The Dawson journal. (Dawson, Ga.) 1878-18??, 1886-01-28
have been picked out by ANYBODY

stranger name-born of q South
ern father and mother on the Del
aware Maryland peninsula, should
have been with the south in the
war, but, tor the reas N that de-
priyed us Of a good many others,
he threw his lot with New York
and Pennsylvania. He was a
Methodist parson, and what he
believed was his conscience put
him against elax side. He was
over so years old when the war
broke out, and had a charge some
where i'll Virginia. In those days
he could talk with whirlwind
power all through his own confer
ence and even in remote parts Of
the South he was famed for his
eloquenca. Rich churches in
Southern cities 'ba5daght him to
come to them, but that conscience
was always standing in the way.
He could do good, he SAID, among
the Virginia farmers, while per-
haps his most earnest efforts
might in another field prove but
the vanity ofF4inkli6g cymbals,
So long as he could get the nace5-
saries Of life he should heed 10
temptations in the way Of big sal
aries. From his early manhood
he had been disbslieyer III the
institution Of slavery, but after he
became a preacher he maintained
the strictest silence on that issue
till Just about the time Bob
Toombs made his last famous Sc
cession speech in the Senate and
gave notice OF his withdrawal.
Then Levin Shockley was of
sudden a changed man. On his
way from Washington Toombs
stopped over Sunday with an old
family friend in Shockley's Vir-
ginia town, and rode with the fam
lily to Shocklay's church, little
dreaming OF the scene he was to
witness ere the morning passed.
There was almost a sc0wl on the
preachers face as he strobe into
the little cabin Of church and
made his way up the main aisle
Of the pulpit He clutchei
newspaper in his hand, and 50
tightly did he clinch it that not
once during the opening hymn,
nor through the Scriptual reading,
nor yet while he prayed, did he
relinquish it. Had it been the
riza Of alifetlme not more close
" would 1t have been held. How
he prayed! How the congregation
half rose startled at his petitions!
How the hero of Georgia looked
askance ana showed signs of as
constituent at the earnest plead
ing that ensued like the cry of
parent for a loved one lest! How
full Of patriotism was every word
breathed! 1t was so said Ioombs
to me himself-it was an awful
prayer. But this was bat the
hint Of what was to come. Levin
Shockley never before preached
as he preached that day. His
text | have forgotten; it matters
little what Scriptual passage he
chose, for that paper,tightly clutch
Ell in his hand, was the real text
and that paper contained re-
port Of Bob Ioombs most recent
utterlncas. Wendill Phillips was
that day in d Virginia pulpit Lev
in Shockley had risen to new
height: he was oratQry ablaz'
He declared for himself openly
the ranke5t abolitionism. Men
rose to interrupt, but they dared
not; his words were dynamite.
He with whom Toomb5 had come
to church tried to protest against
what he regarded as not merely an
insult, but treason to State rights
and disloyalty to all that was best
and sacred to the South. What
he gained was confusion. hvec-
tive bursts in a hundred thousand
blunders, and Levin Shockley's
eloquence blazed forcar and fer
Ger, like cracking fumes that
scorm light sprays Of water, and
on and on he went denouncing
the SoutL's leaders as the Souths
chief foes.