The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-12-12
UNITARIANS GAVE HIM AID,
General Armstrong and Hampton
School Finances.
ians Came i'm for Good Share
OF the Good Work.

The school for negroes and Indian:
at Hampton, Virginia, is entirely un-
UNCONVENTIONAL. While people, with
orthodox" views, have largely aided
in building it up; the Unitarians have
done much more, in proportion to
their numbers, in making contribu-
tions, than other sects. Their princi-
pal work was in putting the school
on its feet.
In the early days OF the school, in
the long and disponding struggle,
through the fearful money panic of
1873, General Armstrong often said
that Mrs. Hemenway, of Boston, a
sincere Unitarian, "stood between him
and the last ditch" in financial mat
tiers. Many times he was loaded with
debt, and would, il like other men,
have laid down his burden; but she,
with other Boston Unitarians,
staunchly stood by him, when the
other denominations knew little OF
him, and gave him little. To the
end of his life, the Presbyterian
Church did not favor him, though
members of it did.
Events during the civil war brought
him in contact with the Unitarians.
DIR. Bellows, Unitarian clergyman, of
New York, and the head OF the great
sanitary commission during the war,
youched for him, and pushed him
along, in every way.
Mrs. Hemenway, though maintain
ing many charities, in different parts
of the country, did for him what no
other person did in the struggling
days. She said to him, "When your
burden is too heavy, come to me-"
The knowledge that she was behind
him made him hopeful and even hi
larious in his worst struggles for
money. Her house, in Boston, was his
home. He regarded her as his Inn
perial guard, but never abused her
confidence"
General Marshall, Unitarian, was
the treasurer of the school for many
years. Edward f. Hale and lot of
solid Boston Unitarians, men and
women, raised money for the school,
when aid could not be obtained else
where.
When it was proposed to incorpof-
ate the school, the American Mission
airy Association hesitated to make |
over the property to the new organi- |
Zation, because 1t was quietly init |
mated, ''that General Armstrong was |
quite too intimate with the Unitari- |
ans" Chief Justice Chapman, of |
Massachusetts, his uncle, and strict |
Congregationalist, insisted that the |
transfer should be made, because that |
association had no right to moneys |
contributed to a special purpose by |
Unitarlans and EpiscopaliaDs. Phil
lips Brooks once said, personally, in
referring to General Armstrong, that |
''the Unitarians smoked out the best
man in America for solving the negro
problem"
For some years General Armstrong
regarded the Boston Unitarians as his
mainstay. After the school was on
its feet, he broadened his work, and
reached out to many denominations,
and they came to his aid, and "asked
no questions about his beliefs"
a Unitarian woman, of Boston, re-
cogniZing the fact that he chad col
lected millions for others, and nothing
for himself" provided for his old age,
and the support of his family, by
placing in his hands securities, under
the solemn pledge that he would keep
them for himself and family. This
generous act enabled him to plunge
unreservedly into his work, without
of the future.
w. y. a.