The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1850-09-24
From the Baltimore Patriot
DEATH. OF BISHOP BASCOM.


Bishop Henry B. Bascom, one Of the Bishops
Of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, who
,ied OF Sunday last, at the residence Of the
Rev, Mr.. STEVENSON, in Louisville, KY, where
he had been a long time ill.
Bishop Bascom's illness arose from bilious
fever caught in Missouri some time since, while
on his first tour of duty in his office of Bishop,
Bishop Bascom's place in the Church South
cannot Easily be filled. He was man of great
energy. of great talents, of great fearlessness'
and, in the matter Of the church difficulty be-
tween the North and South, having taken sides
with the Sonth, he stood forth her admitted
leader. The celebrated pamphlet on the sub
iect setting forth the grounds which the South
meant TO maintain in the premises, was from
tie pen ofBishop Bascom, and was full OF Point'
Argument, and energetic defamation.
bishop Bascom was also editor OF the he'
view, which was published under the auspices
of the Methodist Church in the West, and he
contributed many powerful articles to it. But
it was as A pulpit orator that Bishop Rascom
shone. His style as writer was too stilty and
too ornate-it wanted ease and naturalness. -
He was always for saving keen things, and
wanted reposs Of style, if the expression may
be used. This same fault in measure follow
ed him into the pulpit Hewas never content
unless he was in the upper region, like the spr-
it of the storm, welding the lightning and speak
ING in the thunder. That varied gracefulness
and self.comrnand which distinguishes his ear
" and his fast friend, Mr.. Clay, that graceful
ness which, like the swallow, now skins the
lake and now darts into the cloud, Mr.. Bascom
had not. He wanted naturalness. He blazed,
aud coruscated, and startled, but he seldom
melted his audience. Wonder and admiration
often impressed them, but the tear seldom fol-
lowed. But in denunciation, in scorn, in the
terrors of the law, he was fearful. He could
seize infdeIity by the throat and shake the life
oct of it; or he could hurl against it the wrath
of Divine vengeance until it would call OIL the
mountains to cover it from an angry judge, but
he could not melt it into hopeful aud penitent,
vet trusting tears Hehad great elevation and
expansion Of mind, and delighted to expatiate
with unfettered and uncircumscribed wing
lie loved to dwell upon the beatitude of the
saved, or The unutterable misery Of the lost
and in the last category, the needless and the
reckless, and the criminal, would look as If the
cleuched fist Of the preacher was stamping on
their forehead their inevitable doom.
Bishop Bascom was man of remarkable
personal beauty and manliness He had the
ample chest which almost all orators have;
rounded neck supported head of classic mould;
thin dark hair cut close, shaded not at all his
ample forehead. which projected like wall
His eyes.were of dazzling blackness, and quail.
cd not before power, position or wealth, on the
contrary, they qaailed before him. He has been
heard to say that the only eye he ever met
which. made him feel its power was that of Aa.
ron Burrthat Gu one occasion, when that
fallen spirit WAS s-pointed cut to him in New
York, be stopped and gazed at him with Gu
riosity which forgotits courtesy. when the OF.
Tended and piercing glance which Brrr cast on
him caused him to pass on hurriedlv and abash.
ed. Bishop Bascom had Brilliant color, in
dicating the highest health, and at the same
time temperament of bilious tendency. 1t
has been often remarked thai he looked very
much like Mr.. Webster, though he was much
handsomer nian--without that look Of massive
intellectually in which the great constitutional
exponnder surpasses all other men. Bishop
Bascom was remarkably fastidious in his toilet,
and like Whitefeld set off his person to advan-
tage Many anecdotes are told Of him, and
some of the more rigid Of his church, in this
matter, but he did not obey the precept of st.
Paul, and paid no respect to their weakness"
He was fond of telling the story that an old
Dutch Methodist, who did not know him, and
at whose house he was to stop on his way to
fulfil an appointment, said to him, on learning
who he was: "Well, ifI had loaded my rifle to
shoot Methodist preacher, never should have
snapped at your
There was none of that preciseness about
him, which is often remarked in the bearing of
minister; OH the contrary it almost seemed,
SO marked was his bearing to the contrary, that
he somewhat affected dontcare of manner.
In his pulpit efforts he avoided every thing ike
what is called cant, aud what he called pathos.
All his life he said he had ende9vored to avoid
it; he certainly succeeded. He seemed like
statesman or lawyer, whom the stern reflection
ofPaul, "Wois me i'll preach not the gospel Of
Christ had driven. duty called, into the pulpit
Aud there ne stood, and there giOriuusiy he full
filled his high mission.
1t was Methodisn in earnest to hear Bishop
Baseom preach, and Methodism which Chester
field would have been compelled to respect, if
but for the high and c"urtly, yet Christian, bear
ing of it's advocate. He was the son of thun-
der, and like ST. Paul he bore himself to the en-.
cmies Of his faith bravely, yet with a touch of
consumInate address, like the Apostle before
FeStps Rishon Rascom bas fnl6llad bic mic