Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-01-25
HENRY WARD BEECnER.

Tt is announced, says the Fort Madison.
| tIowa) Plain DsalT, that Henry Ward
Beecher is engaged in writing story for
Bonner's Ledger, having withdrawn all his
| lecturing appointments for the winter. or
course Bonner pays him more than 5000 4
night and Bonner will be the gamer, should
the outlay be over $4,000. through the
vastly increased circulation of his paper.
| Mr. Beecher is one of the most remarkable
and literally endowed men of the age.
| Twenty-Five years ago, in addition to his pa
| rochial labors, he edited an agricultural Jour
| nal with marked ability. 1t was the best
paper of the kind that Indiana ever had.
before or since When the Independent was
started Mr.. Beecher became the star con-
tributor, and though there we're four respon-
sible editors, men of marked ability, the
! public persisted in thinking that he was the
editor, because his spirit yitalized the paper.
| And when, because Of little misunder-
atanding between the editors and publisher,
| Mr.. Beecher became the responsible editor,
the leading editorials of that journal became
a character and power in the land, without
a parallel in the history Of journalism since
the publication of Junius letters in Wood
Jaifs Advertiser. This was in the early his
tory of the war, and what he did in prepar-
! rebellion no tongue can tell, no pen can de-
scribe.
His health failing he made q tour to Eu
rope, and on his way home, travelled the
British Isles, delivering those most wonder
full speeches which aroused the sympathy of
the popular heart and arrested the aggress-
i've measures of the ruling aristocracy. The
government had sent over special envoys,
Bishop Mellvaine, Bishop Hughes, Thur
low Weed, and others, but it is saying little
to affirm that he did more than they all, and
he private gentleman, on his own respoa-
Slblllty, and at his own charges.
The country, in its integrity and restored
prosperity, owes debt Of gratitude to Mr..
Beecher, more than to any other man, save,
always, Mr.. Lincoln and General Grant
Mr.. Beecher now appears in new role,
as novel writer, In competition with Dick
ems, Victor Hugo, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
and others, and it is said that he will fail
We shall see; and we mean to take Bonner
Ledger until the story is completed. Mr..
Beecher does not know how to fail. His
conceptions take on forms of beauty, as cool
ing bodies assume crystalization-spo
ously, and though among innumerable gems
there are some flaws, it should be remem-
bered that there are flaws also in the agate
and in the diamond.
Mr., Beecher's utterances are now nearly
all reported by the stenographer, and many
Of them published Few men have ever
lived who had brain power enough to bear
such draft, and some of these DAYS he
must fail, but the time Is not yet He is
only ffty-three years old. And his audi
ence-a sermon in the Independent, a SER
mon in the Ecdnlaesr, sermon in the Meth.
odist, and a serial story in the Ledger-is
innumerable the Ynpqng AmeEiea ef IA E"q
the broad expanse of continent.
Thirteen years ago we were told in the
city of New York, by prominent men, that
Mr.. Beecher had then passed the culmina-
ting point, and that his reputation was al
ready in the decadence, and it seems that
the prophets of evil are not all dead yet.
Mr. Bcecher has generally been esteemed
to be radical. and it is true that his mental
habitudcs and the elements of his intellect
ual convictions and emotional sympathies
are of the radical type, but he is Of late,
strange as it may seem to those who do not
know him, a conservative, as compared with
multitudes of his admirers and former coad-
tutors, and especially as compared with his
protege and successor in the editorial chair
of the Independent. His later and present
position IS not detechOn-ls hardly an IN
consistency 1t results from the natural ac-
ton and interaction Of his mental and emo
tional nature-his earnest conbativeness and
his generous magnanimity. He would not
be Henry Ward Beecher were it otherwise
For rebels in arms he knew only prompt,
speedy subjugation-for hefallen foe he is
in favor Of the most liberal terms compati-
bic with the public welfare. He may be in
Il L L i
tensely patriotic, the results of his labors
and Of his life afford the fullest attestation;
and if his supposed conservatism shall af-
ford him broader theatre of activity and
more humorous auditory, the country and
the world will be none the bsers.
The pendulum in its vibrations may touch
either extreme, but it will ind the centre of
gravity.