New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-11-17

taken a modest apartment in the Rue villedo
and intended to sail for the United States to-
day. He had been ailing for several days and
the physicians who were called attributed ms
illness principally to his advanced age Mr.. Con-
way was found dead in bed yesterday. The doc
tors say that death was due to internal hemor-
rhage, the cause OF which has not been estab-
lished.
Mr. Conways friends in Paris have taken
charge Of the body. and will carry out the
wishes of the family.
Moncure Daniel Conway was born in Stafford
County, near Fredericksburg, Va. on March H.
1882. He was the second son OF Judge Peyton Con-
way a member OF the Virginia Legislature and Tor
thirty-Gve years a magistrate Of stafford county.
His mother was Margaret. daughter of John Mon
Daniel, the ranking surgeon OF the army at
the beginning of the War OF 1872, and granddaugh-
ter of Thomas Stone, OF the signers of the
Declaration of Independence.
As a boy he attended the academy at Fredericks-
burg, and then went 10 Dickinson College Penn
syIvania. where he graduated in lsi9 at the
age of seventeen. At college tho young man Joined
the Methodist Church and came under the anti
slavery influence of the Rev. DR. John McClintock.
After graduation he studied law for a year at
Warrenton. Va. writing at the same time for "The
Richmond Examiner" of which his cousin. John
Moncure Daniel the editor. and bringing out
pamphlet Free Schools for Virginia In
+
common school system by his native state.
Deciding at this time to enter the Methodist min
istry, he was when only eighteen years old. APP
pointed 10 circuit in Montgomery County, Nd,
where he became acquainted with several highly
educated Hicksite Quakers. Through association
with them his faith In Methodism became i'm
! paired and his anti-savery inclinatious strength
/ cned He began to read the works Of Emerson and
/ to correspond with their author. As n result he
resigned from another Maryland circuit. 10 which
he had been appoined in 1852, and entering the Uni
/ tartan Divinity School. at Cambridge Mass,
/ graduated in 1854.
! Immediately on returning TO the South he
| tagonized public sentiment 10y dcnOunCing the
| mob murder. at Culpeper Court House Of a free
negro named Grayson. whose innocence was, in
deed. later established. His act in befriending a
! fugitive slave named Anthony Burns. compelled
him TO leave the home of his parents Falmouth,
and, going 70 Washington, he became pastor Of the
Unitarian Church IN that city. His ant-slavery
sermons caused division, and for while the
/ young minister preached 10 those who agreed with
/ him. Finding, however, that both factions could
unite IN listening so the Rev W. II. Claiming. Mr.
| Conway resigned in his favor IN 1886 and accepted
| a call from the old Unitarian Church at Race and
/ Attn Streets Cincinnati
/ In the Presidential canvass Of 1856 Mr.. Conway
worked zealously for John c. Fremont In 1855 his
first book. Tracts for To-day appeared. In the
| same year he married Miss Ellen Davis Dana Two
years later he founded The Cincinnati DIAL" to
| which Emerson occasional contributor, and
breaking
through Ohio. delivering addresses in favor of
! emancipation the true weapon of liberty and
! union not infrequently meeting with rough oppo-
! sition
He met better reception when he was asked to
| lecture on the subject at the Smithsonian
/ Institution and preach n in the Senate
! chamber. At this time his fathers slaves being
| within the Union lines he gathered them together
| and colonized them in Ohio He also invited
| to Boston to speak publicly in behalf Of the anti
slavery cause and there he became editor of 1.-THE
| Boston Commonwealth" established in the inter-
| est OF emancipation He also wrote several pam
| phlets including 1.-THE Rejected Stone" and The
| Golden Hour bearing on the same theme
| Mr. Conways attitude a Virgnian enthusiast
| tically and single mindedly champoning the North
| ern cause estranged him from all sympathetic
relations with his family and former friends in
| the South, and it was doubtless a not unwelcome
! task that he undertook when in 1868 he went to
England to advocate there the cause of the North
| ern States both the platform and In the press
His spoken and written words made deep i'm
presso1 and toward the close of the year he was
| asked 10 become the minister Of South Place
| Chapel Finsbury. He accepted. and remained in
charge until his return to America In ISL For
! many years he also preached on Sunday evenings
| at ST Paul's Road Chapel Camden Town
At the same time ne kept up his literary activi-
ties contributing largely to the perlodlcals WIZ
| ing many books, maintaining dissertations wiz,
| the STATS of 1.-The Daily News" and 'The ran
| Mall Gazette and sending correspondence to me
| New-York Tribune and THE Cincinnati CONNER
| ciaI" During his long sojourn in London he hade
| MANY friends among the brightest spirits IN 1T
| erarv artistic, political and social circles. ana
| his published autobiography is filled with enter
| tanning "reminiscences OF these intimacieS.
| starting as a Methodist, then becoming Uni
| +arian DR. Conway eventually moved into the
| rap,ons of untrammelled free thought, finding
congenial spirit In Colonel Robert c. Ingersoll HIS
| religious philosophy less creed than tolera-
| tion of other creeds. to none of which he SUD
scrfbed but in all OF which he seemed able TO ma
| some point of contact and agreement Journey
TO India in 1885, described in his book "A Pilgrim
| oee 70 the Wise Men of the East" which, how
| ever was not published until 1896, is interesting as
showing how actual observation and experience or
| Eastern customs and thought diverted the wan
derine current of his unbelief into new channel.
vet without perceptibly altering the character of
| the stream There are a frankness and a naIvete
I'm the manner of his laying bare his psychica proc
| esses a gentleness of nature and joyousness or
attitude toward humanity and its problems. as he
seriously seeks to uncover the essential spiritual
truth underlying all religions. that engage the sym
pathy even where they fail to convince the reason
| of the orthodox reader.
| A spirit Of cheerful optimism pervaded alike his
| life and his published works, the titles OF which,
not already referred to. are as follows:
1.-THE Earthward Pilgrimage" Republican SUI
perstittons" ''The Sacred Anthology Idols and
| Ideals" ''Demonology and Devil Lore" - Neck
! lace of Stories" Thomas Carlyle, The Wander
! ing lew" ''Travels in South Kensington,' En-
| erson at Home and Abroad" pine and Palm a
! Noyel.t sIife Of Edmund Randolph sIeorse