The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-18
WHITTIER AND THE PRO-SLAvERY
PULPIT.
The Springfield Republican, writing OF
the old battle against slavery, which
walked the powers of Whittier, says:


poured forth from his pen in those days when
the conscience of the whole nation seemed
dead under the spell of partisan politics, ana
the great dividing issue OF the national life was
ignored on every hand; when the churches
were, If not pro-slavery, certainly anything but
anti-elavery: when, indeed, Bishop Hopkins, OF
the Protestant Episcopal diocese of Vermont,
wrote ana Published an elaborate apology and
defense for ''the peculiar institution"
All this is true; it was true Of Bishop
Hopkins; it was true of Rev. DR.. Nathan
Lord, president of Dartmouth college, an
eminent divine of the Congregational
church: it was true Of Rev. DR.. Dewey, of
the Unitarian church: it was true of Prof.
Stuart, Of Andover Theological semi
nary; it was true of Rev. DR.. John Wheel
er, president of the University of Yer
mont; it was true of every church at the
North save the Methodist and Baptist;
these great popular churches split asunder
on the question of slavery. In justice to
the Episcopal Church North it should be
said that Bishop Hopkins did not speak
for his church, but out OF the mouth OF
several of its ablest pulpits was most
sharply rebuked.
In December, 1860, when South Carolina
seeded, number of Northern men with
Southern principles residing in New York
city addressed letter to the late Bishop
Hopkins, of the Episcopal church, asking
him to give the public his views on the
subject of secession. Bishop Hopkins
might have stood for the original Of the
Northern clergyman whom Whittier pic
lures as helping to arrest fugitive slave
woman and excusing himself to his con-
gregation by saying in snuffling tones of
pietistic apology:
"As Paul sent back Onesimus,
My Christian friends, We send her."
Bishop Hopkins complied with tho re-
quest of the New York believers in the
divine origin of human slavery by issuing
a pamphlet in January, 1861, which de-
Tended secession and the so-called divine
origin of human slavery with fervor that
must have entirely satisfied every pro-
slavery man from ex-President Pierce In
New Hampshire to Bob Toombs in
Georgia. The leaders of the Protestant
Episcopal church at the North were
justly indignant, and Bishop Potter,
OF Pennsylvania, promptly answered the
pamphlet OF Bishop Hopkins, declaring
that the vast majority Of his church at the
North repudiated secession and the So
called "Bible" view of slavery, and re-
buked Bishop Hopkins for throwing his
influence at SO critical time against the
Union and the flag. Bishop Hopkins re-
piled by issuing still more elaborate de-
Tense of secession and slavery, and ex-
pressed his contempt for Bishop Potter by
saying that he (Hopkins) would rather be
"Apollo in the dust" than be what Potter
was-"a Silenus on pedestal;" which re-
mark, considering that Silenus was .
drunken old Satyr, was worthy of the
most vituperative days Of the church mill
tant.
By this time the Episcopal church of the
North had become thoroughly aroused,
and determined that Bishop Hopkins
should be effectually silenced, SO the Rev.
DR.. Goodwin, one of the ablest and most
learned divines of the diocese of Pennsyl-
vania, was requested to answer Bishop
Hopkins book, "Bible View of Slavery"
DR.. Goodwin consented, and when his re-
ply appeared and people read it there was
nothing left Of Bishop Hopkins. who had
small, superficial learning. whether his.
torical or ecclesiastical. and no logic, while
DR.. Goodwin had learning, logic, wit,
humor and satire in ample abundance.
When DR.. Goodwin got through with
+ Bishop Hopkins the condition of that per-
fervid old defender of secession and slavery
was such as to be understood by the fol-
lowing little story:
"Where," inquired the foreman of . gang OF
men, directly after explosion, "where 10
Patrick McGuire?'
eyer honor" said one of the gang advancing
with measured steps, "this 10 his hat"
but WHERE" Insisted the foreman, "is the
rest of him?"
"ier HONOR" WAS the reply, al think he will
come down in about two minutes"
The friends of Bishop Hopkins found
his hat, but he had lost his head to Doctor
Goodwin. and the rest of the unfortunate
controversialist was sent flying all abroad.
Bishop Hopkins never replied to Good
win, became silent the remainder of the
war, but did not escape further humilia-
ton, for when Sherman's soldiers de-
stroyed the college at Marietta, Ga, they
found and brought away its constitution
or charter, which was drawn up number
of years before by Bishop Hopkins, and
contained among other provisions clause
declaring that no man of Northern birth
shall be eligible to any position among its
faculty or trustees.
These facts make it clear that the Epis-
copal church at the North stood by the
flag manfully during the civil war. for.
when the Bourbon bishop Of Vermont
flung his hat into the ring and squared off
for secession and slavery, Bishop Potter.
OF Pennsylvania, put both his ewes in
mourning, and when he entered the ring
OF controversy the second time the Rev
Or. Goodwin knocked him out amid the
applause of the great mass Of the Epis-
copal church at the North.
Rev. Phillips Brooks, now Bishop of
Massachusetts,. IS early as 1862 denounced
from his pulpit the social injustice which
without warrant of law excluded the
negro from the horse cars. ana in
Thanksgiving sermon preached November
%. 1853. on Our Mercies of Reoccupation,"
in which he threw himself with his whole
heart into the issues OF the hour, thanked
God "that the institution Of African
slavery in our beloved land is ono big
year nearer TO its inevitable death than it
was last Thanksgiving day"
The bells of the Episcopal churches