New Britain herald., 1917-04-20
A NEW BRITAIN SOLDIER.

Major Merwin Campaigned With
 ''Abe'' Lnc0ln-Member of Stall-
 ley Post, c. A. R.
 Editor of the Herald:
 have been requested to send to the Herald a few items of Major James B. Merwins life. It is delicate matter for a brother-in-la to do so, but as Major Merwln was for many years a citizen of my native town, and as his was such a useful life I will to some extent comply with the request.
 He was born Ill Green county, N. Y., in May, 1929. Later he came to Woodbury. Conn. The family were poor and he came as young man to New Britain and found work in the jewelry establishment of Churchill and Stanley, where he continued some years. In 1S47 he united with the South Congregational church. He joined in literary circles with young men of that day and was fond of de- bates.
 I recall that he associated with Philip Corbin and brother and with Ed Doin and others, and was a devot- ed member of the church. Being in- terested in temperance he became
 
 paper of Hartford. He used to lecture on temperance in Michigan and Illi- nois In 1850 he married Miss Mar garet Andrews of New Britain, daugh- ter of Deacon Alfred Andrews. She cled in Middlefield, Conn.,, July 8, 1909.
 l will here give some items printed in the Brooklyn Eagle of April 4, 1917,~ from the pen of Charles T. White, commissioner of taxes, of the city of New York, who became inter- ested. in Merwin because of his asso- citation with President Lincoln in and before war times,
 Major Merwin was appointed cor responding secretary of the Connect icut Temperance society early in the f1fties, and made a successful fight for statewide prohibition in Connecticut, following the victory in Maine in 1851. He was an eloquent speaker, and a Chicago man who heard him in '54 induced him to go to Springfield. Illinois, to start temperance cam paign. In 1855 the temperance forces waged hard battle in behalf of state wide prohibition and constitu- tional amendment. Merwin there en- gagged Lincoln as the leading speaker
  audiences in the principal cities and towns in Illinois. Merwin says that Lincoln made more than thirty ad- dresses but not one was reported. save one given in 1842.
 It seems that their mutual cam paign was very effective. Lincoln and others gave Merwin costly gold watch in those days which has>an in- teresting inscription and is now in the hands of the son of Herbert Mills of New Britain.
 Soon after the opening of the Civil war, Lincoln sent for Merw;n who was then in Detroit, and had him appoint ed as a temperance chaplain for tenn perance work among the soldiers in and about Washington. For this pur- pose he was ordained at Adrian, Mich igan, ;n September, 1861. His work was indorsed by General Winfield Scott and General B. F. Butler.
 He was lame in his hip and some- times spoke to the soldiers from Lincoln's own carriage. -....--.
 Merwin had hard time in spite of his backing by the president while working with the troops because the ing, were drinking men and did not want him ''bothering around".
 In his "reminiscences he says he dined with Lincoln the day before he vas assassinated, and came on to New York on a special mission to Horace Greedy and others to lay before them a plan for the employment of negro soldiers of the Union army to work at digging the Panama canal. The scheme had been discussed often by army officers. The canal project was conceived, Merwin said, by B. F. But Ter. It seems that the letter of Lin- coin on the subject was lost by Greedy. Lincoln's Prophecy of a Nation With
 out Slaves or Drunkards.
 Merwin says that on the day before Lincoln's death the president said to him. With the help of the people we have cleaned up colossal job. I prophesied twenty-five years ago that the day would come when there would be no more slaves nor drunkards in the land. I have lived to see one of those prophecies fulfilled. The next move will be the suppression of the liquor traffic by law.
 Major Merwin contributed to the last February number of the Century magazine a story about Lincoln and Peter CartWr1gnL LEat aJLracteu WlQe attention. During the last two years Major Merwin has lived with Mrs. Mary J. Fitzimmons, now of Brooklyn. Some two years previously he went to lecture in Columbus, Ohio, and was taken i'll there and was kindly cared for by friends, especially the Hayden family, then by the Fitzimmons who came with him to Brooklyn. For sev- eral years before going to lecture in Columbus he had made his home in Middlefield, Conn.,, where his wife had her home in the family of Hon. L. A. Mills whose wife is a younger sister 1 of Mrs. Merwin. The Mills were pres