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 Class No. 
 
 book no 3 -SOLSaX 
 
 Accession No. o v? «s I 
 
3 1924 051 258 410 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924051258410 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Missionary Pathfinder, Pioneer 
 and Promoter 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS C. RICHARDS 
 
 BOSTON 
 THE PILGRIM PRESS 
 
 CHICAGO • NEW YORK 
 I906 
 
Copyright, 1906, 
 
 By The Congregational Sunday-school 
 and Publishing Society 
 
 H 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S. /v. 
 
To THE 
 
 MEN OF WILLIAMS 
 
 WHO AT HOME AND ABROAD 
 HAVE FOLLOWED IN THE PATH WHERE 
 
 SAMUEL JOHN MILLS 
 
 BLAZED THE WAY 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 I. The Boy and His Training i 
 
 II. Williams College — The Haystack .... 19 
 
 III. Andover Seminary — The Brethren .... 47 
 
 IV. The American Board — Its First Foreign 
 
 Missionaries 67 
 
 V. Obookiah — Missionary Work Comes to Mills' 
 
 Door 85 
 
 VI. First Home Missionary Journey. New Or- 
 leans, 1812-1813 101 
 
 VII. Second Home Missionary Journey. St. Louis, 
 
 1814-1815 127 
 
 VIII. Results of the Home Missionary Tours. 
 
 American Bible Society 149 
 
 IX. City Missionary Work. The United Foreign 
 
 Missionary Society 167 
 
 X. "The Poor African" 187 
 
 XI. The Dark Continent. '■' Greater Love Hath 
 
 No Man" 211 
 
 XII. The Man and His Influence 227 
 
 Appendlx A. The Haystack Monument 245 
 
 Appendix B. The Men of the Haystack . . . . 255 
 
 Appenddc C. Bibliography 263 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Haystack Monument . , Frontispiece 
 
 Site of Mills' Birthplace 4 
 
 Mission Park . 28 
 
 The Ordination of the First American Missionaries . 76 
 
 Andover Seminary „ . . 90 
 
 The Compass which Mills used on his Missionary 
 
 Journeys 112 
 
 Mills Monument at Torringford 224 
 
 Greylock — a Williams Shrine 242 
 
I 
 
 THE BOY AND HIS TRAINING 
 
The limits of Litchfield County are not much if any more ex- 
 tensive than those of the ranch of many a cattle king in Arizona, 
 Texas, or New Mexico ; but there is reason to believe that there 
 is no other county in the United States that can show such a 
 record for power and influence. 
 
 Henry Clay Trumbull. 
 
 Ye 'ill follow Christ, and gin he offers ye his cross ye' 11 no 
 refuse it, for he aye carries the heavy end himsel'. He 's 
 guided yir mother a 1 thae years. . . . He 'ill keep ye too, and, 
 John, I' 11 be watchin' for ye. Ye' ill no fail me. . . . 
 
 I canna see ye noo, John, but I know yir there, an' I've just 
 one other wish. If God calls ye to the ministry, ye 'ill no re- 
 fuse, an' the first day ye preach in yir ain kirk, speak a gude 
 word for Jesus Christ, an', John, I'll hear ye that day, though 
 ye 'ill no see me, and I'll be satisfied. 
 
 Ian Maclaren {His Mother's Sermon). 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 THE BOY AND HIS TRAINING 
 
 LITCHFIELD County, a collection of hills 
 a and valleys thirty-three miles long and 
 twenty-seven wide in northwestern Con- 
 necticut, has had as much influence for good as 
 any county in the United States. She gave to 
 the Revolution Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, 
 made into bullets the leaden statue of George III, 
 torn down in Bowling Green, New York, and 
 furnished the iron for cannon and ball from her 
 Salisbury mines. Her Harriet Beecher Stowe 
 and John Brown did more than any others to 
 bring on the irrepressible conflict with slavery. 
 She gave to many colleges their presidents, — 
 Day to Yale, Finney to Oberlin, Sturtevant to 
 Illinois, Babcock to Colby. 
 
 During the last part of the eighteenth century, 
 Joseph Bellamy kept at Bethlehem the principal 
 school in the United States to prepare young men 
 for the ministry. Professor N. W. Taylor of 
 Yale Seminary, Professor Ebenezer Porter of 
 
 3 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Andover, and Professor William Thompson 
 of Hartford, were born in the county. Horace 
 Bushnell, Henry Ward Beecher, John Pierpont, 
 are samples of the preachers born here. The 
 first law school in America was founded here, 
 and sent out many of the most prominent 
 statesmen and lawyers of the last century. In 
 1 83 1 the Vice-President of the United States 
 and one-eighth of the senators were either born 
 or educated in the county. In 1850 one-seventh 
 of all the senators had been educated here. 
 
 But in no sphere of influence has it been more 
 prominent than in that of missions. The first 
 school to train the native workers for foreign 
 missions was organized in Cornwall in 1816. 
 One of the first auxiliaries of the American 
 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
 was formed in this county in 181 2, Dr. Lyman 
 Beecher being the moving spirit. For the first 
 few years it gave nearly ten per cent of the total 
 receipts of the Board, and when in a time of 
 financial embarrassment the relieving offering 
 came in from this county, Dr. Worcester, the 
 first Secretary of the Board, said, " I bless God 
 for making Litchfield County." 
 
 Chief among her gifts to missions was one of 
 her choicest sons, Samuel John Mills, Jr., born 
 April 21, 1783, in the parsonage at Torringford. 
 
 4 
 
THE BOY AND HIS TRAINING 
 
 He was fortunate not only in his environment 
 but in his ancestry. He came of Dutch stock 
 and noble blood. Peter Vander Water Meulen 
 (or Miihlen) was born in Holland, 1662. While 
 a student in the University of Leyden he fell 
 under his father's displeasure, and was disin- 
 herited on account of his religious views. It 
 was for conscience' sake that he fled to America. 
 When he landed at Boston is not known, but the 
 first record of his name was in 1666. He made 
 his home in Windsor, Connecticut. While he 
 lived there his name was changed by the Colonial 
 Legislature at his own request to Peter Mills. 
 His oldest son Peter (born 1668) married Joanna 
 Porter, the daughter of a wealthy landowner in 
 Windsor. They moved to Bloomfield, Connec- 
 ticut, where, in addition to the farm, Peter 
 worked at his trade as a tailor. It was this 
 great-grandfather of Samuel J. Mills, Jr., who, 
 when asked how, on his limited income, he sent 
 four sons to Yale and gave to each a profes- 
 sion, answered, "With the help of Almighty 
 God and my wife." One of his sons, John, 
 settled in Kent, Connecticut, as a farmer. This 
 farm remained in possession of the family for 
 more than a century. Here were born to him 
 and- his wife, Jane Lewis, five sons and three 
 daughters. The fifth child, Samuel, was born 
 
 5 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 in 1743. He has no middle name on the family- 
 record, but early added John, the name of an 
 older brother who died in young manhood. He 
 belonged to a family which had a strong tend- 
 ency to the ministry. Three of his father's 
 brothers were graduates of Yale and ministers. 
 With one of these, Jedediah, pastor at Ripton, 
 David Brainerd studied. Samuel's cousin and 
 his stepfather, Rev. Philemon Robbins, were 
 ministers. His sisters, Sarah and Jane, mar- 
 ried ministers, and his younger brother, Ed- 
 mund, followed him into the pulpit. When a 
 young lady, his sister Jane was visited by Rev. 
 Jeremiah Day and Rev. Peter Starr, both of them 
 on matrimony bent. With the wit characteristic 
 of the family, it is said she preferred daylight 
 to starlight, and married the former. 
 
 It was natural, then, that Samuel John Mills, 
 father of the more famous Samuel John Mills, Jr., 
 graduated from Yale in 1764, should enter the 
 Christian ministry. He studied theology with 
 his pastor, Rev. Joel Bardwell, and was ordained 
 the first pastor of the Congregational church in 
 Torringford, Connecticut, in 1769, where he re- 
 mained until his death, in 1833, in his ninetieth 
 year. He became universally known in his own 
 and in the neighboring parishes as Father Mills. 
 His gigantic frame and manly bearing gave him 
 
 6 
 
THE BOY AND HIS TRAINING 
 
 great dignity and a commanding appearance. 
 His greatness of soul and breadth of sympathy- 
 were commensurate with his splendid physique. 
 This made him a welcome guest in all the homes 
 of his parish, and in times of trouble and trial 
 the great heart overflowed with all the tender- 
 ness of a woman. As a preacher he was pecu- 
 liarly original. The English language was not 
 copious enough for his expression, and he coined 
 words to satisfy his thought. It was said that 
 " he read less than others, but few did more 
 thinking or to better effect." Contrary to the 
 usual custom of his time, he used many illus- 
 trations and drew them from common life with 
 uncommon skill. When he preached about the 
 walk to Emmaus, the road became a New Eng- 
 land turnpike with its mile-stones, mullen leaves, 
 and toll-gates. The scene grew intensely vivid. 
 At last the disciples saw it was the Lord Jesus. 
 "What a pity," said the preacher as he con- 
 cluded, " what a pity they could not have known 
 it before ! " He excelled in power of descrip- 
 tion, and for many years, until his memory 
 failed, he preached extemporaneously. He was 
 noted all over the state as an eloquent and per- 
 suasive speaker. As a writer and theologian he 
 was of no mean order, and was chosen as one 
 of the editors of the Connecticut Evangelical 
 
 7 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Magazine, the pioneer religious monthly pub- 
 lished in New England. 
 
 Harriet Beecher Stowe, who knew Father 
 Mills in her girlhood, when her father, Dr. 
 Lyman Beecher, was pastor in Litchfield, has 
 described him in one of her sketches as " Father 
 Morris." " Of all the marvels that astonished 
 my childhood," she says, " there is none I re- 
 member to this day with so much interest. . . . 
 He was an ingrained New Englander, and what- 
 ever might have been the source of his infor- 
 mation, it came out in Yankee form, with the 
 strong provinciality of Yankee dialect." Per- 
 haps the most characteristic thing about him 
 was his humor, of which we find little trace in 
 his son. Many stories illustrating his wit are 
 still, current in Torringford. The following are 
 typical : — 
 
 One hot, sultry summer day when the sermon, 
 as well as the atmosphere, was heavy, the boys 
 in the gallery were getting restless and their 
 elders sleepy. Father Mills stopped in the 
 middle of his sermon and made this two-edged 
 thrust : " Boys, you must make less noise in 
 the gallery; if you don't you will wake up the 
 fathers below." At another time the boys had 
 stolen his peaches. A few Sundays later he said 
 that in a recent visit to a neighboring town he 
 
 8 
 
THE BOY AND HIS TRAINING 
 
 had heard the people complaining that the boys 
 had stolen their peaches. " Of course I ex- 
 pressed my surprise and abhorrence. But they 
 asked me, ' Mr. Mills, don't the boys steal 
 peaches in Torringf ord ? ' Dear me, what could 
 I say? I could not tell a lie. I was obliged to 
 confess that they did." 
 
 To such a father the son owed his insight, 
 power of initiative, keen originality, and broad 
 tolerance and sympathy. Here is a story that 
 is told of the father which might have been 
 equally true of the son: A colored man came 
 to the back door of the Torringford parsonage 
 on an errand. Father Mills looked at him for 
 a minute and then said : " Why did you come 
 to the back door ? When you come to my house, 
 come to the front door, for we shall all go into 
 heaven by one door." 
 
 In common with other ministers of Connec- 
 ticut, the father went as a home missionary into 
 Vermont under the direction of the Missionary 
 Society of his own state, receiving four dollars 
 per week salary and four dollars to supply his 
 pulpit in his absence. Around the fireside he 
 told in his own inimitable way stories of these 
 home missionary tours. The son listened with 
 a boy's eagerness and interest to the narration 
 of these experiences. In hearing them a taste 
 
 9 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 for home missionary work was aroused, which 
 broadened and grew on him a few years later. 
 
 The mother, Esther Robbins, was the daugh- 
 ter of Samuel Robbins, of Canaan, Connecticut, 
 though the family came originally from Wethers- 
 field. She was slightly built, of delicate features, 
 and with a refined manner that made her the 
 good angel of the household. Upon her fell 
 most of the household care and domestic man- 
 agement. Her husband was generous to a fault, 
 and would give away things that the family 
 really needed. When she gently remonstrated 
 with him by saying, " I don't believe it is best 
 this time," he would answer, " I believe you are 
 right, ma'am." So with his confidence in her 
 judgment and her excellent management, the 
 household was cared for. In the parish she was 
 a ministering spirit, combining marvelous tact 
 with a sweet Christian character. She was a 
 great student of the Bible and lived very close 
 to the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. 
 
 In 1 77 1, two years after his ordination, Samuel 
 J. Mills brought this attractive little woman as 
 a bride to the parsonage at Torringford. 
 
 Seven children were born to this pastor and 
 his wife, the four oldest dying in infancy. The 
 others, in order of their birth, were Jeremiah R, 
 Florilla M., and Samuel J. Jeremiah's daughter, 
 
 10 
 
THE BOY AND HIS TRAINING 
 
 Julia S., married Rev. S. C. Damon, and did 
 noble work with him when he was a seaman's 
 chaplain in Honolulu. 
 
 The hills of Torringford are a good place upon 
 which to grow up. The view is wide and far- 
 reaching. For ten or twenty miles one can see 
 typical New England hills and valleys. When 
 a young man the scenery had charmed Father 
 Mills, and he brought up his children to enjoy 
 all the beauties of nature. The bracing air, the 
 wide outlook, and the magnificent scenery are 
 a liberal education in themselves, and tend to 
 give men a broad sympathy and lofty thoughts. 
 Here in a country parsonage young Mills spent 
 boyhood and youth. Here he received the usual 
 training in the Christian household of the time. 
 As a child his spiritual nature was sensitive and 
 impressionable, and he might have been trained 
 from childhood into the Christian life. But ac- 
 cording to the theory and practice of that day, 
 which knew nothing of the methods of Christian 
 nurture, he must pass through a marvelous, soul- 
 torturing experience. So these religious tenden- 
 cies and outreachings gradually wore away and 
 he came to his fifteenth year without any deci- 
 sive results. 
 
 In the latter part of August, 1798, a remark- 
 able religious interest began among the young 
 
 11 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 people of Torringford. These young people met 
 weekly at the various farmhouses in the parish 
 to sing and pray and talk about their religious 
 life. Soon the attendance increased so that the 
 commodious living rooms of that day would not 
 hold all the young people who came. So the 
 meeting-house was opened to them, and this 
 " event so extraordinary " soon caught the elders 
 with its contagion, and a powerful revival re- 
 sulted. Of this revival Father Mills wrote an 
 interesting account for the Connecticut Evan- 
 gelical Magazine. 
 
 During the revival Samuel came under con- 
 viction, and though in awful distress and agony 
 of spirit, he obtained no relief. What pained 
 him most of all was the apparent discrimination 
 of the divine favor. Others felt not only con- 
 viction of sin but the joy of the lifted burden, 
 while he stumbled on in darkness and despair. 
 His brother and sister and one other member of 
 the family living under the same roof with him 
 were all rejoicing in hope and joined his father's 
 church, while he, poor soul, was in " the gall 
 of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." No 
 relief came to him in his agony. 
 
 Meantime he left home to take charge of a 
 farm in a neighboring town, which had been left 
 to him by his maternal grandmother. This out- 
 
 12 
 
THE BOY AND HIS TRAINING 
 
 door life was of benefit to him physically, though 
 he never possessed a very robust physique. It 
 must have been about this time that one fine 
 winter's morning a sleigh-load of young people, 
 including his brother, sister, cousins, and him- 
 self, went on an old-fashioned New England 
 sleigh-ride to his uncle's home in West Hart- 
 ford. It was a merry party, and Samuel was 
 one of the master spirits. He was ambitious 
 and light-hearted. Afraid lest his good fortune 
 in possessing so fine a farm would give him an 
 undue sense of his importance, his friends re- 
 solved to bother him and take him down a peg. 
 In the evening, around the fireplace, they had 
 apples and nuts. Some one proposed a little 
 singing. They started up " Hark from the 
 tombs a doleful sound " to the tune of Bangor. 
 Solemnly they sang, and yet looked mischiev- 
 ously at him. But that song, sung in pure 
 mischief, made an impression on him that he 
 could not shake off. 
 
 In the autumn of 1801 he came home pre- 
 paratory to entering Morris Academy, South 
 Farms, Litchfield. On the morning that he left 
 home his mother had a heart-to-heart talk with 
 her boy, now eighteen years old and grown to 
 manhood. As she asked about his religious life, 
 he was silent for a moment. Then the sup- 
 
 x 3 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 pressed emotion broke forth, and in the midst 
 of his sobs he cried, " Oh, that I had never been 
 born ! " " But, my son, you are born, and you 
 cannot throw off your existence nor your ever- 
 lasting accountability for your conduct," said 
 his mother. She was afraid that he had never 
 thoroughly seen the error of his ways and the 
 evil of his own heart, but he assured her, " I 
 have seen to the very bottom of hell." 
 
 The boy started schoolward with a heavy 
 heart. The mother, as many another mother 
 before and since, went to her room and prayed 
 as only a mother can when her heart aches for 
 her boy. As Samuel went on his way he had 
 a new vision of God. He saw him in his beauty 
 and glory as never before. He had been strug- 
 gling with the doctrine of divine sovereignty 
 and it had been hitherto forbidding. He had 
 conceived of God as having chosen some elect 
 persons to be saved, and he could not find any 
 evidence that he was included among that num- 
 ber. And to his mind, unless by the sovereign 
 grace of God he was chosen as one of the elect, 
 he had not a glimmer of hope. Suddenly the 
 light broke, and he cried, " O glorious sov- 
 ereignty ! " There and then he stopped in the 
 woods by the roadside that he might pray and 
 give himself over entirely to this new manifes- 
 
 14 
 
THE BOY AND HIS TRAINING 
 
 tation. The light which had broken upon him 
 was a new view of the mercy of God. He had 
 found a new conception of God's goodness. He 
 saw now that God's sovereignty was not merci- 
 less and narrow, but "holy and amiable." "There 
 was a wonderful change either in God or him. 
 Everything was gilded with light and glory ; and 
 now and then as he gazed at the splendor and 
 majesty of the divine character, he would still 
 exclaim, ' O glorious sovereignty ! ' " Such was 
 the experience of his conversion as approvingly 
 recorded a few years later. It is not the place 
 here to comment on it or to discuss the psychol- 
 ogy of it; but from beginning to end Mills' re- 
 ligious experience was strenuous. 
 
 It was three months before he really ex- 
 pressed hope that he was saved. And he was 
 often troubled in his later life at the imperfect 
 evidences he had of his acceptance. Just before 
 he died he unbosomed himself to his comrade, 
 Ebenezer Burgess, and told him, as he related 
 at length his religious experience, that one of 
 the sore trials of his life was the lack of assur- 
 ance, and of those inner confident, positive dem- 
 onstrations of God's favor which some men had 
 and which he greatly desired. He never was 
 quite sure, in spite of his self-sacrificing, humble, 
 devoted life, that he might not be " a castaway." 
 
 15 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 At Morris Academy, where later were trained 
 many men of note, — such as Obookiah, John 
 Brown, John Pierpont, and Edward Beecher, 
 — Mills came under the influence of James 
 Morris, a Revolutionary officer and an educated 
 Christian gentleman. He possessed a remark- 
 able personal influence over his pupils, and even 
 made his " commanding object to inculcate the 
 principles of morality and religion." Undoubt- 
 edly his advice and instruction helped the youth 
 in this crucial religious struggle of his life. 
 
 Soon after his return from the academy, the 
 next year, when he was nineteen years old, Mills 
 told his father that " he could not conceive of 
 any course in which to pass the rest of his days 
 that would prove so pleasant as to communicate 
 the gospel salvation to the poor heathen." This 
 was the first intimation that his father had that 
 he was at peace from his spiritual struggles. 
 With the settling of the question of his own 
 personal religious life had been born a desire 
 and determination to carry the glad tidings to 
 benighted peoples. To be a Christian meant to 
 him from the first to be a missionary. 
 
 One who knew him intimately in his seminary 
 days says that the " Spirit of the Lord God of 
 Elisha fell upon him while he was in the field 
 at the plow." Undoubtedly it was in the spring 
 
 16 
 
THE BOY AND HIS TRAINING 
 
 of 1802, while working on the farm, that this 
 decision and dedication was made. Would that 
 the field could be located, and that on one of 
 the rough boulders which abound there this in- 
 scription might be cut, " The Birthplace of 
 American Foreign Missions"! 
 
 One of the chief influences in bringing him 
 to this decision was his mother, between whom 
 and her youngest son Samuel there was a great 
 bond of sympathy. Her beautiful Christian spirit 
 deeply impressed the son. To her he brought 
 his doubts and difficulties, and from her lips he 
 heard of Eliot, Brainerd, and other missionaries. 
 One day, as she spoke in glowing terms of the 
 missionary work, he heard- her say of himself: 
 " I have consecrated this child to the service of 
 God as a missionary." When he wrote home 
 his decision to enter the foreign field, the tid- 
 ings nearly overwhelmed his mother. She took 
 the letter to an intimate friend to find sympathy. 
 Tears streamed down her cheek as she paced the 
 floor in her emotion. " But little did I know," 
 said she, " when I dedicated this child to God 
 what it was going to cost and whereunto it 
 would end ! " When she dedicated him to mis- 
 sionary work, she supposed he would go into 
 the new West, either among the Indians or 
 pioneers. Over and over again she sobbed, 
 ? 17 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 "How little did I know what it was going to 
 cost!" 
 
 With the purpose fully formed in his mind to 
 devote himself to foreign missions, he resolved 
 to get the necessary education to preach the 
 gospel. With the full approval of his parents, 
 he put the farm in other hands, and began in 
 earnest his preparation for Williams College. 
 His father was a thorough classical scholar, and 
 probably assisted his son greatly in preparation 
 for college, as well as the other two young men 
 from his parish, — Harvey Loomis and Orange 
 Lyman, who entered college in the class with 
 him. 
 
 So in a Connecticut parsonage, in a secluded 
 country parish, had the seed been planted, and 
 already germinated, which was to grow into one 
 of the chief glories of the American churches 
 in the nineteenth century, — the Foreign Mis- 
 sionary Movement. 
 
 18 
 
II 
 
 WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
Missionary fervor has always followed in the wake of revivals. 
 
 The rise of the Jesuits, the birth of the Franciscan order, the 
 
 work of Wesley, the success of the Salvation Army, each is 
 
 followed in turn by the organization of immense enterprises for 
 
 the conversion of the heathen. 
 
 W. J. Dawson. 
 
 Though you and I are very little beings, we must not rest 
 satisfied till we have made our influence extend to the remotest 
 corner of this ruined world. 
 
 Mills to Elias Cornelius 
 (afterwards Secretary of the American Board). 
 
 Luther, and Bacon, and Newton, and Carey, and Samuel J. 
 Mills set fires, and he that does that, does something for the 
 race, even though that which kindled the blaze was but a spark 
 and was lost in the brightness and glow of the succeeding 
 conflagration. 
 
 Mark Hopkins. 
 
 We may not claim that the foreign missionary spirit in our 
 American churches had its first development here. The proof 
 is ample that it had not. But so far as my own researches 
 have gone, the first PERSONAL CONSECRATIONS to the work 
 of effecting missions among foreign heathen nations were here. 
 Here the Holy Ghost made the first visible separations of men 
 in this country for the foreign work whereto he had called them. 
 The first observable rill of the stream of American missionaries 
 which has gone on swelling until now, issued just on this spot. 
 
 Rufus Anderson. 
 
II 
 
 WILLIAMS COLLEGE — THE HAYSTACK 
 
 AT the beginning of the nineteenth century 
 Williamstown, the home of Williams 
 College, though a town of two .thou- 
 sand inhabitants, was an isolated and secluded 
 spot. No post-office was established there until 
 1789. The weekly mail then came on horseback 
 over the Hoosac Mountain from Greenfield, and 
 later a mail came once a week from Albany. It 
 was not until 1820 that a new mail route was 
 established over the turnpike from Greenfield to 
 Troy, the stage-coaches running twice a week. 
 Besides the president's house, the college prop- 
 erty at the time of Mills' advent consisted of 
 two large, plain brick buildings, — West Col- 
 lege, built in 1790, largely by the proceeds of 
 a lottery, and East College, built in 1798, at a 
 cost of $12,400. The recitation-rooms for the 
 underclassmen were in West College, while East 
 College was the exclusive abiding-place of the 
 Seniors and Juniors. The furniture in the reci- 
 tation-rooms was owned by the various classes 
 
 21 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 and sold by them to their successors. It was 
 supposed that private ownership would prevent 
 the students from destroying the property. 
 
 Rev. Ebenezer Fitch, D.D., was president, 
 and Gamaliel S. Olds was professor of mathe- 
 matics and natural philosophy. These, with two 
 tutors, constituted the teaching force of those days 
 (1806). According to the original law of the 
 college, the curriculum included in the first year 
 the English, Latin, Greek, and French languages 
 (the latter dropped in 1799) ; in the second year, 
 in addition to the languages, Arithmetic, Geog- 
 raphy, Algebra, Geometry, Mensuration, Conic 
 Sections, Rhetoric, and Logic ; in the third year, 
 Trigonometry, Navigation, Surveying, Natural 
 Philosophy, Astronomy, Chemistry; in the fourth 
 year, Metaphysics, History, National Law, Civil 
 Polity, and Theology. 
 
 In 1795 the college prepared the first catalogue 
 of the members of a college issued in this coun- 
 try. It contained the names of seventy-seven 
 students. The four classes which graduated just 
 previous to Mills furnished one hundred and fif- 
 teen men, who received their degrees, and this 
 was the high- water mark until 1828. There was 
 hazing in those days, for the poet Bryant, who 
 entered Williams in 1810, says that the Sopho- 
 mores put the Freshmen through a series of 
 
 22 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 burlesque ceremonies, and gave them certain 
 mock injunctions as to their behavior. This 
 was called gamutizing the Freshmen. In 1808 
 the Sophomore class rose in rebellion against 
 their tutor. Recitations were suspended and 
 excitement ran high. The students won, for 
 all their instructors resigned except President 
 Fitch. 
 
 Among the influences which brought students 
 to Williams were its secluded location and the 
 high moral character of the surrounding com- 
 munity, which were unfavorable to habits of 
 extravagance or dissipation. Furthermore, the 
 expenditures were less here than at New Haven 
 or Cambridge. The common boarding-houses 
 charged nine shillings ($1.50) per week, while 
 the better grade exacted ten shillings ($1.67). 
 The total expenses of Charles F. Sedgwick 
 (1813) for the four years' course, including 
 traveling back and forth, were six hundred 
 dollars. This lessening of expenses had a great 
 deal to do with the popularity of Williams at 
 the time, and undoubtedly influenced Mills' 
 choice of a college, for the largest salary his 
 father ever received was less than three hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars, payable half in money 
 and half in wheat, rye, corn, and fire-wood. The 
 sum total that the son paid into the treasury of 
 
 23 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 the college during his course was eighty-eight 
 dollars and nineteen cents. 
 
 There must have been some special reason, in 
 addition to those already suggested, why young 
 Mills went to Williams rather than Yale, the 
 Alma Mater of his father and many of his 
 family. An intimate friend of his father, Rev. 
 Ammi Ruhamah Robbins, pastor of the neigh- 
 boring town of Norfolk, had been appointed a 
 trustee of the new college in the Berkshire hills. 
 Through his influence many of the young men 
 from Litchfield County entered Williams. There 
 can be no doubt that this influence was brought 
 to bear upon Mills and helped him to decide in 
 favor of the Massachusetts college. 
 
 Williams College received its charter in 1793. 
 This was not only the year of the French Revo- 
 lution, but also the year that Carey and his as- 
 sociates were ordained to the great work of 
 modern missions. Each of these two mighty 
 movements had the same battle-cry, " Brother- 
 hood," but the one was disruptive and destruc- 
 tive in its methods, while the other was quiet 
 and constructive. These two forces were des- 
 tined to meet early in the history of the college. 
 French skepticism and loose ideas in regard to 
 morality were very popular with the young men 
 of the time. Like a flood they swept everything 
 
 24 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 serious before them. Infidelity became rampant 
 even to the point of persecution. Ridicule and 
 abuse were heaped upon any student who 
 showed any signs of turning toward Chris- 
 tianity, " though two or three old professors of 
 religion were rarely treated with indignity." 
 Not only in the philosophy of religion but also 
 on the practical side of morals the college suf- 
 fered. In the first six classes which graduated 
 there were ninety-three men. Among all of 
 these there were only seven professing Chris- 
 tians, and in three of these classes not a single 
 Christian man. Yet this handful of Christians 
 had the courage to hold a weekly prayer-meeting 
 in one of the student's rooms. 
 
 With the new century a new era began. 
 Against the immorality and skepticism which 
 had prevailed a few brave men took a heroic 
 and decided stand. Its triumphant progress was 
 checked. It was defeated not so much by public 
 discussion as by private example and personal 
 influence. " It was from Litchfield County that 
 the spirit of the new era crept upon the college," 
 said President Edward D. Griffin. He knew, for 
 he was beginning his ministry in New Hartford 
 in this county when in 1798-9 a great revival 
 swept over that part of the country. Thus was 
 he acquainted with the sources of the movement 
 
 25 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 and with many of the young men concerned in 
 it. In several of the churches over a hundred 
 members were received as the result of this re- 
 vival. Two young men, students in Williams, 
 were converted while at home on a vacation late 
 in 1799, and they did all that they could to 
 stimulate the religious life of the college. In 
 the spring of 1801 four young men fresh from 
 this great revival entered Williams. They were 
 Timothy P. Gillet and James Beach of Torring- 
 ton, Asahel Gaylord and one other from Nor- 
 folk. This was the real turning-point in the 
 religious life of the institution. The religious 
 spirit deepened, until in 1805-6 the college was 
 in the midst of a revival. 
 
 In April, 1806, Samuel J. Mills came to Wil- 
 liams, taking up his studies in the middle of the 
 Freshman year. Young Mills lacked the strong 
 physique which gave his father so much dignity. 
 His physical appearance was rather against him. 
 His skin was sallow, his eye not brilliant, his 
 voice not clear, but he kept himself well and was 
 studiously neat in his appearance. He was not 
 prominent as a scholar; his standing was never 
 more than respectable. Not a great linguist, no 
 mathematician, never an eloquent speaker, yet 
 he was always a leader in the college life. He 
 was mature, twenty-three years old, and pos- 
 
 26 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 sessed the magnetism of a great enthusiasm. 
 Within a few weeks after the time that he en- 
 tered, though a Freshman, he had great influ- 
 ence in the college. He threw himself into the 
 religious life of the institution with great zeal. 
 
 When Mills entered, the college was feeling 
 the influence of the revival, which had begun in 
 the spring of 1805. At first little impression 
 was made on the unconverted, but the religious 
 life of the Christians was quickened. The leader 
 was a member of the Junior Class, Algernon S. 
 Bailey. So strenuous were his prayers and fer- 
 vent his piety that he became a terror to the 
 wicked, and they threatened to mob him. The op- 
 position was gradually broken down and the 
 spiritual interest deepened among the non- 
 Christians. By the last term of his first year, 
 Mills' own class was deeply impressed by the 
 revival. No man was more sought after than 
 he by those who were concerned about their 
 personal religious life, and no one was more 
 active in efforts to rouse the indifferent. 
 
 The following extracts from his diary reveal 
 something of the man and the intensity of his 
 religious life at this time : — 
 
 June 25, 1806. I hope I shall have an opportunity 
 to retire and address the Throne of Grace to-day 
 
 27 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 without molestation. Oh, that God would be with 
 me and assist me in the performance of duty! It 
 will be a stupid time indeed, if the Lord does not pour 
 down his spirit and convince me of my unworthiness 
 and dependence. Oh, how unworthy we are at this 
 institution to partake of the crumbs that fall from 
 our Master's table! Blessed be God, he has, as I 
 trust, wrought a good work upon the hearts of some, 
 and is forcing conviction and light upon the minds 
 of others. I hope nothing may retard the progress of 
 this most glorious work. 
 
 Thursday, 26. Attended conference this evening, 
 composed principally of the Freshman Class. A very 
 
 good meeting. Many very solemn. K much cast 
 
 down. It was very evident God was striving with 
 some of his disobedient creatures. The work is the 
 Lord's, and he is abundantly able to carry it on. 
 Arise, O Lord, thou and the ark of thy strength! It 
 seems to me I never longed so much for the Sabbath 
 as I do now. I am afraid the impressions of my 
 classmates will wear off. But all things are possible 
 with God. 
 
 Saturday, 28. Think I feel, in something of a pray- 
 ing frame this morning. Oh, for more fervor, more 
 engagedness, more activity in the cause of the blessed 
 God! I hope this may be a sweet day to my soul. 
 Think I see something of my unworthiness. 
 
 Sabbath morning, 29. Have some view of my de- 
 pendence upon God and of my awful stupidity. I 
 pray God to be with me to-day, and keep me from 
 
 28 
 
MISSION PARK 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 injuring his cause, and preserve me in a praying 
 frame. 
 
 At noon. Just returned from meeting, — an uncom- 
 mon time with me ; think I have never been so carried 
 above this world before; never found myself so nigh 
 the foot of the cross. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly 
 Dove, give me, unworthy me, a spirit of prayer. Oh, 
 humble me, — keep me at the foot of the cross ! Grant 
 that I may always feel uneasy when I wander from 
 that delightful place! Grant that I may make it my 
 home there, and never wound my Redeemer in the 
 house of his friends! 
 
 " By the influence of the revival in college he 
 was enabled to diffuse his spirit through a choice 
 circle, who raised Williams College to the dis- 
 tinction of being the birthplace of American 
 missions," says Dr. Griffin. It was the prayer- 
 meetings which formed a marked feature of the 
 revival which offered him his special opportu- 
 nity. These were continued, and in the summer 
 of 1806 were held in at least two places. On 
 Wednesday afternoons some of the students 
 gathered south of the West College under some 
 willow-trees, while Saturday afternoons they 
 were accustomed to meet in a thick grove of 
 maples in what was known as Sloan's Meadow, 
 north of the college buildings, nearly half-way 
 to the Hoosac River. One hot, sultry August 
 
 29 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 day only five were present, — Samuel J. Mills, 
 James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, Harvey 
 Loomis, and Byram Green. Robbins and Green 
 were Sophomores, the others Freshmen. 
 
 They went first to the grove, expecting to hold 
 their meeting there as usual. But dark black 
 clouds soon appeared in the west; it began to 
 thunder and lighten. Amid the flashing light- 
 ning and rolling thunder these five sought shelter 
 from the on-coming storm under a neighboring 
 haystack. As they sat there the conversation 
 turned on Asia, which some of them had been 
 studying in the regular course in geography. 
 All were interested in the work of the East India 
 Company, which was opening up that closed con- 
 tinent. The moral degradation and darkness of 
 that land was discussed. Here was Mills' op- 
 portunity. He proposed sending the gospel to 
 light up the darkness of that heathen land. He 
 grew earnest and enthusiastic as he said, " We 
 can do it if we will." The others all agreed 
 with Mills and were delighted with the idea, 
 except Loomis. He said that the time was not 
 ripe and such a movement was premature. If 
 missionaries were sent, he contended, they would 
 be murdered, and what was needed was a new 
 crusade before the gospel could be sent to the 
 Turks and Arabs, The others replied that God 
 
 30 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 was always willing to have his kingdom ad- 
 vanced, and that if the Christian people would 
 only do their part, God could be relied on to 
 accomplish his work. Then Mills, who always 
 had great faith in prayer, said, " Come, let us 
 make it a subject of prayer under the haystack, 
 while the dark clouds are going and the clear 
 sky is coming." 
 
 Then one by one these young Elijahs prayed 
 that their heaven-sent vision might become a 
 reality. All prayed except Loomis. Mills was 
 the last to make his petition. By this time 
 he had waxed enthusiastic, and referring to 
 Loomis's objection that the missionaries would 
 be murdered, he prayed, " O God, strike down 
 the arm, with the red artillery of heaven, that 
 shall be raised against a herald of the cross." 
 Then this prayer-meeting, so small yet so sig- 
 nificant, so fraught with importance for the 
 heathen and for American Christianity, closed 
 with the singing of a stanza of Isaac Watts' 
 hymn, — 
 
 Let all the heathen writers join 
 
 To form one perfect book ; 
 Great God, if once compared with thine, 
 
 How mean their writings look ! 
 
 These prayer-meetings were continued, as long 
 as weather permitted, in the grove between the 
 
 3 1 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 college and the Hoosac River. Foreign mis- 
 sions were constantly remembered in the prayers. 
 Later, as the weather became colder, a good lady 
 gave her kitchen for the meetings. Soon she 
 left the sitting-room door ajar that she might 
 enjoy the meetings herself, and afterwards in- 
 vited in the neighbors. Besides the five already 
 mentioned, the following usually attended: John 
 Nelson, Calvin Bushnell, Rufus Pomeroy, Sam- 
 uel Ware, Edwin Dwight, and Ezra Fisk. 
 Others were present occasionally. It was later 
 on that Luther Rice and Gordon Hall joined 
 the ranks, Hall becoming a Christian early 
 in his Senior year, 1808. After the summer 
 was over and the students went home for a 
 vacation, the religious interest abated some- 
 what, as will be seen from this entry in Mills' 
 diary: — 
 
 November 10 (after vacation). I have been in town 
 two weeks. Professing Christians not so much alive 
 as they generally were last term. Oh, that God would 
 revive us again, — that his saints might rejoice, and 
 that immortal souls might be ransomed from eternal 
 death ! Oh, that He would make his children feel their 
 dependence, and bring them to cast themselves at his 
 footstool ! All our strength is from the Lord : I hope 
 he will not cast us off forever, but carry on his own 
 work as best pleases him. We are brought very low; 
 
 32 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 and if the Lord look not upon us, where is our hope ? 
 Where can we look but to thy Holy Hill? 
 
 However, Mills did not get discouraged, but 
 used every method and means that he could 
 devise to stimulate the interest and energy of 
 the students who had been aroused. Every bit 
 of information in regard to foreign missions was 
 now eagerly devoured. Reports and letters from 
 the London Missionary Society were sent to 
 the Missionary Society of Connecticut. These 
 were published in The Connecticut Evangelical 
 Magazine, and in this form reached Williams. 
 It was winter time, and these college boys 
 crowded into Byram Green's home in Wil- 
 liamstown to read and discuss these missionary 
 letters and reports with the same zest and en- 
 thusiasm that the students of to-day gather to 
 discuss the prospects of the football eleven or 
 baseball nine. They read and were inspired 
 by Whitefield's sermons. Religion had become 
 a vital thing in college and was finding what it 
 had most of all needed, — an outlet, an expres- 
 sion in work and life for others. Wherever 
 Mills was he was trying to interest his fellows 
 in the project so dear to his heart. As they 
 sat talking in one another's rooms, this became 
 the inevitable subject of conversation. On the 
 campus or in long walks in the woods, wherever 
 3 33 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 he found a student to listen, he tried to infuse 
 him with the same zeal. Fifty years afterwards, 
 Abner Phelps, then a Senior, remembered well 
 several such conversations with Mills, who was 
 a Freshman. One warm summer evening in 
 particular, as they sat in East College yard, 
 Mills opened his heart as he talked of the de- 
 plorable state of Africa and of the slaves in our 
 own country. As he told of his plans for the 
 future, he glowed with enthusiasm. Phelps says, 
 " His thoughts were new to me, and uttered with 
 so much self-devotion and piety they made a 
 lasting impression on my memory." 
 
 Mills became so absorbed in the revival, in the 
 prayer-meetings, and in foreign missions, that he 
 neglected his studies. He was naturally a fair 
 scholar and had an excellent mind, but his pre- 
 occupation with these other things put him down 
 near the foot of his class in scholarship. He 
 expected, and was keenly disappointed that he 
 did not receive a Commencement appointment 
 when he graduated, in 1809. The other men 
 from Torringford received honors. Loomis de- 
 livered an oration on " The Disadvantages of 
 Continuing too long on the Stage," and Orange 
 Lyman on " A False Estimation of Character." 
 As he passed from the room where President 
 Fitch had announced the Commencement parts 
 
 34 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 (so tradition runs), Mills was heard to say 
 in a low, plaintive voice, "Well, if God be 
 for me, it makes no matter who is against 
 me." 
 
 Mills always had great organizing ability. He 
 not only had ideas, but saw the need of organi- 
 zation to carry those ideas into effect. Some- 
 thing, he saw, must be done to concentrate the 
 energies of these young men who had already 
 consecrated their lives to foreign missions. It 
 was the beginning of his Senior year in college, 
 two years after the memorable meeting under 
 the haystack, that the movement took definite, 
 organized shape. 
 
 In the northwest room of the lower story of 
 old East College a " Society of Brethren " was 
 born; the first foreign missionary society in 
 America, organized not for the purpose of send- 
 ing others, but " to effect, in the persons of its 
 members, a mission to the heathen." The fol- 
 lowing is a copy of the constitution : — 
 
 Article I. This Society shall be distinguished by 
 the appellation " Brethren." 
 
 Article II. The object of this Society shall be to 
 effect in the persons of its members a mission, or 
 missions, to the heathen. 
 
 Article III. The government of this Society shall 
 be vested in a President, Vice-President, and Secretary, 
 
 35 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 who shall be annually chosen, and shall perform the 
 ordinary duties of their respective offices. 
 
 Article IV. The existence of this Society shall be 
 kept secret. 
 
 Article V. The utmost care shall be exercised in 
 admitting members. All the information shall be 
 acquired of the character and situation of a candidate 
 which is practicable. No person shall be admitted 
 who is under any engagement of any kind which shall 
 be incompatible with going on a mission to the heathen. 
 No person shall be admitted until he express a firm 
 belief in those distinguishing doctrines commonly de- 
 nominated evangelical. No person shall be permitted 
 to see this constitution until from personal acquaint- 
 ance it is fully believed by at least two members that 
 he is a suitable person to be admitted, and that he will 
 sign it, and until he is laid under the following affir- 
 mation : — " You solemnly promise to keep inviolably 
 secret the existence of this Society." 
 
 Article VI. Each member shall keep absolutely free 
 from every engagement which, after his prayerful at- 
 tention and after consultation with the Brethren, shall 
 be deemed incompatible with the object of this Society, 
 and shall hold hims'elf in readiness to go on a mission 
 when and where duty may call. 
 
 Article VII. Any member on application shall be 
 released from this Society; and the Society shall have 
 power to dismiss any member, when satisfied that 
 his engagement, or character, or situation render it 
 expedient. 
 
 36 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 Article VIII. No alteration shall be made in this 
 constitution without the concurrence of two-thirds of 
 the members of the Society. 
 
 Mills attempted the first draft of the consti- 
 tution. The result was not satisfactory, though 
 he had filled a foolscap sheet of paper with 
 rather crude, rambling statements, and he him- 
 self committed it to the flames. 'He had the 
 idea, but could not seem to give it definite form. 
 The working out of details was left to Richards 
 and Fisk, who produced the constitution as it 
 was finally adopted. 
 
 To Mills as founder was given the, privilege 
 of naming the society. The name first proposed 
 and inserted in the constitution was Sol Oriens 
 (the Rising Sun). This title was dropped as 
 too assuming, and because it was used by some 
 Masonic lodges. Instead of this, Unitas Fratrum 
 was proposed, but they found that had been al- 
 ready taken by the Moravians. Finally Mills 
 suggested it should be simply called " Brethren," 
 and this name was unanimously accepted. The 
 first signers were Samuel J. Mills, Ezra Fisk, 
 James Richards, John Seward, and Luther Rice, 
 whose names have the date 1808 against them. 
 
 The first entries in the record of the " Trans- 
 actions " read as follows : — 
 
 37 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Williams College, Sept. 7, 1808. 
 The members of the S. O. Society met and signed 
 the constitution. 
 
 Chose Mills President, Fisk Vice-President, and 
 Kenney Secretary. 
 
 M. Kenney, Secretary. 
 
 Nov. 9, 1808. Resolved, That we will, every Sab- 
 bath morning at sunrise, address the Throne of Grace 
 in behalf of the object of this Society. 
 
 E. Fisk, Vice-President. 
 
 May 8, 1809. Resolved, To spend Friday, 28th 
 inst, in fasting and prayer in behalf of this Society. 
 
 E. Fisk, Vice-President. 
 
 The constitution, the records, and the signa- 
 tures were all written in cipher, and the whole 
 matter was kept a profound secret. The reasons 
 for secrecy, as stated by Ezra Fisk, twenty years 
 afterward, were the possibility of failure; public 
 opinion, which could see in foreign missionary 
 projects only overheated zeal and fanaticism; 
 and the modesty required of them lest they be 
 thought rashly imprudent. " Besides these, Mills 
 desired to be unseen in all his movements on 
 this subject, which I am well persuaded arose 
 from his unaffected humility, never desirous to 
 distinguish himself, but to induce others to go 
 forward." 
 
 38 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 To further their work and arouse interest in 
 foreign missions, the " Brethren " republished 
 missionary sermons delivered by Rev. Dr. E. D. 
 Griffin and Rev. Dr. John H. Livingston, and 
 circulated and read them aloud as opportunity 
 offered. They wrote out a list of prominent 
 ministers, like Doctors Worcester, Griffin, Morse, 
 and Dana, whose interest and cooperation they 
 tried to secure. They visited these ministers, 
 spent their college vacations with them, and by 
 public addresses and private conversation among 
 their people developed missionary interest. Mills 
 was always singularly desirous of enlisting men 
 of prominence and power in his projects. In this 
 he was usually successful. Unless the Brethren 
 had secured this cooperation, they would have 
 been set down as harebrained college students, 
 full of rash and ill-digested schemes. Instead 
 of this they went to men like Worcester and 
 Griffin, who could appreciate their plans and 
 purposes and were capable of giving them 
 needed advice. These men became a balance- 
 wheel to the impulsive energy of the students. 
 At the same time they gave to the movement a 
 strength and stability which it otherwise would 
 have lacked. So the young men secured for 
 their cause a fair and favorable hearing in the 
 churches. 
 
 39 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Their plans were to inoculate the students of 
 other colleges with the same missionary zeal and 
 fervor. One of them left Williams, became a 
 student at Middlebury, and started a similar 
 society there. Attempts were made to interest 
 Dartmouth and Union, but they were unsuccess- 
 ful. Mills made a tentative trip in his Junior 
 year to Yale, and began there an intimate friend- 
 ship with Asahel Nettleton, afterwards the great 
 evangelist, whom he found deeply interested in 
 missionary work. After his graduation from 
 Williams, in 1809, Mills became a graduate 
 student in theology at Yale for a few months, 
 When this friendship was renewed. The two 
 friends agreed " to avoid all entangling alli- 
 ances, and to hold themselves in readiness to go 
 to the heathen whenever God in his providence 
 should prepare the way." They agreed further 
 to meet at Andover Seminary, but Nettleton 
 was prevented by a debt contracted in securing 
 his college education. There were remarkable 
 coincidences in the lives of these young men. 
 They were born on the same day, converted at 
 the sam'e age, both early pledged to foreign 
 missionary work, and both prevented from 
 carrying their purpose into effect. 
 
 So began in America one of the mightiest 
 movements of the nineteenth century. Not that 
 
 40 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 there was no foreign missionary spirit mani- 
 fested in American churches before this, but 
 here began the first organized foreign missionary 
 society in America. This society was not or- 
 ganized to send others as missionaries, but " to 
 effect, in the persons of its members, a mission 
 to the heathen." It was organized by college 
 students, who, when they formed their little 
 society, could count on little sympathy even 
 from the clergy, faculty, or churches. 
 
 " That such a movement should have origi- 
 nated with the undergraduates of a college, at a 
 time . . . when there was so much in the state of 
 the world to excite the youthful imagination and 
 fire ambition and distract the mind, when Europe 
 was quaking under the tread of the man of des- 
 tiny, and this country was fearfully excited by 
 political divisions, can only be accounted for 
 from the special agency of the Spirit of God." 
 So Mark Hopkins summed up the matter, and 
 none can do it better. 
 
 The organization of the Brethren, however, 
 was not the first instance of a great , religious 
 movement originating in the personal dedication 
 of a small group of college students. In the 
 sepulchral chapel of the church at Montmartre, 
 August 15, 1534, seven students of the Univer- 
 sity of Paris were gathered. Among them were 
 
 41 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Peter Faber, 
 and Lainez. Faber, the only one who had 
 taken priest's orders, administered the sacra- 
 ment. Then each took a solemn oath of dedi- 
 cation to the services of the Saviour. Besides 
 the general vow of monasticism, they pledged 
 themselves to go on a mission to Palestine, to 
 convert the infidels, or, failing in that, to under- 
 take any service to which the pope, as vicar of 
 Christ, should appoint them. This Society of 
 Jesus was the outworking of the purpose of the 
 leader, Ignatius Loyola, to convert the Moslems 
 and heathen to the faith, and to counteract 
 the inroads of Protestantism upon the Roman 
 Catholic Church in Europe. There is a strange 
 similarity between the organization of these mis- 
 sionary movements, in spite of the difference 
 between the Roman Catholic and Puritan set- 
 tings and accessories. Loyola and Mills each 
 had a strange power over other men, even supe- 
 rior to them in ability, fascinated them, and 
 won them to their plans and purposes. There 
 was the same imperialism in their purpose, the 
 same self-sacrifice in their lives. Later in the 
 history of the Brethren the discussion arose as 
 to whether their pledge involved an engagement 
 for life or not. They reasoned that it was " a 
 free dedication to a work the very nature of 
 
 42 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 which implies perpetuity. So by the constitu- 
 tion of the Jesuits, which is an admirable sys- 
 tem, every member is dedicated for life to the 
 interests of the order." So did they acknowl- 
 edge the similarity between the two societies. 
 
 Again, one of the movements which made 
 possible the missionary movement in the nine- 
 teenth century was the moral and religious 
 awakening in the English-speaking world which 
 followed the work of Wesley and Whitefield. 
 The beginning of that awakening was the Holy 
 Club, organized at Oxford by John Wesley of 
 Lincoln College, Charles Wesley and Morgan 
 of Christ Church, and Kirkham of Merton; to 
 whom were afterwards added Whitefield and 
 others. The morals of the university were at a 
 low ebb, infidelity prevailed, and religion was 
 formal and lifeless. This little band of students 
 met to read the Greek Testament and classics 
 during the week, and study divinity on Sundays. 
 They fasted twice a week, received the Lord's 
 Supper weekly, and submitted to a rigid system 
 of self-examination, which reminds one of the 
 spiritual exercises of Loyola. They were saved 
 from mere asceticism by active philanthropy. 
 Morgan paid a visit to the jail. As a result 
 of his report, they began systematic instruction 
 of the prisoners. Visiting the sick, reading and 
 
 43 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 distributing good books among the poor, and 
 looking after neglected children soon followed. 
 So began in the work of these early Methodists 
 in this student club one of the mightiest reli- 
 gious movements of modern times. 
 
 The Brethren joined in holy union these two 
 antecedent student brotherhoods. They united 
 the revival of personal piety in the Holy Club 
 to the personal dedication as messengers of the 
 cross which characterized the Society of Jesus. 
 To all the fire and fervor of the Spaniards and 
 Frenchmen these young Americans joined the 
 sanctified common sense of the Englishmen. 
 Surely this brotherhood organized at Williams 
 is worthy of a name beside the society organ- 
 ized at Montmartre and the club at Oxford. 
 
 Yet it was probably from another source that 
 Mills received his idea of a secret society. In 
 the year of the Declaration of Independence, 
 Adam Weishaupt, a university professor in 
 Ingolstadt, Germany, organized a secret society 
 which was called the Illuminati. It was semi- 
 political and semireligious in its purpose; in its 
 workings it was modeled after the Society of 
 Jesus. Its original purpose was to abolish the 
 abuses resulting from priestcraft and aristocracy. 
 It became skeptical and occult in its philosophy 
 and radical in its politics. Through Germany 
 
 44 
 
WILLIAMS COLLEGE— THE HAYSTACK 
 
 and France it spread rapidly, and crossed to 
 America with the French troops. In the United 
 States it drew into its ranks some men of social 
 and political standing. It became fashionable to 
 sneer at the Bible and scoff at religion. The 
 Illuminati ignored the rights of God and pro- 
 claimed triumphantly the rights of man. Mills 
 became acquainted with this secret order and 
 its workings, and from a letter of his it seems 
 altogether probable that he caught some ideas 
 from the Illuminati which he adopted in the 
 Brethren. He wrote to Seward : " Among the 
 instructions given to the initiated by the hiero- 
 phant of the Illuminati is the following : ' Serve, 
 assist, and mutually support each other. Aug- 
 ment our members.' And when our members 
 shall be augmented to a certain degree, when 
 we shall have acquired strength by our union, 
 let us hesitate no longer, but begin to render 
 ourselves formidable to the wicked. If the devil 
 has put an engine into our hands (trusting in 
 God for assistance), let us turn it against him 
 and wield it like skillful engineers." How skil- 
 fully they used this engine let the history of the 
 nineteenth century answer. 
 
 45 
 
Ill 
 
 ANDOVER SEMINARY — THE 
 BRETHREN 
 
The calling of the missionary to the heathen is a glorious 
 high calling. He who thinks himself above it, ought not to call 
 himself a follower of Christ. May God give us his Spirit from 
 on high, that we may know what our duty is and be constrained 
 to do it. 
 
 MlLLS. 
 
 Some of you have already inquired, deliberated, fasted, and 
 prayed, until by irresistible convictions of duty you have felt 
 yourselves constrained to consecrate your lives to the Redeemer of 
 your souls ; and by anticipation you are now rejoicing and 
 blessing God that this grace is given you that you should preach 
 among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Having 
 made this solemn and momentous decision, in the fear and the 
 strength of the Lord, you are no longer inquiring after facts 
 or truths to convince you what your duty is in regard to the 
 heathen. With the map and the geography of the heathen 
 world before you, your single inquiry is, " What field is most 
 eligible, and what is the best method of establishing a mission in 
 that field?" 
 
 Gordon Hall. 
 
 For what is it to be a Christian ? Not merely to bear the 
 name of Christ, but to have his divine message impressed on our 
 souls and manifested in our lives. Jesus had a heart which 
 embraced every human being, with a love which made him will- 
 ing to suffer poverty and disgrace, anguish and death, for their 
 salvation. And how can his heart be like the heart of Jesus, 
 how can he be a Christian who does not love all mankind with 
 a love which makes him willing to suffer the loss of all temporal 
 things and even to lay down his life if thereby he can promote 
 the salvation of his fellowmen ? 
 
 Gordon Hall. 
 
Ill 
 
 ANDOVER SEMINARY — THE BRETHREN 
 
 FILLED with a desire to hide a handful of 
 leaven in a large measure of meal, Mills 
 went to Yale soon after his graduation 
 from Williams, in 1809. He was exceedingly 
 anxious that the " divine ferment " should pene- 
 trate and permeate the college which seems to 
 have been nearest to him after his own Alma 
 Mater. His apparent purpose, as we have said 
 before, was that of a graduate student in theol- 
 ogy; his real reason was to consult and plan with 
 Nettleton, and to arouse missionary interest, if 
 possible, among the other students. His mission 
 seems to have been fruitless, so far as most of 
 the students were concerned, but it was fruitful 
 in his own life and in the history, of the Sand- 
 wich Islands. Here he met Obookiah, the 
 Hawaiian waif, of whom more will be said in 
 another chapter. Mills kept up a correspond- 
 ence with the Williams men all the time, stimu- 
 lating their interest and enlisting new volunteers. 
 4 49 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 How successful he was is indicated in a letter, 
 dated New Haven, December 22, 1809, to R. C. 
 Robbins : — 
 
 I send you a letter from Bro. Hall. I call him 
 Brother because I deem him one, although he has not 
 signed the constitution [of the Brethren]. I trust he 
 has had some compunctions of conscience that he did 
 not sign the constitution when he had an opportunity. 
 He appears, as far as we can judge, to be ordained 
 and stamped a missionary by the sovereign hand of 
 God, as every one must be who is successful in this 
 work. 
 
 Hall received a flattering call to settle as 
 pastor at Woodbury, Connecticut, and had be- 
 fore received an appointment as tutor at Wil- 
 liams. " Then," says Dr. Ebenezer Porter, " the 
 heart of the missionary came out. Then was 
 revealed the secret so long cherished between 
 himself and his beloved brother Mills." " No," 
 said Hall, " I must not settle in any parish in 
 Christendom. Others will be left whose health 
 or pre-engagements require them to stay at 
 home; but I can sleep on the ground, can en- 
 dure hunger and hardship. God calls me to the 
 heathen; woe to me if I preach not the gospel 
 to the heathen." Later on Gordon Hall en- 
 tered Andover preparatory to going abroad, 
 
 5° 
 
ANDOVER SEMINARY 
 
 and largely, as we have seen, through Mills' 
 influence. 
 
 Mills must have left Yale soon after this, for 
 it was at Andover that news reached him of his 
 mother's critical illness. At Hartford he was 
 informed that she had passed away. He hoped 
 against hope that it was not true. On the way 
 home he passed the cemetery. There he found 
 a newly made grave in the family plot. It was 
 his mother's. Then he wept as a strong man 
 weeps when the one who has been friend, coun- 
 selor, mother, and comrade, all in one, is taken 
 away. It was the greatest loss he ever knew. 
 She died December 30, 1809. To a friend who 
 had proffered sympathy Mills wrote, " I wept 
 not that my mother had gone to glory, but that 
 I should see her face no more, no more should 
 hear her warning voice, no more share her 
 prayers. Her dust is precious dust, and shall 
 arise triumphant when the trump of Jesus shall 
 call us to judgment. Upon my arrival home I 
 found the gray locks of my father had been 
 shaken by the blast; still he seems supported 
 from above, and hopes that as his day is so his 
 strength will be. He thanks you, dear sir, and 
 all his dear friends who remembered him in their 
 prayers." In the same letter he had written: 
 " I hope that my bosom will not heave a mur- 
 
 5i 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 muring sigh because of this chastising stroke. 
 God, as we trust, hath redeemed the soul of our 
 dear parent, and her Saviour, looking down, 
 said, ' Come up hither.' And why should we say 
 to her pure spirit, ' Stay yet, a little longer ' ? 
 What had we to offer her if she had tarried? 
 Nothing, except that which we all inherit by 
 the fall, — ' stripes, chains, and a dungeon.' " 
 
 Grief-stricken though he was, he went back 
 to Andover and to the great work to which this 
 devoted mother had dedicated him. 
 
 Andover Seminary at this time was a new 
 institution, and was partially, at least, the out- 
 come of missionary zeal. It is true that the 
 theological controversy of the time was the main 
 reason for the founding of the seminary, but an 
 important factor was the missionary spirit. In 
 December, 1806, Dr. Samuel Spring, who was 
 trying to interest prominent laymen in the pro- 
 posed seminary, laid his plans before John 
 Norris, a wealthy merchant of Salem, and asked 
 his financial assistance. Mr. Norris hesitated, 
 for he had planned to use his money for mis- 
 sions. He used to say, " The missionary object 
 is the greatest in the world." He had made his 
 money in the East India trade and wished to 
 spend it in helping India. They separated for 
 the night, but in the morning Mr. Norris said 
 
 52 
 
ANDOVER SEMINARY 
 
 to Dr. Spring : " My wife tells me that this plan 
 of yours for a theological school and the mis- 
 sionary enterprise are the same thing. We must 
 raise ministers if we would have the men to go 
 as missionaries." Thus realizing that this was 
 but another side of his cherished plan, he drew 
 ten thousand silver dollars from the bank and 
 consecrated them to the cause. So he became 
 one of the Associate Founders of the institution. 
 Andover Seminary became a reality, and opened 
 its doors to students in 1808. Thus another link 
 ■was forged in the chain which was to bring and 
 bind together the whole world. 
 
 . When Mills entered the seminary early in 
 1810, he found a number of his college class- 
 mates and members of the Brethren there. Be- 
 sides his intimate friends, James Richards and 
 Robert C. Robbins, Ansel Nash and Cyrus W. 
 Gray of his class, and Luther Rice (Williams, 
 1810), were all members at some time or other 
 of the class of 1812 at Andover. In the semi- 
 nary class of 1 8 10 were sixteen graduates, in 
 181 1 six, and in 1812 eleven, besides nearly as 
 many more who did not graduate. So in the 
 very beginning the institution was well patron- 
 ized, and gave a fine opportunity to Mills and 
 the rest of the Brethren to propagate the ideas 
 which they had brought with them from Wil- 
 
 53 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Hams. Not only had the strongest members of 
 the Brethren moved to Andover, but they also 
 brought with them some time in 1810 the 
 precious constitution and records. These rec- 
 ords, so carefully treasured, were kept in cipher 
 until 1 818, when they were translated by Pliny 
 Fisk. From the nature of the case they were 
 at first brief and fragmentary. To-day the 
 records are extant in the little black leather- 
 covered book in which they were written by 
 Fisk, in the library of Andover Seminary. In 
 that little volume there is more romance of mis- 
 sions than in any other book written or printed. 
 The last entry at Williams, October 19, 1809, re- 
 cords the admission of Salmon Giddings, the first 
 Protestant pastor at St. Louis. The first item 
 at Andover, September 14, 1810, records the 
 election of Rice, president, Giddings, vice-presi- 
 dent, and Fairfield, secretary. 
 
 Meantime Richards and Robbins had been 
 talking foreign missions among the other stu- 
 dents, and they found some others already in- 
 terested. Samuel Nott, Jr., a graduate of Union 
 College, while studying theology with his father 
 in Franklin, Connecticut, had been deeply im- 
 pressed with the idea of becoming a missionary. 
 Adoniram Judson, a graduate of Brown Uni- 
 versity, a brilliant scholar but not then a Chris- 
 
 54 
 
ANDOVER SEMINARY 
 
 tian, entered the seminary in 1808. He was 
 not even a believer in revelation at this time, 
 and could not be enrolled as a regular student. 
 The following year, when he expressed the hope 
 that he was a Christian, his expressions were 
 met with mingled joy and fear. Soon after this 
 he read Buchanan's " Star in the East," which 
 set him thinking seriously about foreign mis- 
 sions, and he definitely committed himself to 
 missionary work in February, 1810, soon after 
 Mills entered the seminary. Samuel Newell, a 
 graduate of Harvard, came to his decision in 
 regard to missions after a serious illness. So 
 in various ways was the leaven working at the 
 same time among some of the very choicest 
 young men of their times and of all time. 
 Judson has well put the matter in a letter writ- 
 ten to Rice, July 13, 1830. Speaking of these 
 things he writes : — 
 
 I have ever thought that the providence of God 
 was conspicuously manifested in bringing us all to- 
 gether, from different and distant parts. Some of us 
 have been considering the subject of missions for a 
 long time, and some but recently. Some, and indeed 
 the greater part, had thought chiefly of domestic 
 missions, and efforts among the neighboring tribes 
 of Indians, without contemplating abandonment of 
 country and devotement for life. The reading and 
 
 55 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 reflection of others had led them in a different way; 
 and when we all met at the same seminary, and came 
 to a mutual understanding on the ground of foreign 
 missions and missions for life, the subject assumed 
 in our minds such an overwhelming importance and 
 awful solemnity, as bound us to one another, and to 
 our purpose more firmly than ever. How evident it 
 is that the Spirit of God had been operating in dif- 
 ferent places, and upon different individuals, prepar- 
 ing the way for those movements which have since 
 pervaded the American churches, and will continue 
 to increase until the kingdoms of this world become 
 the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Anointed! 
 
 Many words have been written to show that 
 either Judson or Mills was the leader and 
 should have the honor of originating the move- 
 ment which led to such far-reaching results. 
 The facts and dates given above are agreed to 
 by biographers of both. And as Nott, the last 
 survivor of the group, said in 1851, " It has 
 never seemed to me of any consequence to settle 
 the matter as to who was or who was not the 
 leader of the movement, unless it were to show 
 that no man was; and that it must have been, 
 that like influences of like circumstances, which 
 divine providence and, I trust, divine grace, 
 turned to this account, preparing for a com- 
 bination above the device of man." 
 
 56 
 
ANDOVER SEMINARY 
 
 It was certainly of great significance to the 
 missionary cause that these young graduates of 
 Williams, Harvard, Brown, and Union should 
 be brought together just at this time. If these 
 young men had been obliged to study theology, 
 as the custom had been up to this time, with 
 various pastors scattered about New England, 
 this fellowship and cooperation would have 
 been impossible. Andover Seminary answered 
 a great need in thus furnishing an institution 
 where they could by personal acquaintance stim- 
 ulate and develop the faith that was in them. 
 It was this association together which enabled 
 them to appeal to the churches later on and 
 secure their cooperation. In the seminary, as 
 at college, Mills used all the time and oppor- 
 tunity at his command to press personally upon 
 individuals the claims of missions. He thor- 
 oughly informed himself upon the subject and 
 schooled himself until he could present a most 
 convincing and cumulative argument. So he 
 could be seen constantly arm in arm with one 
 or two fellow students walking and talking. 
 Now giving interesting information, now pro- 
 voking discussion, and now glowing with 
 warmth, he pressed the matter home with a 
 logic and fervor alike irresistible, and brought 
 his man to a decision and a dedication. If two 
 
 57 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 or three were gathered in a room and Mills 
 were present the conversation would be as in- 
 evitably and naturally drawn to the subject as 
 the compass needle toward the north. Says one 
 who knew him there, " Never was an ambitious 
 politician seeking the honors and emoluments of' 
 his office more unremittingly or more zealously 
 engaged." Fortunately we have preserved to us 
 an outline of the arguments for foreign mis- 
 sions which he used in these conversations, in 
 a letter dated at Andover, March 21, 181 1, to 
 John Seward. The statements have been some- 
 what abridged : — 
 
 1. The state of the American churches. The coun- 
 try is at peace and her ships are visiting all portions 
 of the globe for the purpose of trade and commerce. 
 This commerce has made the country rich. The wealth 
 of the American churches is immense. To what better 
 purpose can it be put than in carrying the gospel to 
 the heathen? 
 
 2. The establishment of the divinity school at 
 Andover. There is now no excuse for ignorance in 
 regard to the condition of the heathen. If we remain 
 blind it is because we will not see. Further, God is 
 here giving us an unparalleled opportunity to fit our- 
 selves for the work of evangelizing the heathen. 
 
 3. The organization of Missionary, Bible, and Tract 
 Societies in America. By means of these societies the 
 
 58 
 
ANDOVER SEMINARY 
 
 new settlements will be cared for and our own coun- 
 try will not be neglected. 
 
 4. The efforts that have been made and are now 
 being made by Christians in other countries. America 
 ought to be stimulated to go and do likewise. 
 
 5. The present favorable opportunities for intro- 
 ducing the gospel among the heathen. Both in Asia 
 and Africa the missionaries have found the natives 
 ready and eager for the gospel message. When Van 
 der Kemp arrived in Africa, he found Bushmen at 
 the Cape waiting for some one to go with them into 
 the interior and tell them the story of Jesus and his 
 love for all men. 
 
 6. The success that has attended the missions re- 
 cently established in India and Africa. 
 
 7. The disposition generally manifested by Chris- 
 tians to favor the subject. 
 
 8. The fulfilment of prophecy which we believe 
 precedes the latter-day glory. 
 
 Mills made a great impression upon the stu- 
 dents at the seminary. They considered him a 
 remarkable character, " an extraordinary man." 
 This was not read into their opinions in after 
 years when he became famous, for we have 
 a pen picture which his roommate, Timothy 
 Woodbridge, sent to his brother the first year 
 that Mills was at Andover, in which he said: 
 "I had no conception when I first met him of 
 
 59 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 his being such a man, as I very soon found him 
 to be, while we were roommates. He has an 
 awkward figure and ungainly manners and an 
 unelastic and croaking sort of voice; but he has 
 a great heart and great designs. His great 
 thoughts in advance of his age are not like the 
 dreams of a man who is in a fool's paradise, 
 but they are judicious and wise." 
 
 In spite of his own fervor and the popular 
 favor he met, Mills was singularly modest and 
 humble. He never insisted on the primacy of 
 his position. When Judson came into the so- 
 ciety, self-reliant and self-confident, and showed 
 a disposition to lead in the little circle, Mills 
 showed no jealousy whatever. In fact his self- 
 effacement seemed one of the most characteris- 
 tic things about him. 
 
 Neither Robbins nor Richards had broached 
 at Andover the subject of the secret society, and 
 it was not mentioned until Mills came. Then 
 they proceeded with the greatest caution and 
 secrecy in admitting new members. Only after 
 they were thoroughly convinced by the closest 
 investigation were they willing to admit Judson, 
 Newell, and Nott. The meetings were held once 
 a week, usually Tuesday (the noon hour being 
 the favorite time), and always in a student's 
 room for the sake of privacy. The meetings 
 
 60 
 
ANDOVER SEMINARY 
 
 were informal, devoted to conversation and 
 prayer, with the consideration of the needs and 
 feasibility of the various mission fields. Mem- 
 bers were closely united and spoke of each other 
 in terms of endearment. They were " Brethren " 
 in fact as well as name. To what extent this 
 was carried may be learned from a letter of 
 Mills to one of the Brethren left behind at 
 Williams. 
 
 After giving Seward perfect freedom to open 
 his letters to Rice or any of the Brethren, he 
 says : " We can have no separate interest. I 
 trust our bosoms will be always open to the in- 
 spection of the Brethren. I should pursue a 
 different line of conduct toward the world, and 
 in their presence I should always appear with 
 my wrapper on, girt close around me with a 
 belt of wampum. I should hope the time, in- 
 deed, would come when I should feel more at 
 ease." 
 
 When the society was organized at Williams 
 it was at first the united and decided opinion 
 that the missionaries should, not marry. At 
 least one member was censured later on for 
 marrying a year before he expected to go, with- 
 out asking their advice. This interpretation of 
 the constitution throws light on a thoroughly 
 human document, — a postscript to a letter 
 
 61 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 which Mills wrote from New Haven. Thus he 
 confides : " I have not found many acquaintances 
 in town among the fair. I know but three or 
 four. These are eminently pious, and have much 
 of that unaffected loveliness and simplicity of 
 manner so truly captivating. Don't be alarmed, 
 B. K., I am not yet caught in an evil net. But 
 in truth our hearts- need steeling to give up all 
 hopes of domestic happiness, the one bliss (as 
 says the poet) which has survived the fall. But 
 let us remember what Mr. Home says, ' That 
 man is not fit for a missionary who sighs for 
 the delights of a lady's lap.' So adieu ! " 
 
 This explains why Mills never married, and 
 never even allowed himself to consider the 
 matter. He would have gladly yielded to the 
 temptation to take unto himself wife, home, and 
 domestic happiness, if he had not felt that it 
 was his duty to abjure these, and set his face 
 and heart like flint against anything which 
 should stand in the way of his efficiency in the 
 missionary cause. 
 
 The Brethren included only those who person- 
 ally pledged themselves to go as foreign mission- 
 aries. Feeling the need for some organization 
 for dissemination of missionary information and 
 inspiration, and this in a public way, they organ- 
 ized at Andover, January 8, 1811, the " Society 
 
 62 
 
ANDOVER SEMINARY 
 
 of Inquiry on the Subject of Missions." The 
 motives which led to its formation are given in 
 the preamble : — 
 
 Feeling the importance of a more extensive ac- 
 quaintance with the subject of missions to enable us 
 to ascertain our duty and prepare us to promote the 
 glory of our Redeemer and the eternal happiness of 
 our fellowmen, we, the undersigned, looking to our 
 heavenly Father for direction, do form ourselves into 
 a society and adopt the following Constitution. 
 
 Any student might become a member who 
 had been in the Divinity College three months 
 and was a professor of religion, provided that in 
 the opinion of the prudential committee he gave 
 evidence of piety and attachment to the cause 
 of missions. The object of the society was " to 
 inquire into the state of the heathen; the duty 
 and importance of missionary labors; the best 
 manner of conducting missions, and the most 
 eligible places for their establishment; also to 
 disseminate information relative to these sub- 
 jects and to excite the attention of Christians 
 to the importance and duty of missions. 
 
 The society met on Tuesday evenings, once 
 in three weeks, for papers and discussions on 
 missionary themes. The first subject which 
 came up for discussion was, " What are the 
 
 63 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 peculiar signs of the times which call for mis- 
 sionary exertion ? " A missionary library was 
 gradually gathered, and the publication of im- 
 portant missionary pamphlets and books was 
 begun, the first being an octavo volume of 
 eighty pages published in Cambridge for the 
 society, — Buchanan's " Memoir Relative to In- 
 dia." The Society of Inquiry was really con- 
 trolled by the Brethren without exciting any 
 suspicions. The Brethren kept their members 
 in office, as president and corresponding secre- 
 tary of the Society of Inquiry, and also as 
 chairman and secretary of the society's com- 
 mittee on foreign missions. 
 
 The first officers elected were: President, 
 Samuel Nott; Vice-President, Samuel J. Mills; 
 Secretary, R. C. Robbins; Treasurer, James 
 Richards; Prudential Committee, Mills, Rice, 
 and Richards. 
 
 The Society of Inquiry is still in existence, 
 and in active and efficient service to-day. The 
 records of the Brethren were continued with- 
 out a break until 1845 > then there is an occa- 
 sional entry until 1857, while there is no record 
 at all from 1863 until February 17, 1870. The 
 last entry is December 12, 1870. To merely re- 
 cord at all the many names would be to call the 
 honor roll of American foreign missions for the 
 
 64 
 
ANDOVER SEMINARY 
 
 first thirty years. But this is not the place for 
 this intensely interesting bit of history which is 
 stranger and more thrilling than fiction. The 
 last entry but one in the records reads : — 
 
 Met in secretary's room. After the reading of 
 the constitution and by-laws Mr. Neesima was ad- 
 mitted as a brother. After discussion on various 
 topics of interest the Band closed with prayer. 
 
 W. S. Howland, Secretary. 
 
 From Samuel J. Mills to Joseph Hardy 
 Neesima, what a truly apostolic succession! 
 And yet there was little more than sixty years 
 between those signatures. Into those sixty 
 years had been crowded the greatest expansion 
 of the kingdom of God in any century, save 
 only the first. 
 
 65 
 
IV 
 
 THE AMERICAN BOARD — ITS FIRST 
 FOREIGN MISSIONARIES 
 
Yea, let us go to whatever part of our own continent we will 
 or to the West India islands, our brethren in Asia (as it respects 
 a station for glorifying God and doing good to the souls of men) 
 will look down upon us from an elevation as high above us as 
 the heavens are above the earth. 
 
 Mills. 
 
 Our seminary stands in immediate relations to the forming 
 of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
 in the year 1810, and so to all that has resulted from that im- 
 portant event. For it was within its own walls and among its 
 own members, that the scheme for foreign missions to be sus- 
 tained by the churches of this Western world first assumed the 
 visible, tangible form which gave rise to the Board, and to the 
 formal, extensive enlistment in the foreign missionary enterprise 
 of the Congregational, Presbyterian, and Baptist denominations. 
 Let us unitedly thank God that it was here the sacred stream 
 of the gospel had its flow from this our favored land into the 
 mighty deserts of the heathen world. 
 
 Rufus Anderson 
 (At the Semi-centennial of Andover Seminary) 
 
IV 
 
 THE AMERICAN BOARD — ITS FIRST 
 FOREIGN MISSIONARIES 
 
 " 4ND how shall they preach, except they be 
 /-\ sent?" This was the next question 
 which demanded an answer. These 
 young Isaiahs had each cried, in response to 
 God's call, " Here am I; send me." Richards 
 said that in case all other means should fail of 
 getting to the heathen in Asia, he was ready to 
 pledge himself that he would work his passage 
 to India and then throw himself, under Provi- 
 dence, on his own resources, that he might 
 preach the gospel to the heathen. There was 
 at this time no real foreign missionary society 
 in America. The New York, Connecticut, and 
 Massachusetts missionary societies had confined 
 their work to the newer settlements and the 
 American Indians, although the Massachusetts 
 society had changed its constitution so as to 
 include the "more distant regions of the earth, 
 as circumstances shall invite and the ability of 
 the society shall admit." 
 
 69 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Whatever had been done for foreign missions 
 had been done through the British societies, — 
 chiefly the Baptist Foreign Missionary Society, 
 formed in 1792, and the London Missionary 
 Society, 1795. American Christians desirous of 
 helping the work abroad had, without denomi- 
 national distinction, sent their contributions to 
 the support of Carey and the mission at Ser- 
 ampore. In 1806 Robert Ralston and others 
 in Philadelphia sent over $3,350, and in 1807 
 the gifts from America to this same mission 
 amounted to $6,000. It was natural, then, that 
 these young men should at first look to England 
 for means to reach the heathen. 
 
 Correspondence was opened with Dr. Bogue 
 of Gosport, England, in April, 1810, inquiring 
 whether there was any call for more mission- 
 aries in Asia, and whether the London Mis- 
 sionary Society would accept and commission 
 " two or three young unmarried men, having 
 received a liberal education, wishing to serve 
 the Saviour in a heathen land, and indeed sus- 
 ceptible of a passion for missions." 
 
 What Mills thought of such an arrangement 
 may be gathered from a letter which he wrote 
 when he heard that Judson thought of offer- 
 ing himself as a missionary to the London 
 Missionary Society. "What! is England to 
 
 70 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD 
 
 support her own missionaries and ours like- 
 wise? O shame! If brother Judson is pre- 
 pared, I would fain press him forward with the 
 arm of an Hercules, if I had the strength, but 
 I do not like this dependence on another nation, 
 especially when they have already done so much 
 and we nothing. I trust that each of the 
 brethren will stand at their several posts, de- 
 termined, God helping them, to show themselves 
 men. Perhaps the fathers will soon arise and 
 take the business of missions into their own 
 hands. But should they hesitate, let us be pre- 
 pared to go forward, — trusting to that God 
 for assistance who hath said, ' Lo, I am with 
 you always, even to the end of the world.' " 
 
 The " fathers " were arising, slowly but cer- 
 tainly. The professors of the seminary, — Griffin, 
 Stuart, and Woods, — were taken into counsel, 
 and together with Dr. Samuel Worcester and 
 Dr. Samuel Spring, held a meeting at Professor 
 Stuart's house. It was a memorable meeting. 
 The young men were advised to submit their 
 case to the General Association of Massachu- 
 setts, which was to meet the next day at Brad- 
 ford, and which Dr. Spring and Dr. Worcester 
 were to attend as delegates. The association 
 met at Bradford Wednesday, June 27, 1810. 
 On the motion of Dr. Spring, " four young 
 
 7i 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 gentlemen, from the Divinity College, were intro- 
 duced and presented the following Paper " : — 
 
 The undersigned, members of the Divinity College, 
 respectfully request the attention of their Reverend 
 Fathers, convened in the General Association at Brad- 
 ford, to the following statement and inquiries: 
 
 They beg leave to state, that their minds have been 
 long impressed with the duty and importance of per- 
 sonally attempting a Mission to the Heathen ; that the 
 impressions on their minds have induced a serious, 
 and they trust a prayerful consideration of the sub- 
 ject in its various attitudes, particularly in relation 
 to the probable success and the difficulties attending 
 such an attempt; and that after examining all the 
 information which they can obtain, they consider 
 themselves as devoted to this work for life, whenever 
 God in his providence shall open the way. They 
 now offer the following inquiries on which they so- 
 licit the opinion and advice of this Association. 
 
 Whether with their present views and feelings, 
 they ought to renounce the object of Missions as 
 visionary or impracticable ; if not, whether they ought 
 to direct their attention to the eastern or the western 
 world; whether they may expect patronage and sup- 
 port from a Missionary Society in this country, or 
 must commit themselves to the direction of a Euro- 
 pean Society; and what preparatory measures they 
 ought to take previous to actual engagement? 
 
 The undersigned, feeling their youth and inexpe- 
 72 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD 
 
 rience, look up to their Fathers in the Church, and re- 
 spectfully solicit their advice, direction, and prayers. 
 (Signed) 
 
 Adoniram Judson, Jr. 
 
 Samuel Nott, Jr. 
 
 Samuel J. Mills. 
 
 Samuel Newell. 
 
 The paper is said to have been drawn up by 
 Judson, Mills with characteristic modesty and 
 humility giving way to one who was two years 
 his senior in seminary life. It was planned at 
 first that the names of Richards and Rice should 
 be affixed to the document, but they were left 
 off at the suggestion of Dr. Spring, lest the 
 association be alarmed at the expense involved 
 in sending six men. 
 
 The petition was referred to a committee of 
 three, who reported next day in favor of the 
 institution of a " Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions, ' for the purpose of devising 
 ways and means, and adopting and prosecuting 
 measures ' for promoting the spread of the Gospel 
 in Heathen lands." There were to be nine com- 
 missioners, — five from Massachusetts and four 
 from Connecticut, — who were to adopt their 
 own form of organization and make their own 
 rules and regulations. The students were ad- 
 vised to give themselves to " earnest prayer and 
 
 73 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 diligent attention to suitable studies and means 
 of information, and putting themselves under 
 the patronage and direction of the Board of 
 Commissioners for Foreign Missions, humbly 
 to wait the openings and guidances of Provi- 
 dence in respect to their great and excellent 
 design." 
 
 So did the dream and ambition of Mills for 
 an American foreign missionary society take 
 shape. To his faith, foresight, and initiative, 
 more than to that of any other man, was this 
 organization due. 1 Not that he worked out the 
 details of the organization or drew the plans 
 for its machinery. The details of the method 
 and plan were worked out by Drs. Spring and 
 Worcester, but there can be no doubt that he 
 furnished the impulse, impetus, and initiative to 
 the movement, which others helped to materialize. 
 
 It seems hard to realize in these days, when 
 the annual meeting of the American Board is 
 an assembly of the thousands, that the first meet- 
 ing at Farmington, Connecticut, was attended 
 by four ministers and one layman, Governor 
 
 1 In the " First Ten Reports American Board of Commissioners 
 for Foreign Missions," the editor says in regard to this paper pre- 
 sented to the Massachusetts General Association : " The history 
 of the rise and progress of the missionary spirit of which this 
 communication was a result may be seen in the Life of Samuel J. 
 Mills." 
 
 74 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD 
 
 John Treadwell. They adopted a constitution 
 and elected officers. They also issued an ad- 
 dress to " the Christian Public," setting forth the 
 great awakening in regard to foreign missions, 
 and the fact that several young men under sacred 
 and deep impressions had devoted themselves to 
 the missionary cause for life, and were ready 
 to go to any part of the unevangelized world. 
 The address concluded with this appeal : ." In 
 the present state of the world Christian mis- 
 sions cannot be executed without pecuniary sup- 
 port. Shall this support be wanting? When 
 millions are perishing for lack of knowl- 
 edge, and the young disciples of the Lord 
 are waiting with ardent desires to carry the 
 gospel to them, shall those millions be left 
 to perish and that ardent desire be disap- 
 pointed ? " 
 
 The men were ready, the organization was 
 completed ; still one thing was lacking, — the 
 money. For this they were compelled to wait. 
 It was not until January, 1812, eighteen months 
 after the meeting at Bradford, that the Board 
 resolved to ordain its first missionaries. There 
 was then in the treasury only $1200, but Mrs. 
 Mary Norris, the widow of John Norris, had' 
 left a legacy of $30,000. The original number 
 of the missionaries was four, — Hall, Judson, 
 
 75 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Newell, and Nott. Luther Rice wished to be 
 added to the number. To this, with much faith 
 and small funds, the committee assented. The 
 salary of the married men, Nott, Judson, and 
 Newell, was $666.66; that of the others, two- 
 thirds as much. It was estimated that the ex- 
 penses, including passage, outfits, and salaries, 
 would amount to $5000 for the first year. On 
 February 8, 181 2, in the Tabernacle Church, 
 Salem, Massachusetts, these five young men 
 were ordained missionaries, and sailed shortly 
 after for Calcutta. Mills was present at this 
 ordination. And this is his account of it in a 
 letter to his sister : — 
 
 Thursday of this week five of my brethren were 
 ordained missionaries to the heathen at Salem, in 
 Mr. Worcester's church. The assembly was large and 
 solemn. Dr. Griffin made the introductory prayer. 
 Dr,. Wood preached the sermon. Dr. Morse made 
 the consecrating prayer. Dr. Spring gave the charge, 
 and Mr. Worcester the right hand of fellowship. A 
 collection of $220 was made after the exercises. 
 Christians in this country begin to feel upon the sub- 
 ject of missions. They begin to contribute liberally 
 and pray fervently. God be praised! The brethren 
 ordained were Messrs. Nott, Judson, Hall, Newell, 
 and Rice. Precious brethren they were. They need 
 your prayers. 
 
 76 
 
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 z 
 
 
 
 7. 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 X 
 H 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD 
 
 Not one word of jealousy or complaint! Yet 
 the day when he should be ordained a foreign 
 missionary had been as a guiding star to him. 
 Now the advance-guard was sent out, and the 
 first volunteer of them all was left behind. Why 
 was Samuel J. Mills, Jr., not ordained and sent 
 out as a member of this advance-guard? One 
 answer is that with characteristic modesty he 
 had given way to Gordon Hall, who he believed 
 was better fitted than he was himself to have 
 the honor, for as such it was considered. Again, 
 the opinion held by men like Dr. Rufus An- 
 derson (many years secretary of the American 
 Board) is that it was thought that Mills would 
 be more useful to the cause by staying at 
 home to stimulate missionary interest among 
 the churches, and by persuading other men to 
 go as missionaries. This reason gains color 
 from a letter from Hall to Mills (Bombay, 
 June 15, 1815),, in which Hall says: "I want 
 to hear all you have done and intend to do, and 
 how many missionaries are likely to be found. 
 It is one maxim of the excellent Moravians 
 never to exhort men to be missionaries. But 
 whence did these good men get this maxim? 
 If it was the last solemn duty which our as- 
 cended Lord charged upon ministers, to go into 
 all the world and preach the gospel to every 
 
 77 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 creature, why not exhort men to perform this 
 duty as well as any other? Is it a duty so 
 small and trifling in its consequences that un- 
 like other duties Christ did not intend men 
 should be exhorted to it?" With all the pres- 
 sure of the great need that he saw about him, 
 Hall urged Mills to call the young men in the 
 colleges and seminaries to arms, and " to sound 
 the alarm of war, and sound, and sound, until 
 every soldier of Jesus is equipped for the field 
 and eagerly flying to battle." The business of 
 the recruiting officer may not blazon the pages 
 of history, but it wins battles. 
 
 These were undoubtedly the reasons, and yet 
 the reason was that " the Brethren did not select 
 Mills to go out." It was in the secret meeting 
 of that student society that their decision was 
 made as to who should go, but probably the 
 reason influencing their decision is the one in- 
 dicated in Hall's letter. 
 
 Years afterwards one of the Brethren was 
 asked the question, " Why did not Mills go with 
 the first missionaries ? " He replied : " The un- 
 common tact of Mills in exciting others and 
 setting them to work, and his own convictions 
 that he was not so well qualified to go on a 
 foreign mission or conduct its details, were 
 some of the reasons spoken of at the time. It 
 
 78 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD 
 
 was decided by the Brethren that it was all 
 important for the interest of the cause that he 
 should remain at home. It was the thought 
 that the life of the cause was connected with 
 his instrumentality." 
 
 What a sacrifice it was to him he never really 
 told, but we can easily imagine what it meant 
 when largely through his influence that heav- 
 enly vision at the haystack had become a reality, 
 and he was a spectator and not an active par- 
 ticipant. Professor Ebenezer Burgess, who was 
 with him on the voyage to Africa, in 1818, when 
 he died, says : " He was probably disappointed 
 that he was not approved and sent out as a mis- 
 sionary with his friends Hall and Newell. He 
 once alluded to it, but said that it was the 
 height of his ambition to be the pastor of any 
 little church in the outskirts of our country that 
 he might feed a few sheep and lambs of Christ's 
 life." 
 
 It only adds to our admiration of the man who 
 felt that his cherished ambitions, noble as they 
 were, ought to be subordinated to the interests 
 of the kingdom of God. Self was ever put in the 
 background, the kingdom ever in the foreground. 
 
 When one realizes how powerful and per- 
 sistent were his efforts to enlist his friends and 
 fellow students actively and personally in the 
 
 79 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 cause to which he would gladly have given the 
 last full measure of his devotion, one can see 
 the wisdom of Mills' being left at home to pro- 
 vide the men and means to keep up the fight at 
 the front. Undoubtedly he did more by arous- 
 ing enthusiasm and fervor in others than he ever 
 could have done on the foreign field. He was 
 a mighty power, especially among the college 
 and theological students. Let us look at some 
 of his letters to see the methods and arguments 
 which he used to make the young men of his 
 time consider the claims which foreign missions 
 had upon them personally. To John Seward, of 
 the class which followed his at Williams, he 
 wrote, reminding him that as Christian minis- 
 ters they had dedicated and devoted themselves 
 and all they possessed to the service of Jesus 
 Christ. He quotes Carey : " A Christian minis- 
 ter is a person who in a peculiar sense is not 
 his own. He engages to go where God pleases 
 and to endure what he lays upon him. He vir- 
 tually bids farewell to friends, pleasures, and 
 comforts, and stands in readiness to endure the 
 greatest sufferings in the work of his Lord 
 and Master." " To this," says Mills, " we both 
 subscribe. But where does our heavenly Father 
 call us to labor ? At home or among the heathen ? 
 In our own or in a foreign land? This is cer- 
 
 80 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD 
 
 tainly a deeply interesting inquiry. We ought 
 to enter upon the examination of this subject, 
 deeply impressed with the importance of arriv- 
 ing at a correct decision. On our knees, with 
 the Bible open before us and the map of the 
 world in sight, we may begin our inquiries ; for 
 God has promised, ' The meek will he guide in 
 judgment' " 
 
 A few years later, when he was informed that 
 there were two students in Andover Seminary 
 who had volunteered for missionary work in the 
 Orient, he said it would have given him great 
 pleasure if the number had been ten, twenty, 
 or thirty. To Gordon Hall he wrote : " I wish 
 we were able to break forth as to numbers like 
 the Irish rebellion, — thirty thousand strong. 
 Not a man could be spared. The whole num- 
 ber would be wanted." To Parsons, a student 
 at Andover, he wrote : " I verily believe that 
 there are at our theological seminaries students 
 of divinity who do not dare lay their Saviour's 
 last commission to his disciples before them and 
 fast and pray over it for a day, with a view to 
 ascertaining their duty to the heathen, lest con- 
 viction should fasten upon their minds, with a 
 force not to be resisted, that it is their duty to 
 see that commission carried into effect. I say 
 they dare not do it, although the commission 
 
 81 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 closes with the promise, ' Lo, I am with you 
 alway, even unto the end of the world.'' In 
 closing the letter he adds, however : " I would 
 not have it thought from anything I have said 
 that I would urge all the young men who are 
 entering the ministry to go to Asia. But I think 
 that since there are (in 1817) three or four 
 theological schools in this country, we might 
 furnish for the vast heathen world more than 
 one a year. If there are. none to go from other 
 theological seminaries, I think the brethren at 
 Andover will consider seriously whether they 
 are not bound to make the means of salvation 
 more proportionate to those who are perishing 
 for lack of vision." 
 
 Sorely as men were needed, however, he 
 always discouraged those whom he felt to be 
 but seed sown in stony soil, whose missionary 
 enthusiasm was quickly developed and would as 
 quickly die. In fact, he did all in his power 
 to keep out of the movement those who had 
 not thought deeply on the subject and had not 
 strong convictions, as well as those who were 
 not prepared to " endure all things for the elect's 
 sakei" Such, by their momentary enthusiasm 
 and subsequent failure, could only injure the 
 cause. 
 
 With Samuel J. Mills foreign missions was a 
 82 
 
THE AMERICAN BOARD 
 
 mighty passion, born of whole-hearted devotion. 
 For him to live was Christ; to die was gain, if 
 by his death he might win some part of the 
 great perishing multitude to Christ. He lived 
 " in a world that was made by Jesus Christ and 
 redeemed by his blood." Christ's sacrifice, his 
 life, sufferings, and death, were intensely real, 
 and became an irresistible impulse to him to 
 follow in his steps. With such an example no 
 suffering was too hard, no sacrifice too great. 
 Christ's words, " Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the gospel to every creature," and " He 
 that taketh not his cross, and followeth after 
 me, is not worthy of me," were present and 
 personal to him. And his great faith and con- 
 fidence came because he literally believed the 
 promise to be for himself, " Lo, I am with you 
 always, even unto the end of the world." Because 
 his life was so completely centered in Christ, it 
 reached to the circumference of humanity, " to 
 the remotest corner of this ruined world." 
 
 Not only was Mills ever pleading with men in 
 behalf of the heathen world, but he was also 
 more persistent in his pleading with God. To 
 him prayer was power. From the time he 
 prayed so fervently at the haystack to the ac- 
 companiment of heaven's artillery, even to the 
 last, he besought God continually in behalf of 
 
 83 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 his "wretched brethren" in Asia and Africa. 
 Further, he besought his friends and pleaded 
 with his audiences to lay hold on the great re- 
 sources of the Almighty and thus ally themselves 
 with God in behalf of the perishing heathen. 
 Let us close this chapter with the words of ap- 
 peal with which he closed a letter urging them 
 " to let their souls go out to God in fervent 
 supplication that the heathen may be given to 
 Jesus Christ as an inheritance, not forgetting 
 the land of their forefathers' sepulchres, — the 
 dear country that hath proved their cradle 
 from their infancy to the present time. Still let 
 them appear to be bound by a universal love, 
 feeling deeply for their wretched brethren, 
 whether in India or him that may bow down 
 to his wooden god in Hawaii. O for the wis- 
 dom which is from above to direct the babes 
 in Christ ! O for larger supplies of divine grace 
 and an implicit confidence in the thousand ear- 
 nest precious promises contained in the blessed 
 Word!" 
 
 84 
 
V 
 
 OBOOKIAH — MISSIONARY WORK 
 COMES TO MILLS' DOOR 
 
Oh, what a happy time T have now, while my poor friends 
 and relations at home are perishing with hunger and thirst, 
 wanting of the divine mercy and water out of the wells of salva- 
 tion ! My poor countrymen, who are yet living in the region and 
 shadows of death, without knowledge of the true God, and igno- 
 rant of the future world, have no Bible to read, no Sabbath. T 
 often feel for them in the night season concerning the loss of their 
 
 Henry Obookiah. 
 
 The generous heart of Opukahaia, touched by divine grace, 
 glowed with gratitude to God and his people for the Christian 
 privileges which he was allowed to enjoy, and melted in compassion 
 for his heathen brethren, at his dark home, though their violence 
 had made him an orphan. His ardent, growing desire to use 
 his improved powers in conveying the gospel to his perishing 
 countrymen, gave high promise of his usefulness among them, if, 
 in the providence of God, he should return to his native shore. 
 
 Hiram Bingham. 
 
V 
 
 OBOOKIAH — MISSIONARY WORK COMES 
 TO MILLS' DOOR 
 
 WHILE Mills had been planning to send 
 missionaries abroad, the providence of 
 God brought foreign missionary work 
 to his very door. While at Yale, in 1809, he 
 met Henry Obookiah (properly Opukahaia), a 
 native of Hawaii. His parents had been killed 
 in a war, to use his own language, " made after 
 the old king died, to see who would be greatest 
 among them." Henry tried to make his escape 
 with his little brother, but was overtaken, and 
 the baby was put to death with savage cruelty. 
 Henry, now twelve years old, was a prisoner in 
 the hands of the enemy, in the house of the man 
 who had killed his parents. With this man the 
 boy remained a year or two, until found by his 
 uncle, a high priest, who took his nephew into 
 his own family, and undertook to train him for 
 the priesthood. 
 
 Afterwards, in speaking of the time when he 
 was with his uncle, Obookiah said, " I thought to 
 
 87 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 myself that if I should get away and go to some 
 other country, probably I may find some comfort, 
 more than to live here without father or mother." 
 About this time a ship from New York, Captain 
 Britnall, master, came into the harbor of the place 
 where he lived. The boy's mind was made up, 
 with or without his uncle's permission, to go in 
 that ship when it sailed. Finally, a reluctant 
 consent being granted, he shipped as common 
 sailor with Thomas Hopoo, another native, as 
 cabin-boy. They returned by way of China, 
 and reached New Haven in the autumn of 1809. 
 On board the vessel was Russell Hubbard, a 
 son of General Hubbard of New Haven and 
 a student at Yale. He was also, according to 
 Obookiah, " a friend of Christ," and exceed- 
 ingly kind to the young native, teaching him 
 the rudiments of English out of a spelling-book. 
 At New Haven Obookiah lived for some time 
 in the family of Captain Britnall. He often 
 wandered around the college buildings, and 
 gazed at the students, who were about his own 
 age (seventeen). The more he saw of them, the 
 more he longed that he too might get an edu- 
 cation. Realizing that the doors were closed 
 against him, one day he sat on the threshold 
 of the buildings and wept, " because nobody 
 gave him learning." The good Samaritan who 
 
 88 
 
OBOOKIAH 
 
 chanced that way was Edwin W. Dwight. He 
 befriended and taught this dusky seeker after 
 truth. Mills met Obookiah in Dwight's room 
 and became deeply interested in the boy, who 
 wanted most of all to learn to read the Bible, 
 and then go back to his own country and " tell 
 the people, who were worshipping wooden idols, 
 to pray to the God up in heaven." The influ- 
 ence this had on Mills is plainly seen in a letter 
 written by him from New Haven, December 20, 
 1809, to Gordon Hall: — 
 
 Obookiah was at this time without a home, without 
 a place to eat or sleep. The poor and almost friend- 
 less Hawaiian would sit down disconsolate, and the 
 honest tears flowed freely down his sunburnt face. 
 Since this plan, already related, has been fixed upon, 
 he has appeared cheerful and feels quite at ease. I 
 propose to leave town in two weeks with this native 
 of the South to accompany me to Torringford, where 
 I intend to place him under the care of those whose 
 benevolence is without a bond to check or a limit to 
 confine it. Here I intend he shall stay until next 
 spring, if he is contented, and I trust he will be. 
 Thus, you see, he is likely to be fairly fixed by my 
 side. 
 
 Ever after this Obookiah considered Mills' 
 home in Torringford his home. Mills' mother, 
 
 89 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 he says, " was a very amiable woman and I was 
 treated by her as her own child. She used me 
 kindly and learned me to say the catechism." 
 He became acquainted not only with the Bible 
 and spelling-book, but with the scythe and hoe. 
 About the last of the year 1810 he went to 
 
 
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 ANDOVER SEMINARY AS IT WAS. 
 
 Andover with Samuel J. Mills and was in- 
 structed by the students in the seminary. His 
 presence did much to stimulate missionary in- 
 terest among the theological students. While 
 at Andover he learned that one of his country- 
 men was residing in the neighborhood. He 
 found the other Hawaiian, and spent with him 
 a day and a night, in which there was no sleep 
 
 90 
 
OBOOKIAH 
 
 for either. When he returned he was asked, 
 " Well, Henry, what news from Hawaii ? " 
 Quickly he answered, " I did not think of 
 Hawaii, I had so much to say about Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 At the invitation of James Morris, principal, 
 Obookiah spent the winter of 1813-14 in the 
 same academy in which Mills had studied. 
 During this time he made considerable progress 
 in geography, grammar, and arithmetic. He 
 visited in Litchfield young Dwight, who had 
 befriended him in New Haven, and was now 
 studying theology. After taking his friend 
 aside, he pleaded with Dwight earnestly to go 
 back with him and preach the gospel to the 
 Hawaiians. Not receiving as much encourage- 
 ment as he wished, he thought his friend might 
 fear the consequences of such missionary work. 
 "You 'fraid?" he asked. "You know our 
 Saviour say, ' He that will save his life shall 
 lose it; and he that will lose his life for my 
 sake, same shall save it.' " 
 
 By the advice of his friends, Obookiah applied 
 in 1814 to the Litchfield North Consociation to 
 take him under its care. They assented, and a 
 committee was appointed to have charge of 
 him and several other Hawaiians. Rev. Joseph 
 Harvey of Goshen, with whom they resided, on 
 
 9i 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 behalf of the Consociation petitioned the Ameri- 
 can Board for a school where these Hawaiian 
 boys could be trained. There were five who had 
 drifted to America and desired a Christian edu- 
 cation. Their names, besides Obookiah, were 
 William Tennooe, Thomas Hopoo, John Hono- 
 ree, and George Tamoree. 
 
 The committee appointed by the Board re- 
 ported favorably, in 1816, on the petition for 
 the establishment of such a school, appointing 
 Governor Treadwell, President Dwight, James 
 Morris, Dr. Chapin, Rev. Messrs. Lyman and 
 Charles Prentice as agents of the Board, with 
 power. The object of this school was, in its 
 constitution, declared to be, " The education, 
 in our country, of heathen youths, in such a 
 manner as, with subsequent professional in- 
 struction, will qualify them to become useful 
 missionaries, physicians, surgeons, schoolmas- 
 ters, or interpreters, and to communicate to the 
 heathen nations such knowledge in agriculture 
 and the arts, as may prove the means of pro- 
 moting Christianity and civilization." 
 
 The school was located in Cornwall, Litchfield 
 County, Connecticut. The people of Cornwall 
 gave an academy building valued at $1200. A 
 principal's house and dormitory with eighty-five 
 acres of land were purchased, and Rev. Herman 
 
 92 
 
OBOOKIAH 
 
 Daggett was appointed principal. Thus began 
 the first school in the world for what is supposed 
 to be a very modern idea, — the training of na- 
 tives for the evangelization of their own peoples. 
 The report of the school for September, 1817, 
 gives the names of twelve students, — two were 
 whites, preparing themselves for missionary- 
 work, seven were Sandwich Islanders, two were 
 from the East Indies, and one was an American 
 Indian. In September, 1823, the school numbered 
 thirty-six, — three Anglo-Saxons, nine Sandwich 
 Islanders, one Malay, one Maori, three Chinese, 
 one Portuguese, two Greeks, one Jew, and fif- 
 teen American Indians of nine different tribes. 
 
 But the one whose cries in New Haven had 
 awakened the Christian people to a great need, 
 and so had opened the way to this " Foreign 
 Missionary School," was not to attain his great 
 ambition, which is thus summed up in his own 
 words : ' — 
 
 Oh, what a wonderful thing it is that the hand 
 of the divine providence has brought me from that 
 heathenish darkness where the light of divine truth 
 never had been! And here I have found the name 
 of the Lord Jesus in the Holy Scriptures, and have 
 read that his blood was shed for many. 
 
 Oh, what a happy time I have now, while my 
 poor friends and relations at home are perishing with 
 
 93 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 hunger and thirst, wanting of the divine mercy and 
 water out of the wells of salvation ! My poor country- 
 men who are yet living in the region and shadows of 
 death, without knowledge of the true God, and igno- 
 rant of the future world, have no Bible to read, no 
 Sabbath. I often feel for them in the night season, 
 concerning the loss of their souls. May the Lord 
 Jesus dwell in my heart, and prepare me to go and 
 spend the remaining part of my life with them! But 
 not my will, O Lord, but Thy will be done! 
 
 The will of the Lord was done. The gospel 
 was carried to Hawaii, but Obookiah died Feb- 
 ruary 19, 1818, and lies buried in the old 
 cemetery at Cornwall. Though his cherished 
 ambition had not been attained, he had not lived 
 in vain. He had given to Christian people an 
 object-lesson as to the splendid Christian char- 
 acter possible in the so-called heathen. There 
 had been many who doubted whether it was 
 worth while to try to Christianize the heathen. 
 Many did not believe they had the capacity to 
 understand and appreciate the gospel. By his 
 talents and attainment, as well as his beautiful 
 Christian spirit, Obookiah demonstrated that the 
 people of the Sandwich Islands were worth sav- 
 ing. He became a missionary, not to Hawaii, 
 but to Litchfield County, to Andover, to Am- 
 herst, and aroused interest and confidence in the 
 
 94 
 
OBOOKIAH 
 
 work and worth of foreign missions wherever 
 he went. Though he did not live to become an 
 apostle to his native land, the interest which he 
 had awakened in a mission to the islands of the 
 sea did not perish with him. 
 
 Hiram Bingham said that while visiting the 
 Foreign Mission School, during a vacation of 
 the Theological Seminary at Andover, he felt a 
 new impulse to offer himself as a pioneer in the 
 work of preaching the gospel in this dark por- 
 tion of the Pacific. He offered himself to the 
 American Board for that purpose, and was ac- 
 cepted by the Prudential Committee. Meantime 
 the executive committee of the Cornwall school 
 requested Rev. Joseph Harvey to petition the 
 Board to send out missionaries to the Sandwich 
 Islands. The request was granted seven months 
 after Obookiah's death. September 29, 1819, 
 Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston were or- 
 dained missionaries at Goshen by the Litchfield 
 North Consociation. Besides these two mis- 
 sionaries and their wives there were four other 
 laymen and their wives included in the mis- 
 sionary party. Thomas Hopoo, John Honoree, 
 and William Tennooe, who had been trained at 
 the Cornwall school, were also attached to the 
 mission as teachers, making in all seventeen 
 persons. They sailed from Boston, October 23, 
 
 95 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 in the brig " Thaddeus." When they reached 
 the Sandwich Islands, in April, 1820, they found 
 the way wonderfully and effectually prepared for 
 them. The cry of the Hawaiian waif at the 
 doors of Yale College had been answered. His 
 people were to be taught to pray to God in 
 heaven. 
 
 Bingham was not the only one mightily in- 
 fluenced by Obookiah. Leonard Bacon, then a 
 schoolboy in Hartford, had listened to his elo- 
 quent pleading for his native land, and had been 
 presented to Obookiah by his own missionary 
 father as one consecrated to the work of Christ. 
 When a Senior at Yale he was present at the 
 farewell meeting of this band of missionaries to 
 the Sandwich Islands, and it was only his strict 
 sense of duty to his widowed mother and her 
 fatherless children that prevented him from join- 
 ing the mission. 
 
 Gordon Hall, after a visit to Mills' home, 
 where he saw Obookiah, speaks of the influ- 
 ence his meeting the Hawaiian had upon him. 
 He says, " I could not but think of the poor 
 heathen; if my heart did not ache for them, it 
 was because it contained neither love for Jesus 
 nor good will to the souls of men." 
 
 Mills builded better than he knew when he 
 took that little Hawaiian stranger to his heart 
 
 96 
 
OBOOKIAH 
 
 and his father's home. Wonderfully had the 
 mustard seed of his friendship and fellowship 
 grown and spread out. But if Mills had thus 
 directly and indirectly done much for Obookiah 
 and his native land, Obookiah had done much 
 for him. How much he influenced his bene- 
 factor is plainly seen in this letter of Mills to 
 Gordon Hall. After describing Obookiah, his 
 condition and his desires, he asks : — 
 
 What does this mean, Brother Hall ? Do you under- 
 stand it? Shall he be sent back, unsupported, to at- 
 tempt to reclaim his countrymen ? Shall we not rather 
 consider these Southern islands as a proper place for 
 establishing a mission? Not that I would give up the 
 heathen tribes to the westward. I trust we shall be 
 able to establish more than one mission in a short time, 
 at least in a few years. I mean that God will enable 
 us to extend our views and labors farther than we 
 have before contemplated. We ought not to look only 
 to the heathen on our own continent; we ought to 
 direct our attention to that place where we may, to 
 human appearance, do the most good, and where the 
 difficulties are the least. We are to look to the cli- 
 mate, established prejudices, the acquirement of lan- 
 guage, means of subsistence, etc., etc. All these 
 things, I apprehend, must be considered. 
 
 The field is almost boundless, in every part of which 
 there ought to be missionaries. In the language of 
 an eminent writer, but I must say he is of another 
 7 97 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 country, " Oh, that we could enter at a thousand gates, 
 that every limb were a tongue, and every tongue a 
 trumpet, to speed the joyful sound ! " The man of 
 Macedonia cries, " Come over and help us." 
 
 This voice is heard from the North and the South, 
 from the East and the West. Oh, that we might glow 
 with an ardent desire to preach the gospel, altogether 
 irresistible. The spirit of burning hath gone forth. 
 The camp is in motion. The Levites, we trust, are 
 about to bear the vessel, and the great Commander 
 to say, " Go forward." Let us, my dear B., rely with 
 the most impartial confidence on those great, eternal, 
 precious promises contained in the Word of God, 
 Mark x, 29. 
 
 Be strong, therefore, and let not your hands be 
 weak, for your work shall be rewarded. Gird thy 
 sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory, 
 and thy majesty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously, 
 because of truth and meekness, and righteousness, for 
 the heathen shall be given to Christ for an inheritance, 
 etc., etc. Let us exclaim with the poet, — 
 
 Come, then, and, added to thy many crowns, 
 Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, 
 Thou who alone art worthy. It was thine 
 By ancient covenant, e'er Nature's birth ; 
 And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, 
 And o'erpaid its value with thy blood. 
 
 Amen and Amen. 
 
 Within a week of his death, when Mills had 
 finished his work for the African Colonization 
 
 98 
 
OBOOKIAH 
 
 Society, and was homeward bound on the At- 
 lantic Ocean, leaning on the taffrail in the even- 
 ing twilight he said to his comrade, Professor 
 Burgess : " I have now transcribed the brief 
 journal of my visit to the coast of Africa and 
 turned my face toward home. If it please God 
 that I may arrive safely, as I may reasonably 
 hope, I think that I shall take Obookiah and 
 go to the Sandwich Islands, and there I shall 
 end my life." 
 
 On his return to the United States, Professor 
 Burgess inquired for Obookiah, and learned that 
 he was dead. By a comparison of dates, he 
 found that he had died some months before his 
 patron, " which intelligence no angel bird had 
 borne to mortal ear. What was his surprise on 
 entering heaven to find Obookiah there ready to 
 congratulate him on his safe arrival." 
 
 It seems a far cry from Mills to Booker T. 
 Washington, and yet it takes only three lives to 
 connect them directly. We have already seen 
 how, through his protege, Obookiah, Mills set in 
 motion the forces which resulted in the mission 
 to the Sandwich Islands. One of the mission- 
 aries which the American Board sent to those 
 islands was the father of Samuel C. Armstrong, 
 afterwards student at Williams, leader of colored 
 soldiers and teacher of colored students. It was 
 
 99 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 this founder of Hampton Institute that Booker 
 T. Washington called " the rarest, strongest, and 
 most beautiful character that it has ever been 
 my privilege to meet." It was General Arm- 
 strong, teacher, friend, and guide, that made 
 Tuskegee and its founder possible. 
 
 Home and foreign missions thus act and inter- 
 act on each other. Mills' sympathy and interest 
 were deeply aroused by the condition of the 
 slaves. He was anxious to find some way in 
 which to help "the poor Africans." Little did 
 he dream that through Obookiah and the Sand- 
 wich Islands greater good should come to the 
 slave than in that far-away quest to Africa 
 which was the final effort of his life. 
 
 ioo 
 
VI 
 
 FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 (New Orleans, 1812-1813) 
 
He does most to Christianize the world and to hasten the 
 coming of the kingdom who does the most to make thoroughly 
 Christian the United States. 
 
 Josiah Strong. 
 
 The influence of that forward step (the organization of the 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions) was 
 immediately felt upon home missions. From that hour it be- 
 came a world movement. Its early motto had been, " Save 
 America "; but when its missionary horizon widened to include 
 India, its motto lengthened, and ever since has been, " Save Am- 
 erica to save the World" Just this larger motive was needed 
 to lift the enterprise of the home evangelization to its loftiest 
 plane, and nothing probably has ever reacted upon the spirit of 
 the home missionary workerand his work more than this provi- 
 dential broadening of its aim. 
 
 J. B. Clark. 
 
 I intend, God willing, the little influence I have shall be felt 
 in every state in the Union. 
 
 Samuel J. Mills 
 (in a letter declining an invitation to settle 
 in the Western Reserve). 
 
VI 
 
 FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 WHEN General Jackson landed at 
 Natchez, February 16, 1813, with 
 fifteen hundred Tennessee volunteers, 
 two young graduates of Andover Seminary 
 were with him, — Samuel J. Mills and John F. 
 Schermerhorn. They were all bound eventually 
 for New Orleans. The story of Old Hickory's 
 mission to that city has often been told, but 
 the story of these young missionaries, heroic, 
 romantic, and patriotic, is but little known. 
 
 Their object was not simply to preach the 
 gospel as home missionaries. They were spying 
 out the land, gathering information as to the 
 religious conditions and needs of all this Western 
 country, that they might intelligently appeal to 
 the churches and missionary societies in the East 
 for men and money to carry the Bible and 
 gospel into the vast region called " The West." 
 
 A word as to the political and geographical 
 conditions in the region through which their 
 travels took them. Of all the country known 
 
 103 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 as the Northwest Territory, Ohio alone had 
 become a state; Indiana and Illinois, still ter- 
 ritories, were to be admitted as states in 1816 
 and 18 1 8. Southeastern Ohio, with Marietta 
 as the center, had been settled largely by revo- 
 lutionary soldiers from Massachusetts. An- 
 other region south of Lake Erie was known 
 as Western Reserve or New Connecticut, be- 
 cause of the preponderance of Connecticut 
 settlers. Kentucky and Tennessee, with their 
 population largely from the South, had been ad- 
 mitted as states. As the highways of com- 
 merce and travel were rivers, especially the 
 Ohio and Mississippi, the settlements were 
 largely along these valleys. The Louisiana 
 Purchase had been divided into two parts, all 
 north of thirty-three degrees north latitude 
 being the territory of Missouri; all south, the 
 state of Louisiana. 
 
 Heretofore home missionary work had been 
 confined to western New York, Vermont, and 
 parts of Ohio. As early as 1793 the General 
 Association of Connecticut had sent out nine 
 pastors on such missionary work, but it was 
 not until 1798 that the beginnings of regularly 
 organized missionary work came into being. 
 In that year the Missionary Society of Con- 
 necticut was formed, and it was followed a 
 
 104 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 year later by the Massachusetts Missionary 
 Society. It was by the Connecticut and Mas- 
 sachusetts societies, on the recommendation of 
 Andover Seminary, that Mills and Schermer- 
 horn were commissioned as missionaries. 
 
 The certificate, on behalf of the seminary, 
 signed by Leonard Woods and Moses Stuart, 
 reads as follows: "This testifies that Samuel 
 J. Mills has completed a regular course of theo- 
 logical study at this seminary; that he has 
 uniformly maintained an irreproachable moral 
 character; that he is regarded by the officers 
 and students of our seminary as a person of 
 ardent and peculiar piety, and is hereby recom- 
 mended." This was not so strange a departure 
 for the organizer of foreign missionary forces 
 as it might seem at first. His plans for mis- 
 sions had included the West as well as the 
 East. He had talked with the Brethren of a 
 mission " to our own continent," " to the heathen 
 tribes to the westward." When Mills talked 
 with Gordon Hall, sometimes it was about 
 "cutting a path through the moral wilderness 
 of the West to the Pacific," and sometimes they 
 thought of Africa and South America. His 
 imperial projects for the kingdom of God took 
 in his entire native land, including the Lou- 
 isiana Purchase, only nine years before trans- 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 ferred to the American flag, and practically an 
 unknown country to Protestantism. 
 
 On July 3, 1812, this young man of twenty- 
 nine started- from his home in Torringford on 
 horseback, determined that whether the consti- 
 tution followed the flag or not, the Bible should. 
 His route lay through Albany and the Mohawk 
 Valley to the Niagara River. He preached here 
 and there along the way, following the lake 
 shore, thence south to Marietta, where he met 
 Schermerhorn, who had come through Pennsyl- 
 vania. At Marietta they attended the meeting 
 of the Muskingum Association, and organized 
 the first of many Bible societies instituted on 
 their tour. Writing October 20, Mills described 
 this " infant institution " as having thirteen or 
 fourteen subscribers ; the amount subscribed, $134. 
 The two missionaries went through Ohio by dif- 
 ferent routes, preaching, distributing copies of 
 the constitution of the Bible Society, and gather- 
 ing information as to religious conditions. They 
 found New Connecticut by far the most desir- 
 able part of the state, " certainly as respects the 
 moral and spiritual habits of the people." They 
 found a great scarcity of Bibles and religious 
 literature south of New Connecticut, the Sab- 
 bath greatly profaned, few religious people, and 
 other evidences of spiritual destitution. They 
 
 106 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 found in Ohio (outside of New Connecticut) 
 twenty-three Presbyterian and three Congrega- 
 tional ministers. The " New Lights " and Bap- 
 tists were somewhat numerous, but outside of 
 New Connecticut the Methodists were easily the 
 strongest. Our missionaries seemed to have 
 little regard or appreciation of the work which 
 the Methodist circuit rider and Baptist preachers 
 were doing, especially finding fault with them 
 as ignorant and intensely sectarian. In their re- 
 port they said : " The inhabitants of the state of 
 Ohio are emigrants from the different states 
 in the Union and cannot be said as yet to have 
 formed a distinct character. Those from New 
 England carried with them the habits and the 
 institutions of their native states. We find them 
 indulging the same independence in thought and 
 action, cherishing the same love of order, civil 
 and religious, and expressing the same anxiety 
 for the improvement of society, by the estab- 
 lishment of schools and the ordinances of the 
 gospel. Those from New Jersey and Pennsyl- 
 vania, particularly of the Scotch and Irish 
 descent, are very ready to unite in promoting 
 the establishment of schools and in supporting 
 the gospel, whilst those of German extraction, to- 
 gether with emigrants from Maryland, Virginia, 
 and Kentucky, are too frequently regardless of 
 
 107 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 both, and too fondly cherish that high-toned and 
 licentious spirit which will neither suffer con- 
 tradiction nor opposition and which is equally 
 inconsistent with civil and religious order." 
 
 In their trip below Cincinnati they were some- 
 times on the Kentucky, sometimes on the In- 
 diana, side of the Ohio River. They found the 
 people in a " very destitute state, very ignorant 
 of the doctrines of the Bible." In fact, Indiana 
 Territory, with only one Presbyterian minister 
 and twenty-five thousand inhabitants, seemed to 
 them in an almost desperate condition, while 
 Illinois Territory, with twelve thousand inhabit- 
 ants, and not a single Congregational or Pres- 
 byterian minister, was spoken of as having " a 
 number of good people who are anxious to have 
 such ministers come among them." 
 
 Going on through Kentucky, at Lexington they 
 found a new Catholic church, and no less than 
 three " infidel publications." " In this part of 
 the country are many infidels. The morals 
 of the people are loose, and many of the inhab- 
 itants are extremely ignorant as well as very 
 vicious. The vices most prevalent are: pro- 
 fanity, gambling, horse-racing, fighting, drunken- 
 ness, and violation of the Sabbath." To meet 
 these forces of evil Kentucky had ninety-three 
 Presbyterian ministers with twelve hundred 
 
 108 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 members of churches, and one hundred and 
 forty-two Baptist preachers with over twenty- 
 one hundred communicants. The Methodists 
 were not so strong, while the Roman Catholics 
 had six priests and twelve church buildings. 
 
 At Nashville they arranged for the formation 
 of the Western Tennessee Bible Society. Here, 
 too, they met General Jackson, for it was the 
 time of the War of 1812. Let Mills tell his own 
 story as he gave it in a letter now yellow, mil- 
 dewed, and faded, but full of pathetic interest: — 
 
 General Jackson, with about fifteen hundred volun- 
 teers, was expecting to go in a few days down the 
 river to Natchez. Mr. Blackburn introduced us to 
 the general. When he became acquainted with our 
 design he invited us to take passage on board his 
 boat. We accepted the invitation, after providing 
 some necessary stores for the voyage and making sale 
 of our horses. 
 
 They were thirty-six days on their way, being 
 hindered by ice. Mills, whose health was never 
 good, had an attack of bilious fever. But to 
 continue the story about General Jackson : — 
 
 Before we left Natchez, we (with Mr. Blackman, 
 the chaplain of the Tennessee Volunteers) obtained 
 a subscription of more than $100 for the benefit of 
 the Tennessee Bible Society. This subscription was 
 
 109 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 made by the officers principally. The prospect was 
 that it would be very considerably increased before 
 they left the vicinity of Natchez. As these volun- 
 teers had little prospect of contending with the bayo- 
 net and the sword, we endeavored to bring them to' 
 act against principalities and powers and spiritual 
 wickedness in high places, and, as you see, sir, not 
 without some success. We were treated with great 
 attention by the general and officers, and were more 
 obliged to them for their subscription made to the 
 Tennessee Society than if it had been made to us. 
 
 On his return to Andover, Massachusetts, he 
 wrote out, January I, 1814, " observations upon 
 the state of the religious information possessed 
 by the inhabitants we passed after we left Nash- 
 ville until we arrived at Natchez." I should be 
 glad to quote the entire document, not only for 
 the view it gives us of the country, but for the 
 way in which it reflects the author's ideas and 
 ideals. A small part must suffice us : — 
 
 There are few settlements of importance upon the 
 Cumberland River, — no village that contains more 
 than three hundred inhabitants. We passed, from 
 Nashville to Natchez, a distance of a thousand miles 
 by water, no settlement that was regularly supplied 
 with a Presbyterian minister. We occasionally passed 
 a Baptist and Methodist preacher, but seldom. The 
 former in many instances do not inculcate upon their 
 
 no 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 hearers the importance of observing the Sabbath as 
 holy time. Neither do they enjoin the duty upon 
 parents religiously to educate their children. In sen- 
 timent the latter (Methodists) agree with Arminius. 
 The religious sentiments of the inhabitants in the 
 portion of the country now under consideration must 
 be, of course, very incorrect where they make any 
 profession of religion at all. There is, I believe, a 
 very great stupidity generally prevailing in this 
 Western world, as it respects a concern for the sal- 
 vation of the soul; and a reason, which answers in 
 part for this inattention to religious subjects, is ob- 
 vious : " the people perish for lack of vision." Not 
 only in a great measure are they destitute of the word 
 preached in its simplicity and purity, but it is a fact 
 much to be lamented that but comparatively few have 
 a Bible in their homes, and many who would be 
 pleased to receive such a treasure know not where 
 to obtain it. . . . 
 
 The country from Nashville to Natchez is generally 
 so thinly settled that schools cannot be supported where 
 the inhabitants are desirous of the privilege. But it 
 is often the case that they know not the value of such 
 institutions, even where they have the ability to sup- 
 port them. The education of children is, of course, 
 very much neglected. 
 
 The remedy which Mills suggested was the 
 distribution of Bibles and tracts " committed to 
 faithful men who go up and down the Mis- 
 
 iii 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 sissippi to New Orleans. These tracts should 
 inculcate the doctrines of the Reformation, and 
 particularly inculcate the duty of a strict obser- 
 vation of the Sabbath as holy time and the 
 religious education of children." 
 
 At Natchez, with fifteen hundred inhabitants, 
 many of them Americans, they found no or- 
 ganized church. There was a Roman Catholic 
 church which had been closed for many years, 
 and a Methodist church building open to all 
 comers, " sometimes crowded, generally when 
 the meeting is held in the evening." The 
 Presbyterians were building a substantial brick 
 church of good size, and the prospect of " a 
 regular organized church " seemed good. As 
 the missionaries entered the cotton belt they 
 became peculiarly impressed with the spiritual 
 destitution of the country. " If this view of 
 the destitute state of many of our brethren will 
 not induce those possessed of the ability to 
 contribute for their relief, their case is indeed 
 desperate." 
 
 From Natchez to New Orleans, three hundred 
 miles, they secured very indifferent accommoda- 
 tions on a flatboat, with " little to subsist on 
 except fat ham, dry biscuit, butter, and cheese, 
 all of which we would have dispensed with, had 
 we been furnished with water gruel, a little milk, 
 
 112 
 
THE COMPASS WHICH MILLS USED ON HIS 
 MISSIONARY JOURNEYS 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 and occasionally a bowl of hominy." But the 
 fare on the steamboat was eighteen dollars each, 
 and the flatboat charges for the two were only 
 a little more than six dollars, and home mis- 
 sionaries might not have the comforts of life, 
 but only the necessities. One wonders how 
 Mills, who was never robust, could stand this 
 wear and tear of continual arduous travel and 
 these poor accommodations. 
 
 The transfer of the Louisiana Purchase from 
 the tricolor of France to the stars and stripes 
 meant far more than political and governmental 
 changes. It meant injecting into this thoroughly 
 Latin province Anglo-Saxon ideals and institu- 
 tions. This meant first and foremost religious 
 toleration and liberty. Under Spanish and 
 French rule Protestant churches and worship 
 had been strictly forbidden. Under the new 
 regime Protestantism was more than tolerated. 
 On this and his second home missionary jour- 
 ney, Mills had substantial assistance and en- 
 couragement, not only from Governors Posey 
 of Indiana and Edwards of Illinois, but also 
 from Governors Clark of Missouri and Clai- 
 borne of Louisiana. 
 
 It was a brilliant but superficial Frenchman 
 (Renan) who sarcastically called the Bible and 
 the Sabbath the two sacraments of Protestant- 
 s' 113 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 ism. At any rate, these were the two great 
 institutions that Protestantism brought to this 
 French province as the fundamentals of Anglo- 
 Saxon civilization. Whether they were needed 
 or not let these young " apostles to the South- 
 west " bear witness. These are the conditions 
 which they found in New Orleans as described 
 by Mills: — 
 
 There is no Protestant church in the city. Attempts 
 have been made to obtain subscriptions for building 
 one, but have failed. There is no difficulty in erect- 
 ing theatres. One has lately been built at an expense, 
 perhaps, of $70,000, and $30,000 more will be re- 
 quired to finish it. . . . The Sabbath is very little 
 observed as a day of sacred rest. On the levee are 
 great numbers of the lower class offering for sale 
 whatever they may have on hand. In the streets you 
 meet wagons and carts going and coming as on the 
 week day. The greater part of the stores are open, 
 and people are buying and selling in all quarters. In 
 houses many are sitting at their cards; many at the 
 billiard-table; many drinking and some drunken, and 
 I am told that Americans join in all of these excesses. 
 
 How this Continental Sunday must have 
 shocked the young New England preacher! 
 Schermerhorn said : " The Sabbath to them is 
 high holiday, and on it is committed more ac- 
 tual sin than all the week beside. Dancing, 
 
 114 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 gambling, parties of pleasure, theatrical amuse- 
 ments, and dining parties are the common busi- 
 ness of the day after mass in the morning." 
 
 Something had to be done at once to unite the 
 scattered religious forces. If they could not have 
 a church there was always the Bible Society to 
 promote this end, for the Bible was an almost 
 unknown book. They went to see Father An- 
 tonio, the most prominent and influential priest 
 in the diocese, and secured the promise of his 
 aid in the circulation of the Scriptures. The 
 bishop, too, lately come from Baltimore, prom- 
 ised " cheerfully to assist in the promotion of 
 so benevolent a design." " He [the bishop] 
 gave it as his opinion that there were not at 
 this time twelve Bibles in the vicinity of New 
 Orleans. He spoke of this city as being the 
 most desperately wicked place he had ever been 
 in. . . . He had lived in France, and had an 
 opportunity of ascertaining the state of morals 
 and religion in the cities of that kingdom, but 
 this place, in the opinion of the bishop, took 
 the lead in almost every species of wickedness." 
 Mills' comment is not astonishing that " This 
 disposition in the Catholic priests to favor the 
 circulation of the Scriptures has very much sur- 
 prised all with whom we have conversed on the 
 subject in the city." Mills had a happy faculty of 
 
 "5 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 not antagonizing those from whom he differed. 
 He would find some common standing-ground if 
 possible. Thus he secured the friendship and 
 cooperation even of Roman Catholics. 
 
 The call for the organization of the Bible 
 Society was signed by Governor Claiborne and 
 twelve members of the Legislature, and the new 
 force for righteousness started auspiciously with 
 Gen. Benjamin Morgan as president. Father 
 Antonio was named as one of the managers, but 
 declined. While they were in the city, Scher- 
 merhorn and Mills held frequent meetings and 
 preaching services, the latter at the State House. 
 The largest attendance was two hundred. " It 
 was said by those who have lived in the city 
 for a considerable time that they never saw as 
 full a meeting before." 
 
 New Orleans at this time had something over 
 twenty-five thousand inhabitants, about one-half 
 of whom were negroes. Of the white popula- 
 tion, one-half was French; the rest, with a fair 
 sprinkling of Americans, was as motley and 
 mixed a multitude as one could find in any city 
 of that day. The religious forces of the city at 
 the time of Mills' visit were, besides the bishop, 
 four or five Catholic priests, one Baptist preacher, 
 and one Methodist. The Baptist left with them 
 and the Methodist was soon to follow, leaving 
 
 116 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 this great city with no Protestant ministrations. 
 Philander Chase, afterwards bishop of Ohio and 
 Illinois, and founder of Kenyon College and 
 Gambier Divinity School, conducted Protestant 
 Episcopal services in the city from 1805 to 181 1, 
 but according to Mills, there was no regular 
 Episcopal church. In fact, in the whole state of 
 Louisiana, with 76,556 free people, of whom 
 from one-fourth to one-sixth were Americans, 
 besides 34,660 slaves, there was but one Protes- 
 tant church, — a small one of Baptists about to 
 be organized at Oppelousas. The Methodist cir- 
 cuit rider had been, however, up the Red and 
 Washita rivers. 
 
 After about three weeks' stay Mills and Scher- 
 merhorn set out, April 6, on their return through 
 Mississippi for Georgia. It was a memorable 
 journey, part of the way through a veritable 
 wilderness, swamps that could hardly be waded, 
 and cane-brakes which could only be penetrated 
 by cutting their way through with a hatchet. 
 A few brief notices from Mills' journal are sug- 
 gestive of their adventures : — 
 
 May 1. To-day we crossed another creek and ate 
 the last of our bread. 
 
 Monday, May 3. It rained very hard. Our tent 
 cloth so wet that it afforded us a poor shelter from 
 the storm. Our provisions very low, and we allow 
 
 117 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 ourselves to eat but half a meal. In the evening 
 heard an Indian whoop, which made us believe we 
 were near the habitations of some of these rude sons 
 of nature. Dried our blankets, and rested tolerably 
 well. 
 
 Friday, May 7. Kept down the Creek, passed some 
 old Indian fields, concluded we could not be far from 
 the place where we struck the river on the opposite 
 bank, but the canebrake and green briar could not be 
 penetrated. Took the margin of the lowlands, and 
 at night encamped on a high hill. This night we ate 
 the very little meat we had left. 
 
 Saturday, 8. Early on our way. Saw the tracks 
 of horses, cattle, etc. Convinced there were Indians 
 not far off. Before noon we came to a trace (trail) 
 which had the appearance of leading to the river. 
 After riding several miles, we came to the river op- 
 posite the place where we just discovered it. There 
 we found eight or ten Indian men and Indian women, 
 who were about crossing the river on a raft. We 
 inquired of them how far it was to a house, but could 
 obtain no certain information, as they could not or 
 would not speak the English language. We were 
 satisfied we were on our trail, and, leaving the river, 
 pursued our course easterly. We had not gone more 
 than a mile or two before we met an old Indian who 
 could talk a little English. He informed us that, pro- 
 ceeding on the trail one mile, we should come to an 
 Indian house, where we should be able to procure 
 provision. We soon arrived at the place, and found 
 
 118 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 the Indian, a Cherokee, a very pleasant, friendly man. 
 I expect he had been making some provision for his 
 Indian brethren, for as soon as we entered the house 
 he invited us to sit down at the table. Before we left 
 him we provided ourselves with meat and bread and 
 corn flour. In the afternoon, went on our way, rode 
 till near sunset, and encamped. The wolves were 
 around our camp in the night. 
 
 Among other things, Mills and Schermerhorn 
 had been commissioned by the "Society for Prop- 
 agating the Gospel among the Indians and others 
 in North America " to make exhaustive inquiries 
 in regard to the Indian tribes residing west of 
 the Alleghany Mountains. Heretofore the labors 
 of this society had been largely among the In- 
 dian tribes in New England, but they felt that 
 at no distant time these tribes would become 
 extinct, and that it would be expedient to extend 
 their missionary labors among the Indians far- 
 ther west. Hence they desired detailed infor- 
 mation as to the condition of those tribes. 
 
 Mills and Schermerhorn were to inquire as to 
 the numbers, location, and history of each tribe. 
 They were to report on the form of government 
 among the Indians and their relation to the 
 government of the United States. Particular 
 information was desired in regard to the edu- 
 cational and religious advantages, and also as 
 
 119 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 to the feeling of the Indians themselves in re- 
 gard to the establishment of churches among 
 them. 
 
 The missionaries were painstaking in their 
 investigations, and their report shows them keen 
 as well as careful observers. Statistics and 
 facts are massed in such a way as to be both 
 informing and convincing. In the country north 
 of the Ohio River they were unable to obtain 
 much satisfactory information because the In- 
 dians were at war with the United States, but 
 elsewhere these young men fulfilled their mis- 
 sion with credit to themselves and to the satis- 
 faction of the society. 
 
 The manuscript of this report is in the pos- 
 session of the Society of Inquiry at Andover 
 Seminary. It was published in the Massachu- 
 setts Historical Society's Collections (Second 
 Series, Vol. II, pp. 1-48) as a most satisfactory 
 statement of conditions among the Indians of 
 the Middle West. An extract from this is given 
 below, as a specimen of the work which they 
 did. 
 
 Of the tribes in the United States proper the 
 Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Choctaws appear the most 
 favorable for the establishment of a mission with the 
 prospect of success. To the Cherokees the General 
 Assembly of the Presbyterian Church have turned 
 
 120 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 their attention, and are looking for missionaries of 
 a proper character to send among them. This tribe, 
 therefore, we will leave out of consideration and take 
 a view of the others, — Chickasaws and Choctaws. 
 These two tribes are more numerous than the aggre- 
 gate of all the tribes between the Ohio and the lakes, 
 and also speak the same language. 
 
 From these circumstances solely, other things being 
 equal, a mission here would be more desirable and have 
 greater prospect of success than among either of the 
 small tribes in Indiana or Illinois. There are other 
 reasons which induce us to give these nations the 
 preference. They have already made great progress in 
 agriculture and civilization, and are by degrees casting 
 off the Indian habits and adopting the modes of whites. 
 They are gradually moving out of their villages, giving 
 up the hunting life, clearing small plantations, and rais- 
 ing domestic animals. They have already experienced 
 many of the blessings which flow from their change 
 of habits, and are anxious to make further improve- 
 ment, — and many of them feel that this is the only 
 way left to save themselves from extermination and 
 ruin. It is not to be expected that they are anxious 
 to have preaching, for of this they little know the 
 advantages, though Mr. Bullin informed me that many 
 of the Chickasaws gave earnest attention, and appeared 
 much affected under preaching. It is, however, more 
 than probable that they are anxious to have their chil- 
 dren educated, and it will perhaps hereafter appear 
 that the most effectual way to introduce Christianity 
 
 121 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 among the Indians is to train and instruct the rising 
 generation in the way they should go. From the 
 application of the Chickasaw chief to Mr. Blackburn, 
 and the fact that they support a school at their own 
 expense, and from what the agent of the Choctaws 
 observes, it appears evident that schools at least might 
 be established among them. 
 
 Another thing very worthy of mention is that the 
 agents of these tribes are men of reputable character, 
 regular habits, and if I have been correctly informed, 
 professors ' of religion, and would doubtless encour- 
 age at least the attempt of planting a mission among 
 them. 
 
 For the reasons that have been given a mission 
 among these tribes promises more success than one 
 among Creeks, for the language is different in dif- 
 ferent villages, and, above all, their agent is hostile to 
 missions. The same reasons induce me also to fix on 
 these tribes in preference to any in Louisiana. It 
 would be highly desirable in a missionary view to 
 find a tribe uncontaminated by the vices of the whites, 
 and where the iniquitous trader by his treachery has 
 never learnt the Indian to deceive or by his persua- 
 sion to get drunk. 
 
 After more than six weeks of Creeks and 
 cane-brakes, " rude sons of nature " and ruder 
 nature, they reached Athens, Georgia. Appar- 
 ently this was the first place for mailing a letter 
 since they had left New Orleans, for Mills' letter, 
 
 122 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 dated New Orleans, April 13, was posted here. 
 He admits in a postscript, dated May 20, that it 
 has been " a long, fatiguing journey " from New 
 Orleans. He had written "tiresome," but crossed 
 it out, for no danger or difficulty was tiresome 
 to Samuel J. Mills if thereby he could glorify 
 God or bring his fellow men near to their Father. 
 A Charleston newspaper, dated June 3, an- 
 nounced the arrival " on Tuesday last, in this 
 city, of Mr. Samuel J. Mills, missionary from 
 New England." From this we learn, not from 
 Mills' letters, that he was obliged to make this 
 circuit of three hundred miles through the wil- 
 derness on account of conditions near the coast 
 occasioned by the war. Here, too, we get a 
 glimpse of the " numerous dangers and severe 
 privations " which he had suffered, but from 
 himself only the word indicated above. He 
 could not only " endure hardness, as a good sol- 
 dier of Jesus Christ," but he could also do it 
 without groaning or glorying. 
 
 Some of these severe privations were the re- 
 sult of sacrifice and self-denial on Mills' part, 
 that he might not spend a dollar more of the 
 missionary societies' money than was absolutely 
 necessary. How economical he was can be seen 
 from the account of his stewardship rendered in 
 his financial statement to the Missionary Society 
 
 123 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 of Connecticut. He received $150 from the Con- 
 necticut Missionary Society, $21 from the So- 
 ciety for Propagating the Gospel, and collected 
 $145 on the tour. He paid $100 out of his own 
 pocket for his horse, saddle, and bridle, and took 
 $60 of his own money with him. When he sold 
 the horse at Nashville he lost $30 by the sale; 
 he lost a horse valued at $100 near Augusta, 
 Georgia, and $4 on his baggage horse. On his 
 return he had $40 left. In all he had $516, 
 of which his losses amounted to $134; and so 
 with what he had left he figured the cost of the 
 mission at $338. Was there ever a more splen- 
 did investment for God and home and native 
 land? 
 
 He says further : " I expect that the Massa- 
 chusetts Missionary Society will pay me for five 
 months' service, though I have not come to a 
 settlement with them yet. If the trustees of the 
 Connecticut Missionary Society do not see fit 
 to consider me their missionary after I crossed 
 the Ohio, nor to allow me more than $4 per 
 week, it is well. I wish them to be inexorably 
 just. I only regret that the expense and loss 
 I sustained have put it out of my power to at- 
 tempt as much a second time for the advance- 
 ment of the cause which I profess to love." 
 He wishes further that three or four weeks be 
 
 124 
 
FIRST HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 deducted on account of time lost " by the tumult 
 occasioned by the war," and his not having 
 "uniformly good health." In just such little 
 touches as these does the self-effacement and 
 self-sacrifice of a true soldier of the cross show 
 itself. 
 
 After an absence of a year and three days, 
 the young missionary reached his home in Tor- 
 ringford. He had traveled nearly three thou- 
 sand miles. He had traversed nearly every 
 state and territory in the Union. Swimming 
 his horse across the creeks, sleeping on the deck 
 of a flatboat, tramping through nearly impene- 
 trable cane-brakes and swamps, he had kept 
 steadfastly on. In loghouse, schoolhouse, and 
 state house, in rude church, or no church at all, 
 he had preached the gospel. To the pioneer, 
 hungry for the bread of life, and to the prodi- 
 gal, who had tried to get beyond the reach of 
 God and the gospel, he had spoken the word in 
 due season. His eye had been quick to see the 
 spiritual and moral desolation in all that region 
 that promised so much worldly prosperity. His 
 ear had heard the great cry from the prairies 
 of the West and the savannas of the South for 
 the Bible, that their children should not grow 
 up ignorant, godless, and heathen. He came 
 back to God's country to make God's people see 
 
 125 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 the sights and hear the cries that he had seen 
 and heard. In the next year the East heard 
 passionate appeals from this heroic pioneer to 
 go up and possess this great land in the name 
 of the Lord. 
 
 126 
 
VII 
 
 SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 (St. Louis, 1814-1815) 
 
The greatest of all missionaries to the heathen may prove to be 
 the evangelist who never leaves his native land. A converted 
 America means nothing less than a converted world. O Lord, 
 give me America for Christ, and behold the heathen shall be his 
 heritage, and the uttermost parts of the earth his possession. 
 
 William J. Dawson. 
 
 // is yet to be shown by the opposers of foreign missions, that 
 the abettors of the cause abroad diminish their zeal for the cause 
 at home. It is a maxim founded on actual experiences, that 
 the more you do for the heathen, the more will be done at our 
 doors. . . . 
 
 It affords unfeigned pleasure to be enabled to record that the 
 very individual whom we have seen so indefatigably employed in 
 projecting plans for evangelizing the heathen in distant lands, is 
 the individual to whom all are disposed to yield the palm for his 
 exertions in favor of the destitute on our western frontiers. 
 
 Gardiner Spring. 
 
VII 
 
 SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 IN 1803, when Governor Claiborne took pos- 
 session of the Louisiana Purchase for the 
 
 United States, at New Orleans, it was not 
 until after long search that a Bible could be 
 found to administer the oath of office; and the 
 one at last procured was a Latin Vulgate from 
 one of the priests. It was to remedy this state 
 of things that Mills and Schermerhorn made an 
 appeal to the Philadelphia Bible Society to print 
 five thousand French New Testaments, which 
 the society agreed to do. It was the care and 
 distribution of these Bibles which led Mills to 
 offer himself for a new expedition into the 
 Southwest. 
 
 " I presume," he says, " it will not be expected 
 that I should a second time volunteer my ser- 
 vices, but I readily confess that I have for 
 months past, and still have, a great desire to go 
 over the ground a second time." It is not curi- 
 osity that impels him. " For as far as curiosity 
 
 9 I2 9 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 is concerned I think one view of the country I 
 passed through was sufficient abundantly to sat- 
 isfy it. I should hope that should I attempt a 
 second mission, as proposed, I must be impelled 
 by a sense of duty as it were altogether irre- 
 sistible. ... I fear that there will be wanting 
 men who will suitably seize upon this opportunity 
 of doing good on a large scale. I fear if we 
 send off the Heavenly Stranger (the Bible) into 
 that God-forgetting and God-provoking portion 
 of our country without anyone to introduce it — 
 I fear the object of the benevolent will be only 
 half attained." 
 
 Most of his time after his return from New 
 Orleans was apparently spent in Andover, whence 
 he writes October 12, 1813, February 14, and 
 March 24, 1814. During this time he was busy 
 writing to Bible and missionary societies with all 
 his accustomed zeal, urging them to send men 
 and Bibles into this " God-forgetting and God- 
 provoking portion of our country," and pressing 
 upon the theological students the claims of the 
 new and rapidly developing West. 
 
 In the meantime he had received invitations 
 to go on a mission to New Hampshire, also to 
 the northern part of Pennsylvania, and an urgent 
 demand for him was made as a missionary to 
 the Choctaws in Mississippi Territory. All these 
 
 130 
 
SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 attractive opportunities were passed by for the 
 second home missionary journey. 
 
 One thing he had learned from his former 
 mission, — not to go at his own charges. 
 " When engaged on a mission and sent out by 
 three or four societies from New England, I can 
 truly say to beg I am ashamed, for I have no 
 beggarly arguments to urge. I do not go from 
 a poor portion of the States; I am not sent by 
 societies which have poor and beggarly funds. 
 To beg I am ashamed, because my calling is not 
 a poor and beggarly calling, and if I am an 
 efficient man I can obtain a living at home with- 
 out going abroad to beg for it. If I am not of 
 this character I ought not to be engaged on the 
 mission. The laborer is worthy of his hire. 
 Four hundred dollars cannot be esteemed a 
 large sum to pay a missionary on the mission I 
 propose. He may think himself fortunate if he 
 does not come home in debt, should he live to 
 return, even if allowed this sum." 
 
 Apparently the Missionary Society of Con- 
 necticut and the New York societies were slow 
 about accepting his proffered services, but the 
 Massachusetts Missionary Society pledged $600, 
 the Philadelphia Bible Society $600, and the 
 Philadelphia Missionary Society $100. With 
 one companion, Daniel Smith, Mills started 
 
 131 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 from Philadelphia, August 13, 1814, in a light 
 wagon, which they proposed to retain as long 
 as the roads would permit. Besides the French 
 Testaments, six hundred English Bibles and 
 fifteen thousand religious tracts published by 
 the New England Tract Society, and fifty copies 
 of the Memoirs of Harriet Newell were sent 
 on to Pittsburg. Various other consignments 
 of Bibles had been sent to Ohio, Tennessee, and 
 Louisiana. These were for distribution along the 
 way. The travelers reached Pittsburg August 
 28; then they went by different routes along 
 the Ohio, meeting at Grave Creek, reaching 
 Marietta, Ohio, September 8, where they found 
 the Bible Society organized on the previous 
 journey in a flourishing condition. Their work 
 was religious conversation, preaching, distribut- 
 ing Bibles, and organizing Bible societies. On 
 they traveled through Lancaster and Chilicothe 
 to Cincinnati. There they held a consultation 
 with a number of Presbyterian ministers as to 
 whether they ought to push on westward to St. 
 Louis. The vote was unanimously in favor of 
 the forward movement. On went the mission- 
 aries through Lawrenceburg and Vincennes, 
 Indiana, to Shawneetown, Illinois, where they 
 met Judge Griswold from Connecticut, who 
 promised to be a tower of strength. At Kas- 
 
 132 
 
SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 kaskia, the capital of Illinois, they received the 
 assurance of the cooperation of Governor Ed- 
 wards. At Prairie du Rocher they secured the 
 consent of the Roman Catholic bishop, Flaget, 
 to the distribution of Bibles among his people, 
 provided the translation met with his approval. 
 So they kept on in a way that one says " reads 
 like the tours of Barnabas and Saul." 
 
 Early in November they reached St. Louis, 
 then a tumble-down French village of two 
 thousand people, about one-third of whom were 
 Americans. Three years later another pioneer 
 missionary found that " one-half at least of the 
 Anglo-American population were a low, inde- 
 cent grade and utterly worthless. Their nightly 
 orgies were scenes of drunkenness and revelry. 
 Among the frantic rites observed were the mock 
 celebration of the Lord's Supper and burning the 
 Bible. . . . The boast was often made that the 
 Sabbath had never crossed and never should 
 cross the Mississippi." On the other hand Mills 
 found many of the Americans highly respectable 
 and well-informed, though few of them were 
 religious. " Yet they appear thoroughly con- 
 vinced by their own experience of the indispen- 
 sable necessity of religion to the welfare of 
 society." The missionaries saw also the strate- 
 gic importance of St. Louis, and foresaw its 
 
 133 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 large future. " There is high probability," they 
 said, " that it will become a flourishing commer- 
 cial town. Situated just below the confluence 
 of the Illinois, the Mississippi, and the Missouri, 
 no place in the Western Country, New Orleans 
 excepted, has greater natural advantages. No 
 place, therefore, has higher importance, consid- 
 ered as a missionary station." 
 
 So Mills plead with the Missionary Society 
 to send out a " young man of talents, piety, and 
 liberality of mind," who could teach school and 
 preach, for there was not a single Protestant 
 preacher or church in or near St. Louis. Mills 
 and Smith preached in the schoolroom Novem- 
 ber 6. Probably this was not (as has been 
 sometimes claimed) the first Protestant sermon 
 in St. Louis, for at least the Methodist circuit 
 rider had been in the land, but these were the 
 first Protestant preachers to appreciate the situ- 
 ation and plan for the future, and they were the 
 first Congregational or Presbyterian ministers in 
 all that region. After a few days' stay in St. 
 Louis, though the people heard them gladly and 
 would have more gladly kept them perma- 
 nently, they continued their apostolic journey 
 back through Illinois and Indiana to Louisville, 
 which they reached December 20; and January 
 5 started down the river for Natchez on a keel- 
 
 134 
 
SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 boat, after sending some French Testaments to 
 St. Louis, Vincennes, and other places. They 
 reached Natchez February 6, 1815, in "good 
 health and spirits." For some time they had 
 been apprehensive that the disturbed state of 
 the country, on account of the war, might seri- 
 ously interfere with their further plans and mis- 
 sion. But there welcome news reached them: 
 General Jackson had defeated and repulsed the 
 British. " They are still hovering about the 
 coast," they wrote, " and seem to meditate an- 
 other attack, — at what point is altogether un- 
 certain, — but we hope we shall be permitted to 
 attend to the business of our Master's kingdom 
 without molestation." Mills pressed on to New 
 Orleans, while Smith remained preaching at 
 Natchez and assisted in the dedication of the 
 new Presbyterian church, of which a little later 
 he became the first pastor. 
 
 Mills reached New Orleans February 10, a 
 month after the battle (January 8), and the day 
 before the British captured the American fort 
 on Mobile Bay. He found unexpected work at 
 hand. The very day of his arrival he visited 
 the public prison, and found three hundred Eng- 
 lish soldiers there. He distributed Bibles, reli- 
 gious tracts, and sermons, with many a kindly 
 greeting, and discovered that these British pris- 
 
 135 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 oners were deeply interested in the Word. The 
 next day he went to the United States Hospi- 
 tal, where there were three hundred sick and 
 wounded, one hundred and eighty of them Eng- 
 lish prisoners. At the Navy Hospital he found 
 forty sick, and at three houses twenty-one sick 
 Kentuckians. Later on, when he visited the camp 
 of the Kentucky troops, he learned that of the 
 entire detachment of two thousand men there 
 were eight hundred on the sick list, and that 
 there was not a single chaplain with the Ken- 
 tucky militia, and only four with the troops from 
 Tennessee. When he called at the Charity Hos- 
 pital he found forty sick soldiers from his old 
 friends, the Tennesseeans. "They had not a copy 
 of the sacred Scriptures. A number were very 
 pressing in their solicitations that we would 
 supply them. We observed to them that they 
 would soon leave the hospital for Tennessee, and 
 as they expected to travel on foot eight hundred 
 or a thousand miles, they could not carry their 
 Bibles with them should they be supplied. Some 
 of them answered at once that they would leave 
 some other article rather than their Bibles. 
 Upon our return we sent a number of Bibles 
 to the hospital." A great mortality prevailed 
 among the soldiers ; since the battle twenty, and 
 even thirty, had died in a day. The impression 
 
 136 
 
SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 prevailed that if they went to the hospital they 
 would never leave it alive. They were fairly 
 well off for doctors, though four had died re- 
 cently. Beds and mattresses were scarce, and 
 there were few comforts for the sick and 
 wounded. Mills explains the excessive sickness 
 thus : " Many of the troops, after their arrival 
 in the vicinity of this place, were subjected to 
 great fatigue while defending the lines. Many 
 of them were standing or lying for some suc- 
 cessive days and nights in the low, marshy 
 ground, where the water was nearly a foot 
 deep. The weather was so cold as to freeze 
 ice a quarter of an inch in thickness. Some of 
 the soldiers at this time were poorly clothed." 
 Under such conditions disease was far more 
 deadly than British bayonets or bullets. 
 
 Here was abundant opportunity for Mills to 
 prove himself a true minister of Jesus Christ. 
 He was not found wanting. He visited the sick 
 and prisoners, tenderly ministered to the dying, 
 buried the dead, and brought the Word of Life 
 to the living. " I have found unusual freedom," 
 he says, " in speaking to the sick and dying in 
 the hospitals. They almost uniformly give strict 
 attention to what is said, and their tears bear 
 witness for them that they do not remain un- 
 affected. God only knows how lasting their 
 
 137 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 serious impressions may be. But from what I 
 have seen and heard in the hospitals, I am in- 
 clined to believe that some of the sufferers have 
 been born again even on the threshold of the 
 grave." When he spoke or prayed, those who 
 were able crowded in from the other rooms, 
 eager to listen and be helped. And in all these 
 efforts he had the hearty cooperation of the offi- 
 cers and surgeons. 
 
 He writes of a later visit to the Kentucky 
 sick : — 
 
 Numbers are still dangerously ill; they lie around 
 the floor in all directions, — some groaning and some 
 praying; they, however, gave very solemn and strict 
 attention while I addressed and prayed with them. It 
 was the first serious address and prayer that numbers 
 of them had heard since they left home, and perhaps 
 for years. When I was about leaving the room, one 
 of the men, as he lay on the floor, reached out his 
 hand, and grasping mine, exclaimed, " God bless you ! 
 God bless you ! " I entered into conversation with 
 him, and ascertained a hope that he had been born 
 again. After conversing with him freely, I left him, 
 with a request to examine himself in the presence of 
 the heart-searching God, who could not be deceived 
 and would not be mocked. What will be the result 
 of exertions to relieve the wretched in these abodes 
 of misery, these cages of despair, God only knows. 
 
 138 
 
SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 He hath the hearts of all men in his hands, and here 
 our hopes rest. 
 
 Mills, for the time being, performed all the 
 duties of chaplain to the Kentucky soldiers. When 
 he rode over to their camp to preach, he was 
 accompanied by Generals Adair and Thomas. 
 Eight hundred or a thousand soldiers were as- 
 sembled in open field. A platform six or eight 
 feet high had been erected for the speakers. 
 Already they had great respect for the preacher 
 because of the courage and devotion with which 
 he had hazarded his life in ministering to the 
 sick and prisoners. As the young man's face 
 glowed with the warmth of his heart and his 
 love for men, they listened intently, and felt 
 intensely the power of the man and his message. 
 
 When it was certain that the war was over 
 and the Louisiana militia were discharged (in 
 March), they came in groups of eight or ten 
 asking for Bibles to take home with them. 
 " These poor men who had been jeopardizing 
 their lives on the high places of the field in 
 defence of their country — whose health, in 
 many instances, had been destroyed by the 
 fatigues they had endured, and some of them 
 doubtless destined to fall by the way on their 
 return to their homes — requested that they 
 
 139 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 might be furnished with Bibles. We informed 
 them that not a copy could be obtained. The 
 deep regret which they manifested on receiving 
 this information convinced us that they were 
 sincere, well-meaning petitioners, and excited in 
 our breasts emotions not to be described. But 
 with an aching heart we sent them empty away, 
 as we had done many of their fellows who had 
 previously applied." 
 
 In this unexpected opportunity of ministering 
 to the sick and wounded providentially thrust 
 upon him, Mills did not forget the purpose of 
 his coming to New Orleans. Two days after 
 his arrival, when it became known that there 
 would be a distribution of French Testaments, 
 a crowd of fifty to a hundred people of all ages 
 and colors and ranks thronged the door of the 
 distributor. With outstretched hands they " be- 
 came literally clamorous to have ' a book,' a 
 word which was often vociferated in French by 
 fifty voices at once." A colored woman carried 
 her six-year-old child in her arms and pressed 
 through the crowd for a book. Immediately the 
 child took the book and read to her mother the 
 story of Jesus taking the children in his arms 
 (Mark 10: 13-16). Principals of the schools and 
 the college sent in lists of the scholars with re- 
 quests for copies. The French Testament was 
 
 140 
 
SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 used as a text-book throughout the schools of the 
 city. Thus in a week a thousand copies had 
 been distributed, and by the first of March over 
 fifteen hundred had been given out. 
 
 Pere Antonio, who had been suspended by 
 the Bishop of Baltimore soon after the Ameri- 
 can Occupation, and elected in true democratic 
 fashion by the people as parish priest, was the 
 real power among the Roman Catholics in New 
 Orleans. Mills called and presented him with 
 a number of Testaments. He expressed great 
 satisfaction, and invoked the blessing of God on 
 the donors. He also promised to do all in his 
 power to secure a judicious distribution of the 
 Scriptures among those who could read. Bishop 
 Dubourg objected to the translation, express- 
 ing his regret that the Roman Catholic version 
 (Boston, 1810) had not been followed instead 
 of that of the British and Foreign Bible Society. 
 He preferred, however, to have his people have 
 the present version rather than remain entirely 
 ignorant of the Bible. 
 
 The success of the French Testaments opened 
 Mills' eyes to other needs, — an edition of a 
 thousand Spanish Testaments and some French 
 translations of the best tracts and religious 
 books, especially those in regard to the Sabbath 
 and intemperance. A priest told the mission- 
 
 141 
 
SAMUEL J. MILES 
 
 aries that previous to 1803, when the stars and 
 stripes first floated over New Orleans, the people 
 drank only light wines. Since that time large 
 quantities of whisky had come down the Ohio 
 and the Mississippi rivers, and the people were 
 making taffia, a liquor like New England rum, 
 from sugar-cane. One had only to look at the 
 American graveyard to see the results; many 
 not living but half their days, killed by hard 
 drinking. The French and other foreigners 
 easily followed this new American vice, until 
 conditions had become alarming. It is worth 
 noting that one of the Tennessee chaplains re- 
 marked to the missionaries that nearly all the 
 hard drinkers among the soldiers from his state 
 had died while in and around New Orleans. 
 
 After these stirring and strenuous scenes Mills 
 made an excursion of one hundred and fifty miles 
 into the Attakapas country, lying on the Gulf 
 and west of the Mississippi, where he explored, 
 preached, and distributed Bibles. During his 
 absence Smith took passage for Charleston, 
 South Carolina (they having resolved to re- 
 turn by water). After a tedious and hazardous 
 voyage of twenty-seven days, the vessel putting 
 into Havana in distress, he reached Charleston, 
 South Carolina, where he had the opportunity 
 of interesting a large audience in the religious 
 
 142 
 
SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 needs and conditions in the Southwest, and 
 secured an offering of ninety dollars for the 
 work. Mills left New Orleans April 30, and 
 reached Baltimore May 21, and during his stay 
 in that city he interested the managers of the 
 Bible Society in his work. 
 
 The travelers met again in Philadelphia, and 
 found that the Bible Society of that city had 
 voted one hundred Bibles and two hundred 
 Testaments to each of the territories of In- 
 diana, Illinois, and Missouri. They urged on 
 the society the need of Spanish Testaments, and 
 invited the Female Bible Society to send on a 
 hundred Bibles to New Orleans. At New York 
 they counseled with the local society as to the 
 method of distributing their edition of six thou- 
 sand French Bibles, nearly completed and des- 
 tined for the South and West. At Hartford 
 Mills learned that the Connecticut Bible Society 
 had voted five hundred Bibles for Louisiana. 
 Other cities and states were making appropria- 
 tions of money and Bibles. Mills gratefully 
 writes : " Thus, dear sir, the streams of Chris- 
 tian charity are beginning to flow into that 
 thirsty, barren land where no water is. Would 
 to God that they might continue and increase 
 until every corner and every heart shall be 
 refreshed with the water of life." 
 
 143 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Every letter the missionaries wrote was filled 
 with heartfelt and heart-touching appeals. As 
 they plead for a missionary immediately for Indi- 
 ana, another for Illinois, and two for Missouri, 
 they say: — 
 
 Perhaps, dear sir, we have already stepped beyond 
 our proper bounds. Our appropriate business is to 
 collect information and state facts; not to draw con- 
 clusions nor to attempt to direct our fathers in the 
 ministry and the missionary bodies with respect to 
 their duties. But we must ask your indulgence a 
 little farther. The character of the settlers is such 
 as to render it peculiarly important that missionaries 
 be early sent among them. Indeed, they can hardly 
 be said to have a character, assembled as they are 
 from every state in the Union and originally from 
 almost every nation in Europe. The majority, though 
 by no means regardless of religion, have not yet em- 
 braced any fixed principles or sentiments respecting it. 
 They are ready to receive any impressions which a 
 public speaker may attempt to make. Hence every 
 species of heretic in the country flocks to the new 
 settlements. 
 
 In this formative state of society men of 
 spiritual power and intellectual training were 
 greatly needed, and a splendid opportunity for 
 shaping educational work and other helpful in- 
 stitutions awaited such men. All the governors 
 
 144 
 
SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 of these' territories and a number of the judges 
 were urgent in the demand for such men to 
 be sent out. The writers thus continue their 
 representations : — 
 
 Are not the fields there white already to the har- 
 vest? Would that the Christians at the East would 
 lift up their eyes and behold! Could they but see 
 what we have seen, — thousands ready to perish, their 
 eyelids fast closed in spiritual slumber, and no one to 
 awake them ! Could they but see the sons and daugh- 
 ters of Jerusalem weeping for themselves and their 
 children, surely missionaries would no longer be want- 
 ing, nor funds for their support. We commend into 
 the hands of your Society their brethren in the West. 
 We have done what we could for them. We have 
 endeavored to represent their wretched condition. 
 We have conveyed to your ears their earnest cries 
 for aid. And surely, if there be any bowels and 
 mercies, their cries will not be heard in vain. It is 
 not the voice of strangers and foreigners. They are 
 members of the same civil community with us. Many 
 of them are fellow citizens with the saints and of the 
 household of God. Some once enjoyed with delight 
 the Sabbaths, the sermons, and sacraments of New 
 England, and their hearts still retain the relish. Their 
 eyes are constantly looking towards the East. Their 
 prayers ascend daily, that God would incline the hearts 
 of their brethren to remember them, and send one to 
 break to them the bread of life. But the answer of 
 .0 145 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 their prayers is long deferred, and their hearts often 
 sicken within them. By sending us among them, you 
 have shown that they are not indeed forgotten, and 
 have inspired them with a cheering hope. Shall that 
 hope be grievously disappointed? 
 
 The report concludes with these stirring words 
 of appeal : — 
 
 In reviewing the whole, we feel compelled to call 
 upon our own souls, and to call upon the patrons of 
 the mission, to bless the Lord. Surely goodness and 
 mercy have followed us all the way. On a journey 
 of more than six thousand miles, and passing through 
 a great variety of climates, — in perils in the city, in 
 perils in the wilderness, in perils on the sea, — the 
 Lord has preserved us. Neither can we forbear to 
 express our obligations to our dear Christian friends 
 in the Western country. We were strangers and they 
 took us in. From many we received pecuniary aid, 
 besides other important services; while the kind at- 
 tentions and Christian fellowship of others alleviated 
 our labors and comforted our, hearts. In return for 
 these favors we have felt compelled to do what we 
 could for them. Ever since we came back to this land 
 of Christian privileges we have been endeavoring to 
 arouse the attention of the public, and to direct it 
 towards the West. These exertions have been stimu- 
 lated by a deep conviction of the deplorable state of 
 the country. Never will the impressions be erased 
 from our hearts that have been made by beholding 
 
 146 
 
SECOND HOME MISSIONARY JOURNEY 
 
 these scenes of wide-spreading desolation. The whole 
 country, from Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico, is as 
 the valley of the shadow of death. Darkness rests 
 upon it. Only here and there a few rays of gospel 
 light pierce through the awful gloom. This vast 
 country contains more than a million of inhabitants. 
 Their number is every year increased by a mighty 
 flood of emigration. Soon they will be as the sands 
 of the seashore for multitude. Yet there are at pres- 
 ent only a little more than one hundred Presbyterian 
 or Congregational ministers in it. Were these minis- 
 ters equally distributed throughout the country, there 
 would be only one to every ten thousand people. But 
 now there are districts of country, containing from 
 twenty to fifty thousand inhabitants, entirely destitute. 
 And how shall they hear without a preacher? 
 
 To secure these preachers was Mills' chief 
 endeavor as soon as he returned home. 
 
 147 
 
VIII 
 
 RESULTS OF THE HOME MISSIONARY 
 TOURS 
 
 American Bible Society 
 
It is such missionary work that prevents the pioneers from 
 sinking perilously near the level of savagery against which they 
 contend. Without it the conquest of the continent would have 
 had little but an animal side. Because of it, deep beneath and 
 through the national character there runs the power of a firm 
 adherence to a lofty ideal, upon which the safety of the nation 
 will ultimately depend. 
 
 Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
VIII 
 
 RESULTS OF THE HOME MISSIONARY 
 TOURS 
 
 SAMUEL J. MILLS was something more 
 than a missionary, — he was a home mis- 
 sionary statesman. When he returned 
 from his first tour he and Schermerhorn issued 
 a pamphlet of fifty pages entitled " A Correct 
 View of that Part of the United States which 
 lies West of the Alleghany Mountains, with 
 respect to Religion and Morals " (Hartford, 
 1814). It was a revelation in facts and figures 
 to the East of what had been an unknown 
 country as far as religious statistics or condi- 
 tions had been concerned. It was more than a 
 revelation; it was an inspiration, an incentive, 
 an imperative to go forward and possess the land 
 in the name of the Lord. It " shed more light 
 on the state of the destitute parts of the country 
 than all other documents then in existence." It 
 was read and discussed not only in America, but 
 in Europe, by such men as Dr. Chalmers. The 
 report in the Connecticut Evangelical Maga- 
 
 151 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 zine induced the Synod of Pittsburg to attempt 
 vigorous measures for the education of promis- 
 ing young men, with a view to their becoming 
 ministers of the gospel and missionaries. The 
 other published works of Mills and his collabo- 
 rators were as follows : " Report to the Society 
 for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians 
 and others in North America," Schermerhorn 
 and Mills, 1813; "Communications relative to 
 the Progress of Bible Societies in the United 
 States," addressed to the Philadelphia Bible 
 Society, Philadelphia, 1813; "Report of a Mis- 
 sionary Tour through that Part of the United 
 States which lies West of the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains, performed under the direction of the 
 Massachusetts Missionary Society," by Samuel 
 J. Mills and Daniel Smith, Andover, 1815. 
 
 These reports and the addresses which these 
 young men made on their return East were 
 like a bugle-call sounding " Forward " to the 
 churches and the missionary societies. The 
 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, 
 quick to recognize its responsibility and oppor- 
 tunity, organized the Board of Home Missions 
 (181 6) to take the place of its Standing Com- 
 mittee on Missions, and began to plant churches 
 all along the firing line of the frontier. Mills 
 went for a time to Andover to find suitable men, 
 
 152 
 
RESULTS OF HOME TOURS 
 
 and not in vain. But the supply was not equal 
 to the demand, for Professor Ebenezer Porter 
 writes from Andover, July 24, 181 5, to Rev. 
 Abel Flint, Secretary of the Missionary Society 
 of Connecticut : " We are so disturbed with calls 
 for missionaries and pastors, which we cannot 
 supply, that I have delayed till the last mail be- 
 fore your August meeting. Indeed, brother, we 
 know not what to do, but pray the Lord of the 
 harvest to raise up more laborers. Under the 
 solemn pressure of this subject we are now 
 building two educational societies in Boston and 
 the vicinity on the Connecticut plan. Within 
 one week we have received pressing applications 
 for nine missionaries for different stations in 
 our country." 
 
 In response to the reports and appeals ten or 
 twelve preachers were sent West the first year, 
 and more the second. From Stephen Hempstead, 
 a devoted Christian layman of St. Louis, came a 
 letter, saying that in the seven months since 
 the missionaries had left not a single Protestant 
 preacher had been there, and adding : " Brethren, 
 pray for us, that we may not but wait God's 
 good time to bestow these blessings on this part 
 of our land. . . . Don't forget our destitute con r 
 dition when you make report to the Society." 
 In behalf of Governor Clark and the Supreme 
 
 i53 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Court judges he begs for a preacher. The day 
 after Christmas, 1815, Salmon Giddings, a friend 
 of Mills at Williams and Andover, left his home 
 in Hartland, Connecticut, for St. Louis, with a 
 commission from the Missionary Society of Con- 
 necticut to do missionary work in Missouri and 
 Illinois, — a large commission for a young, un- 
 tried preacher. He became not only the first 
 resident pastor in St. Louis, but the apostle of 
 Missouri, and in the short ministry of twelve 
 years he organized fourteen churches in Illinois 
 and Missouri, including the First Presbyterian 
 Church of St. Louis. Some of the other pio- 
 neer preachers in Missouri were Timothy Flint, 
 John Matthews, and Thomas Donnell. These 
 three, with Giddings, formed the Presbytery of 
 Missouri at St. Louis, December 18, 1817. The 
 first business of the presbytery was the ordina- 
 tion of Donnell at Bellevue. " The gentleman, 
 though sick with measles at the time, was in- 
 ducted into office with happy auspices." Flint 
 had traveled extensively as a missionary of the 
 Connecticut Society. One of his stations had 
 been at North Bend, — a village on the Ohio, 
 near Cincinnati. There he found a friend in 
 General William Henry Harrison, late governor 
 of Indiana, the hero of Tippecanoe, and future 
 president of the United States. " The log cabin," 
 
 154 
 
RESULTS OF HOME TOURS 
 
 which figured so prominently in that presidential 
 campaign, was " politely offered " by the gen- 
 eral as a place of worship. Thus did he show 
 his interest in and practical cooperation with 
 the patriotic and heroic work of these home 
 missionaries. 
 
 Louisiana was not forgotten. The Missionary 
 Society of Connecticut sent Elias Cornelius, an- 
 other friend of Mills and afterwards Secretary 
 of the American Board, to New Orleans, which 
 he reached in December, 1817. "The pious of 
 different denominations had long been waiting 
 for some one to break to them the bread of life, 
 and forgetting the peculiarities of party, were 
 ready to rally round any evangelical minister 
 of Christ, and lend him their support and 
 prayers," so runs the narrative of missions for 
 1818. " Hence," says Cornelius, " they received 
 me with joy and gratitude, and flocked to hear 
 me preach." Almost immediately he formed a 
 church, — the First Presbyterian, — which was 
 incorporated by special act of the legislature. 
 He refused the permanent pastorate, and wel- 
 comed his friend, the knightly Sylvester Larned, 
 to that position. Cornelius devoted himself to 
 the hospitals, jails, seamen, and "a congrega- 
 tion of a couple of hundred Africans," a veri- 
 table city missionary. 
 
 iS5 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 About this time Samuel Royce was sent by 
 the same society " a missionary to the state of 
 Louisiana," with headquarters at Alexandria on 
 the Red River. Daniel Smith returned to the 
 Presbyterian church of Natchez as permanent 
 pastor. Time and space fail me to tell of what 
 Home Missions have done for Illinois, and what 
 the splendid fellows did who went into Tennessee, 
 Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. It is a tale of 
 heroism and noble daring that needs retelling. 
 One word which has rung through this story 
 as I have read it in faded, torn journals, cen- 
 tury-old letters, and forgotten biographies, has 
 been " sacrifice." How unsparingly, unhesitat- 
 ingly these men gave themselves to the work! 
 It reminds one of the old story of Rome, — how 
 a great chasm opened in the forum, which the 
 oracle said could be closed only when Rome cast 
 into it the best she had. M. Quintus Curtius, a 
 young noble, rightly divining that Rome's dear- 
 est possession was her noble sons, rode headlong 
 into the chasm, which then closed. So not one 
 but many of New England's best sons threw 
 themselves into the breach. Larned died at 
 twenty-four, Daniel Smith at thirty-four, Mills 
 at thirty-five, Giddings, after twelve years' ser- 
 vice, Robinson, of St. Charles, after ten years' 
 heroic work that deserves a story of itself. 
 
 156 
 
RESULTS OF HOME TOURS 
 
 The other sacrifice is that of Congregational- 
 ism. 1 Think of all she gave to Presbyterianism, 
 — the empire of the Mississippi Valley. Twelve 
 of the first missionaries to Missouri were 
 Congregationalists, nine of them sent by the 
 Missionary Society of Connecticut. Williams 
 College, Andover Seminary, the Missionary So- 
 ciety of Connecticut, the Congregational churches 
 of Massachusetts and Connecticut, pouring men 
 and money unstintedly into building up another 
 denomination and different system of church gov- 
 ernment because, forsooth, the democracy of the 
 Pilgrims could not stand transplanting into the 
 great West ! Only time could demonstrate fully 
 the fallacy. Congregationalism furnished nearly 
 all the seed and sowers for the vast prairies of 
 the Louisiana Purchase, and Presbyterianism 
 has reaped a hundred, aye, a thousandfold. For 
 
 1 This was due to the so-called " Plan of Union " between the 
 Congregational and Presbyterian churches. The idea grew up 
 that stronger ecclesiastical bonds were needed in the new country, 
 and sparsely settled regions, so that the purity of the churches 
 could be preserved. It soon became accepted as a fact that Con- 
 gregationalism was peculiarly suited to New England, and all west 
 of the Hudson River should be Presbyterian. The Missionary 
 Society of Connecticut instructed its missionaries to promote and 
 foster this idea, and Presbyterianism was thus imposed upon people 
 and churches sometimes reluctant to receive it; while in 1829 the 
 American Education Society recommended to the young men who 
 went from New England into the boundaries of the Presbyterian 
 General Assembly that they " unite with the Presbyteries and not 
 hold to Congregationalism." 
 
 157 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 all this Mills and his companions did the seed- 
 sowing. They were the pioneers, — the ones who 
 spied out the land, who called the attention of 
 the churches, the missionary societies, and the 
 young men in the seminaries to the great need 
 and the splendid opportunity. The Protestant 
 invasion and occupation of the Louisiana Pur- 
 chase at this time was largely due to Samuel J. 
 Mills. Therefore he deserves the title " Home 
 Missionary Statesman." 
 
 During the two home missionary journeys 
 Mills and his friends were always founding 
 and organizing Bible societies. Besides supply- 
 ing the Bible to the destitute, they had a 
 broader purpose in view, — " to combine the 
 united support and energies of all denomina- 
 tions by whatever name they were known." 
 They accomplished this purpose by organizing 
 or planning for the organization of the Bible 
 societies of Ohio, Nashville, or West Tennessee, 
 Mississippi, and Louisiana, on the first journey, 
 and, on the second, the societies of Washington, 
 Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, St. Louis, as Well as 
 those of various places in Illinois and Indiana. 
 
 These various societies did much good, even 
 beyond their own boundaries. For instance, the 
 Louisiana Bible Society distributed Bibles among 
 the thousands of refugees from San Domingo 
 
 158 
 
RESULTS OF HOME TOURS 
 
 who had come to New Orleans in 181 1 ; when 
 later they returned to the home land they took 
 back the Bibles with them. Some of these Bibles 
 found their way to Havana. A missionary visit- 
 ing New Orleans in 1825 wrote: "But a short 
 time since New Orleans was thought almost be- 
 yond the reach of Christian sympathy and Chris- 
 tian efforts, and yet this year, with one exception, 
 of any Auxiliary Bible Society in the United 
 they have made the largest contribution ($500) 
 States." In their report for 1815 the Louisiana 
 Bible Society says : " We receive that we may 
 communicate. Religion, like other blessings, is 
 to be diffused by human agencies and human 
 benevolence. It has flowed to us through the 
 zeal and labor of those who have gone before 
 us, and we are bound to repay the debt by 
 spreading it around us and transmitting it un- 
 impaired to succeeding ages. Though the Bible 
 has not yet converted whole nations, it may 
 prepare the way for missionaries; and though 
 in countries denominated Christian much igno- 
 rance and vice may remain after the Bible has 
 been generally distributed, no one can say that 
 it may not have extirpated much which would 
 have taken root had not exertions been made 
 to repress them." 
 
 Such was the work that Mills had set in mo- 
 159 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 tion, but' he was not satisfied. One of the 
 great needs that was impressed upon him by his 
 Southwestern journeys was a National Bible 
 Society. 1 The British and Foreign Bible So- 
 ciety had been organized in 1804, and " Old 
 England has no brighter jewel in her crown." 
 Mills felt that America needed just such an in- 
 stitution, and he corresponded with prominent 
 men upon the subject. In one of these letters 
 he says : " It is my serious belief that with all 
 the exertions of our thirty Bible societies at the 
 present time we do but little more than supply 
 the yearly increasing population in the States, 
 and I suspect we do not do even that. Cannot 
 some means be attempted to impress the minds 
 of the religious public, and in a proper manner, 
 with the importance of this subject? Cannot 
 some means be attempted to unite all the 
 different religious denominations to aid the ob- 
 ject?" The report of the second journey con- 
 cludes with a burning appeal. The immediate 
 need of the new country alone is 76,000 Bibles. 
 The existing societies cannot supply the need. 
 Mills says: "When we entered on the mission 
 
 1 The first Bible Society to be organized in America was that 
 at Philadelphia in 1808. The Connecticut Bible Society and the 
 Massachusetts Bible Society followed in 1809. So rapid was the 
 spread of the idea that in 1816 there were 132 Bible societies inde- 
 pendent of each other, and lacking unity or even cooperation. 
 
 160 
 
RESULTS OF HOME TOURS 
 
 we applied to the oldest and wealthiest insti- 
 tutions for Bibles to distribute in the Western 
 country, but we could obtain only one solitary 
 donation. The existing societies have not been 
 able to supply the demand in their own imme- 
 diate vicinity. Some mightier efforts must be 
 made. Their scattered and feeble exertions are 
 by no means adequate to the accomplishment of 
 the object. It is thought that half a million of 
 Bibles are necessary for the supply of the desti- 
 tute in the United States. It is a foul blot on 
 our national character. Christian America must 
 arise and wipe it away. The existing societies 
 are not able to do it. They want union; they 
 want cooperation; they want resources. If a 
 National Institution cannot be formed, applica- 
 tion ought to be made to the British and For- 
 eign Bible Society for aid." 
 
 He persuaded gifted friends of his to write 
 essays upon the subject, undoubtedly those ap- 
 pearing in The Panoplist about this time. By 
 personal conversation with prominent laymen and 
 ministers, by addresses before missionary socie- 
 ties, Bible societies, and various religious bodies, 
 he was preparing the way for what he believed 
 to be the greatest need of his native land. 
 
 In 1815 the New Jersey Bible Society origi- 
 nated and sent to the other Bible societies a plan 
 
 161 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 for a national society. The New York Society 
 indorsed the plan, and Elias Boudinot, president 
 of the New Jersey Society, called a meeting of 
 delegates from all the Bible societies in the coun- 
 try. They met in New York City, May 8, 1816, 
 and organized The American Bible Society, " of 
 which the sole object shall be to encourage a 
 wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures with- 
 out note or comment." Its field was not only 
 the United States, but was also, " according to 
 its ability, to extend its influence to other 
 countries, whether Christian, Mohammedan, or 
 pagan." 
 
 The society in itself was a great triumph. 
 It included in its founders and officers members 
 of the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, 
 Methodist Episcopal, the Baptist, Congregational, 
 and Friends' churches. It was the first time that 
 the different religious denominations had been 
 brought together in America for such concerted 
 action. 
 
 " They met on the broad platform of the Bible, 
 ' where names and sects and parties fall.' " They 
 declared that they were united in " the dissemi- 
 nation of the Scriptures in the received versions 
 where they exist and in the most faithful trans- 
 lations where they may be required. In such a 
 work, whatever is dignified, kind, venerable, true, 
 
 162 
 
RESULTS OF HOME TOURS 
 
 has ample scope, while sectarian littleness and 
 rivalries can find no avenues of admission." Even 
 those who had doubted the practicability of the 
 plan were won over when they saw the har- 
 mony, cordiality, and Christian courtesy of the 
 proceedings of the convention. They said, " This 
 thing is of God," and lent heart and hand to the 
 work. 
 
 All the participants in the movement and its 
 historians are unanimous upon one point, — the 
 influence which Samuel J. Mills had in bringing 
 about the organization of this national Bible 
 Society. In fact, this young man of thirty-three 
 had become a national figure in the councils of 
 the churches. Gardiner Spring, Edward D. 
 Griffin, and Lyman Beecher, who was secretary 
 of the convention, — all agree that in his quiet 
 way, by writing letters and in conversations with 
 the influential men of all denominations, he had 
 interested literally thousands of people, and thus 
 had made it possible for these men from differ- 
 ent parts of the country and from diverse de- 
 nominations to find a common standing-ground. 
 He himself had been greatly interested in the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, and from it 
 drew his ideas and inspiration. Yet it was Mills' 
 own " profound wisdom, indefatigable industry, 
 and unparalleled executive power in the excite- 
 
 163 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 ment and combination of minds in benevolent 
 combinations," according to Lyman Beecher, 
 that made him " the primary agent in this move- 
 ment." Mills had come back from his two trips 
 to the westward deeply impressed with the fact 
 that the "need and nakedness " of all that coun- 
 try could be helped only by a distribution of the 
 Bible in every settlement. Again he looked upon 
 the growing work in the foreign field. Here the 
 great need of the devoted laborers, to make their 
 self-sacrificing labors effective, was the Bible in 
 the native tongue. So the day when the Ameri- 
 can Bible Society was born was a day of rejoic- 
 ing to Mills; for that society was not only the 
 child of his efforts and his prayers, but also 
 the loyal handmaiden and efficient helper of the 
 causes which were far dearer to him than life, 
 — home and foreign missions. 
 
 When the day came that his hopes were to 
 bear fruit, he was present as the leaders of the 
 various denominations gathered. As the conven- 
 tion was called to order he took a seat in the 
 gallery behind the rest of the audience, where 
 he could see but yet be in the background. His 
 face was a study. Plain and of little promise, 
 it would hardly call for a second glance in the 
 audience that numbered intellectual giants and 
 spiritual leaders of the churches of America. 
 
 164 
 
RESULTS OF HOME TOURS 
 
 As the discussion went on, and the united co- 
 operation was assured, that plain face glowed 
 with a strange, unearthly light. The spirit of 
 the divine Master had transformed and trans- 
 figured the common clay. It was a subject 
 worthy of the genius of a master artist. It 
 needed the pencil of a West or a Raphael to de- 
 lineate that look of rapture, said one who looked 
 upon this never-to-be-forgotten transformation. 
 But he stayed not upon this mountain of trans- 
 figuration, but went down into the slums of a 
 great city to cast out the demons of vice and 
 iniquity which were even then paralyzing the 
 submerged tenth of New York. 
 
 165 
 
IX 
 
 CITY MISSIONARY WORK — THE 
 
 UNITED FOREIGN MISSIONARY 
 
 SOCIETY 
 
The first city was built by a murderer, and crime and vice 
 and wretchedness have festered in it ever since. But into the 
 last city shall enter nothing that defileth, neither shall there be 
 any more sorrow or crying, for the former things shall have 
 passed away. Shelley said, "Hell is a city much like London" 
 but the city redeemed is, in the vision of the Revelator, the sym- 
 bol of heaven — heaven on earth — the kingdom fully come. 
 
 Josiah Strong. 
 
 Whether our national life is great or mean, whether our social 
 virtues are mature or stunted, whether our sons are moral or 
 vicious, whether religion is possible or impossible, depends upon 
 the city. When Christianity shall take upon itself in full re- 
 sponsibility the burden or care of the cities, the kingdom of God 
 will openly come on earth. What Christianity waits for also as 
 its first apologetic and justification to the world is the founding 
 of a city which shall in a visible reality be a City of God. 
 People do not dispute that religion is in the church. What is 
 wanted is to let them see it in the city. One Christian city, on e 
 city in any part of the earth, whose citizens from the greatest to 
 the humblest lived in the spirit of Christ, where religion had 
 overflowed the churches and passed into the streets, inundat- 
 ing every house and workshop and permeating the whole social 
 and commercial life — one such Christian city would seal the 
 redemption of the world. 
 
 Henry Drummond. 
 
IX 
 
 CITY MISSIONARY WORK — THE UNITED 
 FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY 
 
 DURING his home missionary journeys 
 Mills had been simply commissioned by 
 the missionary societies. He was not 
 yet ordained as a minister of the gospel. On 
 his return from the second journey he heard 
 that some of his friends and associates in An- 
 dover were to be ordained foreign missionaries. 
 Among the number was James Richards, one of 
 his comrades at the haystack meeting. He de- 
 sired to be present at his ordination, and was 
 glad to avail himself of the opportunity of being 
 formally set apart to the ministry. Accordingly 
 he was ordained at Newburyport, June 21, 1815, 
 with James Richards, Daniel Poor, Horatio Bard- 
 well, Benjamin C. Meigs, and Edward Warren. 
 The services were held in Doctor Dana's 
 church. The examination was held in the 
 vestry at nine o'clock in the morning. Evi- 
 dently the young men were orthodox, for there 
 could not have been much theological discussion 
 
 169 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 in the two hours devoted to the examination of 
 the six candidates. The ordination services were 
 held in the church at eleven o'clock. After the 
 singing of the anthem, " Arise, shine, O Zion," 
 prayer was offered by Dr. Jedidiah Morse of 
 Charlestown. The sermon was preached by Dr. 
 Samuel Worcester of Salem. His theme was 
 " Paul on Mars Hill, or A Christian Survey of 
 the Pagan World" (Acts 17: 16). Dr. Samuel 
 Spring of Newburyport made the prayer of con- 
 secration, while Dr. Daniel Dana gave the charge 
 to the missionaries. So far the services had been 
 conducted by the older men, with whom the 
 Brethren had consulted and who had been promi- 
 nent in the formation of the American Board. 
 It was fitting that a companion of Mills and 
 Richards at Williams, Justin Edwards, then pas- 
 tor at Andover, should extend the right hand 
 of fellowship. Edward Payson of Portland 
 closed the ordination services with prayer. After 
 this the Lord's Supper was administered, so it 
 must have been late in the afternoon when the 
 exercises were completed. But in those days 
 they took time to do things decently and in 
 order. Many people had gathered from the 
 neighboring churches, and the deeply impressive 
 services increased the missionary spirit in all the 
 churches in that section of New England. 
 
 170 
 
CITY MISSIONARY WORK 
 
 On the 23d of October all except Mills sailed 
 on the brig " Dryad " as missionaries to Ceylon. 
 It had been originally intended that Meigs and 
 Warren should go on a mission to the Indians, 
 but Warren being in poor health, a pulmonary 
 trouble, it was decided that a sea voyage would 
 be beneficial for him. It was then suggested 
 that Mills take his place, and go with Meigs 
 on a permanent mission to the Indians instead 
 of a further exploring tour. But this plan was 
 given up, and Mills went neither to Ceylon nor 
 to the Choctaws. Again he was left at home, 
 but still he worked for foreign missions. During 
 the next two years he resided chiefly in the 
 Middle States, living sometimes in Albany, in 
 New York, Newark, Philadelphia, and Wash- 
 ington. All this time he was talking over with 
 prominent men his missionary plans and pur- 
 poses. For some time he lived at the home of 
 Rev. Dr. E. D. Griffin, at Newark, New Jersey, 
 afterwards President of Williams College, os- 
 tensibly to study theology; but Dr. Griffin found 
 himself the pupil as Mills unfolded his imperial 
 projects for the kingdom of God. Dr. Griffin 
 afterwards said : " I have been in situations to 
 know that from the counsels formed in that 
 sacred conclave (referring to Mills and his as- 
 sociates at Williams), or from the mind of Mills 
 
 171 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 himself, arose the American Board of Commis- 
 sioners for Foreign Missions, the American Bible 
 Society, the United Foreign Missionary Society, 
 the African school, under the care of the Synod 
 of New York and New Jersey, besides all the 
 impetus given to Domestic Missions, to the Colo- 
 nization Society, and to the general cause of 
 benevolence in both hemispheres." He then adds : 
 " If I had any instrumentality in originating any 
 of these measures, I here publicly declare that 
 in every instance I received the first impulse 
 from Samuel John Mills." 
 
 While in Newark Mills wrote to his former 
 colleague, Rev. Daniel Smith, then pastor at 
 Natchez. The letter, which is dated January 6, 
 1816, is inserted to give an idea of the char- 
 acter of the man, and also as a fair specimen 
 of his letter writing: — 
 
 Dear Brother, — I received your letter, dated Oc- 
 tober 19, while at Torringford. I have heard nothing 
 from you since. I conclude a kind providence has 
 preserved your life, and carried you to the desired 
 haven. If so, you will feel, I doubt not, that you have 
 more cause than ever to exclaim, " Bless the Lord, O 
 my soul." The dangers we have passed together ought 
 ever to keep alive in our hearts a spirit of gratitude 
 to God. 
 
 You say in your letter, " I go forward with a cheer- 
 172 
 
CITY MISSIONARY WORK 
 
 ful heart, — I hope the Lord is with me." It is always 
 safe trusting in the Lord. We who have experienced 
 so much of his kindness ought surely not to be faith- 
 less, but believing. You have gone to a dark portion 
 of our country, but we hope it is soon to be illumi- 
 nated by the light of the everlasting gospel. Sooner 
 or later it is to be a province of the Redeemer's king- 
 dom; and the sooner the seed is sown, the sooner 
 shall we expect the harvest. Many prayers are offered 
 up by the good people you have left behind for 
 your safety and success; therefore be strong in the 
 Lord. 
 
 I have hardly heard from the neighborhood of 
 
 Boston since you left the city. Mr. E declined 
 
 going on to New Orleans this season. I should hope 
 you would give that vacant people a part of your time. 
 Revivals of religion have been experienced in a num- 
 ber of towns in Connecticut. In more or less the good 
 work still continues. The Holy Spirit seems to attend 
 
 the labors of Mr. N in S .* It is believed that 
 
 one hundred and forty persons have become subjects 
 of the work. In Morristown and Springfield, in this 
 state, there is much more than usual attention. When 
 you write me, give me all the information you can 
 relative to the Western country. The report we made 
 out of our Western tour I have the satisfaction to 
 believe is highly approved; so much so, that perhaps 
 we may be in danger of becoming proud of it — but 
 I hope not. There can be no doubt that it has been 
 
 1 Asahel Nettleton in Salisbury. 
 173 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 the means of interesting a great many persons of in- 
 fluence and wealth in favour of our destitute country, 
 and if those in the districts of the country described 
 do not feel themselves under any obligations to us 
 now, they will at some future period. 
 
 You say you wish for my advice. As to this, I 
 have not much to say. The Word of God, your par- 
 ticular circumstances, and your past experience, must 
 be your guide. I have thought it very desirable that 
 you should make it a part of your business to aid in 
 the distribution of the Bibles which have been sent on 
 to New Orleans. I received a letter in November last 
 from Andover, informing me that a pious young man, 
 and much devoted to the missionary cause, had gone 
 on to New Orleans for his health, and expected to 
 spend the winter there, and that he wished to be em- 
 ployed in the distribution of Bibles and Testaments, 
 in hopes of obtaining in this way part of his support. 
 Perhaps you will find him of service to you in carry- 
 ing your plans into effect. Do not fail to write to 
 him. I hope you will be able to obtain some con- 
 tributions for the Bible societies, and that they will 
 soon begin to purchase Bibles for themselves. 
 
 Might you not, in giving out the tracts, aid in the 
 formation of Tract Societies in some of the most im- 
 portant places? It is much to be desired that the 
 people should acquire the habit of supporting reli- 
 gious and charitable institutions. It seems desirable 
 you should return to New England the next summer. 
 You should delay entering on your tour as late as 
 
 174 
 
CITY MISSIONARY WORK 
 
 circumstances will permit. Your services must be 
 very much needed where you are. 
 
 Looking into a newspaper lately I observed a para- 
 graph which stated that a Spanish minister had arrived 
 in New Orleans from Old Mexico. Would it not be 
 a good thing to ascertain from him the state of that 
 portion of the country, with a view of sending Bibles 
 there as soon as an opportunity shall present? Do 
 obtain all the information you can. Remember me 
 affectionately to my friends at Natchez. Let the good 
 people at New Orleans know that I have not for- 
 gotten them. Pray for me, that I may be directed in 
 the path of duty, and saved from injuring the cause I 
 profess to love. 
 
 Your affectionate brother in the Lord, 
 
 So did he follow up with letters and prayers 
 the good work which he had started in the 
 Southwest. While he had such a multitude of 
 interests, he never seemed to lose sight of any 
 of them. It did not seem possible for him to 
 have too many irons in the fire. While he was 
 forging one into shape the others were heating. 
 Mills could never be idle. While some of his 
 plans were maturing, and the " divine ferment," 
 which he had been putting in the minds of men 
 who were to make history, was working, he 
 found a new field of labor. He who had felt 
 
 i75 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 the darkness resting on the land from Lake Erie 
 to the Gulf of Mexico was to know and make 
 known the shadows that rested on Darkest New 
 York. We are accustomed to think of both city 
 slums with their horrors and city missions with 
 their relief as things of to-day. There were 
 slums in those days, and efforts to relieve the 
 awful condition of the poor people who lived 
 there. 
 
 There was in New York at this time (1816) 
 a " Female Missionary Society for the Poor of 
 New York and Vicinity," which employed the 
 Rev. Ward Stafford as its missionary. Mills 
 spent some time during the summer of 1816 in 
 hearty cooperation in the work. Mr. Stafford, 
 in his report to the society, March, 1817, speaks 
 in the highest terms of Mills' labors in this 
 " new missionary field." They found there con- 
 ditions which are usually thought of as charac- 
 teristic of to-day. There were houses crowded 
 with from four to twelve families each, often 
 two or three families in a room, and " those of 
 all colors," with all the evidences of the im- 
 morality which overcrowding tends to produce. 
 Whole neighborhoods were found reduced by 
 intemperance to "beggary, wretchedness, and 
 death." There were in the city, which at this 
 time had a population of one hundred and ten 
 
 176 
 
CITY MISSIONARY WORK 
 
 thousand, fourteen hundred and eighty-nine 
 licensed retail liquor dealers, and in the sev- 
 enth ward, poor and beggared beyond descrip- 
 tion, two or three hundred saloons. Not less 
 than six thousand " abandoned females " added 
 to the vice and shame. Men who thrived on 
 their dishonor kept large numbers of them prac- 
 tically slaves, behind grated windows. Dance 
 halls and dives, with " The Way to Hell " in- 
 scribed in glaring capitals, were displayed, twenty 
 in the space of thirty or forty rods. The Sab- 
 bath had become to the people in this part of 
 the city a day of idleness, recreation, drunken- 
 ness. Two or three thousand passed on Sunday 
 over the ferry at Corlaer's Hook to Long Island. 
 So was Coney Island antedated. " The steam 
 and horse boats which cross the waters sur- 
 rounding the city were literally crowded on the 
 Sabbath." 
 
 The condition of the children was desperately 
 bad, — their education neglected, and they were 
 surrounded by and often trained in vice and 
 pollution, "of which it is unlawful to speak." 
 "The true condition of our large cities," Dr. 
 Spring says, " in respect of moral instruction, it 
 is lamentable to state, has been little thought of, 
 even by those who in other departments of duty 
 manifest a commendable zeal in promoting the 
 
 13 177 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 best interest of their fellow men. This ' new 
 missionary field,' as it has been justly styled, 
 discloses a picture that we little expected to 
 behold." 
 
 Into this " new missionary field " Mills threw 
 himself with all the ardor and enthusiasm of 
 the past. His health at this time was poor, but 
 his zeal intense. He writes in his journal, July 
 21, 1816: " My indisposition rather increases than 
 abates. Perhaps the Lord has little more for me 
 to do in this world. He has made me an in- 
 strument in his hand of doing some good; but 
 what have been the motives which have actu- 
 ated me are best known to himself. I many 
 times fear I shall yet be dashed to pieces, as a 
 vessel in which the Master has no pleasure." 
 One seems to hear in these words the echo of 
 Paul's " lest that by any means, when I have 
 preached to others, I myself should be a 
 castaway." 
 
 Among the localities which he visited were 
 Lombardy, Baucker, Harman, Orange, Skinner, 
 and First streets. He called one day from 
 Number 1 to 100, and found twelve families 
 destitute of the Bible. Of the fifty families 
 upon whom he called another day on Orange 
 Street, he found one-third not even able to read 
 a Bible if they had one. In other quarters the 
 
 178 
 
CITY MISSIONARY WORK 
 
 spiritual destitution was even worse. A mar- 
 ried woman of thirty, in answer to the question 
 whether they had a Bible in the house, said in 
 surprise : " A Bible ! What do you do with the 
 Bible?" Then he told her of its worth, — that 
 it was the word of the Living God; that it had 
 in it the great rules of character and conduct; 
 that it was unexcelled in its comforts and 
 consolations. 
 
 " Generally," he writes, " the people are very 
 ignorant. Ask them if they hope they are Chris- 
 tians, and they answer, ' Yes, they have no doubt 
 of that.' Ask them whether they have been born 
 again, — explain to them the nature of regener- 
 ation, — and you will ascertain that they know 
 nothing of the subject. Press upon them the 
 necessity of a change of heart, and describe their 
 awfully exposed condition, — tell them Thou art 
 the man, — and in some instances they appear 
 solemn and affected to tears. Where we leave 
 Bibles with persons of this character, we often 
 obtain their solemn promise to read them with 
 attention. The great mass of these people are 
 fitly represented by Ezekiel's vision of dry bones. 
 , 'Come, O breath from the four winds, and breathe 
 upon these slain, that they may live ! ' " 
 
 So he went about from house to house doing 
 the work of a Bible colporteur and city mis- 
 
 179 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 sionary, leaving Bibles where there were none, 
 arousing the unconverted, seeking out the fami- 
 lies from the country that had left their reli- 
 gious life back on the farm, cheering the sick 
 and comforting the bereaved. One day he found 
 a mother alone with her dead child. He brought 
 not only sympathy to the woman, but the woman 
 to her Saviour. 
 
 The needs of the seamen, plentiful at that 
 time in the port of New York, touched him. 
 He prayed and consulted with others a good 
 deal about a Marine Bible Society, which was 
 organized the next year, with Rev. Ward Staf- 
 ford as secretary. But all the time his mind was 
 busy with far-away plans. Ever since his re- 
 turn from the West he had been maturing in 
 his mind, and filling other minds with a plan 
 for exploring South America, with a view to 
 missionary possibilities and opportunities. He 
 would make a report on religious conditions and 
 needs and make an appeal to Christian people. 
 It was not until seven years later that President 
 Monroe, in his annual message, announced his 
 famous doctrine of our special interest in the 
 political welfare of South America. It was not 
 until ten years later that the Presbyterians sent 
 even a tentative mission to Buenos Ayres. But 
 our young missionary statesman was early con- 
 
 180 
 
CITY MISSIONARY WORK 
 
 vinced of the need and of the responsibility of 
 the United States in the matter. He had col- 
 lected much information in regard to South 
 America, and had even made overtures to the 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 Missions in regard to going. He wrote from 
 New York, October 3, 181 3, to Elias Cornelius 
 on the subject : — 
 
 *• I thank you for suggesting the expediency of an 
 exploring mission to the Rev. Fathers at Hartford, 
 and am happy to hear that they approve of the ob- 
 ject. I have long thought that to effect what we 
 wish in the best manner, it would be desirable to sail 
 in a ship commanded by officers who should have 
 the business of exploring and ascertaining the best 
 missionary stations particularly in view during the 
 voyage. But perhaps such an opportunity ought not 
 to be expected. But I confess I am tired of delays. 
 I have for some time past been endeavouring to pass 
 the limits of these states and territories. I am " pes- 
 tered in this pin-hole here." 
 
 Thus far my experience proves that the further I 
 proceed from home, the greater good God enables me 
 to do. By his blessing most has been effected at the 
 most distant points. I do not know that a similar 
 result would follow on the mission we contemplate; 
 but I should like to try it, and alone, if it seems the 
 will of heaven. I hope you will lose no time in mak- 
 
 181 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 ing the inquiries necessary to ascertain whether a 
 passage could be obtained on board the ship which 
 you refer to in your letter. I should wish to know 
 the character of the commodore, or captain; and if 
 a chaplain is wanted, what would be the services 
 expected from one acting in that capacity? I shall 
 wish to know at what places the ship will touch dur- 
 ing the voyage; and I should particularly wish you 
 to give me the opinion of my Christian friends in the 
 vicinity of Boston relative to my qualifications for the 
 contemplated service. You will have opportunity to 
 see the gentlemen belonging to the Prudential Com- 
 mittee of the Board of Foreign Missions, and I hope 
 you will converse with them on this subject. Were 
 I to engage in this service, I should hope a brother 
 might be found who would go with me. Perhaps the 
 Lord will incline you to engage in this work. 
 
 It is expected that the ship " Eagle," commanded 
 by Captain Davis, will sail from Boston in a few 
 weeks for the Northwest coast. The ship will call at 
 the Sandwich Islands during the voyage, but there are 
 objections to going in one engaged in the North- 
 west trade. Still, a list of inquiries might be pre- 
 sented, requesting particular information with respect 
 to the state of the islands, and other places, where 
 the ship should call. I hope this hint will be kept in 
 mind. 
 
 My dear brother, should I leave this country, and 
 you remain here, you must supply my place, or find 
 some person who will. I cannot leave the benevolent 
 
 182 
 
CITY MISSIONARY WORK 
 
 plans I have in view without some one to see them 
 perfected. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Samuel J. Mills. 
 
 That very year (1813) the Prudential Com- 
 mittee of the American Board was directed by 
 the vote of the Board to inquire in regard to 
 the feasibility of sending a mission to St. Sal- 
 vador, Brazil. Ten years later (1823), under 
 the auspices of the Board, John C. Bingham and 
 Theophilus Parvin opened a school, which soon 
 became self-supporting. So its teacher was hon- 
 orably discharged by the Board in 1826, and 
 continued his educational mission on his own 
 responsibility. Bingham left Buenos Ayres in 
 October, 1824, and crossed the continent to the 
 Pacific. He investigated the condition of the 
 Araucanian Indians, visited Chili and Peru, and 
 returned to the United States by the way of 
 Mexico, with valuable information. His trip 
 was much like those of Mills in the United 
 States. 
 
 Mills' plan for a mission to South America 
 would not down. If the existing missionary 
 societies could not or would not spy out the land 
 and occupy the field, another society could be 
 formed. Mills had long felt that the Presby- 
 
 183 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 terian Church had not been doing anything like 
 her share in foreign missions. The General 
 Assembly had been exceedingly active in pushing 
 their claims to the westward, and seemed thor- 
 oughly awake to the need of men and money 
 for home missions, but nothing had been done 
 by the Presbyterian Church in America for 
 foreign missions, except through the American 
 Board and other societies. She had no Foreign 
 Missionary Society of her own, and the only 
 thing which she had done directly outside the 
 work for the new settlements was the various 
 missions among the. Indian tribes undertaken by 
 David Brainerd and others. Mills was deter- 
 mined that the great Presbyterian Church, with 
 all her resources, must be set at work in for- 
 eign missions. While at Dr. Griffin's home, in 
 Newark, Mills' busy brain and zealous heart 
 evolved a plan for the union of the Presby- 
 terians and some other denominations in a for- 
 eign missionary society. Dr. Griffin advised him 
 to lay these plans before other influential men, 
 and they were presented to the General Assembly 
 of the Presbyterian Church at its meeting in 
 Philadelphia, 1818, Mills himself being present. 
 The Assembly approved of the plan, and ap- 
 pointed a committee to confer with Reformed 
 Churches in regard to the matter. The propo- 
 
 184 
 
CITY MISSIONARY WORK 
 
 sition met with a cordial reception from the 
 governing bodies of these sister churches. The 
 constitution adopted specified that : " The Society 
 shall be composed of the Presbyterian, Reformed 
 Dutch, and Associate Reformed churches, and 
 all the others who may choose to join them; and 
 it shall be known by the name of ' The United 
 Foreign Missionary Society.' The object of this 
 Society shall be to spread the gospel among the 
 Indians of North America, the inhabitants of 
 Mexico and South America, and other portions 
 of the heathen and anti-Christian world." 
 
 Writing home to his father the good news of 
 this organization and of its future, with charac- 
 teristic modesty he says : " I would not intimate 
 that I have been the prime mover in this busi- 
 ness; if I have been permitted, with others, to 
 aid the object, it is enough." But we have the 
 testimony of men who were there and prominent 
 in the organization that, " next to the Spirit of 
 God on his heart, Mr. Mills was 'the prime 
 mover in this business.' " 
 
 The society immediately came under the favor- 
 able notice of President Monroe, and received" a 
 portion of the annual fund appropriated by Con- 
 gress to the civilization of the Indians. Colonel 
 McKenney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 
 " could scarcely have embarked in its favor with 
 
 185 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 more zeal and activity if the whole concern had 
 been his own." Missions were established among 
 the Osages in Missouri and Arkansas; so were 
 the Cataraugas Mission in New York, the Mack- 
 inaw Mission in Michigan, and one strictly for- 
 eign mission, — that to Hayti, in 1824. Other 
 missions of the Presbyterian Church to the 
 Indians were transferred to it, so that when 
 the work of the Society passed into the hands 
 of the American Board in 1826, it consisted of 
 nine missions and included sixty missionaries. 
 Although the work for South America was not 
 taken up until later, it is undoubtedly true that 
 the large interest which the Presbyterian Church 
 has taken in that continent had its beginnings 
 in the plans and purposes of this young man. 
 
 186 
 
X 
 THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 ..., / 
 
If an evil exists in a community, a remedy must be sought, 
 especially if it be an evil generally and necessarily increasing in 
 its unhappy effects. As long as no exertions are made to redress 
 the grievance, the case must become every day more helpless. 
 
 S. J. Mills. 
 
 But the darling object of Mr. Mills and the one for which he 
 seems to have been specially raised up was the amelioration of 
 Africa. The civil, moral, and religious degradation of that be- 
 nighted land lay with continual weight upon his mind. 
 
 P. K. Kilbourne. 
 
 For a mind teeming with plans to extend the Redeemer's king- 
 dom, wholly devoted to that single object and incessantly engaged 
 to rouse others to the same spirit, they fear they shall not soon 
 look on his like again. 
 
 Board of the African School. 
 
X 
 
 "THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 FROM the times of the haystack until the 
 day of his death the passion of Mills' 
 heart was the Dark Continent. Back in 
 his college days he made this entry in his diary: 
 " Oh, that I might be aroused from this careless 
 and stupid state, and be enabled to fill up life 
 well! I think I can trust myself in the hands 
 of God and all that is dear to me ; but I long to 
 have the time arrive when the Gospel shall be 
 preached to the Poor Africans, and likewise 
 to all nations." 
 
 That prayer was answered; his short life 
 was filled up well and finished in the service of 
 Africa. 
 
 During his trips through the Southern States 
 he was deeply impressed by the needs of " his 
 poor African brethren," as he called them. In 
 fact, he had for a year felt, as he himself puts 
 it, " an earnest desire to meliorate the condition 
 of the people of color in the United States." 
 The hope of aiding in some plan to effect this 
 
 189 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 object had been one of the inducements of his 
 home missionary journeys. The facts collected 
 and the conditions observed were of great ser- 
 vice to him later on. He estimated that there 
 were a million and a half negroes in the United 
 States. Many of them were able to read, and 
 he was persuaded that " to give these destitute, 
 afflicted blacks the Scriptures would be like carry- 
 ing the everlasting gospel into the very heart of 
 Africa. Many of the slaveholders are willing 
 that their slaves should be possessed of this 
 treasure; at the same time are too negligent to 
 see them supplied." He naively gave his opinion 
 of slavery in a comment upon the fact that a 
 minister in the South had told him that a sick 
 man begged for a Bible with tears in his eyes. 
 " Slaveholders," he says, " peculiarly need the 
 consolation which the Bible is calculated to 
 afford, especially on a dying bed." He discov- 
 ered, too, in the South, much right feeling 
 toward the slaves. In fact, he found many of 
 the owners ready to emancipate their slaves if 
 only some right disposal could be made of the 
 colored people after emancipation. Many South- 
 erners felt then that the best good of both the 
 whites and blacks demanded their separation. 
 Mills came back North satisfied that something 
 ought to be done, for, said he, " We must save 
 
 190 
 
"THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 the negroes or the negroes will ruin us." He 
 proposed that a large tract of territory in the 
 thinly settled West be set apart as a negro 
 colony, to which all the free black people should 
 be transported, and that a government with suit- 
 able laws be established until such a time as 
 they should be capable of self-government. Mills 
 tried hard to get a grant of a township of land 
 in Ohio; Illinois, or Indiana, on which a small 
 colony might be planted. By this he hoped to 
 prove the practicability of the plan, and to form 
 the nucleus of a larger colony either in the far- 
 ther West dr in Africa. In this plan he tried 
 to interest the negroes as well as the whites. 
 The plan failed, not so much because it was 
 thought impracticable, as because of the feeling 
 among the Northern people that whether they 
 lived to see the day or not, the time would come 
 when the whites would want all the region, and 
 they would have it, and would drive the negro 
 colony out. 
 
 Mills' ever busy mind soon evolved another 
 plan to help the African. This time it was 
 along educational lines. The establishment of 
 the African School at Parsippany, New Jersey, 
 by the Synod of New York and New Jersey, in 
 1816, was largely due to his efforts. The object 
 was to educate young colored men as preachers 
 
 191 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 and teachers for service, not only in the United 
 States, but also in the West Indies and Africa. 
 These words from the address of the Board 
 having charge of the school have a strangely 
 modern sound : " If Africa is to stand forth in 
 the glory of Christianity and civilization, her 
 own sons, and not the sons of strangers, must 
 be the instructors of her youth and her minis- 
 ters of religion. No nation will ever advance 
 far in any improvement but by the instrumen- 
 tality of her own children. Strangers may make 
 a beginning; but strangers cannot continue to 
 support her schools and churches. History pre- 
 sents no instance of the kind. Apostles and mis- 
 sionaries may pass over a country, but native 
 teachers must finish the work." 
 
 As soon as this new work for young colored 
 men was organized Mills was appointed solicit- 
 ing agent in the Middle States. He was both 
 zealous and successful in his financial efforts for 
 the school. He gives his own method of work 
 in some advice to his friend Edward W. Hooker 
 of Andover, who had been appointed to succeed 
 him as soliciting agent. " In your sermons or 
 addresses state facts. Facts will always produce 
 an effect, especially on pious minds. You can 
 easily possess yourself of facts, the bare recital 
 of which will make the heart bleed. If you are 
 
 192 
 
"THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 not already possessed of facts of this character 
 I can furnish you." 
 
 So little had been done by the churches for 
 the religious welfare of the negroes, he said, 
 that one could easily believe that the Christian 
 public was agreed with some of the slaveholders 
 in the belief which they soberly maintained, — 
 that the black folk have no souls. " It has 
 been, and still is, the hard lot of multitudes of 
 these people to be chained to tasks, and to have 
 labor required of them with stripes that a man 
 of common feeling would weep to see inflicted 
 on a brute. And to complete the climax of their 
 sufferings, the Church has withheld the only cup 
 of consolation which could alleviate their sor- 
 rows, — the hope of heaven derived from the 
 gospel." It is true that Sunday-schools for col- 
 ored people had been established from Portland 
 to Raleigh. The Methodists and Baptists had 
 colored preachers of great power who ministered 
 to large congregations, but the Presbyterians and 
 Congregationalists had done almost nothing. 
 
 Some persons became interested in the school 
 because it was looked upon as an auxiliary to 
 the colonization movement, and would facilitate 
 any work in that direction by providing leaders. 
 Calls came from Natchez and New Orleans for 
 trained colored men. It was felt that the only 
 13 J 93 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 way to raise a higher religious and moral 
 standard among the negroes crowding into the 
 cities was through the black leaders. All de- 
 nominations were invited to contribute to what 
 was felt to be a patriotic as well as a mis- 
 sionary work. The school continued for some 
 years, and did good work, though the number 
 of scholars was never large. When an attempt 
 was made to lessen the expenses by requiring 
 a certain amount of manual labor of each stu- 
 dent, they protested, and finally the school was 
 broken up. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Hopkins of Newport is generally 
 known as founder of the Hopkinsian system of 
 theology. He was more than metaphysician, for 
 he held the most advanced antislavery views of 
 his times. Several years before the outbreak 
 of the Revolutionary War he preached a ser- 
 mon, boldly denouncing the traffic in slaves and 
 slaveholding to his congregation in Newport, 
 Rhode Island, who had grown rich in the slave 
 traffic. Whittier said of that scene and sermon : 
 " It may be well doubted whether on that Sab- 
 bath day the angels of God in their wide sur- 
 vey looked upon a nobler spectacle than that of 
 the minister of Newport rising up before his 
 slaveholding congregation, and demanding in 
 the name of the Highest the deliverance and 
 
 194 
 
"THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 the opening of the prison doors to them that 
 are bound." 
 
 The church, instead of being incensed at his 
 attitude, soon passed a vote branding the slave- 
 trade and slavery as "a gross violation of the 
 righteousness and benevolence, which are so 
 much inculcated in the gospel, and therefore 
 we will not tolerate it in this church." Rhode 
 Island declared all slaves free-born in her ter- 
 ritory subsequent to March, 1784. 
 
 Hopkins' work did not end here. He felt that 
 some compensation ought to be made to Africa 
 by America for the injustice and evil done by 
 the slave-trade. He therefore resolved to edu- 
 cate two Africans, — Yamma and Quamine, — 
 and send them back to their native land as 
 teachers and preachers of the gospel. In this 
 plan he was ably seconded by Ezra Stiles, after- 
 wards president of Yale. Their plans were in- 
 terrupted by the Revolutionary War, which drove 
 Dr. Hopkins and his congregation from their 
 homes, and the negroes from their studies; so 
 the plan fell through. Here was the germ of 
 African colonization, and the beginning of the 
 idea of sending Africans to their native land as 
 the heralds of Christianity. 
 
 Besides its general influence, this plan of Dr. 
 Hopkins is of special importance. The father 
 
 195 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 of Samuel J. Mills was an intimate friend of 
 Samuel Hopkins, when the latter preached at 
 Great Barrington, Massachusetts. That Mills' 
 father sympathized with this movement that 
 his friend had set in motion is beyond ques- 
 tion. There seems to be no reason to doubt 
 that the younger Mills' devoted interest in 
 Africa was due to Dr. Hopkins' early interest 
 and indefatigable labors in behalf of the Dark 
 Continent. It is significant, too, that two of 
 Hopkins' negro pupils, Salmon Nubia and Gard- 
 ner, in their old age, did go out to Liberia. 
 
 It is impossible even to summarize here the 
 history of all the plans for the colonization of 
 Africa by negroes from America. As early as 
 1800 the legislature of Virginia had requested 
 the governor, James Monroe, to correspond with 
 the President, Thomas Jefferson, on the subject 
 of purchasing land for the colonization of free 
 negroes. Jefferson, who was heartily in favor 
 of emancipation, gave his approval and cooper- 
 ation to these efforts towards colonization. Vari- 
 ous places were considered, — St. Domingo, the 
 West, the Spanish possessions in South America, 
 and Sierra Leone. These proceedings, which 
 were several times repeated, and were in secret 
 session, amounted to nothing until in 181 6, when 
 Charles F. Mercer introduced a resolution into 
 
 196 
 
"THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 the Virginia legislature, requesting the governor 
 to correspond with the President for the purpose 
 of obtaining some suitable asylum for the free 
 negroes " on the coast of Africa." Of this reso- 
 lution Rev. Dr. Robert Finley heard, and believed 
 the time ripe for his long cherished plan of 
 African colonization. With the aid of influen- 
 tial friends he called a meeting to consider such 
 plans in Washington, December 21, 1816. Henry 
 Clay presided at that meeting, and Francis S. 
 Key (author of "The Star Spangled Banner") 
 was chairman of the committee on constitution. 
 A few days later, January I, 18 17, a constitu- 
 tion was adopted, of which the following are the 
 opening paragraphs : "This Society shall be called 
 ' The American Society for colonizing the free 
 people of color in the United States.' The object 
 to which its attention is to be exclusively directed 
 is to promote and execute a plan for colonizing 
 (with their consent) the free people of color 
 residing in our country, in Africa, or such other 
 places as Congress shall deem most expedient." 
 
 Mills had left home in October, still working 
 at various plans, but, as he says, " with mind 
 ready to embrace any benevolent object which 
 should present and which should demand my 
 attention." When he reached New York he 
 heard of the plans on foot in Washington look- 
 
 197 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 ing toward the formation of a colonization so- 
 ciety. He felt that here was his opportunity, 
 and made hurried preparations to go to Wash- 
 ington. He traveled rapidly by way of Phila- 
 delphia and Baltimore, spreading the news along 
 his trail. When he reached the capital he called 
 on Elias B. Caldwell. " He informed me," Mills 
 wrote to his father, " that there would be a 
 prayer-meeting at his house that evening for the 
 special purpose of seeking divine blessing on a 
 meeting which was to be held on the evening 
 of the succeeding day, to consider the expediency 
 of forming a colonization society. He likewise 
 made me acquainted with the plan proposed, 
 which marked out the west coast of Africa as 
 the place for the colony. You will readily con- 
 ceive that my first impression was favorable, 
 from the circumstance that a prayer-meeting 
 preceded the discussion. I attended the several 
 meetings and gave all the, aid I could." 
 
 Of the fifty original signers of the constitu- 
 tion of the society, Samuel J. Mills stands twenty- 
 third on the list. The first president was Judge 
 Bushrod Washington, nephew of George Wash- 
 ington; Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson were 
 among the vice-presidents. A memorial was pre- 
 sented to Congress, and a joint resolution upon 
 the subject was submitted to the Committee of the 
 
 198 
 
"THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 Whole, February n, 1817, but failed of passage 
 at that session. Congress had, in the meantime, 
 in 1807, passed an act prohibiting and punishing 
 the importation of slaves, but they were under 
 the laws and at the disposal of the several states 
 when captured by United States war vessels, until 
 an act of Congress, in 1819, kept them in the 
 custody of the United States and provided for 
 their return to Africa. Here was the Coloniza- 
 tion Society's opportunity. 
 
 To bring the society and its work to the 
 attention of prominent men in Congress and 
 elsewhere, Mills proposed the publication of a 
 pamphlet containing the constitution, the memo- 
 rial to Congress, and other salient facts. The 
 managers fell in with this proposal, and to Mills 
 was assigned the work of assembling the facts 
 and drawing up the appeal. A little later (March, 
 1817), he addressed a letter to the president of 
 the society, volunteering for the difficult and 
 dangerous duty of visiting Africa as their agent 
 and finding a suitable site on the West Coast for 
 the proposed colony. At that time the society 
 had no funds for such a purpose, so he was 
 engaged for some time in organizing auxiliary 
 societies in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New 
 York. Finally money was borrowed to pay the 
 expenses of the expedition, and the loan was 
 
 199 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 paid by funds raised by General Mercer and 
 Rev. (afterwards Bishop) William Meade. 
 
 With what feelings he entered upon the work 
 may be gathered from a letter telling his 
 father of the commission entrusted to him by 
 the society : — 
 
 I never engaged in an object before, which laid me 
 under so vast a responsibility. I have entered upon 
 it with no ordinary degree of trembling, though I have 
 generally been satisfied with respect to what is my 
 duty. The object is, I think, a noble one ; and we have 
 reason to hope it will be approved by God. On his 
 approbation it must rely for success. 
 
 You will perceive, dear Sir, how much I need the 
 prayers of pious friends, and of the Church. I hope 
 you will live many years to pray for your affectionate 
 son, and for Zion. And may we and those we love, 
 love Zion and Zion's King ; and then we shall be sure 
 to meet again, if not in this world, in a better. 
 
 Mills chose his own companion, Ebenezer 
 Burgess, Professor of Mathematics and Natural 
 Philosophy in the University of Vermont. In 
 his letter to Burgess inviting him to share this 
 service he said : — 
 
 My brother, can we engage in a nobler effort ? We 
 go to make freemen of slaves. We go to lay the 
 foundations of a free and independent empire on the 
 coast of poor degraded Africa. It is confidently 
 
 200 
 
"THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 believed by many of our best and wisest men, that, if 
 it succeeds, it will ultimately be the means of extermi- 
 nating slavery in our country. It will eventually re- 
 deem and emancipate a million and a half of wretched 
 men. It will transfer to Africa the blessing of reli- 
 gion and civilization, and Ethiopia will stretch out her 
 hands unto God. My dear brother, your attention has, 
 in the course of divine Providence, been called to con- 
 sider the debased and degraded state of the descend- 
 ants of Africa. You have already made some exertions 
 in their behalf. Is not God calling upon you to do 
 still more? 
 
 Such an appeal proved irresistible, and a 
 month later, August 21, Burgess accepted the 
 invitation, and proved a reliable and companion- 
 able comrade. Mills was busy all the time ac- 
 cumulating information which should help him. 
 He wrote to Paul Cuffee, who had been invited 
 by some of the Sierra Leone people to plant a 
 colony at Sherbro, and was assured by him that 
 one-half the colored people around Boston would 
 embrace the first opportunity to go out to Africa. 
 In Philadelphia and Baltimore he found the 
 negroes greatly pleased at the measures taken 
 for their relief. 
 
 It was expected that the two would sail for 
 England with the new minister to Great Britain 
 in a seventy-four gun vessel, "The Franklin," 
 
 201 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 but they sailed eventually from Philadelphia in 
 the ship " Electra," a merchant vessel, Novem- 
 ber 1 6, and as they were about to embark Mills 
 said to one of his friends, " This is the most 
 important enterprise in which I have ever been 
 engaged." Was it with some premonition that 
 he would never return that he wrote his father 
 on the eve of his departure : — 
 
 Our prospects are at present fair, but we know not 
 what a day may bring forth. God moves in a mys- 
 terious way in bringing about his great and glorious 
 designs. He sometimes puts our faith to a severe 
 test. When his Church is about to make. some great 
 effort for the promotion of his glory, he not infre- 
 quently removes some of the most prominent and ap- 
 parently most important aids, lest vain man should 
 glory in himself and not in the Lord. I hope we shall 
 always be prepared to say, the will of the Lord be 
 done. I have been much with strangers, but the Lord 
 has always provided and raised up friends for me, 
 and I doubt not he will continue to do so. My com- 
 panion and myself engage in this mission in perfect 
 cheerfulness. I hope we feel that unless the Lord is 
 with us all is in vain. If the colonization plan be of 
 God, sooner or later it will prosper; if not approved 
 by him, let it fail. 
 
 Whatever we may think . now, looking back- 
 ward, as to the righteousness or expediency of 
 
 202 
 
"THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 the colonization of the black race, we must ad- 
 mire the splendid spirit with which Mills started 
 out to blaze the trail for an enterprise which has 
 enlisted the support and approval of many of 
 the ablest statesmen from Jefferson to Lincoln. 
 Harriet Beecher Stowe calls Liberia " the refuge 
 which the providence of God has provided in 
 Africa," and she sends one of her ablest char- 
 acters, George Harris, in " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 
 there. And one of the most forceful presenta- 
 tions of the cause of African colonization is the 
 letter of Harris setting forth his reasons for 
 going. Daniel Webster said : " It would seem 
 that this [colonization] is the mode — as far as 
 we can judge — that this is the destiny, the rule 
 of things, established by Providence, by which 
 knowledge, letters, and Christianity shall be re- 
 turned by the descendants of these poor igno- 
 rant barbarians, who were brought here as slaves 
 to the country from which they came." 
 
 The voyage across the Atlantic was unusu- 
 ally prosperous until they reached the English 
 Channel. Sunday night, December 6, a severe 
 gale struck the vessel, and it seemed for a 
 time that she would go down with all on board. 
 The captain ordered the masts cut away and 
 the decks cleared. All at once they heard the 
 breakers. They saw the foam dashing desper- 
 
 203 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 ately against a ragged ledge of rocks, and 
 towards that ledge the ship was inevitably drift- 
 ing. The captain said, " We are gone for this 
 world." A boat was launched, quickly over- 
 turned and lost, with two of the captain's sons. 
 Death seemed the inevitable destiny of crew and 
 passengers alike. Burgess and Mills were calm 
 and composed. Around them the others crowded 
 as they knelt on the deck and prayed partly to 
 the souls around them and partly to the God 
 above. Presently a strong current carried their 
 ship by the reef into deeper water, and as they 
 passed into safety all exclaimed, " It is the work 
 of God ! " The storm abated, and two days later 
 the ship made the harbor of St. Malo, France, 
 in pitiable condition, — masts, sails, shrouds, and 
 anchors all gone. 
 
 Mills felt that his life, which had been saved 
 in such a signal manner, should be consecrated 
 anew to God's, service. Writing his father of 
 the storm he said : — 
 
 The scene is so deeply settled in my soul as not to 
 be eradicated while I live. . . . 
 
 " He moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform — 
 He plants his footsteps on the sea, and rides upon the storm." 
 
 Ah, yes ; " he rides upon the storm," — he follows with 
 his unerring eye, and sustains with his almighty hand 
 
 204 
 
"THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 the weary and the tempest-tossed. Verily, if the Lord 
 had not been on our side, the proud waves had gone 
 over our souls. O that men would praise the Lord 
 for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the chil- 
 dren of men! Ye that go down to the sea in ships, 
 that do business in great waters, praise ye the Lord. 
 O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness! 
 In whatever condition we may be ; whether on the land 
 or on the sea — whether among friends or strangers ; 
 every moment we experience his preserving care and 
 kindness ; — but when he brings us up from among 
 the dead — from the bowels of the ocean, and per- 
 mits us to labor yet a little longer in promoting the 
 precious kingdom of his dear Son ; — how great, how 
 immense are our obligations to live to him alone! 
 
 After a week's delay the travelers reached 
 London, where they were received with great 
 cordiality and hearty sympathy. The secretaries 
 of the Church Missionary Society had been pre- 
 viously informed of their coming and their ob- 
 ject, and rendered all assistance in their power. 
 They met and consulted with a former governor 
 of Sierra Leone and many other philanthropists. 
 From none did they receive a more unstinted 
 welcome than from William Wilberforce, who 
 did more for the negroes than any other white 
 man, Abraham Lincoln alone excepted. He took 
 these young men under his special guidance, in- 
 
 205 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 troducing them to officials of the various socie- 
 ties and of the government. One day they were 
 at the monthly meeting of the Committee of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, and Mills 
 modestly told the story of how he had risked 
 his life to carry the Bible across the river to the 
 British soldiers in the hospitals at New Orleans, 
 and how carefully those soldiers had wrapped up 
 the Bibles and carried them away. Then the 
 great-hearted Wilberf orce rose and said : " While 
 we have been sitting on cushioned seats talking 
 about the distribution of the Bibles, others have 
 been bearing the burden and heat of the day." 
 
 Through the kindness of Wilberforce they met 
 Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State for the colo- 
 nies, who gave them letters to the governor and 
 other officers in Sierra Leone. They also had 
 an audience with the Duke of Gloucester, the 
 patron of the African Institution, who showed 
 great interest in this new American society and 
 the mission of Mills and Burgess. In fact, every 
 one thought well of their project and seemed 
 anxious to assist them. As Dr. Spring says: 
 " No narrow views, no political prejudices, no 
 supreme regard to national or personal aggran- 
 dizement, prevented the friends of humanity in 
 England from listening to the nature of the 
 embassy, interposing their influence in favor of 
 
 206 
 
"THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 this benevolent object and affording the agents 
 every facility and all reasonable assistance in the 
 prosecution of their purpose." 
 
 The young men were anxious to proceed, and 
 they left the shores of England in the good ship 
 " Mary," February 2, 1818, and came to anchor 
 in the river Gambia, March 13. During the voy- 
 age the missionaries were reading all the books 
 on Africa at their command, and studying the 
 people, the climate, the soil, and the products. 
 
 Mills sent an account of the voyage to his 
 sister in. the last letter he ever wrote. In this 
 letter he reveals, as nowhere else, just what he 
 hopes from the expedition and the work of the 
 Colonization Society. He says that he does not 
 expect that any considerable portion of the mil- 
 lion and a half negroes will be particularly bene- 
 fited at the present time, " But I consider a 
 movement," he says, " or even the disposition to 
 agitate the subject, as a ray of light breaking 
 through a dark cloud, and as the precursor of 
 another and another. I felt it my duty, there- 
 fore, to give the design all the aid I could." 
 The sending of agents to Africa would keep the 
 subject alive in the public mind at least. If no 
 asylum was found for the blacks abroad, the 
 agitation might help their condition at home. 
 " If by pursuing the object now in view a few 
 
 207 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 free blacks of good character could be settled 
 in any part of the African coast, they might be 
 the means of introducing civilization and reli- 
 gion among the barbarous nations already there. 
 Their settlement might increase gradually, and 
 some might in suitable time go out from the 
 settlement and form others and prove the occa- 
 sion of great good." 
 
 So much for the object of this journey. As 
 to himself, he felt that he could trust himself in 
 God's hands when he was doing God's work. 
 The two ought to have been in Africa several 
 months sooner, and they realized that they were 
 risking their lives in the unhealthy climate. 
 " But," wrote Mills, " we have used our best 
 efforts, both before and since our leaving the 
 United States, to arrive on the coast at the earliest 
 period possible. Whether I am to live or to die 
 while engaged in this mission, God only knows : 
 but one thing we know, and in this we will re- 
 joice, Ethiopia shall soon stretch forth her hands 
 unto God. The time will come, when the bar- 
 barous tribes of Africa shall worship Jesus as 
 King in Zion. The time will come, when her 
 children, now under oppression and in bondage, 
 shall become the freemen of the Lord. — And 
 should I die in Africa, and not again visit the 
 land of my nativity, still it would be great con- 
 
 208 
 
"THE POOR AFRICAN" 
 
 solation to my dear friends, might they hope, as 
 did Mr. Newell, in another case, ' that my bones 
 had taken possession of the promised land, and 
 would rest in the glorious hope of the final and 
 universal triumph of Jesus over the god of this 
 world.'" 
 
 With this spirit Samuel J. Mills paid part of 
 the " price of Africa." 
 
 14 
 
 209 
 
XI 
 
 THE DARK CONTINENT 
 " Greater Love Hath No Man " 
 
When the news of his son's death was received, two brother 
 ministers went to Torringford on a visit of condolence to Father 
 Mills. Scarcely had they begun their expressions of sympathy 
 before the old man cut them short, exclaiming, " Oh, my mercies I 
 Oh, my mercies I to have such a son to be a missionary." 
 
 A. C. Thompson. 
 
 It also belongs to us to mention respectfully Rev. Samuel J. 
 Mills, who died last year in the employment of the Colonization 
 Society. His constitution, early impaired, sunk at length under 
 the pressure of benevolent, persevering, indefatigable exertion. 
 He found a grave in the ocean, leaving his worthy and reverend 
 father and a bereaved community to mourn his loss. We knew 
 not his worth till he left us. He stole silently through this world 
 and kept himself unseen while he waked the energies of others, 
 condensed the views of the community, and concentrated the exer- 
 tions of pious charity till, early ripe for heaven, he rested from 
 his labors and his works do follow him. 
 
 General Association of Connecticut, 1819. 
 
XI 
 THE DARK CONTINENT 
 
 " A T 4 p.m. we exulted at the sight of Africa " 
 /-A is the entry in Mills' journal dated 
 March 12, 181 8. Who can imagine 
 the feelings summed up in those few words! 
 The dream of his life had become real, and 
 his eyes beheld the Dark Continent. On the 
 morrow his feet first touched African soil at 
 St. Mary's, on the Gambia River. Three days 
 later, leaving the " Mary " to unload, they has- 
 tened on to Sierra Leone in the brig " Suc- 
 cess." On the heights of Leicester Mountain 
 the church breaks into full view, and brings to 
 them this message : " The altars on these moun- 
 tains, which the natives had dedicated to devils, 
 are falling before the temples of the living God, 
 like the image of Dagon before the Ark. The 
 time is coming when the dwellers in these vales 
 and on these mountains will sing hosannas to the 
 Son of David. Distant tribes will learn their 
 song. ' Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hand 
 unto God and worship.' " 
 
 213 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 On landing they found Governor McCarthy 
 absent, but delivered their letters from Lord 
 Bathurst to the commandant, Fitzgerald, who 
 assured them that it would be a pleasure to 
 take them to the different settlements, show 
 them the schools, and do everything in his power 
 to assist them. 
 
 Sierra Leone was England's experiment of 
 the colonization of the negro in Africa. In 1787 
 the first settlement had been made, and four years 
 later the negroes were brought here from Nova 
 Scotia, and in 1805 the Maroons from Jamaica. 
 After 1807, when the slave-trade was abolished, 
 those liberated from captured slave-ships were 
 brought here. From all these sources the popu- 
 lation at this time was about twelve thousand 
 colored people and fifty Europeans. In 1808 
 the colony was transferred from the Sierra 
 Leone Company to the British government. 
 Schools and churches had been planted, five 
 towns had grown up, trade was established, 
 and agriculture had been begun. Here, as 
 nowhere else, could conditions instead of the- 
 ories of colonization be studied. Mills and 
 Burgess found one-sixth of the entire popu- 
 lation in schools, and these schools would in 
 their judgment do no dishonor to an American 
 or English village. The Sabbath was observed 
 
 214 
 
THE DARK CONTINENT 
 
 by all except some Europeans and Kroomen. 
 Hundreds of acres had been cleared, and the 
 " wilderness buds and blossoms like the rose." 
 They were altogether encouraged by what had 
 been accomplished. 
 
 The leading men in Sierra Leone thought 
 favorably of an American colony, but they 
 were not altogether sure that it would be well 
 to locate near the English colony — it might 
 interfere with their trade. The missionaries 
 talked the matter over with the principal mem- 
 bers of the Friendly Society formed by the 
 colonists at the suggestion of Paul Cuffee. 
 Their advice was not to try to get possession 
 of too large a piece of land at once, lest the 
 natives become suspicious. They said also that 
 some of the kings were suspicious lest those 
 whom they had sold to slave-traders might re- 
 turn and revenge themselves. A week later, 
 March 30, Mills and Burgess started down the 
 coast in a fifteen-ton schooner and a native 
 crew, to spy out the land. Kizell and Martin 
 of the Friendly Society went with them as in- 
 terpreters and advisers. 
 
 They sailed south along the coast. The first 
 stop was the Banana Islands, where they called 
 on the head man, Thomas Caulker, who had in- 
 fluence with the kings in Sherbro. When they 
 
 215 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 explained to him the object of their visit, he 
 approved of it heartily, saying that their plans 
 were like those of Paul Cuffee, whom he had 
 known. He thought it would be a good thing 
 for the country to place a colony at Sherbro. 
 He said a settlement might be formed on the 
 Camaranca River, which he claimed, but Sierra 
 Leone claimed the north bank, and it might 
 therefore lead to complications. Consequently, 
 he advised a colony further south. He enter- 
 tained the Americans royally, and sent with 
 them his son and nephew to further their object 
 at Sherbro. 
 
 At the Plantains they found another nephew 
 of Caulker's, who had been educated in Eng- 
 land. He was intelligent and sympathetic, yet 
 rather suspicious of the encroachments of Sierra 
 Leone, now become powerful, and extending her 
 boundaries. He said there would be less objec- 
 tion to an American colony if the negroes should 
 govern themselves. The natives were afraid the 
 white men would take their country from them, 
 but they could trust their colored brethren. Mills 
 assured him that if white men were appointed 
 as governors it would only be to give stability 
 and security, and to fit the blacks for self-gov- 
 ernment. This reassured Caulker, and he prom- 
 ised cooperation. 
 
 216 
 
THE DARK CONTINENT 
 
 Sherbro they found to be an island twenty- 
 two miles long by twelve broad. The land, 
 which is flat and sandy, lies above the sea 
 twenty feet, and is covered with a luxuriant 
 growth of vegetation. Only one acre in fifty 
 they found under cultivation. Here began dif- 
 ficult work with the African chiefs, who had 
 been contaminated by contact with the slave- 
 trade. At Bendon they held a palaver with 
 Kings Somano and Safah, the latter dressed in 
 a superb three-cornered hat, a silver-laced coat, 
 a mantle which reached the ground, blue bafta 
 trousers, the worse for wear, but barefooted. 
 As a preliminary to the palaver, their present 
 to the chiefs was brought in, — a piece of bafta, 
 a keg of powder, a few jars of tobacco, and a 
 small jar of rum. Mills says apologetically: 
 " The last article Mr. K. was requested to ob- 
 tain for us, as we were told that they would in 
 no case hold a palaver without it; and we have 
 reason to believe our information to be correct. 
 These people are only children of a large growth, 
 and we hope, by temporary conformity, gradu- 
 ally to wean them from their vicious customs." 
 But there were two kings, and they insisted on 
 two bottles; not till they were forthcoming did 
 the palaver go on. Kizell was chief spokesman 
 and told them that the white men were from 
 
 217 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 Washington, the capital of the United States in 
 America; that there wise and good men had 
 agreed to help the black people who wished to 
 come to their own country, and that if they 
 would sell or give tracts of their unimproved 
 land, the black people who settled them would 
 develop the land by the best industrial and agri- 
 cultural methods, and would open up trade with 
 them. This and much more was said on both 
 sides, the white men being greatly helped by 
 Kizell in handling the crafty natives. When 
 the chiefs returned the visit aboard ship they 
 complained that the missionaries did not provide 
 the materials for an uproarious drunk as the 
 traders did. Here was a practical demonstra- 
 tion of what so-called civilization was doing 
 without Christianity. But this was only the 
 beginning of palavering. King Sherbro, the 
 head man of the island, and his son Couber, 
 must be seen, and a conference arranged. There 
 was the same grotesque mingling of cheap 
 European splendor and African barbarity, the 
 inevitable presents, and the almost endless talk- 
 ing around the subject for hours without the 
 African coming to the point. The king felt 
 affronted because he had not been visited first. 
 A tedious wait ensued while the other chiefs, 
 Safah and Somano, were summoned. Through 
 
 218 
 
THE DARK CONTINENT 
 
 it all the white men showed consummate tact 
 and tireless patience. In spite of the fact that 
 he came as simply the agent of the Colonization 
 Society, the missionary spirit in Mills would 
 assert itself. On Sunday he went to the king's 
 thatched cottage and told him it was the day 
 on which in Christian countries God's book was 
 read before the people. The king answered that 
 all the people would be glad to hear God's book ; 
 it was the best book. Then Mills began to tell 
 the way of salvation by Jesus Christ. He told 
 of the precious comfort which came from the 
 love of God and obedience to his commands. He 
 pictured, too, the future judgment, when all must 
 appear before God and give an account of the 
 deeds done in the body; and then told of the 
 promise of the resurrection. He urged the king 
 to leave off worshiping the devils and worship 
 the one true God. While he sketched the 
 blessings of Christianity as seen in Europe and 
 America, he cautioned him that not all who came 
 from those countries were good men. The young 
 preacher glowed as he preached the good tidings 
 to the stolid African, who listened with fixed 
 countenance and serious attention. Mills did not 
 fail to show the advantages that the proposed 
 colony would bring forth both as to church and 
 schools, and this had much weight. 
 
 219 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 In the meantime they heard that seven or 
 eight vessels were fifty miles down the coast 
 waiting for cargoes of slaves, one of them flying 
 the stars and stripes and mounting twenty guns, 
 owned by an American citizen. The forces of 
 evil were not to yield Africa to the forces of 
 righteousness without a struggle. 
 
 More presents and more waiting led Mills to 
 write in his journal : " Patience may almost have 
 her perfect work on the dispositions and hearts 
 of those who wait on men so slothful in business 
 and so eager to receive the tributes of strangers." 
 But even palavers with African chieftains come 
 to an end at last, and a partial promise of land 
 was made, provided the assent of the different 
 head men was secured. 
 
 The travelers met with a better reception when 
 they crossed Over to the mainland. They ex- 
 plored the Boom, Deong, Bagroo, and Banga 
 rivers, and along all these rivers they had land 
 offered them. The Bagroo country seemed the 
 most attractive for the beginning of the colony. 
 There was much unoccupied land, which could 
 be cleared for six dollars an acre; there was 
 good water, and broken, rolling country. The 
 climate seemed as temperate and healthy as any 
 part of the coast near the equator. Wars, the 
 slav$-trade, and trial for witchcraft, had de- 
 
 220 
 
THE DARK CONTINENT 
 
 creased the population. They passed places with 
 hardly a hut standing, where formerly there 
 were large towns. Here, indeed, seemed a provi- 
 dential opening for a colony. The land seemed 
 suited to rice, cassada, sweet potatoes, and In- 
 dian corn. All sorts of tropical fruits grew in 
 abundance. In truth, " every prospect pleases, 
 and only man is vile." 
 
 They studied the religion of the natives, and 
 found that they believed in a supreme God, great 
 and good, but indifferent to man's needs. The 
 chief business of their religion was to secure the 
 favor and avert the displeasure of certain in- 
 ferior malevolent spirits, who brought all sorts 
 of disasters upon them. They had great confi- 
 dence in amulets and charms, and strewed fruits 
 about their villages, and put mats in the paths 
 to propitiate these spirits. They had sacred 
 trees and places, and sometimes prayed on the 
 graves of their ancestors. They were greatly 
 surprised at the devotions of Mills and Burgess, 
 and one said he never knew before that white 
 men prayed. 
 
 For five weeks these two men kept hard at 
 work, exploring, gathering all sorts of informa- 
 tion, and palavering with tricky natives. All 
 this had to be done under a tropical sun and 
 with few advantages of travel. It was little 
 
 221 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 wonder, then, that Burgess came down with 
 fever. Mills was anxious to return to Sierra 
 Leone at once, that he might receive proper 
 medical attention, but Burgess insisted he could 
 recover where he was, and they must finish 
 their work. They reached Sierra Leone May 7, 
 and found lodgings with a Wesleyan Methodist 
 missionary. Two weeks more were consumed 
 in a further study of the colonization problem 
 as it was being solved there. Mills sums up the 
 results of his interviews with Governor McCarthy 
 as to an American colony as follows : — 
 
 That a private society can hardly be expected to 
 have adequate funds to found and support a colony 
 without the aid of the government; that, in the first 
 instance, white men of intelligence and good character 
 should occupy some of the principal offices; that the 
 government should be mild and energetic; that forts 
 would be necessary ; that one hundred men, with arms, 
 and some knowledge of discipline, could defend them- 
 selves from the natives; that the occasional visits of 
 an armed vessel, engaged in detecting slave-traders, 
 would give entire security; that the neutrality of the 
 colony could be easily ensured by an application to 
 the European governments; that the first colonists 
 should be men of sober and industrious habits, who will 
 devote themselves to agriculture or to some of the use- 
 ful mechanic arts; that one year's provisions, or the 
 
 222 
 
THE DARK CONTINENT 
 
 means of purchasing them, would be necessary to the 
 colonists; that, if expedient, the limits of this colony 
 [Sierra Leone] might be enlarged to accommodate 
 five or ten thousand emigrants from America; that 
 it was particularly proper for the American govern- 
 ment to commission an armed ship to this coast, to 
 capture slave-trading vessels, as two-thirds of them are, 
 or have been, American ; that the free people of color 
 would be better situated in Africa than they are, or 
 can soon expect to be, in America. I am every day 
 more convinced of the practicability and expediency 
 of establishing American colonies on this coast. 
 
 The last entry in the journal reads as 
 follows : — 
 
 Brig Success, Friday, 22d May, 1818. 
 We have taken an affectionate leave of the clergy- 
 men, the civil officers, and the colonists, of Sierra 
 Leone. We are embarked for the United States, by 
 way of England, and the continent of Africa recedes 
 from our view. 
 
 This is not the place nor is it the province of 
 the writer to trace the subsequent history of the 
 Colonization Society. The report of Mills and 
 Burgess established the fact that suitable ter- 
 ritory might be procured and a colony planted. 
 The first colony was landed at Sherbro, April, 
 1822, and twenty-five years later, in July, 1847, 
 Liberia became an independent nation, with a 
 
 223 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 government patterned after that of the United 
 States. Liberia has not been unmindful of the 
 debt she owes to these pioneers, but as a tribute 
 to their memory has united their names in the 
 name of one of the principal cities, — Millsburg. 
 
 It was a beautiful evening when the sun and 
 the African shores faded together from the sight 
 of the young men standing on the quarter deck of 
 the brig " Success." The dangers and the ardu- 
 ous labor of their expedition were over, and now, 
 as they congratulated each other, their thoughts 
 turned homeward. There seemed fair prospect 
 that they should soon see the faces of their loved 
 ones once more. With the setting of the sun 
 they talked of these things and thanked God. 
 
 They had a good, roomy ship, and ample stores 
 of fresh provisions. The sea air was delightfully 
 refreshing after the fever-laden air of the West 
 Coast rivers, and soon they were getting into 
 the latitudes more bracing. About two weeks 
 after they sailed Mills began to show symptoms 
 of fever, and took some simple medicines, but 
 the relief was only temporary. There was a 
 deep-seated trouble. Before he left home he 
 bore evidences of consumption, and had a most 
 distressing cough, which was greatly aggravated 
 by the moist climate of England. On the ocean, 
 
 224 
 
MILLS MONUMENT AT TORRINGFORD 
 
THE DARK CONTINENT 
 
 and in Africa, he seemed to be relieved, and 
 accomplished an immense amount of work. The 
 disease worked rapidly at the last, and it soon 
 became evident to his fellow passengers that his 
 end was near. A most distressing and long- 
 continued hiccough added to his suffering. He 
 was very appreciative of the tender nursing and 
 ministrations of his comrade. He faced death as 
 he had faced life, — with a splendid trust in God. 
 Monday afternoon, June 15, 1818, without a 
 groan or murmur, he gently closed his hands 
 on his breast as if in prayer, his face calm and 
 peaceful, and entered into rest. That night, at 
 sunset, his body was committed to the ocean, 
 whose waves have borne his influence to the 
 " remotest corner of this ruined world." Thirty- 
 five years he had lived, and now at an age when 
 most men are beginning their careers, his short 
 life was closed. Thirty-five years, but filled to 
 the brim with usefulness then, and with a mighty 
 influence for good for all time and in every quar- 
 ter of the world. 
 
 "We live in deeds, not years ; in thoughts, not breaths; 
 
 In feelings, not in figures on a dial. 
 We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives 
 
 Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. 
 Life is but a means to an end — that end 
 
 Beginning, mean, and end to all things — God." 
 
 15 
 
 225 
 
XII 
 THE MAN AND HIS INFLUENCE 
 
May 1 not scorn the humble, lowly deed, 
 
 The common thing, 
 Nor hate nor harm the meanest slave, whose face 
 
 Veils thine, my King 1 
 T would be soul-poised, great in gentleness, 
 
 Gentle in power, 
 Rich in self-giving, pouring life and love 
 
 Into each hour. 
 Teach me to be a steward of all things, 
 
 Owner of none ; 
 Glad to give up my will, since thine, my God, 
 
 Shall still be done. 
 
 Henry Hallam Tweedy. 
 
 Give thanks for heroes that have stirred 
 Earth with the wonder of a word. 
 But all thanksgiving for the breed 
 Who have bent destiny with deed — 
 Souls of the high, heroic birth, 
 Souls sent to poise the shaken Earth, 
 And then called back to God again 
 To make Heaven possible for men. 
 
 Edwin Markham. 
 
XII 
 
 THE MAN AND HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 THERE are two ways in which a man may- 
 influence the world, — by what he is and 
 by what he does; by his character and 
 by his career. Some men, of whom David 
 Brainerd is a good example, owe their power 
 to the influence of their characters on other 
 lives. David Brainerd accomplished little him- 
 self; he set in motion no great movement, but 
 his brief life has been ever since a mighty in- 
 centive to sacrifice and service. Other men have 
 achieved much by the forces they have set in 
 motion, the reforms they have organized, and 
 have had comparatively little personal influence. 
 Some few men have exerted a decided influence 
 by both character and career. Such a man was 
 Samuel J. Mills. 
 
 This story of his short life, ever full to the 
 brim with work, has utterly failed if the reader 
 has not been impressed by what Mills did, both 
 for his own time and for all time, in the twelve 
 
 229 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 years reaching from the haystack to that grave 
 in the North Atlantic. Beneath the title of his 
 paper, The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison 
 emblazoned these words : " Our country is the 
 world, our countrymen are all mankind." These 
 words might have been taken as the motto of 
 Mills' life. Like John Wesley, he called the 
 whole world his parish; his sympathy was as 
 broad as humanity, and as deep as man's need; 
 to all classes and conditions of men he minis- 
 tered. On his western journey he investigated 
 thoroughly the lot of the red man, and begged 
 the missionary societies to send the Bible, the 
 schoolhouse, and the church to counteract the 
 effect of bad whisky and worse white men upon 
 " these rude sons of nature." As he saw the con- 
 dition of the slaves, his heart ached for " his 
 poor African brethren," and he literally laid 
 down his life in opening what he hoped might 
 be the door of opportunity to the black man. 
 He sympathized with the pioneer who made his 
 home the advance-guard of civilization in the 
 new country, and plead as a patriot with men 
 and missionary societies to seize the opportunity 
 and make all this vast expanse of country Chris- 
 tian. He heard the Macedonian cry from Asia 
 and Africa, and the islands of the sea. He plead 
 with God for the perishing multitude; he cried 
 
THE MAN AND HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 to his fellow men, " Let us go over and help 
 them! " " We can do it if we will." 
 
 With all the courage and absolute self-forget- 
 fulness of a Xavier, no peril daunted him if he 
 might preach Christ. Though he had the do- 
 mestic instinct, and looked at home and family 
 as the "one happiness that had survived the 
 fall," he could stoutly abjure the " vision of fair 
 women " with all the austerity of a Loyola, if 
 thereby he could be a better missionary of the 
 cross. Like Robert Louis Stevenson, he could 
 fight the losing battle continually against ill 
 health. With a weak stomach he could endure 
 the coarse, rough fare of the frontier, and could 
 start for fever-laden Africa with " a cough 
 and a stricture on his lungs." He might fall, 
 but he would never falter. Like the Old Guard 
 at Waterloo, he never surrendered; he died. 
 To-day St. Louis and New Orleans feel the re- 
 sult of his home missionary statesmanship. If 
 the orchards of the Mississippi and the Ohio 
 valleys groan under the weight of their fruit 
 because early in the nineteenth century Johnny 
 Appleseed scattered the seed of apple, pear, 
 cherry, plum, and peach throughout that region, 
 those same valleys owe much of their rich har- 
 vest of schools and churches, morals and reli- 
 gion, to the man who sowed " the seed which is 
 
 231 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 the word of God." Wheresoever those ocean 
 waves reach that are moaning out a ceaseless 
 requiem for him who lies buried beneath their 
 surface, there has his influence been felt, even 
 to the " remotest corner of this ruined world." 
 But the man was greater than anything he did; 
 the character was grander than the career ; what 
 he was speaks even louder than what he did. 
 
 No picture or adequate description of his 
 personal appearance has been preserved. He 
 was not impressive in his bodily presence. 
 He was slow in conversation, serious in aspect, 
 and sallow in complexion. His modesty, and the 
 disease which made inroads upon his vitality, did 
 not give to his face the intense energy and in- 
 domitable will which lay concealed in his frail 
 body. " While his figure was manly, his apparel 
 studiously neat, and his manners rather graceful, 
 his voice was not clear, nor his eye brilliant, nor 
 his language fluent." He had not great ability 
 as a scholar either in mathematics or classics; 
 he was neither eloquent as a speaker nor power- 
 ful as a writer. Not aided by his appearance or 
 accomplishments, wherein lay the secret of his 
 power ? 
 
 In the first place, he was a man of God. God 
 was intensely real to him. He did not simply 
 " practise the presence of God " ; in him he lived 
 
 232 
 
THE MAN AND HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 and moved and had his being. It was this that 
 gave him the sublime faith that from the hay- 
 stack onward swept away all objections and ob- 
 stacles to foreign missions. When a church was 
 hesitating about letting a well-beloved pastor 
 go, thinking they could not get along without 
 him, Mills wrote to a friend : " It would seem as 
 though his parishioners were afraid to trust 
 themselves with the Almighty. I think when a 
 people depend so much upon one arm of flesh, 
 it is high time it was broken off." The man 
 that wrote these words never hesitated to trust 
 himself with the Almighty. 
 
 Like every true man of God, he was a man 
 of prayer. His plans were all prayed out. Upon 
 his knees he fought out the battles of his life. 
 To his Father he went with all his doubts and 
 difficulties. It was his custom to go alone or 
 with a comrade for long walks in the woods 
 round about Williams and Andover, to pray and 
 meditate. Much of the time in the student meet- 
 ings was taken with prayer. Contrary to the 
 usual custom, these prayers were short. But 
 they were deeply reverent and filled with im- 
 passioned utterance. He was never selfish in his 
 prayer ; he seldom prayed aloud for himself, but 
 ardently for others. One peculiar form he often 
 used was, "We praise thee that we belong to 
 
 233 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 a race of beings who were made by Jesus Christ, 
 and who have been redeemed by his blood." 
 
 Not only did he have his usual devotional 
 periods every day, but when some special burden 
 rested on him, or when some new plan was work- 
 ing out, or when the way was dark, he would 
 also set apart a day of fasting and prayer, and 
 wrestle with the Almighty, until he. felt the as- 
 surance that his prayer was heard. While he 
 was waiting at Sierra Leone for a vessel in 
 which to leave Africa, he made his home with 
 Rev. Samuel Brown, a Methodist missionary. 
 Both Burgess and Brown were delighted when 
 it came Mills' turn to lead the devotional ser- 
 vices. When he prayed God seemed peculiarly 
 near, and he not only drew strength for himself, 
 but he bore his comrades on the wings of his 
 petitions very near to the Father. In nothing 
 else did the deep spiritual life of the man show 
 itself so much as in his prayers. 
 
 If he prayed as though all depended on God, 
 he worked as though everything depended on his 
 own labors. He not only expected great things 
 from God, he attempted great things for God. 
 His life story is a record of tireless energy, 
 unbounded enthusiasm, tempered with uncom- 
 mon discretion. He had the splendid combina- 
 tion of which President Roosevelt speaks, — the 
 
 234 
 
THE MAN AND HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 striving after an ideal which makes men re- 
 formers, and striving through practical methods 
 which makes them efficient. 
 
 With all the force and energy which he dis- 
 played, he was singularly modest. He never 
 sought great things for himself. The real 
 reason for the secrecy of the Brethren was his 
 fear lest the church and people at large would 
 think it was the notion of sophomoric, presum- 
 ing, self-important students. The last thing 
 Mills was seeking was notoriety. So, too, at 
 Andover, he exemplified his characteristic fervor, 
 humility, and modesty. If Judson wished to 
 take the lead and have his way in a movement 
 which another had made possible, Mills showed 
 not a sign of jealousy. He yielded willingly his 
 personal preferences. Perhaps no single sacri- 
 fice cost him so much as the decision that 
 instead of going to the front with the first de- 
 tachment sent to India, he was to be the home 
 guard, and look after the interest of India here 
 in America. But he did it cheerfully and with- 
 out one word of complaint. Together with this 
 modesty, or a part of it, was his ability to use 
 other men's talents in the work at hand. He 
 had what has been called in McKinley the sixth 
 sense of knowing men and hiding himself. In 
 his home missionary journeys he always enlisted 
 
 235 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 the interest of the governors of the states and 
 territories, the judges of the higher courts, and 
 soldiers, like Jackson. He doubted his own lit- 
 erary ability. His first rough draft of the con- 
 stitution of the Brethren seemed to him rude and 
 undigested, and Richards and Fisk were enlisted 
 to draw up the final copy. He persuaded a tal- 
 ented friend to write articles for the periodicals, 
 urging the organization of the American Bible 
 Society. He was most successful in his appeal 
 for young men to go out into the great West 
 as missionaries. But he was equally successful 
 in enlisting such men as Dr. Spring, President 
 Griffin, Dr. Worcester, and other great leaders 
 in the Congregational and Presbyterian churches 
 in behalf of the causes which he advocated. He 
 wrote letters, he sought personal interviews, and 
 left nothing undone that he might interest these 
 men, eloquent of voice and mighty with the pen, 
 in behalf of the great needs of both home and 
 foreign lands. A characteristic story is told by 
 Rev. Dr. E. D. Griffin, with whom Mills sought 
 to study theology at Newark. Dr. Griffin says: — 
 
 I had always refused the application of young men 
 to study divinity with me, but for the love I bore 
 Mills, I agreed to criticise his sermons at stated times. 
 After the exercise he would commonly sit and draw 
 letters very moderately and cautiously out of his pocket 
 
 ?3 6 
 
THE MAN AND HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 and read passages to me on some benevolent project. 
 At length I perceived that studying divinity with me 
 had been quite a secondary object; that his chief ob- 
 ject was to get me engaged to execute his plans. As 
 soon as I discovered that, I told him to bring out his 
 letters and all his plans without reserve. 
 
 Dr. Griffin came to Williams as president in 
 the darkest days of the history of the college. 
 With him, and largely through his efforts, came 
 the dawn of a new era of activity and growth. 
 He it was who saved the college and made pos- 
 sible its future. We have it on no less authority 
 than that of Mark Hopkins, that " his [Griffin's] 
 interest in the college and his willingness to come 
 [as president] arose largely from a former ac- 
 quaintance with Samuel J. Mills and his knowl- 
 edge of the college as the birthplace of American 
 Foreign Missions." 
 
 While Mills was a man of strong convictions, 
 he was exceedingly tolerant of other men's be- 
 liefs. He seems strangely in advance of his times 
 in his efforts to unite all denominations in all 
 sorts of missionary work. He felt that churches 
 needed to emphasize more the things upon which 
 they agreed rather than those on which they 
 differed. What he aimed at was not so much 
 unity of belief as community of service. This 
 was shown in his efforts to organize the Ameri- 
 
 237 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 can Bible Society. He felt the work was too 
 great and too important for any one denomina- 
 tion, and that if all denominations united in this 
 work it would command universal sympathy and 
 support. The United Foreign Missionary So- 
 ciety was another instance of his great desire 
 to secure the cooperation of the various denomi- 
 nations upon foreign mission fields. His efforts 
 were appreciated by all branches of the Christian 
 Church. Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and 
 Episcopalians admired the man and sympathized 
 with his plans and purposes for the extension of 
 the kingdom of God, and they all, at some time 
 or other, invited him into their pulpits. He felt 
 that the salvation of the heathen was of such 
 great importance that all Christians ought to 
 subordinate their differences as to creed and 
 ritual, and unite their efforts and their prayers 
 in one mighty united movement for the redemp- 
 tion of God's world. He could not understand 
 how Christian men and Christian churches could 
 let bigotry, prejudice, and jealousy stand in the 
 way, when Christ's order was explicit, " Go ye 
 into all the world." His heart was big enough 
 not only to take in the heathen, but also all 
 Christendom. As Professor Burgess says : " He 
 silently communed with the Baptists, prayed with 
 the Methodists, loved the Moravians, and praised 
 
 238 
 
THE MAN AND HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 the Friends. He could preach to a little group 
 of slaves and commend their rude psalmody, or 
 he could suffer himself to be invested with a 
 gown, as a military chaplain, or read the church 
 prayers at a pompous funeral. When Judson 
 and Rice became Baptists he rejoiced that, like 
 the dissension between Paul and Barnabas, it 
 was the means of establishing two missions in- 
 stead of one." He was exceedingly charitable 
 not only to other men's beliefs, but also to their 
 feelings. He could almost always find a good 
 word to say of the people he had met. While 
 he could read character readily, he also had great 
 penetration, and went deep beneath the surface, 
 and saw possibilities overlooked by the casual 
 observer. While tremendously in earnest, he 
 never indulged in invectives and denunciation. 
 There was nothing destructive in his methods 
 or preaching, but rather constructive. This it 
 was that made it possible for him to be on such 
 friendly terms with the Roman Catholic clergy, 
 often securing their cooperation, as in New 
 Orleans. 
 
 The only person with whom he was severe 
 was himself. He had almost morbid ideas as 
 to his own unworthiness, and bemoaned the 
 imperfect evidences which he had in his own 
 personal experiences. Even in the latter part 
 
 2 39 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 of his life he said to an intimate friend, " I 
 many times fear that I shall yet be dashed in 
 pieces as a vessel in which the Master has no 
 pleasure." There was nothing affected about 
 his self-depreciation. To him the need was ter- 
 ribly real. So he never spared himself. Danger 
 or disease never daunted him. What was com- 
 fort, or ease, or life even, in comparison with 
 God's work or God's cause? Like Jacob Riis, 
 he never was afraid of losing God's fight. To 
 the winning of that fight he devoted his sub- 
 stance as well as himself. The farm which his 
 maternal grandfather left him was turned into 
 money, that it might, like himself, go about 
 doing good. He spent all, and was spent in 
 what he believed was God's service. In fact, 
 those who knew him best say that he is to be 
 estimated not as a student, not as a preacher, 
 not even as a missionary, but as a philanthropist 
 — a philanthropist whose humanitarianism was 
 not of the soft, sentimental kind that ignores sins, 
 but of the kind that believes in the reality of sin, 
 yet believes intensely in the God who loves the 
 sinner, and so has some of God's passionate love 
 for humanity. 
 
 Such a life must of necessity have a mighty 
 influence. Nowhere was this influence more evi- 
 dent than upon the young men who followed in 
 
 240 
 
THE MAN AND HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 his footsteps at Andover and Williams. When 
 Leonard Bacon entered Andover in 1821, he 
 found the very atmosphere fragrant with the 
 memory of the devoted life of Mills. Mills' 
 " Memoirs," just published, was read by every 
 student with intense interest, especially since, on 
 account of the antislavery agitation of that time, 
 the colonization idea was much discussed. Bacon, 
 who already gave promise of the great power that 
 he was soon to show, at his graduation in 1824 
 was chosen to deliver the valedictory address. In 
 that address he paid the following tribute to Mills, 
 which is quoted to show the influence which his 
 character and career already had on the young 
 men of that time : — 
 
 A young minister of the gospel once said to an 
 intimate friend, " My brother, you and I are little 
 men, but before we die our influence must be felt on 
 the other side of the world." Not many years after, 
 a ship returning from a distant quarter of the globe 
 paused on her passage across the deep. There stood 
 on her deck a man of God, who wept over the dead 
 body of his friend. He prayed, and the sailors wept 
 with him. And they consigned the body to the ocean. 
 It was the body of the man who, in the ardor of 
 youthful benevolence, had aspired to extend his influ- 
 ence through the world. He died in youth, but he 
 had redeemed his pledge, and at this hour his influence 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 is felt in Asia, in Africa, in the islands of the sea, and 
 in every corner of his native country. This man was 
 Samuel John Mills, and all that knew his history will 
 say that I have exaggerated neither the grandeur of 
 his aspirations nor the result of his efforts. He trav- 
 ersed our land like a ministering spirit, silently and 
 yet effectually, from the hill country of the Pilgrims 
 to the valley of the Missouri. He wandered on his 
 errands of benevolence from village to village and from 
 city to city, pleading now with the patriot for a coun- 
 try growing up to an immensity of power, and now 
 with the Christian for a world lying in wickedness. 
 He explored in person the desolations of the West, 
 and in person he stirred up to enterprise and effort 
 the churches of the East. He lived for India and 
 Owhyhee [Hawaii], and died in the service of Africa. 
 He went to heaven in his youth, but his works do 
 follow him, like a long train of glory that still widens 
 and brightens, and will widen and brighten forever. 
 Who can measure the influence of one such minister 
 of the gospel? 
 
 Mark Hopkins, at the semi-centennial of 
 Williams College in 1843, called it " The grand 
 distinction of the college that on this spot Ameri- 
 can missions had their origin." Much of Dr. 
 Hopkins' interest in and splendid service for 
 foreign missions might be directly traced to this 
 same source. " Wherever, therefore," continued 
 Dr. Hopkins, " the history of American missions 
 
 242 
 
g 
 
 5 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 « 
 
THE MAN AND HIS INFLUENCE 
 
 shall be known, this spot and. this college must 
 be looked to with interest; and we do not think 
 that it was the design of God that the moral 
 effects of the associations connected with it should 
 be lost. Here may the words of Mills, ' Though 
 you and I are very little beings, we must not rest 
 satisfied until our influence is felt to the remotest 
 corner of this ruined world,' always pervade the 
 moral atmosphere. We would echo those words. 
 We would make them the motto of those who 
 come here." 
 
 In 1897, the World's Student Christian Fed- 
 eration, uniting all the student movements of the 
 world, held its second meeting at Williamstown. 
 Men were gathered from thirteen nations and 
 five continents. One evening all these delegates 
 gathered around the monument which marks the 
 spot where the haystack stood. The story of that 
 first meeting on this spot was graphically told — 
 how Mills had urged the carrying of the gospel 
 to the heathen, and in reply to obstacles suggested 
 had said, " We can do it if we will." The prog- 
 ress from that small beginning was traced, and 
 how it had made the present meeting a possibility. 
 Then all the delegates present made " the moun- 
 tains " of which every Williams man loves to 
 sing, echo and reecho with " We can do it if we 
 will." There the Germans and the French, for- 
 
 243 
 
SAMUEL J. MILLS 
 
 getting Sedan and Alsace and Lorraine, sang 
 out each in the language of his fatherland, " We 
 can do it if we will." Men from Holland and 
 India, men from South Africa and China, men 
 from Switzerland and Japan, each in his native 
 language rang out the sentiment which the same 
 place had heard ninety-one years before. The 
 German students sang " Ein' feste Burg ist unser 
 Gott," and as the strangely diverse but deeply 
 united company marched away singing "Onward, 
 Christian Soldiers," one could not but feel that 
 though the body of the soldier who first uttered 
 that battle-cry lay buried in a nameless grave in 
 a trackless ocean, his soul was marching on. 
 
 244 
 
APPENDIX A 
 THE HAYSTACK MONUMENT 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 THE HAYSTACK MONUMENT 
 
 For thirty years or more after Mills' death the exact 
 location of the haystack was unknown. Inquiry had 
 often been made by strangers for the spot. President 
 Griffin, to whom was largely due the continued in- 
 terest in Mills and the men and the scenes of the hay- 
 stack, made strenuous efforts to locate the place ; but 
 in vain. In 1852 a Baptist layman spending the night 
 in Williamstown expressed surprise and regret that 
 the place was not marked. After leaving, he sent back 
 a gold dollar as the nucleus of a fund for a memorial. 
 He wrote : " If it does no more than purchase a cedar 
 Stake to mark the spot, it will not be in vain ; for long 
 ere that will have time to moulder, wealthy ones will 
 mark with marble the place where American missions 
 had their birth." His word was prophetic. In the 
 summer of 1854, Hon. Byram Green of Sodus, New 
 York, was in Williamstown. It was discovered that 
 he was at that prayer-meeting and could locate the 
 spot, which he did by putting in a stake with his 
 own hand. He was aided in locating the place by the 
 existence of a maple grove, still standing, in which 
 they were accustomed to meet. In August, 1854, he 
 wrote out for Professor Albert Hopkins all that he 
 
 247 
 
THE HAYSTACK MONUMENT 
 
 could remember about the meeting itself. This letter 
 is the source of all that is known about the meeting. 
 At commencement, in 1854, the alumni of the college 
 voted to purchase the grounds surrounding the spot, 
 including the maple grove. The plot purchased con- 
 sisted of ten acres, and the purchase price was $2500, 
 one-tenth of which was pledged by undergraduates. 
 In the printed circular appealing for funds, President 
 Hopkins asked, " Shall, then, this ground be pur- 
 chased? We think the great heart of the Christian 
 public of all denominations will say, Yes ! Shall pa- 
 triotism and genius have their monuments and conse- 
 crated grounds, and shall not religion? Shall a love 
 wider than that of patriotism, a consecration nobler 
 than genius, have no memorial ? " The funds were 
 pledged and the land purchased. In August, 1855, 
 the alumni held a meeting in " Mission Park," as it 
 was now called, and voted to hold a missionary jubilee 
 at the next commencement, that being the fiftieth 
 anniversary of the prayer-meeting. 
 
 The day set for the exercises was August 5, 1856. 
 Arrangements had been made to have the services in 
 the grove, where seats had been provided. A bun- 
 galow had been prepared for the missionaries, of whom 
 there were many present, and a haystack had been 
 prepared in the Park. But a severe storm, forcibly 
 reminding those present of the storm which drove 
 Mills and his associates to the haystack, compelled 
 the audience to take shelter in the Congregational 
 church, where the exercises were held. Hon. David 
 Dudley Field presided for the six hours during which 
 the exercises lasted. The same hymn was sung that 
 
 248 
 
THE HAYSTACK MONUMENT 
 
 closed the meeting under the haystack, — " Let all 
 the heathen writers join." The Scripture read was 
 Psalm 67, from which the sermon was preached when 
 the first missionaries of the American Board were 
 ordained. 
 
 Dr. Field closed his address with these words of 
 dedication : — 
 
 " We dedicate this Park to the memory of the 
 Founders of American missions and to - the missionary 
 cause and spirit. We hope that in all future time the 
 students of this college will come here for exercise and 
 meditation; that the officers of the college will seek 
 here refreshment from their anxieties and toils; we 
 hope that the young missionary, about to depart with 
 a brave heart upon his glorious errand, will walk upon 
 this ground to strengthen himself with the spirit of 
 the place; and that the returned missionary, wearied 
 with labor, exposure and privation, will find here rest 
 and consolation for the body and' the spirit. May this 
 grove be more sacred, if less famous, than the Acad- 
 emia of Plato; may its trees flourish like the cedars 
 of Lebanon, and its turf ever be green as the pastures 
 ' beside the still waters.' " 
 
 The principal address was made by Professor Albert 
 Hopkins, the man who has done more for the religious 
 life of Williams than any other professor connected 
 with it, not even excepting his better known brother. 
 Professor Hopkins had four main divisions of his 
 theme: (1) The Times of the Haystack, (2) The Men 
 of the Stack, (3) The Relation of Those Times and 
 Men to the Problem of the Age, (4) The Position in 
 which We stand and Our Duties with Reference to 
 
 249 
 
THE HAYSTACK MONUMENT 
 
 the Same Problem. In speaking of the " Men of the 
 Haystack " he said : — 
 
 " It is not probable that these men have been over- 
 estimated. We cannot think too highly of a really 
 good man. But these were not only good men ; they 
 possessed also certain qualities which fitted them to 
 act in a very critical and important juncture. In them 
 were combined certain high virtues which rarely co- 
 exist. They were remarkable for their zeal, and not 
 less remarkable for their prudence. With great en- 
 thusiasm they united sound judgment. As is usual 
 with youthful minds, hope was strongly developed; 
 but it was balanced by caution. With native impulses 
 prompting them to look for immediate results, 
 they had the grace of patient waiting. Their powers 
 of theorizing and planning were of a very high 
 order ; particularly was this true of Mills, whose mind 
 was evidently highly constructive. The men of the 
 haystack were remarkable for the comprehension and 
 breadth of their views, and at the same time they were 
 men of detail. . . . They held, in its broadest sense, the 
 great doctrine of the brotherhood of man. They had 
 enlarged views of the capabilities of the gospel. . . . 
 They were men of faith. Their convictions were 
 strong, not only in reference to the capabilities of 
 Christianity, but in reference to its actual triumphs. 
 The few rays which then gilded the distant summits, 
 were to them ample pledges of day. . . . The men of 
 the haystack taught a dull, material age, the value 
 of ideas; that an age is glorious, not in proportion 
 to its material wealth, but in proportion as it finds 
 its life in thought and principles; in proportion 
 
 250 
 
THE HAYSTACK MONUMENT 
 
 as it is swayed by them and is the exponent of 
 them." 
 
 Mark Hopkins, president of the college, in express- 
 ing thanks for the gifts that made the memorial pos- 
 sible, said, "As an investment for education, it will 
 be worth more than it has cost; as an outpouring of 
 affectionate regard for the missionary work, as the 
 solitary public memorial on the face of the earth in 
 honor of the highest form of self-sacrifice and heroic 
 effort, its value and its power cannot be estimated." 
 
 There were many other speakers, among them Rev. 
 Rufus Anderson, Secretary of the American Eoard; 
 Henry Hills, for thirty-two years treasurer of the 
 same society (whom Mills had tried to induce to go 
 out as missionary) ; Rev. Miron Winslow of Ceylon, 
 who was personally acquainted with Mills and Rich- 
 ards ; Rev. Gordon Hall, namesake and son of one of 
 the Brethren; and Rev. Hiram Bingham, one of the 
 first missionaries to Hawaii. It was far from being 
 a denominational affair; representative Presbyterians, 
 Baptists, Dutch Reformed, and Episcopalians, as well 
 as Congregationalists, had prominent parts in the 
 program. 
 
 David Scudder, a student at Andover Seminary, 
 read part of a manuscript letter, in the possession of 
 the Brethren, from Mills to Gordon Hall. He also 
 brought from Andover the constitution of the Breth- 
 ren. " This document, written in cipher, was handed 
 by the president of the day to Dr. Cox, but neither he 
 nor any of the Daniels on the stage were able to 
 decipher it." 
 
 A few weeks later (August 31), there came to the 
 
 251 
 
THE HAYSTACK MONUMENT 
 
 college from Rev. Samuel C. Damon of Honolulu, who 
 married Mills' niece, two of Mills' father's manuscript 
 sermons, a letter from Samuel J. Mills, and the pocket- 
 compass which he carried with him in his missionary 
 journeys. 
 
 As the meeting closed a notice was given that there 
 would be a missionary prayer-meeting on the morning 
 of commencement day, in August, 1857, at sunrise. It 
 was intended that this should be the first of a series 
 to be held annually at that place. The expectation has 
 been fulfilled, and ever since, one of the noteworthy 
 features of each Williams College commencement has 
 been the prayer-meeting in Mission Park. 
 
 Ten years later Harvey Rice, a classmate of Mark 
 Hopkins, became interested in placing a monument 
 in Mission Park to mark the exact site of the haystack. 
 His first proposition was to put a veritable haystack, 
 in size and form, built of gray sandstone. To this 
 mere reproduction in sandstone Mark Hopkins ob- 
 jected as being uncouth. Mr. Rice then hit upon the 
 plan afterwards adopted, " more strictly emblematical, 
 combining the historical and practical." At first it 
 was the donor's plan to give fifty dollars, allowing 
 others to complete the subscription. When the plan 
 was accepted, he decided to assume the entire expense 
 himself, with the exception of five dollars contributed 
 by the Juvenile Missionary Society' of Williamstown. 
 
 The following is a description of the monument as 
 given by Harvey Rice : — 
 
 As a specimen of fine material and artistic sculpture, it is strictly 
 a Berkshire production, composed of Berkshire marble quarried 
 at Alford and wrought in the shops of "the Berkshire Marble 
 
 252 
 
THE HAYSTACK MONUMENT 
 
 Company." Its entire height is twelve feet; its shaft, cap, and 
 base square ; its surface polished ; its color a silver blue. It is 
 surmounted by a globe, three feet in diameter, traced in map lines. 
 On its eastern face immediately below the globe are inscribed 
 these words, "The Field is the World." Then follows a simili- 
 tude of a haystack, sculptured in bold relief and encircled with the 
 words, "The Birthplace of American Foreign Missions." And 
 beneath this appear the names of five young men who held the 
 prayer-meeting under the shelter of the haystack, — Samuel J. 
 Mills, James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and 
 Byram Green. 
 
 " For once in the history of the world a prayer- 
 meeting is commemorated by a monument," said 
 President Hopkins as he opened the dedicatory serv- 
 ices, July 28, 1867. It was one of those rarely beau- 
 tiful summer afternoons for which Williamstown is 
 famous. The heat was tempered by a breeze, " the 
 scattered clouds casting beautiful shadows upon the 
 hillsides. The encircling mountains reposed beneath 
 the alternating light and shadow in surpassing gran- 
 deur and beauty." Rich and clear sounded the voices 
 of the students as the Mills Theological Society, the 
 successors of the Brethren, sang " Ye Christian Her- 
 alds, Go Proclaim." Then the audience was led in 
 prayer by a Williams man of the past, Rev. Dorus 
 Clarke of the class of 1817, and a friend of one who was 
 at the haystack meeting. Mark Hopkins, then in the 
 zenith of his power, made a short address, which, 
 though brief, was worthy the time and the man. 
 Harvey Rice, William E. Dodge, Rev. Marshall D. 
 Sanders, and Rev. Dr. R. R. Booth, who led so many 
 of the subsequent missionary prayer-meetings, — all 
 made appropriate addresses. 
 
 The key-note of the dedicatory servces, which ought 
 
 253 
 
THE HAYSTACK MONUMENT 
 
 to be placed beneath every picture of that " Haystack 
 Monument," was sounded by Mark Hopkins. " Mon- 
 uments," he said, " commemorate the past. This is 
 well; but only as such commemoration strengthens 
 the principles that underlie the event and movement 
 commemorated. The stress and struggle of the mis- 
 sionary work are still upon us ; the calls for help were 
 never louder ; and I can only hope that this memorial 
 may serve to kindle and perpetuate on this ground 
 the missionary spirit. I can only hope that as this 
 shaft raises the mimic globe into the sunlight and 
 poises it there, so the increasing and united efforts 
 of Christians may lift a world, prostrate in sin, into 
 the light of the Sun of Righteousness, and poise it in 
 permanent obedience to the revealed will of God." 
 
 254 
 
APPENDIX B 
 THE MEN OF THE HAYSTACK 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 THE MEN OF THE HAYSTACK 
 
 Short Sketches of the Four Other Men besides 
 Mills who were Present at the Haystack 
 Meeting 
 
 James Richards was born in Abington, Massachu- 
 setts, February 23, 1784. His early education was 
 procured in Plainfield, whither his parents had moved 
 in his boyhood. While he had a deep religious expe- 
 rience as a boy of thirteen, he did not express hope 
 of his conversion until he was nineteen. Then he 
 decided to enter the ministry, but was unable to enter 
 college until he was twenty-two, for his father could 
 not spare him from the farm. 
 
 At college he proved himself a splendid mathema- 
 tician, but he was chiefly honored for his sterling 
 Christian character. He graduated from Williams 
 in the same class as Mills (1809). He graduated in 
 1812 from Andover Seminary, and in all their student 
 life together was Mills' fidus Achates. 
 
 From 1812 to 1813 he studied medicine in Phila- 
 delphia and at Dartmouth. The American Board 
 being unable to send him abroad on account of 
 17 2 57 
 
THE MEN OF THE HAYSTACK 
 
 the war, he preached for a year in Deering, New- 
 Hampshire. 
 
 In May, 1815, he married Sarah Bardwell of Goshen, 
 Massachusetts, and June 21 of the same year he was 
 ordained at Newburyport with Warren, Mills, Meigs, 
 Poor, and Bardwell, and embarked, October 23, for 
 Ceylon. On leaving his native land he said, " I have 
 been waiting with anxiety almost eight years for 
 an opportunity to go and preach Christ among the 
 heathen. I have often wept at the long delay. But 
 the day on which I now bid farewell to my native 
 land is the happiest day of my life." ■ 
 
 Soon after his arrival in Ceylon, Richards was 
 attacked with a severe inflammation of the eyes. This 
 was soon followed by a serious pulmonary trouble. 
 With Warren he went to South Africa for their health. 
 Warren soon died, and Richards returned alone to 
 Ceylon, and for a time lost his voice as the result of 
 a severe hemorrhage. He did all that his feeble 
 strength would allow, even to the last. He sank ex- 
 hausted, August 13, 1822, at the age of thirty-six; 
 " in health laborious, in sickness patient, in death 
 triumphant." 
 
 Richards was slender in appearance, five feet eight 
 inches in height, of a light complexion. He was a 
 plain, pointed preacher, of earnest and devoted spirit 
 rather than talented. He was physician to body and 
 soul, and efficient in both capacities; but most of all 
 as friend and counselor was he valued and esteemed. 
 
 Harvey Loomis was born two years later than Mills, 
 in the same place, — Torringford. Undoubtedly Mills' 
 father influenced him in deciding to go to college, and 
 
 258 
 
THE MEN OF THE HAYSTACK 
 
 with young Mills and Orange Lyman, all from the 
 same church, entered the class of 1809 at Williams. 
 Loomis and Lyman were better scholars than Mills, 
 and received commencement appointments. Loomis 
 studied theology with Mills' father and Rev. Ebenezer 
 Porter at Washington, Connecticut. 
 
 ,He had stood for home missions in preference to 
 foreign missions at the haystack. His later conduct 
 squared with this conviction, and he went, in 181 1, 
 to a difficult but strategic field in Bangor, Maine. 
 He was ordained there, November 27, 181 1, over a 
 church of four members. Bangor at that time had 
 no Sabbath, and a bad reputation for irreligion and 
 wickedness. For some years he preached in a hall 
 and in the court-house, no meeting-house being 
 erected until 1821. Loomis identified himself with 
 the growing town, and had much to do with shaping 
 its thought and morals. In the fourteen years of his 
 ministry he built up a church which was strong in 
 numbers, and embraced in its membership nearly all 
 the prominent and influential men of the place. 
 
 Harvey Loomis was a fine Christian gentleman of 
 the Puritan type. In sharp contrast with Mills, he 
 had a fine personal appearance and graceful bearing, 
 a brilliant eye, and a voice both rich and powerful. 
 Withal he was a man of great firmness and remarkable 
 moral courage, coupled with uncommon tact. His 
 wife, Anne Battell of Torringford, was a true help- 
 meet to her husband. 
 
 His death was almost tragic. He entered the pulpit 
 one cold winter Sunday in January, 1825, fell insen- 
 sible, and was dead in half an hour. In his pocket 
 
 259 
 
THE MEN OF THE HAYSTACK 
 
 was the sermon he intended to preach on the text, 
 " This year shalt thou die." 
 
 Francis Le Barron Robbins was the son of Rev. 
 A. R. Robbins of Norfolk, Connecticut. His father 
 was appointed a trustee of the college, and influenced 
 many of the young men from Litchfield County at this 
 time to go to Williams instead of Yale. Among them 
 were three of the five men at the haystack meeting, 
 — Mills, Loomis, and Robbins. Robbins was younger 
 than the others, graduating in the class of 1808 at the 
 age of twenty-one. He studied theology at Worcester 
 with Dr. Austin, and at Lee, Massachusetts, with Rev. 
 Alvan Hyde. He was engaged in home missionary 
 work in Vermont and New Hampshire, and became 
 settled pastor at Enfield, Connecticut, in 1816. Soon 
 after his settlement he married Miss Priscilla Alden, 
 and as his second wife, in 1846, Hannah Cook of 
 Danvers, Massachusetts. While not a brilliant 
 preacher, Robbins always was a felicitous speaker 
 in the various places where a minister is called to 
 speak. He always was a peacemaker, and won the 
 respect and love of both his brethren in the ministry 
 and his parishioners. He was a gentleman of the old 
 school, of invariable courtesy and charming dignity. 
 Of all his qualities it might be well said, " The greatest 
 of these is love." 
 
 Byram Green, who located the site of the haystack, 
 was the only one who did not remain in the ministry. 
 He became a Christian during the revival of 1805-6, 
 and graduated in the class of 1808. After gradu- 
 ation he studied theology with Rev. Dr. Packard of 
 Shelburne, Massachusetts. He was compelled to 
 
 260 
 
THE MEN OF THE HAYSTACK 
 
 abandon preaching after a short time on account of 
 asthma. 
 
 In 1811 he located in Sodus, New York, when that 
 part of the country was very sparsely settled. He 
 entered into public life, and six years later was chosen 
 to the State Legislature, where he served for three 
 years. He afterwards held office as state senator, 
 county judge, and collector. In 1843 he entered Con- 
 gress as a Democrat, but voted against the annexation 
 of Texas and against the extension of slavery. 
 
 He was liberal and active in promoting all worthy 
 causes, and in business was known for his staunch 
 integrity and sterling honesty. 
 
 261 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY: BIOGRAPHIES — HISTO- 
 RIES AND MEMORIALS — MAGAZINE 
 ARTICLES — SERMONS AND REPORTS — 
 MANUSCRIPTS 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Reports of Mills and his Companions 
 
 Communications relative to the progress of Bible 
 Societies in the United States: — 
 
 Report of John F. Schermerhorn and Samuel J. 
 Mills to the Philadelphia Bible Society. Philadelphia, 
 1813. 
 
 A Correct View of that part of the United States 
 which lies west of the Alleghany mountains, with 
 regard to Religion and Morals, by John F. Schermer- 
 horn and Samuel J. Mills. Hartford : Peter D. Gleason 
 and Co., 1814. 
 
 Report to the Society for propagating the Gospel 
 among the Indians and others in North America, by 
 John F. Schermerhorn and Samuel J. Mills. Published 
 in the Collections of the Massachusetts Historical 
 Society. Second series, Vol. II, pp. 1-48 (Vol. XII). 
 
 Report of a Missionary Tour through that part of 
 the United States which lies west of the Alleghany 
 Mountains; performed under the direction of the 
 Massachusetts Missionary Society, by Samuel J. Mills 
 and Daniel Smith. Andover: Flagg and Gould, 1815. 
 
 265 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Biographies 
 
 Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel J. Mills, by Gardiner 
 Spring, D.D. New York: New York Evangelical 
 Missionary Society, 1820. 
 
 English Edition. London : Francis West- 
 ley, 1820. 
 
 Second edition. Edited by E. C. Bridg- 
 
 man and C. W. Allen for the Society of Inquiry. Bos- 
 ton: Perkins & Marvin, 1829. 
 
 Memoirs of American Missionaries, formerly con- 
 nected with the Society of Inquiry, published under 
 the direction of the Society. Boston: Pierce and 
 Parker, 1833. 
 
 A Story of One Short Life (Samuel J. Mills), by 
 Elizabeth G. Stryker. Chicago: Fleming H. Revell 
 Co., no date. 
 
 Williams' Biographical Annals, by Rev. Calvin Dur- 
 fee, D.D. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1871. 
 
 A Memoir of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Ado- 
 niram Judson, D.D., by Francis Wayland. Two vol- 
 umes. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Co., 1853. 
 
 The Life and Labors of Rev. Samuel Worcester, 
 D.D., by his son, Samuel M. Worcester, D.D. Two 
 volumes. Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1852. 
 
 A Biographical History of the County of Litch- 
 field, Connecticut. New York : Clark, Austin and Co., 
 1851. 
 
 Memoir of Samuel Hopkins, by Prof. Edwards A. 
 Park. Boston: Doctrinal Tract and Book Society, 
 
 1854. 
 
 266 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Memoir of Rev. Gordon Hall, by Horatio Bardwell. 
 New York: Dayton & Saxton, 1841. 
 
 Memoir of the Rev. Elias Cornelius, by B. B. Ed- 
 wards. New York: Saxton & Mills, 1842. 
 
 Memoirs of Henry Obookiah, by Edwin W. Dwight. 
 New Haven, 1818. 
 
 The Autobiography of a Blind Minister, by Timothy 
 Woodbridge, D.D. Boston: John P. Jewett and Co., 
 1856. 
 
 Missionary Heroes and Martyrs, by Lucius B. 
 Smith. Providence: O. W. Potter, 1857. 
 
 The Services of Leonard Bacon to African Coloni- 
 zation, by Leonard Woolsey Bacon. Reprinted from 
 "Liberia" Bulletins Nos. 15 and 16. Washington: 
 Judd & Detweiler, 1900. 
 
 Damon Memorial, by Samuel C. Damon, Honolulu, 
 1882. 
 
 Annals of the American Pulpit, by W. B. Sprague. 
 Vol. II, pp. 566-572. Article and letter " Samuel J. 
 Mills, Jr." New York : Robert Carter & Bros., 1857. 
 
 Annals of the American Pulpit, by W. B. Sprague. 
 Vols. I-IV. New York: Robert Carter & Bros., 
 
 1857- 
 
 General Catalogue of the Theological Seminary at 
 Andover, Massachusetts. Andover: Draper, 1883. 
 
 Histories and Memorials 
 
 History of Torrington, Connecticut, by Rev. Samuel 
 Orcutt. Albany: James Munsell, 1878. 
 
 Torringford: in connection with the centennial of 
 the settlement of the first pastor, Rev. Samuel J. 
 
 267 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Mills, Sr. Hartford: Case, Lockwood and Brainard, 
 1870. 
 
 History of the Foreign Missionary Work in Litch- 
 field County during the present century, by Mrs. G. P. 
 Prudden and Miss Lilian E. Prudden. Privately 
 printed. 
 
 Historical Records of the Town of Cornwall, Litch- 
 field County, Connecticut, by Theodore S. Gold. 
 Hartford: Case, Lockwood and Brainard, 1877. 
 
 Proceedings of the North and South Consociations 
 of Litchfield County, Connecticut, in Convention at 
 Litchfield, July 7 and 8, 1852. The Centennial Anni- 
 versary. Hartford : Case, Tiffany and Co., 1852. 
 
 Litchfield County Centennial Celebration. Hart- 
 ford: Edwin Hunt, 1851. 
 
 Williamstown and Williams College, by Arthur 
 Latham Perry, LL.D., D.D. Third Edition. Wil- 
 liamstown: A. L. Perry, 1904. 
 
 History of Williams College, by Rev. Calvin Durfee. 
 Boston : A. Williams and Co., i860. 
 
 History of the Andover Theological Seminary, by 
 the Rev. Leonard Woods, D.D. Boston: James R. 
 Osgood and Co., 1885. 
 
 A Memorial of the Semi-Centennial Celebration of 
 the Founding of the Theological Seminary at Andover. 
 Andover: Warren F. Draper, 1859. 
 
 History of the American Board of Commissioners 
 for Foreign Missions, by Joseph Tracy. New York: 
 M. W. Dodd, 1842. 
 
 Memorial Volume of the First Fifty Years of the 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
 sions. Boston, 1861. 
 
 268 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 A History of American Baptist Missions, by William 
 Gammell, A.M. Boston : Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 
 1849. 
 
 History of the American Bible Society, by W. P. 
 Strickland. New York: Harper and Bros., 1849. 
 
 A History of Colonization on the Western Coast of 
 Africa, by Archibald Alexander, D.D. Philadelphia: 
 William S. Martin, 1849. 
 
 American Colonization Society, Half Century Me- 
 morial, 1867. Washington, 1867. 
 
 History of Missions. Vol. II, p. 235. Choule and 
 Smith. 
 
 A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich 
 Islands, by Hiram Bingham. Hartford: Hezekiah 
 Huntington, 1847. 
 
 History of the Presbyterian Church in the State of 
 Illinois, by A. T. Norton. Vol. I. St. Louis : W. S. 
 Bryan, 1879. 
 
 Magazine Articles 
 
 The Massachusetts Missionary Magazine. Many 
 references. 
 
 The Evangelical Magazine — 1800-1816. Narra- 
 tives of Missions of the Missionary Society of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 The Evangelical Magazine, 1800: p. 27, Revival in 
 Torringford, S. J. Mills, Sr. 
 
 The Evangelical Magazine, 1813: p. 268, Letter 
 from S. J. Mills ; p. 36, Mission of S. J. Mills. 
 
 The Evangelical Magazine, 1814: p. 41, Mission of 
 S. J. Mills. 
 
 ^69 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Evangelical Magazine, 1815: p. 61, Letter from 
 S. J. Mills; p. 319, Ordination of Mills. 
 
 The Panoplist, Vol. VI, 181 1: pp. 88-90, 181-184, 
 Organization of American Board. 
 
 The Panoplist, Vol. VII, 1812: p. 425, Ordination 
 of First Foreign Missionaries. 
 
 The Panoplist, Vol. VIII, 1813: pp. 145, 224, The 
 American Board. 
 
 The Panoplist, Vol. IX, 1813: p. 38, Mills and 
 Schermerhorn. 
 
 The Panoplist, Vol. X, 1814: p. 281, Schermerhorn 
 and Mills' tour through the southwestern parts of the 
 United States. 
 
 The Panoplist, Vol. XI, 1815: pp. 225, 273, Letters 
 from Samuel J. Mills and Daniel Smith; p. 331, Or- 
 dination of Mills; p. 222, Connecticut Missionary- 
 Society. 
 
 The Panoplist, Vol. XII, 1816: pp. 269, 477, 572, 
 American Bible Society; p. 300, Henry Obookiah. 
 
 The Panoplist, Vol. XIV, 1818: p. 116, Mills and 
 Burgess Commission from the American Coloniza- 
 tion Society; p. 260, 262, Letters from Mills and 
 Burgess. 
 
 The Panoplist, Vol. XV, 1819: p. 241, Review Second 
 Annual Report of the American Colonization Society. 
 
 The Religious Intelligencer, Vol. I, 1816: p. 8, The 
 American Bible Society. 
 
 The Religious Intelligencer, 1818: pp. 240, 334, 
 Obituary Notice of S. J. Mills, including letter from 
 Ebenezer Burgess. 
 
 The Missionary Register, 1818: p. 60, Colonization 
 Society, Mills and Burgess; p. 327, Report of Colo- 
 
 270 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 nization Society; p. 342, Death of Mills; pp. 348, 
 349, Documents relating tb Mills and Colonization 
 Society; p. 426, New York and New Jersey African 
 School; p. 430, Death of Obookiah. London: F. B. 
 Seeley, 1818. 
 
 The Christian Spectator, Vol. II : p. 250, Memoirs 
 of Samuel J. Mills, reviewed by Rufus Woodward. 
 
 The Missionary Herald, Vol. XIX, 1823: p. 241, 
 James Richards. 
 
 American Quarterly Register, Vol. II : p. 209, Gor- 
 don Hall, by Professor Ebenezer Porter. 
 
 The American Quarterly Register, Vol. XIII. Bos- 
 ton : T. R. Marvin, 1841 : p. 341, Revivals of Religion 
 at Williams College, Professor Albert Hopkins. 
 
 The American Theological Review, Vol. II : p. 687, 
 Origin of American Foreign Missions, by Rev. S. M. 
 Worcester, D.D. 
 
 Congregational Review, Vol. IX: pp. 401-406, 
 What Home Missions Have Done for Illinois, by J. E. 
 Roy. 
 
 New Englander, Vol. XXXIII, 1874: Salmon Gid- 
 dings, by J. E. Roy. 
 
 The Hartford Seminary Record, Vol. XIV: p. 177, 
 Samuel J. Mills, Home Missionary Statesman, by T. C. 
 Richards. 
 
 Sermons and Reports 
 
 ' Paul on Mars Hill : or, a Christian Survey of the 
 Pagan World. A Sermon preached at the ordination 
 of Samuel J. Mills and others, by Samuel Worcester, 
 D.D. Andover: Flagg and Gould, 1815. 
 
 271 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Address at Semi-Centenary of the ordination of the 
 first missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, by Rev. 
 A. C. Thompson, D.D. (Goshen, Connecticut, Septem- 
 ber 28, 1869). Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1869. 
 
 Sermon at the dedication of the Chapel at Williams 
 College (Griffin Hall), 1828, by President Edward D. 
 Griffin. 
 
 A Plea for Africa. Sermon preached in First Pres- 
 byterian Church, New York City, October 26, 1817, 
 by Edward D. Griffin, D.D., to which is added an 
 account of the African School established by the 
 Synod of New York and New Jersey. 
 
 Sermons by President Mark Hopkins; Semi-Cen- 
 tennial of Williams College, 1843 > Fiftieth Anniversary 
 of his election as President, 1886; Semi-Centennial 
 of the American Board, i860. 
 
 Missionary Jubilee held at Williams College, August 
 5, 1856. Boston : T. R. Marvin & Son, 1856. 
 
 Dedication of the Missionary Monument in Mission 
 Park, Williamstown, Massachusetts, July 28, 1867. 
 Boston : T. R. Marvin and Son, 1867. 
 
 A Narrative of Five Youth from the Sandwich 
 Islands now receiving an Education in this Country. 
 New York: J. Seymour, 1816. 
 
 Report to the Female Missionary Society for the 
 Poor of New York and its vicinity, by Rev. Ward 
 Stafford. New York, 1817. 
 
 Annual Narratives of Missions, Missionary Society 
 of Connecticut, 1813-1830. 
 
 Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presby- 
 terian Church in the United States, Vols. I-IV (to 
 1820). Philadelphia: William Bradford. 
 
 272 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Minutes of General Association of Connecticut for 
 1819, pp. 13, 14. 
 
 The Second Annual Report of the American Soci- 
 ety for colonizing the free people of Colour of the 
 United States. Appendix contains Journal and letter 
 of Mills while in the service of the society. Washing- 
 ton, 1819. 
 
 American Bible Society, Annual Reports. New 
 York. 
 
 Manuscripts 
 Hartford, Connecticut 
 
 Missionary Society of Connecticut. 
 
 Letters of Samuel J. Mills, Jr., to Rev. Abel Flint, 
 Secretary: Marietta, October 20, 1812; New Or- 
 leans, April 3, 1813; Torringford, July 10, 1813; 
 Andover, October 12, 1813; Andover, January 1, 
 1814; Andover, February 14, 1814; Andover, March 
 24, 1814; Philadelphia, August 10, 1814; St. Louis, 
 November 7, 1814; Andover, July 4, 1815. 
 
 To Rev. Abel Flint from Rev. Moses Stuart, 
 Andover, January 27, 1812; from Rev. Samuel J. 
 Mills, Sr., Torringford, March 15, 1812; from Rev. 
 Ebenezer Porter, Andover, July 24, 1815. 
 
 Letters of Salmon Giddings. 
 
 Mrs. Lucius Q. Curtis. 
 
 Letter of Samuel J. Mills, Jr., to James Ripley, 
 Andover, February 7, 1812. 
 
 To James Ripley, Cornish, New Hampshire, from 
 
 18 2 73 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 Samuel J. Mills, Sr., Torringford, February 14, 1812 ; 
 Torringford, March 9, 1817; from Henry Obookiah, 
 South Farms, Connecticut, February 14, 1814; Tor- 
 ringford, Connecticut, May 17, 1813. 
 
 Williamstown, Massachusetts 
 
 Williams College Library. 
 
 Letters of Samuel J. Mills, Jr., to James Ripley, 
 Cornish, New Hampshire, Andover, October 17, 
 1813 ; to John Seward, Williamstown, Massachu- 
 setts, Andover, March 20, 1810. 
 
 Various letters written at the time of the Hay- 
 stack Jubilee, including letters of Abner Phelps and 
 Byram Green. 
 
 Records and Constitution of the Theological 
 Society. 
 
 Records and Constitution of the Society of Inquiry 
 and the Young Men's Christian Association. 
 
 Andover, Massachusetts 
 
 Andover Seminary Library. 
 
 Letters of Samuel J. Mills, Jr., to Robert C. Rob- 
 bins, New Haven, Connecticut, December 22, 1809; 
 to Gordon Hall, New Haven, Connecticut, December 
 20, 1809. 
 
 The Constitution and Record of the Society of the 
 Brethren. 
 
 Correspondence addressed to the Brethren, includ- 
 ing letters from Ezra Fisk and H. G. O. Dwight, 
 274 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 and Historical Sketch of' the Society by Pliny Fisk 
 and Essay by Calvin M. Clark. 
 
 Records and Constitution of the Society of 
 Inquiry. 
 
 Honolulu 
 
 Frank W. Damon. 
 
 Letters of Samuel J. Mills, Jr., and of Father Mills. 
 
 275 
 
INDEX 
 
 Africa, to be saved by Africans, 
 192 ; Mills leaves England for, 
 207; Mills reaches, 213; Mills 
 explores south of Sierra Leone, 
 215ft.; Mills leaves Africa, 223, 
 224. 
 
 African School, Board of, 188 ; 
 established in New Jersey, 191 ff. 
 
 American Board of Commissioners 
 for Foreign Missions, organized, 
 73 ; first meeting, 74 ; ordains 
 first missionaries, 75 ; work in 
 South America, 180-183. 
 
 Anderson, Rufus, 20, 68, 251. 
 
 Andover, 130, 152, 153. 
 
 Andover Seminary, 52, 53, 57, 68 ff., 
 
 9°. 157.241,2s 1 - 
 Antonio, Father, 115, 116, 141. 
 Armstrong, Samuel C., 99. 
 
 Bacon, Leonard, 96, 241. 
 
 Bailey, Algernon S., 27. 
 
 Baptists, 107, 109, 116. 
 
 Bardwell, Horatio, 169. 
 
 Beach, James, 26. 
 
 Bibles, needed in New Orleans, 115; 
 sent to New Orleans, 129 ; the 
 object of Mills' second journey, 
 132 ; burned at St. Louis, 133 ; 
 distributed in New Orleans, 135, 
 140, 141 ; great need of, 158 ff., 
 174. 
 
 Bible Society, Marietta, 106 ; West- 
 ern Tennessee, log, 158; Louisi- 
 ana, 116, 158; Philadelphia, 129, 
 131, 143 ; American, organized, 
 162 ff. ; British and Foreign, 160, 
 163; New Jersey, 161; Marine, 180. 
 
 Bible Societies, organized by Mills, 
 158; first organized, 160. 
 
 Bingham, Hiram, 86, 95, 231. 
 
 Bingham, John C, 183. 
 
 Bradford, Mass., 71. 
 
 Brainerd, David, 17, 184, 229. 
 
 Brethren, The, organized, 35 ; con- 
 stitution of, 35-37; name, 37; 
 first members, 37 ; records of, 38 ; 
 secrecy of, 38 ; work, 39 ; com- 
 pared with Jesuits, 41-43 ; with 
 Holy Club, 43, 44; with Illuminati, 
 44, 45 ; at Andover, 53 ff .; admit 
 Judson, 60 ; love for each other, 
 61 ; not to marry, 61 ; admit 
 Neesima, 65 ; did not send Mills 
 as missionary, 78. 
 
 Britnall, Captain, 88. 
 
 Brown, Samuel, 234. 
 
 Burgess, Ebenezer, 15, 79, 99, 200 ff., 
 213 ft., 234, 238. 
 
 Caldwell, Elias B., 198. 
 
 Carey, William, 70. 
 
 Character sketch of Mills, 229 ff., 
 man of God, 232 ; man of prayer, 
 233 ; modesty, 235 ; used other 
 men, 236 ; tolerance, 237 ; a phil- 
 anthropist, 240. 
 
 Charleston, S. C., 123. 
 
 Chase, Philander, 117. 
 
 City missionary work, 176 ff. 
 
 City, the, a menace, 168 ; redeemed, 
 168. 
 
 Claiborne, Governor, 116, 129. 
 
 Clark, J. B., 102. 
 
 Clay, Henry, 197, 198. 
 
 College students in great religious 
 movements, 41-44. 
 
 Colonization early plans for, 191 ; 
 Virginia resolutions in regard to, 
 196, 197. 
 
 Colonization Society, 197 ff. ; ap- 
 points Mills agent, 199 ; sends 
 Mills to Africa, 202 ; explorations 
 for, 215 ff . ; subsequent history 
 of, 223 ff. 
 
 Congregationalism, sacrifice of, 157. 
 
 Connecticut Evangelical Magazine, 
 7> I 2 . 33- 
 
 277 
 
INDEX 
 
 Connecticut General Association, 
 
 104, 212. 
 Connecticut, Missionary Society of, 
 
 69, 105, 124, 131, 134, 153. 
 Cornelius, Elias, 20, 155, 181. 
 Cornwall, Conn., 92. 
 
 Dana, Daniel, 39, 170. 
 Dawson, W. J., 20, 128. 
 Donnell, Thomas, 154. 
 Dubourg, Bishop, 115, 141. 
 Dwight, Edwin W., 32, 91. 
 
 Edwards, Justin, 170. 
 
 England, Mills and Burgess in, 205 ff . 
 
 Faber, Peter, 42. 
 
 Field, David Dudley, 248. 
 
 Finley, Robert, 197. 
 
 Fisk, Ezra, 32, 37, 38. 
 
 Flint, Timothy, 154. 
 
 Foreign missionaries, first ordained 
 in America, 75, 76. 
 
 Foreign missions, Mills' dedication 
 to, 16, 17 ; beginnings, 18; at the 
 haystack, 29-31 ; first society in 
 America, 35-41 ; Mills' arguments 
 for, 58 ; beginnings at Andover, 
 68 ; petition in regard to, 72 ; 
 American Board, 73 ; Mills' pas- 
 sion for, 82 ; of Presbyterian 
 Church, 184. 
 
 Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, 
 92 ff. 
 
 Garrison, William L., 230. 
 
 Gaylord, Asahel, 26. 
 
 General Association, of Massachu- 
 setts, 71 ; of Connecticut, 104, 
 212. 
 
 Giddings, Salmon, 54, 154, 156. 
 
 Gillet, Timothy P., 26. 
 
 Green, Byram, 30, 33, 247, 260. 
 
 Griffin, Edward D., 25, 39, 71, 76, 
 163, 171, 184, 236, 237, 247. 
 
 Hall, Gordon, 32, 48, 50, 76, 77, 
 79. 81, 89, 97, 105, 251. 
 
 Harrison, William H., 154. 
 
 Harvey, Joseph, 91, 95. 
 
 Hawaii, 87,91. 
 
 Haystack, meeting at, 29-31 ; monu- 
 ment, 247 ff . ; men of, 249, 257 ff . ; 
 description of monument, 252 ; 
 dedication of monument, 253. 
 
 278 
 
 Hempstead, Stephen, 153. 
 
 Hills, Henry, 251. 
 
 Holy Club, 43. 
 
 Home missions, Mills' work for, 103; 
 Mills' early plans for, 105 ; socie- 
 ties for, 104, 105; summary of 
 Mills' first journey, 125; Mills' 
 second journey, 129 ff. ; reasons 
 for second journey, 129, 130. 
 
 Honoree, John, 92, 95. 
 
 Hopkins, Albert, 247, 249. 
 
 Hopkins, Mark, 20, 41, 237, 242, 
 248, 251, 253. 
 
 Hopkins, Samuel, antislavery work 
 of, 194 ff. 
 
 Hopoo, Thomas, 92, 95. 
 
 Illinois, 104, 108. 
 
 Illuminati, The, 44, 45. 
 
 Indiana, 104, 108. 
 
 Indians, missions to, 69, 119, 184, 
 
 185, 186. 
 Influence of Mills, 240 ff. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, 103, 109, 135, 
 
 198. 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 196, 203. 
 Jesus, Society of, 41, 42, 44. 
 Judson, Adoniram, 54, 55, 60, 75, 
 
 76, 235. 
 
 Kentucky, 104, religious condi- 
 tions in, 108. 
 Key, Francis S., 197. 
 Kilbourne, P. K., 188. 
 
 Larned, Sylvester, 155, 156. 
 
 Litchfield County, influence of, 2, 3 ; 
 in missions, 4 ; influence on Wil- 
 liams College, 24, 25. 
 
 Litchfield North Consociation, 91, 
 
 95- 
 London Missionary Society, 33, 70. 
 
 Loomis, Harvey, 18, 30, 31, 34, 260. 
 Louisiana, 155. 
 
 Louisiana Purchase, 104, 113, 129. 
 Loyola, Ignatius, 42, 231. 
 Lyman, Orange, 18, 34. 
 
 Maclaren, Ian, 2. 
 Marietta, O., 106. 
 Markham, Edwin, 228. 
 Massachusetts General Association, 
 
 7i- 
 
INDEX 
 
 Massachusetts Home Missionary 
 Society, 69, 105, 124, 131, 152. 
 
 McKenney, Colonel, 185. 
 
 Meigs, Benjamin C, 169, 171. 
 
 Methodists, 107, 109, 116, 117, 134. 
 
 Mills, Esther Robbins (mother of 
 Samuel J., Jr.), io,;i3, 17, 51,89. 
 
 Mills, Peter, 5. 
 
 Mills, Samuel J. (Father Mills), 6 ff. 
 
 Mills, Samuel J., Jr., birth, 4 ; ances- 
 try, 5 ; boyhood, 1 1 ; religious expe- 
 rience, 12; enters Morris Academy, 
 13, 16; conversion, 14, 15; decides 
 to become a foreign missionary, 
 16 ; sayings of, 16, 20, 48, 58, 59, 
 102, 188, 192; enters Williams 
 College, 26 ; personal appearance, 
 26 ; diary, 27 ; at the haystack, 
 29-31 ; at Commencement, 34 ; 
 organizing ability, 35 ; Brethren, 
 37 ff . ; modesty, 38, 60 ; at Yale, 
 40, 49 ; reasons for foreign mis- 
 sions, 58 ; at Andover, 53, 59 ; 
 reasons for not marrying, 62 ; part 
 in organizing American Board, 
 73, 74 ;' at ordination of Mission- 
 aries, 76 ; why not a foreign mis- 
 sionary, 77 ; passion for foreign 
 missions, 80 ff. ; meets Obookiah, 
 87 ; appeal in behalf of Sand- 
 wich Islands, 97; home missionary 
 journeys, 103 ff. ; certificate from 
 Andover, 105 ; starts on first 
 home missionary tour, 105 ff. ; at 
 New Orleans, 114; among the 
 Indians, 117 ff.; Indian report, 
 120 ff. ; reaches Athens, Ga., 
 122; financial report, 124; begins 
 second home missionary tour, 131; 
 reaches St. Louis, 133; at New 
 Orleans, 135 ; ministers to sick 
 and wounded soldiers, 135 ff. ; 
 at Philadelphia, 143 ; report of 
 second journeys, 144 ff. ; home 
 missionary statesman, 151, 158; 
 results of home missionary work, 
 151 ff. ; part in organizing Ameri- 
 can Bible Society, 163; ordained, 
 169; city mission work in New 
 York, 178 ff. ; United Foreign 
 Missionary Society, 185 ; interest 
 in " Poor Africans," 189 ff. ; 
 at organization of Colonization 
 Society, 197; sails for England, 
 202 ; escapes shipwreck, 204 ; 
 
 leaves for Africa, 207 ; reaches 
 Africa, 213; exploring for the 
 Colonization Society, 215 ff. ; 
 leaves Africa, 224; death, 225; 
 estimate of character and influ- 
 ence, 229 ff. 
 
 Mission Park, dedicated, 248. 
 
 Monroe, James, 180, 185, 196. 
 
 Morris Academy, 13, 16, 91. 
 
 Morris, James, 16, 91. 
 
 Morse, Jedidiah, 39, 76, 170. 
 
 Nashville, 109, no. 
 
 Natchez, no, 112. 
 
 Neesima, Joseph H., 65. 
 
 Negro, the, Mills' interest in, 99, 
 100, 189 ff. ; religious needs of, 
 189, 190 ; religious work for, 
 
 193- 
 
 Nettleton, Asahel, 40, 49, 173. 
 
 New Connecticut, 106. 
 
 New Orleans, 103, 112; moral and 
 religious conditions, 114, 115 ; 
 Bible Society, 116; becomes part 
 of United States, 129 ; Mills' 
 second visit to, 135 ff.; the work 
 of Bible Society in, 159; Mills' 
 interest in, 173-175 ; owes to 
 Mills, 231. 
 
 New York and Vicinity, Female 
 Missionary Society for Poor of, 
 176. 
 
 New York City, conditions in, 1816, 
 176, 177. 
 
 Newell, Samuel, 55, 60, 76, 79. 
 
 Norris, John, 52, 75. 
 
 Nott, Samuel, Jr., 54, 56, 60, 76. 
 
 Obookiah, 49, 86 ff. ; Mills' descrip- 
 tion of, 89. 
 
 Ohio, 104; condition found by Mills 
 in, 107. 
 
 Ordination, of first American foreign 
 missionaries, 75, 76 ; of Mills, 
 Richards, and others, 169, 170. 
 
 Parvin, Theophilus, 183. 
 
 Payson, Edward, 170. 
 
 Personal appearance of Mills, 26, 
 164, 232. 
 
 Philadelphia, 132, 143 ; Bible Soci- 
 ety, 129, 131, 143, 152. 
 
 Pittsburg, 152. 
 
 Plan of Union, 157. 
 
 Poor, Daniel, 169. 
 
 279 
 
INDEX 
 
 Prayer, at the haystack, 31 ; Mills' 
 prayer for missions, 84 ; Mills, a 
 man of prayer, 233. 
 
 Prayer-meetings, 29-32, 60. 
 
 Presbyterianism, gains from Con- 
 gregationalism, 157. 
 
 Presbyterians, 107, 108, 112, 184 ff. 
 
 Reformed Churches and foreign 
 missions, 185. 
 
 Religious conditions, at Williams 
 previous to 1800, 24; new influ- 
 ences on, 25 ; in Ohio, 107 ; in 
 Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, 108; 
 from Nashville to Natchez, no, 
 in; at New Orleans, 114-116; 
 in Louisiana, 117; at St. Louis, 
 
 '33- 
 
 Renan, 113. 
 
 Reports of Mills and his compan- 
 ions, 120, 151 ff., 265. 
 
 Revival, at Torringford, n, 12; at 
 Williams College, 27 ; in Litch- 
 field County, 25 ; influence on 
 haystack meeting, 29. 
 
 Rice, Harvey, 252. 
 
 Rice, Luther, 32, 37, 53, 54, 55, 73, 
 76. 
 
 Richards, James, 30, 37, 53, 54, 60, 
 
 69. 73. l6 9> 2 57- 
 Robbins, A. R., 24. 
 Robbins, F. L., 30, 260. 
 Robbins, R. C, 50, 53, 54, 60. 
 Roman Catholics, 109, 115. 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, 150, 234. 
 Royce, Samuel, 156. 
 
 Saint Loins, 133, 134, 153, 154, 231. 
 Sandwich Islands, 95, 97, 99, 182. 
 Schermerhom, John F, 103, 106, 
 
 117, 119, 129, 151, 152. 
 Scudder, David, 251. 
 Sedgwick, Charles F., 23. 
 Seward, John, 37, 58, 61, 80. 
 Sierra Leone, 214 ff., 222, 223, 234. 
 Skepticism, 24, 44, 45. 
 Smith, Daniel, 131, 135, 152, 156, 
 
 172. 
 Society for Propagating the Gospel 
 
 among Indians and others in 
 North America, H9ff., 124, 152. 
 
 Society of Inquiry, 62-64. 
 
 South America, 180, 181, 183, 186. 
 
 Spring, Gardiner, 128, 163. 
 
 Spring, Samuel, 52, 7', 7§, 170. 
 
 Stafford, Ward, 176, 180. 
 
 Stevenson, Robert Louis, 231. 
 
 Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 8, 203. 
 
 Strong, Josiah, 102, 168. 
 
 Stuart, Moses, 71, 105. 
 
 Tamoree, George, 92. 
 Tennooe, William, 92, 95. 
 Thompson, A. C, 212. 
 Thurston, Asa, 95. 
 Torringford, 4, n, 106, 125. 
 Trumbull, Henry Clay, 2. 
 Tweedy, H. H, 228. 
 
 United Foreign Missionary So- 
 ciety, 185. 
 
 Warren, Edward, 169, 171, 258. 
 
 Washington, Booker T., 99. 
 
 Washington, Bushrod, 198. 
 
 Webster, Daniel, 203. 
 
 Weishaupt, Adam, 44. 
 
 Wesley, Charles, 43. 
 
 Wesley, John, 43, 230. 
 
 Wilberforce, William, 205. 
 
 Williams College, Mills prepares 
 for, 18 ; conditions at, in 1800, 
 21, 22 ; curriculum, 22 ; why Mills 
 entered, 23, 24 ; religious condi- 
 tions at, 24 ; those conditions 
 changed, 25 ; Mills enters, 26 ; 
 revival at, 27 ; influence of hay- 
 stack on, 242. 
 
 Winslow, Miron, 251. 
 
 Woodbridge, Timothy, 59. 
 
 Woods, Leonard, 71, 105. 
 
 Worcester, Samuel, 39, 71, 76, 170. 
 
 World's Student Christian Federa- 
 tion, 243. 
 
 Xavier, Francis, 42, 231. 
 
 Yale College, 40, 49, 51, 87. 
 
 280