The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1863-05-23
A PERSONAL SKETCH.


Rev. 81. D. Conway, has gone to Eng
land TO lecture on the war and slavery. Mr..
Conway's claim to be heard on these sub
jects will be best appreciated by those to
whom his peronal history is best known.
reer from the N. Y. Tribune:
He was born in 1882 near fredericksburg,
Virginia, the scene of the recent battle. On
both his fathers and his mothers side he
was descended from and connected with
some of the oldest aud best families of Vir-
ginia and Notwithstanding among his
ancestors Thomas Stone, signero of the Dec
araLion of Independence, the late Judge
Daniel of the U. S. Supreme Court, Judge
Moncure of the Virginia Court of Appeals,
Judge Eustice Conway, and others not less
distinguished In 1846 he graduated at
Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania,
and afterward began the study of law, as
deputy clerk, under Col. Phillips. of Far
quer county, Virginia.
While thus engaged, Mr.. Conway became
interested in a plan for Introducing free
schools into Virginia, aud published a pam
phlet in favor of popular education, which
kindled the anger of the pro slavery leaders
| of the State, who saw the danger of too much
! light on such subject. Not long after he
took orders as minister under the Balti-
more Conference. In 1852, he left the
Methodist Church and went to the TheolOg
ical School at Cambridge, Mass. At the
same time his opiaions on slavery underwent
change, and be has ever since been its un-
swerving opponent. -
After graduating al Cambridge he was
called to the Unitarian Church at Washing
ton. His out-spoken hostility to slavery
created dissatisfaction among the pro-slavery
members of his church, and when Charles
Sumner, who was one of his hearers, was
assaulted by Brooks, Mr.. Conway's denunci-
alton of that cowardly outrage produced an
excitement which resulted in his dismissal
by ayote of the congregation. He thereupon
was invited to Cincinnati, accepted, and re-
manned in that city between six and seven
years.
When the rebellion broke into open war,
Mr.. Conway wrote and published 1.-THE
: Rejected Stone" book of singular original
ity and eloquence. 1t was extensively circu-
lated at the North, and was eagerly read by
the soldiers in the camps. President Lin
coin had so many sent him. that he remark
ed once that be had been fairly stoned with
. the Rejected Stone, and added that the book
was extremely able. It was follow ed year
after by ''The Golden Hour''-one of the
first publications in which it was clearly
asserted that Emancipation was the sure rem
edy for rebellion founded on slavery.
Like its predecessor, this book is senteptlous,
lin passioned and thoughtful, and had bril-
liant success. Mr.. Conway was now widely
known, and was urged to abandon the desk
: and take charge of a radical paper in Bos-
ton. He assented, resigned his Cincinnati
pulpit last summer. and has since edited the
Boston Commonwealth, leeturing also freely
and with great success throughout the loya
States. His lectures have the same charac.
teristics which secured attention and
admiration for his political writings. Wig
) orous in thought, not without grace ofstyle
; but far more remarkable for pointed anc
forcible than polished sentences. with al
, experience full of incidents, with extensive
knowledge and with convictions profoundly
earnest, Mr.. Conway as speaker is interest
ing and impressive, and has a sure hold OF
an intelligent audience. Few lectures ar
: more effective than that in which he des
) cribes the recent escape of his fathers slave
: from Fredericksburg, their arrival in Wash
: ingion, aud their journey under his eharg
a to Cincinnati, where they are now living il
; industrious freedom.
g Mr.. Conway goes to England to aid tn
s work of the English friends of the Unite'
s States who are striving to reunite the tw
: nations In those cordial relations which tn
J. teyents of the last two years have disturbed
!. His purpose entities him to be impartial
; heard, and his character, history, and sbilit
al e