of extemporaneous
speaking, in biting sarcasm. Their style of oratory
would often seem, so a staid, church-going Eeglithrnau,
to contrast too strongly with the usual decorum of the
pulpit.
Nino of the Beechers are authors. They aro known
to the reading and religious public of the United States,
by reviews, essays, sermons, orations, debates, and dis-
courses on a great variety of subjects, chiefly of
local or momentary influence. All of these pro-
ductions aro marked by vigorous thought; very
few by that artistic excellence, that conformity to
the laws of the ideal, which alone confer a lasting value
on the creations of the brain. Many of them are
controversial, or wear an aggressive air which is un-
mistakeable. Those which are of a durable interest, and
of a high order of literary merit, are six temperance
sermons by Dr. Beecher; a volume of practical sermons
by the same; the " Virgin and her Son," an imaginative
work by Charles Beecher, with an introduction by Mrs.
Stowe ; some articles on Biblical literature, by Edward
Beecher; " Truth stranger than Fiction," and other tales,
by Mies Catherine Beecher; " Domestic Economy," by
the same; " Twelve Lectures to Young Men," by Henry
Ward Beecher • " An Introduction to the Works of
'Charlotte Elizabeth," by Mrs. Stowe ; "The May
Flower," by Mrs. Stowe, being a collection of stories
originally published in the newspapers ; and " Uncle
Tom's Cabin." lam sorry not to be able to place in
this category many letters, essays, and addresses on edu-
cation, and particularly those from the pen of Catherine
Beecher. Before Mrs. Stowe's last book, her celebrity
was hardly equal to her maiden sister's. Catherine had
a wider reputation as an authoress, and her indefatigable
activity in the cause of education had won for her very
general esteem. I may add in this connexion that it is
to her the United States are indebted for the only exten-
sively useful association for preparing and sending
capable female teachers to the west. She had the
energy and the tact to organize and put it in suc-
cessful operation. Such is the family in the bosom
of which Mrs. Stowe's character has been formed.
We cannot dismiss in without pausing before the
venerable figure of the father, to whom the honour
of determining the bent of the children properly
belongs. Dr. Lyman Beecher is now seventy-eight
years old. Born before the American Revolution, he has
been, until recently, actively and ably discharging duties
which would be onerous for most men in the prime of
life. Ile was the son of a New England olackemith, and
was brought up to the trade of his father. He had ar-
rived at mature age when he quitted the anvil, and began
his collegiate studies at Yale College, Newhaven. A
certain eccentricity of manner and character, and sharp-
ness of repartee, having give rise to hundreds of amus-
ing anecdotes respecting Dr. Beecher. Harriet Beecher
was born in Litchfield about the year 1812. After the
removal of the family to Boston, she enjoyed the best
educational advantages of that city. With the view of
preparing Ivraelf for tho business of instruction, she ac-
quired all the ordinary accomplishments of ladies and
much of the 'jeering usually reserved for the stronger
sex. At an early ago she began to aid her elder sister,
Catherine in the management of a flourishing female
school, which had been built up
.by the latter. When
their father went west the sisters accompanied him, and
opened a similar establishment in Cincinnati. This city
is situated on the northern bank of the Ohio. The
high bill, whose point, now crowned with an observatory,
overhangs the city on the west, stretches away to the oast
and north in a long sweep of table-land. On this is
situated Lane Seminary—Mrs. Stow's home for eigh-
teen long years. Near the Seminary building, and on
tho public road, are certain comfortable brick residences
situated in yards green with tuft grass, and half con-
cealed from view by acacias. locusts, rose-bushes, and
vines of honeysuckle and clematis. These wore oc-
cupied by Dr. Beecher and the professors. There are
other residences more pretending in appearance, oc-
cupied by bankers, merchants, and men of fortune.
The little village thus formed is called Walnut Hills and
is one of ;the prettiest in the environs of Cincinnati.
For several years after her removal to this place, Harriet
Beecher continued to teach in connexion with her sis-
ter. She did so until her marriage with the Rev. Calvin
E. Stowe, professor of biblical literature in the seminary
of which her father was president. This gentleman was
already one of the most distinguished ecclesiastical sil-
vans in America. After graduating with honour at
13owdoin College, Maine, and taking his theological de-
gree at Andover, he had been appointed professor at
Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, whence ho bad
been called to Lane Seminary. Mrs. Stowe's married
life has been of that equable and sober happiness so
common in the families of Yankee clergymen. It has
been blessed with a numerous offspring, of whom five
are still living. Mrs. Stowe has known the fatigues of
watching over the sick bed, and her heart has felt that
grief which eclipses all others —that of a bereaved mo-
ther. Much of her time has been devoted to the educa-
tion of her children, while the ordinary household cares
have devolved on a friend or distant relative, who has
always resided with her She employed her leisure in
contributing occasional pieces, tales, and novettcs to
the magazines and newspapers. Her writings were
of a high moral tone, and deservedly popular.
Only a small portion of them aro comprised in the
volume " The May Flower " already mentioned.
This part of Mrs. Stowe's life spent iu literary pleasures.
family joys and cares, and the society of the pious and
intelligent would have been of as unalloyed happiness
as mortals can expect, had it not been darkened at every
instant by the baleful shadow of slavery. The " pe-
culiar institution" was destined to thwart the grand
project in I,fe of Mrs. Stowe's father and husband. For
a year all went on well. Lane Seminary was the pride
and hope of the church. Alas for the hopes of Messrs.
Beecher and Stowe! This prosperity was of short dun-
time The French Revolution of 1830, the agitation in
England for reform, against colonial slavery, fine and im-
prisonment by American courts of justice, of citizens who
had dared to attack the slave trade carried on under the
Federal nag, had begun to direct the attention of a few
American philanthropists to the evils of slavery. At
first, the discussion had been encouraged by the presi-
dent and professors of the Lane Seminary; but when
they saw it swallowing up everything like regular study,
they thought it high time to stop. It was too late; the
current was too strong to bo arrested. The commercial
interests of Cincinnati took the alarm; manufacturers
feared the loss of their southern trade. Public sentiment
exacted the suppression of the discussion and excitement.
Slaveholdera came over from Kentucky and urged the
mob on to violence. For several weeks there was immi-
nent danger that Lane Seminary, and the houses of Dr.
Beecher and Professor Stowe would be burnt or pulled
down by a drunken rabble. These must have been weeks
of mortal anxiety for Harriet Beecher. The Board of
Trustees now interfered, and allayed the excitement
of the mob by forbidding all further discussion of sla-
very in the seminary. To this the students responded
by withdrawing en maw. Where hundreds had been
there was left a mere handful. Lane Seminary was de-
serted. For seventeen years after this, Dr. Beecher and
Professor Stowe remained there, endeavouring in vain to
revive its prosperity. In 1850 they returned to the
eastern states, the great project of their life defeated.
After a short stay at Bowdoin College, Maine, Professor
Stowe accepted an appointment to the chair of biblical
literature in the Theological Seminary at Andover,
Massachusetts, an institution which stands, to say the
least, as high as any in the United States.
It is to this period Mrs. Stowe alludes, when she says,
in the closing chapter of her book For many years
of her life, the author avoided ell reading upon or allu-
sion to the subject of slavery, considering it as too pain-
ful to be inquired into, and one which advancing light
and civilization would live down." The terrible and
dramatic scenes which occurred in Cincinnati, between
1835 and 1847, were calculated to increase the repug-
nance of a lady to mingling actively in the miles. That
city was the chief battle ground of freedom and slavery.
Every month there was some event to attract attention
to the strife : either a press destroyed, or a house
mobbed, or a tree negro kidnapped, or a trial for free-
dom before the courts, or the confectionary of an
English abolitionist riddled, or a public discussion,
or an escape of slaves, or au armed attack on the
negro quarter, or a negro school-house razed to
the ground, or a slave in prison and killing his
wife and children to prevent their being sold to the
south. The abolition press, established there in 1835 by
James G. Birney, whom, on account of his mildness and
firmness, Miss Martineau called " the gentleman of the
abolition cause," and continued by Dr. Bailey, the mo-
derate and able editor of the National Era, of Washing-
ton city, in which "Uncle Tom's Cabin " .first appeared
in weekly numbers, was destroyed five times. On one
occasion the mayor dismissed, at midnight, the rioters,
who had also pulled down the houses of some coloured
people, with the following pithy speech:—" Well, boys,
lot's go home; we've done enough. Ono of these mobs
deserves particular notice, as its victims enlisted
osdeeply
the sympathies of Mrs. Stowe. In 1840, h
catchers, backed by tho riff rail' of the phaopnute,atatottnu,eakne(d
urged on by certain politicians and i
maiedreo.
Some For s oe
several
e thera
l
hi
days the city was abandoned to
hthoeusqeusarwteerrse inhawtleshd thdeowneegrboyes ou
k d Bac e ; negroes
The negro quarters were pillaged
the were
streets killed,
sad sacked
and crime.
houses
omweere afterwardshurot;
andwho
tabteteirmpmteudtutaoteddefebnoddiethseireapstropinertoty
'hoaun
dwioedmeonf wtree
ivoi
joelartieesd
rbeyeeriuvffieda;ns
and men, women, and children, were abducted
confusion, and hurried into slavery.—.
Daring her her long residence on the frontier of the slave
states, Mrs Stowe made several visits to them. It was
then, no doubt, she made the observations which have
enabled her to paint noble, generous, and humane, slave_
holders, in tho characters of Wilson, the manufaoturer,
Mrs. Shelby and her son George, St. Clare and his
daughter Eva, the benevolent purchaser at the New Or-
leans auction sale, the mistress of Susan and Emmelines,
and Symmes, who helped Eliza and her boy up the river
bank. Zara. Stowe has ()Nerved shivery iu every phw;1