The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-09-18
CONE OF THE KINGS JEWELS"
A Tribute to the Memory of the Late Bish-
op Pierce.


The mournful interest that has every
where been excited especially in the
South, among people of all denomina-
tions, by the news of the death of Bishop
Pierce is in measure explained in the
following warm tribute to his memory
written By member of the NeUs and
Courier staff, who owes his collegiate edu.
cation to the generosity of the Bishop:
Bishop George F. Pierce came from
good stock, and his lineage could be
traced back to the settlement of James
town. He was son of the world re-
nowned DR.. Lovick Pierce, who died in
1879, aged SO, and who has been preach
ing the gospel sixty.six years. Bishop
Pierce was "a at the time of his death,
and had been preaching nearly ffty-fve
years. Father and son have left great.
er impress upon Southern Methodism
than any other two men that ever lived,
not excepting the scholarly Wesley, who
was its founder, nor the awful and
anomalous orator Whitefeld, whose flute
like voice wooed sinners into listening,
while his arguments frightened them
into repentance The elder Pierce
learned to read after he was 81, and at
so was acknowledged to be the greatest
preacher of his denomination in America.
As a Methodist pulpit orator he was
never surpassed until his own son eclipsed
him. Bishop Pierce had all the advan.
tages of the schools, mind as clear as
a sunbeam and heart like the heart of
little child. He graduated at the uni
versity of Georgia in the same class with
Gen. Robert Toombs, with whom he
maintained most unreserved intimacy
up to the time of his death. Aside from
their transcendent intellects two men
more widely different never lived.
Their friendship, covering period of
nearly sixty years, is another illustration
of the affinity of extremes. Gen.
Toombs sought the good things of this
world, and be obtained them if any man
since Solomon has done 80. Ancestry,
wealth, Inherited and acquired, intellect,
social position, political preferment and
even personal attractions of the highest
order combined to make this man happy.
Last year in Washington, Georgia, where
he lived all his life, he was baptized and
received into the Methodist Church by
Bishop Pierce. That day he said:
Georges life (meaning that of the Bish.
op) has been perpetual sermon to me,
and the great mistake of my life was
leaving Christ out of my calculations"
As an orator, Bishop Pierce was both
made and born. As a bellies lettre
rhetorician he had few equals among
English speaking people. At the age of
80 be was pronounced by Henry Clay to
be "the most eloquent man in America"
He met with and was member of per-
haps as many distinguished deliberatiye
assemblies as any man that ever lived
and in every one without dispute he was
pointed out as the oratorical Corypheus
of them all. In debating tilt, whoever
was second be was first. He was versa.
tile to the last degree. He could be
May morning or September storm, as it
suited bim best. The first General
Assembly of his church to which he was
ever elected was the most historic; in its
debates he made for himself fame
which has climbed the mountains Of two
hemispheres and built for itself nest
beside the eagles. The Assembly was
the great General Conference of 1874,
which, to use the trite phrase, "Split tue
two Methodisms. Up to the meeting of
that Conference the Methodist Church
in the United States had been one organ
ic body. AS is we'll known it divided
upon the slavery issue. One of the
Southern bishops, Andrew, had married
lady who owned slaves, and the North
ern, especially the New England, dele.
gates urged that he must either manumit
the slaves or give up his Office 10 the
Episcopacy. The Southern delegates
stood by Bishop Andrew, and the two
sections divided as Methodists, at least.
When the papers announced the division
of the Methodist Church Daniel Webster,
who was then in the Senate, said it was
the first wedge of secession" 1t was
in the great debate on the resolution to-
expel Bishop Andrew that Bishop Pierce,
then young man of 80, distinguished
himself. One of the speakers, DR.. Peck,
having threatened that unless Bishop
Andrew was deposed for holding slaves
the New England churches would with
draw from the connection, Bishop Pierce
replied at some length and closed with
this sentence: "Let New England go;
JOY go with her and peace will stay be-
hind her; she has for many a year been
thorn in the flesh and an emissary of
the devil sent to buffet u.s." This is the
harshest sentence that has ever been re.
corded of him, and that was fully justi
fed by the provocation.
It is difficult for one who has never
been in Georgia to understand exactly
the extent of Bishop Pierce's influence
and popularity. The love-literal love
for this man was not more confined to
people of the same denomination than
it was to people of the same complexion.
1t is eaid of him that he never had an
enemy. Certainly he was every mans
FREUD Barring politics, he had more
influence than any fifty men in Georgia
when he died. His home, Sunshine"
is situated several miles from any station,
but immediately on the railroad. For
twenty five years it has been standing
order from the authorities of the road
that any train signalled must stop for the
accommodation of the Bisop and his
family. A man in Georgia once beat
another tor speaking dlSrespectiully OF
Bishop Pierce. Neither of them were
members of any church, and peither had
ever seen the Bishop.
While Bishop Pierce shone in debate
and was mighty in counsel, it was as a
''camp meeting preacher" that he was at
his best. Camp meetings have always
been distinctive feature of Methodism.
Bishop Pierce was their champion.
Camp meetings, as they once were, are
rapidly passing away, and their champi.
on is already gone. But they have be-
come a part of Methodist history. AT
these gatherings, all through the South.
ern States, for forty years past Bishop
Pierce's presence has been coveted, priced
and remembered. Humble as he was,
wherever he went he lowered above the
other nreachprs like Sanl ahove the ar.