CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BX9869.E42 E42 
 
 William Greenleaf E iot minister, educa 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 480 245 
 
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://archive.org/details/cu31924029480245 
 
WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
WILLIAM GREENLEAF 
 ELIOT 
 
 a^inigter, €&ucator, ^ilantijroptet 
 
 BY 
 
 CHAKLOTTE C. ELIOT 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 JAMES K. HOSMER, PH.D., LL. D. 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 (Cbc tftitets'ibc press, Cambridge 
 1904 
 
COPYRIGHT 1904 BY CHARLOTTE C. ELIOT 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 1904 
 
WRITTEN FOR MY CHILDREN 
 "LEST THEY FORGET" 
 
PEEFACE 
 
 The following narrative of over fifty years of 
 labor in the interest of a higher civilization of 
 religion, morality, and learning has been pre- 
 pared in the belief that the facts therein presented 
 are worthy of permanent record. Although the 
 story is intended primarily as a personal memoir, 
 incidentally it relates to events of historical im- 
 portance, and depicts life in the West during its 
 formative period under conditions that will not 
 recur. 
 
 The materials used in the preparation of this 
 memoir have been obtained from Dr. Eliot's dia- 
 ries, correspondence, sermons, reports, and other 
 documents, published and unpublished, in the 
 study of which contemporaneous history has 
 been consulted. In the diaries occur frequent 
 intervals of days, months, and years. The record 
 for 1849, the year of pestilence in St. Louis, is 
 quite full ; and that from 1861 to the close of 
 1862 contains under the head of " Suggestions " 
 the original draft of the military order creating 
 the Western Sanitary Commission, and of the 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 documents issued by that commission during the 
 period mentioned. For seven or eight years 
 thereafter no journal was kept, and the narra- 
 tive relating to this portion of Dr. Eliot's life is 
 based on his correspondence. 
 
 The importance of the interests to which Dr. 
 Eliot devoted his life suggested individual treat- 
 ment of the subjects considered, as conducing to 
 clearness and thoroughness of presentation, and 
 there are, therefore, separate chapters on church, 
 educational, and other work. This method was 
 deemed preferable to a strict adherence to chrono- 
 logical order in the sequence of events. 
 
 To a proper estimate of Dr. Eliot's influence 
 during the period of the Civil War, and of the 
 results effected by him in aiding to save Missouri 
 to the Union, an historical sketch proved essen- 
 tial. The same treatment was for similar rea- 
 sons accorded to the account of his agency in 
 establishing and directing the work of the West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission. The history of this 
 latter organization has been given more in detail 
 because of popular ignorance on the subject. 
 There are many historians to chronicle the san- 
 guinary conflicts of war, but few who deem its 
 humanities worthy of portrayal. The facts upon 
 which this narration is based were obtained from 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 the original record book of the Commission, and 
 from reports issued by its secretary during the 
 holding of the Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair, 
 which reports were completed and issued in book 
 form at the close of the Civil War. The book 
 referred to is simply a collection of reports, and 
 contains many uninteresting details. It was the 
 hope of the gentlemen composing the Board of 
 the Western Sanitary Commission that the secre- 
 tary, Rev. J. G. Forman, would at some time re- 
 write the account of the work of the Commission 
 in more attractive literary form, but he did not 
 live to accomplish the task. 
 
 In preparing this memoir the writer has taken 
 especial satisfaction in presenting Dr. Eliot's 
 work in the cause of emancipation, as for many 
 years his conservative attitude was misunderstood 
 and misconstrued by persons of more radical 
 ideas. As a matter of fact he expressed in the 
 pulpit and on the rostrum sentiments that would 
 have entailed swift retribution if uttered in the 
 heat of debate by one less honored and respected. 
 Impassioned but never passionate, he appealed 
 to the reason and conscience, and men could not 
 gainsay him. 
 
 A man of deep and tender affections, whose 
 intensity of feeling was only equaled by his 
 
x PREFACE 
 
 strong power of self-control, Dr. Eliot was reti- 
 cent in the expression of his own emotions. This 
 reserve has been respected by his biographer, 
 who believes that a record of his deeds is a suf- 
 ficient revelation of character. To the youth of 
 the present generation may be commended the 
 Christian zeal, the moral enthusiasm, the exalted 
 patriotism and lofty example of men like William 
 Greenleaf Eliot and his co-workers, the rich har- 
 vest of whose labors it is theirs to reap. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHATTEB PAGE 
 
 Introduction xv 
 
 I. Early Life 1 
 
 II. Ministry 31 
 
 III. Education — Public Schools .... 66 
 
 IV. Washington University . . .80 
 V. Washington University (continued) . . 98 
 
 VI. Gradual Emancipation 126 
 
 VII. Missouri during the Civil War . . . 152 
 
 VIII. Emancipation as a War Measure . . 182 
 IX. Organization and Work of the Western 
 
 Sanitary Commission 212 
 
 X. Western Sanitary Commission (continued) 241 
 
 XI. The Negro in the Reconstruction Period . 279 
 
 XII. Social Reform 299 
 
 XIII. Sermons and Other Writings .... 324 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS 
 
 PA OB 
 
 Portrait of William Greenleaf Eliot at the age 
 
 of 24 Frontispiece 
 
 From a water color portrait painted about 1835. 
 
 Portrait of Dr. Eliot at the age of 43 . . .82 
 From a daguerreotype taken about 1854. 
 
 Portrait of Dr. Eliot at the age of 74 . . . 148 
 From a photograph taken about 1885. 
 
 Memorial Tablet to Dr. Eliot in the Unitarian 
 
 Church at St. Louis 358 
 
 Robert Bringhurst, Sculptor. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Just seventy years ago there appeared in the 
 city of St. Louis a minister, twenty-three years 
 old, whose subsequent career was sufficiently 
 remarkable to make it fitting that it should be 
 written down. Of New England birth but reared 
 in Washington, D. C, he returned as maturity 
 approached to New England to complete his edu- 
 cation. Then, fresh from the Harvard Divinity 
 School, he took up his life-work as the first ex- 
 ponent of the Unitarian views west of the Mis- 
 sissippi. Through both father and mother he 
 came of honorable lineage ; his brothers and sis- 
 ters were persons useful and distinguished ; his 
 own career from the first was worthy of such 
 antecedents and relationships. 
 
 Dr. William Greenleaf Eliot was for thirty- 
 nine years pastor of the Church of the Messiah 
 in St. Louis, a pastorate remarkably successful. 
 Aside from his ministrations to his flock, he made 
 his influence felt in the community in many 
 ways. Pew projects of moment, having in view 
 the elevation of society, could in that time be 
 named, of which he was not the originator or an 
 effective helper from the start. He was the friend 
 of the poor and oppressed of every land and 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 complexion, in particular of the negro. Under 
 slavery he mitigated, so far as his great influence 
 extended, the hard lot of the blacks. Though 
 having no part with the extremists who declared 
 the Constitution of the United States to be "a 
 covenant with death and an agreement with hell," 
 he was actively anti-slavery, and from the out- 
 break of the Civil War was zealously loyal. In 
 the Western Sanitary Commission, which came 
 into existence through his suggestion, he was 
 always a leader in collecting and applying the 
 millions which flowed through its channels to the 
 relief of the soldiers in the field. His youngest 
 brother, a gallant officer, was killed at Chancel- 
 lorsville at the head of his men. His brother 
 Thomas, in Congress, became conspicuous for 
 wisdom and ability in the difficult time of recon- 
 struction. William, in Missouri, played a part not 
 less honorable and important in carrying through 
 the struggle and in bringing to pass afterward a 
 proper settlement. Lincoln and his cabinet offi- 
 cers and generals received his advice with respect. 
 In particular, Dr. Eliot's interest was great in 
 education. The first free school west of the Mis- 
 sissippi was begun under his direction, and no 
 one deserves more than he to be regarded as the 
 father of the public school system in Missouri. 
 Washington University, a cluster of educational 
 institutions conceived after the broadest stan- 
 dard, containing at the present moment thousands 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 of pupils, provided -with structures among the 
 finest in the world, and possessing an endowment 
 of several millions, came into existence through 
 the efforts of the group of men of whom Dr. 
 Eliot was the centre and inspiration. He was 
 president of the board of directors of Washing- 
 ton University from its establishment; and in 
 1873, having resigned his pastorate of the Church 
 of the Messiah, he became its chancellor. Hence- 
 forth, until his strength failed, he gave himself 
 up mainly to the direction of the institution, 
 showing always a rare wisdom and devotedness. 
 Dr. Eliot was perhaps over-ready to sacrifice the 
 interests of individuals in furthering the welfare 
 of institutions and causes which he deemed im- 
 portant, but he always laid himself first upon the 
 altar. Full himself of the spirit of self-sacrifice, 
 he demanded it from others, and remarkable in- 
 deed was the consecration to high ends of means 
 and energies brought to pass through incitements 
 proceeding from him. In particular he was zeal- 
 ous for his university. For this he well-nigh im- 
 poverished himself, while at the same moment 
 giving his time and powers unremittingly to its 
 administration. If it stands to-day magnificently 
 appointed, abounding in endowments, sought by 
 thousands of pupils, a culmination of sweetness 
 and Light, let not the man be forgotten who laid 
 its corner-stone and watched over its small begin- 
 nings. Of all the worthies of early New England, 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 not one possesses so brilliant and desirable a 
 fame as the young minister who, by a bequest 
 of <£400 and his library of two hundred and 
 sixty volumes to a school struggling into life, 
 associated his name forever with our proud- 
 est seat of learning. What John Harvard did 
 for Cambridge bears no comparison with what 
 William G. Eliot did for Washington University. 
 The moneyed gift of the latter was much more 
 than fifty-fold that of the early dying Charles- 
 town pastor, even measured by the changed 
 standards of the present day ; and there was, 
 besides, the faithful service during the period 
 of a generation. The present writer remembers 
 hearing General W. T. Sherman, for many years 
 the friend of Dr. Eliot, and cognizant of his 
 great work, express regret that the university 
 did not bear his name. Others have felt the same 
 regret. It would be at any rate the height of 
 injustice if his service to it were overlaid and 
 forgotten ; and it is a subject for rejoicing that 
 the detailed story of his work for Washington 
 University, as also of his other work, now at last 
 finds a proper presentment in the excellent book 
 which follows. 
 
 Dr. Eliot was a man of quite unusual versa- 
 tility. He attained eminence as a preacher and 
 educational organizer. The fine literary finish of 
 everything he wrote makes it certain that, had 
 he so chosen, he might have succeeded as an 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 author. In affairs he was full of enterprise and 
 possessed excellent judgment. " If I could have 
 had Dr. Eliot for a partner," said an able man 
 of business once, " we should have made most 
 of the money west of the Alleghanies." He pos- 
 sessed, moreover, a certain firmness of will, quick- 
 ness of perception, self-reliance and balance, that 
 no circumstances could disturb, and, withal, a 
 dauntless courage, which, had fate so willed it, 
 might have made him a brilliant soldier. 
 
 Dr. Eliot was short of stature and of delicate 
 frame. For many years his work was done in the 
 midst of constant suffering. The contrast was 
 almost pathetic between the smallness of his phy- 
 sical resources and the magnitude of the enter- 
 prises which he dared to undertake. But there 
 was no inadequacy. His conquering spirit sus- 
 tained and supplemented everywhere his feeble 
 body. Every important work to which he put 
 his hand was carried through to success. This 
 activity, so long-continued, so effective, so benefi- 
 cent, has waited long for its record. Now that 
 the record appears, it should meet with a warm 
 welcome. 
 
 James K. Hosmer. 
 
WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 EAKLY LIFE 
 
 In the year 1812, New Bedford was a seaport 
 town with a foreign trade, extensive for that 
 period. Its commercial prosperity, however, re- 
 ceived a sudden check from the embargo on 
 American shipping, a result of the war between 
 England and America. Trading vessels lay idle 
 in the harbor, a losing investment for their 
 unfortunate owners. 
 
 Among those who thus suffered great finan- 
 cial loss was William Greenleaf Eliot, merchant 
 and shipowner, then a young man thirty-one 
 years of age. In 1807 he had married his cousin 
 Margaret Dawes, ten years his junior, and had 
 settled with his young wife in New Bedford, as 
 their future home. In 1812 he was the father of 
 three children, of whom the youngest, William 
 Greenleaf Eliot, Jr., had been born the previous 
 year, August 5, 1811. 
 
 At the beginning of his married life William 
 Eliot, Senior, had every reason to look forward 
 
2 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 to a prosperous business career in New Bedford, 
 but when reverses of fortune came he bore them 
 with religious fortitude and philosophic resigna- 
 tion, neither subdued nor discouraged. He re- 
 solved to seek elsewhere some new avenue of 
 employment, and removed with his family to 
 Baltimore. From there he later went to Wash- 
 ington, D. C, in which city he received an ap- 
 pointment as chief examiner in the auditing 
 office of the Postal Department, a position which 
 he retained for thirty-five consecutive years. 
 
 From both parents, and a more remote ances- 
 try, William G. Eliot, Jr., inherited decided 
 traits of character. His great-grandfather, Rev. 
 Andrew Eliot, pastor of the old North Church 
 in Boston, was an earnest and zealous minister, 
 possessing strong convictions of duty, and keenly 
 alive to the responsibilities of his calling. When 
 offered the presidency of Harvard College, he 
 refused the appointment, believing it wrong to 
 relinquish his vocation for any other, however 
 honorable. 
 
 Samuel Eliot, the son of Andrew and grand- 
 father of William G. Eliot, Jr., was a young man 
 of great promise, who died at the early age of 
 thirty-six years, leaving a wife and five children. 
 
 Margaret Dawes Eliot, mother of William G. 
 Eliot, Jr., was a woman of strong intellect and 
 unusual force of character. She belonged to a 
 family conspicuous in the early annals of Boston. 
 
EARLY LIFE 3 
 
 Her grandfather, Colonel Thomas Dawes, was 
 always active in public affairs. He filled in turn 
 the offices of representative, senator, and coun- 
 cilor in Massachusetts. He was considered one 
 of the first great mechanics of Boston, being by 
 trade a mason, which at that period seemed to 
 represent a combination of architect, builder, and 
 mason. As architect of the Brattle Street Church, 
 he laid the corner-stone, and did half the mason 
 work in addition to designing the building. He 
 was also supervising architect of the State House. 
 It was said of him that " he was a high patriot," 
 and the Tories nicknamed him in derision " Jon- 
 athan Smoothing Plane." He took so conspicu- 
 ous a part in the early events of the Revolution 
 that he became obnoxious to the royalists, and 
 his house on Purchase Street was sacked by the 
 British troops before they left Boston. 
 
 In 1786 he was one of the deacons of the Old 
 South Church, and his "venerable appearance, 
 grave deportment, rich dress, and silver locks " 
 are said to have given him an impressive appear- 
 ance as he walked up the broad aisle every Sun- 
 day. A curious epitaph on his monument at 
 King's Chapel thus begins : — 
 
 " Of his taste for the Grecian simplicity 
 In architecture there are many monuments 
 Which he raised when that art was new to us." 
 
 Judge Thomas Dawes, son of Colonel Thomas 
 Dawes, Senior, and grandfather of William G. 
 
4 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Eliot, Jr., sat for ten years, from 1792 to 1802, 
 on the bench of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. 
 From 1802 to 1825, when he " died fuU of hon- 
 ors," he was Judge of Probate. He also sat for 
 twenty years on the municipal bench of Boston. 
 In an account given of him in a book entitled 
 " Boston Orators," he is described as " a small 
 man, but very eloquent." It is related of him 
 that, on one occasion being present at a gathering 
 where there were many large men, he was asked 
 how he felt. " Like a silver shilling among cop- 
 per pennies," he quickly answered. 
 
 Through two lines of descent William Green- 
 leaf Eliot, Jr., was a great-grandson of William 
 Greenleaf, one of whose daughters married Sam- 
 uel Eliot, and another Thomas Dawes, Jr. A third 
 daughter married Judge William Cranch, the 
 future father-in-law of William Eliot, Jr. The 
 Greenleafs were a Huguenot family, who emi- 
 grated from France to England, and thence to 
 America. 
 
 William Greenleaf, a stanch Whig, was ap- 
 pointed sheriff of Suffolk County, including Bos- 
 ton, in 1775. He succeeded his elder brother, 
 who was a Tory. As sheriff of Boston, it was 
 his duty to read the Declaration of Independence, 
 from the balcony of the old State House, in 
 July, 1776. On this joyful occasion " the bells 
 of the town were rung," and every sign that 
 belonged to a Tory taken down for a general 
 
EARLY LIFE 5 
 
 conflagration on King Street, now State Street. 
 Judge William Cranch told his family that on 
 that day his cousin, John Quincy Adams, and he, 
 then boys of nine and seven years of age, were 
 playing in the garden of their residence near by. 
 Hearing the noise in the street, they ran out 
 barefooted as they were, to see what was going 
 on. When in the crowd, some men lifted them 
 up that they might see and hear. Judge Cranch 
 said that William Greenleaf, the high sheriff of 
 Suffolk County, began to read the Declaration 
 of Independence. The people cried out that he 
 must read louder. He raised his voice, but the 
 cry was repeated : " Read louder ! louder ! " and 
 he then handed the paper to Colonel Thomas 
 Crafts, who had a strong, powerful voice. 
 
 William Cranch, this same boy of seven, was 
 in the lapse of time to marry the daughter of 
 William Greenleaf. 
 
 Active in public affairs, interested in the com- 
 mon weal, good citizens and men of unblemished 
 character, the ancestors of William Greenleaf 
 Eliot, Jr., left to their descendants a nobler heri- 
 tage than riches. 
 
 When William G. Eliot, Senior, removed to 
 Washington, it was to spend there the remain- 
 ing measure of his days. He resigned his office 
 under the government, April, 1853, stating that 
 he felt " the infirmities of age pressing so heav- 
 ily" upon him as to "make it proper to retire 
 
6 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 to private life." He was then seventy-two years 
 of age, and died in December of that same year, 
 a few days before his seventy-third birthday. Of 
 his family of eight children, three sons and three 
 daughters lived to mature age. 
 
 After his early reverses of fortune, he was 
 never a wealthy man. With some self-sacrifice 
 on his own and his wife's part, he gave to his 
 children all the advantages of education that 
 could be procured, Mrs. Eliot herself aiding in 
 their instruction. Theirs was a household in 
 which the accidents of wealth were not missed, 
 so long as there remained the essential elements 
 of mental and spiritual progress, — books, edu- 
 cation, social intercourse, and the inspiration of 
 noble ideals. 
 
 Home influences tended to enhance the natu- 
 ral earnestness of disposition which was always 
 a predominant trait in the character of William 
 G. Eliot, Jr. In his boyhood he was sent to New 
 Bedford because of its educational advantages, 
 and there attended the Friends' Academy. One 
 of his schoolmates, referring to his school days 
 there, wrote: "His influence was felt in the 
 whole school, young as he was. He had great 
 earnestness as well as dignity. He appeared 
 more advanced in every way than other boys, 
 and yet there never was sweeter hilarity and joy. 
 He was as eager to help us in our May-day festi- 
 vals given in the woods, as he was devoted to 
 
EARLY LIFE 7 
 
 study. His manners were as formed then as in 
 later years. None ever felt the rude boy." 
 
 Columbian College, of Washington, D. C, 
 received its charter from Congress in 1821. An 
 old certificate of scholarship, yellow with age, 
 certifies that there was received of William G. 
 Eliot one hundred and thirty-four dollars and 
 sixteen cents, principal and interest on this cer- 
 tificate. This entitled the subscriber to " twenty 
 collegiate years' tuition." Truly a generous re- 
 turn for a small outlay ! From the indorsements 
 on tbe back of the certificate of William G. 
 Eliot, Senior, we find that his eldest son, Thomas 
 Dawes Eliot, received tuition at the college from 
 1823 until the close of 1825, and William Green- 
 leaf Eliot, Jr., from 1826 until 1830, when he 
 graduated. 
 
 For one year after graduation William G. 
 Eliot, Jr., was employed in the Postal Depart- 
 ment at Washington, D. C, serving as assistant 
 clerk in the chief examiner's room. In an ad- 
 dress, delivered nearly half a century later, he 
 related a curious circumstance which seems to 
 have first awakened in him the desire to make 
 St. Louis his future home. He stated that, dur- 
 ing this period of his clerkship in Washington, 
 whenever he opened the quarterly returns from 
 St. Louis, " carefully served up in a doeskin by 
 Wilson P. Hunt, postmaster," he was accustomed 
 to read the Missouri " Republican " containing 
 
8 WILLIAM GB.EENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the dead-letter list, and determined that if ever he 
 went West, St. Louis would be the resting place. 
 
 In 1831 Mr. Eliot entered the Cambridge 
 Divinity School as a student. So fitting in his 
 case seemed this choice of a profession, that it 
 would be difficult to imagine an alternative. His 
 parents approved of his desire to enter the min- 
 istry, and his father thus wrote to him soon after 
 he reached Cambridge : " I rejoice more and 
 more that your .choice of a profession is what it 
 is. I am sure your prospect of happiness in this 
 life is greater than it could be in any other pro- 
 fession, and as it has been made voluntarily, and 
 from conviction, I am sure you never will regret 
 it." 
 
 The three years spent at the Cambridge Di- 
 vinity School seem to have been a period of al- 
 most unalloyed happiness. Congenial pursuits, 
 the companionship of fellow-students having the 
 same interests, and the delightful social inter- 
 course of Cambridge and Boston, were keenly 
 enjoyed. Between William Greenleaf Eliot and 
 James Freeman Clarke, one year his senior, there 
 was formed one of those friendships, as rare as 
 they are beautiful, which are founded on mutual 
 love, esteem, and respect, and continue through- 
 out life. James Freeman Clarke graduated one 
 year in advance of his younger friend, and set- 
 tled in Louisville, Kentucky. A correspondence 
 then began, frequent for the first few years, and 
 
EARLY LIFE 9 
 
 lasting, with longer intervals between the letters, 
 throughout the lifetime of William Eliot. These 
 letters of his friend, Mr. Clarke once character- 
 ized as "affectionate, playful, wise, and tender." 
 Each of the two men carefully preserved the let- 
 ters of the other, but so intimate was the relation 
 between them, so unreservedly did each express 
 to the other his inmost thoughts, his spiritual 
 doubts, his hopes and aspirations, that we almost 
 shrink from reading this revelation of one soul 
 to another. Especially is this true of the earlier 
 correspondence. 
 
 Of their student life while at the divinity 
 school, Dr. Clarke thus spoke in a memorial 
 sermon, delivered after the death of Dr. Eliot : 
 " William Henry Channing, William Greenleaf 
 Eliot, and I saw each other every day, and our 
 conversation was on the most important themes. 
 William Eliot was more practical, William Chan- 
 ning more ideal. Like all sincere souls, each of 
 these men valued in the other that in which the 
 other excelled himself. Already devoted to all 
 philanthropies, William Eliot sometimes con- 
 demned that I should think it worth while to 
 read as much as I then did of German poetry 
 and philosophy. His own time was largely occu- 
 pied in visiting the poor and the prisoners, and 
 in examining the working of asylums and hos- 
 pitals. . . . But his power of self-judgment and 
 self-adjustment showed itself even in this; for 
 
10 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 one day he asked me to give him some profound 
 work of German philosophy to read, ' for,' said 
 he, ' I need to balance all this external work with 
 some hard study.' I suggested Fichte's ' Bestim- 
 mung des Menschen ' (Destiny of Man), which I 
 had just read. He went through it in the same 
 exhaustive way in which he did everything, 
 making himself master of the argument, and 
 some years after he told me he thought that 
 was about the best thing he did in the divinity 
 school. In a letter written to me from Cam- 
 bridge, in 1833, he says, ' You cannot tell how 
 much I feel the need of deep, abstract study. I 
 feel drawn as by a strong cord to German. I am 
 now reading Fichte's sun-clear account of his 
 system. English books seem too much on the 
 surface, while principles are what my nature 
 craves.' He saw that there is nothing more prac- 
 tical than life fed from deep thought." 
 
 At this period William Eliot was much inter- 
 ested in German philosophy. He wrote to Mr. 
 Clarke again : " I am reading Madame de Stael 
 on German philosophy. I am delighted with it. 
 German philosophy is the bugbear of our fire- 
 sides, and is almost another name for infidelity ; 
 yet if the learned are ever redeemed from skep- 
 ticism, it must be by its influence. The foun- 
 dations of my religion are tenfold stronger than 
 they were a year since, and I feel that I stand 
 on a rock. My earnest prayer is that German 
 
EARLY LIFE 11 
 
 literature and science may have free course among 
 us." 
 
 In 1833-34, William Eliot read Goethe exten- 
 sively, both in the original and translations. " Wil- 
 helm Meister," especially, he read and re-read 
 several times, declaring that he was enraptured 
 with it. Herein he showed his humanitarian bias, 
 for what most delighted him in the book was 
 " the wonderful knowledge of human nature in 
 all its phases and modifications, — the perfect de- 
 velopment in Wilhelm of the spiritual philoso- 
 phy." For every sentiment expressed in the book, 
 he " found some response in himself," although 
 he acknowledges that his opinion of Goethe is 
 rather mixed, on account of the frequent appear- 
 ance of sensual tendencies and feelings. " Yet," 
 be exclaims, " why find partial and perhaps un- 
 founded faults where there is so much to ad- 
 mire? It is a great book. How familiar is its 
 author with the most undefined shades of human 
 thought, and the secret workings of the religious 
 heart, and the early dawning and the gradual 
 growth of the spiritual and divine in the soul." 
 
 The philosophy of Goethe, William Eliot did not 
 always find congenial with his feelings. There 
 was occasionally something akin to "practical 
 atheism," a " sort of chance or fate," which, al- 
 though it migbt not be a part of his philosophy, 
 could not be altogether foreign from his, Goethe's, 
 mind. 
 
12 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Nothing is more characteristic of William 
 Eliot's work as a student than his desire to dis- 
 cover and accept truth wherever found. Yet 
 always with discrimination he tried to separate 
 the tares from the wheat, the true from the false, 
 and remain steadfast in his central religious con- 
 victions. To Mr. Clarke, in 1833, he thus wrote : 
 " The longer I live, every additional day, I see 
 more of the importance of a real faith in the 
 existence of truth. I have come to the decided 
 opinion that there is one Philosophy, one Religion. 
 What they are, God only knows. Every consid- 
 eration leads me to think that there is one stream 
 of truth, which is from and to eternity, deep, pure, 
 and spiritual — to which every soul tends, and 
 will reach sooner or later. It is this belief which 
 is of the essence of religious faith, for he who 
 recognizes the existence of anything permanent 
 and spiritual must be religious." 
 
 Among so many systems of philosophy, amid 
 so much theory and speculation, where shall truth 
 be sought and found? William Eliot thus ex- 
 presses the conclusion at which he has arrived : 
 " For my own part, I believe the path of duty, in 
 its widest sense of religion, of usefulness, is the 
 very path which soonest leads to the love and 
 perception of truth." 
 
 For William Eliot, who had already decided to 
 be an evangelist, a missionary, this "path of 
 duty " was to lead to what was then a distant out- 
 
EARLY LIFE 13 
 
 post of civilization, away from the world of books, 
 and removed from the sympathetic intercourse of 
 his fellow-workers in the Unitarian denomination. 
 He loved these things not less than other men, 
 but his Christian zeal, his desire to do good, led 
 him where he was most needed. Who can say 
 that for him the path of duty was not the path 
 which soonest led to the love and perception of 
 truth ? 
 
 Among William Eliot's friends at Cambridge 
 was included the revered and beloved Henry 
 Ware, teacher, counselor, and friend. Dr. Chan- 
 ning was then pastor of the Federal Street Church, 
 which Mr. Eliot must have attended, since he later 
 referred to him as his minister. He regarded Dr. 
 Channing with great reverence and affection, and 
 seems to have been strongly influenced by him in 
 his early religious views. He was also much at- 
 tached to Dr. Channing's colleague, Dr. Gannett. 
 
 William Eliot always found a welcome awaiting 
 him in the hospitable home of Dr. James Free- 
 man at Newton. Of this home Dr. De Normandie 
 said that it was a home of " intellectual activity, 
 of human interests, and of a spiritual atmo- 
 sphere," all of which made it most congenial and 
 attractive for a young man who thirsted for the 
 sympathy he there found. 
 
 Other friends there were, among them Marga- 
 ret Fuller, whom Mr. Eliot greatly admired. He 
 wrote to his friend Mr. Clarke that he had spent 
 
14 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 a delightful evening in conversation with her, 
 and again he referred to her as being " as witty 
 and intellectual as ever." 
 
 The first sermon which William Eliot delivered 
 in his course at the divinity school was charac- 
 teristic of his future work, for the subject was 
 " Philanthropy." He wrote Mr. Clarke that he 
 had the assurance to preach to the school " as if 
 they had been any one else." He added that, 
 " having come to the conclusion that we should 
 do all we can and sacrifice everything," he " left 
 them to their reflections." 
 
 While at the divinity school Mr. Eliot decided 
 to begin his ministry at some distant point, prob- 
 ably in the West. This desire was increased when 
 in 1833 his friend Mr. Clarke was settled over 
 the Unitarian Church at Louisville, Kentucky. 
 William Henry Channing seems to have consid- 
 ered going to St. Louis, but decided against it. 
 This action William Eliot deplored. In August, 
 1833, he wrote to Mr. Clarke : " I wish you would 
 tell me something of what the prospect in the 
 West is for us young, ambitious preachers. Is it 
 on the whole a good field for useful labor? I 
 hear that at St. Louis a parish is getting together ; 
 is it true, and what about it ? " Again, in Decem- 
 ber he wrote : " Next Christmas I shall spend in 
 the North, South, East, or West — God knows ! 
 I wish it might happen to be in your vicinity. 
 If you will remain at Louisville, I will come to 
 
EARLY LIFE 15 
 
 St. Louis, or some nearer place." In those days 
 of travel by stage-coach, or along streams ob- 
 structed by sand-bars, St. Louis was much more 
 distant from Boston than is London now, count- 
 ing by the time required to make the journey. 
 It is evident that William Eliot realized the sacri- 
 fice involved in going there, for he again wrote 
 to Mr. Clarke in February : " What matters it if 
 the few years of life be spent in cities or in a 
 wilderness. ... I am doubtful, but very decided. 
 ... I must know more what is the prospect of 
 success — what the character of the people — the 
 probable number of Unitarians to begin with — 
 the peculiar discouragements, etc. . . . Say de- 
 cidedly ' You can succeed, — you have the requi- 
 site ability,' and if I know myself, I will come. 
 The self-sacrifice, though it sometimes comes over 
 one like a cold hand on the heart, in general 
 means nothing at all. Let them know in some 
 way that a youngster is ready to come there to 
 live, to spend his life among them if they will 
 provide food and lodging — for if I come, I come 
 to remain, and to lay my ashes in the valley of the 
 Mississippi." 
 
 Two weeks later he again wrote : " When I 
 look at those youths who are candidating here- 
 abouts, the bare possibility of my becoming one 
 of them is a strong jog like a voice : ' Arise ! 
 Get thee out of thy country and from thy kin- 
 dred to a land that I shall show thee.' Mr. Ware 
 
16 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 has said that he thinks me well suited to the 
 task of pioneering, and for myself I believe my 
 mind is made up. I have written home to the 
 like effect, and am expecting letters of condo- 
 lence ; they will more probably be of encourage- 
 ment, for my parents are not of a sort to stand 
 in the way of even a youthful and enthusiastic 
 project of usefulness." 
 
 The answer came in a letter from his father, 
 dated March 18. He acquiesced in his son's de- 
 cision, as was to have been expected, although 
 he did not entirely approve. " I would rather," 
 he wrote, " if circumstances permit, have you re- 
 main in Cambridge another year. ... I can see 
 that there would be some advantage to you in 
 having you depend entirely on your own mental 
 resources, but before drawing on them so liber- 
 ally as you would be obliged to do in the far 
 West, you should have a good stock provided. 
 In that new country you would want counselors 
 and a library, and your labors would be very 
 heavy. ... I would have you weigh the matter 
 well, considt friends who can assist your judg- 
 ment, and pray for assistance from above, and 
 my son, whatever your final determination in 
 the matter may be, I shall bid you Godspeed, 
 and will in every way give you assistance." 
 
 In his ultimate decision William Eliot, Jr., re- 
 ceived the blessing of his parents, if not their 
 entire approval. To the enthusiasm of youth, 
 
EARLY LIFE 17 
 
 difficulties seem and are less insurmountable than 
 they appear to the cooler judgment of age. From 
 a letter to Mr. Clarke, however, it is evident that 
 the young divinity student had begun more fully 
 to realize what was before him. He wrote : " To- 
 day I have had conversation with Mr. Goodwin, 
 who was in St. Louis, and he gives me encourage- 
 ment to go. He says I shall find society enough 
 to be happy in, and that it depends on me 
 whether I succeed or not. There are enough to 
 begin with who are ready to do what they can 
 to support a Unitarian minister, but the arduous- 
 ness of the situation is greater than I thought, 
 if the society there is so mixed. I think I shall 
 go, but am anxious to learn more." 
 
 In this spirit of self-consecration, William 
 Greenleaf Eliot, Jr., was ordained as an Evan- 
 gelist, at the Federal Street Church, Dr. Chan- 
 ning's, in Boston, on August 17, 1834, twelve 
 days after his twenty-third birthday. On this 
 occasion, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, then of 
 Louisville, preached from the text John x. 14. 
 The Ordaining Prayer was delivered by Rev. 
 Henry Ware, Jr., the Charge by Rev. W. H. 
 Furness of Philadelphia, the Right Hand of 
 Fellowship by Rev. Cazneau Palfrey, of Wash- 
 ington, D. C, and the Concluding Prayer by Rev. 
 Mr. Taylor (" Father Taylor " ), of the Seamen's 
 Church, Boston. A curious document, signed 
 C. Stetson, Scribe of the Ordaining Committee, 
 
18 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 certifies that Mr. William G. Eliot, late of the 
 Theological Seminary in Harvard University, 
 had been " ordained according to the usage of 
 our churches, to the work of the Gospel Ministry 
 as an Evangelist, whenever Providence may open 
 to him a field of labor." 
 
 It was not only natural but fitting that Wil- 
 liam Eliot should be ordained in Dr. Channing's 
 church. At the time of the Channing Anniver- 
 sary in 1879, he wrote to a friend : " Forty-five 
 years ago in the Federal Street Church, with 
 Dr. Channing in the pulpit, I was ordained as an 
 Evangelist, and well remember his kindly words 
 of parental sympathy. He was the pastor of my 
 grandparents, and of my parents, and I have al- 
 ways regarded him as my own. No one can sur- 
 pass me in profoundness of respect for his mem- 
 ory. He was great as a writer, as a preacher, 
 as a thinker ; above all, he was great in the pu- 
 rity and simplicity of his Christian life." 
 
 Before his ordination, a call from St. Louis 
 had already come to William G. Eliot, Jr. He 
 thus narrates the circumstances : " In June, 1834, 
 Mr. Christopher Rhodes went to Boston (from St. 
 Louis), partially for the purpose of finding some 
 young man to spend the winter in St. Louis as a 
 missionary preacher. Conferring with Rev. Henry 
 Ware, he learned that a member of the class just 
 graduated at Cambridge Divinity School had 
 formed the idea of going to St. Louis on just 
 
EARLY LIFE 19 
 
 such an errand. This was a son of William G. 
 Eliot, Esq., of Washington. . . . Mr. Eliot had 
 already written to Mr. Rhodes, whose name was 
 known to him through correspondence with his 
 intimate friend, James Freeman Clarke, . . . but 
 his letter had not reached St. Louis when Mr. 
 Rhodes left. An interview between him and Mr. 
 Rhodes led to a winter's engagement." 
 
 . . . "Early in October Mr. Eliot left his 
 home in Washington, D. C, for the West, reach- 
 ing Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, after three days 
 and nights of stage travel. There he stayed a 
 month, preaching four Sundays, and then took 
 boat for Cincinnati, where Ephraim Peabody was 
 the Unitarian minister. Thence to Louisville, 
 where he remained over Sunday with Mr. Clarke ; 
 and after four days waiting for a boat, the river 
 being very low, he came on to St. Louis, reach- 
 ing that city after fourteen days of sand-bar 
 voyage." 
 
 Whatever hesitation William Eliot felt in 
 going to St. Louis as a missionary arose not so 
 much from a desire that " the lines should be 
 laid in pleasant places," as from a dread, natural 
 to untried youth, that he was not fitted for the 
 work he had undertaken. September 17, 1834, 
 he wrote to Mr. Clarke from Washington : " From 
 New York I hear (through Mr. Furness) that they 
 think of inviting me ; probably he has no ground 
 for the opinion except the casual remarks of 
 
20 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 individuals or the lite. On the whole, it is better 
 I should not be invited there. If I were, the case 
 is plain that I must go, and I am not ready for 
 such a place yet. Besides, it would be a scurvy 
 treatment of the St. Louis people not to spend at 
 least the winter with them." 
 
 Continuing, he thus expressed his sense of the 
 responsibility of the work he had undertaken : 
 " I daily become more sensible of my want of 
 preparedness for St. Louis duties, but do not 
 despair. There are a few great ideas of which I 
 have a glimmering by which the world may be 
 moved. ... I believe in the omnipotent power 
 of faith, because by faith we may become one 
 with God and receive from Him power to do all 
 things, or rather, perhaps, partake of His omni- 
 potence." 
 
 Arrived in St. Louis, the duty of the moment 
 left no time for inward misgivings. Mr. Eliot 
 reached there on Friday, and as he afterwards re- 
 lated, was " cordially received by Mr. Rhodes and 
 Mr. James Smith, whose homes became his home 
 from that day onward." No time was wasted. 
 Posters were immediately issued announcing that 
 on the following Sunday, in Shepherd's school- 
 room, opposite the court house, Unitarian preach- 
 ing would be held. 
 
 For the first few Sundays the meetings were 
 well attended. Unfortunately, however, a num- 
 ber of persons who came were under the impres- 
 
EARLY LIFE 21 
 
 sion that this was an anti-Christian movement, 
 or at least in special antagonism to all other 
 churches. When it was discovered that although 
 Rev. Mr. Eliot's doctrinal opinions differed some- 
 what from those of other ministers, his faith in 
 the essentials of religion was equally fervent, the 
 attendance diminished, leaving a strong nucleus 
 of earnest Christian believers, which was even 
 then the seed of the future church. Gradually 
 their number increased, and early in 1835 it was 
 decided to build a house of worship. 
 
 In New England the Calvinism of the emigrant 
 Puritans had been followed by a reaction in favor 
 of a broader interpretation of religion. Massa- 
 chusetts especially, according to John Fishe, on 
 account of the ecclesiastical rigidity which lim- 
 ited the right of voting to church members, bred 
 a strong opposition party disposed to liberal 
 views. William Channing, the apostle of Unita- 
 rianism, had declared that the Scriptures must be 
 interpreted in the light of reason. In New Eng- 
 land his principle had been widely accepted by 
 thinking people, but had yet scarcely influenced 
 the more distant regions of the country. That 
 Mr. Eliot encountered in St. Louis less opposi- 
 tion to his religious views tban he had expected, 
 is evident from a letter written by him to Dr. 
 James Freeman, December 30, 1834. He wrote : 
 " There is far less prejudice against us than I ex- 
 pected to find, or rather I should say the prejudices 
 
22 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 are less stubborn than they generally are where 
 our name has only been heard as a bugbear. Very 
 many of the sternest Presbyterians, and the strict- 
 est Episcopalians and Methodists, have been to 
 hear me, and if they are on the one hand disap- 
 pointed in not finding very much to condemn, 
 they are generally candid enough to acknowledge 
 us to be better than they thought. This is all we 
 can ask. If they will but hear before condemn- 
 ing, we cannot complain if they do disagree with 
 us, or preach against us. 
 
 " The infidel party were on the eve of rejoic- 
 ing at my coming here, as being a real coadjutor, 
 but I am glad to say that they have already ac- 
 knowledged their disappointment, and they herd 
 us in the mass of those ' superstitious people,' 
 the Christians. Their number is not large here, 
 nor composed of respectable people, though there 
 are crowds of those who keep entirely aloof from 
 religion, and think that Christianity will largely 
 bear examination. Of these we hope to gather 
 some into our church ; some of them even now 
 seem favorably disposed. 
 
 " I have had no call from any of the clergy- 
 men of the place ; . . . but on one occasion our 
 Society was recognized as a Christian Society. 
 . . . We shall have a church here, I am confident, 
 before eighteen months have passed ; at least we 
 will keep that hope before us to excite us onward." 
 
 A month later, January 26, 1835, a society was 
 
EARLY LIFE 23 
 
 regularly organized under the name of "The 
 First Congregational Society of St. Louis," and 
 a movement started to raise funds for the erection 
 of a church. It was decided that Eev. Mr. Eliot 
 should go East to solicit assistance from the older 
 societies, since he had evidently volunteered to 
 do so. A letter from Mr. Christopher Rhodes, 
 on behalf of the Society, accepting the tender of 
 their pastor's services, is so kindly appreciative 
 that it is here inserted. It is addressed : " Rev- 
 erend and Dear Sir," and continues thus : " I am 
 requested by the First Congregational Society of 
 St. Louis to tender to you in their behalf their 
 sincere thanks for the efforts made by you to 
 make known and defend the Truths of the Chris- 
 tian Religion, and thereby afford the most effi- 
 cient aid in establishing the doctrines which we 
 hold. We are well aware of the great sacrifice 
 made by you of comfort, of the society of kindred 
 and friends, in thus coming to a land of strangers, 
 and into a community of which you must have 
 had but a very limited knowledge ; and consider 
 your arrival among us as of the last importance 
 to the Society and the Community. 
 
 " Four years since, the word ' Unitarian ' was 
 hardly known in this city except as a term of re- 
 proach, but we now feel proud to say that the 
 anticipation of the benefits resulting from your 
 ministry have been more than realized. Many 
 persons who previous to this event looked upon 
 
24 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the Religion of Christ as a matter of speculation, 
 "with suspicion, or with indifference, have, we be- 
 lieve, since been convinced that the Truths so 
 ably advocated and expounded by you have come 
 from the Most High, and many sincere Christians 
 who conscientiously but ignorantly believed the 
 advocates of Unitarian Christianity to be little 
 better than infidels, and who had supposed the 
 doctrines held by them to be of a dangerous and 
 immoral tendency, have been convinced that, 
 though differing in many respects from most of 
 their Christian brethren, the important doctrines 
 of Christianity as held by us have their founda- 
 tion in reason and revelation. 
 
 "With these facts before us, the Society are 
 convinced that the efforts to build in this city an 
 altar for the worship of the True God have not 
 been without effect, and hope by zeal and perse- 
 verance to cause the work so happily commenced, 
 and to which you have contributed such impor- 
 tant service, to progress. 
 
 " The Society, although few in numbers, look 
 forward with confident expectation to a gradual 
 increase, and believe by constant and judicious 
 effort to be enabled soon to have a more suitable 
 place for worship. 
 
 " You are well aware of the trouble and in- 
 convenience to which the Society have been sub- 
 jected by the want of a room suitable for a place 
 of worship, and how much depends upon being 
 
EARLY LIFE 25 
 
 able to accommodate those who, during the 
 period of your ministry, may have found it un- 
 pleasant and inconvenient to attend on account of 
 the unsuitable accommodation, and that that diffi- 
 culty cannot be remedied unless we are enabled to 
 build for ourselves a suitable House of Worship. 
 
 " For this very desirable and necessary object, 
 the Society feel under very great obligation to 
 you for the prompt and generous tender of your 
 services to obtain, if possible, assistance from our 
 Eastern Brethren, and have accordingly directed 
 me, as President of the Society, to empower you 
 in their name to present to those favorably dis- 
 posed towards us our prayer for sympathy and 
 assistance, to receive such pecuniary aid as they 
 may be disposed to give, and to take such other 
 steps for the benefit of the Society as you may 
 judge expedient. 
 
 " I am also desired by the Society to express to 
 you their best wishes for a safe and pleasant 
 journey, and a happy meeting with your friends, 
 and that they most earnestly desire to have you 
 return among us at as early a period as your 
 convenience and the object of your journey will 
 admit." 
 
 In accordance with his own suggestion, and the 
 wishes of the Society, Mr. Eliot visited the Eastern 
 cities. An appeal was made to churches in Bos- 
 ton and other New England communities, as also 
 in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and 
 
26 WILT J AM GKEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 $3200 was thus obtained. Meantime, in St. Louis 
 two lots had been purchased for the new church, 
 and one was eventually sold at an advance of 
 $3500 on the cost, which was of great advantage 
 to the Society. It is written in the church records 
 that " all the operations of the Society were pecu- 
 liarly blessed by Providence at this early stage 
 of proceedings," for if they " had delayed the 
 purchase of the lots above named three months 
 only, the purchase of either of them would have 
 equaled the actual cost of both." The entire 
 amount collected being deemed sufficient to jus- 
 tify the erection of a " House of Worship," the 
 church was completed and dedicated October 29, 
 1836. 
 
 There still remained a debt of 04000 on the 
 church building, and when in 1842 the increas- 
 ing size of the congregation rendered it neces- 
 sary to enlarge the church by one half, the debt 
 was increased, until in 1846 it had grown to 
 $11,000. Ten per cent, interest on this amount 
 proved a heavy annual tax, difficult to obtain. 
 With his usual decision in solving a dilemma, 
 Mr. Eliot drew up a subscription paper for the 
 " liquidation of the church debt," and the amount 
 required was quickly subscribed. 
 
 One secret of Dr. Eliot's success in raisinsr 
 money for public objects was the confidence felt 
 in his sound judgment, perfect disinterestedness, 
 and wise use of means to accomplish a desired 
 
EARLY LIFE 27 
 
 end. Another was, that he always headed any 
 subscription paper he presented, contributing to 
 the fullest limit of his resources, although this 
 often necessitated great self-denial if not priva- 
 tion. And his people responded ! If he led, they 
 followed, giving liberally in proportion to their 
 means. Dr. Clarke said in a memorial sermon : 
 " No other church in our denomination, not even 
 the wealthy societies in New York and Boston, 
 gave so largely and regularly for philanthropic 
 and religious objects. This St. Louis Society was 
 educated to giving. William Eliot once told me, 
 in answer to a question, that his church annually 
 gave to such objects about $30,000. ... It had 
 become a principle and a custom with them to 
 have a sense of responsibility for the use of 
 property, and this they had learned from the 
 teaching and example of their pastor." 
 
 At the outbreak of the Civil War, Dr. Eliot 
 himself made the following statement in a ser- 
 mon delivered August 18, 1861 : " During the 
 last ten years, this congregation of the Church 
 of the Messiah has contributed, in various works 
 of benevolence and charity, not less than the sum 
 of $50,000 annually." How were such results 
 achieved? Dr. Eliot himself answers the ques- 
 tion. He tells us that almost concurrently with 
 the organization of the Unitarian Society in St. 
 Louis, in the winter of 1835-36, a charitable 
 organization was formed, of which every one 
 
28 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 became a member by the fact of becoming a 
 member of the church. " Out of this combined 
 membership, strengthened by the cordial and 
 liberal cooperation of all members of the Society, 
 large benefactions came, and a habit of liberal 
 giving was formed." 
 
 In 1840 a Ministry at Large was established, 
 and Rev. Charles Dall was chosen to fulfill its 
 duties. As the public schools were just strug- 
 gling into existence, a free school for the chil- 
 dren of the poor was carried on in the basement 
 rooms of the church. It was supported entirely 
 by the Unitarian Society as a city mission. A 
 Ladies' Industrial Society was also put in opera- 
 tion, and a small building erected next to the 
 church for its use. Its principal design was to 
 find employment for needlewomen and others. 
 Systematic efforts were made for visiting the 
 poor. 
 
 In November, 1841, by a more formal action 
 of the church members, they resolved themselves 
 into a charitable association, thereby practically 
 making the two associations one and the same in 
 everything except financial matters. Through 
 this agency the work previously inaugurated was 
 sustained and the ministry at large continued. 
 Rev. Mr. Dall, Rev. Carlos Ward, Rev. Mr. De 
 Lange, Rev. Mr. Staples, and Rev. T. L. Eliot 
 rilled this office at successive periods of time. 
 
 In 1848 Dr. Eliot, in writing to Mr. Ticknor 
 
EARLY LIFE 29 
 
 of Boston regarding the establishment of a 
 healthy Unitarian Society at Galena, Illinois, 
 thus rehearsed his own experience in accomplish- 
 ing the same object in St. Louis : " In propor- 
 tion to the need is the difficulty. For the first 
 few years great discouragements must be ex- 
 pected. The expenses will be large, the means of 
 contributors very small, and until success is quite 
 certain very little public favor will be shown to the 
 enterprise. In St. Louis at the end of three years 
 I could not calculate upon an audience of more 
 than twenty-five or thirty in pleasant weather. 
 Our utmost exertions could only raise $1000 
 towards a house, and $350 for minister and 
 other charges. Of course we could not have gone 
 on without pecuniary aid from abroad, and I 
 believe that if we had waited ten years before 
 beginning our effort no better beginning could 
 have been made. Two thirds of our strongest 
 adherents have been made out of the founda- 
 tion of the Society. We have now one of the 
 most influential societies in the city, and number 
 nearly two hundred communicants." 
 
 Thus had the earnestness and zeal of a few 
 persons become a strong centralizing force in the 
 building up of a Society. As honest and upright 
 citizens, active in doing good, Unitarians were 
 trusted and respected. As a Channing Unitarian, 
 no more conservative exponent of the faith could 
 have been found at that time than William Eliot ; 
 
30 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 yet in 1843 he, who had been ordained as an 
 " Evangelist," was not included in a meeting of 
 the "Protestant Evangelical" ministers. 
 
 An unfinished sermon, marked " never used," 
 attests Mr. Eliot's sense of the illiberality of cer- 
 tain clergymen and religious societies who had 
 shown a determination not to recognize the Uni- 
 tarian Church and Society as a " Christian Fra- 
 ternity," although constantly inviting them to 
 unite in works of Christian benevolence, and to 
 join in efforts to promote Christian truth. His 
 dislike of controversy, and conviction of its use- 
 lessness and harm, doubtless influenced him in 
 remaining silent ; and the wisdom of such a course 
 was afterwards apparent, since time brought re- 
 cognition. 
 
 In the year 1849, when one tenth of the entire 
 population of St. Louis died of cholera, the Uni- 
 tarian faith proved its efficacy and power to sus- 
 tain the dying and console the living ; and no 
 pastor was more untiring in his ministrations to 
 the sick, more devoted and faithful throughout 
 a trying ordeal, than the preacher whom some of 
 his brethren had hesitated to recognize as " Evan- 
 gelical," although the watchword of his life was 
 allegiance to Christ. 
 
 In the year 1854, in recognition of work ac- 
 complished in the West, Harvard University con- 
 ferred upon William Greenleaf Eliot the degree 
 of Doctor of Divinity. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 MINISTRY 
 
 William Greenleaf Eliot, minister and evan- 
 gelist, came to St. Louis in November, 1834. In 
 November, 1859, the First Congregational Church 
 celebrated its Twenty-fifth Anniversary, and spe- 
 cial services were held. In the sermon delivered 
 upon that occasion, of which the notes are pre- 
 served, Dr. Eliot said : " Twenty-five years ago, 
 after a prosperous voyage of fifteen days from 
 Louisville, I landed on the river bank of St. Louis. 
 It seemed a wild, unpromising adventure. Young 
 and inexperienced [I came] to a city whose pecu- 
 liar difficulties [I had not yet learned]. No one 
 but myself had any expectations of success, al- 
 though a few hoped. . . . Yet I will say this 
 for myself, that I never had a doubt upon the 
 subject. It never entered my head that failure 
 was possible. [I was] determined to persevere 
 three years, come what might, but my faith in the 
 power of Christian truth was such that I felt sure 
 of gaining foothold. Not exactly confidence in 
 myself, but yet the conviction that persevering 
 effort for Christ's sake could not be in vain. This 
 confidence remains and grows strong every day." 
 
32 "WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 In this same anniversary sermon Dr. Eliot 
 alluded to his ignorance, when he came to St. 
 Louis, of the peculiar difficulties he might have 
 to encounter there. These were principally such 
 as were incidental at that time to life in a 
 newly settled Western city, although every such 
 place differs in some respects from all others. 
 Originally settled by the French, St. Louis had 
 been under the dominion of both France and 
 Spain. As a part of the Louisiana Purchase, 
 Missouri was transferred to France for a short 
 period in 1800, and ceded to the United States in 
 1803. Its population up to that time had been 
 almost entirely French, with a slave contingent. 
 After Missouri became American soil, emigrants, 
 principally from Virginia and Kentucky, began 
 moving with their slave property into the State. 
 
 In 1834 one third of the people of St. Louis 
 were the descendants of the original French set- 
 tlers. They were Catholic in religion, and among 
 the most prominent people socially. Early St. 
 Louis was kindly, hospitable, pleasure-loving, 
 condoning customs and habits which later a 
 more elevated public opinion condemned. Gam- 
 bling was only too common, and drinking the 
 rule. Every well-furnished sideboard, even in 
 the banks, glittered with decanters and glasses. 
 Dueling was not infrequent, and the code of 
 honor entailed social disgrace on any gentleman 
 who refused an encounter. In 1834 Mr. Eliot 
 
MINISTRY 33 
 
 wrote : " We had a duel here yesterday between 
 two young fools, lawyers . . . neither hurt and 
 will probably fight again. If I can do it incog. 
 I mean to give them a basting in the way of the 
 ridiculous." 
 
 Outside of the churches, there was as yet, in 
 1834, little organization of any kind. Every- 
 thing waited the shaping hand, the informing 
 spirit. Soon after Mr. Eliot reached St. Louis, 
 there was established in the interest of the intel- 
 lectual needs of the community an organization 
 called the " Franklin Society." It was a literary 
 society, suggestive of the lyceum of the New 
 England towns. Beginning with forty members, 
 it rapidly increased in numbers, and was incorpo- 
 rated. 
 
 During the winter season there were debates 
 and lectures delivered to " respectable audi- 
 ences." Mr. Eliot was naturally interested in the 
 society, and lectured before them on the occa- 
 sion of their first anniversary. A committee was 
 appointed "to express the thanks of that body 
 to Mr. Eliot, and request a copy of the address 
 for publication." 
 
 The subject of this discourse was in keeping 
 with the object of the association, namely : 
 " The obligation which rests upon the present 
 generation to establish literary institutions in the 
 West." Mr. Eliot's remarks on this subject are 
 here quoted, as giving a faithful picture not only 
 
34 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 of the constitution of society in early St. Louis, 
 but in other newly settled Western communities. 
 They present also a forecast of Mr. Eliot's own 
 future work in the needed direction indicated. 
 
 Three classes of immigrants, he declared, had 
 come to the West to live. There were first those 
 who had left their old homes because they could 
 not maintain a respectable standing in society 
 there ; they were either a dead weight or an 
 active poison in the community. 
 
 Secondly, there were those who were brought 
 West by a roving disposition, and the love of ex- 
 citement. They were neither positively good nor 
 positively bad, and seldom became useful mem- 
 bers of the community. They did not add to the 
 moral strength of society. 
 
 The third class of immigrants composed those 
 who were fast becoming the major portion of the 
 community, namely, the enterprising and indus- 
 trious, who had came to the West to better them- 
 selves. These were "the bone and sinew of the 
 West, who must give to society its form and 
 character ; the active men in the community, who 
 must ultimately give the tone to public feeling, 
 and set the standard of public morality." They 
 were the substantial farmers, the successful mer- 
 chants and mechanics of the city, men growing 
 rich by honest and patient industry. As this 
 class was daily increasing in proportion to the 
 rest, some might think that society with its in- 
 
MINISTRY 35 
 
 terests could safely be left to take care of itself. 
 Mr. Eliot did not believe tbat sucb was tbe case. 
 " The motives," he said, " which chiefly actuate 
 this better class of our community in locating 
 themselves here, are such as to divert their minds 
 from the best interests of society, namely, purity 
 of public morals and feeling and the general dif- 
 fusion of knowledge." 
 
 "The first settlers of some of the Eastern 
 states," he continued, " came to this country with 
 the express object of intellectual and religious 
 freedom, and therefore their first thought was of 
 religion and education. . . . But with the West 
 it is very different. The grand motive which ac- 
 tuates all who come here is ... to make money. 
 The motive which has brought the vast majority 
 of us here is not liberty of conscience, not intel- 
 lectual improvement, not the desire to do good, 
 but to better our own condition, to make ourselves 
 rich and influential members of society. . . . And 
 in the universality of this motive ... I discern 
 the greatest danger which threatens our ultimate 
 prosperity, ... to which the West is peculiarly 
 exposed ; that religion and learning and morality 
 and education, and everything which makes a 
 people truly prosperous, shall all be forgotten, 
 all made to bow to one god, mammon." 
 
 To these needs of a new community, to re- 
 ligion, learning, morality, education, and phi- 
 lanthropy, Mr. Eliot devoted himself during a 
 
36 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 residence of fifty-three years in St. Louis, and 
 the dominant note of the Franklin Society ad- 
 dress, the subordination of the pursuit of wealth 
 to higher aims, was heard in many of his later 
 public utterances. 
 
 Although William Eliot, Senior, had acqui- 
 esced in his son's decision to begin his pastorate 
 in the far West, he had felt many misgivings as 
 to the wisdom of such a course. He realized 
 what would be the loneliness of his life in St. 
 Louis for some time to come, and while declar- 
 ing that in the natural course of events his son 
 should marry and establish a home wherever the 
 field of his labor might be, he warned him that 
 he could hardly expect any lady among his old 
 acquaintances at home to leave kindred and 
 friends to marry him and go to St. Louis to five. 
 The older man little knew what was in the mind 
 of the younger, who seems to have felt slight 
 concern. Doubtless his choice was already made, 
 and, knowing well the young girl he afterwards 
 married, he felt sure that with her love and 
 duty would outweigh minor considerations. 
 
 In June, 1837, William G. Eliot, Jr., was 
 married to Miss Abby A. Cranch, daughter of 
 William Cranch, Judge of the United States 
 District Court in Washington, D. C. The bride 
 was but twenty years of age at the time of her 
 marriage, but she felt no hesitation in accom- 
 panying her husband to the far West ; and in 
 
MINISTRY 37 
 
 September Mr. and Mrs. Eliot started for St. 
 Louis. As Mrs. Eliot herself declared, she was 
 very inexperienced, but quite wide-awake as to 
 her future home and her husband's prospects as 
 a missionary. From the first she sympathized 
 with his purposes, and was equally ready to sac- 
 rifice her own wishes and comforts to the well- 
 being of others. Without her cooperation andi 
 aid his pastoral work would have been less effec- 
 tive, and it was due to her rigid economy and 
 self-denial that he was able to contribute so con- 
 stantly and so generously to public measures and 
 individual needs. 
 
 Mrs. Eliot's experience on her first journey to 
 St. Louis, as afterwards related by her, is inter- 
 esting as illustrating the mode of travel in those 
 days. Mr. Eliot and she went from Washington 
 to Philadelphia in the steam-cars, which bad been 
 running only a few weeks, and they were " nearly 
 shaken to pieces." They sailed to New York by 
 steamer, and thence by the Erie Canal to Buffalo, 
 and across Lake Erie to Cleveland. They started 
 from Cleveland to Columbus, Ohio, on a canal- 
 boat, but a broken lock necessitated their trans- 
 ference to an old broken-down stage-coach, 
 driven by a colored man equally ancient and 
 historic. After riding all night they reached 
 Cincinnati in time for the St. Louis steamer. As 
 the river was low and full of sand-bars, its usual 
 condition when not inundating the country, they 
 
38 WILLIAM GREBNLEAF ELIOT 
 
 were two weeks in reaching their destination, 
 and nearly ran out of provisions. Yet as Mrs. 
 Eliot cheerfully declared, they were " young and 
 strong and full of hope, and hardships were 
 easily borne." And indeed, in comparison with 
 such an eventful journey, how tame and mono- 
 tonous seems our present comfortable and speedy 
 mode of travel ! 
 
 Arrived iu St. Louis, Mrs. Eliot found the 
 smoke and mud even worse than she had im- 
 agined. Mr. Eliot and she went to live for awhile 
 with their kind friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ehodes, 
 at the corner of Seventh Street, beyond which, 
 besides the house occupied by Mr. Lucas, there 
 were none except a few farmhouses, and the 
 woods were thick. On the south they could look 
 over to Chouteau's Pond, then a large body of 
 water extending east and west for nearly two 
 miles, and dividing the city north and south. 
 It was surrounded by shanties where the poor 
 gathered to wash their clothes in the clear water 
 in primitive style. " At that time," said Mrs. 
 Eliot in narrating her experiences, "St. Louis 
 was not a healthy place. There was no sewer 
 system, and cellars were full of water; chills 
 and fever everywhere, and scarcely a poor family 
 without some one in bed. Visiting among the 
 sick and poor kept us very busy, and dark streets 
 and muddy ways made life pretty hard for those 
 of us charitably inclined." Parenthetically she 
 
MINISTRY 39 
 
 observes that "there were few policemen and 
 very bad boys." 
 
 " However," Mrs. Eliot continued, " matters 
 soon improved, and there was a bright side ; for 
 the absence of formality among the inhabitants, 
 and the kindness of neighbors in sickness or 
 trouble of any kind, made us seem almost as one 
 family." Then, too, there were old Washington 
 friends in St. Louis, General and Mrs. Ashley, 
 General Bates, Colonel and Mrs. Gantt, and the 
 Benton family. 
 
 Such was St. Louis in 1837. Life for those 
 who had removed thither from older communities 
 was devoid of many comforts and conveniences, 
 but the people were kind, hospitable, and friendly. 
 
 Early St. Louis was a city of splendid possi- 
 bilities, yet to be developed. The young minis- 
 ter led a full and busy life. Although his mar- 
 riage had given him sympathetic and devoted 
 companionship, he must often have longed for 
 the presence of old friends, co-workers in the 
 Unitarian denomination, who could appreciate 
 the difficulties to be encountered, and give him 
 sympathy and counsel in his labors. With al- 
 most pathetic entreaty he begged his old friend, 
 James Freeman Clarke, to visit him ; but neither 
 one of these two busy men, Mr. Clarke or Mr. 
 Eliot, could well obey the promptings of the 
 heart, and leave his post of duty. 
 
 In the first sermon which William Eliot 
 
40 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 preached after his arrival in St. Louis, he de- 
 clared that the object of a church organization 
 should be threefold : First, self -improvement, self- 
 education in morality and religion, and the for- 
 mation of Christian character ; secondly, useful- 
 ness by works of kindness and benevolence, 
 charity and public spirit ; thirdly, the diffusion 
 of Christian truth. 
 
 These objects were ever in Dr. Eliot's mind, 
 and always the formation of Christian character 
 preceded everything else in importance. He 
 preached to his congregation not merely as to 
 an audience, a body of people, but as individual 
 men and women, each with his own peculiar 
 needs and temptations. After the second church 
 was built he wrote in his journal : " Now I shall 
 have time and opportunity to look more closely 
 to that which I hope I never have neglected, the 
 religious interests of the Society. I must direct 
 all my efforts to the accomplishment of the 
 Christian character in every individual, and the 
 furtherance of charitable action." 
 
 Mr. Eliot's sermons were almost exclusively 
 on ethical and religious topics. The main thing, 
 he declared, was " the faithful preaching of the 
 old principles and doctrines of religion, — Tem- 
 perance, Justice, Love." This would act closely 
 enough to the consciences of those who were 
 faithful hearers. Occasionally their attention 
 should be invited to the application of these 
 
MINISTRY 41 
 
 principles to the evils of the day, — Intemperance, 
 Slavery, War, etc. Polemical preaching was very 
 distasteful to Mr. Eliot. When on one occa- 
 sion, in a public discourse, the Unitarians were 
 attacked by a clergyman of narrow, sectarian 
 views, and some of the members of his church 
 urged him to reply, he did so, but wrote in his 
 journal : " Preached sermon according to notice 
 to a house crowded ; a great many could not 
 get in. . . . The sermon will attract attention, 
 but I am sorry that I preached it. ' Let the 
 potsherds of the earth strive together.' " Dr. 
 Eliot always believed, with others of his denomi- 
 nation, that the greatest work of a rational faith 
 lay in overlooking rather than emphasizing sec- 
 tarian differences, and in liberalizing and influ- 
 encing other forms of belief. He desired that 
 good men of all denominations should unite in 
 Christian effort, and it is worth recording that 
 this same minister to whom he was called upon 
 to reply at this time, later sought his assistance 
 and advice in a non-sectarian movement. 
 
 No one who attended Mr. Eliot's church was 
 ever intentionally overlooked or forgotten. As 
 far as possible he sought to become, and was, 
 personally acquainted with every member of his 
 flock. In one of his letters to Mr. Clarke he wrote 
 that there was not a single worldly-minded woman 
 or intemperate man among his church members. 
 The latter statement he could not always repeat, 
 
42 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 and there were occasions when, on his knees in 
 his study, he prayed with those who were sorely 
 tempted by the love of stimulants. 
 
 As to the charitable work of the Unitarian 
 Church, it was not entirely limited to organized 
 effort. In addition to directing this, Mr. Eliot 
 was custodian of a " Poor Fund," to which his 
 parishioners gave without solicitation, generously 
 and freely, such sums as they could afford or felt 
 moved to give. He himself also constantly con- 
 tributed from his own means, twice adding to the 
 fund by a course of lectures delivered at two dif- 
 ferent periods after his return from abroad. 
 
 Frequent and many were the calls upon his 
 time, and often he expressed regret that he had 
 so little opportunity for reading or writing any- 
 thing of lasting value. "My time," he declared, 
 " is all broken in little pieces." 
 
 On an average he made five or six calls a day, 
 and the following is a memorandum of duties 
 requiring immediate attention : A mother is to 
 be assisted in providing for her ten-year-old son, 
 very bad for his age ; the father is to be spoken 
 to about his intemperance ; a place at the county 
 farm must be provided for an indigent old wo- 
 man ; the people at Quincy are to be aided in the 
 purchase of a church lot ; a young lady desires 
 assistance in starting a school ; a young man, to 
 whom Mr. Eliot loaned ten dollars two weeks 
 previously, wanted more. " Etc., etc., etc.," he adds 
 
MINISTRY 43 
 
 at the close of a memorandum which will remind 
 many other ministers of their own experience in 
 such matters. 
 
 The effect of overwork upon their minister 
 became apparent to Mr. Eliot's parishioners, and 
 in a note dated April 30, 1839, written by Way- 
 man Crow, and signed by him and many others, 
 Mr. Eliot was informed that the members of the 
 congregation had seen with much solicitude and 
 anxiety the effect upon their minister of his ear- 
 nest and unremitting toil. They requested him 
 in the coming summer to accompany his family 
 to the East, promising that the board of trustees 
 would supply the pulpit in his absence. 
 
 Again, in a second communication dated April, 
 1845, and signed by many of the same names and 
 others, Mr. Eliot was urged to use timely precau- 
 tion and take immediate rest, that his health and 
 strength might be adequate to his future minis- 
 terial labors in the church. This advice seems not 
 to have been acted upon until the summer of 1846, 
 when he left St. Louis, and in February, 1847, 
 set sail from New York in the " good ship St. 
 Nicholas," a sailing vessel. His congenial friend 
 and parishioner, Mr. William Glasgow, accom- 
 panied him. They made an extensive tour through 
 France, Switzerland, Italy, and the British Isles. 
 Mr. Eliot kept a very full diary of his experiences 
 abroad, illustrated with such pictures as he was 
 able to obtain. He greatly enjoyed the sea voyage 
 
44 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 and was apparently never weary of watching the 
 changing aspects of the ocean. " my God," 
 he wrote, " how wonderful are thy works, how 
 beautiful the garments in which we see thee ! 
 None know thee who have not seen thee here." 
 
 Mr. Eliot returned from abroad in September 
 of the same year. He spent some time in the East, 
 visiting Boston and other cities. While in Boston 
 he received a call to King's Chapel, one of the 
 oldest Unitarian churches of that city. Only a 
 strong feeling of duty, the sense of his obliga- 
 tions to his parish in St. Louis, prevented his ac- 
 ceptance. After he reached St. Louis he wrote : 
 " The position offered to me (in Boston) is very 
 honorable, and might be made very influential. 
 . . . My personal friendships there are very 
 warm, and, more than all, an undefined attraction 
 in the air of Boston and Cambridge draws me 
 very strongly ; so that duty was a deciding mo- 
 tive, and, to say truth, I have felt the sacrifice 
 very deeply. . . . But now that I am here, in 
 this thriving city, and find how very cordially I 
 am received, and see what a society I shall, by 
 the blessing of Providence, be able to gather, I 
 am abundantly content, and believe that both 
 myself and family will be very happy here." In 
 the light of subsequent events Dr. Eliot must 
 have been glad that he decided as he did. He 
 remained where his labors, and those of other 
 devoted men, were to be greatly needed. 
 
MINISTRY 45 
 
 At that period in the older cities of the East, 
 earnest men and their measures were upborne on 
 the wave of sympathetic enthusiasm. In the West 
 they must create the public opinion and sympathy 
 which would later assist them. The difficulties 
 and achievements of the lonely workers in the 
 West were scarcely understood and appreciated 
 in the East. After reading the life of Dr. Chan- 
 ning, Mr. Eliot wrote : "I cannot help being 
 struck by the great difference between the life of 
 a Boston minister and my own. There the con- 
 stant help and incitement of friends and of books, 
 here a lonely working. Every measure for which 
 I work, I must originate. My library is almost 
 nothing, and if it were more, pastoral care con- 
 sumes all my time." 
 
 It was not long before Mr. Eliot's ministration 
 within and without his church was to be greatly 
 needed in St. Louis. The year 1849 was the most 
 disastrous in the history of St. Louis, a year of 
 pestilence, fire, and flood. At the very beginning 
 of the year, in January, Asiatic cholera made its 
 appearance. The origin of the disease was very 
 apparent, and demanded quarantine regulations, 
 which were not for some time enforced. In an 
 article published in one of the daily papers in 
 June, appeared this statement : " It is a well- 
 known fact that nearly every New Orleans boat 
 that lands at our wharf brings hundreds of foreign 
 emigrants taken directly from the ships at New 
 
46 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Orleans, in which they have been pent up for 
 weeks or months — in the same clothing, without 
 the opportunity of washing or purifying their 
 stores, and in this condition they are brought 
 here, as much or more crowded, and as completely 
 deprived of the means of cleanliness as upon the 
 ship, and in this condition they are scattered 
 through the city." It was suggested then that 
 some method of quarantine be enforced. No 
 wonder that three fourths of the mortality from 
 cholera was confined to the emigrants themselves. 
 
 Dr. Eliot's church suffered severely, yet, as he 
 said, it was " regularly kept open for its usual 
 religious services, and no one having either direct 
 or indirect claims upon it was permitted to suf- 
 fer for want of proper ministration or for decent 
 burial." One of the first victims in the city, 
 Haven Henderson, was a member of the church, 
 and his funeral took place from there in January, 
 1849. At the communion service a few months 
 later, the names were read of nine church mem- 
 bers who had died since the previous communion 
 day. " It was a year of fearful trial," Mr. Eliot 
 said at a later period, " and the value of Chris- 
 tian faith, with a steadfast reliance upon God's 
 providence, was fully proved." 
 
 Slowly and surely, from the beginning of the 
 epidemic, it claimed its victims in ever increasing 
 numbers. Mr. Eliot wrote in April : " I keep busy, 
 but do nothing with a relish — the urgency of the 
 
MINISTRY 47 
 
 moment is needed for each action." And again, 
 in May, he wrote : " All plans were made and no- 
 tice given that I would go to Chicago for a week 
 or two's absence. But Monday the cholera was 
 evidently increasing so fast that I feared to go." 
 Yet he continued thus : " I must present to my 
 people the claims of Meadville Theological School 
 with hope of raising some six or eight hundred 
 dollars for them." On account of the continued 
 prevalence of cholera, this appeal was not made, 
 and on Tuesday, May 15, Mr. Eliot made this en- 
 try in his journal : " Cholera increases — was busy 
 from morning till night visiting the sick." 
 
 May 17, at nine o'clock in the evening, a fire 
 broke out in the steamer White Cloud moored 
 at the Levee, and quickly spread to other boats, 
 twenty-three of which were consumed. It extended 
 up into the best business portion of the city ; fif- 
 teen blocks of buildings were consumed or injured, 
 and property to the value of five million dollars 
 destroyed. To a city of the size of St. Louis, the 
 loss seemed almost irreparable, and the presence 
 of the pestilence added to the horror. Dr. Eliot 
 recorded that on the night of the fire he was up all 
 night getting sick people from the Monroe House 
 to their own safe abode. It was a fearful fire ! 
 
 Soon after the fire the river rose to an unpre- 
 cedented height, overflowing the low lands ; and 
 heavy rains fell, making some parts of the city 
 almost uninhabitable. This hastened the spread 
 
48 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 of disease. At that time there was no system of 
 drainage in St. Louis. 
 
 During the entire continuance of the epidemic 
 Mr. Eliot was under intense physical and nervous 
 strain. He went from the bedside of the dying 
 to the funeral service of the dead, with little op- 
 portunity for rest. On Sunday, June 17, he wrote : 
 " Things are very gloomy and becoming worse ; 
 but one subject engrosses all minds. In one fam- 
 ily five persons have died since Wednesday, and 
 like cases I hear of daily. We keep well, with 
 careful, cheerful, and prayerful hearts." On Tues- 
 day he recorded for himself a comparatively quiet 
 day, yet he went twice to visit Mr. C, who died at 
 one o'clock. At seven in the evening he christened 
 a baby whose mother had died, and at eight 
 o'clock went to a school directors' meeting. At 
 half past nine he received a message from Mrs. 
 G., whose husband he had previously visited. 
 He found her alone with Dr. G., who was not 
 expected to live through the night. The neigh- 
 bors were all sick, and he persuaded the tired 
 wife to sleep, while he remained during the night 
 with the sick man. These people lived in a small 
 one-story brick house, on low ground, with a bed 
 on the floor. With careful nursing Dr. G. got 
 through the night very well ; and when Mr. Eliot 
 left him, there was hope of his recovery. He re- 
 turned to his home in the morning, and sending 
 a physician to the sick man he had left, went to 
 
MINISTRY 49 
 
 bed and slept three hours, when he was summoned 
 to Mrs. H. and her child, both ill. At three in 
 the afternoon she sent for him a second time, 
 and as soon as he saw her he " knew that she 
 must die." He spent most of the afternoon with 
 her, and returned in the evening. At midnight he 
 was again summoned to her bedside, and remained 
 until three in the morning. On coming home he 
 met at his door a gentleman who told him his 
 next neighbor, Mrs. C, was very ill. At half 
 after seven the previous evening she had been to 
 Mr. Eliot's door. He had discouraged her from 
 returning to nurse a cholera patient. At nine 
 o'clock she was violently ill, and at half after four 
 in the morning, when he reached her bedside, she 
 was in a dying condition. 
 
 And so the record continues. Mr. Eliot's min- 
 istrations were not confined to his own parish- 
 ioners — he went to any one who sent for him. 
 In this season of trial St. Louis had reason to be 
 proud of her citizens. " Many hundreds of per- 
 sons of both sexes," wrote Mr. Eliot, " devoted 
 themselves to the care of the sick. There was no 
 panic. Very few were left to suffer unrelieved. 
 The clergy, equally Catholics and Protestants, 
 kept faithfully at their posts, and the physicians 
 worked night and day. The greatest mortality in 
 one day was two hundred and five." 
 
 On Sunday, July 8, Mr. Eliot preached on 
 " Suffering considered as Discipline." Many 
 
50 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 clergymen had proclaimed that God's anger was 
 in the pestilence and fire, a point of view not en- 
 tirely obsolete, from which Mr. Eliot very decidedly 
 dissented. 
 
 On Sunday, the 22d of July, the number of 
 deaths from cholera the previous week was two 
 hundred and ninety-nine, and it was announced 
 tbat the epidemic was abating. On that day Mr. 
 Eliot wrote : " I am inexpressibly shocked to- 
 day to hear of the death of Eev. Mr. Vancourt. 
 Nothing has brought me so strongly to a sense 
 of the danger to wbich I have been and am ex- 
 posed, or of the mercy of God by which I have so 
 far been preserved. He came to see me ten days 
 since, and we talked over our several trials and 
 labors. He has been very faithful as a pastor, 
 and very useful. . . . Yesterday at four p. M. he 
 was apparently well, and died at three this morn- 
 ing. It is a further warning to me, and as far as 
 duty will allow, I shall take it to myself. 
 
 " As to the theory of contagion : I have tried 
 it, I think, very thoroughly, not only in the or- 
 dinary exposure of nursing and doctoring, but 
 sometimes I have held the hand of the suffering, 
 an hour at a time, throughout the whole sickness, 
 conversing with him when so feeble that in order 
 to bear the words I have had to lean over and 
 breathe the same breath, even in the last hours 
 of life, — and after death, in kneeling near the 
 coffin, have incurred the further risk of post 
 
MINISTRY 61 
 
 mortem contagion. This over and over again, by 
 night and by day, when tired and unwell myself, 
 but without harm." 
 
 Living as he did in the shadow of death day 
 after day, Mr. Eliot had previously written : " If 
 I am taken away, I leave my own affairs in good 
 condition. My church also is in good order, and 
 would prosper, I think, even without me. My 
 wife and children would find friends everywhere, 
 and a helper in God. Yet I pray to be spared to 
 them." 
 
 The first week in August there were only 
 thirty-four deaths from cholera, yet there was 
 still much sickness. Mr. Eliot wrote : " When will 
 it all end ? I do now so long for freedom from 
 care and anxiety that I am almost sick at heart." 
 On the last day of July he had counted the chil- 
 dren over whom he had some degree of super- 
 vision, and there were twenty-six besides his own. 
 The responsibilities thus incurred, in some cases, 
 extended over a period of years. 
 
 The second week in August there were but 
 twelve deaths from cholera, and the end of the 
 pestilence seemed near. Out of a population of 
 about sixty thousand, nearly one tenth had suc- 
 cumbed to the prevailing epidemic. Mr. Eliot 
 notes that under all the accumulated trials of that 
 year, the business of the city had gone quietly 
 on. " The citizens had borne their own burden 
 without asking aid from abroad, and declined 
 
52 WILLIAM GB.EENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 what -was offered. . . . The church and society 
 came out of the trial as men and women always 
 do come out of trials if well and bravely endured, 
 stronger, more vigorous, more self-reliant, and 
 more hopeful than ever before." 
 
 In a public address, delivered in 1882, referring 
 to the year 1849, Dr. Eliot said : " Such a period 
 of trial, thank God, is never likely to return. In 
 those days, by reason of undrained streets and 
 stagnant pools and accumulated fQth, and the use 
 of well water made poisonous by the filterings of 
 vaults and cellars, St. Louis was a proverb of un- 
 healthiness. Taught by a hard experience, a good 
 system of sewerage was established, and an abun- 
 dant supply of wholesome if not clear water was 
 obtained, . . . and now St. Louis stands . . . 
 among the three or four healthiest cities of the 
 world." 
 
 September 4, 1849, Mr. Eliot left St. Louis on 
 an " indefinite excursion." " How far I shall go is 
 uncertain," he wrote. " My mind must have en- 
 tire relief from ordinary cares in preparation for 
 the winter's campaign." He was then at Tremont, 
 Illinois, where he had " spent four days, preached 
 five times, and on Sunday afternoon organized 
 a church ; " from which it appears that although 
 Mr. Eliot left home for rest, he merely varied the 
 direction of his activity. 
 
 In the first sermon he preached after arriving 
 in St. Louis, Mr. Eliot asserted, as already stated, 
 
MINISTRY 53 
 
 that one of the objects of a church organization 
 was the " diffusion of Christian truth." As he was 
 reappointed in June, 1848, missionary of the So- 
 ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel, the nat- 
 ural inference is that he had previously occupied 
 that position. So interested was he in the estab- 
 lishment in the West of churches of a liberal faith 
 that, whether officially or unofficially, he would 
 in any case have been a laborer in the cause ; 
 v and this more in the interest of religion and mo- 
 rality in general, than solely for denominational 
 reasons. Dogma was then more rigid, and those 
 who rejected it, without an acceptance of more 
 liberal views, frequently became skeptics in reli- 
 gion. In the letter to Mr. Ticknor of Boston pre- 
 viously alluded to regarding the establishment of 
 a Unitarian church at Galena, Illinois, Mr. Eliot 
 declared that he wished there should be a liberal 
 church in that town, more for the sake of the 
 townspeople themselves than because he desired 
 the extension of the number of Unitarian churches, 
 since " bigotry on the one side, and skepticism on 
 the other, abounded to an unusual degree there." 
 Mr. Eliot was much interested in the success 
 of the Divinity School at Meadville, Pennsylva- 
 nia. He prepared the notes of a missionary ser- 
 mon, whose delivery was delayed on account of 
 the prevalence of cholera, as was also the raising 
 of a contribution for the school from his congre- 
 gation. 
 
54 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 On the trip above referred to, he not only spent 
 four days at Tremont, but drove over to Peoria ; 
 and, " finding the demand urgent, concluded to 
 remain two days." While at Peoria he "made 
 arrangements for purchase of lot and erection of 
 chapel." Thence he went to La Salle and took 
 the canal-boat for Chicago, along the old historic 
 " carry " of the early explorers, now the " great 
 drainage canal." In Chicago he found the church 
 affairs of tbe " First Unitarian Church " in great 
 confusion. 
 
 Apparently the church was without debt, but 
 devoid of income. He drew up a plan whereby 
 an income would accrue from a higher revalua- 
 tion and taxation of pews, according to their 
 relative value, and submitted it to the " gentle- 
 men of the Society." He wrote that the plan 
 would probably be adopted. 
 
 From Chicago he crossed Lake Michigan to 
 New Buffalo, and there took the cars for Detroit. 
 " The first sight of steam locomotion in two 
 years was very pleasant." At Buffalo he took 
 tea with Rev. Mr. Hosmer, and talked over with 
 him the prospects of Chicago, Milwaukee, and 
 Meadville. During most of the trip from Buffalo 
 to Boston he was quite ill, but at the end of 
 his entire journey he had read Lyell's " Sec- 
 ond Visit to the United States," and Voltaire's 
 " Charles XII. " in French. 
 
 He visited Boston, where he preached, and 
 
MINISTRY 55 
 
 also New Bedford, New York, Philadelphia, and 
 Washington, in which latter city he spent ten 
 days at his father's home ; and from there he 
 addressed a letter to Dr. Parkman, secretary of 
 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. 
 He gave an account of his labors as a missionary 
 since the 1st of June, a period of three months. 
 From the report it appears that in that length of 
 time he had held five religious services in the 
 immediate vicinity of St. Louis, and fifteen in 
 other places, of which four were held in Missouri 
 and eleven in Illinois. The distance traveled 
 had been eight hundred miles. The subjects of 
 discourse had been of " directly practical nature, 
 with no further allusion to controverted doctrines 
 than is unavoidable in a faithful ministration of 
 the gospel." " Such subjects," he wrote, " are by 
 far the most acceptable to the audiences gath- 
 ered in the small towns and villages where I 
 preach. There is altogether too much of what is 
 called doctrinal preaching in the West, and too 
 little of that which addresses itself to men simply 
 as sinners, and as believers in Jesus Christ." Mr. 
 Eliot had " seldom less than one hundred hear- 
 ers of all sects ; " and " warm assurances were uni- 
 formly given of the acceptableness of his services, 
 together with invitations for their renewal." He 
 had found no obstacle thrown in his way by 
 sectarian zeal, but everywhere a disposition to 
 receive kindly what was kindly meant. 
 
56 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Dr. Eliot's friend, Dr. Heywood of Louisville, 
 in a memorial sermon, delivered in 1887, re- 
 ferred thus to his labors as a missionary : " To 
 him, with his clear eye and large soul, the oppor- 
 tunities, the spiritual needs and demands of the 
 great West, could not but be ever present; nor 
 was he at any time deaf to its Macedonian cry 
 for moral and religious help. He had been or- 
 dained, not as the minister of a single church, 
 but as an evangelist, and the ordination had, as 
 it proved, singular significance and fitness. He 
 was what he was ordained to be, — a bearer far 
 and near of good tidings, the best tidings. He 
 became not formally, not professedly, but really, 
 the Unitarian bishop — apostle rather — to that 
 wide region. To Alton, Tremont, Peoria, Quincy, 
 Shelbyville, in Illinois ; to Burlington and Daven- 
 port in Iowa; to Hannibal, St. Joseph, Colum- 
 bia, in Missouri ; to St. Paul, Minnesota ; to Mil- 
 waukee, Wisconsin, and to many another place 
 whence the call came, — he was ready to go 
 whenever going was possible to him ; and wher- 
 ever he went he was gratefully welcomed as 
 minister, teacher, adviser, friend. Friend indeed 
 he proved — not in word only and cheering pre- 
 sence, but often, as in Milwaukee, in substantial 
 money aid from himself and his generous parish- 
 ioners." 
 
 Of Dr. Eliot's first visit to Milwaukee, the 
 daughter of one of the early members of the 
 
MINISTRY 57 
 
 Unitarian Church there thus wrote : " It was in 
 the summer, June or July, of 1856. There was 
 a conference in Chicago, and Mr. Abram Clarke, 
 brother of Rev. James Freeman Clarke, who was 
 living in Milwaukee, attended. He had formerly 
 been a parishioner of Dr. Eliot in St. Louis, and 
 returned to Milwaukee (with Dr. Eliot) after the 
 conference, to draw together the Unitarians for 
 a service on Sunday. They sent word to my 
 father and mother that they were coming, and 
 early on Sunday morning arrived by boat from 
 Chicago. Meanwhile we had sent word to all 
 the Unitarian families, and altogether about thirty 
 people met in our parlor on that Sunday morn- 
 ing. Dr. Eliot occupied a very beautiful carved 
 chair, which has ever since been associated with 
 his name in our family, and there was a simple 
 service, devotional exercises, and then a short 
 address. 
 
 " Then — without any previous talk — Dr. 
 Eliot asked for a sheet of paper, and wrote on 
 it : ' Subscriptions towards founding a church 
 in Milwaukee, to be called the " Church of the 
 Redeemer," William G. Eliot — $500.' It was a 
 complete surprise, and stirred the people amaz- 
 ingly, — the fact that a stranger should so gen- 
 erously start a subscription, — and every one re- 
 sponded according to his means, as liberally as 
 possible, so that when the paper had been 
 around the room there was $6500 pledged. In 
 
58 WILLIAM GREENLJEAF ELIOT 
 
 the afternoon Dr., Eliot went with some of the 
 gentlemen to select a site, which was purchased, 
 and afterwards built upon. 
 
 "Dr. Eliot left Milwaukee the next day. In 
 later years he returned several times to preach. 
 I remember his fine presence and the earnest ex- 
 pression of his beautiful eyes, and his smile that 
 had not only sweetness but a certain intensity 
 also. I cannot describe it. ... I regarded him 
 with awe and great respect, and trod gently when 
 in his presence, shrinking when he spoke to 
 me. ... I remember well the strong impression 
 made by his personality." 
 
 Mr. Eliot reached home November 3, 1849, 
 after an absence of two months, which was 
 hardly sufficient time for complete recuperation. 
 However, he went bravely to work. On Thanks- 
 giving Day he preached a sermon suitable to 
 the occasion. " The past year," he said, " had 
 been one of great affliction. Those who were 
 spared had occasion for thankfulness in the pos- 
 session of life and health, which gave them time 
 for more complete preparation for death, and for 
 the continued service of God. They should also 
 be thankful that they remained for their fami- 
 lies' sake. All had reason for gratitude in the 
 testimony of the dead to the sufficiency of reli- 
 gion. Of their own church members who had 
 died, nearly all were ready to go. Some of them 
 were of their best. Their memory was peaceful 
 
MINISTRY 59 
 
 and blessed, and this was a source of great hap- 
 piness. The living had been able for the most 
 part to fulfill their duty to the dead. No city in 
 the world would have behaved better under the 
 circumstances than St. Louis." Thus, with a trib- 
 ute alike to the dead and the living, Mr. Eliot 
 urged continuance in well-doing. 
 
 As early as January, 1849, Mr. Eliot had be- 
 gun considering in his own mind the necessity 
 for a new and more commodious house of wor- 
 ship. It is recorded that at an evening meet- 
 ing several hundred persons could not gain ad- 
 mission. He wrote that one of his plans for 
 the year was the erection of a new church ; that 
 he was getting it talked about, and that it met 
 with general favor. Estimates of expenses were 
 made, but the outbreak of cholera, and the 
 " great fire," delayed action for a year. After 
 his return, Sunday, December 9, Mr. Eliot pre- 
 sented the matter to his congregation in a ser- 
 mon in which he advised the erection of a more 
 commodious " house of worship." About one 
 third of those who were properly members of 
 the Society, he declared, could not obtain seats 
 except by favor. For these persons, and for 
 those who might become members were accom- 
 modations provided for them, he urged suitable 
 provision. 
 
 Arrangements were immediately made for the 
 accomplishment of this plan. " It was proposed 
 
60 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 and undertaken," wrote Mr. Eliot, " as a thank- 
 offering to God, and also as a provision for 
 future growth and usefulness. Few undertakings 
 have ever been entered upon with greater dis- 
 interestedness or carried through to completion 
 with greater readiness, every one doing his best, 
 than this building of the church of which the 
 corner-stone was laid July 1, 1850, at the corner 
 of Ninth and Olive streets." 
 
 Previous to this event, under date of March 18, 
 1850, in a tremulous, uncertain hand, appears 
 this entry in Mr. Eliot's journal: "By some 
 singular affection which is a sort of paralysis of 
 the muscles of the right arm, I am losing the 
 faculty of writing. It has been coming on me 
 for some time, and now I cannot write my name 
 without difficulty, so that I must learn to write 
 with my left hand. From what it comes I can- 
 not guess, unless from the exertions of mind and 
 body last summer. Perhaps it is only the first 
 indication that a constitution naturally feeble is 
 about to give way. However it may be, it has not 
 come from any imprudence of which I am aware ; 
 and though it cripples me very much, I must be 
 content to do the best I can. It is particularly a 
 disappointment to me, as I had expected to write 
 a great deal this spring and summer ; but after 
 fighting hard against it for six months, I am 
 obliged to see the truth. Now all I have to do is 
 to use the hand that is left. So that the evil 
 
MINISTRY 61 
 
 stops with one arm, it will be well, but of this I 
 have some fear." 
 
 From this time, for several years, Mr. Eliot was 
 obliged to employ an amanuensis to write his 
 sermons, although in ordinary correspondence he 
 wrote with his left hand. He required a long 
 period of rest, but remained at his post until the 
 close of the year 1850, when he went abroad a 
 second time, leaving his family at the old Cranch 
 homestead, Quincy, Massachusetts. He returned 
 in October, 1851. " Only too thankful to be 
 once more at home among my own people," he 
 wrote. "It has been a long, long year, and is the 
 last of my traveling either for pleasure or health, 
 I hope." 
 
 On the first Sunday morning after his return, 
 he preached in the chapel of the new church, 
 thereafter to be known as the " Church of the 
 Messiah " instead of the " First Congregational 
 Church." This church was formally dedicated 
 December 7, 1851, although not entirely com- 
 pleted until a year later. It was large and com- 
 modious, as in addition to the floor space there 
 were galleries extending around three sides of 
 the building, giving a seating capacity for twelve 
 hundred persons. On the day of dedication the 
 church was filled to overflowing. 
 
 As usual in such cases, the building erected 
 far exceeded in cost the original estimates. Mr. 
 Eliot himself found it necessary to complete the 
 
62 WILLIAM GKEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 payment of his subscription by giving a course 
 of lectures on his European travels. The lectures 
 were well attended and netted over five hundred 
 dollars. 
 
 Before the completion of the building a meet- 
 ing was held to consider a debt of fifty thousand 
 dollars soon due. Twenty persons were present, 
 and so large a part of the amount required was 
 pledged by generous donors, that the entire obli- 
 gation was met on the completion of the church, 
 thenceforth free from debt. 
 
 The ten years preceding the Civil War were 
 the most prosperous in the history of the Church 
 of the Messiah. The large edifice was almost 
 invariably well filled, sometimes even to over- 
 flowing, with a large, influential, and thinking 
 congregation, not particularly wealthy, but con- 
 spicuous for liberal giving. That the Church of 
 the Messiah, like every other institution in St. 
 Louis, should suffer from the general disorganiza- 
 tion incident to internecine strife during the war 
 period was inevitable. This will be considered 
 in a succeeding chapter. 
 
 The work of the members of the Church of the 
 Messiah as a charitable organization was mean- 
 time not neglected. In 1856 Mr. Eliot started a 
 subscription for the purchase of a house and lot, 
 to be fitted up as a temporary home for children, 
 and a place for the permanent establishment of 
 a ministry at large. The amount required was 
 
MINISTRY 63 
 
 quickly subscribed, and the Mission Free School 
 has existed ever since, supported principally by 
 the interest on an endowment fund contributed 
 by church members. In the year 1902-03, two 
 hundred and sixty-eight children were admitted 
 as inmates, with a daily average of forty-two. 
 
 The Mission Free School became a centre of 
 organized charity and active philanthropy, and 
 began to be regarded, in the absence of any pub- 
 lic system of relief, almost as a public city insti- 
 tution. At intervals a " Poor Fund " was raised 
 in the city, and distributed by committees in the 
 different wards. Mr. Carlos Ward, then minister 
 at large of the Church of the Messiah, served on 
 such a committee. In one of the Catholic papers 
 he was accused of having discriminated against 
 Catholics in the use of a " Poor Fund," to which 
 persons of all denominations had contributed. In 
 a published reply Dr. Eliot, after acknowledging 
 that Mr. Ward was one of the distributors of the 
 " Poor Fund," declared that but a small part of 
 the relief he had given came from that source ; 
 and that he had acted principally as the almoner 
 of funds contributed for his mission work by the 
 members of the Church of the Messiah, amount- 
 ing in one year to four thousand dollars. As to 
 discrimination, the records showed that four fifths 
 of the recipients of the money had been Catholics. 
 
 On another occasion an article appeared, in 
 one of the evening papers, requesting that Mr. 
 
64 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Ward favor the writer with an account of the 
 proposed operation of the City Mission for the 
 coming winter, as there were " vast numbers of 
 the poor already crying aloud for assistance." 
 Dr. Eliot replied that the Mission House of the 
 Church of the Messiah was supported by the con- 
 gregation of that church, and was not a city insti- 
 tution. "Its special design," he asserted, "is to 
 rescue children and young persons from vice and 
 beggary, to educate them, and find for them per- 
 manent homes. It also gives shelter and relief to 
 homeless persons so far as it can. Last night 
 there were twenty-seven women and children thus 
 housed and fed. There are at this time, also, a 
 hundred children in the industrial school, which 
 is a prominent feature of the Mission House. 
 Out-of-door relief is given to a limited extent. 
 . . . The monthly expenditure is now consider- 
 ably over five hundred dollars, and the burden is 
 already greater than can be easily borne. A large 
 number of the daily applicants (on Wednesday 
 there were nearly sixty) are now sent away un- 
 relieved." 
 
 This letter was published December 9, 1859. 
 The following winter, 1860-61, the St. Louis 
 Provident Association was organized. Mr. James 
 E. Yeatman was elected president, and the Rev. 
 Carlton A. Staples, at that time minister at large 
 of the Church of the Messiah, became vice-presi- 
 dent. Even then the extensive district lying 
 
MINISTRY 65 
 
 between Market Street and Franklin Avenue, 
 and extending as far west as Fourteenth Street, 
 was left in charge of the " Boys' Industrial Home 
 and Mission House, 1 supported by the Church of 
 the Messiah, which proposed to relieve destitute 
 families living within those limits." Truly there 
 remained still a wide circle of beneficence. Of 
 this work, Rev. Mr. Staples, as superintendent 
 of the Mission House, remained in charge until 
 soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, when 
 he resigned his connection with the Church of 
 the Messiah to become chaplain of a regiment. 
 
 " The principal work and influence of the 
 Church of the Messiah," wrote Dr. Eliot in a his- 
 torical sketch, " would need to be sought, not in 
 a denominational direction, but through its indi- 
 vidual members in all its various directions of 
 philanthropy, education, charity, institutions of 
 reform and other enterprises for public benefit. 
 Its own supporters have never felt that they were 
 engaged in a mere sectarian work, and have held 
 this as secondary and subordinate to the general 
 good." 
 
 1 As a feature of the charity work inaugurated in 1841, the 
 Boys' Industrial School was established, and successfully main- 
 tained until 1856, when it was succeeded by the Mission Free 
 School, which was conducted upon a broader basis. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 EDUCATION PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
 
 Zealous as was William Eliot in the perform- 
 ance of what are usually considered the duties 
 of the ministry, he gave them a wide interpreta- 
 tion. His sympathies were too hroad to he con- 
 fined within denominational limits, his energies 
 too active to be restricted entirely to pastoral 
 work. He went as a pioneer to the West, with a 
 desire of assisting in the foundation and estab- 
 lishment of its future great institutions, religious, 
 philanthropic, and educational. He recognized 
 the danger to which a new community is exposed 
 from the pursuit of wealth exclusive of nobler am- 
 bitions, and declared that active efforts and in- 
 dividual initiative were necessary factors in the 
 attainment of high social ideals. In the address 
 before the Franklin Society previously alluded to, 
 he used, in closing, these words : " This, there- 
 fore, is the point to which we have come. The 
 influences that are needed to advance the true 
 interests of society must be provided by the ex- 
 ertion — the individual, active exertion — of such 
 members of the community as are awake to the 
 dangers threatened. They who value literature 
 
EDUCATION — PUBLIC SCHOOLS 67 
 
 and religion, and feel the importance of education 
 and morality, must come forward and establish 
 institutions by which public opinion may be ele- 
 vated, public feeling and taste purified, and the 
 community saved from forgetting that there is 
 something real in the world besides money ; that 
 there are intellectual pleasures which money can- 
 not buy, and intellectual and moral wants that 
 money cannot satisfy. 
 
 " To this end every good institution will con- 
 tribute, whether it is in the department of religion, 
 of morality, of education, or of general literature." 
 
 These words indicate the direction and scope 
 of Mr. Eliot's future work, which was to include 
 whatever tended to the creation and satisfaction 
 of the higher wants and needs of a community. 
 His interest in education was secondary only to 
 his zeal in his chosen vocation of a preacher of the 
 gospel. As early as 1843 he was one of four or 
 five gentlemen who met together to establish the 
 Academy of Science in St. Louis. He believed 
 that popular education, the instruction of the 
 masses, should be part of the foundation of the 
 social structure upon which higher education 
 might rear its loftier pinnacles. His first efforts 
 were directed towards improving and strengthen- 
 ing the public school system of St. Louis. The 
 creation of a great university for the West later 
 occupied his time and thought. Every year brings 
 his ideal nearer realization. 
 
68 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 When Mr. Eliot came to St. Louis in 1834, 
 there were no public free schools in that city, 
 although since 1812 there had been a public 
 school fund, the existence of which had its origin 
 in the old French colonial customs of the early 
 settlers of St. Louis, who held certain lands in 
 common, as a grant from the royal domain. This 
 land was inclosed and divided into strips of equal 
 width, one or more of which, according to their 
 ability to cultivate the property, was assigned to 
 each family. 
 
 When Spain took possession of the territory 
 west of the Mississippi, these grants were con- 
 firmed to the settlers, and again by the United 
 States, according to Act of Congress in 1812, 
 when " all common field lots, inhabited, cultivated, 
 or possessed prior to the twentieth day of Decem- 
 ber, 1803," were guaranteed to the holders. 
 
 Through the wisdom and public spirit of 
 Thomas F. Kiddick, a citizen of St. Louis, who 
 knew that there were certain of these common 
 field lots for which no rightful owner could be 
 found, a clause was inserted in the Act of 1812, 
 providing that such lots " not rightly owned or 
 claimed by private individuals, or reserved by the 
 President for military purposes," should be set 
 aside for the support of schools in the old French 
 villages and towns, among which was included 
 St. Louis. So interested was Colonel Biddick in 
 the success of this measure, that he rode all the 
 
EDUCATION — PUBLIC SCHOOLS 69 
 
 way to Washington on horseback, and succeeded 
 in effecting the desired legislation. Thus was a 
 perpetual school fund created. By vote of the 
 citizens of St. Louis, a small additional income 
 accrued to the public schools, from one tenth of 
 the proceeds of the sale of the " Common," a 
 tract of land originally used as a public pasture 
 and wood-lot. 
 
 The first school board was organized in 1817, 
 but little was accomplished. In 1833, under the 
 new city charter, six directors were elected as a 
 school board. Unfortunately, one of their first 
 official acts was to lease, for a term of fifty years, 
 a large portion of the lands donated by the United 
 States for school purposes. With the rapid in- 
 crease in the value of real estate, the rental was 
 very soon inadequate in value, and insufficient 
 for the desired purpose, and the people of St. 
 Louis did not receive the full benefit of their 
 school fund for a number of years. Besides 
 which, the surveyor-general of Missouri, in 1848, 
 when Mr. Eliot became a member of the school 
 board, had denied the claim of the public schools 
 to certain common lots, and refused to set them 
 aside and leave the matter of adjudication to the 
 courts. 
 
 A knowledge of these facts is necessary to an 
 understanding of the work Mr. Eliot was called 
 upon to perform. He began his labors as a school 
 director by visiting the public schools, sometimes 
 
70 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 devoting the entire day to that purpose. He re- 
 cords that in June, with the thermometer at 
 ninety-five in the shade, he walked a mile and a 
 half to the First Ward School, and visited all three 
 departments, which were " in poor condition." 
 The entire school system was at that time very 
 unsatisfactory, and the teachers inefficient. In 
 August, at his instance and direction, new teach- 
 ers were " imported " from New England. The 
 system of instruction was altered and improved. 
 
 Mr. Eliot soon found his duties as a member 
 of the school board quite onerous, but considered 
 that he was working in a good cause. There were 
 three meetings each month to be attended, and he 
 was occupied with school duties one or two days 
 of the week. In June he was appointed member 
 of a commission to visit the county farm and city 
 workhouse to ascertain their condition, and also 
 to prepare a memorial to the city council and 
 county court, urging the establishment of a house 
 of correction. " Those who are able to work all 
 the time without painful weariness," he declared, 
 " do not know what luxury they enjoy." 
 
 " Next autumn," he writes, " my plans are : 
 
 " I. To prepare a petition and get a law passed 
 by the legislature, authorizing a tax of one sixth 
 of one per cent, on city property for school pur- 
 poses, and then to urge it before the city council. 
 
 " II. To get the school claims for property in 
 suit, for which purpose a memorial must be sent 
 
EDUCATION — PUBLIC SCHOOLS 71 
 
 to the commissioner of land in Washington, to 
 require action of surveyor-general of Missouri. 
 
 " III. Purchase of lot and erection of school- 
 house in this ward. 
 
 " The first of these is my own idea, and will 
 need much attention. The second I must chiefly 
 see to. The third only needs urging." 
 
 Thus much for the schools. In addition, Mr. 
 Eliot proposed to preach on slavery ; to get 
 some initiatory steps taken in the legislature, or 
 at least some consideration among the members 
 thereof, as to emancipation laws ; to preach 
 strongly on trade in liquors ; to deliver four or 
 five lectures on European travels, churches in 
 Europe, etc., for charity fund; and to give a 
 course of lectures to young men and women. 
 An inclusive programme ! 
 
 In August, 1848, Mr. Eliot proposed, and was 
 appointed a committee, to draft a memorial to 
 the legislature, asking for a tax in St. Louis not 
 exceeding one tenth of one per cent, for the 
 public schools. 
 
 In the memorial prepared and sent to both 
 houses of the Missouri General Assembly by Mr. 
 Eliot, the memorialists, the board of directors 
 of the St. Louis public schools, requested the 
 legislature to pass a law authorizing in that city 
 the imposition of a tax of one tenth of one per 
 cent, on city property for school purposes, said 
 measure to be submitted to a vote of the tax- 
 
72 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 payers at the polls. Facts were adduced showing 
 the insufficiency of the income then available, 
 derived from the lease of lands donated for 
 school purposes by the general government in 
 1848, the fifty-year leases still having thirty- 
 five years to run. There were then five school- 
 houses, and after the sixth was built no more 
 funds for the erection of buildings would be 
 available for ten years, although with over- 
 crowded schoolrooms only two thousand children 
 could be instructed in the public schools, leav- 
 ing six thousand children with no advantages of 
 education. And this in a city rapidly increasing 
 in population ! 
 
 This memorial was sent to the legislature 
 December 26, 1848, and an "Act to author- 
 ize the levying and collecting of a Tax in the 
 city of St. Louis for the Purposes of Education " 
 was passed by the General Assembly and ap- 
 proved February 13. It was to be submitted to 
 a vote of the tax-payers of St. Louis at the polls, 
 the first Monday in June. 
 
 Meantime Mr. Eliot was also working for the 
 accomplishment of the other objects he had out- 
 lined. Preparations were made to erect a new 
 schoolhouse on Fifteenth and Pine streets, and 
 it is evident that he had sent a memorial to the 
 commissioner of land in Washington concern- 
 ing disputed claims, since he records that no- 
 tice has been received from the surveyor-general 
 
EDUCATION — PUBLIC SCHOOLS 73 
 
 of Missouri that he had received orders from 
 Washington to set apart all lots claimed by the 
 public school directors under Act of Congress. 
 " One step towards our suits," adds Mr. Eliot ; 
 but such seems not to have been the case, judg- 
 ing from two letters written by him a year later, 
 in 1849, to Judge Butterfield, commissioner of 
 the general land office at Washington. Appar- 
 ently the former surveyor-general of Missouri 
 had been superseded, and Mr. Eliot requested 
 that his successor should reinvestigate certain 
 claims upon which reports adverse to the schools 
 had been made by his predecessor, who had " ex- 
 ceeded the limits of his office " in reporting un- 
 favorably against the claims of the public schools, 
 instead of setting apart for them any lots against 
 which there was no unquestionable claim, and 
 leaving the decision in each case to the proper 
 legal tribunal. 
 
 Litigation over the title of lands claimed by 
 the public schools under the grant made by Act 
 of Congress in 1812 was inevitable, and ex- 
 tended over a term of years. In a letter written 
 to Dr. Eliot in 1861, details of such a suit are 
 given by Colonel Thomas T. Gantt, who was 
 counsel in a case decided in favor of the public 
 schools. 
 
 October 2, 1848, Mr. Eliot had been unani- 
 mously elected president of the school board. 
 " A troublesome office," he declared ; " the trea- 
 
74 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 sury is empty and many things in confusion, but 
 a good feeling exists in the Board." To influ- 
 ence popular feeling in favor of a school tax, he 
 began early to publish in the daily papers a se- 
 ries of articles proving the necessity of increased 
 provision for education in the public schools. 
 Some one writing in the "Republican" com- 
 plained of the large number of bad boys in the 
 city, and asked : " Where are our houses of re- 
 fuge ? " Mr. Eliot in reply inquired : " Where are 
 our public schools?" He declared that consider- 
 ing there were then five or six thousand children 
 of school age out of school, because neither school- 
 houses nor teachers were provided for them, it 
 was no cause of wonder that a host of idle boys 
 was growing up to be a curse to the city. " We 
 may much more reasonably be amazed," he 
 added, " that the citizens, and especially the re- 
 ligious part of them, are so inactive, so blind to 
 the best interests of the community, so busy on 
 the one hand with party politics, and on the 
 other with party theology, that they do nothing 
 when the most ought to be done." 
 
 Notwithstanding the absorbing nature of his 
 work for the public schools, Mr. Eliot did not 
 neglect his other interests. Immediately after the 
 appearance of the article above mentioned, a se- 
 ries of communications on " the difficult subject 
 of slavery " was published by him under ficti- 
 tious signatures. In January, 1849, he also 
 
EDUCATION — PUBLIC -SCHOOLS 75 
 
 preached a sermon on slavery, and wrote to Hon. 
 William Campbell, of the Missouri Legislature, 
 and Hon. Thomas H. Benton, United States 
 senator from Missouri, to inquire regarding the 
 prospect of obtaining a law providing for grad- 
 ual emancipation in Missouri. 
 
 Although there was a steady increase of cholera 
 during the spring of 1849, Mr. Eliot never once 
 relaxed his efforts to obtain the passage of a law 
 providing for a city tax of one tenth of one per 
 cent, on city property, for the support of the 
 public schools. Most of the Catholics, including 
 four or five liberal-minded gentlemen on the 
 school board, were in favor of such a law. A 
 few, less tolerant, opposed it, unless a portion of 
 the fund thus obtained could be set aside for 
 Catholic schools. To such a one, who signed 
 himself "A Friend of Untrammeled Educa- 
 tion," Mr. Eliot replied in two articles of some 
 length. He declared that the public schools were 
 and should always be absolutely non-sectarian ; 
 that four or five members of the school board 
 were Catholics ; that the teachers were chosen 
 without any reference to their religious opinions ; 
 that the same rule was observed with regard to 
 pupils ; and that no teacher of religion was eli- 
 gible as a teacher in the public schools. Lastly, he 
 called attention to the fact that when it was pro- 
 posed to use the Protestant version of the Bible 
 in the public schools, and there was opposition 
 
76 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 on the part of Catholics, the matter was referred 
 to the board of directors. They had decided 
 that the schools must be absolutely non-sectarian, 
 and that neither version should be introduced. 
 Dr. Eliot privately records that this motion was 
 offered by himself, and carried by acclamation. 
 
 The week previous to the first Monday in June, 
 when the vote on the school tax was to be taken, 
 Mr. Eliot published numerous articles reiterating 
 arguments in favor of the law. After the " great 
 fire" Mr. Eliot had written: "I fear that all 
 hope of a tax for schools is lost by this fire. But 
 we shall see." On the morning of the day when 
 the vote was to be taken, five short articles from 
 his pen, urging tax-payers to go to the polls, 
 were published in the papers. The condition of 
 affairs in the city was not inspiriting. The ruins 
 of the fire, which had occurred about two weeks 
 previously, had not yet been removed, and cholera 
 had been declared an epidemic in the city. " The 
 prospect was unpromising," wrote Dr. Eliot, in 
 later years, " but largely through the active dili- 
 gence of the members of this (the Unitarian) 
 congregation, who went from house to house to 
 remind people of their duty, the vote of the tax- 
 payers was two to one in favor of the school tax, 
 and from that date the proper history of the St. 
 Louis public schools begins." And again he 
 wrote : " Although the vote was small on the 
 school tax, it is satisfactory that, out of six thou- 
 
EDUCATION — PUBLIC SCHOOLS 77 
 
 sand voters, only two hundred and forty-five were 
 found to oppose it, at a time when the calamities 
 of the city would afford a fair excuse for doing 
 so. Some of the large property-holders were 
 against us ; the rest, with few exceptions, were ig- 
 norant foreigners." Mr. Eliot himself " spent all 
 Monday forenoon electioneering for the school 
 tax," and "drummed up at least fifty votes." 
 At the same time he collected $150 for Elder 
 Nicholson's church. Elder Nicholson was build- 
 ing a small church at a town called Marseilles. 
 
 In August Mr. Eliot had begun the movement 
 in favor of the tax for schools. Everything in 
 relation to it since then had been either his own 
 work or at his suggestion, and now that the law 
 was passed and confirmed, he felt as if this alone 
 was a good and sufficient year's work. "It is 
 enough in itself," he declared, " to make me satis- 
 fied that I returned to St. Louis. It will give to 
 the public schools some $30,000 per annum." 
 
 The supreme importance which Dr. Eliot at- 
 tached to the free school system is shown in his 
 Phi Beta Kappa address, delivered during the 
 Civil War, in which he said : " The newspaper 
 correspondent may tell you that Missouri was 
 saved to the Union by the taking of Camp Jack- 
 son and the scattering of the disloyal legislature 
 three days before an ordinance of secession would 
 have been passed. But the earnest of that victory 
 had been given twenty-five years before by the 
 
78 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 establishment in St. Louis of the New England 
 system of free education. On the first Monday 
 of June, 1849, when fully one half of the city 
 had just been destroyed by fire, the citizens deter- 
 mined, by a vote two to one, to tax themselves for 
 the support of public schools. On that day the 
 victory was gained." 
 
 The establishment of evening schools for young 
 people unable to attend during the day was one 
 of Mr. Eliot's favorite projects. In January, 
 1850, two evening schools were opened as a part 
 of the public school system. Under the printed 
 notice Mr. Eliot wrote : " This I have been trying 
 for these three months." 
 
 Mr. Eliot's intimate friend, Eev. John H. Hey- 
 wood, thus wrote of his work for popular educa- 
 tion in St. Louis : " To Mr. Eliot's reflective and 
 prophetic mind, a wisely designed, liberally en- 
 dowed, and well-ordered system of public schools 
 was not only desirable, but absolutely essential. 
 Such a system was essential alike to the intellec- 
 tual welfare and the religious freedom of the city, 
 whose growth and far-reaching influence none 
 foresaw more clearly than he, as none understood 
 better than he the vital importance of institutions, 
 religious and educational, thoroughly charged 
 with the American spirit, as the one efficient bar- 
 rier against material, Philistine worldliness on 
 the one side, and un-American ecclesiasticism on 
 the other. Hence he threw the energies of his 
 
EDUCATION — PUBLIC SCHOOLS 79 
 
 strong, concentrated nature into the cause of 
 popular education, working for it day and night, 
 with unwavering devotion and unrelaxing tena- 
 city, until, through the blessing of the Infinite 
 Mind upon his labors and the labors of associates 
 kindred in spirit, the desired system of public 
 schools was established. It was a system lofty in 
 ideal, comprehensive in purpose, and admirably 
 organized, which, expanding from year to year, 
 attained in time a commanding position." 
 
 The income derived from the tax on city pro- 
 perty in St. Louis established the public school 
 system on a secure financial basis. Schools mul- 
 tiplied in number to meet the larger demands of 
 a rapidly increasing population, and have ever 
 since maintained a high standard of excellence. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 
 
 One thing was needed to develop the greatest 
 possibilities of the public school system, and that 
 was the establishment of a higher institution of 
 learning. This want was to be supplied sooner 
 than any one had anticipated, through what some 
 persons would call a happy accident, others a 
 providential occurrence. The inception of the 
 idea belonged to Mr. Wayman Crow, a member 
 of Dr. Eliot's church, who in a large degree 
 shared his plans and aspirations. The fulfillment 
 was due to Dr. Eliot and to the noble men who 
 aided hrm in this and other enterprises. 
 
 In the winter of 1853 Mr. Crow was a member 
 of the Missouri State Legislature as senator from 
 St. Louis. Always interested in public affairs, he 
 took an active part in legislation. As president 
 of the State Institute for the Blind, Mr. Eliot 
 had memorialized the legislature for a grant of 
 $20,000, which Mr. Crow evidently assisted him 
 in procuring. He also brought to Mr. Eliot from 
 Jefferson City a commission as curator of the 
 State University at Columbia, a position which Mr. 
 Eliot accepted with some hesitation on account 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 81 
 
 of " a troublesome state of affairs resulting from 
 political and religious controversies." 
 
 On February 22 Mr. Eliot wrote : " An Eliot 
 Seminary has been incorporated by the present 
 legislature, but I know nothing of it." On the 
 1st of March Mr. Crow came to St. Louis, bring- 
 ing with him charters for trustees of the Church 
 of the Messiah and for " Eliot Seminary." The 
 latter charter was declared by Mr. Eliot to be 
 "very liberal," and was to be "worked up in 
 some way before long." 
 
 The circumstances attending the early incor- 
 poration of " Eliot Seminary " were thus after- 
 wards related by Dr. Eliot : " A St. Louis mer- 
 chant, being a member of the Missouri State 
 Legislature, happened to see on the desk of a 
 colleague an educational charter which struck 
 him as particularly good. Without consultation 
 with any one, he selected seventeen names of 
 personal friends, adopted the charter with a few 
 modifications, under the name of Eliot Seminary, 
 and obtained its passage. It took us by surprise, 
 and, at first thought, caused some amusement; 
 for none of us had dreamed of such a thing, 
 and an educational enterprise seemed quite be- 
 yond our strength. But, upon examination of 
 the charter, it was found to be a document of 
 extraordinary merit, and capable of the grand- 
 est use. Its possession constituted a divine 
 call; and, after talking it over for a year, we 
 
82 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 determined to organize under it, and go to 
 work." 
 
 " The puzzle at first was where to begin," 
 added Dr. Eliot. " The whole educational field 
 was open before us, unoccupied except by the 
 public schools, and a few indifferent private semi- 
 naries. . . . Our charter authorized us to establish 
 anything we pleased, to hold an unlimited amount 
 of property free from all taxation, and direct our 
 affairs according to our own judgment. We deter- 
 mined not to let such privileges die for want of 
 use. It looked like rashness or over-ambition, but 
 has proved to be of the highest prudence." 
 
 The directors of the prospective institution of 
 learning did not meet for organization until Feb- 
 ruary 22, 1854. During the year Mr. Eliot had 
 been revolving in his own mind different plans 
 and methods. His first request was that the 
 title Eliot Seminary, being too personal and 
 sectarian, should be changed, and the name 
 " Washington Institute " was chosen. This was 
 suggested by the accident of the charter's being 
 signed on the 22d of February, and by the organ- 
 ization of the Institute on the same day of the 
 ensuing year. Mr. Eliot was elected president 
 and Mr. Crow vice-president of the board of 
 directors, which respective positions were held 
 by these gentlemen during the lifetime of each. 
 The seventeen charter members were Christo- 
 pher Kbodes, Samuel Treat, John M. Krum, 
 
\\Tv\aj . Va . V)va_V\ V 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 83 
 
 John Cavender, George Partridge, Phocion R. 
 McCreery, George Pegram, N. J. Eaton, James 
 Smith, Seth A. Eanlett, Mann Butler, William 
 G. Eliot, Jr., John How, Hudson E. Bridge, 
 William Glasgow, Jr., Samuel Russell, and Way- 
 man Crow. Probably the fact that these gentle- 
 men were all members of Mr. Eliot's church or 
 congregation, and Mr. Eliot's own well-known 
 views in the matter, influenced them when the 
 constitution was framed in making emphatic de- 
 claration of its non-sectarian character. Article 
 VIII. provided that " No instruction, either secta- 
 rian in religion, or partisan in politics, shall be 
 allowed in any department of tbe institution, and 
 no sectarian or partisan test shall be used in the 
 election of professors, teachers, or other officers 
 of the Institute, nor shall any such test ever be 
 used in said Institute for any purpose whatso- 
 ever. This article shall be understood as the fun- 
 damental condition on which all endowments, 
 of whatever kind, are received." Dr. Eliot was 
 always opposed to sectarianism in education, and 
 doubtless his experience in the public schools 
 and the state university had confirmed him in 
 this conviction. 
 
 In the constitution it was also declared that 
 the object of the Washington Institute was " to 
 provide the means of a thorough and complete 
 education, with particular view to practical use- 
 fulness." It is evident from this clause, from the 
 
84 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 use of the term " Institute," and from the tenor 
 of Mr. Eliot's address to the board of directors 
 on this occasion, that at that time the practical 
 and utilitarian idea was prominent in the minds 
 of the incorporators. Mr. Eliot is authority for 
 the statement that it was " only after much 
 doubt and deliberation, and finally by a prodi- 
 gious stride, " that Eliot Seminary, by act of 
 legislature in 1857, became Washington Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 In the address above referred to, Mr. Eliot did 
 not attempt to minimize the sacrifice of time and 
 money required for the contemplated enterprise. 
 The important question, he said, was whether 
 the accomplishment of the object undertaken 
 would be sufficient compensation for the labor 
 and cost, and what would be gained by success. 
 Only the foundation of a great institution could 
 be laid, and some parts of the plan matured. 
 Those who came after them must finish the work. 
 
 The impelling motives in the present under- 
 taking, Mr. Eliot declared to be : Firstly, the 
 education of their own children, that they need 
 not be sent from home ; secondly, the extension 
 of aid to the children of others, that they might 
 obtain industrial training, for which purpose an 
 industrial school would be established. There 
 would be scholarships in that and other depart- 
 ments, to assist " diligent and deserving youth." 
 
 The strongest motive that appealed to the 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 85 
 
 incorporators was, Mr. Eliot said, " to found an 
 institution for the public benefit." St. Louis 
 would probably be one of the largest and most 
 influential cities in the Western valley. It was 
 therefore necessary to lay a broad and substantial 
 foundation for educational, religious, and phi- 
 lanthropic institutions, for upon such depended 
 the intellectual, moral, and religious growth of 
 society. If the new institution could be estab- 
 lished according to the wishes of its founders, it 
 would become one of the strongest agencies for 
 good in the whole Western valley. It had a frame- 
 work which admitted of indefinite expansion. 
 
 In this address Mr. Eliot especially emphasized 
 the practical character and tendencies of Wash- 
 ington Institute, declaring that he hoped the 
 practical and scientific department would stand 
 in the foreground and give character to the rest. 
 He deprecated the " absurd distinction " by which 
 law, medicine, and theology were called profes- 
 sions, and everything else labor or trade. He 
 believed that the merchant, the farmer, the arti- 
 san should be scientific men and dignify labor. 
 
 In accordance with these views, a practical and 
 industrial department, under the name of the 
 O'Fallon Polytechnic Institute, was organized. 
 It was named for Colonel John O'Fallon, a liberal 
 benefactor to this and other university work. The 
 following year it was placed under the distinct 
 management and control of a separate board of 
 
86 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 directors. It comprised evening schools for the 
 education of artisans occupied during the day- 
 time; and for their use a library and reading- 
 room were provided. Later, courses of lectures 
 were arranged. This was in accordance with the 
 institution idea, before a university had been 
 decided upon. 
 
 An academy for boys, now known as Smith 
 Academy, was opened this same year, 1854. 
 Although merely a preparatory school, it consti- 
 tuted the germ of the future university. On the 
 23d of April, 1857, the formal inauguration of 
 Washington University took place ; and on the 
 evening of this day in Mercantile Library Hall 
 an oration was delivered by Edward Everett. 
 An advanced scientific class was then organized. 
 The college proper was organized in 1858, and 
 also the Mary Institute, like Smith Academy, a 
 sub-department of the future university, was 
 opened in 1859. In that same year, October 4, 
 1859, Joseph G. Hoyt, LL. D., was inaugurated 
 as Chancellor; the first college class graduating 
 under him in 1862. That fall, unfortunately, he 
 died. He was succeeded by William Chauvenet, 
 a man of brilliant parts, eminent as a scholar and 
 of especial distinction as a mathematician. 
 
 Rapidly increasing expenses and requirements, 
 with the expansion of the university idea, soon 
 made apparent the necessity of some assured in- 
 come from endowment. At the annual meeting 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVEKSITY 87 
 
 of the board of directors, held January 26, 1860, 
 Dr. Eliot presented a report in which he stated 
 that the expenses of the current year proved that 
 some such provision must be made, and requested 
 that he, as president, be authorized to take im- 
 mediate steps for the creation of a permanent 
 fund of at least one hundred thousand dollars as 
 a general endowment. Also, that he be further 
 authorized to have necessary buildings erected, as 
 soon as the requisite amount over and above the 
 endowment fund could be secured. These sug- 
 gestions were embodied by the members of the 
 board in a resolution authorizing the subscrip- 
 tion, and promising cooperation and aid. At 
 a meeting held February 21, a month later, Dr. 
 Eliot reported that he had found the task of rais- 
 ing one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars 
 more difficult than he had expected, yet it must 
 be accomplished. For a long time he had con- 
 tended against calling the new institution a uni- 
 versity, but the work had grown on their hands. 
 They already held a commanding place in the 
 community, and had gathered together a faculty 
 of which they had reason to be proud. They were 
 on the point of being recognized as a university ; 
 but larger demands were pressing upon them, 
 and must be met. They must either stop in their 
 progress, or worse than that, retrograde, and 
 merge the university idea in that of a prepara- 
 tory school, unless they could take a decided step 
 
88 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 forward, and place themselves in a position of 
 permanent strength with all requisite means of 
 doing their work. The times were unfavorable, 
 but the only time to do a work was when the 
 exigency required it to be done ; and the moral 
 effect of action then would be far greater than 
 at any other time. In conclusion, Dr. Eliot an- 
 nounced that he had six, and probably seven, 
 subscriptions of ten thousand dollars each. It is 
 needless to add that, as usual in such cases, his 
 own name was included among the subscribers 
 for that amount. The other names appear on 
 the list of directors. One modest subscription 
 of one thousand dollars to the endowment fund 
 was given by Dr. Eliot's mother, on condition 
 that a " holiday be given to the scholars of Mary 
 Institute on or near the 11th of May annually 
 for a May Festival." This holiday, still observed, 
 is called " Grandmother's Day." 
 
 It was well that this endowment fund was cre- 
 ated, and the college building made ready for 
 occupancy, before the beginning of the Civil 
 War, as this proved to be a crucial period in the 
 history of the young and struggling university. 
 In the year 1861 all appointments of professors 
 and instructors were made conditional on the 
 " continued ability of the directors to conduct 
 the institution as heretofore." There was a gen- 
 eral reduction of expenses ; and, as a step in this 
 direction, Dr. Eliot offered his services gratui- 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 89 
 
 tously as professor of metaphysics. This was 
 intended as a temporary arrangement, but unfor- 
 tunately for his health and strength it continued 
 some time, and became a laborious duty from 
 which he would gladly have obtained release. 
 
 While visiting in Boston, in 1864, Dr. Eliot 
 prepared an address on " Washington Univer- 
 sity," to be delivered in several of the churches 
 of Boston. This was later printed for circulation, 
 since he was now again endeavoring to raise an 
 additional endowment of two hundred thousand 
 dollars. He appealed to the churches on the 
 ground that the establishment of a university 
 upon the broad foundation of unsectarian Chris- 
 tian principles, in a region like the valley of the 
 Mississippi, might be called a Christian enter- 
 prise, and its success a national benefit. Such 
 an institution would be to the whole valley what 
 Harvard University is to New England. When 
 Dr. Eliot's first church was built, Boston had con- 
 tributed three thousand dollars ; and the mem- 
 bers of his society had pledged themselves to 
 expend annually in charity and missionary work 
 the interest on that amount. This they did for 
 two years, and after that expended annually for 
 such purposes, not including their own support 
 or educational enterprises, an average amount 
 considerably larger than the original donation, 
 besides founding a mission house with a partial 
 endowment. 
 
90 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Continuing, Dr. Eliot declared that during the 
 Civil War the Western Sanitary Commission had 
 received from " the generous heart of New Eng- 
 land " a continued, increasing stream of bounty. 
 The half million dollars thus sent had done an 
 untold amount of good. Not a single regiment 
 of all the Western States failed to know that 
 New England was taking care of them as if they 
 were her own. 
 
 In describing the effects of the war upon Mis- 
 souri, Dr. Eliot declared that many whole counties 
 had been depopulated ; and that on some of the 
 principal roads one might travel fifty miles with- 
 out findiDg a farm with buildings or fences stand- 
 ing. St. Louis merchants had lost heavily through 
 their trade with the South, and for nearly three 
 years business was completely prostrated. As a 
 result of the abolition of slavery in Missouri, 
 making a readjustment of the relations between 
 employer and employed necessary, a radical social 
 change must be accomplished. There must be a 
 regeneration of society, new modes of life, new 
 estimates of labor and the laboring classes, new 
 principles of political economy, and new sources 
 of prosperity ; and the agencies to direct these 
 great changes were " Religion and Education." 
 It was necessary, Dr. Eliot believed, to have the 
 best educational influences at work instantly. 
 " The direct influence of the higher institutions 
 of learning upon the public mind and morals," he 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 91 
 
 declared, "cannot be overestimated. . . . Edu- 
 cate the leaders of society in just principles of 
 statesmanship, political economy, public and pri- 
 vate morals. . . . Let the upper classes remain 
 under false systems of instruction, and the mul- 
 titude must suffer the consequences. . . . The 
 founders of a university are a power behind 
 legislation and control it. . . . It is good to 
 have educated followers; we must have edu- 
 cated leaders." 
 
 In applying to the churches of Boston, Dr. 
 Eliot said that of the total amount, $478,000, 
 thus far contributed to Washington University, 
 four fifths had come from his own congregation, 
 being for several years an annual average of 
 $50,000. Eleven individuals had given $300,000 
 of this amount, among whom only two or three 
 would be considered rich men. Several had given 
 from fifteen to thirty per cent, of all they were 
 worth ; and one had given sixty per cent., and 
 expressed willingness to give one half the re- 
 mainder. Progress had been due to the earnest 
 resolution of a few men. 
 
 The address delivered in Boston, when printed 
 in pamphlet form, bore on the title-page these 
 words : " A Statement relating to the Endow- 
 ment of ' Washington University,' St. Louis, 
 Missouri ; addressed to friends in New England, 
 and especially in Boston, who have heretofore 
 placed it in my power to undertake and prosecute 
 
92 WILLIAM GBEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 works of religion, patriotism, and philanthropy 
 in the West. By William G. Eliot." 
 
 A leaflet, issued -with the pamphlet, contained 
 a direct appeal for assistance to "friends of 
 Washington University in New England." In 
 sending copies of both publications to his bro- 
 ther, Hon. Thomas D. Eliot, Dr. Eliot wrote on 
 the leaflet : — 
 
 Deab Brother, — You see, or will see by this docu- 
 ment, that I am in for it ! Please make time to read it. 
 The job is " a big one,'' as Mr. Lincoln says, but I mean to 
 finish it because I must. I would gladly give all I am worth 
 to do it up instantly, for it is now a load heavier than I can 
 carry. 
 
 Your affectionate, not crazy, brother, 
 
 William. 
 May 23, 1864. 
 
 As a result of this appeal, Washington Uni- 
 versity received large benefactions from two resi- 
 dents of Boston, Mr. Nathaniel Thayer, and the 
 heirs of Mr. Tileston's estate, through his daugh- 
 ter, Mrs. Augustus Hemenway. In recognition 
 there were established the " Nathaniel Thayer 
 Professorship of Mathematics and Applied Me- 
 chanics " and the " Tileston Professorship of 
 Political Economy." 
 
 By a natural process of evolution and develop- 
 ment, under the fostering care and self-sacrificing 
 effort of its friends, the new university was becom- 
 ing such in fact as well as in name. In Septem- 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 93 
 
 ber, 1867, a law school was organized, in which 
 undertaking Mr. Henry Hitchcock, a prominent 
 lawyer, and member of the university board, took 
 an active part, besides serving for many years as 
 provost of the law school. Without the volun- 
 tary and gratuitous service of himself and his 
 associates in the profession, the founding of a 
 law school as a department of Washington Uni- 
 versity must necessarily have been delayed. 
 
 The O'Fallon Polytechnic Institute, established 
 before the university idea had been fully accepted, 
 was hardly a legitimate department of proper 
 university work. It did not, like the sub-depart- 
 ments of the university, represent, in a systematic 
 course of instruction, a preliminary training for 
 which there was otherwise no provision in the 
 community ; and the cost of maintaining it was 
 so great that it could only have been contin- 
 ued by Washington University at the expense, 
 if not sacrifice, of other essential departments. 
 Therefore, in the year 1868, the O'Fallon Poly- 
 technic Institute, building and contents, was con- 
 veyed to the St. Louis public school board under 
 certain reciprocal conditions, whereby the public 
 schools undertook to carry on the work of giv- 
 ing gratuitously elementary instruction in tech- 
 nical science to students engaged in preparing 
 themselves for industrial mechanical pursuits, and 
 also to continue the library on a greatly enlarged 
 scale. Thus the university was relieved of a task 
 
94 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 somewhat outside of its province as an institution 
 of advanced learning, and confined to the more 
 legitimate work of higher scientific training in 
 its scientific or polytechnic department, now the 
 school of engineering. 
 
 The public school library had been but a few 
 years in existence, and its consolidation with the 
 O'Fallon Polytechnic Library was of advantage 
 to both organizations. Dr. Eliot was a member 
 of the board of managers of the public school 
 library from 1865 to 1869, and at the first meet- 
 ing of the board, February 25, 1865, addressed 
 that body, congratulating the promoters on the 
 inception of an enterprise which promised such 
 efficient aid to the cause of education. 
 
 Dr. Eliot returned from abroad in the spring 
 of 1870, and was immediately summoned to the 
 bedside of his brother, Thomas Dawes Eliot, of 
 New Bedford, Massachusetts, who died June 14. 
 Dr. Eliot had evidently while away been revolv- 
 ing in his mind plans for the organization of a 
 scientific department in the university, for he 
 sent a report, written in the sick chamber of 
 his brother, to be read at the commencement 
 exercises of the university in June, 1870. In 
 this report he recommended the erection of a 
 building for the scientific department as one of 
 the essential requisites for the coming year. In 
 August the plans were completed, and the build- 
 ing was ready for occupancy in the fall of 1871. 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 95 
 
 Dr. Eliot's plan for this department comprised 
 four courses of scientific instruction, — chemis- 
 try, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, 
 and mining and metallurgy. A course of archi- 
 tecture, he declared, should be added, had they 
 the means. This was done in 1902, when in- 
 creased income permitted larger expenditure. 
 
 In the summer of 1870 Chancellor Chauvenet 
 of Washington University was suffering from 
 the illness which eventually caused his death, in 
 December of that year. Added cares thus de- 
 volved upon Dr. Eliot, as president of the board 
 of trustees, and he realized that his strength 
 was not adequate to what he considered a satis- 
 factory performance of church and university 
 duties. Therefore, on July 1, 1870, he sent to 
 the trustees of the Church of the Messiah his 
 resignation as pastor. At their request it was 
 deferred for a year, that a successor might mean- 
 time be found. 
 
 His withdrawal from the ministry was to Dr. 
 Eliot a cause of keen regret, and in a sermon, 
 preached on the occasion of the thirty-sixth 
 anniversary of the Church of the Messiah, he 
 thus expressed himself in regard to a change of 
 vocation, which he then hoped would be tempo- 
 rary : " I need not remind you how deeply this 
 cause of education has interested me since my 
 first coming here until now. It has stood second 
 only to the work of the Christian ministry, which 
 
96 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 must, with me, always stand first, and from which 
 I trust never to withdraw myself. But next to it 
 and in close alliance with it, as the helper and 
 handmaid of religion, comes education, by the 
 general diffusion of which alone can the safety 
 and progress of our country be secured. Not only 
 for the public schools, but for other institutions 
 which are intended to reach all departments of 
 learning, until they have grown into a full Amer- 
 ican university, such as this great city of the 
 great West should possess, has a large part of 
 my time been given. 
 
 " The impression prevails, I am aware, that I 
 am soon to withdraw myself from all other pur- 
 suits and devote myself hereafter exclusively to 
 this university work. But it is not so. The love 
 of my profession, the ministry of Jesus Christ, 
 is so ingrained that no other calling has any at- 
 traction for me. It has grown with my growth 
 and strengthened with my strength, and becomes 
 stronger as the strength fails. 
 
 " I do desire release from the too heavy burden 
 of this large church and congregation, because 
 the proper performance of its reasonably required 
 work is beyond my strength, and younger hands 
 and a fresher mind are needed for its best in- 
 terests. But there is enough other work to do, 
 upon a smaller scale, both in this city and the 
 vicinity, to satisfy my wishes and keep me from 
 being unemployed. 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 97 
 
 " As to educational work, I shall continue to 
 do it, if God will, in the same way that I have 
 always done it ; as a citizen, as a friend of edu- 
 cation, and as a voluntary and unpaid task. In 
 this way all that I have the ability or educational 
 training to do may be done, and only so am I 
 willing or able, as things now are, to undertake 
 it." 
 
 In September, 1870, by a resolution of the 
 board of directors of Washington University, 
 the president (Dr. Eliot) was constituted ex 
 officio Chancellor of the university, " until fur- 
 ther order," and immediately assumed the duties 
 of the position. In December, 1870, after the 
 death of Chancellor Chauvenet, Dr. Eliot, by a 
 second resolution to the same effect, was con- 
 tinued as Chancellor " until further notice." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 Washington univbrsity (continued) 
 
 Dr. Eliot was regularly installed Chancellor 
 of Washington University in 1872. On the oc- 
 casion of his inauguration, February 29, 1872, 
 Mr. Crow, on behalf of the board of directors, 
 delivered to him the charter of the university, as 
 a symbol of the power conveyed to him, and in 
 addressing him said in part : " More than thirty 
 years ago, when St. Louis was little more than a 
 frontier village, you first became intimately con- 
 nected with the educational interests of this city 
 as director and subsequently president of the 
 public school board, and we do not forget that 
 it was owing in a great part to your efforts, and 
 to the earnest cooperation of those who were as- 
 sociated with you in those early days, that we 
 are indebted for the admirable system of common 
 schools which we now possess, and for the pre- 
 servation of the liberal endowment, which, in the 
 space of a single lifetime, has enabled it to at- 
 tain a degree of excellence and bring forth fruits 
 that may safely challenge comparison. . . . From 
 the moment when with fear and hope it was first 
 decided to give a practical shape and form to 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 99 
 
 the idea of this institution, down to the present 
 occasion, when in the full tide of successful ex- 
 periment we call you to the highest and most 
 responsible of academic positions, the burthen of 
 the labor has rested on your shoulders ; as presi- 
 dent of the board of directors, it fell within 
 your province to prepare and develop the gen- 
 eral plan upon which the success of the ex- 
 periment was believed to depend ; to you was 
 committed the duty of organizing the different 
 departments of instruction as they were rendered 
 necessary to accommodate the ever widening cir- 
 cle of scholars ; and at the same time you have 
 not only had the entire supervision of the ma- 
 terial interests of the institution, but you volun- 
 tarily assumed the task of placing its affairs upon 
 such a basis, which I trust will soon be accom- 
 plished, as to make them comparatively inde- 
 pendent of financial change and vicissitude. All 
 these results have been attained, and that Wash- 
 ington University exists to-day, with its doors 
 wide open and hundreds of scholars thronging 
 its halls, is due to your energy, executive ability, 
 and unselfish devotion to the sacred cause of 
 education. Do not be surprised, therefore, if we 
 salute you as its ' founder,' for in so doing we 
 but echo the unanimous sentiments of those who 
 have shared your anxieties, participated however 
 humbly in your labors, and who now rejoice in 
 the glorious prospect of success. This much it 
 
100 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 has seemed to me -was due in grateful acknow- 
 ledgment of past services." 
 
 In response to Mr. Crow, Dr. Eliot in his in- 
 augural address hefore the government and 
 alumni of Washington University and many of 
 his fellow-citizens declared that, holding in mem- 
 ory those who had preceded him on like occa- 
 sions, he had a natural feeling of unfitness in 
 addressing the assembled audience. At the in- 
 auguration of the university itself, there had been 
 an address by Edward Everett, " the most accom- 
 plished of American orators," and on subsequent 
 occasions addresses by Chancellor Hoyt and Chan- 
 cellor Chauvenet, both of them men whose names 
 conferred distinction upon the university. It had 
 been the duty of his predecessors to show the 
 principles upon which sound education rests, and 
 how a university should be conducted. It de- 
 volved on him to show how a university should 
 be built. From the first inception of the enter- 
 prise the ideal of its projectors had been the per- 
 manent establishment of an American university 
 that would include all departments of learning, 
 art, science, and aesthetic culture. Such a univer- 
 sity should elevate the workman to the ranks of 
 intelligent, skilled labor, and offer to all ready to 
 receive them the best advantages of the highest 
 education. 
 
 While emphasizing in his address the practical 
 tendency which necessity imposed upon American 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 101 
 
 institutions of learning, Dr. Eliot declared that 
 the peculiar province of every university, properly 
 so termed, must be found in the highest depart- 
 ment of intellectual culture. A university was 
 not primarily a society for the diffusion of useful 
 knowledge, nor a common school system for the 
 education of the masses. Its distinctive work was 
 in the higher realms of thought, there building 
 upon the highest attainments of the past to reach 
 upward to still higher, and thus enlarge the 
 boundaries of human knowledge by discovery of 
 new truths and by new applications of the old. 
 Not quantity but quality of work was the ulti- 
 mate test of a university's success. To educate 
 one man thoroughly, to make him one of those 
 that stand first, leading, not following, conferred 
 more honor than to graduate a thousand upon 
 the usual dead level of moderate scholarship. 
 Quality included quantity. One best was more 
 than many good. The man who looked a little 
 further than his contemporaries discovered a new 
 continent. The man who thought a little more 
 profoundly invented the telegraph or revealed 
 the laws of light. To train one such man adds 
 more to the world's wealth than numerical figures 
 can compute. 
 
 Dr. Eliot considered that the university should 
 be supplied with all needful facilities for giving 
 the best education to the few, as well as a good 
 education to the many. The number of those 
 
102 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 capable by nature of receiving the best gifts 
 might be small, but the best gifts should be kept 
 ready, and no one honestly seeking them should 
 be turned away. 
 
 To lay the foundations of university education 
 as broad and strong as planned, to raise the su- 
 perstructure of knowledge to the height desired, 
 Dr. Eliot declared that large benefactions were 
 required. The university had already received, 
 he stated, more than three quarters of a million 
 of dollars, and had become in the city and State 
 an influence of moral and educational power 
 which could not well be spared. Yet if this were 
 all — if to hold their own were their best hope, 
 to remain one of three hundred half-fledged 
 colleges, whose wings refused to grow — they 
 would have signally failed. " The sacrifices we 
 have made," he continued, " the anxieties we have 
 endured ; the prayers and longings we have 
 breathed ; the day and night labor and care which 
 have driven sleep from the pillow ; ... we do 
 not say that it will have been all in vain if we 
 should stop here, but assuredly our aim and pur- 
 pose have reached far beyond. Our assigned task 
 is to make for St. Louis what Harvard College is 
 to Boston, or Yale to the city of its abode. . . . 
 
 " We would found a university so widely ac- 
 knowledged in its influence that St. Louis and 
 Missouri should be honored throughout the world 
 by its being established here. ... As citizens 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 103 
 
 of St. Louis we desire to make our city great and 
 strong. Can that be called a great city which 
 must go abroad to find the best means of educa- 
 tion ? Can we attain to that first place, or hold 
 it when attained, by mere force of wealth and 
 muscular energy? The best things that money 
 can buy are refinement and knowledge and art, 
 and men of intelligence refuse to live where these 
 cannot be found. . . . The moral and intellec- 
 tual progress must keep pace with the material, or 
 our prosperity will be evanescent. . . . Nothing 
 can be more sad, more pitiable, than abundance 
 of wealth where poverty of mind and character 
 prevails. 
 
 " This is one of the great dangers of American 
 life, especially in the luxuriantly growing West. 
 Everywhere the influences of refinement and good 
 taste should be cultivated. Everywhere institu- 
 tions for promotion of the higher education should 
 be cherished. Especially where the gifts of out- 
 ward nature are so munificent, the inward life 
 should be heedf ully kept from the degradation of 
 ignorance, from the debasing idolatry of gold." 
 
 As to the amount of money and length of time 
 required to accomplish the establishment of such 
 an institution as was desired, Dr. Eliot said : 
 " Give us one million of dollars, and grant us 
 five years' time, and we will provide for St. Louis 
 and its region all the educational advantages of 
 Harvard or Yale." To some persons a million of 
 
104 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 dollars seems a large sum to invest in such an 
 educational enterprise, but Dr. Eliot thought it 
 was a sort of barbarism so to consider it. Men 
 rightly said of the contemplated Merchants' Ex- 
 change building, that it would be cheaply built 
 if it cost a million and a half ; and of the grand 
 viaduct over the Mississippi, that if it cost six 
 millions, the only thing to be regretted was that 
 it was not begun and finished ten years before. 
 " But an American university," Dr. Eliot con- 
 tinued, " a highway of knowledge and art, bring- 
 ing here to our homes and families all the ap- 
 pliances and wealth of intellectual culture from 
 distant regions to make them indigenous here, is 
 a greater work, and will shed its blessings upon 
 all around long after the piers of that magnificent 
 structure shall have crumbled away. Material 
 things perish. The mind endures." 
 
 It was an honorable ambition, Dr. Eliot 
 thought, to link one's self to the beneficent in- 
 stitutions of the land, so that one's name would 
 be a title of nobility to children's children to 
 the end of time ; yet they neither had nor would 
 now appeal to such a motive nor seek to build the 
 structures of usefulness upon any selfish founda- 
 tion, however praiseworthy in the eyes of men. 
 " In the service of God and humanity the work 
 must be done, if at all ; . . . the desire to do 
 good . . . must be the strong purpose by which 
 every large philanthropy is sustained." 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 105 
 
 The most significant feature of Dr. Eliot's 
 address was the statement that from the first in- 
 ception of their enterprise the " aspirations and 
 ideal" of the hoard of directors of Washington 
 University had been unchanged. This ideal con- 
 templated the establishment of an institution of 
 advanced learning, providing not only " a good 
 education for the many," but " the best education 
 for the few." 
 
 " The best education for the few ! " It is this 
 indeed which requires large means, as is proved 
 by the experience of every university. Dr. Eliot 
 himself wrote : " In such educational work as 
 this we must often feel the absurdly great cost, 
 per capita, of what we do. But the whole cost 
 should be divided, not by the few in the upper 
 departments, but first, by all in all departments, 
 say nine hundred, and secondly, by the next 
 twenty years or onward. As in digging a well or 
 bringing irrigation to a barren district, at first 
 one family is supplied, a small district redeemed, 
 but by and by a neighborhood, a community, a 
 state." 
 
 When at one of the early meetings of the 
 board of directors of "Washington Institute," 
 it was suggested that the name be changed to 
 " Washington University," with an assumption 
 of all the responsibilities thereby entailed, Dr. 
 Eliot, who perhaps realized more clearly than 
 any other person present the magnitude of the 
 
106 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 undertaking, opposed the proposition, to which 
 he later acceded. Then, having once given his 
 assent, he laid the foundation of the new insti- 
 tution with a view to its indefinite growth and 
 expansion. The plans rapidly matured in his 
 active and fertile brain, but for lack of funds 
 progress was necessarily slow, and the natural evo- 
 lution of the basic idea outstripped the means 
 for its realization. Thus each year the burden 
 became more heavy, as new departments were 
 added. In Dr. Eliot's annual report to the 
 board of directors, in January, 1873, he said 
 when urging the creation of an endowment fund 
 of one million of dollars : " Gentlemen, I know 
 that this persistent cry for money is wearisome 
 in the extreme, but how can I help it when I see 
 the greatness of the opportunity, the growing 
 necessity of the work to be accomplished ? 
 
 " I doubt if there is a person in St. Louis who 
 covets money or prays for it more earnestly than 
 I do, and I feel an assured unreasoning convic- 
 tion, ' borne in upon me,' that from some source 
 or other the money will come. But I see it in 
 such abundance around me, hoarded or wasted, 
 that I scarcely know how patiently to wait for 
 the comparatively small amount for the want of 
 which our young university is compelled, like a 
 child, to crawl and totter instead of vigorously 
 marching on. One million of dollars, added to 
 what we have, if properly invested, would secure 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 107 
 
 to Washington University, in five years' time, 
 and ever afterwards, a commanding influence 
 throughout this great valley, and would go far 
 toward making our city, what it cannot without 
 some such agency become, the metropolis of the 
 West." 
 
 Although the board of directors of Washing- 
 ton University changed somewhat from time to 
 time, through the death of individual members, 
 its register was always a roll of honor. In the 
 absence for many years of a wide public response 
 to meet the needs of the university, the directors 
 repeated their gifts. "At the first meeting in 
 1854," wrote Dr. Eliot, "when the first seventeen 
 incorporators met together in a private parlor, 
 their conjoined property would not have reached 
 half a million in value. They had no definite 
 plan of action, no reasonable assurance of success. 
 No one outside of their own number thought they 
 would succeed, and of this they themselves were 
 only half convinced." 
 
 " They went forward," continued Dr. Eliot, 
 " very cautiously, and found themselves stronger 
 at the end of every year than at its beginning." 
 There was always an annual deficit of from two 
 to ten thousand dollars. This was invariably met 
 " by the persistent generosity of a few persons ;" 
 and never from the first was any mechanic, or 
 contractor, or teacher, or any other employed 
 person obliged " to wait for payment a day after 
 
108 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 it was justly due." In 1878 Dr. Eliot declared 
 that the university property exceeded over a 
 million dollars, and that two hundred thousand 
 dollars additional had been " sunk by the an- 
 nual payment of deficiencies and otherwise." 
 This "annual deficit," always provided for by 
 the directors, continued until quite recently. 
 At times individual credit was used to cover two 
 or three hundred thousand dollars. All honor 
 to the men who thus made ultimate success pos- 
 sible ! 
 
 As already noted, at the first meeting of the 
 incorporators of Washington University, when 
 the constitution was framed, by one of its arti- 
 cles the new institution was debarred from all 
 sectarian or party tests or control or agency of 
 any kind. Dr. Eliot always dwelt with peculiar 
 satisfaction on this provision. " It is the right 
 basis for an American university," he declared, 
 " if the superstructure is to be consecrated, as it 
 should be, to the sovereign love of truth. That 
 is the single aim of all scientific investigation, of 
 all learned research, of all philosophical inquiry, 
 of all ethical analysis and instruction. They who 
 come nearest to truth come nearest to God, and 
 whoever puts hindrance in the way . . . should 
 take heed lest haply he be found to be fighting 
 against Him. Let the motto of our university 
 be ' Veritas pro veritate — Truth for truth's 
 sake.' " 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 109 
 
 Another fundamental idea, in which Dr. Eliot 
 felt pride, was the high standard of scholarship 
 maintained in every department of the univer- 
 sity. This standard of scholarship, he declared, 
 had been established by Chancellors Hoyt and 
 Chauvenet, and " progressively maintained." It 
 was never lowered through desire of numerical 
 increase. 
 
 "I am willing," he declared in 1878, in his 
 anniversary address, " to put our graduates, 
 whether of the law school or collegiate or poly- 
 technic departments, with those of Harvard or 
 Yale so far as the short term of our university 
 existence makes possible." "Measured by the 
 standard of time," he regarded the work accom- 
 plished as "a marked success. Measured by the 
 scale of large and comprehensive university work," 
 it was " but the lisping of infancy." 
 
 In accordance with Dr. Eliot's desire to abolish 
 arbitrary distinctions in education, not to elevate 
 one course of study at the expense of another, and 
 to maintain an equally high standard in all, the 
 classical and scientific courses of the university 
 each covered an equal period of time, while both 
 were " equally severe in mental discipline and com- 
 prehensiveness of knowledge." The tendency, he 
 declared, was continually " to bring more of the 
 college studies into the scientific curriculum, and 
 more of the scientific into that of the college." 
 Dr. Eliot himself thoroughly believed in the dis- 
 
110 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 ciplinary use of classical studies, especially in 
 early youth before the mind is ready to grasp 
 scientific truths ; but he recognized the fact that 
 " the differences of mental constitution, and the 
 necessary divergences in the pursuits of life, 
 should also be considered." He maintained that 
 the enlarging range of knowledge required an 
 extensive variety of elective courses, and that to 
 sneer at the dead languages or to depreciate sci- 
 entific knowledge was equally vain and foolish. 
 The essential thing was to establish a high stan- 
 dard of scholarship, whether in classical or scien- 
 tific studies. By lowering its standard Washing- 
 ton University might quadruple the number of 
 its graduates, but slow progress was preferable. 
 " Let the fountains of knowledge be kept full 
 and pure," he said in one of his informal reports, 
 "even if at a height inaccessible to the indolent 
 and unattractive to the dull. The few who reach 
 them become the teachers and guides of the rest." 
 Although Dr. Eliot always believed in the su- 
 perior advantages of a thorough collegiate course 
 before specializing in any one direction, he recog- 
 nized that this was not always practicable. To 
 bring education into the handicrafts, to dignify 
 and improve skilled labor, to train young men for 
 the workshop and factory, the manual training 
 school, as a secondary school or sub-department 
 of the university, was organized in 1879. It was 
 created in response to popular demand, to supply 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 111 
 
 the need created by the passing away of the ap- 
 prenticeship system, and embraced a four years' 
 course of study and training whereby skilled in- 
 dustry might be placed nearer the level of the 
 professional pursuits. Since the inception of this 
 system within the last few years, manual training 
 is being extensively adopted in the public schools, 
 and this may eventually relieve the university of 
 the charge of this sub-department. 
 
 In this same year, 1879, in which the man- 
 ual training school was organized, the board of 
 directors of Washington University took what 
 Dr. Eliot termed " another departure from tra- 
 ditional usage, ... by the establishment of a 
 school of art and design. ... as a department 
 of the university." Art instruction had then been 
 embodied in the course of study, from the " remote 
 period of academic existence," and the St. Louis 
 School of Fine Arts had grown from this humble 
 beginning. " The certain effect of the manual 
 school and the department of art," declared Dr. 
 Eliot in a report, " will be to elevate the taste of 
 the whole community, and to introduce into our 
 workshops and manufactories a higher standard 
 of skill both in the design and finish of manufac- 
 tured articles of whatever sort." 
 
 Soon after the creation of this new department 
 of art, Mr. Wayman Crow crowned his numerous 
 benefactions to the university by the erection of 
 a museum of fine arts, as a memorial to his only 
 
112 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 son, Wayman Crow, Jr. It involved an expendi- 
 ture of $120,000, besides $25,000 additional as 
 the beginning of an endowment fund. 
 
 May, 1875, in response to an appeal from Dr. 
 Eliot, an endowment fund of $25,500, for gen- 
 eral lectures, was received from Mr. William H. 
 Smith. " The educational uses of such lectures, 
 given by competent men, in a large city like ours," 
 said Dr. Eliot, " are too obvious to need being 
 insisted upon. . . . The university is thus brought 
 into close and living relation to the whole com- 
 munity." 
 
 There was also received from Mrs. Mary Hem- 
 enway of Boston, who through her efforts to pre- 
 serve from destruction the Old South Church in 
 that city had become much interested in the pro- 
 motion of the study of American history in schools 
 and colleges throughout the United States, the 
 sum of $15,000, which, although intrusted to Dr. 
 Eliot without condition, for university purposes, 
 he believed would be most appropriately used as 
 the beginning of a fund in the creation of a de- 
 partment of American history. He therefore re- 
 commended that this be established with a view 
 to promoting the careful study of American his- 
 tory, not only among the students of the univer- 
 sity itself, but in the community at large. It was 
 his opinion that Americans grew up " without 
 an opportunity of studying and comprehending 
 the principles on which their political and social 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 113 
 
 freedom and national independence rest," and that 
 if " the history of our growth and the elements of 
 our general and special prosperities as States in 
 the Union were better understood, the possibility 
 of separateness or conflict would not so much as 
 be thought of, and there would be no North, no 
 South, no East, and no West, but the United States 
 of America, the great Republic of the world." 
 
 In the department of American history thus 
 established, Professor John Fiske, eminent as 
 scholar, philosopher, and historian, lectured for a 
 number of years as non-resident professor, until 
 his untimely death in 1901. Dr. Eliot hoped to 
 see the work of this department enlarged, and 
 expressed it as his opinion that if the fund could 
 be increased to yield $5000 annually, " the uni- 
 versity might well do good service for the whole 
 country in the advancement of American patriot- 
 ism and statesmanship, . . . helping to create what 
 at present scarcely existed at all, — a true Ameri- 
 can nationality of sentiment and character." 
 
 October 16, 1877, occurred the death of Mr. 
 James Smith, one of the early members of the 
 Unitarian Church in St. Louis. With Mr. Rhodes 
 he met Dr. Eliot on his arrival in the city, and 
 from that time, as Dr. Eliot expressed it, they 
 " lived on terms of close and brotherly friend- 
 ship." " As one of the most active founders of 
 Washington University," said Dr. Eliot, "his 
 name appears in all its early records, and at every 
 
114 WILLIAM GREESTLEAF ELIOT 
 
 step of its progress. Even when it was an ex- 
 periment, the success of which was extremely 
 douhtf ul, his contributions were large, and always 
 the largest when discouragements were great- 
 est." In addition to his gifts while living, he 
 bequeathed by will to Dr. Eliot nearly one half 
 of his entire estate in the following terms : " All 
 the remainder of the estate I may have at the 
 time of my death, real, personal, and mixed, and 
 wherever situated, I do give, devise, and bequeath 
 to my friend William G. Eliot, as a testimony of 
 a long-continued friendship and regard, know- 
 ing as I do that he always uses all moneys and 
 property to him belonging judiciously, not only 
 for his own purposes alone, but for the good of 
 others, to have and to hold, the same unto the 
 said William G. Eliot, and to his heirs, execu- 
 tors, administrators, and assigns forever." 
 
 The money thus bequeathed to him without 
 conditions or stipulations, Dr. Eliot regarded and 
 treated as a sacred trust. In a report made to 
 the board of directors in May, 1883, he declared 
 that in accord with the terms of Mr. Smith's will 
 he had felt justified in making the university the 
 chief recipient of his bounty, especially as he had 
 always been a munificent benefactor to that insti- 
 tution, and Dr. Eliot's personal friend for forty 
 years. 
 
 To perpetuate Mr. Smith's name, and as a 
 memorial, a new building was erected for the 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 115 
 
 academic department of the university, and called 
 " Smith Academy." A new gymnasium was 
 built, and contributions varying in amount were 
 made to different departments of the university, 
 as most needed. In this report of May 28, 1883, 
 made to the board of directors of Washington 
 University, and in an article written and pub- 
 lished on the anniversary of Mr. Smith's death, 
 October 16, 1883, Dr. Eliot accounted for the 
 entire amount, principal and interest, of the be- 
 quest thus made to him without stipulation : 
 $176,737 had been devoted to university uses, 
 and the remainder, $ 15,236, to "such religious, 
 charitable, and beneficent uses as seemed judi- 
 cious." For all sums expended, Mr. Smith's ex- 
 ecutor, Dr. Eliot, " held vouchers." 
 
 In the last formal report made by Dr. Eliot 
 to the university board of directors, January 26, 
 1885, he gave a resume of the condition of the 
 various departments. The secondary schools all 
 had their full complement of scholars, and com- 
 plete corps of teachers. The undergraduate de- 
 partment, including the scientific and collegiate 
 classes, had been thoroughly reorganized, with a 
 wide range of elective studies, and the students 
 were as well and completely instructed as in the 
 best of the Eastern institutions. The beginning 
 of a library had been made, and collections of 
 minerals and fossils purchased and classified. 
 The law school was doing excellent work, and 
 
116 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Dr. Eliot was assured by those most competent to 
 judge, that nowhere could a student find better 
 opportunities for legal education. 
 
 An " unpretending observatory " had been 
 built and furnished with excellent instruments, 
 and was doing work not only for students, but 
 for the public at large. For some years the uni- 
 versity electric clock had regulated not only the 
 time for the city, but for several railroad sys- 
 tems ; and by a method of time signals its click 
 was heard simultaneously in a number of West- 
 ern cities. 
 
 The art school had advanced to a magnitude 
 and a degree of excellence that placed it on a 
 level with the best in the United States, having 
 two hundred and forty-five students in day and 
 evening classes. The art museum was becoming 
 the repository of collections of antique and mod- 
 ern specimens of art. From the interest of a lec- 
 ture fund, class-room and popular lectures were 
 supplied every year at merely nominal cost of 
 admission. 
 
 Such, Dr. Eliot reported, was a rough outline 
 of progress in the last thirteen years, the period of 
 his chancellorship. It had involved the expendi- 
 ture of $750,000, all of which had been given 
 specifically by friends of the university for the 
 purposes named. For twenty-eight years Wash- 
 ington University had been advancing surely and 
 steadily, until it might fairly be claimed that an 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 117 
 
 American university had been established, needing 
 only time, ample endowment, and care to give it 
 a commanding influence. Its charter was perfect, 
 its foundations had been well laid, its standard 
 of instruction was high, with just recognition of 
 the demands of the age. Yet, notwithstanding its 
 advantages, the university had come to a stand- 
 still ; and without enlarged endowment there was 
 even danger that it would not hold its own. Its 
 income had decreased from shrinkage of values 
 and reduced rates of interest, and most of the 
 endowment had been given for special purposes. 
 The advanced standard of education had involved 
 larger expenditures, which must increase rather 
 than diminish. For the maintenance of its pre- 
 sent position, and to provide for future growth, 
 Dr. Eliot declared that an added endowment of 
 $500,000 was required. 
 
 " Our annual expenses," continued Dr. Eliot, 
 " are at least $12,000 greater than our income 
 from all sources. This is an element of weak- 
 ness and discouragement, increasing year by 
 year, which no prudent man would willingly en- 
 counter. It is not only disheartening in itself, 
 but bars all possibility and even thought of ad- 
 vancement or growth. The range of education 
 is continually becoming wider. The necessity of 
 original research in all departments of science, 
 philosophy, and literature is daily more imperative. 
 The wisdom of giving to every earnest student 
 
118 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the education to which his mind is best adapted, 
 without forcing all to go in the same channel, 
 is more generally recognized. To give the best 
 and highest education to the few, in whatever 
 direction may be chosen, and a good practical 
 common-sense training to all, is the acknowledged 
 aim. 
 
 " All of this costs money. The best educa- 
 tion costs the most. A closely restricted treasury 
 with an incubus of debt means sluggishness and 
 decline. Men of generous ambition, of fresh, 
 vigorous minds, will not stay where they cannot 
 advance both in their work and in themselves. 
 Good students avoid an institution that stands 
 still." 
 
 Dr. Eliot spoke with more earnestness in thus 
 addressing the board of directors because he 
 realized his declining strength, and foresaw the 
 difficulties his successor must encounter, unless 
 the university endowment was increased. He thus 
 gave his reasons for accepting the office of Chan- 
 cellor in 1872 : " When Mr. Hudson E. Bridge, 
 with wise forethought, laid the corner-stone of 
 our proper university existence, March, 1871, by 
 the unexpected and unsolicited gift of $ 130,000, 
 of which $30,000 was for the uses of the poly- 
 technic school, and the remainder for a chancel- 
 lorship endowment fund, he expected and desired 
 that some competent educator, of mature expe- 
 rience and tried character, would be placed at the 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 119 
 
 head of the institution. It was equally and even 
 more earnestly my own desire, for I had no wish 
 nor willingness to leave my previous and chosen 
 calling. 
 
 " But after long and careful search we could 
 find no one of already acquired reputation who 
 would be a candidate for the office. For, al- 
 though a competent salary was secured, the in- 
 stitution itself was so infantile that to call it a 
 university seemed no better than Western gran- 
 diloquism. . . . 
 
 " It became necessary therefore to put the in- 
 fant at nurse, and that process has been going 
 on now under my care for these thirteen years. 
 Through the continued and untiring generosity 
 of friends, by gifts and bequests, and still more 
 by the zealous faithfulness of an admirable corps 
 of professors and teachers, to whom the chief 
 praise of our success fairly belongs, we have made 
 satisfactory progress. For, although the office 
 of Chancellor has been but nominally, and I may 
 be pardoned for adding gratuitously filled, the 
 several departments have taken care of them- 
 selves, and are still doing so with steady im- 
 provement." 
 
 In regard to the future Dr. Eliot said: "I 
 doubt if there is any position in the whole coun- 
 try that at this moment offers to a man of vigor- 
 ous mind and character better opportunities of 
 extended influence and usefulness than the office 
 
120 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 which as Chancellor I now hold." "But," he 
 added, " there is still a lion in the way. No sen- 
 sible man, having an already acquired reputa- 
 tion at stake, would accept the offer as things 
 now are, nor can I with any degree of comfort 
 or satisfaction continue to hold it." 
 
 In again urging the necessity of raising an 
 additional endowment fund, Dr. Eliot said : 
 " The friends of the university can do it if they 
 will, and I am convinced by their past action 
 that they are willing to do it, even at great in- 
 convenience, if in their mature judgment it ought 
 to be done. 
 
 " To their mature judgment, therefore, I con- 
 fidently submit the whole case. Humbly but 
 most earnestly I ask for their individual aid and 
 cooperation. I appeal to no secondary motives, 
 however honorable. Let us still work as hereto- 
 fore, in the service of God and humanity. If our 
 cause does not rest on that basis it ought to fail, 
 and will fail. But with right aims and motives 
 there is scarcely any limit to what wise and ear- 
 nest men can do. . . . 
 
 " As a first step in the movement, I have 
 prepared a subscription paper, to which I have 
 myself subscribed $50,000 payable July 1, 1885, 
 or whenever the full amount of $500,000 is se- 
 cured to be paid. I would do more if I could, 
 most gladly, but this comes nearer the extreme 
 limit of prudence than I would ask or wish any 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 121 
 
 one else to go. To me, however, it would be no 
 sacrifice, but rather a cheap release from the 
 anxiety and care of my present official life." 
 
 In January,. 1886, a year previous to his death, 
 Dr. Eliot submitted to the personal judgment of 
 one or two friends on the board of directors 
 the advisability of his resignation of the offices 
 both of president of that board and Chancellor 
 of the university. He was advised and urged to 
 postpone his withdrawal until a successor could 
 be found, there being none in view. He there- 
 fore continued in office until his death in Feb- 
 ruary, 1887, struggling as long as possible to 
 fulfill the duties for which physical infirmities 
 incapacitated him. 
 
 Colonel George E. Leighton, one of the old- 
 est and most loyal friends of Washington Uni- 
 versity, succeeded Dr. Eliot as president of the 
 board of directors. The financial condition of 
 the university remained for several years about 
 the same, there being always an annual deficit 
 to be met. The extension of the city westward, 
 the noise and bustle of crowded streets, rendered 
 imperative a change of location essential to the 
 continued growth of the university ; and through 
 the action of the president and board of direct- 
 ors a large tract of land was secured in the 
 suburbs on heights overlooking the city, and, in 
 1894, its purchase was effected by a popular 
 subscription of $200,000. Not long afterwards 
 
122 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Colonel Leighton retired on account of ill health, 
 and in 1895 Mr. Robert Brookings was elected 
 president of the board of directors of Washing- 
 ton University. Mr. Brookings brought to the 
 management of university affairs not only the 
 practical ability which had made him successful 
 in business, but enthusiasm, generous impulses, 
 and abundant means. His conditional offer of 
 $100,000 secured an additional $400,000 from 
 the community as an endowment fund, and the 
 gift from himself and his business partner, Mr. 
 Cupples, of property amounting in value to three 
 millions of dollars, established the university on 
 a sound financial basis. In this and other re- 
 spects time is vindicating the faith and hope 
 which, even in the most serious periods of finan- 
 cial crisis, Dr. Eliot maintained in the success of 
 an institution whose future possibilities are still 
 practically unlimited. 
 
 At a meeting of the board of directors of 
 Washington University held January 26, 1887, 
 they ordered to be placed on the records of the 
 university a memorial tribute to the memory of 
 Dr. William G. Eliot, as follows : — 
 
 " The trustees of Washington University as- 
 sembled in reverent submission to the divine 
 decree which has deprived them of their hon- 
 ored president, the beloved Chancellor of the 
 university, Rev. William G. Eliot, D. D., place 
 upon the records of the university their humble 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 123 
 
 tribute of honor and affection for the man ; 
 of reverence for his Christian zeal ; of gratitude 
 for the blessing of his beneficent life ; of love for 
 the devoted friend and counselor ; of regret for 
 the profound loss which the institution has sus- 
 tained. 
 
 " The records of the university from the first 
 day of its organization to tbe present time tes- 
 tify, as such a continuous record only can, to his 
 unselfish, uninterrupted, and zealous identification 
 with its purpose and work. Turn backward these 
 pages for the record of his daily life, and look 
 around you for his monument. His prayers and 
 hopes, his ideals of manly and womanly duty, of 
 sacred devotion to a life of usefulness to his 
 fellow-men, have been inwrought into the very 
 fibre of the university ; and whatever place it has 
 filled in the culture and educational advancement 
 of the city and of the West is due in the largest 
 measure to his clear foresight, to his devoted 
 and unselfish zeal, to his wise and beneficent 
 administration. 
 
 " The outward results of that administration 
 command an unsolicited and universal recogni- 
 tion. But only to his associates on the board has 
 it been given to know, during more than thirty 
 years, his sure, untiring faith in its purpose ; the 
 modest, cheerful, self-consecrated, and self-sacri- 
 ficing life, which could communicate some portion 
 of its own faith to others, and make possible its 
 
124 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 development from the little seminary of 1854 to 
 the university of 1887. 
 
 " Of his special work and labors as a Christian 
 pastor, of his ardent patriotism, of his devoted 
 service in the Western Sanitary Commission, and 
 as a constant and always courageous friend of all 
 social reforms, it must be left to others to speak. 
 But the same sterling qualities of Christian pur- 
 pose, of broad and large-hearted philanthropy, of 
 deep and ever-abiding interest in the welfare of 
 this city and its people, which gave him such pre- 
 eminence as a citizen of St. Louis for over fifty 
 years, impressed themselves upon his administra- 
 tion as Chancellor of the university. It may be 
 truly said of him that he deemed no labor or sac- 
 rifice too great, if the end were right and worthy, 
 and that no advantage to be secured was great 
 enough to tempt his assistance to any purpose 
 which a rigid and conscientious conviction had 
 convinced him to be unworthy his support. His 
 moral course was exceptional in its strength, and 
 in the presentation and advocacy of his convic- 
 tions in respect of matters of public concern he 
 took no note whatever of personal consequences. 
 
 " The great and marked characteristic of the 
 Chancellor was his unfaltering faith in the ulti- 
 mate success of all honest endeavor in harmony 
 with the divine purpose ; and whatever obstacles 
 seemed to retard, or difficulties to oppose, they 
 never seemed to disturb his confidence, to cloud 
 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY 125 
 
 his hopes or discourage his efforts towards a 
 beneficent result. 
 
 " In the administration of this institution, his 
 ideals of intellectual culture, always high, kept 
 well advanced the moral aspect of education in 
 the development of character ; and he deemed 
 no system of education complete which did not 
 look to Christian manhood and womanhood as 
 the end to be attained." 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 
 
 Had the establishment of a great university 
 system on permanent and progressive principles 
 been Dr. Eliot's sole life-work, outside of the 
 church, the story of its evolution and growth 
 might close the record of his labors. Such was 
 not the case. He was an enthusiast in the cause 
 of education, and Washington University exists 
 as the concrete and lasting embodiment of his 
 ideals in that direction. His sympathies, however, 
 were too broad, his interests too wide and inclu- 
 sive, to be confined in their action. He possessed 
 to an unusual degree the power of cherishing not 
 one earnest purpose, but several, to each of which 
 he gave as much fervor as though it were the one 
 object of his life. His efforts in the cause of 
 emancipation antedated his educational work ; but 
 after the actual attainment of freedom, he urged 
 above all else for the former bondman an open 
 pathway to learning and knowledge. Believing 
 slavery to be a great wrong, and having faith in 
 its ultimate extinction as essential to the irresist- 
 ible progress of civilization, Dr. Eliot labored long 
 and patiently, in faith and hope, to accomplish 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 127 
 
 what he individually could for gradual emancipa- 
 tion. An account of his aims and methods, and 
 the results he accomplished in his work for the 
 slave and freedman, necessitates in the narration 
 a return to his early settlement in St. Louis. 
 
 In Missouri, the most northern of the slave 
 States, surrounded on three sides by free terri- 
 tory, gradual emancipation might well begin. 
 So thought William Eliot; and in this hope and 
 to this end he worked from 1834, when he first 
 became a resident of the State, until in 1865, 
 by the voluntary decree of the people through 
 their representatives in constitutional convention 
 assembled, all persons held to service or labor 
 within the borders of Missouri were declared 
 free. No citizen of Missouri, either directly or 
 indirectly, had worked harder for this result 
 than Dr. Eliot, and none received the news with 
 stronger emotions of gratitude and satisfaction. 
 
 Although Dr. Eliot could not devote himself 
 to one sole object to the exclusion of all others, 
 he never relinquished an earnest purpose because 
 of any confusion of aims. In the cause of right- 
 eousness, in the service of humanity, he responded 
 to the divine call, and the issue of his efforts in 
 any one direction influenced the results in others. 
 As a minister of the gospel, his first duty to the 
 members of his own church was to further " the 
 accomplishment of the Christian character in 
 every individual." Personal righteousness in his 
 
128 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 judgment constituted the foundation of civic vir- 
 tue, upon which depended the regeneration of 
 society. In the inculcation of right principles of 
 conduct among those directly under his charge, 
 in strengthening and extending his personal in- 
 fluence, — which he regarded as a sacred trust 
 for which he was responsible to God, — and in 
 increasing the diffusion of education and know- 
 ledge, Dr. Eliot was indirectly, but most effec- 
 tively, advancing the cause of emancipation, 
 since the awakened conscience, the enlightened 
 mind, are fatal to the continuance of a system of 
 oppression. 
 
 From previous residence in the District of Co- 
 lumbia, Dr. Eliot was better prepared to under- 
 stand conditions in another border slave State. 
 Naturally dispassionate in judgment, he hesitated 
 to condemn those who were the inheritors of a 
 system of which they did not necessarily approve. 
 In both Washington and St. Louis slavery existed 
 in a mild form. Many slaves hardly knew, except 
 in name, that they were so ; and the relation be- 
 tween master and servant was often kindly and 
 affectionate. Such was the attitude towards the 
 colored servants (not slaves) in the family of 
 William Eliot, Senior, who at least on one occa- 
 sion, as proved by a bill of sale with record of 
 manumission, purchased a slave woman in order 
 to free her. 
 
 In St. Louis most slave property had been 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 129 
 
 acquired through inheritance, and three fourths 
 of the entire number of slaves were employed in 
 domestic service. Many were allowed by indul- 
 gent masters overtime in which to work for them- 
 selves. Such, however, were the inherent evils of 
 the slave system, that it contained within itself 
 the possibility of great abuse, which unfortunately 
 too often occurred. In his " Life of Archer Alex- 
 ander," Dr. Eliot says: "Notwithstanding the 
 comparative humanity of slavery as an institution 
 in Missouri, I can truthfully say that there is no- 
 thing in all the scenes of ' Uncle Tom's Cabin/ 
 as given by Mrs. Stowe, to which I cannot find a 
 parallel in what I have myself seen and known 
 in St. Louis itself, previous to the war of seces- 
 sion." And again : " Often have I seen ' gangs ' 
 of negroes handcuffed together, two and two, 
 going through the open street like ' dumb, driven 
 cattle ' on the way to the steamboat for the South. 
 Large fortunes were made by the trade, and some 
 of those who made them, under thin cover of 
 agency, were held as fit associates for the best 
 men on ' 'change '. " 
 
 In its every aspect, better or worse, William 
 Eliot unhesitatingly condemned slavery as an in- 
 stitution. Most earnest was the purpose he formed 
 to oppose it, a purpose as fixed, as unalterable as 
 that of Garrison or Phillips, or any one of the 
 more prominent abolitionists. He did not enroll 
 his name among their number, because he disap- 
 
130 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 proved of their methods, believing the immediate 
 abolition of slavery to be undesirable for both 
 master and slave, involving, as it necessarily must, 
 sudden social and political changes. 
 
 Dr. Eliot was a gradual emancipationist, with 
 a clear, consistent aim, rather than an abolition- 
 ist. His friend, Dr. John H. Heywood, who, as 
 a minister of the same denomination in a border 
 slave State, understood his position on the slavery 
 question better than almost any other person, 
 thus wrote concerning him in an article published 
 after Dr. Eliot's death : " William Eliot's tem- 
 perament, judgment, and convictions prevented 
 him from cooperating with ' the extreme friends 
 of freedom,' as he regarded them ; but to none 
 was freedom dearer. By none was the iniquitous 
 Fugitive Slave Law more promptly and more 
 unsparingly denounced than by him. To him 
 might be applied the discriminating words of the 
 latest biographer of Abraham Lincoln. There 
 was in him the same hatred of slavery, the same 
 consideration for the slaveholder as the victim 
 of a system he had inherited, the same sense of 
 divided responsibility between the South and the 
 North, the same desire to effect great reforms 
 with as little individual damage and injury, as 
 little disturbance of social conditions as possible, 
 and these views and feelings made him naturally 
 look to gradual emancipation and educational 
 influences as the great remedial agencies." 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 131 
 
 In the year 1848 Mr. Eliot thus defined his 
 own position as regarded slavery : " I have been 
 in St. Louis fourteen years, in which time no one 
 subject has been so often in my mind as slavery. 
 Upon no other have I been more anxious to do 
 what is right. My detestation of the system is 
 very great, my sense of the wrong to the black 
 and the injury to the white very deep. I never 
 pass by the slave jails on Olive Street without 
 saying almost, sometimes quite, aloud : ' May the 
 curse of God abide upon this vile traffic ! ' Yet 
 I have spoken of it in public comparatively sel- 
 dom, only once or twice each year. In conversa- 
 tion I have always spoken freely. Has it been 
 through want of moral courage? I think not. 
 Certainly not through self-seeking. I have had 
 everything to gain and nothing to lose. Ten 
 years ago I had only to come out as an ' abo- 
 litionist ; ' and although I would have been re- 
 quired to leave my place here, I could have 
 returned to friends and kindred with the honors 
 of a martyr, without his losses, ' covered with 
 glory,' and with the certainty of good settlement. 
 But my gain would have been the only gain. 
 
 " I have waited, ' in patience possessing my 
 soul ; ' perhaps I must wait a little longer — not 
 much. The influence I have now acquired is real ; 
 by proper and fearless exertions it will become 
 deeper and wider." 
 
 This attitude of patience, which Dr. Eliot main- 
 
132 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 tained until the fitting moment for decisive action 
 arrived, was often misunderstood by friends at 
 a distance, who failed to appreciate the work he 
 was striving to accomplish in a manner time has 
 vindicated as the wisest and best. Some dramatic 
 action, some violent denunciation of slavery, that 
 would have destroyed in a moment much of his 
 steadily increasing personal influence, might have 
 won for him the applause of the moment ; but 
 when the clamor had ceased, his plan of reform 
 would have been thwarted. Incredible as such a 
 judgment now appears, the mere fact of a min- 
 ister's continued residence in a slave State was 
 considered by some of the " extreme friends of 
 freedom " as an unpardonable offence, implying 
 approval of an obnoxious system. 
 
 In the inflamed state of public feeling for many 
 years previous to the Civil War, good and con- 
 scientious people allowed themselves to be wrought 
 into a condition almost of moral frenzy by the 
 evils of slavery and continued aggressions of the 
 South, and were led to advocate extreme measures 
 of which Dr. Eliot could not approve. Among 
 the members of the Western Unitarian Confer- 
 ence of Unitarian churches, which he was largely 
 instrumental in organizing in 1852, were some 
 persons who were impatient of the attitude as- 
 sumed by others more conservative than they, 
 especially on the subject of slavery. In contra- 
 vention of the original intention and established 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 133 
 
 usage of the conference, that no vote should be 
 taken on any resolution concerning which there 
 was a difference of opinion, these more radical 
 members made successive attempts to commit that 
 body to authoritative declarations. Resolutions 
 on the invasion of Kansas and the attack on 
 Charles Sumner were introduced at the Chicago 
 Conference in 1856, but withdrawn. Radical re- 
 solutions on the subject of slavery were offered 
 a year later at Alton, Illinois ; and although con- 
 siderably modified before they were forced to a 
 vote and passed, they were accompanied by a dis- 
 tinct declaration of the right to offer and pass 
 more radical resolutions on any subsequent occa- 
 sion. "Under these circumstances," declared Dr. 
 Eliot, " and in this stage of affairs, being unwill- 
 ing to vote either for or against the proposed 
 statement, and regarding the whole action as sub- 
 versive of the original uses of the organic law of 
 the conference, I respectfully withdrew my name 
 from the list of delegates, thereby intending to 
 dissolve my connection with the conference as an 
 associate body, at least so long as the construc- 
 tion of its rules, recently adopted, shall continue 
 in force." 
 
 Immediately after this event, and in conse- 
 quence of his action in withdrawing his name 
 from the list of delegates of the conference, Dr. 
 Eliot delivered a sermon on " Social Reform," at 
 the Church of the Messiah, May 24, 1857. In 
 
134 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 this sermon, which was published by request of 
 the trustees, he expressed his views as to the du- 
 ties, in matters of social reform, of a preacher, 
 who should, he believed, in common with other 
 Christians, claim the right of holding his own 
 opinions upon all disputed subjects, and of ex- 
 pressing them frankly at the proper time and 
 place in a becoming manner. In the assertion of 
 these views from the pulpit, however, some dis- 
 cretion should be observed, self-restraint being 
 often a more difficult virtue than inconsiderate 
 speech, and requiring more courage, since it 
 might be attributed to cowardice or time-serving. 
 
 Such subjects as slavery and temperance 
 should, in Dr. Eliot's opinion, be treated in the 
 pulpit exclusively from a moral and religious 
 point of view, and not in their changing political 
 and economical aspects when public feeling ran 
 high. They were not topics of profitable address 
 during periods of intense excitement. 
 
 " The peculiar characteristics of the gospel 
 are," said Dr. Eliot : " I. That it deals with 
 principles both of right and wrong, rather than 
 with their particular manifestations. II. It deals 
 with the individual rather than communities. 
 . . . No social improvement is permanent except 
 that which comes through individual virtue, and 
 to elevate society you must regenerate the indi- 
 viduals of which it is composed. Other methods 
 may serve or seem to serve for a time, but the 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 135 
 
 result is sure to be reaction of wrong and perma- 
 nent disappointment." 
 
 Dr. Eliot believed that it was not incumbent 
 upon a church as an assembly of believers to 
 attempt social reorganization. It was rather the 
 duty of its members as citizens ; and the manner 
 in which they performed this duty would depend 
 upon the degree of their moral and religious 
 regeneration. 
 
 The result of Dr. Eliot's endeavors to estab- 
 lish his church " in the principles of piety and 
 the daily exercise of Christian benevolence and 
 virtue," became gradually manifest in matters of 
 social reform. The manumission of slaves was 
 more and more frequent each year in the Church 
 of the Messiah ; and its pastor declared in a pub- 
 He address, delivered after the national eman- 
 cipation, that for more than ten years previous 
 to that event " no slave was held by any member 
 of the church except under circumstances when 
 age and debility would have rendered freedom a 
 hardship, and its gift a violation of the golden 
 rule." 
 
 In 1853 so many members of the Church of 
 the Messiah had emancipated their slaves, that it 
 was reported in a current journal as the " gen- 
 eral action of the church." In reply, Mr. Eliot 
 published a statement in which he declared that 
 many church members had freed their slaves, 
 but no general action had been taken. Consider- 
 
136 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 ing the helplessness of many slaves, emancipa- 
 tion would not always be a kindness. " I do not 
 hesitate to say," Mr. Eliot wrote, " although by 
 saying it I forfeit the good opinion of some who 
 have intended to exalt me by their praise, that 
 I know of instances in my own Society in which 
 I would not advise the present emancipation of 
 those held in bondage. I mean that, considered 
 in the light of Christian obligation, I would not 
 advise it. The substance of my preaching upon 
 this subject and upon all others is the same, ' to 
 do as we would be done by.' " 
 
 Mr. Eliot himself some years previously had 
 been severely censured for his " complicity with 
 slavery," and accused of being " a slaveholder." 
 The facts were these, as related in a private 
 communication to his friend, James Freeman 
 Clarke. The master of a negro woman was in- 
 solvent, and the woman was to be sold with the 
 ordinary chances of being sent South. Mr. Eliot 
 purchased her, and immediately gave her papers 
 under which she could at any hour claim her 
 freedom. She remained voluntarily in his family, 
 working for wages, two and a half years. Then, 
 as she was married, Mr. Eliot preferred to place 
 her at housekeeping, canceling the balance of 
 $300 due him, and manumitting her in open 
 court. At the time the letter to Mr. Clarke was 
 written, " Aunt Amanda was a very respectable 
 woman, at housekeeping, but unable to make 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 137 
 
 the two ends meet without assistance " from Mr. 
 Eliot. 
 
 On another occasion, as related in his " Life of 
 Archer Alexander," at the entreaty of the father, 
 a free colored man, who had bought his own 
 freedom, and had just finished paying for him- 
 self, Dr. Eliot purchased a young mulatto girl, 
 to save her from being sold " South " away from 
 her family. As the former master insisted that 
 the bill of sale should be made out to Dr. Eliot, 
 he was the owner of the girl for two hours, when 
 she became a free woman. The father of the 
 girl raised the cash payment, and met the notes 
 as soon as due. Dr. Eliot's interest in the eman- 
 cipation of the race included action for its in- 
 dividual members, the helpless bondmen and 
 bondwomen who appealed to him ; and he did not 
 agree with those over-conscientious people who 
 believed it wrong to purchase and free slaves to 
 save them from the worst evils of their condition. 
 It was a case of rendering unto Csesar the things 
 which were Caesar's. 
 
 Dr. Eliot always declared that education had 
 been an important factor in preparing the pub- 
 lic mind to accept the emancipation of the slave 
 as the wisest and best policy. To illustrate the 
 dread inspired in the South by the progressive 
 influences of education, he asserted in his Phi 
 Beta Kappa address, previously referred to, that 
 " at the time when the rebellion began, the plan 
 
138 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 had been matured for a great Southern univer- 
 sity, under especial auspices of Bishop Otis and 
 Bishop (afterwards Major-General) Polk, to be 
 established in Tennessee, with an immense en- 
 dowment, so as to make the whole South independ- 
 ent of Northern institutions. No professor was 
 to be employed who was not sound in Southern 
 politics and no class-book admitted which called 
 slavery in question. Thus, discouraging popular 
 education, the South desired to establish colleges 
 in which an aristocratic governing class might be 
 trained for the support of slavery." 
 
 As president of the public school board, as 
 curator of the State University at Columbia, and 
 lastly in his work of creating and shaping a great 
 university system, Dr. Eliot was helping to win 
 Missouri for freedom, while endeavoring to make 
 St. Louis one of the great educational centres of 
 the West. 
 
 We have Dr. Eliot's own testimony to the 
 fact that he preached on the subject of slavery 
 once or twice every year. In January, 1848, 
 he delivered an address before the Colonization 
 Society, wherein he declared that he had been a 
 friend of the Society for fifteen years, and was 
 more and more so; that although the inade- 
 quacy of the means to the end sought seemed 
 discouraging, it should not be so regarded. The 
 work of the Society was based on the theory of 
 the gradual emancipation of the slave, and not 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 139 
 
 on immediate abolition, which would make it 
 impossible to provide for so large a number at 
 once. Now if any State passed a gradual eman- 
 cipation law, the cooperation of the Colonization 
 Society would be important. Soon afterwards 
 Dr. Light of the Colonization Society occupied 
 Dr. Eliot's pulpit for his cause, and $150 was 
 subscribed. 
 
 " In 1849, when the erection of a new church 
 was under discussion," wrote Dr. Eliot, " with 
 a view to frankly defining his position and that 
 of his church on the slavery question, the pastor 
 (Dr. Eliot) gave a short series of sermons on 
 ' The Family Relations,' the last of which was 
 that of master and servant. The slavery ques- 
 tion and Fugitive Slave Law were then in the 
 height of bitter controversy, and a large congre- 
 gation assembled. The ground taken was that 
 the spirit of Christianity was clearly opposed to 
 slavery, and that no one could claim the right as 
 a Christian to hold a slave, except under strict 
 application of the law of doing as one would be 
 done by, of which, in the complicated relations 
 of society, cases might temporarily occur ; and 
 that no man in a Christian republic could be 
 justly required to become an agent in returning 
 a fugitive slave into bondage, although he might 
 by refusal become subject to the penalties of the 
 law, which he must patiently endure." After 
 the delivery of this sermon a few persons left 
 
140 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the church, but the majority sustained the 
 minister. 
 
 As in a sermon delivered at the outset of the 
 Civil War, from the text " Render unto Caesar 
 the things which are Caesar's," Dr. Eliot strongly 
 condemned disobedience of law and the Consti- 
 tution, the Fugitive Slave Law seems to have 
 been the only legal enactment against which his 
 conscience rebelled to the point of counseling 
 resistance. 
 
 From 1847 to 1849, Mr. Eliot published in 
 the daily journals a number of articles in favor 
 of gradual emancipation. These were in the 
 form of letters, to which was attached sometimes 
 his own signature, but more frequently a nom de 
 plume. These letters were thoroughly practical 
 and argumentative, replete with facts and figures, 
 and urged gradual emancipation in Missouri 
 purely on economic grounds. In a letter signed 
 " Free Labor," Mr. EHot asked the citizens of 
 Missouri to dispassionately consider the ques- 
 tion freely discussed in Kentucky and Virginia : 
 " What do we gain by slave labor ? " If they 
 would do this, he maintained, it would not be 
 ten years before some law for the gradual eman- 
 cipation of slaves in Missouri would be passed. 
 A humane master, and most masters he believed 
 were humane, could not make slavery profitable. 
 A change must take place in the whole system 
 of labor ; but time, Mr. EHot believed, was neces- 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 141 
 
 sary for this, and also to prepare the slaves in 
 Missouri for freedom. He had been called a 
 " negro lover " by a correspondent of the " Re- 
 publican," whereas the only objection that could 
 be urged against gradual emancipation in the 
 State was that it would do the blacks more harm 
 than good, inasmuch as two thirds of them would 
 probably be sent to tbe South before the law 
 could go into effect. Mr. Eliot concluded by 
 saying that notwithstanding this drawback he 
 advocated such a law, because he desired to see 
 a fair chance given to the white man, which he 
 never could have where slavery existed. 
 
 To this letter a correspondent in the " Repub- 
 lican " replied, not with argument, but invective, 
 which gave Mr. Eliot an opportunity for further 
 argument. " The point in discussion is," he de- 
 clared, " whether some mode can be devised by 
 which the evil of negro slavery can be removed 
 without violating the rights of anybody." He 
 suggested that this be done by Southerners them- 
 selves. " Everybody admits," he continued, "that 
 in a State so far north as Missouri slavery is a 
 curse, and the majority would be glad of any 
 lawful mode of getting rid of it." The letter 
 concluded thus : " For our own part we are 
 ready everywhere to avow ourselves friends of 
 gradual emancipation. In this we believe we be- 
 long to the school of Henry Clay, Thomas Jef- 
 ferson, and George Washington, all of whom 
 
142 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 were advocates of the most rapid extinguishment 
 of slavery consistent with law or order. . . . We 
 hold ourselves ready to prove to any disinterested 
 or interested person that the worst investment 
 any man can make is in slaves, and that the 
 more of them we have in this State the poorer 
 we are." 
 
 The promise contained in the last paragraph 
 of this letter was later fulfilled in an article 
 written to prove the unprofitableness of slave 
 labor. In St. Louis prime house servants (male) 
 could be hired out for $150 per year, women 
 for $ 75. Servants thus hired out soon became 
 discontented and worthless, and for this reason 
 preference was more and more given every year 
 to white servants at higher wages. In the coun- 
 try slave labor appeared to be equally unprofit- 
 able, $100 on an average being received by the 
 owner for the hire of his best field hands. Even 
 this amount was too large for the payer, since 
 white labor could be obtained for $10 a month, 
 without the added expense of clothing and care 
 in sickness. This was the result of the large 
 foreign immigration. 
 
 Mr. Eliot then prophesied the gradual ex- 
 tinguishment of slavery in Missouri from natu- 
 ral causes. These were the large influx of the 
 German population, amounting to nearly one 
 hundred thousand persons, very few of whom 
 employed slave labor; the great increase of 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 143 
 
 anti-slavery feeling in the free States bordering 
 on Missouri, which occasioned a great number of 
 slaves to run away from their owners ; lastly, the 
 nature of the soil, which was not adapted to 
 slave labor. To prove that these natural causes 
 were working in the direction indicated, tables 
 were given to show that while the proportion of 
 the slave to the free population increased from 
 1810 to 1830, from 1830 to 1845 it had de- 
 creased from one fifth to one seventh. 
 
 January 8, 1849, Mr. Eliot wrote to Hon. 
 William Campbell of the Missouri Senate, re- 
 questing information regarding the tone of feel- 
 ing towards slavery in the General Assembly. 
 Mr. Eliot, in this letter, gave his estimate of the 
 number of slaves in Missouri as about seventy 
 thousand ; the number of slaveholders ten or 
 twelve thousand, aDd the number interested in 
 the continuance of the slave system not more 
 than fifty or sixty thousand. He also expressed 
 the opinion that the majority of the people of 
 the State, if left to their own action, would be 
 in favor of a moderate, judicious law of gradual 
 emancipation, if the matter could be properly 
 placed before them. He further suggested that 
 he could easily send Mr. Campbell, as an enter- 
 ing wedge, a petition, with a sufficient number of 
 good signatures to insure respect. 
 
 Also, January 13, 1849, the following letter 
 was sent to Hon. Thomas H. Benton, at that 
 
144 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 time, and until 1850, United States Senator from 
 Missouri : — 
 
 Hon. Thomas H. Benton : 
 
 Dear Sir, — My acquaintance with you is too slight to 
 justify me in the course which I am now taking, and I must 
 find my apology in the importance of my subject, and in the 
 strong interest you have always felt in the prosperity of this 
 State. A residence of more than fourteen years in St. Louis, 
 and careful observation of the progress of society, not only 
 in the city, but throughout the State, have led me to believe 
 that the institution of slavery is the greatest obstacle, per- 
 haps the only great obstacle, by which our moral, social, and 
 general advance as a people is hindered. 
 
 Next to the immediate duties of my profession, there- 
 fore, there is no object which I have so much at heart as 
 the commencement of some movement by which an emanci- 
 pation law in some form or other could be secured. It is to 
 learn your views upon this subject that I now write. Your 
 influence in Missouri is so great, and so well established, 
 that almost any measure advised by you would not only 
 command favorable hearing, but would probably meet with 
 general favor. Has not the time for action upon this great 
 interest arrived ? Is not an opportunity offered of covering 
 your name with the glory not only of the statesman, but of 
 the philanthropist, by numbering this among the free States ? 
 I believe that the public mind is so far prepared that if you 
 were to take the lead, the majority are ready to follow. If 
 you will consent to draw up a law providing for the gradual 
 emancipation of our slaves, say in course of ten, twenty, or 
 thirty years, upon some system which would protect the in- 
 terests of all parties as far as possible, it would become the 
 law of the land before three years had passed. The reac- 
 tion in the public mind produced by the half efforts of the 
 abolition party has now nearly or quite subsided, and the 
 mass of the people are ready to consider their own interests, 
 and the rights of others, dispassionately. 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 145 
 
 It would be impertinent for me to make further sugges- 
 tions upon a subject on which you are so thoroughly in- 
 formed. My own feelings are in favor of prudent, con- 
 servative legislation, and I believe that all great changes in 
 the social system, to be well made, must be gradual. But 
 the beginning cannot be made too soon, and in this case it 
 is the first step which costs. 
 
 As a clergyman I am debarred from all action in what 
 are termed politics, nor have I any desire to overstep my 
 proper limits ; but I should account myself indeed happy if 
 I could be in any way instrumental in unbinding the ener- 
 gies of this State by giving respect to labor, which cannot be 
 done while we have slavery as a system within our border. 
 I hope, therefore, that you will pardon my present intrusion, 
 for which I have no other motive than a desire to do good. 
 
 If you should honor me with a reply, no public use shall 
 be made of it unless by your direction. 
 
 And I remain with great respect, 
 Yours, 
 
 W. G. Eliot. 
 
 There is no record that any action towards 
 gradual emancipation in Missouri was taken by 
 either Mr. Campbell or Senator Benton, although 
 Benton was opposed to slavery. He is quoted 
 as saying : " The incurability of the evil is the 
 greatest objection to the extension of slavery. 
 If it is wrong for the legislature to inflict an 
 evil which can be cured, how much more to in- 
 flict one that is incurable and against the will of 
 the people who are to endure it forever. I quar- 
 rel with no one for deeming slavery a blessing. 
 I deem it an evil, and would neither adopt it nor 
 impose it upon others." 
 
146 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 It is doubtful if at this period Senator Benton 
 could have effected the legislation desired by 
 Mr. Eliot. In 1849 the " Jackson Resolutions," 
 embodying the nullification doctrines of Calhoun, 
 were introduced in the General Assembly of Mis* 
 souri. They denied the right of Congress to 
 legislate on the subject of slavery, excepting 
 some special provisions relating to the abolition 
 of the African slave trade, and to the recovery 
 of fugitive slaves. It was also declared that the 
 right to prohibit slavery in any territory be- 
 longed exclusively to the people thereof. These 
 resolutions closed with a covert threat of seces- 
 sion should any Act of Congress be passed in 
 conflict with the principles expressed. 
 
 Benton, a strong Union man, vigorously op- 
 posed these resolutions. His efforts to defeat 
 them through an appeal to the people of the 
 State of Missouri were unsuccessful, and he 
 failed of reelection to the Senate in 1850. He 
 represented Missouri in the House of Representa- 
 tives from 1852 to 1854, and opposed the Kan- 
 sas-Nebraska Bill. " The times were out of 
 joint," and great as his influence bad been, he 
 could not "set them right." The country was in 
 too inflamed a condition for the passage of eman- 
 cipation laws, and slowly and surely the final 
 catastrophe of civil war was approaching. Dr. 
 Eliot at first hoped that it might be averted, but 
 soon recognized that the conflict was inevitable. 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 147 
 
 While working to ameliorate the attendant suffer- 
 ing and sorrow, he renewed his efforts for the 
 emancipation of the slave. 
 
 In 1884, on the occasion of the fiftieth anni- 
 versary of the Church of the Messiah, Dr. Eliot 
 preached a sermon in which he declared that that 
 church had always stood for the " cause of free- 
 dom." " They who believe," he said, " in the 
 intrinsic dignity of human nature can never will- 
 ingly impose or endure tyranny over the mind 
 or conscience or personal freedom. If man, how- 
 ever degraded by sin or ignorance, is created in 
 the image of God and capable of rising to the 
 glorious liberty of the sons of God, then to en- 
 slave a man both mind and body is the ultimate 
 sin and crime against God and humanity. 
 
 " Believing this, by the first principle of our 
 religious faith, it was easy, it was unavoidable, 
 for us to take the freedom side in the great na- 
 tional controversy that began to assume its fierc- 
 est aspect fifty years ago. In 1834 the angry 
 disturbance of thought was just reaching this 
 city. The Missouri Compromise had been made, 
 and it was hopefully supposed that the question 
 of slavery rights was settled forever. But in New 
 England the abolition tide was fiercely rising, 
 and the noise of its waves was already heard here. 
 In the spring of 1834 Elijah P. Lovejoy began 
 the free discussion of the subject, taking strong 
 ground against slavery ; and in 1836 his press was 
 
148 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 destroyed by a mob. He went to a free State for 
 free speech, and was murdered there. 
 
 " In those early days our church took no part 
 in such controversy, for it had as yet no standing 
 place nor influence, nor had its minister. But I 
 am glad to remember that from the very first it 
 came to be quietly understood that we were on 
 the side of freedom. In the winter of 1836, in 
 the Presbyterian Church, before a citizens' meet- 
 ing, I read an address on the history of Missouri ; 
 and speaking of its admission as a slave State 
 said that ' instead of bonfires and rejoicings the 
 people should have clothed themselves in sack- 
 cloth and ashes, in view of the social and moral 
 evil thus entailed upon them.' The address was 
 sent to the ' North American Review ' in Boston, 
 but to my mortification, when printed, those sen- 
 tences were left out, ' as being too radical.' Nor 
 was any year permitted to pass without finding 
 some occasion for similar and definite expression 
 of where we stood. 
 
 " In 1850, when the plans for building a new 
 church were nearly matured, the whole country 
 was under intense excitement because of the Fugi- 
 tive Slave Law then recently passed. I thought 
 that honesty demanded that I should define my 
 position so that they who were invited to our sup- 
 port should not be deceived, and I spoke plainly 
 in opposition to that law, from the text, ' Do as 
 you would be done by.' A few were repelled, 
 
/&7#.£&erh 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 149 
 
 but our Society was strengthened. And so it came 
 to pass that in 1856 not one of our regular sup- 
 porters held a slave in bondage, except in two or 
 three instances where emancipation would have 
 been cruelty. 
 
 " In looking back to those days I see nothing 
 to repent of in this regard. It is true that an em- 
 inent preacher in an Eastern city said to me, by 
 way of rebuke, that ' for a Unitarian clergyman 
 to preach in such manner as to be endured in a 
 slave State was good evidence of his unfaithful- 
 ness.' But if all the friends of freedom in St. 
 Louis had acted on that principle, the leaven 
 would have been taken from the lump, and Mis- 
 souri, when the time of trial came, would have 
 been lost to the Union, — a loss that might have 
 changed the result of the Civil War. Where the 
 service of God is the motive and the work, ' to 
 possess one's soul in patience is sometimes the law 
 of courage and wisdom and success.' . . . 
 
 " It seems like a dream of fearful things, a night- 
 mare from which one cannot wake himself, that 
 terrible experience of twenty-four years ago. Up 
 to the last minute we had said, ' Peace, peace,' 
 and refused to believe that an appeal to arms 
 would come. But when the sword was once drawn, 
 and the supreme law of the nation was defied and 
 the life of the republic was threatened, we did not 
 hesitate a moment where to stand. 
 
 " I remember when, before a crowded audi- 
 
150 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 ence, I had declared my convictions in terms per- 
 haps too emphatic, — for to some they gave unne- 
 cessary offence, — at the close of the address the 
 national hymn was sung. It began with a full 
 volume of a thousand voices, as a triumphant 
 song, hut tears ran down many a furrowed cheek, 
 and voices trembled and fell off as if choked by 
 strong feeling, and at its close the words were 
 uttered with suppressed emotion and whispering 
 lips. The great congregation separated almost in 
 silence, with little mutual greeting, as those who 
 had buried a friend. But with us tbe die was 
 cast. Our choice of roads was taken. 
 
 " Full one fourth, numerically reckoned, of our 
 usual congregation left us, believing me to be 
 wrong ; and few of tbese returned. But the bone 
 and sinew and heart and brains held fast, and the 
 four years of crucial trial were bravely borne. Is 
 it not all the more pleasant for us to remember 
 that our whole influence, individually and collec- 
 tively, was given to lessen the severities of strife, 
 not unnecessarily to increase them ; to soften, 
 not aggravate, the sufferings and hardships of 
 war, remembering that those whom we resisted 
 were hostes non inimici, opponents not enemies ; 
 and that our hands could minister, as they did, 
 to the wounded and sick of our own armies and 
 equally to prisoners whom the strife brought to 
 our doors ? We never forgot that it was a fra- 
 ternal strife. . . . Therefore, when the conflict 
 
GRADUAL EMANCIPATION 151 
 
 was over, no bitterness of feeling remained 
 towards us with those whom we had estranged, 
 and some of them returned with undiminished 
 regard. 
 
 " Well, it is past and gone. The great experi- 
 ment of a free republic has not yet been fully 
 tried, but that one great step has been taken. 
 Whenever as a nation, in every part of it, we shall 
 have learned ' that we are members one of an- 
 other, and whether one member suffer all the 
 members suffer with it, or one member rejoice 
 all the members rejoice with it,' then, and not be- 
 fore, will the victory be complete. Our national 
 motto will be vindicated. ' From many we shall 
 indeed be one.' " 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 An institution like slavery, which exists in op- 
 position to the conscientious convictions of any 
 large number of the citizens of a country, is a 
 constant source of irritation. Compromises and 
 concessions, based on no fundamental principle 
 of right, may defer the inevitable conflict, but 
 cannot permanently avert it ; and when it comes 
 it must be fought to a definite issue. Thus was 
 it in the Civil War, a struggle wbose moral 
 grandeur has never been equaled. 
 
 In this fratricidal strife the North suffered 
 and the South. Between the two the unhappy 
 Border States, for which both parties were con- 
 tending, became their battle-ground ; while at 
 the same time they were socially distracted by 
 the divided allegiance of their own citizens. No- 
 where was the internal struggle fiercer or more 
 sanguinary than in Missouri, where every town 
 and village was divided against itself ; party dif- 
 ferences whetted personal enmities, and guerrilla 
 warfare became a cloak for wanton pillage and 
 murder. 
 
 The attitude of Missouri at the outbreak of 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 153 
 
 the Civil War was substantially the same as that 
 of the other Border States. At the time of the 
 presidential election in the fall of 1860, Lincoln 
 had received one tenth only of the votes cast, 
 and this represented the Unconditional Union 
 vote of the State, principally German. The re- 
 maining nine tenths of the people agreed that 
 the North must give the South constitutional 
 guarantees for the protection of slavery; and 
 should this fail to be done, and the Southern 
 States in consequence secede, the Federal gov- 
 ernment must not undertake to coerce them to 
 remain in the Union. 
 
 The secessionists believed that a Southern 
 Confederacy would be established, and that it 
 was the duty of Missouri to unite with the South 
 in resistance to the Federal government, should 
 coercion be attempted. They were anxious and 
 ready for secession. To this party belonged the 
 great majority of the members of the General 
 Assembly, the governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, 
 and other officials. 
 
 The Conditional Union men regarded the pos- 
 sible dissolution of the Union with sorrow and 
 apprehension, and desired to avert such a catas- 
 trophe. Although ready to declare with the 
 secessionists that in the event of war Missouri 
 would resist any attempt to coerce seceding States, 
 a position from which a large number eventually 
 receded, they clung to the hope that the North 
 
164 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 would concede to the South certain constitutional 
 guarantees for the better protection and exten- 
 sion of slavery, and thereby the danger of seces- 
 sion would be averted. The Unconditional Union 
 party gradually won many accessions from their 
 ranks. Hamilton R. Gamble, the " war governor," 
 was prominent among Conditional Union men. 
 
 Dr. Eliot was, as might be supposed, an Un- 
 conditional Union man. This party unfortunately 
 was divided into radicals and conservatives, 
 whose differences of opinion as to methods to be 
 employed were a constant source of distraction, 
 and became very annoying to President Lincoln. 
 Dr. Eliot always referred to himself as a " con- 
 servative," a term which applied rather to his 
 mode of action than his ultimate aim, which from 
 the first contemplated nothing less than the final 
 extinction of slavery. He frequently differed 
 from more radical men as to the means to be 
 used in the attainment of that object, deprecating 
 unnecessary harshness, and keeping constantly 
 in view the reestablishment of harmonious rela- 
 tions, which he believed would follow the aboli- 
 tion of slavery in Missouri. Through the confi- 
 dence in his judgment, and in the singleness of 
 his devotion to the national cause, with which 
 later he inspired the President and the authori- 
 ties at Washington, as well as many other per- 
 sons with or without official position, he was 
 instrumental during the Civil War in effecting 
 
MISSOURI DURING THJE CIVIL WAR 155 
 
 the accomplishment of many important mea- 
 sures. 
 
 On Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1860, 
 before yet secession was an accomplished fact, 
 Dr. Eliot preached a sermon in which — after 
 declaring that the appropriate subject belonging 
 to the day would seem to be the National Union, 
 the blessings which we have enjoyed under it 
 and the madness of disturbing it — he asserted 
 that he was not properly prepared to discuss the 
 matter. " I do not know," he added, " how it 
 may be with younger men ; but those of us who 
 have come anywhere near to middle age, still 
 more those who have gone beyond the point of 
 middle age as I have, we feel upon this subject 
 with a depth of feeling very difficult to express. 
 ... I cannot bring myself to believe that this 
 evil (disunion) is imminent. It is too terrible. 
 It passes the bounds of human feeling." Then, 
 in hopeful strain, he declared his faith in the 
 people, in the conservatism of the majority, and 
 in an overruling Providence which " had not yet 
 accomplished the great purposes designed to be 
 accomplished by this people." 
 
 On the last day of December the Missouri 
 General Assembly convened at Jefferson City 
 amid great excitement. South Carolina had, on 
 the 20th of December, passed an ordinance of 
 secession, and most of the Southern States were 
 on the verge of following her example. In the 
 
156 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Missouri Senate there was but one Republican, 
 in the House there were twelve. The governor, 
 Claiborne F. Jackson, represented extreme South- 
 ern sentiment. An ordinance of secession would 
 have received almost unanimous endorsement of 
 the legislature. Fortunately it was decided to 
 refer the question to the people. A bill to call 
 a state convention passed both Houses on the 
 18th of January. 
 
 On the 27th of that month Dr. Eliot preached 
 a sermon on " The Higher Law Doctrine North 
 and South." The " appeal to a higher law " was 
 then an expression much in vogue among ex- 
 tremists of both parties, Northern radicals and 
 Southern secessionists. In commenting on the 
 political situation Dr. Eliot said : " All over the 
 land the question of disunion is freely discussed, 
 — a word which we ought not to hear without 
 shuddering, — and in our own State a conven- 
 tion of the people has been called, to consider 
 what part we shall take in that which many per- 
 sons regard as the inevitable disruption. Perhaps 
 in the present state of the public mind the call 
 has been wisely made, though I do not myself 
 see its necessity. But that such a convention is 
 to be held, for such a purpose, especially if we 
 admit its necessity, is a fact well calculated to 
 excite patriotic fears, and to arouse us to the 
 most diligent performance of our duty. As it 
 looks to me from the teachings of history, from 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 157 
 
 our knowledge of human nature, and from the 
 angry passions already working, both at the 
 North and South, the question to be discussed 
 may involve not only disunion, but social dis- 
 organization, civil commotion, civil war, servile 
 war, anarchy, military despotism, national ruin. 
 It may be to decide upon the destruction of 
 the grandest republic the world has ever seen ; 
 upon the continued success or total failure of the 
 great experiment of American freedom. 
 
 " For the consideration of this question . . . 
 at the end of two weeks' excited debate, a con- 
 vention has been called, and in about two months 
 it will have been determined under all the chances 
 of excited popular elections what part this State 
 shall take, for good or evil, in its final settlement. 
 ... In all the records of modern history, was 
 there ever so momentous a question, so precipi- 
 tately considered as this, which Missouri, in com- 
 mon with the other Border States, is now, with 
 such hot haste, placing in issue ? Surely it is not 
 a healthy condition of the public mind or of politi- 
 cal morals in which the foundations of society 
 can be so easily disturbed. There must be some 
 hidden cause ... to account for the sudden and 
 calamitous outbreak." 
 
 This hidden cause of the precipitate movement 
 towards dissolution of the Union Dr. Eliot found, 
 not in slavery, nor the Fugitive Slave Law, nor 
 in any conflict of principles, but in " disloyalty, 
 
158 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 contempt, and disregard of law." The question 
 was, he declared, whether in a republic law can 
 be made and held sacred. American loyalty was 
 allegiance to the law, to the Constitution, to the 
 Union. The law is our ultimate appeal. The 
 Constitution is our monarchy. The Union is our 
 king. Resistance to law, by communities or indi- 
 viduals, is nothing else than rebellion. Disloyalty 
 to the Union, and resistance to it, is nothing else 
 than treason. 
 
 "Resistance to constituted authorities," con- 
 tinued Dr. Eliot, "has been and is defended under 
 the captivating name of the ' Higher Law Doc- 
 trine ; ' just as disloyalty and revolution find an 
 attractive form in the doctrine of secession. . . . 
 Resistance to law is defended as the ' appeal from 
 Caesar to God.' . . . Under rare circumstances 
 this higher law may stand in direct conflict with 
 the ' authorities that be ; ' . . . but let us not be 
 deceived by words. To the state or community 
 this is nothing but the right of revolution ; to 
 the individual it is the call to martyrdom. 
 
 " To the State of Missouri, whatever the other 
 States may do, the words of practical wisdom are 
 very plain. Be loyal ; be conservative ; be delib- 
 erate in all your counsels and all your actions. 
 Exhaust all constitutional remedies before so 
 much as considering any other. In the Union 
 and under the law demand that, and only that, 
 which is just and right. Consider maturely, and 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 159 
 
 count the cost, before taking the leap in the 
 dark ; for the worst condition possible for us in 
 the Union may be better than the best we can 
 reasonably expect out of it ; and if the time ever 
 comes, which God forbid ! for the severance of 
 the sacred bonds of alliance between us and our 
 sister States, let us not deceive ourselves by call- 
 ing it ' peaceable secession.' It may seem to be 
 so in its first movement. Perhaps no direct col- 
 lision with the general government or the neigh- 
 boring States would immediately occur, nor is it 
 probable that measures of coercion would be 
 rashly used. But a few months or years would 
 certainly develop the act in its true character, in 
 the fearful consequences of revolution and civil 
 war." 
 
 This sermon was delivered to a large audience, 
 the church being filled to overflowing. It was 
 asserted by a prominent member of the congre- 
 gation that many of Dr. Eliot's hearers, who had 
 previously wavered, allied themselves soon after- 
 wards to the Union cause, and among them were 
 persons of influence in the community who had 
 previously assented to the proposition that Mis- 
 souri must go with the South. The sermon was 
 published and circulated throughout the Border 
 States and in Boston, and Dr. Eliot received many 
 letters of commendation and approval. 
 
 On the 18th of February occurred the election 
 of delegates to the state convention. Contrary 
 
160 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 to the expectations of the secessionists, the people 
 of Missouri declared against secession by a ma- 
 jority of eighty thousand. The result was dis- 
 appointing to the South, although the conven- 
 tion was very conservative. Dr. Eliot wrote in a 
 private letter, afterwards published : " At first 
 we made a fair show of loyalty, but it was loyalty 
 with conditions. In our convention, which showed 
 seventy to thirty for the Union, only four voted 
 against the conditional clause." 
 
 Early in January a military bill, empowering 
 the governor to arm and equip the militia and 
 get the State ready for war, was introduced in 
 the General Assembly. After the people of Mis- 
 souri declared against secession, the bill was 
 defeated, and the legislature adjourned on the 
 28th of March. When it reconvened on the 2d 
 of May, the governor, in his opening address, 
 recommended that " Missouri unite her destinies 
 with those of the other slave States, and prepare 
 to protect her people against all assailants." He 
 urged the passage of the military bill, which 
 would confer upon him almost dictatorial powers 
 to resist Federal authority. The news of the 
 taking of Camp Jackson removed all opposition, 
 and the bill was passed. A military fund was 
 created, into which the school fund and all 
 other available moneys of the State were ordered 
 to be paid, and in consequence it became neces- 
 sary to close the public schools. 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 161 
 
 On June 12th, in virtue of the power thus 
 conferred upon him by the legislature, Governor 
 Jackson, in open hostility to the national govern- 
 ment, called fifty thousand militia, over whom 
 Sterling Price was appointed by him major-gen- 
 eral, into the active service of the State, and in 
 a remarkable proclamation called upon them to 
 " drive out ignominiously the invaders," as he 
 termed the Federal troops. This terminated the 
 local self-government of Missouri ; and on the 
 31st of July the Missouri state convention organ- 
 ized a provisional government, with Hamilton R. 
 Gamble as governor of Missouri. 
 
 Early in 1861 General Harney had been placed 
 at the head of the Department of the West. His 
 sympathies were with the South, and although 
 not actually disloyal, he had not sufficient mental 
 acumen to penetrate the designs of the wily poli- 
 ticians of Jefferson City. In the Price-Harney 
 agreement he virtually turned Missouri over to 
 the tender care of Sterling Price, pledging the 
 Union forces to inactivity. He was summoned to 
 Washington, and in his absence Lyon and Blair 
 broke up the rebel encampment at Camp Jackson. 
 On his return he issued a proclamation under date 
 of May 14, very satisfactory to the Union men. 
 We find in Dr. Eliot's journal a printed copy, and 
 penciled on the margin this note : " As I had a 
 small hand in the following, I put it in. Written 
 by General E. A. Hitchcock and revised by me." 
 
162 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 In this document the military bill enacted at 
 Jefferson City was characterized as an " indirect 
 secession ordinance," and Camp Jackson was 
 termed " a body of men notoriously organized in 
 the interest of the secessionists." After citing 
 facts in proof of this latter assertion, it was de- 
 clared that " no government in the world would 
 be entitled to respect that would tolerate for a 
 moment such openly treasonable preparations." 
 In the closing paragraph of the proclamation was 
 this emphatic declaration : " I regard it as my 
 plain path of duty to express to the people, in re- 
 spectful but at the same time decided language, 
 that within the field and scope of my authority 
 the supreme law of the land must and shall be 
 maintained." 
 
 Below the printed extract we again find this 
 entry in Dr. Eliot's writing : " The first effect 
 of this proclamation was very good, but a lack of 
 persistent consistency prevented its full effect. 
 General Harney was relieved May 27, by orders 
 dated the 16th, which Frank Blair held for use at 
 his discretion." 
 
 In this proclamation, to which General Harney 
 attached his signature, it was stated that Missouri, 
 from her geographical situation, was so essential 
 to the Union that the whole power of the govern- 
 ment of the United States, if necessary, would 
 be exerted to maintain her in her position in the 
 Union. Dr. Eliot always asserted that the pos- 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 163 
 
 session of St. Louis and Missouri was of supreme 
 importance to the success of the Union cause. In 
 a public address, delivered in 1864, he used these 
 words : " What would have been lost to the Union 
 if Missouri had been forced out as Arkansas and 
 Louisiana were, and how difficult, if not impossi- 
 ble, it woidd have been to maintain the national 
 cause, a glance at the map would show. I doubt 
 if a Southern Confederacy would have been at- 
 tempted if the loss of that State had been foreseen ; 
 and the plans of rebellion were as carefully laid 
 at Jefferson City (of which there is now proof) as 
 at Charleston. The firmness with which St. Louis 
 stood is the explanation of the unexpected result." 
 Early in July, Major-General Fremont took 
 command of the Department of the West. His 
 position was one of great difficulty. Nominally 
 loyal, Missouri was riddled with secession. Called 
 upon to send troops to Washington, the State it- 
 self had need of assistance from without against 
 internal foes. So impressed was Dr. Eliot with 
 the inability of the authorities at Washington to 
 understand the serious condition of affairs in 
 Missouri, and to thoroughly appreciate the impor- 
 tance of securing the State to the Union cause, 
 that on September 8, 1861, he sent the following 
 letter to the Secretary of the Treasury : — 
 
 Hon. S. P. Chase : 
 
 Dear Sir, — "Will you permit me again to address you upon 
 public affairs, and to request you to lay my letter before the 
 
164 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 President if you consider it worthy of such regard. My de- 
 sire is to call your attention to the critical condition of Mis- 
 souri, and the necessity of a vigorous policy and strong 
 measures to save it from complete demoralization. The 
 great difficulty is that two thirds of the people of the State 
 are disloyal, and a large part of the remainder inactive. . . . 
 The rebels seem determined to force Missouri from the 
 Union by first making it impossible for Union men to live 
 here. . . . Nothing but a strong army of occupation can hold 
 the State and prevent its social destruction. 
 
 A month ago we were on the brink of ruin. I have rear- 
 son to know that an uprising of the secessionists, aided by 
 large numbers of floating population not belonging to us in 
 St. Louis, was fully arranged to welcome the rebel armies. 
 The day was fixed, the plans matured. Pillow, Hardee, and 
 McCullough, counting confidently on Lyon's defeat, ex- 
 pected to meet here by the 20th of August. They knew the 
 utterly defenceless condition of St. Louis, that we had 
 neither troops nor ammunition and no organization of the 
 Union part of the people. They knew by their spies here 
 that General Fremont had no means of reinforcing Lyon, 
 and were therefore sure of victory. ... I knew at the time 
 of the condition of the arsenal, that it was empty of arms and 
 ammunition ; and of the troops in and near the city, that 
 they were very few and badly officered, and nearly all of 
 them at the point of disbanding. . . . Then came the neces- 
 sity of sending reinforcements to Byrd's Point, threatened 
 by Pillow, and Pilot Knob and Cape Girardeau threatened 
 by Hardee, without which those points would have been 
 taken ; and there were no troops left. Lyon knew all this, 
 and knew that there was no help here, and would not be for 
 some days. With a nobleness of which there are few exam- 
 ples, with heroic self-sacrifice, he threw himself into the 
 breach, determined to cripple the enemy and destroy their 
 plans. He gained a splendid victory in seeming defeat, and 
 saved the city and State. Let his name be held in honor as 
 long as the Union endures. 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 165 
 
 He saved the city and the State for the time, and gave op- 
 portunity which has heen actively improved for defence and 
 preparation. But the danger in the State is not yet passed, 
 and there will be need of other equal sacrifices and unequal 
 conflicts, unless the condition of Missouri is better under- 
 stood, and greater strength concentrated here. I claim to 
 be better informed than the majority of our citizens of the 
 actual number and condition of troops here ; my interest in 
 the hospitals and sick has led me to visit the camps and ob- 
 serve the men both as to numbers and discipline, and I as- 
 sure you, sir, that if you consider the importance of this 
 State to the Union, and the disloyalty of its citizens, and the 
 manifest eagerness of the slave power to keep it, we have 
 not one half the strength we need. Missouri once lost could 
 not be recovered, and its loss would be an almost fatal blow 
 to the North. . . . Pardon my intrusion. My whole heart 
 is in this cause. The war of barbarism against civilization, 
 of slavery against freedom, is the great event of the nine- 
 teenth century. May God protect the right ! 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 W. G. Eliot. 
 
 In August Dr. Eliot had addressed also Attor- 
 ney-General Bates, on the necessity of sending 
 reinforcements to Missouri to save the State to 
 the Union. The attorney-general appears to 
 have realized the importance of such a step, as 
 he wrote : " Next after the sure defence of the 
 city (Washington), and the sure possession of 
 the great strategic point, Cairo, I have for sev- 
 eral months back urged the concentration of a 
 force in Missouri that would look down opposition, 
 that would have prevented insurrection, secured 
 internal tranquillity, and saved the necessity of 
 conquest." 
 
166 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 In a private letter, later published, Dr. Eliot 
 expressed the opinion that after the capture of 
 Camp Jackson a large army should immediately 
 have been brought into Missouri, and resistance 
 made impossible. " The heroic Lyon," wrote Dr. 
 Eliot, " undertook to effect with ten thousand men 
 what would have been hard work for fifty thou- 
 sand, — the control of the State. Everywhere he 
 found himself marching through a hostile coun- 
 try. A very few followed him. But while Price's 
 army increased like a rolling snowball, and men 
 joined his ranks with shotguns, pistols, scythes, 
 so eager were they to fight, Lyon's army dwindled 
 day by day. It must be recruited from St. Louis, 
 if at all." As a result of this inability on the part 
 of the government to realize fully the needs of 
 Missouri, Dr. Eliot felt that General Fremont 
 had been held responsible for misfortunes he was 
 unable to avert. 
 
 In his letter to Secretary Chase Dr. Eliot had 
 referred to his unusual opportunities of judging 
 of the actual number and condition of troops in 
 St. Louis, his interest in the hospitals and sick 
 having led him to visit the camps and observe 
 the men both as to numbers and discipline. 
 With the discipline he was far from satisfied, 
 and on September 2 he wrote a letter to Mrs. 
 Fremont, requesting that she bring it to the 
 attention of the General. In this communication 
 he expressed the conviction that both officers and 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 167 
 
 men were lacking in elevation of moral tone and 
 the higher incentives of patriotism. The officers, 
 being inexperienced, could not enforce that strict 
 military discipline which " in some degree takes 
 the place of higher principle." He found "a 
 profanity and coarseness of speech, a neglect of 
 cleanliness and the amenities of life, a disregard 
 of any observance of Sunday, and little to remind 
 the men that they were members of a Christian 
 community." Two things, he felt, were required 
 in the camps, " discipline and enthusiasm, the 
 enthusiasm of loyalty founded upon allegiance 
 to God." He suggested that a more careful sys- 
 tem be devised for the moral and religious cul- 
 ture of the men, and that more attention be paid 
 to the decencies of life. Something, he thought, 
 might be accomplished by the appointment of 
 faithful chaplains, the establishment of hospital 
 libraries, and by measures of sanitary reform ; but 
 the controlling influence must proceed from the 
 high officers. "A distinct recognition of the 
 principles above named," he wrote, " with a pro- 
 hibition of the vices and vulgarities referred to, 
 if made in a general order, would do a world of 
 good. It would introduce a new feature in camp 
 life, and if read before every regiment at dress 
 parade every Sunday, by the colonel himself, 
 would soon establish a standard of soldierly be- 
 havior, to which officers and men would conform." 
 This letter was sent September 3, 1861, and 
 
168 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 further thought on the matter seems to have en- 
 gendered in Dr. Eliot's own mind a plan for the 
 organization of a Western Sanitary Commission. 
 " Suggestions " to that effect, in the form of a 
 plan of organization, were forwarded the follow- 
 ing day to General and Mrs. Fremont, were cop- 
 ied by the latter from Dr. Eliot's manuscript 
 exactly as written, and were issued by the Gen- 
 eral, September 10, as Special Order 159. Thus 
 quickly was the Western Sanitary Commission 
 created. 
 
 Whatever were General Fremont's failings as 
 a military leader, he was always interested and 
 active in the humanities of war. When he is- 
 sued his proclamation of freedom to the slaves of 
 disloyal masters in Missouri, August 30, 1861, 
 Dr. Eliot hailed it as " the beginning of the 
 end," and was of the opinion that the revoca- 
 tion of the order was a mistake, in which view he 
 showed that at heart he was more radical than 
 conservative. A year later, President Lincoln, 
 in addressing the Border State delegation on the 
 subject of compensated emancipation, said, re- 
 ferring to the slave States : " You and I know 
 what the lever of their power is. Break that 
 lever before their faces, and they can shake you 
 no more forever." Dr. Eliot believed that slavery 
 was the lever of the disloyal, and to break that 
 lever early in the war would end the fratricidal 
 contest. Patient as he was, when he believed the 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 1C9 
 
 moment for action had come, he could scarcely 
 brook a moment's delay. Yet Lincoln was right ! 
 Fremont's act might have hastened the end of 
 the strife in Missouri, but it transcended the 
 provisions of the Congressional Confiscation 
 Act of August 6, 1861, forced upon the Presi- 
 dent a responsibility of individual initiative 
 which he could not well assume, and might in 
 the country at large have produced a reaction of 
 feeling. 
 
 On the 18th of August, 1861, as " a matter 
 of positive obligation," since his " convictions 
 were too strong to be repressed," Dr. Eliot 
 preached a patriotic sermon, which was published 
 under the title of " Loyalty and Eeligion." In 
 this address he reaffirmed with even greater em- 
 phasis the duties of citizenship. Premising that 
 the supreme allegiance is to God, he declared 
 that " a part of our duty to God was duty to the 
 State," that " submission to law was among the 
 prime duties of religion," and that the " Supreme 
 Law of the Land " partook " of the sacredness 
 of the Supreme Law of God." 
 
 The sermon on " The Higher Law " had been 
 delivered while war was still a menace. Now it was 
 a fearful reality, and Missouri was passing through 
 one of its darkest periods of trial. The war, Dr. 
 Eliot believed, could not have been averted. If 
 the general government had consented to the 
 dismemberment of the nation and its own virtual 
 
170 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 destruction without one effort made, or one blow 
 struck, it would have been a thing without par- 
 allel in history. As for Dr. Eliot himself, he 
 declared he must speak on this subject, it was 
 a matter of positive obligation, and his long 
 citizenship, during which no one had worked 
 harder for the welfare of St. Louis than he, en- 
 titled him to a respectful hearing. " My life, my 
 happiness, my hopes," he declared, " whether of 
 usefulness or of enjoyment, are so intertwined 
 with the prosperity of St. Louis, that I have no 
 thought beyond. To meet with failure here is 
 to have failed in the work of life." " I would 
 not live," he added, " in a community whose 
 patriotism is dead, for it would not be worth 
 working for, nor capable of improvement." 
 
 Believing and maintaining that armed neutral- 
 ity was an impracticable position, that citizens of 
 Missouri must stand on one side or the other, and 
 that not to be loyal was to be disloyal, Dr. Eliot 
 said : " At present the great battle for the Union 
 is here. If Missouri were permanently lost to the 
 Union, it would be an irreparable blow, and the 
 strength of the government would be effectually 
 broken. . . . We may take it for granted, there- 
 fore, that the most terrible struggle will take place, 
 even to the devastation of the whole State, before 
 its secession or its conquest by the South will 
 be conceded. . . . What then shall we do ? How 
 manifest allegiance and resist revolution? . . . 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 171 
 
 We should give our whole undivided influence, 
 by word and deed, to sustain the cause of the 
 United States, by holding our own State in the 
 Union. 
 
 "... War is not a Christian work, and the 
 time will come for its abolition, as for that of 
 all other social wrongs and evils. But it has not 
 come yet, and under an existing state of war our 
 Christian duties remain not less than in time of 
 peace. ... I hold it a Christian duty to defend 
 oar country from invasion and rebellion, peace- 
 ably if we can, forcibly if we must. Otherwise 
 society would be completely in the hands of the 
 wicked, and social progress would be impossible. 
 There is also a difference in the conduct of war- 
 fare, and we may make it a war of barbarism, or 
 of comparative humanity and civilization. . . . 
 Let us do our part to keep Christian principles 
 alive. . . . There are no circumstances in life un- 
 der which a Christian may not do his whole duty. 
 Our duty as patriots and our duty as Christians 
 must be done, if at all, at one and the same time. 
 . . . The seeming conflict of duties will end in 
 the noblest service that can be performed by 
 man." 
 
 Some among the crowded audience who lis- 
 tened to this sermon did not again return to the 
 Church of the Messiah. 
 
 When it was decided that Dr. Eliot should 
 go to Washington, in October, 1861, on business 
 
172 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 connected with the Western Sanitary Commis- 
 sion, he thought it would be a favorable oppor- 
 tunity, in his interview with President Lincoln, 
 to represent to him the condition and needs of 
 Missouri. Colonel T. T. Gantt thereupon wrote 
 to Governor Gamble requesting him to state, in 
 a letter addressed either to the President or Dr. 
 Eliot himself, the views which he, the governor, 
 had said he would express to the authorities at 
 Washington; namely, "that Missouri had neither 
 money nor credit ; that if any cooperation on the 
 part of our state forces were desired, they must 
 be furnished with arms and paid by the United 
 States, and that this was the indispensable con- 
 dition of any such cooperation ; that the duty of 
 the United States to protect us from invasion and 
 to suppress insurrection obliged the United States 
 to perform the task, either by United States troops, 
 or by state troops paid by the United States." 
 In conclusion, Colonel Gantt again requested the 
 governor to declare in writing his " conviction 
 of the absolutely destitute condition of Missouri, 
 and of the aid which state forces might give to 
 the national cause in the State, if equipped and 
 paid by the United States, and of the duty of the 
 United States to do this." 
 
 On the outside of a copy of this letter Dr. Eliot 
 wrote in pencil : " Copy of letter from Mr. Gantt 
 to Governor Gamble, from whom I took letter to 
 President." That the interview was a successful 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 173 
 
 one is proved by the organization of the state 
 militia that same fall on the terms suggested in 
 Governor Gamble's letter, through a special agree- 
 ment between himself and the President. Over 
 this militia General Schofield was placed in com- 
 mand. 
 
 The fight for Missouri as a slave State was, 
 after other methods failed, carried on by guer- 
 rilla warfare. Price, Hindman, and other rebel 
 generals, arrogating to themselves dictatorial pow- 
 ers, gave authority to various persons to raise 
 companies and regiments to operate as guerrillas. 
 The helpless Union refugees fleeing before them 
 bore witness to their barbarities. In the spring 
 and summer of 1862, the rebel general, Hindman, 
 organized a number of these lawless bands. To 
 combat this evil throughout the State, and per- 
 form the service of an army of occupation, by an 
 order of Governor Gamble, issued July 22, 1862, 
 the militia of the State was enrolled. Unlike the 
 state militia, paid by the government, tbe enrolled 
 militia was exclusively a state organization, of 
 which the expenses must be met by the State. 
 There is record of at least one voluntary contri- 
 bution for this object, in a letter under date of 
 July 29, 1862, from General Schofield to Dr. 
 Eliot, acknowledging from him the receipt of 
 twenty-five dollars as " the first contribution to 
 the State Fund." Probably Dr. Eliot thought that 
 such action would be more generally taken, but 
 
174 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 there is no record that his example was followed ; 
 and as the state treasury was empty, and it was 
 very difficult to collect taxes, the only way of 
 obtaining the necessary funds for arming and 
 organizing the militia seemed at the time to be 
 through substitute money or by assessments on 
 the disloyal. 
 
 In an order issued by General Schofield, Au- 
 gust 28, 1862, it was announced that an assess- 
 ment of half a million dollars would be collected 
 from secessionists and Southern sympathizers in 
 St. Louis County to defray the expenses of the 
 enrolled militia. 
 
 Eegarding the wisdom of this order there was 
 great difference of opinion. It was indeed true, 
 as General Schofield stated, that lawless bands 
 could not exist a single week in Missouri but for 
 the aid of influential and wealthy sympathizers ; 
 yet there were many objections to the enforce- 
 ment of so arbitrary a measure. Thus thought 
 Dr. Eliot, and he drew up a memorial wherein 
 he set forth good and sufficient reasons why the 
 order of assessment should be revoked. This 
 memorial was forwarded to Governor Gamble, 
 December 1, 1862. It had been Dr. Eliot's in- 
 tention to have the document signed by a num- 
 ber of influential persons, but after several had 
 shown hesitation in doing so, he forwarded it to 
 Governor Gamble over his own signature only. 
 The memorial was as follows : — 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 175 
 
 To his Excellency Gov. H. R. Gamble : 
 
 Governor, — The undersigned, your memorialists, who 
 are now, and always have been Unconditional Union men, 
 and hearty supporters of the government, most respectfully 
 represent : That the assessment now in progress^ to be 
 levied upon secessionists and Southern sympathizers, is 
 working evil in this community, and doing great harm to 
 the Union cause. 
 
 Among our citizens there are all shades of opinion, from 
 that kind of neutrality which is little better than treason, 
 through all the grades of lukewarmness and hesitancy, up 
 to the unqualified loyalty which your memorialists in com- 
 mon with yourself claim to possess. To assort and classify 
 these, so as to indicate the dividing line of loyalty and dis- 
 loyalty, and to establish the ratio of payment by those fall- 
 ing below it, is a task of great difficulty. If it can be done 
 at all, it must be by patient investigation and after hearing 
 evidence on both sides, giving every person the opportunity 
 of self-defense. It would require not only a competent tri- 
 bunal, sitting for a great length of time, and possessed of 
 full authority to call and examine witnesses under oath, but 
 also a kind and degree of scrutiny inconsistent with repub- 
 lican institutions. Such an investigation, so far as practica- 
 ble, has been attempted in the present case ; but although 
 the character and standing of the members of the Assess- 
 ment Board give assurance that the faithful endeavor to be 
 just and impartial has been made, yet they have been com- 
 pelled to admit hearsay evidence, rumors, and " general 
 impressions," and have in no case required witnesses to 
 testify under oath. The unavoidable consequence has been 
 that many feel themselves deeply aggrieved, not having sup- 
 posed themselves liable to the suspicion of disloyalty ; many 
 escape assessment, who, if any, deserve it ; and a general 
 impression of inequality in the rule and ratio of assess- 
 ment prevails. This was unavoidable because no two tribu- 
 nals could agree upon the details of such assessment either 
 
176 WILLIAM GBEENLEAE ELIOT 
 
 as to persons or amounts to be assessed, without more com- 
 plete knowledge of facts than can be obtained from ex parte 
 testimony and current reports. Nothing short of a thor- 
 oughly judicial investigation could lead to a satisfactory 
 result. 
 
 Your memorialists also respectfully represent that no- 
 thing but clear evidence of disloyalty would justify assess- 
 ment, and that where such evidence exists, the party so 
 proved guilty should not be permitted to remain in the com- 
 munity without coming under heavy bonds, and in extreme 
 cases should be required to go " beyond the lines." To keep 
 such persons here, especially after they have been exas- 
 perated by fines, and held up to public contempt, is danger- 
 ous to the public peace, and gives the most favorable oppor- 
 tunity for treasonable practice. The great object is to free 
 the community from all who are determined to promote 
 disorder, and to give every encouragement to those who 
 remain to fulfill the duties of loyalty and good citizenship. 
 The doubtful should be brought back if possible, the waver- 
 ing should be confirmed, and a door opened for the return of 
 those who see the error of the past. The wise and energetic 
 measures taken in this State the last six months, and since 
 the assessment was ordered, have wrought a great change 
 in these respects. The hope of disturbing the " status " 
 of Missouri is well-nigh abandoned, and hundreds of those 
 who, until lately, have scarcely known their own minds, are 
 now openly avowing themselves on the right side. Enlight- 
 ened policy, as well as the liberality of justice, dictates that 
 where such avowal is seemingly made in good faith, and 
 where no overt act has been committed, the retribution of 
 the past should be foregone. Social quiet and the peace of 
 neighborhood and returning homogeneousness of feeling 
 should be encouraged by all practicable means, and by such 
 methods of action the cause of loyalty is best strengthened. 
 The bitterness likely to be engendered by the progressing 
 assessment will renew the personal hostilities which were 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 177 
 
 beginning to disappear, and thus fanned, the secession ele- 
 ment will refuse to die. 
 
 Your memorialists therefore respectfully petition, that 
 you will use your influence, Governor Gamble, with the 
 commanding general, and with the authorities at Wash- 
 ington, that the proceedings in assessment be stayed, at 
 least until other methods of obtaining the funds required by 
 the State shall have been first tried. Perhaps if the case 
 were fully presented before Congress, the just demands of 
 the State would be met, and the payment of our state mili- 
 tia, in defense of the common cause, would be made. If 
 not, a special tax by the state legislature would be a pre- 
 ferable plan to that now adopted, and if unavoidable, after 
 failure of other methods, the assessment could then be 
 enforced as a last resort. But it is the opinion of your 
 memorialists, that under anything short of congressional 
 authority and judicial action, such assessments would only 
 amount to a forced loan, for which reclamation would 
 eventually be made and sustained. 
 December 1, 1862. 
 
 This memorial was signed " W. G. Eliot " 
 only. 
 
 At the time this memorial was drawn up the 
 banks of St. Louis had made a loan of $150,000 
 to the State to purchase arms for the militia. 
 Payment had been guaranteed from funds to 
 be collected through the proposed assessment of 
 half a million dollars. The memorial was sent to 
 Governor Gamble, December 1, 1862. On the 
 following day the governor wrote to a member 
 of the Board of Assessment to ascertain whether 
 the banks making the loan would consent to re- 
 lease the security offered by the assessment, and 
 
178 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 rely upon the State for the repayment of the 
 money expended in its service. To this proposi- 
 tion all the banks immediately assented. 
 
 In a copy of the " Democrat," the leading Re- 
 publican newspaper in St. Louis at that time, we 
 find in the issue of June 13, 1863, an article 
 headed "Interesting History." It is signed by 
 a member of the Assessment Committee, James 
 S. Thomas. The remaining incidents of this war 
 episode are thus related by Mr. Thomas : " On 
 the 15th of December, 1862, the Board was 
 directed by General Curtis, under an order from 
 Washington, to suspend for the present their 
 collections. Two days afterwards I met Thomas 
 J. Thompson of this county (who had been noti- 
 fied of his assessment and notified to pay), on 
 Fourth Street. He informed me that he and 
 Richard C. Shackelford, who was also assessed, 
 had just arrived from Washington ; that before 
 he left (St. Louis) Governor Gamble gave them 
 strong letters to Mr. Edward Bates at Washing- 
 ton, advising the setting aside of the assessment ; 
 that immediately on his arrival and delivery of 
 Governor Gamble's letters, Mr. Bates went with 
 them to see the President, and, upon their own 
 statement, Governor Gamble's strong letters, and 
 Mr. Bates's solicitations, one hour after their 
 arrival at the President's house a telegram was 
 written in their presence and sent to General 
 Curtis, directing a suspension of the collections 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 179 
 
 until further orders. At the same time he (Mr. 
 Thompson) handed me a copy of the telegram, 
 saying that ' the President gave him a copy so 
 there should be no mistake, and that the Presi- 
 dent was a mighty nice plain man, like yourself, 
 and you should go to Washington to see him.' " 
 " On the 25th of December," continues Mr. 
 Thomas, " the Board of Assessors called on Gen- 
 eral Curtis at his headquarters, when the General 
 informed the Board that * . . . a good Union 
 man, had got up a petition of remonstrance with 
 many signatures (or ' rigmarole ' as the General 
 termed it), and that that petition after having 
 been shown to him was taken to General Halleck 
 at Washington, and on the strength of that peti- 
 tion and letters of Governor Gamble, the assess- 
 ment was suspended by order of General Halleck. 
 The petition of the 1 . . . set forth that this as- 
 sessment was an arbitrary and oppressive proceed- 
 
 Among Dr. Eliot's papers, there is an " official 
 copy for Rev. Mr. Eliot " of a letter from Gen- 
 eral Halleck to General Curtis. It is addressed to 
 Major-General S. E. Curtis, St. Louis. 
 
 December 15, 1862. 
 General, — I have received from the Rev. Dr. Eliot of 
 St. Louis the documents forwarded by you in relation to the 
 assessments ordered by Brigadier-General Schofield on the 
 city and county of St. Louis, and have submitted them to 
 the Secretary of War for his decision, 
 i Rev. Dr. Eliot. 
 
180 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 I am instructed to say in reply that, as there seems to be 
 no present military necessity for the enforcement of this 
 assessment, all proceedings under the order of General 
 Schofield will be suspended. Should new insurrections oc- 
 cur in Missouri, and the people of St. Louis again afford 
 aid and comfort to the enemy, they may expect to suffer 
 the legitimate consequences of such acts of treason. 
 Tour obt. servant, 
 
 H. W. Hat.leck, 
 General-in-Chief. 
 Official copy, 
 I. C. Kelton, 
 
 Asst. Adjutant-General. 
 
 In the St. Louis " Republican " of May 16, 1875, 
 appeared an account of the assessment proceed- 
 ings of 1862, from which a paragraph follows : 
 " The memorial or petition was written and signed 
 by a clergyman of this city, who was known to 
 be very active in tbe Union cause and a personal 
 friend of President Lincoln. It was addressed to 
 Governor Gamble, and by him endorsed and for- 
 warded to the President. Mr. Lincoln read the 
 memorial with care, turned it over and endorsed 
 upon it: 'Stop the whole thing by telegraph,' 
 and sent it to General Halleck." 
 
 On May 20, 1875, four days later, the fol- 
 lowing additional statement was made in an edi- 
 torial in the " Republican " : " We have been so 
 frequently asked since Sunday who was the au- 
 thor of the memorial which caused the suspension 
 of the assessment of 1862, that we regret having 
 omitted his name from General Halleck' s order 
 
MISSOURI DURING THE CIVIL WAR 181 
 
 in which it appears. The writer and only signer 
 of the memorial was the Rev. Dr. Eliot, who was 
 at the time a member of the Western Sanitary 
 Commission, which had the hospitals of the West- 
 ern army under its control. It is to the credit of 
 that Commission . . . that it obtained an order 
 from Generals Fremont and Halleck to treat the 
 sick and wounded of the Union and Confederate 
 armies in exactly the same way, and to bury their 
 dead with the same care and respect. In this way 
 the severities of war were at least diminished, if 
 not removed." 
 
 Military assessments were a severe remedy for 
 a terrible evil. They were not in accordance with 
 Lincoln's general policy, and an order to suspend 
 them throughout the State of Missouri was issued 
 January 20, 1863, by the Secretary of War. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 
 
 From the beginning of the Civil War, Dr. Eliot 
 believed that the extinction of slavery was its logi- 
 cal consequence and the only permanent solution 
 of the otherwise irreconcilable conflict. This was 
 his practical judgment, and also a conviction en- 
 gendered by faith in an overruling Providence, 
 whose larger purpose gradually unifies and ab- 
 sorbs all conflicting aims. 
 
 The congressional resolutions and enactments 
 affecting the political status of the former slave, 
 which were passed during the war period, and 
 later embodied in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 constitutional amendments, indicate his progress 
 from the condition of a chattel and " contraband 
 of war " to that of freedman, soldier, and citizen 
 of the republic. 
 
 Each successive step towards emancipation was 
 hailed by Dr. Eliot as " the beginning of the end." 
 He thus characterized the issuance of Fremont's 
 order, granting freedom to the slaves of disloyal 
 masters in Missouri, and the President's initia- 
 tory and final proclamations of emancipation. He 
 was much disappointed, as already noted, by the 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 183 
 
 revocation of Fremont's order, and his brother, 
 Hon. Thomas Dawes Eliot, representative to 
 Congress from Massachusetts, evidently shared 
 his opinions and feelings in the matter ; for at 
 the opening session of Congress, on December 2, 
 1861, he introduced in the House of Represent- 
 atives a resolution wherein it was affirmed that 
 in the judgment of that body the President of the 
 United States, as the commander-in-chief of the 
 army, had " the right to emancipate all persons 
 held as slaves in any military district in a state of 
 insurrection against the national government." 
 It was also respectfully advised " that such order 
 of emancipation be issued whenever the same 
 will avail to weaken the power of the rebels in 
 arms, or to strengthen the military power of loyal 
 forces." This was an assertion of the principle 
 finally embodied in the President's Proclamation 
 of Emancipation, which extended its application 
 to include the entire area in rebellion. The pas- 
 sage of such a resolution at this time would have 
 conferred on the chief executive authority from 
 Congress to approve such an order as General 
 Fremont's. The resolution, however, was simply 
 referred to the Committee on Judiciary. It was 
 probably drawn up by Dr. Eliot himself and in- 
 troduced by his brother at his request. 
 
 After President Lincoln's recommendation to 
 Congress of a plan of compensated abolition of 
 slavery in the border slave States, and the pas- 
 
184 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 sage of a joint resolution of Congress, approved 
 April, 1862, which pledged the aid of the gov- 
 ernment to any loyal State desiring to avail itself 
 of this offer, it seemed as if a wise and satis- 
 factory solution of a vexed problem had been 
 reached. Unfortunately, a majority of the dele- 
 gates from the border slave States refused to 
 entertain the proposition. The President's pre- 
 liminary proclamation of coming emancipation, 
 issued September 22, 1862, contained a renewal 
 of this offer of compensation of pecuniary aid to 
 all loyal States who would voluntarily adopt the 
 immediate or gradual abolition of slavery within 
 their respective limits. 
 
 Two of the Republican members to Congress 
 from Missouri, Senator Henderson and Repre- 
 sentative Noell, each introduced, the one in the 
 Senate, December 10, 1862, and the other in the 
 House on the following day, a bill designed to 
 aid the State of Missouri in compensated eman- 
 cipation. The former bill called for an appropri- 
 ation of twenty millions, the latter, ten millions, 
 which latter bill passed the House by a large 
 majority. It was sent to the Senate, and there 
 superseded the Senate bill. As a result there was 
 a vigorous discussion in the Senate as to which 
 of the two amounts designated was the proper 
 appropriation. On January 14, 1863, Dr. Eliot 
 wrote to his brother, Hon. Thomas Dawes Eliot, 
 in Washington, urging him to use all his influence 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 185 
 
 in the House towards effecting an acceptance 
 of the terms proposed in the Senate. He, Dr. 
 Eliot, would have been " satisfied " with less 
 than twenty millions, but he did not regard the 
 amount as excessive, considering that the aboli- 
 tion of slavery in Missouri would secure to the 
 Union cause " a State as large as England, in the 
 centre of the Union, commanding the highway 
 to the Pacific, controlling the mouths of the Illi- 
 nois and Ohio rivers, five hundred miles of the 
 Mississippi, the whole of the Missouri (twenty- 
 seven hundred miles of navigable stream), pos- 
 sessing unexcelled wealth . . . and containing 
 within itself all the requisites of a great nation." 
 
 "Look at it on the map," Dr. Eliot wrote, 
 " and it is a military, social, and political neces- 
 sity to the Union. ... It secures all west of it 
 in quiet possession, and so commands Arkansas 
 and the Southwest in a military sense, that if 
 Missouri were heartily and thoroughly in the 
 Union cause, Arkansas would be firmly held, and 
 Louisiana and Texas soon reconquered. . . . The 
 accidents of war may throw everything back, and 
 another army be needed for holding it. Missouri 
 cannot be accounted safe in the Union, or counted 
 anything but an element of weakness, until slav- 
 ery is killed. Make it free on whatever terms, 
 and it will be the first death blow to slavery. It 
 will be worth the whole cost of the war. . . . 
 
 " The Senate bill would be instantly accepted 
 
186 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 by the legislature, and would carry the State 
 almost without dissent. From that moment Mis- 
 souri would be as stanch as Massachusetts. . . . 
 
 " The interests at stake are too vast for minor 
 differences. ... I beg of you to take hold of 
 this as the great work of this session. . . . Call 
 together the leading Republicans in Senate and 
 House and put this whole subject before them. 
 You need not tell them that I am a younger 
 brother and parson, but that nobody in Mis- 
 souri has better opportunity of observation than 
 I have, and no one has worked harder or to 
 better effect for the Union and freedom cause. 
 I tell you that Missouri is not yet safe, and is 
 worth buying at double the amount asked. Far 
 more than twenty millions will be saved in a six 
 months' prosecution of the war. . . . As quiet 
 returns to each part of the State, labor rises in 
 value, and now is the time, if ever, for the blow 
 to be struck. . . . 
 
 " Do everything you can to crowd sail. If the 
 senators could only see the value of time, and 
 the moral effect of a new free State, and the 
 danger of reaction on this subject, they would 
 not lose a day ; and if the same is felt in the 
 House, they will not mince matters when the 
 Senate bill reaches them." 
 
 Hon. Thomas D. Eliot had suggested that Dr. 
 Eliot write to senators and representatives, urging 
 the passage of this bill. Dr. Eliot thus endorsed 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 187 
 
 his brother's letter : " Had written to Hon. Henry 
 Wilson February 1st, and again February 7th. 
 Also wrote to Charles Sumner February 5th. 
 Wrote to Norman Cutter at Jefferson City Feb- 
 ruary 3d." 
 
 The failure of Lincoln's favorite scheme of 
 compensated emancipation is matter of history. 
 As to the Missouri bill, the Senate finally fixed 
 the amount of compensation at fifteen millions ; 
 but when the bill was sent back to the House, it was 
 bitterly opposed by several pro-slavery representa- 
 tives from Missouri, who, with the Democratic 
 minority, succeeded by dilatory parliamentary tac- 
 tics in preventing it from reaching a vote. 
 
 Two newspaper articles relative to this measure 
 were written and published by Dr. Eliot. When 
 the first appeared, February 15, 1863, the bill 
 to aid the State of Missouri in compensated eman- 
 cipation had been sent from the Senate to the 
 House, where it was still pending. Evidently its 
 opponents had asserted that " with or without 
 the bill " slavery could not last in Missouri until 
 1876. "Slavery," Dr. Eliot declared, "is not 
 dead in Missouri, though in a good position to be 
 killed. Its open advocates and pretended enemies 
 are using immense efforts to keep it alive by sow- 
 ing seeds of discord among its real opponents, 
 and by every agency, fair or foul. . . . They are 
 continually saying that slavery is already played 
 out. Let it alone and it will die. . . . But it will 
 
188 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 not die out until it is killed out. ... If the 
 present opportunity is lost, Missouri may remain 
 a slave State until the end of the century or 
 longer. We therefore warn our friends at Wash- 
 ington not to be deceived. The victory is not yet 
 gained." 
 
 In the second article, published March 19, 
 1863, under the heading "WhoisEesponsible?" 
 Dr. Eliot states that he was in Washington while 
 the Missouri Compensation Bill was under dis- 
 cussion, and that several of the senators and 
 representatives from free States in the West op- 
 posed the bill on the ground that if " Missouri 
 became a free State she would be the powerful 
 and successful competitor of the neighboring free 
 States." This statement was made by Dr. Eliot, 
 from his own knowledge, in proof of his assertion 
 that the abolition of slavery in Missouri would be 
 of inestimable value to that State. 
 
 During the spring of 1863, the Missouri Gen- 
 eral Assembly was vainly endeavoring to find a 
 common basis of agreement for gradual emanci- 
 pation in that State. A majority of the members 
 were in favor of such action, but the spirit of 
 dissension was rife among them, and prevented 
 agreement on any measure satisfactory to both 
 parties, Radicals and Conservatives. The matter 
 was further complicated by party and personal 
 dissension over the choice of United States sena- 
 tors, and doubts regarding the constitutional 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 189 
 
 limitations on the power of the General Assembly 
 to abolish slavery. Under the nom de plume of 
 "Crisis," Dr.* Eliot published four articles ad- 
 dressed to " The Emancipationist Members of the 
 General Assembly of Missouri." They presented 
 logical arguments, and contained at the same time 
 an earnest appeal to the legislators to make Mis- 
 souri a free State, and thereby strike the severest 
 blow that the slave system had ever received. 
 "Loyalty and Emancipation," Dr. Eliot asserted, 
 " go together. Secession and slavery are twin 
 sisters. Both questions must be settled at once, 
 and it is for you, Legislators of Missouri, to settle 
 them. Never was a grander work committed to 
 any body of men. Never was there an opportunity 
 of nobler service since the world began." 
 
 Dr. Eliot had previously drawn up a bill whose 
 main provision was that all children born of slave 
 mothers, on and after the first day of January, 
 1864, should be free. He records the fact that 
 this bill was " reported by a majority of the House 
 Committee verbatim, as prepared by W. G. Eliot." 
 
 " My reason for advocating the ' Unborn Chil- 
 dren Emancipation Bill,' " he wrote, in his second 
 appeal to the " Emancipationist Members of the 
 Assembly," " is not that I prefer this to all other 
 methods, but because it is practicable. Better 
 plans might be devised, but some of them are 
 hindered by the Constitution, and upon others 
 you would not be able to agree. This bill is so 
 
190 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 moderate in its requirements, and so gradual in 
 its operation, that no friend of emancipation can 
 oppose it, except on the ground of its not going 
 far enough. To such objection we say, when we 
 cannot do all we desire, the part of wisdom is to 
 do all we can." 
 
 Before the General Assembly dissolved, in let- 
 ters published March 20 and March 23, 1863, 
 and addressed as in the previous instance to the 
 Emancipationist Members of that body, Dr. Eliot 
 urged upon them the calling of a convention 
 with a view to adopting a general system of 
 gradual emancipation. " If," he wrote, " from 
 whatever cause — of bad management, of personal 
 jealousies, of office-seeking, of half-treachery, or 
 anything else — you adjourn without having 
 done anything for emancipation, you will have 
 neglected the one great purpose for which you 
 were appointed to office, and will leave the State 
 to endure all the evils of dissension and civil 
 strife from which you were elected to save her." 
 
 Whether from party differences or the doubts 
 fostered by the pro-slavery party as to the consti- 
 tutional limitations on the action of the General 
 Assembly in such matters, it soon became evi- 
 dent that the legislature would adjourn without 
 passing a bill providing for gradual emancipa- 
 tion, thus leaving the matter to be decided by 
 a convention. The question then arose as to 
 whether the existing Missouri convention should 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 191 
 
 be reconvened, or delegates to a new convention 
 be elected. The latter course was desired by 
 the Radicals, since with the change of sentiment 
 in Missouri the old convention elected in 1861 
 was deemed too conservative to fairly represent 
 the people of the State. As no agreement be- 
 tween the two parties was reached, the Assembly 
 dissolved, leaving further action to Governor 
 Gamble. 
 
 On the 15th of April, 1863, Governor Gamble 
 summoned the existing convention to " assemble 
 at the capitol in the city of Jefferson, on the 
 fifteenth day of June next, then and there to 
 consult and act upon the subject of emancipa- 
 tion of slaves, and such other matters as may be 
 connected with the peace and prosperity of the 
 State." On the 14th of June, the Sunday pre- 
 ceding, Dr. Eliot offered a prayer at the Church 
 of the Messiah, in which he said : " We pray for 
 the convention just about to meet, and for all its 
 members, for the governor, by whom it is called, 
 and for the people whom it represents. May 
 it have grace given to it to do its appointed work 
 well and thoroughly, to restore quiet and peace 
 and good order to the whole State, together with 
 the inestimable blessing of entire freedom, by en- 
 acting laws for the extinguishment of slavery as 
 a social institution at the earliest practicable day. 
 . . . We thank Thee for this near prospect of 
 deliverance from so great an evil, so great a wrong." 
 
192 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 The convention thus reconvened, as might 
 have been expected from so conservative a body, 
 passed an emancipation bill that proved in- 
 adequate and unsatisfactory. Although it was 
 therein provided that slavery should cease in 
 Missouri in 1870, all slaves were to remain in a 
 " condition of servitude " until 1876, those under 
 twelve years of age until they were twenty-three, 
 and those over forty for life. 
 
 The Ordinance of Emancipation was passed 
 Wednesday, July 1, 1863. On the following 
 Sunday, July 5, Dr. Eliot at the Church of the 
 Messiah preached a discourse on " Emancipation 
 in Missouri," which was published in pamphlet 
 form. On the title-page was printed the text: 
 " The people which sat in darkness saw a great 
 light." In this discourse Dr. Eliot stated first 
 his objections to the form of the ordinance 
 in these words : " My own opinion is that this 
 ordinance is five or seven years too slow, and 
 that if the chattel right of slavery had ended 
 now, instead of in 1870, and the remaining pro- 
 visions had been modified accordingly, it would 
 have been far better in every respect, and for 
 the higher interests of all concerned. It would 
 have been better as a war measure, by the entire 
 and final separation of Missouri from Southern 
 affiliation. It would have been better as a peace 
 measure in the State, by taking away all possible 
 ground for continued agitation." 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 193 
 
 The remainder of the discourse might almost 
 be termed a paean of thanksgiving for what had 
 been accomplished. Dr. Eliot continued as fur- 
 ther quoted : " This act of emancipation is the 
 quickest and most radical that any community 
 ever passed for themselves or by their repre- 
 sentatives. We must remember that emancipa- 
 tion acts have generally been enforced by some 
 extraneous or arbitrary power, and not by those 
 whose interests were directly affected, and their 
 property taken away. . . . There is no other 
 instance on record, so far as my knowledge ex- 
 tends, of so near an approach to voluntary aban- 
 donment of the power, the social distinction and 
 immunity from labor, which the system of 
 domestic slavery undoubtedly confers. ... In 
 the whole record of such social changes, Missouri 
 now stands first and foremost. You may say that 
 her offering on the altar of freedom has not 
 been perfect, nor such as the untrammeled lovers 
 of freedom might have desired. But taking 
 human nature as it is, and looking to history for 
 our interpretations of it, we say that this ordi- 
 nance of prospective emancipation is the grandest 
 proof ever given by any people of their willing- 
 ness to give up whatever may be required for 
 their country's good. If the act should be cor- 
 dially approved by the majority of the people 
 . . . Missouri will have put to utter shame the 
 halting loyalty of communities to which the war 
 
194 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 has been a harvest of wealth, while to her it 
 has been the besom of destruction. 
 
 " As a general rule great changes, to be well 
 made, must be deliberately and slowly accom- 
 plished. Let them be made in whatever way you 
 will, incidental evils must arise. . . . The pre- 
 sent evils of change will be cured by time. 
 
 " From whatever point of view we regard the 
 subject, the same glorious fact more and more 
 reveals itself. The principle of freedom and of 
 free labor has been asserted. It is not enough 
 to say that Missouri will be a free State. To all 
 intents and purposes she is such already, and 
 only waits the passage of a few years to enjoy all 
 the immunities and privileges of freedom. . . . 
 We thank God that out of all our sufferings and 
 losses this great good has been educed. The 
 suffering and loss will be forgotten, but the bless- 
 ings of freedom will more and more abound. 
 . . . Oh, how weary we are of the enmities and 
 strife, the envy, malice, and uncharitableness, the 
 maledictions and recriminations, the sunderings 
 of friendship and the severing of families, and 
 the thousand unnatural ills that war has engen- 
 dered. 
 
 "All hail, this brightening hope of brother- 
 hood and peace ! May God in his great mercy 
 confirm it to us and to our children." 
 
 Under date of " Boston, July 24," we find 
 the following acknowledgment to Dr. Eliot from 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 195 
 
 Edward Everett : " I received this afternoon two 
 copies of the discourse delivered by you on the 
 5th of July. I do not know whether I am in- 
 debted to you for their transmission, but as I 
 certainly am for the pleasure with which I have 
 read the discourse, I will not lose an hour in 
 returning you my hearty thanks. I do not know 
 when I have read anything with greater plea- 
 sure. 
 
 " I concur in all that you say of the character 
 of the ordinance. It is evidently not so much a 
 compromise as a mixture of opposite opinions. 
 The private working of some of the provisions 
 under the appeals which will be made to the 
 courts, cannot be foreseen ; but I have myself no 
 doubt that, like the apprenticeship system in the 
 British colonies, this ordinance will, at the in- 
 stance of the slaveholders themselves, long before 
 1870, give way to another of immediate eman- 
 cipation. But whether it does or not, Missouri is 
 from this time forward substantially a free State, 
 and will, I doubt not, enter upon that career of 
 prosperity for which her magnificent position and 
 unsurpassed resources so admirably fit her. 
 
 " When I look back to the controversy which 
 grew out of the attempted restriction on the ad- 
 mission of Missouri into the Union in 1820, and 
 on the folly which dictated the repeal of the Mis- 
 souri Compromise in 1854, and then consider that 
 the people of Missouri, assembled in convention 
 
196 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 in 1863, have decreed that after 1870 all slaves 
 then in Missouri shall be free, I am awe-struck 
 with the visible. tokens of an overruling and an 
 interposing Providence. 
 
 " That your noble State may reap a rich reward 
 for all that she has done and suffered in the cause 
 of the Union, is my sincere and earnest hope and 
 trust. The future is, of course, veiled in dark- 
 ness ; but when I consider your central position, 
 and your means of communication in every direc- 
 tion, nothing seems to me more probable than 
 that, by the end of the century, St. Louis will be 
 the metropolis of the Union." 
 
 The greater portion of this letter was published 
 at the time in a St. Louis paper, with the state- 
 ment that it was written to a gentleman of that 
 city. George Bancroft, the historian, was also 
 quoted as having expressed the same opinion as 
 Mr. Everett in a recent conversation. " Missouri, 
 sir," said he, " is a free State. The defects of the 
 ordinance are of no importance. . . . Slavery 
 will disappear in half the time prescribed for it." 
 
 The predictions and hopes of these gentlemen 
 and of Dr. Eliot were realized far sooner than 
 they expected. 
 
 Although Dr. Eliot had consistently advocated 
 a plan of gradual emancipation for slaves, he had 
 always realized the attendant danger that they 
 would be sold out of the State before their free- 
 dom was secured. Such seems to have been the 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 197 
 
 effect of the measure just passed, as appears from 
 a letter addressed to General Schofield by Dr. 
 Eliot, under date of November 9, 1863. The 
 letter is quoted in full, as it tells its own story. 
 
 " I would respectfully represent that by the Ordinance of 
 Emancipation passed by ' the People of Missouri in Con- 
 vention assembled ' in July, 1863, the term of servitude of 
 slaves held in the State at that time was limited to seven 
 years, namely to July 4, 1870, with certain conditions of 
 service for those under twelve or over forty years annexed. 
 By this ordinance, therefore, freedom is guaranteed to all 
 slaves, as above recited, and the legal right of masters is 
 limited and restrained accordingly. 
 
 " In contravention of this ordinance, many of the slave- 
 owners in the State are continuing to exercise the full and 
 unconditional right of ownership, by selling their slaves for 
 life, and also by removing them, or causing them to be re- 
 moved, from Missouri to the State of Kentucky or elsewhere, 
 to be sold for life, and they are thus unjustly and fraudu- 
 lently deprived of their legal and vested rights under said 
 Ordinance of Emancipation. Instances of this kind are 
 daily occurring, sometimes under circumstances of great 
 hardship, in the separation of families and otherwise, and 
 facilities for such action are given by military authorities 
 in this Department. 
 
 "I respectfully call your attention to these facts, and 
 humbly petition that an order be issued restraining such 
 facilities in the future, either by the giving of passes or in 
 any other way, at least until the legal rights of masters and 
 slaves as prescribed by this ordinance shall have been 
 passed upon and determined by the proper judicial tribu- 
 nals, and warning all slave-owners against transcending their 
 legal rights in the premises, by selling their slaves for life, 
 or by removing them from the State except when they shall 
 have first given full and sufficient bonds for the protection 
 
198 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 of said slaves in all their rights as guaranteed by said ordi- 
 nance." 
 
 Inclosed in this letter was the draft of a sug- 
 gested Order from Headquarters, revoking the is- 
 suing of permits or passes for the removal of 
 slaves from the State. A copy is appended. 
 
 " Whereas, It has been represented at these Headquarters 
 that the permits or passes given to slave-owners, or those 
 claiming to be such, for the transportation of slaves out of 
 the State, are greatly abused, in such a manner as to promote 
 the traffic in slaves particularly by disloyal persons, with all 
 the hardship incident to the separation of families, and 
 to open a door for the kidnapping of free persons or those 
 entitled to their freedom, of whom a large number have 
 been thus taken and sold into slavery, and that there is no 
 practicable way of preventing such abuse and wrong, so long 
 as such permits or passes continue to be given. 
 
 " And whereas, It is also represented that such permits 
 or passes serve and are regarded as a military protection 
 under which slaves are carried into and through free States, 
 and virtually deprived of the claim to their freedom which 
 would otherwise exist from the fact of their being carried 
 into a free State by the voluntary act of the master, thus 
 indirectly interfering with civil law in other Departments 
 and discriminating against freedom and strengthening the 
 bonds of slavery. 
 
 " And whereas, by the Ordinance of Emancipation passed 
 ' by the People of Missouri in Convention assembled,' free- 
 dom is guaranteed to all slaves who may be in the State in 
 1870, and the removal from the State deprives them of the 
 hope of such emancipation and defeats the humane intent 
 of said ordinance, a result which ought not to be promoted 
 even if not hindered by military interference, — it is there- 
 fore ordered that from and after this date, no permits or 
 passes shall be issued by any military authority in this 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 199 
 
 Department for the removal of slaves from the State of 
 Missouri into any other State or Department." 
 
 On the outside of a copy of this letter is written : 
 " In answer the whole system of passes to slave- 
 owners with slaves was stopped November 10," 
 the day following the writing of the letter. 
 
 Had the enlistment of "persons of African 
 descent," so termed, in the armies of the United 
 States been suggested at the beginning of the 
 Civil War, there would have been emphatic pro- 
 test from all sections of the country. Yet to this 
 culmination the exigencies of war inexorably led, 
 and each succeeding enactment of Congress affect- 
 ing the status of the slave brought it nearer. 
 
 In virtue of the authority conferred upon him 
 by the Confiscation Act of July, 1862, the Presi- 
 dent declared in his final Emancipation Procla- 
 mation that " persons of suitable condition held as 
 slaves in the States in rebellion will be received 
 into the armed service of the United States to 
 garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, 
 etc." In the spring of 1863 active measures were 
 inaugurated to organize colored regiments on a 
 scale commensurate with the need for recruiting 
 the army, and in the adjutant-general's office of 
 the War Department there was established a spe- 
 cial bureau for the organization of colored troops. 
 General Thomas was sent to the Southwest, where 
 were great numbers of freedmen along the banks 
 of the Mississippi. Here the problem was a simple 
 
200 WILLIAM GBEENLEAP ELIOT 
 
 one ; but in the Border States, claiming to be par- 
 tially loyal, the enlistment of blacks was opposed. 
 In Missouri Governor Gamble gave his consent 
 to the measure on condition that the laws of Mis- 
 souri should not be violated ; but as the old slave 
 laws still remained on the statute books, this con- 
 dition negatived his consent. 
 
 At this time a question arose regarding the 
 enlistment of slaves of masters claiming to be 
 loyal who asserted that their slaves absconded 
 and enlisted without their consent. In reply to 
 a letter of inquiry from John M. Forbes, a very 
 prominent and patriotic citizen of Boston, who 
 had been made chairman of a committee ap- 
 pointed by Governor Andrew of Massachusetts 
 to " aid in the enlistment of colored troops," Dr. 
 Eliot suggested a plan for satisfying the claims 
 of loyal masters, which was later brought to the 
 attention of the President, and by him adopted. 
 Dr. Eliot thus wrote to Mr. Forbes : " My belief 
 is that more than half of the slaves in Missouri 
 are owned by rebel masters, or by the notoriously 
 disloyal, and if there were any way to get at 
 them you would be in no want of recruits. If 
 your recruiting agents could be placed in differ- 
 ent parts of the State, and authorized to receive 
 all applicants whose masters are known to be 
 rebels, it would probably serve the purpose. In 
 this case provision should be made for enrolling 
 the names of the masters, so that if they should 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 201 
 
 afterwards come forward and prove their loyalty, 
 the sum allowed for recruits, say $300, could 
 be paid to them for each man improperly taken. 
 If black substitutes were receivable, a great 
 many of the masters, when drafted, would free 
 their slaves to take their places." 
 
 In reply there was received from Mr. Forbes 
 under date of Boston, October 26, a letter in 
 which he wrote in part : — 
 
 "I believe I answered hastily your last note 
 begging a conservative man for Ben Butler. . . . 
 After a little I expect to see the President come 
 up to the mark, as he has on other occasions 
 after considerable urging. 
 
 " In Maryland his general order about slaves 
 is working well, and you see he has adopted 
 your suggestion of giving the bounty to loyal 
 masters. I sent it on to Stanton, and he said 
 they then had it under consideration, and were 
 waiting for something, perhaps for more decided 
 evidence of public sentiment. I only wish he had 
 left out the master's consent. 
 
 " We have raised $60,000 to help black re- 
 cruiting." 
 
 The general order of the President herein 
 referred to was issued October 3, 1863, and 
 regulated the enlistment of slaves in Maryland, 
 Missouri, Tennessee, and Delaware, where re- 
 cruiting stations were established. It embodied 
 Dr. Eliot's suggestion that the names of all 
 
202 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 masters of slaves enlisted be enrolled, and those 
 satisfactorily proving their loyalty receive as 
 compensation a sum not over $ 300, upon filing 
 deeds of manumission. 
 
 In the " Life of Lincoln " by Nicolay and Hay, 
 we find this statement regarding the order of 
 the President referred to : " Loyal owners were 
 compensated whether they had given their con- 
 sent or not, upon filing deeds of manumission 
 and release, and a board was appointed to audit 
 such claims. This order gave satisfaction in 
 many directions ; it helped to fill the army, gave 
 slaves an avenue to freedom, aided and stimulated 
 state emancipation, compensated slave-owners, 
 and lightened the burden of the draft upon 
 white citizens." This order with local regula- 
 tions was issued by General Schofield in Mis- 
 souri November 14, 1863, four days after the 
 system of passes to slave-owners and their slaves 
 was revoked. 
 
 Only one thing was lacking to complete the 
 full measure of tardy justice meted out to the 
 colored soldier. By the Confiscation Act of 
 July, 1862, ten dollars a month was allowed to 
 " persons of African descent " employed by the 
 government. With the advance in the status of 
 the race this sum became insufficient. The white 
 soldier received thirteen dollars a month, and a 
 bounty in addition. The colored soldier, for 
 whom the risk was greater on account of that 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 203 
 
 very disadvantage of race which prevented him 
 from receiving the full compensation, not only 
 was paid a smaller monthly wage, but received 
 no bounty. On the 16th of November, 1863, 
 Dr. Eliot thus wrote to Edwin M. Stanton, the 
 Secretary of War : — 
 
 " Permit me as a citizen of Missouri to thank you for the 
 order just issued by General Schofield on the subject of 
 recruiting among slaves. It is the right thing at the right 
 time. A part of the Conservatives will find fault, but the 
 majority, of whom I am one, will heartily concur. ... It 
 is the death blow of slavery, for which thank God. 
 
 " I write now to suggest, if you will permit me, that a 
 bounty, say of $150, be paid to each colored recruit. As the 
 disloyal masters will not be paid for their recruited slaves, 
 and probably not over $300 will be awarded to many of 
 the loyal masters, such a bounty paid to every slave recruit 
 would still average far less than is paid to white men, and it 
 would stimulate enlistments to great activity. More than 
 half the slaves will prove to be of disloyal masters if the 
 scrutiny is at all severe. 
 
 " There seems to be no reason why those who are exposed 
 to the same danger and do the same work should not be 
 treated as nearly alike as the nature of the case admits. In 
 the beginning I was opposed to the whole theory of arming 
 the negroes, but no opinion can resist the logic of events ; 
 and now that we have put our national cause partly in their 
 hands, the least we can do is to treat them like men. It is 
 not right to take them without bounty and at less wages, 
 and then expect the same services. They feel this, and 
 their readiness to enlist is diminished. So much depends 
 upon quickness of action that all obstructions should be 
 removed. 
 
 " I have no right to make these suggestions except that of 
 earnest patriotism. With no favors to ask, and no party to 
 
204 WILLIAM GKEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 serve, I have labored from the first and when laborers were 
 few, for the good cause.'' 
 
 To this letter was written the following reply 
 by Secretary Stanton : — 
 
 " November 20, 1863. 
 " I pray you to accept my thanks for your very interest- 
 ing and patriotic note of the 16th inst. just received. Your 
 views impress me very deeply, and will be laid before the 
 President for his directions. I have received no communi- 
 cation upon this important subject which has given me 
 more satisfaction than your letter." 
 
 The policy advocated by Dr. Eliot, of placing 
 the white and colored soldiers on a more equal 
 footing as to pay and bounty, was strongly ad- 
 vised by the Secretary of War in his message 
 issued April 2, 1864. It was also advocated by 
 the President and authorities at Washington. 
 Congress, however, took no action until by the 
 Army Appropriation Bill passed in June, 1864, 
 this tardy act of justice was consummated. By 
 the same enactment the widows and children of 
 colored soldiers dying in the service were enti- 
 tled to pensions. After this action was taken the 
 number of enlistments increased. 
 
 From the beginning to the close of the Civil 
 War, there were great differences of opinion 
 among Missouri politicians. Gradually the Condi- 
 tional Union men allied themselves unreservedly 
 with the Union party, but in that party there 
 were Radicals and Conservatives, or Claybanks 
 and Charcoals, as they were termed in the famil- 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 205 
 
 iar parlance of the day. These Eadicals and 
 Conservatives frequently disagreed as to the wis- 
 dom or unwisdom of war measures, which several 
 times resulted in a change of commanders in the 
 Department of Missouri. 
 
 In the fall of 1863, General Schofield gave 
 dissatisfaction to leading politicians in Missouri, 
 and the President, in the interest of harmony, de- 
 cided that it was better to remove General Scho- 
 field from command in Missouri, for the same 
 reason that Schofield had superseded Curtis. 
 This action did not involve lack of confidence on 
 the part of the President, since Schofield was to 
 be relieved of his command in Missouri through 
 promotion in the army. At the President's re- 
 quest the nomination of General Schofield to be 
 major-general was sent to him for confirmation, 
 and by him forwarded to the Senate with his 
 approval. 
 
 Dr. Eliot regretted the removal of General 
 Schofield from Missouri, especially as some of 
 the Eadicals were asking for Butler, a man of 
 drastic measures. As an expression of his judg- 
 ment, and of his approval in general of Schofield's 
 course in Missouri, and in order to exert his per- 
 sonal influence towards his promotion to a major- 
 generalship, Dr. Eliot drew up a memorial to the 
 Senate, in which he endorsed that officer's man- 
 agement of affairs in Missouri. We append a 
 copy of this document : — 
 
206 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 To the Honorable Senate of the United States, in 
 
 Extba Session. 
 
 The undersigned, a citizen of Missouri, and an Uncondi- 
 tional Union man from the beginning, respectfully presents 
 his petition : 
 
 That Brigadier-General J. W. Schofield be confirmed in 
 his nomination by the President of the United States, as 
 Major-General of United States volunteers, for the follow- 
 ing reasons : 
 
 I. Because he is an honest, faithful, and loyal man, a 
 good officer, and above reproach in personal character, his 
 enemies themselves being the judges. 
 
 II. Because, in his whole administration of affairs in the 
 Department of the Missouri, he has strictly obeyed orders 
 and followed instructions, of which we have full proof in 
 the President's public statements, and therefore, if censure 
 is conveyed, it should fall upon the instructions, and not on 
 the officer who obeyed them, as in duty hound. 
 
 III. In point of fact, his orders with reference to the 
 treatment of disloyal persons, and on the subject of slavery, 
 were the most stringent and radical that have ever been 
 issued in Missouri, in proof of which reference is made to 
 the assessment and extradition orders, and the order for 
 depopulating the border counties between Kansas and Mis- 
 souri, all of which orders were from time to time restrained 
 or annulled at Washington ; and also to the order prohibit- 
 ing the deportation of slaves from Missouri, by which an ini- 
 quitous internal slave trade was effectually broken up ; and 
 Order 135 for enlistment of slaves, by which the death blow 
 was given to slavery in Missouri. These orders were issued 
 under circumstances of great difficulty, and against the per- 
 suasion and conviction of a large part of the people of Mis- 
 souri, and are indication of anything rather than want of zeal. 
 
 IV. Because he was always prompt and active in making 
 provision for Union refugees, and for the freedmen from 
 the South, and so far as he could for fugitives from slavery. 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 207 
 
 In such respects he assumed unusual responsibility, and his 
 instructions to the officers in charge of these interests were 
 to use their best discretion and to err, if at all, on the side 
 of humanity. Your petitioner states this on his own know- 
 ledge. 
 
 Your petitioner humbly but earnestly believes that no 
 good cause, not even the cause of freedom, can gain by acts 
 of undue severity or personal injustice under whatever cir- 
 cumstances : — and he has the honor to remain, in the cause 
 of Justice, Loyalty, and Freedom, 
 
 The Senate's obedient servant, 
 
 William G. Eliot. 
 
 Dr. Eliot's faith in Major-General Schofield 
 was justified by Schofield's subsequent career. 
 He later honored the office to which he was pro- 
 moted by the Senate. 
 
 Dr. Eliot held one position during the Civil 
 War which afforded him much gratification and 
 entailed little effort. In February, 1862, the 
 older men of the city, exempt by reason of age 
 from active service, organized in a body for de- 
 fense of the city in an emergency. Dr. Eliot at 
 once volunteered as chaplain, and was unani- 
 mously chosen. In September, 1864, St. Louis 
 was threatened by Sterling Price, who advanced 
 within ten miles of the city. All of the enrolled 
 militia in St. Louis were called into active ser- 
 vice. The Old Guard then volunteered for duty, 
 and were accepted. Happily Price was forced to 
 retreat without entering the city. 
 
 February 9, 1865, Dr. Eliot preached an an- 
 niversary sermon to the Old Guard, in which, 
 
208 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 after reviewing the events which had occurred 
 during the three years of their existence, he con- 
 gratulated them as Missourians on the changes 
 -which had been wrought in the status of the 
 State in that time, and especially on its progress 
 from slavery to freedom. He drew a graphic pic- 
 ture of what had been, as contrasted with present 
 conditions. " In the year 1861, sixty battles or 
 considerable skirmishes were fought " on the soil 
 of Missouri. " In the beginning of 1863 there 
 were almost as many Missourians on the Con- 
 federate muster rolls as on our own." Yet 
 at that date, February, 1865, Missouri stood 
 " credited at the War Department with no less 
 than seventy-eight thousand enlisted men." Mis- 
 souri had at first desired peace, Dr. Eliot said, 
 but it would have meant that " wrong ought not 
 to be resisted, and that rebels sbould be per- 
 mitted to have their own way." "Law and right 
 and liberty," he declared, " must be maintained, 
 without which there can be no continued peace, 
 and therefore as true lovers of peace we must be 
 willing to fight for it." 
 
 In concluding his address, Dr. Eliot advocated, 
 as the means of securing the permanent restora- 
 tion of peace, the laying aside of animosities en- 
 gendered by war, and the diffusion of education 
 to promote intelligent citizenship. 
 
 After the beginning of the year 1863 Dr. 
 Eliot ceased to keep a personal record of events ; 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 209 
 
 they pressed too closely upon him, and his phe- 
 nomenal labors exhausted him. Mental suffering 
 too, however bravely borne, is a heavy burden, 
 and during this stormy period he was heavily 
 afflicted in the loss of two of his children. 
 
 May 3, 1864, his younger brother, Captain 
 Frank Andrew Eliot, was killed at the battle of 
 Chancellorsville. Captain Eliot had raised a com- 
 pany of men in Germantown, Pennsylvania, where 
 he resided, and pledged himself not only to com- 
 mand, but to care for them. So strong was his 
 feeling of personal responsibility towards them, 
 so deep his attachment, that when he was offered 
 promotion for gallant conduct after the battle 
 of Fredericksburg, he refused the honor, and re- 
 plied, " I entered the war for the cause alone. I 
 am the captain and brother of these men, and as 
 such I must fight to the end. We cannot part 
 from one another save through death." Again a 
 second time promotion was offered and refused. 
 
 At the battle of Chancellorsville it became 
 necessary to storm a barricade, behind which the 
 rebels were strongly intrenched. For some reason 
 Captain Eliot's superior officer failed to appear, 
 and he assumed command. The men hesitated to 
 expose themselves to what seemed certain death. 
 Captain Eliot sprang forward alone upon the bar- 
 ricade that separated him from the enemy. Wav- 
 ing his sword, he cried : " Follow me, boys ! " 
 It was his last order, for he instantly fell, pierced 
 
210 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 by a bullet, but every one of his men followed 
 him, many to share his fate. 
 
 After the battle a Confederate soldier found 
 him on the spot where he had fallen, and, driving 
 four bayonets into the ground, threw over them 
 a blanket as a shelter from the sun for the dying 
 man. The Confederate received from Captain 
 Eliot his watch and other tokens for his wife, 
 and they eventually reached her. His place of 
 burial was never discovered, although every pos- 
 sible means was taken to find it. Like many 
 others who fell in battle, he filled a nameless 
 grave. The memory of this brother was cherished 
 by Dr. Eliot with great affection, and after the 
 war, through the gift of himself and Mrs. Eliot, 
 the Prank A. Eliot scholarship fund at Washing- 
 ton University was established as a memorial to 
 the young soldier. 
 
 Throughout the Civil War Dr. Eliot was a 
 close observer of events, making his critical judg- 
 ment felt at the proper moment to advance or 
 retard what he considered wise or unwise action. 
 His opinion, based on a clear understanding of 
 concrete facts within the domain of his own per- 
 sonal experience, was frequently accepted as final, 
 through the confidence reposed in his wisdom. 
 Always alert, always watchful, he entered the 
 arena only when he believed he could be of as- 
 sistance in the struggle. His unremitting labors 
 were given to the humanities of war, the work 
 
EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE 211 
 
 of the Western Sanitary Commission, which ex- 
 tended over a wide area of beneficence. A life 
 of William Greenleaf Eliot which did not include 
 a history of this same Commission would be in- 
 adequate and incomplete. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 ORGANIZATION AND WORK OP THE WESTERN 
 SANITARY COMMISSION 
 
 Even as late as the middle of the last century it 
 had become an accepted fact in the experience of 
 armies, that many more men perish from disease 
 than are slain in battle. During the Crimean War 
 it was estimated that two months' longer continu- 
 ance of the then prevailing death rate at Sebas- 
 topol would destroy the British army. No effort 
 was made to devise a remedy for this evil, or im- 
 prove the conditions of camp and army life, until 
 in the spring of 1855, in recognition of the neces- 
 sity of the immediate adoption of sanitary mea- 
 sures, there was sent to the Peninsula a govern- 
 ment commission, which accomplished remarkable 
 results in checking tbe spread of disease, while 
 Florence Nightingale and her assistants nursed 
 back to life the sick and suffering soldiers. 
 
 At the outbreak of the Civil War in the United 
 States, consideration on the part of philanthropic 
 and patriotic citizens of the beneficial results ob- 
 tained through the appointment of a government 
 sanitary commission during the recent Crimean 
 War in Europe, led to the formation in the United 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 213 
 
 States of a civilian organization to look after the 
 health of the soldiers in the army, and provide 
 for the care of the sick and those wounded in 
 battle. In addition to these duties primarily as- 
 sumed, the Sanitary Commission became of ne- 
 cessity the general distributing agency for the 
 government of the large supplies of goods sent 
 from every city, town, and hamlet of the North 
 to the soldiers in the field. When the order of 
 the Secretary of War creating the United States 
 Sanitary Commission was issued June 13, 1861, 
 it was declared to be appointed by the govern- 
 ment as " a medium through which the benevo- 
 lence of the people towards the army could be 
 diverted into practical channels." 
 
 To understand the necessity for the creation 
 of the United States and Western Sanitary Com- 
 missions, it must be remembered that at the out- 
 break of the Civil War the government was wholly 
 unprepared for the sanitary care of the large 
 army suddenly called into being. " The opera- 
 tions of the Medical Bureau previous to the Civil 
 War," wrote Dr. Charles Stille in his " History of 
 the United States Sanitary Commission," "were 
 confined to an army of fifteen thousand men. 
 Before the war there were no general hospitals ; 
 the military hospitals were all post hospitals, that 
 at Fort Leavenworth, the largest, containing but 
 forty beds. It became necessary therefore to cre- 
 ate, in the midst of the crisis, the entire system 
 
214 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 by which these establishments, so indispensable 
 to the operations of a large army in the field, are 
 governed. There were at that time no suitable 
 buildings; no well-trained nurses; no require- 
 ments or arrangements for a proper diet for the 
 sick, or provision for their clothing ; no properly 
 understood relations between general hospitals 
 and regimental hospitals ; no means for supplying 
 promptly proper medicines, and no arrangements 
 for the humane and careful transportation of the 
 sick and wounded. Patients were crowded in the 
 beginning of the war into buildings wholly un- 
 suited for their treatment. The agony and suf- 
 fering which were endured by them during the 
 first nine months of its continuance, owing to 
 the delay in the construction of proper general 
 hospitals, can never be accurately known, but it 
 is not easy to estimate." 
 
 Such was the lack of provision for our sick and 
 wounded soldiers when the sanitary commissions 
 were organized. Lacking the rigidity necessary 
 to an army system, well managed, and ready to 
 give immediate response when called upon, they 
 were of invaluable assistance to the government 
 in its provision for the health of the soldiers in 
 the field, and for the care and comfort of the sick 
 and wounded. 
 
 Theoretically the United States Sanitary Com- 
 mission was supposed to include the whole coun- 
 try in the circle of its beneficence. The area was 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 215 
 
 large, Missouri was a thousand miles distant from 
 Washington, and the need of a general hospital 
 system very great. When on August 18, 1861, 
 a battle was fought near Springfield, Missouri, 
 and after the lapse of eight or ten days the sick 
 and wounded began to be brought in, nothing 
 was ready for them. In a report of the work of 
 the Western Sanitary Commission, Dr. Eliot thus 
 told the tale : " The first hundred arrived at night. 
 They had been brought in wagons one hundred 
 and twenty miles, over a rough road, by hurried 
 marches, suffering for food and water, from 
 Springfield to Eolla, and thence by rail to St. 
 Louis to the station on Fourteenth Street. There, 
 having had nothing to eat for ten hours, they 
 were put into furniture carts and carried the re- 
 maining three miles. Bare walls, bare floors, and 
 an empty kitchen received them, but the kind- 
 hearted surgeon, Bailley, did all he could to make 
 kindness take the place of good fare. He obtained 
 from the neighbors cooked food for their supper, 
 and lost no time in getting together the various 
 means of comfort. The poor fellows were so shat- 
 tered and travel-worn that they were thankful 
 enough to get eatable food, with the hard boards 
 to sleep upon, and no word of complaint did we 
 ever hear one of them utter. In the course of the 
 week three or four hundred more were brought 
 in, the condition of things meanwhile rapidly 
 improving ; but so great was the difficulty of ob- 
 
216 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 taming anything that was wanted, that many of 
 the badly wounded men lay there in the same un- 
 changed garments in which they had been brought 
 from the battlefield three weeks before. Every 
 day, however, made things better, and by the end 
 of a month from the first arrivals, Dr. Bailley began 
 to say that ' it was not yet what he called a good 
 hospital, but that the men were all comfortable.' ' 
 
 At the beginning of the Civil War, such con- 
 ditions were only too common east and west. 
 What was St. Louis to do for her wounded and 
 sick soldiers, sent to that city from all parts of 
 the State ? Should she wait for the necessarily 
 slow action of the government through its Medi- 
 cal Bureau, or for the United States Sanitary 
 Commission to send an agent to that distant point? 
 At the suggestion of one of her citizens, Dr. Wil- 
 liam G. Eliot, the Western Sanitary Commission 
 was created, as he himself expressed it, " to meet 
 the exigency of the moment." So well did it ful- 
 fill this purpose that, six weeks after its organ- 
 ization, four large general hospitals were estab- 
 lished, with over two thousand beds, all occupied, 
 and with all the essential comforts that sick men 
 require. 
 
 The plan for the organization of a sanitary 
 commission for the Department of the West was a 
 very simple one. On September 3, 1861, a docu- 
 ment was drawn up by Dr. Eliot under the heading 
 of" Suggestions," and this was submitted to Major- 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 217 
 
 General Fremont. It was copied by Mrs. Fremont, 
 and on September 5 was signed by the General. 
 On September 10 it was issued as Special Order 
 159, signed by "J. C. Kelton, Assistant Adjutant- 
 General, by Order of Major-General J. C. Fre- 
 mont." It created a civilian commission of five 
 gentlemen, who were appointed to serve volunta- 
 rily and be removable at pleasure. Its general 
 object was, as stated, " to carry out under the pro- 
 perly constituted military authorities, and in com- 
 pliance with their orders, such sanitary regulations 
 and reforms as the well-being of the soldiers 
 demanded." 
 
 " Under the direction of the Medical Director," 
 the Western Sanitary Commission had authority 
 to select and furnish buildings for hospitals, pro- 
 vide nurses, inspect camps, and, in brief, to at- 
 tend to everything that related to the health and 
 comfort of the volunteer troops in and near St. 
 Louis. The work of the Commission was, as an ac- 
 tual fact, never confined to St. Louis, and Secre- 
 tary Stanton extended its range of action to all 
 the States west of the Alleghany Mountains. 
 
 The four gentlemen designated by Dr. Eliot to 
 act with himself on the Board of the Commis- 
 sion, and who were thus appointed by General 
 Fremont, were all citizens of high standing in the 
 community. Mr. James E. Yeatman, a South- 
 erner by birth, served as president of the West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission throughout the Civil 
 
218 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 War, giving all his time to the arduous labors 
 required. A gentleman of the old school, he was 
 liberal and progressive in his ideas, humane and 
 kindly in his instincts, and devoted to every good 
 cause. Mr. Carlos S. Greeley, the conscientious 
 treasurer, was a successful merchant. He managed 
 the funds of the Commission with great financial 
 skill. Dr. J. B. Johnson, originally from New 
 Bedford, Massachusetts, was a distinguished phy- 
 sician and influential citizen. Mr. George Par- 
 tridge, also a Massachusetts man, was a successful 
 merchant. He was one of the earlier members of 
 Dr. Eliot's church, an earnest philanthropist, and 
 a liberal contributor to Washington University. 
 These four gentlemen, with Dr. Eliot, worked to- 
 gether during the Civil War with the most per- 
 fect unanimity. 
 
 Immediately upon the appointment and organ- 
 ization of the Western Sanitary Commission, the 
 members began their important work of fitting 
 up general hospitals in St. Louis. To obtain 
 necessary funds, Dr. Eliot wrote " An Appeal to 
 the Public," which was signed by the members 
 of the Board, and published September 16th. In 
 this appeal it was stated that a part of the duty 
 of the newly appointed Commission was to obtain 
 " additional means of increasing the comfort and 
 promoting the moral and social welfare of the 
 men in camp and hospital," for which end money 
 was an indispensable requisite, and contributions 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 219 
 
 were solicited. " Government provides abun- 
 dantly," he declared, " for the well man, and in 
 many respects for the sick. But change of cloth- 
 ing, shirts, drawers, socks, handkerchiefs, slip- 
 pers, and other comforts need to be bountifully 
 supplied. Many of the nicer articles of food, 
 which the sick man craves, and by want of which 
 his convalescence is retarded, come under the 
 head of necessaries." This appeal met with a 
 generous response from the citizens of St. Louis, 
 and boxes of stores soon were forwarded to the 
 Commission from all parts of the North. 
 
 As each general hospital was fitted up ready 
 for occupancy, application was made to the mili- 
 tary authorities to send thereto sick soldiers from 
 the camps. In accordance with Dr. Eliot's sug- 
 gestion, arrangements were immediately made for 
 proper burial of the soldiers who died in the 
 hospitals. The graves were marked and a careful 
 record kept of the name, regiment, and such other 
 facts as would lead to identification. Separate 
 provision was made for convalescents. When 
 General Fremont requested that two thousand 
 beds should be immediately prepared for the 
 wounded in anticipation of a great battle, they 
 were ready before required for use. At each meet- 
 ing, and meetings then were frequent, one or two 
 members of the Board were appointed to inspect 
 hospitals in and near the city. Camps were visited, 
 and when overcrowding and neglect of sanitary 
 
220 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 measures were reported the matter was brought 
 to the attention of the proper military authorities. 
 Mr. Yeatman found conditions very unsatisfac- 
 tory in the hospitals at Jefferson City, through 
 the incompetence of army surgeons ; and it was 
 resolved at the next Board meeting that it was 
 " expedient and necessary for the Sanitary Com- 
 mission to supply all regular hospitals with sheets, 
 hospital garments, and stores." 
 
 In reading the record of the proceedings of the 
 Board of the Western Sanitary Commission, we 
 are at once impressed with the practical efficiency 
 of its members and the amount of work accom- 
 plished with expedition and dispatch. Conscien- 
 tious in the use of the funds intrusted to them, 
 they employed little assistance. The president, 
 Mr. Yeatman, gave his entire time to the work, 
 having at first only one employee, who served 
 as storekeeper, clerk, and porter. Whenever an 
 emergency arose, and there was a sudden call for 
 supplies, the members of the Commission worked 
 until late at night, overseeing the packing of 
 boxes. Dr. Eliot, who lived on what were then the 
 outskirts of the city, frequently remained until 
 midnight, walking home lantern in hand. At the 
 close of the war statistics proved that the expenses 
 of administration and service amounted to only 
 one and one half per cent, of the value of the 
 distributions of the Commission. 
 
 Shortly after the inception of its work the 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 221 
 
 Western Sanitary Commission at St. Louis re- 
 ceived from the United States Sanitary Commis- 
 sion at Washington a remonstrance against the 
 existence of a separate organization in the West, 
 and also notice that official protest had been made 
 to the Secretary of War, and a request that he 
 require General Fremont to rescind his order, so 
 that the Western Sanitary Commission might be 
 made a branch of the National Commission. At 
 the request of the Western Commission Dr. Eliot 
 immediately started for Washington, and had a 
 personal interview with the Secretary of War, 
 Simon Cameron, who had " no objection to the 
 Western gentlemen being as independent as they 
 pleased, as long as they were under the Medical 
 Department." President Lincoln, to whom Dr. 
 Eliot also appealed in person, was of the same 
 opinion, and things were permitted to remain as 
 they were. Dr. Eliot maintained in his argument 
 at Washington that it would be unwise to sub- 
 ordinate the Western Sanitary Commission to a 
 distant central authority, especially in view of the 
 social conditions prevailing at the time in St. 
 Louis and throughout Missouri, and the great 
 usefulness of the Western Sanitary Commission 
 as then organized. 
 
 On his return from Washington, Dr. Eliot drew 
 up a set of resolutions, which were unanimously 
 adopted by the Western Sanitary Commission, 
 and copies sent to the Secretary of War and the 
 
222 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 United States Sanitary Commission. In these and 
 further official communications additional argu- 
 ments were cited in favor of an independent or- 
 ganization in the West. The condition of affairs 
 in Missouri at that time was not thoroughly un- 
 derstood in the East, even by the President and 
 Cabinet. Many citizens, nominally loyal, were only 
 conditionally so, and very many actively disloyal. 
 A civilian commission, so Dr. Eliot claimed, main- 
 taining confidential relations with the commander- 
 in-chief, could act more quickly, wisely, and effec- 
 tively as a small independent organization than 
 as part of a large one. The necessary quickness 
 of action in the latter case would have been im- 
 possible. 
 
 In the resolutions forwarded to the United 
 States Sanitary Commission at Washington, plans 
 were suggested for the thorough cooperation of 
 the United States and Western Sanitary Commis- 
 sions, and later, two members of the former, Dr. 
 Douglass and Dr. Warriner, were made associate 
 members of the original Board of the latter organ- 
 ization. Several other gentlemen were also thus 
 added to the Commission. 
 
 On November 2d General Fremont was re- 
 moved from command of the Department of the 
 West. One of his last official acts was the issu- 
 ance of an order authorizing the Western Sani- 
 tary Commission to fit up two hospital cars for 
 the transportation of the sick and wounded. 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 223 
 
 They were to be provided with berths and ar- 
 rangements for cooking, and nurses were to be in 
 attendance. General Fremont always responded 
 when there was opportunity for humane action. 
 
 General Fremont's successor continued in 
 command only sixteen days, and was then super- 
 seded by Major-General Halleck. To him a 
 report was made of the work done and in pro- 
 gress by the Western Sanitary Commission. In 
 this report Dr. Eliot wrote : " As to the manner 
 in which the Western Sanitary Commission has 
 performed its duty, it is not for us to speak ; but 
 we earnestly invite the attention of the general 
 commanding to the present condition of the 
 hospitals, that he may see the amount of work 
 and the manner in which it bas been done. We 
 claim no other merit than that of intelligent and 
 hearty cooperation with tbe Medical Bureau, un- 
 der the order received from headquarters, but 
 we confidently believe that the hospital system of 
 St. Louis and its vicinity is already, at the end of 
 two and one half months, by far the most perfect 
 and best managed in the United States." 
 
 At this time the Western Sanitary Commission 
 had become so useful and indispensable that the 
 result more than justified any technical irregu- 
 larity in its creation, and Major-General Halleck 
 freely accorded his approval and support of the 
 organization as then existing. 
 
 Under Medical Director Dr. DeCamp, the con- 
 
224 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 cert of action between the Medical Bureau and 
 the Western Sanitary Commission had been 
 most harmonious. In December, 1861, he was 
 superseded; and his successor, attached to old 
 methods, and jealous of what he imagined to 
 be interference with the Medical Department, 
 opposed the humane measures of the Western 
 Sanitary Commission, and manifested antago- 
 nism towards the general hospital system. It was 
 a matter of public record that this gentleman's 
 hospital management some two months before at 
 Cincinnati had so aroused popular indignation 
 that public meetings of protest were held. He 
 did not succeed in breaking up the general 
 hospitals in St. Louis, but many patients from 
 the post and regimental hospitals were not 
 brought to them until almost or quite "past 
 recovery." A number of trenchant articles, mak- 
 ing public the facts, were written by Dr. Eliot, 
 and published as editorials. At Camp Benton, 
 during the winter of 1861-62, were collected over 
 twenty thousand newly enlisted men crowded into 
 rough open barracks. The regimental hospitals 
 were hardly better than the barracks, poorly 
 ventilated and unevenly warmed. Dr. Eliot wrote 
 that he had seen in these hospitals men who 
 had been sick for weeks without any clothing 
 but their common garments, with no sheets nor 
 pillow cases, and in some instances without beds, 
 while there were two hundred and fifty beds 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 226 
 
 empty in the Fourth Street Hospital alone. Like 
 conditions existed in the brigade hospital at 
 Sedalia, of which a heartrending description was 
 given, and in other post and regimental hospi- 
 tals where troops were collected. The existence 
 of these unfortunate conditions was ascribed 
 to the ignorance of officers, the incompetence of 
 the army surgeons, and the added negligence at 
 the time of the Medical Director, who frequently 
 refused the hospital stores that the Western Sani- 
 tary Commission was anxious and willing to send. 
 Finally complaint was made by the regimental 
 surgeons that the medicines they needed were 
 refused them. The matter was brought to the 
 attention of Major-General Halleck by the Com- 
 mission, and that officer issued an order on the 
 Medical Department to increase its allowances. 
 This order the Medical Director refused to obey. 
 General Halleck then reported the facts to the 
 authorities at Washington, and the medical sup- 
 ply table for regiments in the field was increased. 
 
 As might have been expected from such a 
 sympathetic and broad-minded body of men as 
 the members of the Western Sanitary Commis- 
 sion, it was their principle of conduct from the 
 beginning to treat the Union and Confederate 
 sick and wounded with equal impartiality. 
 
 As early as January 7, 1862, Dr. Eliot re- 
 ported to the Commission that he had been to 
 the Arsenal with warm clothing contributed by 
 
226 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 sympathizing friends for the Confederate prison- 
 ers there. He found them " very much confined 
 in their barracks, and considerable sickness 
 among them." He "advised Dr. Getty to send 
 all he could of them to the hospitals," and " as- 
 sured him that the Sanitary Commission would 
 do all it could to relieve him of any blame for 
 pursuing this course." He had also " ordered a 
 number of stores to be sent from the stores of 
 the Commission for the prisoners." 
 
 Hearing that smallpox had broken out among 
 the prisoners at McDowell's College, and there 
 was much consequent suffering, Dr. Eliot sought 
 permission from General Halleck to visit that 
 place. General Halleck was unwilling to grant 
 the privilege sought unless there were urgent 
 reasons therefor, and Dr. Eliot did not urge his 
 request. He was assured by General Halleck 
 that there were no cases of smallpox, that the 
 prisoners were well cared for, and that such as 
 were sick and wished it could be removed to the 
 general hospitals. 
 
 In May, 1862, by order of Major-General 
 Schofield, the military prisons were placed under 
 the supervision of the Western Sanitary Com- 
 mission, and Dr. Eliot and Mr. Yeatman acted 
 as a committee on the Gratiot Street prison. 
 Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions were 
 reported, and strenuous efforts were made by the 
 Commission to have the prisoners removed to a 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 227 
 
 new building. Eventually, by order of Major-Gen- 
 eral Curtis, the crowded condition of the prison 
 and hospital was remedied by transferring a num- 
 ber of the prisoners to the large military prison at 
 Alton, Illinois . The Gratiot Street prison was then 
 cleaned and whitewashed by order of the West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission, and much improved. 
 
 Dr. Pollak and Rev. Dr. Schuyler, associate 
 members of the Commission, were appointed a 
 committee to visit the Alton prison, and found 
 that it answered all requirements of sanitation 
 and comfort. It was large, airy, situated in a 
 healthy location, and the buildings were isolated, 
 with considerable ground around them. It was 
 filled to only half its capacity. The food was 
 good in quality and abundant in quantity, and 
 the prisoners were well provided for in every re- 
 spect. A Catholic priest acted as chaplain, and 
 the Confederate dead were buried with exactly 
 the same care as the Union soldiers. 
 
 When funds were required by the Western San- 
 itary Commission to fit up the first floating hos- 
 pital, in an appeal issued November 13, 1862, it 
 was stated that in event of a battle the wounded 
 of both armies, " by special order," would be 
 treated alike, and such became invariably the 
 practice. When certain secessionist ladies desired 
 to make a distinction, and asked the privilege of 
 visiting the hospitals to take delicacies to Con- 
 federate to the exclusion of Union soldiers, in 
 
228 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 accordance "with this same principle their request 
 •was very properly refused. 
 
 In February, 1862, occurred the battle of Fort 
 Donelson, the most brilliant of the battles fought 
 to secure control of the great rivers which gave 
 access to the interior of Kentucky and Tennessee. 
 For three nights the army under Grant lay ex- 
 posed to a driving storm of snow and sleet, and 
 renewed the struggle at daybreak. The country 
 reaped the splendid reward of human endur- 
 ance and courage, but the suffering entailed was 
 fearful. The number of sick and wounded was 
 very large, and the Western Sanitary Commission 
 was notified that four hundred patients were on 
 their way to St. Louis. An associate member of 
 the Commission, Dr. Pollak, with physicians and 
 nurses, at once left for Paducah, Kentucky. He 
 was furnished with a steamboat by Dr. Simmons, 
 the medical director there, and returned to St. 
 Louis with one hundred and fifty-five patients on 
 board. This experience gave rise to a most im- 
 portant suggestion from Dr. Simmons, which was 
 immediately acted upon by the Western Sanitary 
 Commission. This was that several large steam- 
 ers should be fitted up as floating hospitals, each 
 having on board a chief surgeon with assistants 
 and nurses. It was proposed that these steamers 
 follow the course of the army along the Western 
 rivers, always ready to receive the sick and 
 wounded. 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 229 
 
 When this report was received by the Western 
 Sanitary Commission, Dr. Eliot was immediately 
 requested by the Board to address a letter to 
 Major-General Halleck, explaining the plan, and 
 stating that the Commission would undertake all 
 the labor of carrying it into execution. The gen- 
 eral commanding expressed his unqualified ap- 
 proval, and immediately issued an order to the 
 chief quartermaster to purchase a steamer. The 
 City of Louisiana was chartered, the government 
 furnishing beds and commissary stores, and the 
 Western Sanitary Commission completing the out- 
 fit at a cost of three thousand dollars, besides 
 supplying surgeons and nurses. After the battle 
 of Pittsburg Landing this vessel conveyed 3389 
 patients to Northern hospitals. Another of these 
 floating hospitals was soon after fitted up in the 
 same manner by the Commission. Thus satisfac- 
 torily were arrangements made for the transpor- 
 tation of the sick and wounded along the great 
 watercourses for whose control both sides were 
 contending. 
 
 In December, 1861, the rebel general Sterling 
 Price entered Missouri. On the approach of 
 General Curtis's forces he retreated into Arkan- 
 sas with his army, and there was fought the bat- 
 tle of Pea Ridge on the 7th and 8th of March. 
 It resulted in a Union victory, although the Con- 
 federates outnumbered our forces three to one. 
 The Union loss in killed and wounded was one 
 
230 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 thousand ; the rebel loss even larger. This bat- 
 tle was of great strategic importance, since it 
 checked the last incursion in force into Missouri, 
 although guerrilla warfare continued until nearly 
 the close of the war. 
 
 The battlefield of Pea Ridge was situated two 
 hundred and fifty miles beyond Rolla, the ter- 
 minus of the Southwest Branch of the Pacific 
 Railroad. The roads were almost impassable, the 
 country half civilized and stripped by foraging 
 parties, and there were frequent murders by guer- 
 rilla bands. It was impossible to bring the 
 wounded to St. Louis, and a thousand were to be 
 provided for among a people who lived in log 
 houses, and had few of the necessaries of life. 
 The court-house, and such other buildings as there 
 were at Cassville and other small towns within a 
 radius of twenty miles, housed the wounded. As 
 the march to Pea Ridge had been made in winter, 
 with insufficient transportation, the Medical De- 
 partment was wretchedly provided — no stimu- 
 lants, no hospital stores, no bedding, and a very 
 limited supply of medicines for these wretched 
 men. 
 
 When news of this battle reached St. Louis, 
 at the rooms of the Western Sanitary Commission, 
 the members worked day and night packing san- 
 itary stores. The first installment was forwarded 
 the 11th of March, with an agent, Mr. Platten- 
 berg, in charge, and a second supply immedi- 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 231 
 
 ately followed. Although furnished by General 
 Halleck with a note to all quartermasters direct- 
 ing them to assist him in forwarding these stores 
 with all possible dispatch, so great was the dif- 
 ficulty of transportation that Mr. Plattenberg 
 did not reach Cassville, where were four hun- 
 dred Federal wounded, until the 25th. He 
 found the men stretched on the floors, with a 
 little straw under them, and with knapsacks or 
 blankets for pillows. They lay in the clothes they 
 had worn on the battlefield, soiled and stiff with 
 blood. They were devoid of every comfort. The 
 sanitary stores from the Western Commission 
 were turned over to the brigade surgeon, and 
 distributed to the different hospitals, where they 
 were received with the greatest joy. 
 
 Mr. Plattenberg then visited other so-called 
 hospitals where were many rebel wounded, going 
 from place to place to learn and supply the needs 
 of the suffering. Additional stores were hurried 
 forward, and soon all the Union and Confederate 
 wounded were amply supplied. 
 
 In the report of this journey, Mr. Plattenberg 
 said : " I am fully convinced that no army (so 
 far as provision for the wounded was concerned) 
 was ever sent into the field in such destitute 
 condition as ours, except the one it fought and 
 conquered." And of Mr. Plattenberg General 
 Curtis wrote : " He is the agent of a noble Com- 
 mission, whose arrival just after the battle of 
 
232 WILLIAM GBEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Pea Ridge, -with his abundant supplies of sanitary- 
 stores and stimulants, seemed in the destitute 
 condition of the hospitals like a providential in- 
 terposition in our behalf." So efficient was Mr. 
 Plattenberg that he was employed as an agent by 
 the Commission, and continued with the Army of 
 the Southwest from that time until the spring 
 of 1863. 
 
 On the 6th and 7th of April, 1862, occurred 
 the battle of Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, be- 
 tween the Union forces under General Grant 
 and the Confederate forces under Generals 
 Johnston and Beauregard. The loss to each of 
 the two armies was almost exactly the same. 
 In the Union army there were 7882 wounded, 
 and in the Confederate 8112 ; many of the latter 
 fell into our hands. 
 
 As soon as the news of this battle reached 
 St. Louis by telegraph, General Halleck addressed 
 a note to the Western Sanitary Commission, re- 
 questing their cooperation with the Medical and 
 Quartermaster's departments in sending to Pitts- 
 burg Landing steamers fitted up and furnished 
 with medical and sanitary supplies, with surgeons, 
 wound-dressers and nurses, to take charge of the 
 wounded and return with them to St. Louis. 
 
 The two hospital boats, the City of Louisiana 
 and the D. A. January, previously fitted up by 
 the Commission, were immediately dispatched to 
 Pittsburg Landing. The steamer Empress was 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 233 
 
 also made ready and started for the same point 
 on the 10th with Mr. Yeatman, president of the 
 Commission, in charge. She carried a complete 
 duplicate outfit of medical and sanitary stores, 
 and also an extra corps of surgeons and nurses, 
 for the steamer Imperial, to which vessel they 
 were transferred on arrival at Pittsburg Landing. 
 The Empress alone returned with nine hundred 
 wounded men to St. Louis. 
 
 The arrival of so large a number of wounded 
 necessitated additional hospital accommodation, 
 which was immediately provided by the Western 
 Sanitary Commission. 
 
 On the 1st of May, 1862, there were fifteen 
 military hospitals in and near St. Louis, afford- 
 ing accommodation for six thousand patients. Up 
 to that date the number of patients admitted had 
 been nearly twenty thousand, of whom about 
 seven per cent, had died. Four floating hospitals, 
 regularly employed for the transportation of the 
 sick and wounded, had been fitted up. They were 
 capable of transporting two thousand sick and 
 wounded men, and were provided with every re- 
 quisite for hospital service. They saved hundreds 
 of lives by furnishing prompt relief and speedy 
 transportation to well-ordered hospitals. 
 
 Frequent inspection of the hospitals in St. 
 Louis and the Department of the Mississippi con- 
 firmed the members of the Western Sanitary 
 Commission in the belief that not sufficient space 
 
234 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 and air was allowed to each patient, especially in 
 severe cases. A letter setting forth the facts, and 
 submitting actual measurements, was written by 
 Dr. Eliot to Surgeon-General Hammond. It was 
 signed by the remaining members of the Commis- 
 sion and forwarded, and in hospitals afterwards 
 established a " sufficient and specified number of 
 cubic feet of air was allowed to each bed." 
 
 In the spring of 1862 the Mississippi Naval 
 Squadron was actively engaged on that river. 
 On the 4th of May occurred a naval battle at 
 Fort Pillow, which was later evacuated by the 
 enemy. The Confederate steamer Red Rover was 
 captured by the Union forces, and Captain Wise 
 of the gunboat flotilla proposed that it be fitted 
 up by the Sanitary Commission as a floating hos- 
 pital for the Mississippi Naval Squadron, towards 
 which expense he would contribute. This was 
 done at a cost of thirty-five hundred dollars to 
 the Commission, and this hospital boat and the 
 entire squadron were kept generously supplied 
 with stores by them during the year. 
 
 By a great naval victory on the 4th of June, 
 1862, Memphis was captured, and the Mississippi 
 opened as far as Vicksburg. This extended the 
 field of action of the Western Sanitary Commis- 
 sion. For the sick and wounded of the naval 
 squadron, general hospitals were immediately 
 established at Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee, 
 and at Helena, Arkansas. 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 236 
 
 The capture of Memphis was followed by the 
 encampment of General Curtis and the Army of 
 the Southwest at Helena, Arkansas. It was an 
 important military point of great practical and 
 strategic value, but the location among the bot- 
 tom lands and cypress swamps of the Mississippi 
 was malarial and unhealthy. The regimental hos- 
 pitals and five churches were all filled with sick 
 soldiers. Mr. Plattenberg, who had followed the 
 army through Arkansas, over a route of eight 
 hundred miles, opened a depot at Helena, from 
 which he liberally distributed the large supplies 
 of sanitary stores sent by the Western Sanitary 
 Commission. 
 
 In September, 1862, when General Schofield 
 took command of the Army of the Frontier beyond 
 Springfield, Missouri, he requested the Western 
 Sanitary Commission to send large quantities of 
 supplies to the army at that point, and also sug- 
 gested that an agent be employed by the Com- 
 mission, to be located with his army, in order to 
 insure prompt distribution of goods to the post 
 and regimental hospitals of the Southwest. Both 
 of these requests were complied with, and Rev. 
 Mr. Newell was immediately appointed as agent. 
 His services were soon needed. In December, 
 1862, at the battle of Prairie Grove, near Fayette- 
 ville, in northern Arkansas, the rebels were de- 
 feated, but the loss on both sides, in killed and 
 wounded, was very large. Mr. Newell immedi- 
 
236 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 ately proceeded with two ambulances and a large 
 quantity of stores to Fayetteville, and turned over 
 everything he had to the surgeon in charge. Then 
 he himself went to work to do anything and every- 
 thing required. 
 
 These continued drafts upon the resources of 
 the Western Sanitary Commission left a depleted 
 treasury, and it became necessary to raise more 
 funds. It was decided that Dr. Eliot should visit 
 several of the Eastern cities, give an account of 
 the work done by the Commission, set forth its 
 present needs, and solicit contributions in money 
 or hospital supplies. 
 
 In December, 1862, he started for Boston, and 
 on the 30th of that month issued an appeal 
 or statement in which he said : " The demands 
 at the West are at present very urgent and our 
 treasury is very low. The armies of Missouri and 
 Arkansas, numbering seventy-five thousand men, 
 depend entirely upon us for all sanitary supplies. 
 They are engaged in hard service, and are sub- 
 ject to great exposure, so that large supplies are 
 needed for their use. In the hospitals of St. Louis 
 district there are five thousand beds, with the 
 prospect of increase rather than diminution. . . . 
 The gunboat fleet on the Mississippi now num- 
 bers thirty-jive boats, to each of which hospital 
 stores are supplied ; as likewise to the large float- 
 ing hospital the Red Rover, and the naval hospi- 
 tal at Cairo. . . . The floating hospital D. A. 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 237 
 
 January is still continued in active service. . . . 
 The armies of Tennessee and Mississippi are also 
 partially provided for as to the wants of their sick 
 and wounded. . . . The demand on us is greater 
 than it ever was before. We have agents with each 
 of the three great armies, and they all need liberal 
 supplies, besides the constant home demand." 
 
 In two of the Boston churches Dr. Eliot made 
 an appeal on behalf of the Commission, and as an 
 immediate result received two thousand dollars, 
 which he immediately forwarded to St. Louis. He 
 also delivered in the same city an address em- 
 bodying a statement of the financial condition, 
 recent distributions, and probable wants of the 
 Western Sanitary Commission. On his return 
 Dr. Eliot stated, at a meeting of the Commission, 
 that in Boston an organization to collect funds 
 had been formed, consisting of Messrs. James 
 M. Barnard, J. M. Forbes, R. C. Greenleaf, and 
 others, and that probably they would succeed 
 in raising ten or fifteen thousand dollars. The 
 results were even better than he anticipated, as 
 within the next few months these gentlemen 
 secured, " for sanitary purposes in the Western 
 armies," subscriptions which, with other sums 
 forwarded, amounted to over fifty thousand dol- 
 lars. In the list of donors appear many well- 
 known names. Dr. Eliot had said : " Let the rich 
 give of their abundance. Let the poor spare all 
 they can." This injunction was certainly obeyed. 
 
238 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 The subscriptions ranged from one dollar to one 
 thousand. 
 
 Aside from this subscription list there were 
 many separate contributions from this section 
 of the country. Private letters tell of donations 
 sent directly to St. Louis. The Boston Stock 
 Exchange, in reply to a note from Dr. Eliot, for- 
 warded a thousand dollars. The venerable Dr. 
 Walker, ex-president of Harvard University, sent 
 fifty dollars. Some little girls in Newton Corner, 
 Massachusetts, held a fair and brought the pro- 
 ceeds to Mrs. Thomas Lamb, Dr. Eliot's sister, 
 to purchase mosquito netting and cologne for the 
 Western soldiers. Sixteen small boys from a school 
 at Jamaica Plain sent various sanitary stores, and 
 in forwarding a list of their names and contribu- 
 tions wrote at the bottom of the sheet : " Please, 
 Dr. Eliot, write us a letter." Sixty-eight pairs of 
 knit socks for the soldiers came from the good 
 women of Plymouth, Massachusetts. 
 
 Mrs. Lamb, Dr. Eliot's sister, who lived in 
 Boston, had in the beginning of the war " set 
 apart a room in her house as the Missouri Room, 
 and letting all her friends know of this convenient 
 method of sending goods to St. Louis as fast as 
 boxes could be filled, she received and forwarded 
 goods to the value of seventeen thousand dollars, 
 and in cash nearly as much more." Through her 
 came many personal contributions. 
 
 Dr. Eliot went to New York, and there saw 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 239 
 
 Mr. James Eoosevelt and other generous and 
 patriotic citizens. Mr. Roosevelt, a year previ- 
 ously, had opened a dollar subscription for the 
 floating hospitals. 
 
 In accordance with the advice of Colonel Wood, 
 Assistant Surgeon-General and Medical Director 
 of the Western forces, Dr. Eliot included Wash- 
 ington in his tour, to ask from the Secretary of 
 War, Edwin M. Stanton, recognition of the West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission. On his arrival in that 
 city he called on General Halleck, and explained 
 to him the object of his visit, and then, in com- 
 pany with the General, visited the Secretary of 
 War, to whom the situation and wishes of the 
 Commission were made known. Secretary Stanton 
 expressed his entire approval of the separate or- 
 ganization of the Western Sanitary Commission, 
 which, in a special order, he renewed and con- 
 firmed. We append a copy of the document : — 
 
 oedek of the secretaby op wab. 
 
 War Department, Adjt.-General's Office, 
 Washington, D. C, December 16, 1862. 
 Special Order No. 397. 
 
 Special Order 159, from the Headquarters of the Western 
 Department (St. Louis, September 10, 1861), by authority 
 of Major-General Fremont, establishing a Sanitary Commis- 
 sion (Western), is hereby approved, and continued, with the 
 privilege to said Commission of extending its labors in the 
 camps and hospitals of any of the Western armies, under 
 the direction of Assistant Surgeon-General, Colonel R. G. 
 Wood, or the senior medical officer of the Medical Depart- 
 ment. 
 
240 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 f 
 The Commission will consist of the original members ap- 
 pointed, — Jas. E. Yeatman, C. S. Greeley, J. B. Johnson, 
 George Partridge, and W. G. Eliot. 
 By order of 
 
 E. M. Stanton-, 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 Late in January of this year, Mr. Yeatman, in 
 response to the request of the Boston committee, 
 went to that city, and completed in New England, 
 on a more extensive tour, the work of soliciting 
 funds for the Western Sanitary Commission, 
 which Dr. Eliot had begun. To Dr. Eliot he wrote 
 from Boston : " The kind reception which I have 
 met with has been overwhelming, for which I 
 have to thank you. I find to know or to be a 
 friend of Dr. Eliot is the best of passports, both 
 to the hearts as well as pockets of the good peo- 
 ple of Boston. . . . All say that when we need 
 more they will freely give. Several stated they 
 were willing then to double their subscriptions 
 if I said so ; but as these were large givers, I 
 thought it best to defer having them do so until 
 another general appeal should be made." 
 
 This response from New England to the ap- 
 peal of the Western Sanitary Commission proves 
 how superficial are sectional differences, and how 
 strong the bond of a common nationality. The 
 ideal of perfect union knows no north, no south, 
 no east nor west, but one people of a great Re- 
 public. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION (continued) 
 
 At the close of the year 1862, the almost im- 
 pregnable stronghold of Vicksburg and Port 
 Hudson below, alone obstructed the free passage 
 of the Mississippi, and gave the rebels means 
 of communication with the southwestern States. 
 Against this objective point Grant had planned 
 concerted action between himself and Sherman. 
 The capture of Holly Springs, cutting off Grant's 
 communications and supplies, prevented his co- 
 operation, and the task essayed by Sherman 
 alone was impossible of attainment, as proved by 
 the issue of the event. Encamped on low and 
 swampy ground, his forces in vain attempted to 
 scale the fortified bluffs north of Vicksburg, 
 impregnable by reason of their natural advan- 
 tages of position and their artificial defenses. 
 After several days of siege, and the loss of nearly 
 two thousand men killed and wounded, Sherman 
 recognized the fruitlessness of his undertaking, 
 which was abandoned. Immediately afterwards, 
 at his suggestion, Arkansas Post was attacked 
 and taken by the Union forces. These engage- 
 ments occurred in the midst of a very severe 
 
242 WILLIAM GREENLEAE ELIOT 
 
 winter, which greatly added to the suffering of 
 the sick and wounded, for whose transportation 
 to St. Louis and Memphis additional hospital 
 steamers were fitted up by the Western Sanitary 
 Commission, and increased hospital accommoda- 
 tion provided in each of the two cities for the 
 large influx of patients. From the camps of 
 Tennessee and Arkansas there were also sent to 
 St. Louis large numbers of soldiers, whose ill- 
 ness was largely the result of the severe winter 
 weather. 
 
 The siege of Vicksburg was later continued 
 under Grant. During February and March the 
 army were encamped in the half-submerged lands 
 of the Mississippi, attempting titanic feats of 
 engineering among tortuous bayous and streams. 
 Eains were incessant, the camps were flooded, 
 and for a time there was much sickness. Mr. 
 Yeatman, the faithful and indefatigable presi- 
 dent of the Commission, went down the Missis- 
 sippi on the 1st of March to make a personal 
 inspection and ascertain the needs of Grant's 
 army. He found the health of the troops im- 
 proving. Symptoms of scurvy were appearing 
 as a result of the lack of vegetable diet, and the 
 Commission sent large supplies. Mr. Platten- 
 berg, their agent, also joined General Grant's 
 army, and established his headquarters near 
 Vicksburg. 
 
 Mr. Yeatman was much impressed with the 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 243 
 
 interest taken by Grant and Sherman in the 
 health and well-being of their troops. General 
 Grant was " determined to have provision made 
 for the sick equal to any contingency that might 
 arise," and General Sherman " went through the 
 camp on foot, giving particular directions in re- 
 gard to sanitary regulations," and " ascertaining 
 personally the wants of the soldiers." 
 
 After a gradual process of elimination, Grant 
 had learned what was impracticable and what 
 was possible in the capture of Vicksburg, and, 
 taking a splendid initiative, crossed the Missis- 
 sippi below Vicksburg, and attacked it in the 
 rear. This movement, as is well known, resulted 
 eventually in the capture of Vicksburg, yet not 
 without great loss of life. In two unsuccessful 
 attempts, on the 19th and 22d of May, to 
 storm the rebel works, forty-five hundred of our 
 soldiers were wounded. There was an imme- 
 diate and unusual demand for medical and sani- 
 tary stores, and the supply became temporarily 
 exhausted. An incident occurring at this time, 
 as related by the surgeon of an Illinois regi- 
 ment, illustrates the advantages during a time of 
 war of an added organization like the Western 
 Sanitary Commission, unrestricted by necessarily 
 rigid military rules. Surgeon Rex thus wrote to 
 the secretary of the Commission : " I vividly re- 
 member the last twenty-second day of May, after 
 the charge upon the fortifications of Vicksburg. 
 
244 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Our division (General Carr's) had about four 
 hundred badly wounded men brought into the 
 division hospital on that day. We had been cut 
 off from our base of supplies for over two weeks, 
 had fought three successful battles, and had en- 
 tirely exhausted all our medical and hospital 
 stores. Our men were brought from the battle- 
 field with their winter clothing on, and in many 
 cases their clothing and woolen blankets were 
 saturated with blood and covered with fly-blows, 
 and we had no change to give them. We heard 
 that communication was opened with Chickasaw 
 Landing, twelve miles distant, and that a United 
 States government boat was there with supplies. 
 At once four wagons were sent thither, with a 
 request from the officer to send us the supplies 
 that were so urgently needed, and the neces- 
 sary papers could be executed afterwards. The 
 wagons returned empty, and the men were told 
 that nothing would be issued, unless the papers 
 had gone through all the proper channels, and 
 were tied with red tape, which would require 
 several days to accomplish. 
 
 " One of the teamsters remarked to me that 
 he saw the boat of the Western Sanitary Com- 
 mission coming up the Yazoo River as they were 
 leaving. Our wagons were sent back, and our 
 situation made known to that noble-hearted gen- 
 tleman, Mr. A. W. Plattenberg, agent of the 
 Sanitary (Western) Commission, who at once 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 245 
 
 loaded them with everything necessary for the 
 comfort and health of our wounded soldiers, and 
 in a few hours a great change was seen in the 
 hospital. 
 
 " The clothing was all changed, good beds 
 were provided, nutritious food and proper stimu- 
 lants prepared ; and, but for this timely aid from 
 your Commission, it is probable many of these 
 poor soldiers would have died. This is only one 
 instance. I could cite many others of a similar 
 character if time would permit." 
 
 On the 26th of May Mr. Yeatman went to 
 Vicksburg, accompanied by a corps of surgeons 
 and nurses, and in charge of a steamer loaded 
 with sanitary supplies to the amount of two hun- 
 dred and fifty tons, besides cots and mattresses 
 for a thousand men. When he reached his des- 
 tination, he found the sanitary stores there en- 
 tirely exhausted, so great had been the demand. 
 During the following month of June 114,697 
 articles were sent to Grant's army from the West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1863, the Union army 
 entered Vicksburg. As a result of the fall of 
 this great stronghold, five days later, on the 9th, 
 Port Hudson surrendered to General Banks, and 
 an unobstructed Mississippi lay open to commerce 
 on its rightful pathway to the Gulf. 
 
 On the west of the great river Arkansas and 
 Texas were still claimed by the Confederacy. To 
 
246 WILLIAM GBEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 secure possession of these two States General 
 Steele was operating in the former and General 
 Banks in the latter, and both of these generals 
 depended upon the Western Sanitary Commission 
 for sanitary and medical supplies for their sick 
 and wounded. Under date of August 21, 1863, 
 Dr. Eliot wrote to friends in Boston : " We have 
 the whole army west of the Mississippi to see to, 
 and a large part of General Grant's and the gun- 
 boats, and the summer sickness is daily becom- 
 ing worse. At Helena, where such grand fight- 
 ing was done on the 4th of July, there are two 
 thousand sick left by armies moving forward. 
 General Steele writes that he never needed our 
 services more than now ; and from every direc- 
 tion the claims come in upon us. We are making 
 very large shipments daily, and are this week 
 under the necessity of taking a large additional 
 storeroom for our bulky stores." 
 
 Great was the difficulty of transportation 
 through a region devoid of railroad facilities. 
 In the record book of the Western Sanitary 
 Commission, under date of October 16, 1863, 
 appears the following entry : " Mr. Waterman, 
 employed as agent in July, went with a large 
 supply of sanitary stores to the army of Briga- 
 dier-General Davidson (then at Bloomfield, Mis- 
 souri) by way of Cape Girardeau. (This was in 
 August.) Finding difficulty of transportation, he 
 took one half of his supplies in wagons. On the 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 247 
 
 way the train was attacked by guerrillas, and 
 nearly all destroyed, and twelve soldiers and 
 teamsters killed. Four of the wagons containing 
 sanitary stores were burned, but two escaped 
 destruction. Mr. Waterman was a few miles in 
 the rear, but came up after the guerrillas left 
 and extinguished the fire, and saved the two 
 wagons with their contents. With these he went 
 to Bloomfield and distributed goods to the sick 
 left there by General Davidson, who had gone 
 to Little Rock with the army (under General 
 Steele)." Mr. Waterman returned to Cape Girar- 
 deau and went to Helena with the remainder of 
 his goods ; thence to Clarendon and DuvalPs 
 Bluff, where he was taken dangerously sick, and 
 turned over his goods to the surgeon in charge 
 and returned home. 
 
 Another agent, Mr. Wyeth, was appointed by 
 the Western Sanitary Commission. He followed 
 General Steele's army, with sanitary stores. 
 Little Rock was soon taken and became the 
 headquarters of the Army of Arkansas. The sick 
 were removed and provided for there, and in 
 that city Mr. Wyeth immediately established his 
 agency, receiving and distributing regular ship- 
 ments of supplies from St. Louis. The medical 
 director at Little Rock wrote to Mr. Yeatman, 
 under date of September 30, 1863 : " Your 
 Commission is doing an inconceivable amount 
 of good for our sick soldiers." 
 
248 WILLIAM GB.EENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 In the summer and autumn of this year, 1863, 
 large shipments of goods were sent to the 
 colored regiments. Mr. Yeatman wrote, in answer 
 to inquiry : " We care for the sick and wounded 
 colored soldiers just as we do for the white. 
 We have supplied a number of regiments. . . . 
 The accounts we have of them entitle them to 
 our confidence." During the winter of this same 
 year a very large shipment of sanitary goods was 
 also sent to the army of General Banks on the 
 Red River. 
 
 The field of operations of the Western Sani- 
 tary Commission was extended eastward soon 
 after the fall of Vicksburg. Agencies were es- 
 tablished at various points, such as Nashville and 
 later Chattanooga, for the relief of the Division 
 of the Mississippi. To General Sherman's army, 
 during the whole of the year 1864, very large 
 quantities of stores were sent, " all that could be 
 shipped." From May 1 to November 1, 1864, 
 nearly half a million articles, amounting in the 
 aggregate to hundreds of tons, were sent to this 
 army. In a letter of General Sherman to the pre- 
 sident of the Commission, appeared the follow- 
 ing acknowledgment of the good accomplished 
 through their efforts : " I acknowledge fully 
 that your Commission has done a world of good, 
 and has enacted charity in that quiet and unos- 
 tentatious manner that must command the love 
 of all." 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 249 
 
 In the early fall of 1864, the Western Sani- 
 tary Commission was very desirous of sending 
 forward a large supply of sanitary articles to the 
 Union prisoners at Andersonville. It was hoped 
 that this might be done either with the consent 
 of the Confederate authorities or by the capture 
 of the place. The president of the Commission 
 was instructed to write to General Sherman in 
 regard to the shipment of the stores, and also to 
 offer him on behalf of the Commission five or 
 ten thousand dollars to be expended at his dis- 
 cretion for the benefit of the thousands of Union 
 soldiers confined within the stockade as prison- 
 ers of war, and suffering extreme privation. In 
 reply to Mr. Yeatman, General Sherman thus ex- 
 pressed himself : " The condition of the prison- 
 ers at Andersonville has always been present to 
 my mind, and could I have released them, I 
 would have felt more real satisfaction than to 
 have won another battle. ... I have frequent 
 messages from them, and have sent word to the 
 men to be of good cheer, that the day of their 
 deliverance is approaching ; but I now think that 
 Jefferson Davis is removing them. ... I shall 
 have occasion to write to General Hood, and 
 will offer to send down some fifty or sixty tons 
 of clothing and other necessaries, but I doubt if 
 he will consent. Should he assent, however, I 
 will telegraph you to send me such articles as we 
 do not have." 
 
250 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Mr. Yeatman later received a telegram from 
 General Sherman, requesting that the articles be 
 sent forward. This was done, and they were 
 packed in boxes marked " Major-General Sher- 
 man, For the Andersonville prisoners." They 
 reached the front, but it was impossible for Gen- 
 eral Sherman to carry out his kind intentions, 
 and the boxes were reshipped to the Commis- 
 sion. In the spring of 1865 the Andersonville 
 prisoners were released, and reached Vicksburg 
 on their way to the North to be discharged. The 
 Western Sanitary Commission immediately for- 
 warded to that place the boxes of supplies with 
 the original marks upon them. When the men 
 saw the boxes marked as we have described, 
 they were much moved, and expressed pleasure 
 that their general, " Old Billy," had not forgot- 
 ten them. When these facts were communicated 
 to General Sherman in a letter from Mr. Yeat- 
 man, the General sent a noble reply, from which 
 extracts are given. He wrote : " I do not think 
 I ever set my heart so strongly on any one thing 
 as I did in attempting to rescue those prisoners, 
 and I had almost feared that instead of doing 
 them good I had actually done harm, for they 
 were changed from place to place to avoid me, 
 and I could not with infantry overtake rail- 
 roads. 
 
 " I confess without shame that I am tired and 
 sick of the war. Its glory is all moonshine. 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 251 
 
 Even success, the most brilliant, is over dead and 
 mangled bodies, the anguish and lamentations 
 of distant families, appealing to me for missing 
 sons, husbands, and fathers. . . . 
 
 " It is only those who have not heard a 
 shot, nor heard the shrieks and groans of the 
 wounded and lacerated (friend or foe), that cry 
 aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more deso- 
 lation." This is truly a vivid picture of the re- 
 verse side of war. 
 
 The National Cemetery at Andersonville, 
 where are buried thousands of the Union dead, 
 tells more eloquently than words the sad story 
 of suffering, starvation, and death within the 
 Confederate stockade. It is a gruesome tale, the 
 record of terrible mental and bodily suffering, 
 and of breaking hearts in many a home in the 
 North. Would that in the South there had been 
 a sanitary commission to assert the claims of 
 humanity ! 
 
 Quite early in the Civil War there became 
 manifest the need of homes for discharged and 
 furloughed soldiers returning to their families. 
 A soldiers' home was established in St. Louis 
 by the Western Sanitary Commission in March, 
 1862. During the first year of its existence over 
 twelve thousand soldiers were entertained there 
 with food and lodging, and during the second 
 year over eight thousand, making a total of 
 nearly twenty-one thousand men. The majority 
 
252 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 were invalids partially restored to health, and 
 many of them required assistance in securing 
 their pay and bounty, so that a committee was 
 early appointed by the Commission for that pur- 
 pose. Others who had money needed protec- 
 tion from the sharpers that infest every large 
 city. In no department of their work was a 
 greater amount of good accomplished at less ex- 
 pense by the Western Sanitary Commission than 
 in the soldiers' homes. Rations and fuel were 
 supplied to enlisted men by the government, the 
 Commission fitting up the homes and supplying 
 stores which were largely donated. 
 
 Soldiers' homes were established in 1863, at 
 Memphis, Tennessee, and Columbus, Kentucky, 
 and later at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Helena 
 and Duvall's Bluff in Arkansas, at all of which 
 places troops were concentrated. Up to Decem- 
 ber 31, 1865, 421,216 enlisted soldiers had been 
 entertained at these six homes, including the one 
 at St. Louis. At that period all of the homes 
 had been closed save the last mentioned, which 
 was still entertaining a monthly average of two 
 thousand guests. Confederate soldiers, as statis- 
 tics show, were not excluded, and it was a fre- 
 quent sight to see colored and white Union soldiers 
 and the Confederate eating at the same table. 
 
 The work of the Western Sanitary Commis- 
 sion was never confined to the army, or to the 
 individual soldier, but included every form of 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 253 
 
 suffering and need incident to the Civil War. In 
 the Border States, and especially Missouri, seces- 
 sionists were strong and aggressive, murder was 
 not infrequent, and the Union refugees were of- 
 ten obliged to flee for their lives. During the 
 fall and winter of 1861-62 many of these refu- 
 gees from the interior and southwestern parts of 
 Missouri were driven from their homes by the 
 rebels, and reached St. Louis in a very destitute 
 condition. The Western Sanitary Commission 
 immediately responded to the need. A refugee 
 home on Elm Street was opened for the most 
 helpless refugees, and assistance given to others. 
 Mr. John Cavender, an old and respected citi- 
 zen, and one of the early members of Dr. Eliot's 
 church, devoted his entire time to the care of 
 these unfortunate people. The Commission is- 
 sued an appeal, and as a result $3800 in money 
 was contributed by loyal citizens of St. Louis, 
 and about the same amount in clothing. As this 
 was not sufficient for the relief of the large num- 
 bers of persons constantly arriving in St. Louis 
 and requiring aid, on the 4th of December, 1861, 
 General Halleck issued his celebrated Order Num- 
 ber 13. This was a drastic measure, but its stern 
 justice was authorized by an exigency of war. 
 
 The following extracts from this Order give 
 an accurate idea of the condition of Missouri at 
 this time : " . . . The rebel forces in the south- 
 western counties of this State have robbed and 
 
254 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 plundered the peaceful non-combatant inhabit- 
 ants, taking from them their clothing and means 
 of subsistence. Men, women, and children have 
 alike been stripped and plundered. Thousands 
 of such persons are finding their way to this 
 city, barefooted, half-clad, and in a destitute, 
 starving condition. Humanity and justice require 
 that these sufferings should be relieved. . . . 
 There are in our city, and in other places within 
 our lines, numerous wealthy secessionists who 
 render aid, assistance, and encouragement to those 
 who commit these outrages. They do not them- 
 selves rob and plunder, but they abet and coun- 
 tenance these acts in others. ... It is therefore 
 ordered and directed that the Provost Marshals 
 immediately inquire into the condition of the per- 
 sons so driven from their homes, and that mea- 
 sures be taken to quarter them in the houses, and 
 feed and clothe them at the expense of avowed 
 secessionists and of those who are found guilty 
 of giving aid, assistance, and encouragement to 
 the enemy." 
 
 There is no evidence that any refugees were 
 actually " quartered" in secessionists' homes. A 
 statement was published that the execution of 
 this part of the order had been turned over to 
 the Western Sanitary Commission, and this called 
 forth a rejoinder from Dr. Eliot, who wrote : 
 " The care of the refugees from southwest Mis- 
 souri has been intrusted to this Committee, and 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 255 
 
 we have no doubt will be faithfully and kindly 
 exercised. But as to confiscations and the like, 
 the ' Board of Assessors ' and the Provost Mar- 
 shal will be, as we suppose, the sole and sufficient 
 actors, nor have we yet heard of any houses or 
 other property as having been taken for the 
 refugees or any other uses." 
 
 On December 12, 1861, General Order Num- 
 ber 24 was issued by General Halleck. This au- 
 thorized, for the benefit of the refugees, the levy- 
 ing on men " known to be hostile to the Union " 
 of a contribution of $10,000 in clothing, provi- 
 sions, and quarters, or money in lieu thereof. By 
 this assessment the sum of $15,000 was raised 
 and turned over to the Western Sanitary Com- 
 mission for the benefit of the refugees. For two 
 years Mr. Cavender, with the advice and counsel 
 of the members of the Commission, continued, 
 for these unfortunate people, a work which was 
 terminated only by his illness and death in the 
 winter of 1863. From that period until Septem- 
 ber of the same year, there seemed to be little 
 need for further aid. 
 
 In August, 1863, there began another move- 
 ment of refugees towards St. Louis. They came 
 from a larger area than before, from Arkansas, 
 Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and 
 Texas. They were brought up the river on gov- 
 ernment steamers. The majority were women, 
 with poorly clad, puny little children. Their 
 
256 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 husbands had been killed in the war, murdered 
 by guerrillas, or conscripted into the rebel army, 
 which was largely recruited from the " poor white 
 trash " of the South. Others, lying out in the 
 woods to avoid conscription, had died from the 
 effects of exposure. The following typical account 
 of the persecution to which Union families were 
 exposed in certain sections of the country is re- 
 lated as one instance among thousands of paral- 
 lel cases, by the secretary of the Western Sani- 
 tary Commission. A mother with four little 
 children arrived at the refugee home from Ar- 
 kansas on her way to friends in Kentucky. Her 
 husband had been a prosperous farmer, owning 
 a well-stocked farm. As he was known to be a 
 Union man, he was often forced to he out in the 
 woods for weeks at a time to escape being con- 
 scripted into the rebel army or murdered. From 
 time to time the guerrillas came to his house, 
 seizing horses, cattle, corn, and even bed clothing 
 from the beds, and the family apparel. At last 
 they caught him while on a visit to his family, 
 called him out into his dooryard, told him he 
 
 was a traitor to the South, tore him away 
 
 with violent hands from his weeping wife and 
 children, led hfm a short distance down the road, 
 and shot him. 
 
 They then returned and told the widow she 
 must go to Pilot Knob, or they would burn her 
 house over her head. She yoked up the last ox 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 257 
 
 team, put her bedding and children in the wagon, 
 and started for Pilot Knob, a distance of two 
 hundred miles, traveling at the rate of fifteen 
 miles a day. When she had been nearly a week 
 on the road, and her stock of provisions was 
 almost exhausted, she met a party of guerrillas. 
 Regardless of her entreaties, they unhitched the 
 yoke of steers from the old wagon, took her 
 clothing and provisions, and left her in the road 
 with her little children crying around her. The 
 poor woman and her children reached Pilot Knob, 
 footsore and weary. From there they were sent 
 to St. Louis by rail, and were kindly received at 
 the refugee home, and sent to friends in Ken- 
 tucky, where the mother and children found a 
 welcome in her father's home. 
 
 As there had been no place for these poor 
 refugee women and children to go when this 
 second movement began, another refugee home 
 was immediately opened by the Western Sanitary 
 Commission at 39 Walnut Street. This was main- 
 tained for a year, from September, 1863, to Sep- 
 tember, 1864, and during this period received 
 and provided for 2164 refugees. A refugee home, 
 which sheltered at different times several thou- 
 sand inmates, was also opened at Vicksburg. 
 Wherever refugees assembled in any number, they 
 were placed by the government under the special 
 care of the army chaplains, and rations were 
 issued to those unable to work. To many of 
 
258 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 these chaplains the Western Sanitary Commission 
 sent stores for distribution. 
 
 To Pilot Knob, where there were always large 
 numbers of these people, ranging from a thou- 
 sand to fifteen hundred, came in October, 1864, 
 the rebel general Sterling Price. The post was 
 captured, and hundreds of refugees, who had 
 assisted in the defense of the place, fled for their 
 lives, leaving their families behind them. On one 
 day sixty men came to St. Louis with their Ger- 
 man pastor, many of them shoeless, hatless, and 
 half clad. At the same time there arrived many 
 women and children. It again became necessary 
 for the third and last time to start a refugee home 
 in St. Louis. The Western Sanitary Commission 
 addressed a communication to the government, 
 and secured the Lawson Hospital, which they 
 entirely furnished and opened in November, 
 1864. This was both a refugee and freedman's 
 home, and until July, 1865, when it was finally 
 closed, it gave shelter, food, medical care, and in- 
 struction to several thousand refugees and freed 
 people, who occupied separate portions of the 
 building. The women were taught cooking, house 
 and laundry work, and paid small wage's. The 
 number of white refugees was about double that 
 of the blacks, and in many cases they were found 
 to be inferior in capability to the recently eman- 
 cipated negroes, having that scorn of work which 
 is engendered by the existence of slavery as a 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 259 
 
 system, and being very ignorant. Not more than 
 one tenth of the white refugees who applied to 
 the Commission for aid were able to read and 
 write. 
 
 In addition to the shelter afforded to the refu- 
 gees through the homes provided by the Com- 
 mission, other assistance was given them, both 
 collectively and individually. Temporary aid was 
 supplemented by efforts tending to a permanent 
 improvement of their condition. As in the case 
 of the freedmen, schools were opened by the 
 Western Sanitary Commission for the education 
 of the children of refugees, with a view to rescu- 
 ing them from probable vagrancy, and making 
 them useful members of society. This was in 
 accordance with Dr. Eliot's cherished conviction 
 that popular education should be the corner-stone 
 of the reconstructed republic. 
 
 In a letter addressed to General 0. 0. Howard 
 of the Freedman's Bureau, under date of August 
 10, 1865, Mr. Yeatman, president of the Com- 
 mission, wrote : — 
 
 " This Gommission, in order to aid government and lighten 
 some of the burdens of the military commanders, especially 
 in this military district, has rendered some assistance to the 
 white refugees. . . . Besides taking care of the refugees 
 in this cit}', it has sustained refugee homes at Vicksburg, 
 Natchez, and Helena. It has teachers employed at Vicks- 
 burg, St. Louis, and Holla. It has furnished clothing, books, 
 medicine, vegetables, garden seeds, garden implements, 
 farming utensils, and teachers to every point from which 
 
260 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 application was made for them. . . . The points embraced 
 in our work have been Natchez, Vicksburg, Helena, Little 
 Rock, Duvall's Bluff, Fort Smith, Fayetteville ; Ironton, 
 Cape Girardeau, Rolla, and Springfield, Missouri." 
 
 From a report of the Arkansas Relief Commis- 
 sion we learn that nearly all the suffering and 
 destitution among the refugees in Arkansas was 
 " the result of their being what is called Union 
 families." 
 
 In the fall of 1862, before the Emancipation 
 Proclamation went into effect, large numbers of 
 the so-called contrabands took refuge within our 
 lines, and it became a perplexing problem how 
 to dispose of them. At Helena three or four 
 thousand of these people had collected in the 
 summer of 1862, seeking refuge near the army. 
 They were established by General Washburn in 
 a place back of the town which became known 
 as Camp Ethiopia. Here they lived in cast-off 
 army tents, in caves, and in shelters of brush. 
 Others were crowded into wretched dwellings. 
 This was the best temporary provision that could 
 be made for them, but as winter approached their 
 suffering was extreme. The able-bodied men were 
 compelled to labor on the fortifications of the 
 town, to load and unload steamboats, and to per- 
 form all kinds of "fatigue duty." Nominally 
 they were paid ten dollars a month for their ser- 
 vices, as provided by congressional enactment; 
 but through the indifference of the military com- 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 261 
 
 manders succeeding General Curtis, their names 
 were frequently not enrolled, and they received 
 no compensation for months of toil. Often they 
 were seized by press-gangs, who patrolled the 
 streets to gather up contrabands for forced labor. 
 Under these conditions they were unable to pro- 
 vide for their families, who must be furnished 
 with government rations. At one time, contrary 
 to the Articles of War, they were driven by a 
 military order beyond our lines, and delivered up 
 to their rebel masters. Hundreds of these poor 
 people were ill, and the only hospital provided for 
 them would hardly suffice for twenty patients. 
 Early in January, 1863, Miss Maria R. Mann, a 
 philanthropic woman of superior ability, was sent 
 by the Western Sanitary Commission to Helena, 
 Arkansas, with a large supply of hospital and 
 other stores, to fit up a hospital for the colored 
 people and supply their most urgent needs. She 
 was assisted in her work by two of the army chap- 
 lains on detached service at Helena, and distress- 
 ing conditions were greatly ameliorated. She 
 received contributions of money and material 
 from friends in New England, and Dr. Eliot was 
 treasurer of a special fund for the same purpose, 
 also donated by people from that section. He 
 records the receipt of $980 from Miss Elizabeth 
 Peabody, for Miss Mann. 
 
 " During the month of October, 1863, the con- 
 dition of the (now) freed people again enlisted 
 
262 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the earnest consideration of the Western Sanitary 
 Commission," wrote their secretary, Rev. J. G. 
 Forman. The same state of things that had ex- 
 isted at Helena was reported as existing at many 
 other points between Columbus, Kentucky, and 
 Natchez, Mississippi. 
 
 At a meeting of the Board of the Commission 
 held November 2, 1863, Dr. Eliot " described 
 the suffering condition of the contrabands, and 
 negro troops of the Mississippi Valley," and sug- 
 gested that an agent be sent to New England to 
 solicit contributions of clothing and funds, and 
 that the agencies of the Commission be used for 
 distributing supplies to the needy freed people, 
 and exercising a general oversight and care over 
 them. He also advised that the Commission send 
 teachers to the South and establish schools, and 
 that General Schofield be asked to detail Chap- 
 lain H. D. Fisher to go to New England to solicit 
 funds for these purposes. 
 
 Four days later, on the 6th of November, a 
 letter was addressed by the Commission to the 
 President. His attention was called to the needs 
 of the freed people, and to the necessity of as- 
 sisting them before another winter set in. The 
 Commission offered, as an incidental part of its 
 work, to solicit contributions and extend relief to 
 them. The proposal was favorably regarded, and 
 the Secretary of War promised all the aid pos- 
 sible in the way of transportation and otherwise. 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 263 
 
 At the same time, with the cordial approval of 
 General Schofield, Chaplain H. D. Fisher was 
 sent to New England, under the direction of the 
 Commission, to solicit funds. As a result, cloth- 
 ing, shoes, and other articles, amounting in value 
 to $30,000, and $13,000 additional in money, 
 were obtained by a committee in Boston, from 
 that place and neighboring cities and towns. 
 
 In December, 1863, the president of the West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission made a visit to the lower 
 Mississippi to investigate the condition of the 
 freedmen. The information he thus obtained was 
 embodied in a long report of sixteen pages, of 
 which a brief abstract follows. Mr. Yeatman 
 found about forty thousand of these freed people 
 gathered in camps at different places between 
 Cairo and Natchez. Their condition was almost 
 uniformly wretched. In the cotton-growing re- 
 gion, on abandoned plantations, were discovered 
 about twenty colored men who had raised from 
 five to ten bales of cotton. The majority of their 
 race were working for white lessees at inadequate 
 wages, $5 a month for women, and $7 for men, 
 with wretched subsistence. When employed by 
 government quartermasters, the freedmen were 
 frequently not paid, and were overcharged for 
 goods. In Memphis large numbers had been 
 pressed into the government service at $10 a 
 month, when they might have earned elsewhere 
 two or three times that amount. " Besides the 
 
264 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 fact that men are thus pressed into service," 
 declared Mr. Yeatrnan, " thousands have been 
 employed for weeks and months who have never 
 received anything but promises to pay." It was 
 hardly matter for surprise that the negroes were 
 everywhere "greatly depressed at their condi- 
 tion." The only thing, we are told, that sustained 
 them, was their wonderful faith in Divine Provi- 
 dence. 
 
 When this report was submitted to the West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission, Mr. Yeatman was dele- 
 gated to visit Washington and present the matter 
 to the government. Mr. Yeatman also took with 
 him a series of printed " suggestions of organi- 
 zation for freed labor and the leasing of plan- 
 tations along the Mississippi River, " for the 
 consideration of the authorities at Washington. 
 Both the report and the suggestions were highly 
 approved, and Mr. Yeatman authorized to ac- 
 company Mr. Mellen, the special supervising 
 agent of the Treasury Department, to Vicksburg 
 to carry the plan into effect. 
 
 This new plan of labor required that the f reed- 
 man should receive from $12 to $25 per month 
 for his work in the cotton field, and provided 
 for the enforcement of the contract as to labor 
 and wages. The price of goods was regulated, 
 and arrangement was made for the establishment, 
 under a superintendent, of home farms for the 
 helpless and destitute, these latter to be sup- 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 265 
 
 ported by the income of a tax levied by the 
 government on cotton. Provision -was also made 
 for schools and teachers. To carry out this new 
 order of things commissioners of plantations, act- 
 ing under the Treasury Department, were to be 
 appointed. 
 
 This system at first met with some opposition 
 from the lessees, but was finally acquiesced in. 
 After the removal of the troops from some of the 
 districts the Secretary of War consented to give 
 the services of the Mounted Brigade to protect 
 the freed people on the plantations. 
 
 To obtain funds for the continued work of the 
 Western Sanitary Commission, it was decided in 
 the winter of 1863-64 to hold a Mississippi Val- 
 ley Sanitary Fair at St. Louis in the spring. In 
 March a pamphlet was issued by the Commission 
 containing a report of its past work and a state- 
 ment of that which remained to be done in the com- 
 ing year, for which $500,000 were required, since 
 the present resources were exhausted. Notice was 
 given of the coming fair to be held in May, of 
 which the Freedmen's and Union Refugees' De- 
 partment was to be (by " unanimous vote of the 
 Executive Committee of the Mississippi Valley 
 Sanitary Fair ") a special department. Dr. Eliot 
 and Mr. Yeatman "were appointed a Committee 
 to prepare an appeal to the friends of freedom 
 everywhere, soliciting sympathy and cooperation 
 in the success of this department." From this 
 
266 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 appeal, written by Dr. Eliot, extracts are sub- 
 joined for the information therein contained as to 
 the work then being accomplished for these two 
 classes of suffering people : " From the beginning 
 of the rebellion," asserted Dr. Eliot, " the West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission has devoted much time 
 and attention to the Union refugees, and has 
 done all in its power for their protection. . . . 
 Many thousands of this most unfortunate class 
 of citizens have been provided for. In this work 
 the Commission has acted partly as agents of the 
 government, and partly with funds entrusted to 
 it for such uses. It has always been much re- 
 stricted by want of means . . . but of those who 
 have succeeded in reaching the city none have 
 been left to suffer. 
 
 " Since the month of October, 1863, the "West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission has also acted as the 
 agents of relief to the freed people of the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley. It has received and distributed 
 goods and clothing to the amount of $40,000, 
 and is still prosecuting the work through its own 
 agents and those of the freedmen's aid associa- 
 tions of St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, New 
 York, and other cities. It has also labored with 
 success to ameliorate the condition of the freed- 
 men, by exposing the oppression, almost worse 
 than slavery, to which they were subjected by un- 
 merciful contractors and army sharks, with rea- 
 son to hope that a just system of work and wages 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 267 
 
 will soon be established in its place. If the freed 
 people are but treated with justice, generosity 
 will not long be needed. But for the current 
 year, during the transition period, there is enough 
 to do, and all the funds that the largest philan- 
 thropy can spare will find profitable employment. 
 In elevating two million of slaves to the condi- 
 tion of freedmen, all the zeal and liberality of a 
 Christian community will find room to work." 
 
 Notice was given that an additional appeal 
 would be issued in a few days. This appeared in 
 the form of a letter addressed to Dr. Eliot, and 
 dated Vicksburg, March 7, 1864. It was written 
 by Mr. Mann, a regular agent of the Commis- 
 sion, and contained a description of the condition 
 of the negroes who followed Sherman's army into 
 Vicksburg. 
 
 Mr. Mann wrote : — 
 
 " The return of Sherman's expedition had been antici- 
 pated by us all as sure to bring along a crowd of blacks, but 
 no one, I think, had formed an idea of the utter destitution, 
 the squalid misery in which they would come. All the way 
 from Meridian this black river flowed in the wake of the 
 army, increased by constant accessions, until sullen and slow 
 it wound its way into Vicksburg with 4500 souls. Following 
 through a country twice ravaged by a devouring host, they 
 had literally nothing left them for subsistence but the rem- 
 nants left by our troops. Foraging parties scoured the coun- 
 try on either hand to obtain supplies for the soldiers, but no 
 one brought these people food, and houses and barns pil- 
 laged and burnt left nothing for them save what the hungry 
 soldier could spare. . . . 
 
268 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 " The expedition returned here on the 3d inst. Just at 
 dusk the train of contrabands came in. Slowly and sadly 
 they dragged along through the streets. Mules and oxen 
 gaunt and famished, wagons loaded with children whose 
 weary, despairing look will haunt me, I believe, as long as 
 I live, with a mother or two in each trying to soothe the little 
 ones crying with hunger and fatigue, all clothed in the dirt- 
 colored homespun they always wear, torn to rags and tatters, 
 leaving them in many cases almost naked. . . . The little I 
 could do for these poor people that night I did. Anticipat- 
 ing a need, I had drawn on the commissary heavily for bread, 
 and had a large amount on hand. I had the ambulance of 
 the Western Sanitary Commission loaded with this bread, 
 and taking along half a dozen kind-hearted soldiers, we went 
 the whole length of this wagon train, and gave to each fam- 
 ily a loaf or two. . . . The eagerness with which they took 
 and ate it told how grateful it was to them. . . . That night 
 they lay on the levee in their wagons, and on the ground." 
 
 Mr. Mann relates how the following morning 
 "the authorities undertook to place this quon- 
 dam merchandise on board the boats that were 
 waiting to remove them to their future camps." 
 Many objected, and eluded the guards. The 
 camps were cheerless places, the only shelter be- 
 ing " a long shed open on all sides." This was 
 the only practicable temporary arrangement that 
 could be made at the time. Rations were fur- 
 nished by the government, and Mr. Mann dis- 
 tributed clothing furnished by the National 
 Freedmen's Relief Association of New York. 
 Gradually matters improved. Commenting on the 
 condition of the negroes at Pawpaw Island, Mr. 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 269 
 
 Mann wrote : " When I visited them in company 
 with Mr. Yeatman several weeks ago, indolence 
 was the rule and sickness very common ; the 
 other day being called over there on business I 
 saw that they were almost all at work, men and 
 women, in field and cabin, and almost all were 
 well." 
 
 The Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair was in 
 every respect a success. It was generously sup- 
 ported by the people of Missouri and other States. 
 The proceeds exceeded the sum asked and re- 
 quired for the work of the coming year by the 
 Western Sanitary Commission, amounting to over 
 half a million dollars. From the actual receipts 
 credited to the Eef ugees' and Freedmen's Depart- 
 ment, supplemented by donations of which the 
 disposal was left to the option of the Commission, 
 nearly $32,000 was obtained for this branch of 
 their work. The entire amount expended for 
 refugees and freedmen by that organization dur- 
 ing the war was over $72,000. In addition nearly 
 two hundred boxes of clothing and material were 
 received. Boston and the neighboring towns con- 
 tributed new material for clothing amounting in 
 value to $40,000. This latter donation was dis- 
 tributed to freedmen in camps along the Missis- 
 sippi in 1864. Clothing, hospital, and sanitary 
 stores for the use of refugees and freedmen were 
 sent to thirty or more different points, and the 
 entire estimated value of the supplies thus dis- 
 
270 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 tributed was $65,000, which, added to the cash 
 expenditures, made a total of nearly $138,000 
 used in this incidental work of the Western San- 
 itary Commission. 
 
 To provide for the colored orphans thus left 
 destitute during the war, in May, 1864, a build- 
 ing was purchased by the Western Sanitary Com- 
 mission, and fitted up as a freedmen's orphans' 
 home at a total cost of $12,000. To this insti- 
 tution, later known as the Colored Orphans' 
 Home, the Commission in 1870 donated the ad- 
 ditional sum of $7000. 
 
 As preliminary work in the education of the 
 children of refugees and freedmen before the 
 organization of the various freedmen's aid socie- 
 ties, the Western Sanitary Commission established 
 and maintained nine schools, and appointed 
 and paid sixteen women teachers. Ten thousand 
 school books were furnished. This educational 
 work was especially advocated and advised by 
 Dr. Eliot. 
 
 Under date of June 24, 1864, is an entry in 
 the record book of the Commission, wbich is in- 
 teresting, as showing the change involved in the 
 status of a race through its emancipation. The 
 extract follows : " The president of the Commis- 
 sion stated that an application had been made for 
 aid to the colored schools of St. Louis. In the 
 same connection it was also stated that a petition 
 had been made to the board of education of St. 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 271 
 
 Louis to appropriate towards the support of these 
 schools an amount equal to the tax on the pro- 
 perty of colored citizens for school purposes ; that 
 the petition was favorably received, and a dispo- 
 sition existed to grant the appropriation, but a 
 difficulty arose from the laws of the State making 
 it a criminal offense to teach this class of children, 
 the board not feeling itself at liberty to violate 
 in its organic capacity the state law ; but they 
 had decided to petition the legislature at its next 
 session to repeal all such laws, which no doubt 
 would be done. On the removal of this difficulty 
 the board would, without any doubt, make a suit- 
 able appropriation for the colored schools of St. 
 Louis. Until this can be done those schools must 
 be aided from other sources. 
 
 " On motion of Dr. Eliot it was voted to appro- 
 priate one hundred dollars per month for the 
 above purpose from funds given for this class of 
 charities." 
 
 A high school for the children of colored peo- 
 ple was, during the year 1864-65, carried on in 
 the basement of the Church of the Messiah, of 
 which Dr. Eliot was pastor. It was supported 
 from funds contributed by friends of Dr. Eliot 
 in Massachusetts. 
 
 In the winter of 1864-65 an Act creating a 
 Refugees' and Freedmen's National Bureau was 
 passed by Congress. The position of commis- 
 sioner of this bureau was offered to Mr. Yeatman, 
 
272 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 and declined. Major-General 0. O. Howard was 
 then appointed. At the close of this year, 1865, 
 there were also a number of freedmen's relief 
 associations engaged in the work of supplying 
 teachers and schools to the freed people of the 
 South, and the Western Sanitary Commission 
 withdrew from a labor, always incidental to its 
 primary object of relieving physical need. 
 
 The proceeds of the Mississippi Valley Sani- 
 tary Fair enabled the Western Sanitary Commis- 
 sion to widen the circle of its beneficence, and 
 accomplish many useful purposes. On motion, 
 and with the advice of Dr. Eliot, a building with 
 extensive grounds was purchased at Webster, Mis- 
 souri, for a soldiers' orphans' home. For this 
 property, and in the erection of additional build- 
 ings, $57,000 was expended, and later, $25,000 
 towards the endowment of this home was con- 
 tributed by the Commission. To the " War Re- 
 lief Fund," for the benefit of the families of sol- 
 diers throughout the North, 025,000 was given. 
 To the Ladies' Union Aid Society, which had 
 been an invaluable adjunct in the work of the 
 Western Sanitary Commission during the war, in 
 furnishing hospital and other stores, the sum of 
 $50,000 was donated, to be expended by them 
 in the continuance of their useful work. 
 
 In January, 1864, there appeared in the 
 " North American Review " an article on " The 
 Sanitary Commission," in which no mention was 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 273 
 
 made of the work of the Western Sanitary Com- 
 mission. This called forth a response from Dr. 
 Eliot, published in the same magazine, in April, 
 1864, and also as a pamphlet. In this article Dr. 
 Eliot gave an account of the origin of the West- 
 ern Commission and its methods. Referring to 
 the sources of their receipts and the mode of col- 
 lection, Dr. Eliot stated that their experience in 
 this respect was " remarkable, if not peculiar." 
 
 The Western Sanitary Commission, not wish- 
 ing to interfere with the plans of the United 
 States Commission, never adopted a regular sys- 
 tem of auxiliaries, but relied chiefly upon spon- 
 taneous contributions which came to them in re- 
 sponse to the notices and appeals, written by Dr. 
 Eliot, which were published in the papers from 
 time to time, about once in six months. Largely 
 through the influence of that ardent patriot, 
 Thomas Starr King, California, early in the war, 
 contributed $50,000. In January, 1863, $50,000, 
 as previously stated, was collected in Boston. In 
 January, 1864, $30,000 was subscribed in St. 
 Louis in one week. The Missouri Legislature 
 gave to the Commission $75,000, to be appro- 
 priated to the relief of Missouri soldiers, and 
 the St. Louis County Court contributed to the 
 Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair a farm which 
 sold for $40,000. The receipts of the fair added 
 over half a million to the funds of the Commis- 
 sion. 
 
274 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 When Dr. Eliot's article was written in the 
 spring of 1864, Massachusetts had already sent 
 $500,000 to the Western Sanitary Commission, 
 and Boston alone 0200,000. These contribu- 
 tions were later increased by money and goods 
 sent from Boston and vicinity for the refugees 
 and freedmen. Massachusetts and Missouri thus 
 led in the generosity of their offerings, all of 
 which came as an expression of confidence in the 
 work of the members of the Western Sanitary 
 Commission, by whom about four and a quarter 
 millions in money and goods was distributed dur- 
 ing the war period. Probably an equal amount 
 of money never accomplished more good. 
 
 Such were the changing conditions during the 
 Civil War in Missouri, that it would have been 
 impossible for a sanitary commission acting from 
 a distance to understand and direct such work as 
 was accomplished by the members of the West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission, who had long been 
 actively associated with the interests and institu- 
 tions of St. Louis, and understood the signs of 
 the times. They had been chosen for their un- 
 questioned loyalty, their efficiency and discretion. 
 Mr. Yeatman, a Southerner by birth and a slave- 
 holder by inheritance, had early revolted against 
 the system of slavery, yet appreciated the situ- 
 ation of those who had grown up where it was 
 a recognized social institution. He had at first 
 ranged himself with the Conditional Union party, 
 
THE WESTERN SANITARY COMMISSION 275 
 
 but was too loyal, too sensible, too just, to retain 
 tbat position. His experience of the evils of slav- 
 ery gave bim a special interest in tbe work for 
 tbe freedmen, in wbicb be was very active and 
 efficient. Too generous in bis impulses to acquire 
 great wealth, wben be had given all that be could 
 be regretted tbat be bad no more to spare. A 
 letter written by Dr. Eliot to bim in the summer 
 of 1886 is quoted as a deserved tribute to a 
 Christian gentleman. 
 
 Jas. E. Yeatman: 
 
 My very dear friend, — If I were called upon to name 
 the six most useful men in St. Louis since 1861 until now, I 
 should put you among them, and probably at head of the 
 list. To a benevolent man money-giving is an easy service ; 
 but to give time and sympathy and personal regard is the 
 real test of Christian charity. It is this which comes hard 
 to most of us, and the want of it neutralizes all efforts to 
 aid the poor and suffering. To you it seems like the breath 
 of the nostrils, and the blessings of many who were ready 
 to perish come upon you. I know of no man the daily re- 
 cord of whose life is a so uninterrupted benediction, and 
 your brotherly friendship is to me a priceless treasure. 
 Never breathe a word of regret that silver and gold are 
 wanting, when you are daily giving so much better things. 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 W. G. Eliot. 
 
 At the annual celebration of the Alumni of 
 Washington University, March 2, 1871, Dr. Eliot 
 made the following announcement : " A few weeks 
 ago the University, by unanimous vote of its 
 
276 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 directors, accepted in trust the sum of $30,000, 
 from the Western Sanitary Commission, for the 
 endowment of twenty scholarships in the colle- 
 giate and polytechnic departments, to be filled 
 by the children and descendants of Union sol- 
 diers who served in the late Civil War, and in de- 
 fault of such applicants, by students recommended 
 by the superintendent of the St. Louis public 
 schools, and the principal of the high school. 
 
 " At the same time the sum of $10,000 was 
 received in trust from the same source as a sus- 
 tentation fund, for the aid of such descendants 
 of Union soldiers filling the scholarships, and of 
 others, at the discretion of the board of direct- 
 ors. Both the scholarships and the fund will 
 bear the name of the Western Sanitary Commis- 
 sion, of which James E. Yeatman is president, 
 and Carlos S. Greeley, treasurer; and it may 
 not be out of place to say that the whole of this 
 money now paid over is interest earnings of the 
 money received by the Sanitary Commission, 
 under the careful management of the treasurer, 
 the whole principal amount given by the public 
 having been accounted for many years ago. That 
 is my idea of a model treasurer, who had in his 
 hands at one time over $600,000, for all of which 
 he was individually responsible, for the manage- 
 ment of which he never received a dollar's salary, 
 and for the safe keeping of which he never gave 
 security or bond." 
 
THE WESTERN SANITAKY COMMISSION 277 
 
 After Dr. Eliot's death, from the same " inter- 
 est earnings " of the Western Sanitary Commis- 
 sion fund, an important bequest was made at the 
 instance of Mr. Yeatman, to the Nurses' Training 
 School of St. Louis, a useful and much needed 
 institution, in the establishment of which Dr. 
 Eliot had been much interested. In suggesting 
 that this action be taken, Mr. Yeatman made an 
 address before the board of the Commission, of 
 which he copied the following portion and sent 
 it to a member of Dr. Eliot's family : " I recom- 
 mend that a sum of not less than ten thousand 
 dollars be appropriated for the erection of a build- 
 ing for the Nurses' Training School of St. Louis, 
 to be used as a home for nurses, and to be known 
 as the William G. Eliot Memorial Home, in honor 
 of him whose loss we have been called so recently 
 to mourn, one who has been associated with us 
 for more than a quarter of a century, and who 
 may justly be considered the originator of the 
 Western Sanitary Commission, of which the Sol- 
 diers' Orphans' Home is but the outgrowth, its 
 continuity so to speak. We must all acknowledge 
 that we are indebted to our lamented friend and 
 brother for its paternity. 
 
 "It was his patriotic and philanthropic head and 
 heart which conceived, organized, and vitalized 
 the Western Sanitary Commission. 
 
 " In saying this no injustice is intended or will 
 be done to others, whom he selected to cooperate, 
 
278 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 and who labored not less faithfully and zealously 
 through all those troublesome times that so tried 
 the hearts and souls of men, and who have con- 
 tinued their labors down to the present day. We 
 who have been associated with, and labored with 
 him, must feel that the credit belonged to Wil- 
 liam G. Eliot more than to any other person for 
 the growth and success of the Western Sanitary 
 Commission. He should have been its head, and 
 I can truly say was so, in all but name. His 
 modest merit prevented him from allowing him- 
 self to be made the president of the association, 
 an organization created by himself ; but it was 
 his mind which conceived, brought into life, har- 
 monized, united and brought all of its members 
 to work together as one man, and by reason of 
 which the wonderful results of the Commission 
 were accomplished, and through which all the 
 humanities of the war vitalized and crystallized. 
 
 " I feel that no more fitting monument could be 
 erected to a man, who did so much, not only for 
 the work with which we have been associated with 
 him, but for all the great and varied charities, 
 educational, philanthropic, and all things else, 
 which would benefit humanity, and would ad- 
 vance the material and moral interests of the city. 
 
 " There has been no citizen who has shown a 
 greater public spirit, or done more for the gen- 
 eral good of the city, and his loss will be felt and 
 deplored for long years to come." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE NEGRO IN THE RECONSTRUCTION PERIOD 
 
 In the spring of 1865, when the festival of 
 Easter was near at hand, suddenly on the even- 
 ing of Good Friday, in a theatre of the National 
 Capital, there rang out a pistol shot whose echo 
 might have been heard throughout the length 
 and breadth of the land, so quickly sped the 
 ominous message that a great leader, patient, 
 wise, just, and good, had fallen a victim to the 
 spirit of disloyalty and treason incarnated in a 
 fanatic. 
 
 A few days previously, in token of rejoicing 
 at the near approach of peace, the pulpit of the 
 Church of the Messiah in St. Louis had been 
 draped with American flags ; but when the news 
 of the assassination of President Lincoln was 
 received, as Dr. Eliot declared, "before the 
 thanksgiving was uttered," the funeral black was 
 spread over the national colors " in token of a 
 nation's grief." 
 
 Easter Sunday, in front of the pulpit on the 
 communion table, lilies, perpetual symbol of the 
 immortal life, glowed against the sombre back- 
 ground. Dr. Eliot, in accordance with his usual 
 
280 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 custom on that anniversary, preached a sermon 
 on the " Resurrection." At its close he referred 
 to the death of church members, and then in 
 tones of deep solemnity said : " But why should 
 I dwell upon our personal bereavements when we 
 are all suffering under this dreadful weight of 
 national grief ? The whole nation mourns ; the 
 loyal, because the honored and beloved head of 
 our country has been stricken down by an assas- 
 sin's hand ; the disloyal, because among all their 
 supposed enemies the kindliest heart has ceased 
 to beat. Under this amazement of grief, in this 
 tumult of sorrow, I scarcely dare to speak." Dr. 
 Eliot found in this " dreadful act," although 
 probably " the work of a few," another proof of 
 the terrible guilt of treason and one of its ulti- 
 mate legitimate results. Reiterating the senti- 
 ments expressed in his sermon delivered at the 
 beginning of the war on the " Higher Law Doc- 
 trine," he said : " The underlying sin of rebel- 
 lion is found in the resistance of law, in the 
 attempt to overthrow the established order of 
 society by taking the law into one's own hands. 
 The first gun that was fired in Charleston har- 
 bor at the Star of the West is that whose echo is 
 this day filling our hearts with dread. Treason 
 has now done its worst, to the horror of those 
 who, perhaps, first instigated it; but they who 
 deliberately took the first step of wrong cannot 
 be held blameless of its final result." Dr. Eliot 
 
THE NEGRO AND RECONSTRUCTION 281 
 
 believed that in view of "this terrible calamity," 
 all "minor differences of opinion would disap- 
 pear," and all citizens " make common cause for 
 the maintenance of law and the restoration of 
 peace." 
 
 The inculcation and growth of the spirit of 
 reverence for law, Dr. Eliot considered the basis 
 of the work of reconstruction in the South. 
 With the majority of his countrymen, he re- 
 garded the death of Lincoln at the beginning of 
 that critical period as an irreparable loss both 
 to whites and blacks in the former slave States. 
 He had always foreseen the gravity of the social 
 problems that would attend sudden emancipation. 
 Now that it had come to pass, he realized the 
 complications that would arise from the changed 
 attitude of two races, in the passage from abso- 
 lute dominance on one side and servility on the 
 other, to nominal equality of rights under the 
 Constitution and laws. He believed that all 
 changes in the reconstruction of society should 
 be slow to be permanent and thorough, and 
 deprecated premature legislation, for which the 
 blacks were yet unprepared. Believing as he did 
 that there would have been no rebellion had 
 there been a system of popular education through- 
 out the South, he emphasized that and educated 
 industrial training as among the most potent 
 agencies to be employed in the restoration of 
 peace and prosperity. To the voters of Missouri 
 
282 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 he said, "Build schoolhouses for all the chil- 
 dren of the State. . . . Open evening schools 
 for adults, so that every voter may be taught to 
 read the laws he is required to obey. . . . Put off 
 this troublesome question of negro suffrage to 
 be finally settled by the people in five or ten 
 years. ... In the mean while establish the prin- 
 ciple of intelligent manhood as the standard by 
 which to measure men." Popular education, with 
 the resulting increased intelligence and respect 
 for law, was clearly a fundamental basis of recon- 
 struction in Dr. Eliot's judgment. 
 
 Dr. Eliot's constant interest in the welfare of 
 the colored race continued through this recon- 
 struction period, and he watched with solicitude 
 the progress of events. Although the Republi- 
 cans made many mistakes, he believed that for 
 some years to come the cause of the negro would 
 be safest in their hands ; and when, in 1872, the 
 radicals opposed to Grant's reelection to the 
 presidency advocated coalition with the Demo- 
 cratic party, and the candidacy of Horace Greeley, 
 Dr. Eliot viewed the movement with apprehen- 
 sion, especially as regarded the effect of Greeley's 
 election upon the treatment of the negro in the 
 Southern and Border States, Missouri among the 
 rest. He therefore wrote to Charles Sumner, then 
 one of Greeley's ardent supporters, expressing his 
 concern at the turn things were taking in the 
 Border States, fearing that if the Greeley coali- 
 
THE NEGRO AND RECONSTRUCTION 283 
 
 tion party succeeded, much of their social work 
 would require to be done over again. In the 
 event of Greeley's election he believed that the 
 "local leaders of the old Secessionist party would 
 control matters not only in the Southern, but the 
 Border States, there already being observable a 
 manifest change of tone for the worst even in 
 St. Louis, where the prime movers were not the 
 loyal Democrats, but the active rebels of 1862- 
 63, the few Republicans standing with them not 
 all being trustworthy. 
 
 "On the whole," Dr. Eliot wrote to Mr. 
 Sumner, " I firmly believe that the second elec- 
 tion of Lincoln was not more important to the 
 safety and progress of the country than the 
 success of the Republican party is now. It is 
 true that Grant has made many mistakes, and 
 will make many more. . . . But the success of 
 Greeley would be the success of the Southern 
 Democrats, so far as the South and its interests 
 are concerned, and the barbarism of social op- 
 pression towards the weaker race would be re- 
 established. I sincerely hope that you, 'the 
 friend of the downtrodden,' will not lend the 
 potent influence of your name to this new de- 
 parture." 
 
 The reply of Charles Sumner to Dr. Eliot's 
 communication was published in the " New York 
 Tribune" four years later, in 1876, with the 
 statement that it had been written " in reply to 
 
284 WILLIAM GKEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 a friend in Missouri who had expressed distrust 
 of the action of the Democratic leaders if they 
 should obtain control of the Border States." 
 The letter shows the extent to which the judg- 
 ment of a statesman may be warped by preju- 
 dice. Mr. Sumner wrote in part : " I am obliged 
 by your letter and note with pain what you say 
 about Democrats. The attempt now making is 
 one of the greatest in political history. It is to 
 bring an adverse political party on the platform 
 it has always opposed. It is a revolution by which 
 Democrats become Republicans and the issues of 
 the war are settled. 
 
 " In such a change there must be difficulties and 
 trials. Original prejudice cannot be conquered 
 at once. But we must not be discouraged. The 
 Democrats stand on the same platform as we 
 do, and they accept as their candidate a lifetime 
 abolitionist." 
 
 Unfortunately for Sumner's ardent hopes as 
 to the result of the transformation of Democrats 
 into Republicans, Greeley was overwhelmingly 
 defeated in the election that soon followed. In 
 the fall of 1876, Dr. Eliot again felt much 
 solicitude as to the result of the approaching 
 presidential election, believing as he did that 
 "a united South with a Northern plastic sup- 
 plement" meant "a renewed rebellion against 
 law and order." His fears were dispelled when 
 Rutherford B. Hayes was declared elected, and 
 
THE NEGRO AND RECONSTRUCTION 285 
 
 a new policy was adopted more in accordance 
 with Dr. Eliot's own judgment. While desiring 
 strict justice and kindness for the blacks, he had 
 not approved of forcing political supremacy 
 upon them. Eegarding the premature enfran- 
 chisement of the blacks as a misfortune to the 
 race, he sympathized with the people of the 
 South in the resulting misgovernment. 
 
 For two consecutive winters after the close of 
 the Civil War Dr. Eliot visited New Orleans in 
 the interest of the Unitarian Church there, which 
 had suffered in the general disorganization. 
 With the same object in view he returned to 
 New Orleans very soon after Hayes's inaugura- 
 tion, and found that social and political condi- 
 tions had not improved in the intervening period. 
 Two parties existed in Louisiana, one composed 
 of the colored voters with a small white Eepub- 
 lican contingent, the other of the great majority 
 of the white voters, Democrats. Neither party 
 recognized the other, and each had elected a 
 governor, Packard representing the former party, 
 and Nicholls the latter. The Packard govern- 
 ment was sustained by the Federal authorities. 
 Believing that the only solution of so unsatis- 
 factory a condition of affairs lay in a change of 
 policy on the part of the incoming administration, 
 and that the people of Louisiana should have 
 greater latitude in the settlement of their domes- 
 tic affairs, Dr. Eliot wrote to President Hayes a 
 
286 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 letter of which the original, marked " Sent March 
 26, 1877," was as f ollows : — 
 
 I. I have been in New Orleans the past week, and know- 
 ing how difficult it is to get at the truth of things, have 
 thought it may be of some use to tell you my own impres- 
 sions. As I am quite well acquainted there, and mix freely 
 with all classes, and as I am under no suspicion of having 
 interested motives or an official duty to discharge, my 
 opportunities for learning the real feeling of the commu- 
 nity have been reasonably good, although I claim no special 
 skill of interpretation. If you attach sufficient importance 
 to it to inquire who I am, you can do so from Hon. Carl 
 Schurz or General Sherman. 
 
 The result in my mind is that whatever abstract justice 
 may demand under a strict construction of the Fifteenth 
 Amendment, the recognition of Packard involves the pre- 
 sent and continued maintenance of his authority by the 
 United States military strength. Upon this point there is 
 no division of opinion. Whether or not it would be a quiet, 
 though enforced maintenance, is doubtful ; my own opinion 
 is that there would be frequent strife, an increase of bitter 
 feeling, in short, a continuance of suppressed rebellion, 
 ready to break out at a moment's notice, and on slight pro- 
 vocation, in every part of the State. It must be a strong 
 and visible rule of recognized Power at the best. 
 
 The population of the city and State is almost unanimous 
 in refusal to submit to the Packard control, except at the 
 point of the bayonet. Under Packard the Government at 
 Washington would be the Government of Louisiana, except 
 that the details would be administered by incompetent, 
 timid, and half-educated men. 
 
 I was yesterday in the legislature, both House and 
 Senate, of the Republican party, and also in the governor's 
 parlor ; and although I am and always have been a Republi- 
 can, and in every way on the freedom side, I must frankly 
 
THE NEGRO AND RECONSTRUCTION 287 
 
 confess that I should not be -willing to trust my interests to 
 the influences and men which there control. A large major- 
 ity of the legislature is composed of colored people, who 
 are certainly not above the average of respectable negroes 
 in our cities, and the white members, if I may judge by 
 appearance and manners, are a very second rate sort of 
 men. Any one individual of decided ability and good know- 
 ledge of parliamentary rule, could easily control the whole 
 assembly in either house. 
 
 I cannot wonder at the unwillingness of property hold- 
 ers and educated people to be under the control of such 
 bodies of men, even if lawfully elected ; but add to this the 
 universal conviction here that most of them were not so 
 elected, and the obstinacy of resistance is only what might 
 reasonably be expected. 
 
 II. If the troops are withdrawn without distinct recogni- 
 tion of either party, the Packard government will be com- 
 pelled quickly to give way. I doubt if it could continue a 
 week, many think not an hour. The moderate Conserva- 
 tives say that no attack would be made, and no compulsion 
 used, and the leaders would honestly try to prevent it, but 
 the young men would be with difficulty restrained, and the 
 fear excited would be such that no Packard legislature or 
 body would dare to keep together. I find the women, the 
 mothers and wives, much more outspoken and bitter than 
 the men, and the whole social influence in all circles, espe- 
 cially the highest, is in favor of strong and summary mea- 
 sures. At all events, one way or the other, the Packard 
 party would quickly subside, with or without protest, having 
 no inherent strength and no external support. The Nicholls 
 government would then exist de facto if not de jure, and 
 would soon of necessity be the recognized government of 
 the State. Whether or not it is possible to recognize 
 Nicholls, I do not pretend to decide. If the question could 
 have been decided at the election in such a manner as to get 
 an intelligent fair vote, it is not improbable that the Eepub- 
 
288 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 lie a n Electoral Ticket would have prevailed and the State 
 Democratic. I find almost no opposition to the National 
 Ticket at present, but on the contrary a prevailing content- 
 ment, which could easily be converted to entire support. 
 Certainly, taking things as they are, the question is clearly 
 divisible, in equity at least ; for in their local affairs the 
 largest possible latitude of choice should be allowed, and 
 those who hold the chief interests of the State should be 
 permitted to control them. 
 
 1 1 1 - Under Democratic rule it is not probable that the 
 spirit of the Fifteenth Amendment will be kept, and 
 scarcely the letter of it, for some years to come. Things will 
 settle down to about the same level as in Mississippi and 
 Alabama; and where the blacks are in the majority, or 
 approximating it, they will be " discouraged " from voting, 
 with whatever degree of moral or physical force may be 
 requisite to secure the end. They will be entirely free to 
 vote the Democratic ticket, and beyond that will have free- 
 dom with penalty. 
 
 But gradually that will improve, as the colored people 
 advance in thrift and intelligence, as new social and politi- 
 cal issues arise, and as the educational interests of the South 
 are better regarded. In the last element the only sure hope 
 for the future is found, and if an educational test or qualifi- 
 cation for voting could be secured by an Amendment to the 
 Constitution, we might reasonably look for enduring peace. 
 
 Such results will be slow and not quite satisfactory, but 
 in no other direction is the outlook equally good. I was in 
 New Orleans, in charge of a congregation, part of the two 
 winters immediately succeeding the war, and am sorry to 
 say that nothing has been gained since that time. Both the 
 color line and the party line are more marked, political and 
 social animosity is increased. A whole generation of young 
 persons has grown up deeply imbued with a sense of injus- 
 tice suffered, of wrongs endured, so that nothing but the 
 hopelessness of resistance prevents an outbreak. The con- 
 
THE NEGRO AND RECONSTRUCTION 289 
 
 tinuance of such a condition of things is not safe nor wise, 
 even if practicable. From good authority I can state that 
 ten thousand armed militia in New Orleans, and thirty-five 
 in the other parishes, are ready at a moment's notice. They 
 are well drilled, ably officered, and held under constraint 
 only by strict military discipline. They are willing to serve 
 at their own cost, and when needed, voluntary supplies of 
 money come in. Such an organization of men, with the 
 belief that their cause is just, cannot be regarded with in- 
 difference, scarcely without fear, particularly when we think 
 that the whole South is in hearty sympathy with them. 
 
 I am very sure that some method must be found of 
 effective conciliation, and believe that the hardships infti- 
 dent to the colored people will be less than in a continuance 
 of the past policy of government ab extra, which will soon 
 be nothing else than a social war of races in which the 
 weaker must be crushed. 
 
 Few men have worked harder for the Union cause or for 
 the colored race, both slaves and freedmen, than I have in 
 my poor way ; but I should be willing to take the responsi- 
 bility of the new policy, if it were mine to take, and with 
 it whatever blame might come. He serves his party best 
 who serves his country best, and the moral courage of mod- 
 eration is often greater than that of force. 
 
 I trust you will pardon me, Mr. President, for this in- 
 trusion. I began this letter in New Orleans, and have 
 written much of it in the railroad cars, and very hastily ; 
 but the opinions expressed have been deliberately gained, 
 and I believe are substantially correct. 
 
 Earnestly praying for the complete and perfect success 
 of your administration, and feeling sure of it, 
 I remain, though unknown to you, 
 
 Your friend, W. G. Eliot. 
 
 April 8, 1877, there appeared in the "St. 
 Louis Republican " a letter from Dr. Eliot re- 
 
290 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 lating to the condition of affairs in Louisiana, 
 and embodying substantially the facts and opin- 
 ions expressed in his letter to President Hayes. 
 In prefatory remarks it was announced editori- 
 ally that a reporter had called upon Dr. Eliot to 
 request from him a statement for publication 
 immediately upon his return from New Orleans, 
 but as Dr. Eliot had at that time addressed a 
 letter to prominent personages in Washington 
 relating in detail the impression made upon him 
 by his observations in New Orleans, he regarded 
 it as improper to convey these facts to the press, 
 until his communication had been received in 
 Washington. In the published letter the same 
 facts were related with a fuller expression of 
 opinion regarding causes and remedies. " Why 
 should we not frankly and openly admit," wrote 
 Dr. Eliot, " that, in 1865, as a nation we went 
 too fast ? Under the united influence of patriot- 
 ism and party spirit, of passion and philanthropy, 
 we undertook the unstatesmanlike task, not only 
 of giving freedom to four millions of slaves, 
 which was right, but of transferring them at 
 once into full possession of political control, 
 without training or education for the immense 
 responsibilities of their new existence, and on 
 the presumption that their former masters would 
 cheerfully consent to the new regime. Such a 
 revolution in social life and in all industrial and 
 financial interests never yet took place without 
 
THE NEGRO AND RECONSTRUCTION 291 
 
 suffering and strife. That no worse consequences 
 have resulted is a wonderful triumph of Ameri- 
 can principles, and an equal proof of the general 
 docility and tractableness of the race." 
 
 Dr. Eliot believed that things would gradually 
 mend. " With increasing intelligence and edu- 
 cation," he said, " the colored race will improve 
 their condition. . . . New issues in local politics 
 will arise and their influence will be sought. 
 They represent the labor of the land, and this 
 will gradually assert itself. . . . Above all, we 
 must look to advancing education in the whole 
 South for a permanent and full solution. . . . 
 If the Constitution could be amended establishing: 
 an educated suffrage, we should have no reason 
 to fear. In that direction our true safety should 
 be found. . . . The subjection of the Southern 
 States is not what we want, but their hearty con- 
 currence in the great work of the nineteenth 
 century, the permanent establishment of a grand 
 republic in which freedom and law everywhere 
 prevail. I think, therefore, that every good citi- 
 zen who shares in these hopes should do his part, 
 however humble and insignificant, to sustain the 
 newly inaugurated President in the new policy 
 which he has had the courageous wisdom to 
 announce." 
 
 Hayes's policy of conciliation was much criti- 
 cised ; but, as Dr. Eliot prophesied, it eventually 
 proved more effective than compulsion in the 
 
292 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 restoration of peace and harmony. When, in 
 1879, there began that movement of industrious 
 negroes northward to Kansas from the Southern 
 States, the sense of insecurity and injustice which 
 induced them to leave their homes in such large 
 numbers was declared by some to be the practi- 
 cal result of Hayes's policy of conciliation which 
 gave to the South untrammeled control of their 
 own section, and left the negroes unprotected. 
 Dr. Eliot thought such was not the case, except 
 as it had proved that " neither force nor kindness 
 could be relied on to protect them (the negroes) 
 from harm." 
 
 Dr. Eliot had said of the blacks : " They re- 
 present the labor of the land, and this will grad- 
 ually assert itself ; " and to him General Sherman 
 wrote : " The exodus of industrious negroes is a 
 partial solution of the difficulty in the South. . . . 
 It will force the local authorities to deal more 
 justly and fairly by these poor people who labored 
 several generations for their white masters, and 
 who in the war guarded, protected, and main- 
 tained the families when all the able-bodied fathers 
 and brothers were off fighting for their continued 
 enslavement." To Rev. James Freeman Clarke 
 Dr. Eliot wrote, under date of April 21st : " We 
 have known something of this movement for 
 years past, and have been doing something from 
 time to time ; but the exodus of this month 
 takes us all by surprise. It is only in want of 
 
THE NEGRO AND RECONSTRUCTION 293 
 
 Bible language to make it as imposing. . . . The 
 course of President Hayes was right and wise ; 
 in fact there was no alternative. It was a Divine 
 opportunity given to the South, as to Pharaoh of 
 old, and they have failed to improve it. . . . 
 
 " The whole power of the nation cannot pro- 
 tect the negroes in the practical fruits of liberty 
 where they are, against the will of the dominant 
 race ; and therefore if they have vigor and courage 
 to take their salvation in their own hands by the 
 providential path of seeking a promised land, both 
 individuals and the nation at large must help 
 them. I would not stimulate the exodus, . . . 
 but we must provide for it." 
 
 In April, 1879, these colored emigrants were 
 indeed arriving in large numbers in St. Louis, 
 on their way to Kansas, a State which from its 
 associations probably embodied to them the senti- 
 ment of freedom. While awaiting transportation, 
 men, women, and children were crowded together 
 in a small tenement building. The Western Sani- 
 tary Commission was still in existence, and Dr. 
 Eliot and Mr. Yeatman felt that something must 
 be done " for humanity's sake," although both 
 agreed that the exodus should not be stimulated. 
 A large building was fitted up wherein for sev- 
 eral months from two hundred and fifty to three 
 hundred colored emigrants each day received tem- 
 porary shelter and some assistance. Funds for 
 this purpose came entirely without solicitation, to 
 
294 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the amount of six thousand dollars. Among the 
 contributors were many friends of Dr. Eliot in 
 Boston who sympathized with the colored people 
 thus endeavoring to escape from unendurable 
 conditions. 
 
 Dr. Eliot had declared it to be his opinion that 
 the cause of the exodus on the part of the blacks 
 was " a growing intelligence, a better compre- 
 hension of their rights as freemen, an increased 
 sensibility to familiar wrongs, and the hope of 
 finding a free field of labor elsewhere." An 
 agent was sent to Kansas by the Western Sani- 
 tary Commission, to obtain information concern- 
 ing the condition of colored immigrants there, 
 and their motives in leaving the South. The tes- 
 timony obtained from the negroes themselves, 
 and others, was published in pamphlet form. 
 They were reported by the Kansas people to be 
 honest, industrious, sober, and self-supporting. 
 The majority were intelligent, and could read and 
 write. According to their own testimony, the 
 causes of their coming were " mistreatment and 
 swindling." " If they objected to their treatment 
 they were liable to be taken out at night, beaten 
 and perhaps killed." Stories of "killings" were 
 frequent. Some of these immigrants came from 
 what the Southern papers termed " the bull-dozed 
 regions," having lost their faith in the protection 
 of the Constitution and laws. Many of them had 
 been intimidated, most had become discouraged. 
 
THE NEGRO AND RECONSTRUCTION 295 
 
 Gradually the exodus ceased, as an organized 
 movement ; for the South is the natural home of 
 the colored race, which they only leave from com- 
 pulsion or necessity. 
 
 At this period, 1879, Dr. Eliot was very much 
 concerned regarding the situation of affairs in 
 the South. The time was approaching for the 
 nomination of a presidential candidate, and he 
 felt that much depended upon the choice of the 
 right man. To his mind the most available per- 
 son was his friend, General William T. Sherman. 
 To General Sherman he therefore wrote, asking 
 him whether in the coming presidential contest, 
 if it " came to be recognized as a political neces- 
 sity," he would accept the nomination if thrust 
 upon him, as in his, Dr. Eliot's, opinion it was 
 an "exigency that might arise." Although he, 
 Dr. Eliot, did not approve of a military ruler as 
 President when a civilian could be found to fill 
 that position, he believed that in the coming 
 election there " must be a single issue, the same 
 as in 1860 : — Are we a nation or a confederacy ? 
 Is the United States or each State supreme? 
 Is secession one of the reserved rights ? " Gen- 
 eral Sherman, Dr. Eliot thought, would make this 
 issue " clear and decisive," since his record had 
 been one of " active conciliation." Dr. Eliot con- 
 sidered that Hayes had done well, but that his 
 retirement was a foregone conclusion. 
 
 " The trial of the next five years," he wrote, 
 
296 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 " will be very severe. The negro question is not 
 settled. Loyalty is only a name in the South. . . . 
 Quiet, firm control will hold or bring things 
 right, and nothing else can. A party politician 
 would ruin us, or a dough-face." 
 
 General Sherman's reply is so noteworthy and 
 so characteristic of the man, that it is herewith 
 inserted. 
 
 Headquabters Army of the United States, 
 Washington, D. C, August 3, 1879. 
 Rev'd W. G. Eliot, 
 
 St. Louis, Missotxbi : 
 My dear Sir, — I cannot mistake the friendly and most 
 honorable sentiment conveyed in your letter of July 31st, 
 just received. The subject-matter has been so often broached 
 to me, ever since I became notorious in the latter part of 
 the Civil War, that my opinion and answer have become 
 stale and stereotyped. The office of President of the 
 United States has never had the least attraction to me. It 
 was my fortune to be somewhat behind the curtain in Tay- 
 lor's administration. I witnessed the fearful agonies and 
 throes of that good and great man Lincoln, and saw General 
 Grant, who never swerved in war, bend and twist and writhe 
 under the appeals and intrigues from which there was no 
 escape, so that I look upon the office as one beyond human 
 endurance, each year being worse and worse. Man is mor- 
 tal and human, and can no more withstand the appeals of 
 charity, of distress, of family and friends as President than 
 when in private life ; and such seems the nature of our peo- 
 ple, that the moment one's friends find him in an exalted 
 position, then they cease all honest work and turn to him 
 for honors and support. You may grant the ninety-nine, 
 but refuse the hundredth you become a monster of ingrati- 
 tude. I do not expect to live long, and will not disturb the 
 
THE NEGRO AND RECONSTRUCTION 297 
 
 peace of the small remainder of my life by such hopes, 
 fears, and disappointments. The country is full of men 
 of average ability who seek the office. Our salvation and 
 hope as a nation must depend on the system, not the 
 goodness or badness of the agent. In Hayes's position I 
 would likely do pretty much as he does, — certainly no 
 better. The country is full of his equals, and I propose to 
 leave the office to them. In no event, and under no combi- 
 nation of circumstances, will I allow the use of my name 
 in that connection. Believing fully that time will accom- 
 plish all good things, I have little fear of the reaction of 
 1879, which is nearly expended, so that the pendulum is now 
 going back. 
 
 Ever your friend, 
 
 W. T. Sherman. 
 
 In the summer of 1879 there were in St. Louis 
 several meetings of the colored people to consider 
 means of aiding the negro exodus. At one of 
 these meetings there was read a letter from Fred- 
 erick Douglass advising the negro to remain in 
 the South, declaring that he would find his "ulti- 
 mate advantage" where he had a monopoly of the 
 labor, and would not be obliged, as in the North, 
 to compete with foreigners. Time has vindicated 
 the wisdom of Douglass's advice, which was then 
 received with indignation by some of the colored 
 people. In an article published in the October 
 number of the "Atlantic Monthly," 1903, Booker 
 T. Washington calls attention to the fact that in 
 one year, out of a million emigrants, only a few 
 thousands settled in the Southern States. Mr. 
 Washington uses this as an argument in favor of 
 
298 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 industrial training for the negro in the South, 
 since that region is " largely free from the re- 
 strictive influence of the Northern trades unions," 
 and " such organizations will secure little hold in 
 the South so long as the negro keeps abreast in 
 intelligence and skill with the same class of peo- 
 ple elsewhere." 
 
 In 1863 Dr. Eliot declared in an address that 
 " at the South the respectability of labor and the 
 desirableness of popular education " had never 
 been conceded, and made " no part of the social 
 system, of what might justly be called the South- 
 ern civilization." At the close of the war, in 1865, 
 he said : " Educated industrial classes are the liv- 
 ing power which we want for our prosperity, and 
 which for our safety we must have. If the South 
 had had this, there would have been no rebellion ; 
 slavery itself could not have driven them to so 
 great madness if the masses of the people had 
 been reasonably well informed." 
 
 It is nearly forty years since these words were 
 uttered. The public school system has been es- 
 tablished in the South, and from growing intel- 
 ligence has resulted increased respect for labor. 
 At the present time the "educated industrial 
 classes " are the hope of the new civilization of 
 the South. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 SOCIAL REFORM 
 
 Wearied by the long strain of the Civil War 
 period, and the labors incident to reorganization 
 in the years immediately ensuing, Dr. Eliot was 
 compelled to withdraw for a while from active 
 duty, and in the spring of 1869 visited the Pacific 
 coast. On his return in the fall he went abroad 
 with his wife and younger children, and spent 
 the winter in Rome. It was the last year of the 
 temporal sovereignty of the Vatican, and was 
 rendered more interesting by the meeting of the 
 Ecumenical Council ; but diversion and rest did 
 not entirely accomplish for an overworked man 
 all that he had hoped in the direction of physi- 
 cal recuperation. He returned to St. Louis in 
 the early summer of 1870, and on the 1st of July 
 recorded that he had written and copied his let- 
 ter of resignation as pastor of the Church of the 
 Messiah. Although never thereafter installed as 
 minister of any parish, he was still devoted to his 
 profession, and continued with unabated zeal his 
 labors for the advancement of moral and social 
 reform. In the interest of higher morality he had 
 spoken from the pulpit for social purity and tern- 
 
300 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 perance. He now addressed the public through 
 the medium of the press, advocating practical 
 measures of reform. On his return from abroad 
 he learned that a law had been passed by the 
 Missouri Legislature whereby the city of St. 
 Louis was permitted to " regulate " the so-called 
 social evil, which thus received the sanction of 
 law embodied specifically in a city ordinance. 
 The violation of moral principle involved imme- 
 diately aroused Dr. Eliot, but as was usual with 
 him, before opposing any measure, he waited until 
 he had thoroughly investigated the subject be- 
 fore appealing to the public through the press. 
 In the " St. Louis Democrat " of February 25, 
 1871, he protested against the further passage of 
 laws which would commit St. Louis to a system 
 that had failed everywhere else, until the com- 
 munity had been permitted to express its will 
 after discussion and a full exposition of facts. 
 Although declaring that he himself was not pre- 
 pared to enter upon such discussion, he went so 
 far as to state that a " Contagious Diseases Law " 
 had been passed by the English Parliament of 
 1869, and that the effect produced upon the moral 
 sense of the people by the promulgation of this 
 edict had been intense. A general protest had 
 arisen, especially from women. Both as a moral 
 and a sanitary measure the law was likely to 
 prove a failure. His own conclusion was that the 
 "social evil," considered as a sin and crime, 
 
SOCIAL KEFORM 301 
 
 should be treated like all other sins and crimes, 
 to be "prohibited by law and prevented as far 
 as possible by the conjoined action of legal and 
 moral force." Faithfulness in this course would 
 " reduce the evil to its narrowest limits." He be- 
 lieved also that any law enacted should include 
 all offenders. Distasteful to him as was this sub- 
 ject, he continued to keep it before the public 
 through the medium of the press. When in 
 1876, two years after the repeal of the obnoxious 
 law in Missouri, an attempt was made in the New 
 York Legislature to pass a similar enactment, 
 there was published in the " New York Evening 
 Express " under date of March 7th a letter from 
 him, in which he appealed to the editors of the 
 paper to oppose the law, for the reason that it 
 would " do no good practically and infinite harm 
 morally." From his knowledge of the working of 
 the system in Paris, Berlin, and all the leading 
 cities of Europe, he knew that it did not prevent 
 the consequences of wrong-doing, while it in- 
 creased the extent of the evil, lowered the stand- 
 ard of public morality, and brought into contempt 
 the sacredness of the family relation. In this same 
 letter is related the experience of St. Louis in the 
 enactment, operation, and repeal of the social evil 
 law which the Missouri Legislature had been 
 " tricked into passing by the unobserved inser- 
 tion of the word ' regulate ' in the city charter." 
 " When the subject was understood, this law was 
 
302 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 repealed after four years' trial, by a vote in the 
 Senate of three to one, and in the House of Re- 
 presentatives by a vote of ninety to one." 
 
 In the " Christian Illustrated Weekly " of April 
 8, 1876, was published an article stating that an 
 attempt was making in the New York Legislature 
 to introduce a bill licensing the social evil, that 
 the experiment had been tried in St. Louis, and 
 that Dr. T. M. Post of that city had been written 
 to for information regarding results. In reply 
 Dr. Post had referred the editors to Dr. Eliot, 
 and thus written of him : " His work in secur- 
 ing the repeal of our law has been untiring and 
 heroic, and his agency, more than that of any 
 other individual, has been effective in accomplish- 
 ing this result." A letter from Dr. Eliot was 
 then published, wherein he reiterated with even 
 added emphasis his former assertions regarding 
 the evil effects of the license system, and its de- 
 moralizing influence upon the police, the agents 
 for enforcing its provisions. The following edi- 
 torial comment was made on this letter: "To 
 repeat an experiment which the experience of the 
 past has proved to be as disastrous to morals as 
 it is dishonorable to Christian civilization, would 
 be both a blunder and a crime. To put upon our 
 own escutcheon a stain which Missouri has with 
 much labor removed from her own, would be 
 contrary alike to honor and to common sense. 
 ... If our legislature, in the face of this chapter 
 
SOCIAL REFOEM 303 
 
 of experience, undertake to import the moral 
 regimen of Paris into the cities of New York, 
 they may rest assured that they will hear from the 
 consciences of their own constituencies afterward, 
 if they do not before." 
 
 Even as late as 1877 Dr. Eliot learned that a 
 prominent member of the Missouri Legislature 
 favored a reenactment of the social evil law, that 
 he had declared that the plans for its renewal 
 were already matured, and that it would be 
 " sprung upon the community in such a manner 
 as to preclude all opposition." Against any such 
 clandestine attempt to reenact a law which had 
 been repealed by an overwhelming majority, he 
 openly protested in an argument published in 
 the " Globe-Democrat " of January 27, 1877. He 
 was also instrumental in thwarting the enactment 
 of these same " regulation " laws in Chicago and 
 Cleveland. 
 
 In 1876 Dr. Eliot had written : " From New 
 York I hear that the social evil movement is 
 defeated for the present, and this means perma- 
 nently, for its only chance is to take people un- 
 awares. At Washington city the same effect is 
 threatening, but will be headed off. . . . 
 
 "On the whole, that hardest of all my work 
 has been the best. One city after another has 
 been prevented from beginning the ' Regulation ' 
 by our repeal of it. Meanwhile in England and 
 all over the continent of Europe moral sentiment 
 
304 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 is awakening, and as true information spreads, 
 the iniquity is unveiled, so that it -will soon be 
 impossible for such a barbarism to begin in Amer- 
 ica. To have secured such a result by two years' 
 painful work is enough to reconcile me to any 
 degree of failure in whatever other direction." 
 
 In June, 1877, the " regulation " system was 
 again advocated by the grand jury in St. Louis, 
 and Dr. Eliot, in the "Globe-Democrat" of June 
 29th, published a severe arraignment of the jury, 
 in which he proved that the evils complained of 
 by that body were due to other causes than the 
 repeal of the social evil law. " I sincerely hope," 
 he wrote in his letter, " that we shall not be com- 
 pelled to go through another public discussion 
 such as we had four years ago, the result of 
 which was the repeal of the ' evil law ; ' but if 
 the advocates of legalizing vice insist upon it, 
 the friends of Christian morality and household 
 purity must ' stand to their guns,' and fight every 
 inch of the ground with such strength as God and 
 a good cause may give them." As a marginal 
 comment he wrote on a copy of this letter : " I 
 am sorry to be again at this work, but the Devil 
 shall not win if I can help it." 
 
 When in 1883 Cleveland proposed to " regu- 
 late the social evil," the ladies of that city held 
 a mass meeting of remonstrance, and a letter ad- 
 dressed to them by Dr. Eliot was published. In 
 his account of the two years' struggle for the 
 
SOCIAL EEFORM 305 
 
 repeal of the law in St. Louis, he wrote that dur- 
 ing that time " thousands of tracts were scattered 
 through the State, and bushels of documents 
 gathered from European cities," which statement 
 gives some idea of his own labors for social purity. 
 And yet these labors, if harassing and unpleasant, 
 were compressed into a short period as compared 
 with his lifelong advocacy of the temperance 
 cause, maintained with increasing earnestness in 
 his declining years. Only those who have them- 
 selves been engaged in such work are aware of 
 the discouragements constantly encountered. 
 
 For years he hoped and labored for the enact- 
 ment of restrictive or prohibitory legislation regu- 
 lating the manufacture and sale of liquor, not only 
 in Missouri but throughout the United States, and 
 he corresponded with legislators on the subject. 
 His hope lay not in the wealthy classes, nor in 
 the ignorant and uneducated, but in the so-called 
 "middle classes," who more quickly respond to such 
 appeals. His experience among the poor early 
 convinced him that intemperance is the principal 
 cause of poverty and crime. In a " lay sermon " 
 on " Temperance," published in 1882, he declared 
 that there were three methods by which the tem- 
 perance cause could be advanced. These were : 
 total abstinence ; personal influence upon others 
 leading them to the same ; and the advocacy of 
 prohibitory or restrictive legislation. Of total 
 abstinence he said : " It is the only assured course 
 
306 WILLIAM GKEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 of safety for ourselves and our families. I do 
 not care how strong we may be ; ... we are not 
 absolutely safe while the use of intoxicants as a 
 beverage continues. I have seen all safeguards 
 and barriers and resolutions and bonds give way, 
 time and time again. I can show you graves 
 which neither religion, nor morality, nor self- 
 interest, nor self-respect, nor love of kindred, 
 could prevent from being the drunkard's resting;- 
 place. I can show you this day men of intelli- 
 gence, of good sense, of extended influence, of 
 wealth, living in homes of refinement ; in posi- 
 tions of trust and honor, on the bench, at the 
 bar, in the command of armies, in the council 
 chamber, ... in the pulpit itself, ... in the 
 halls of Congress, in the National Cabinet, and 
 in the Presidential Mansion — in all places of 
 honor and usefulness have we seen men walking, 
 with unsteady steps, speaking with ill-considered 
 words, and with all the marks of unmanliness 
 that disgrace the foolish ones who put an enemy 
 in their mouths to steal away their brains. And 
 yet not one of them all but could remember the 
 time when he was ' perfectly safe,' ' quite able to 
 control himself.' " 
 
 As to the effect of personal influence upon 
 others in advancing the cause of temperance, 
 Dr. Eliot could well speak from experience. He 
 had always labored persistently to reclaim any 
 victim o£ the habit of drink who came within his 
 
SOCIAL REFORM 307 
 
 influence, either as a member of his congregation 
 or otherwise. " My God ! " he once exclaimed, 
 " what an infatuation it is ! " The following 
 incident in the life of Henry Giles, a somewhat 
 famous hunchback orator, author, and divine, is 
 related by his biographer, Rev. A. J. Rich. It 
 exemplifies Dr. Eliot's method of action in deal- 
 ing with the tempted. On Mr. Giles's way to St. 
 Louis, where he was to lecture at Dr. Eliot's in- 
 stance, he stopped in Chicago, and was so well 
 entertained by his friends that he appeared on 
 the lecture platform in a state of undue exhila- 
 ration. The news traveled quickly to St. Louis. 
 Saturday afternoon Mr. Giles appeared at the 
 door of Mr. Eliot's study. His first words were : 
 " Well, I am here. I suppose you have heard all 
 about it." "Yes," said Mr. Eliot, taking his 
 hand, " I am sorry to say that I have read all 
 about my friend's trouble. I have weighed the 
 matter too ; but you are to lecture on Tuesday 
 evening, and preach for me to-morrow." In a 
 voice trembling with emotion, Mr. Giles replied : 
 " Eliot, you have saved me. I will obey orders." 
 "But," said his friend, "on this condition, that 
 you are not to stop at the hotel. I have provided 
 entertainment for you at a friend's house." Mr. 
 Giles preached next day to a crowded church, 
 and Dr. Eliot declared in his account of the ser- 
 mon that he never heard from mortal lips such a 
 prayer as under the influence of strong feeling 
 
308 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 was uttered by the repentant man that morning 
 in the pulpit of the Unitarian Church. Tuesday 
 evening he lectured to a large audience, and this 
 is the significant and gratifying fact — the influ- 
 ence thus exerted over a weak and tempted man 
 was lasting. For over twenty years he continued 
 to lecture all over the country, yet never again did 
 he fall into the same error that had caused his 
 downfall in Chicago. 
 
 In the " lay sermon " already considered, Dr. 
 Eliot had appealed to the individual judgment 
 and conscience, advising the practice of total 
 abstinence, and the influencing others in the 
 same direction. In a second "lay sermon," he 
 discussed temperance legislation both as regarded 
 the influence of law on the community, and the 
 social and economic aspects of license and pro- 
 hibition. His own desire was for prohibition and 
 the closing of the saloon, and this he advocated 
 with logic and fact ; yet he was ready to wel- 
 come any measure that would restrict the sale of 
 liquor as a beverage. In answer to the argument 
 that men cannot be legislated into morality, he 
 agreed that they must be elevated in character 
 so as to control themselves, but that legislation 
 had its rightful place in the work of reform. 
 " The influence of law as an educator," he said, 
 " is very great, and cannot be safely disregarded. 
 ... To a large class in every community, what 
 is legal passes for right, or at least not blame- 
 
SOCIAL REFORM 309 
 
 worthy. . . . Let the sanction of law be with- 
 drawn from the sale of intoxicating drinks as a 
 beverage, let the drinking saloon thereby become 
 an illegal instead of a licensed institution, and 
 discredit would be thrown upon the habits of 
 drinking. ... A long step in the right direction 
 would have been taken by putting the laws of 
 morality and the laws of the land on the same 
 side." 
 
 Dr. Eliot did not consider it right to expose 
 young men to temptation and then hold them 
 morally responsible for the evil result. " The 
 dram-shops and saloons and pleasure gardens," 
 he declared, " with all their allurements of stu- 
 diously devised temptations, pressing on every 
 side, night and day, week day and Sunday, create 
 an atmosphere of contagion from which the 
 healthiest can hardly escape. For those who have 
 already acquired a taste for intoxicants or have 
 inherited it, and for those who have no fixed 
 moral or religious principles to fall back upon — 
 that is to say, for the majority of hard-working 
 men and half -educated young men — escape is 
 next to impossible. . . . How much ' moral 
 suasion ' under such circumstances . . . will be 
 needed to secure the safety of the tempted ? " 
 
 In his treatment of the social and economic 
 aspects of the liquor question, he appealed to 
 statistics which he had gathered, endeavoring to 
 show that the income derived in St. Louis from 
 
310 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the licensing of saloons defrayed but a very 
 small portion of the expense to the city and com- 
 munity from the disorder, crime, sickness, and 
 pauperism resulting from intemperance. In addi- 
 tion to the estimated immense sum expended for 
 liquor annually in the city, amounting to ten 
 times what was contributed for the support of 
 all the public and private schools, several millions 
 of internal revenue tax went out of the State 
 each year. Regarding the legality of the restric- 
 tion or prohibition of the sale of liquor, he 
 maintained that by the decision of the Supreme 
 Court of Missouri such sale was not a right, but 
 a privilege, which could be restricted or pro- 
 hibited. 
 
 In 1882 Dr. Eliot published in pamphlet form 
 the two " lay sermons " on temperance, and sent 
 a large number of copies to prominent individ- 
 uals, hoping for aid and encouragement in effect- 
 ing the desired legislation. Apparently no imme- 
 diate or important result followed. A prominent 
 church dignitary, from whom he had expected 
 aid, excused himself from cooperation and wrote : 
 " The facts in your appeal are very startling, 
 but the difficulty is in applying a remedy." This 
 gentleman expressed the opinion that efforts 
 should be made to enforce the present laws, but 
 this was already a part of Dr. Eliot's work. An- 
 unlicensed saloon was operated on the same block 
 on which stood one of the Washington University 
 
SOCIAL REFORM 311 
 
 buildings, and he brought suit against the pro- 
 prietors. Unfortunately there is no strong pub- 
 lic sentiment against selling liquor without a 
 license, the cry o£ persecution is easily raised, 
 and juries fail to convict. This was the result of 
 the prosecution referred to, although Dr. Eliot 
 tried every available legal remedy. Eventually a 
 license was secured by erecting a tenement build- 
 ing on ground adjacent to the saloon, and filling 
 it with " householders," who made a majority of 
 persons resident on the block in its favor. Thus 
 easily was the true spirit and meaning of the law 
 evaded. Dr. Eliot expected much from the exer- 
 cise of the franchise by women, believing as he 
 did that in municipal elections they would vote 
 against the saloon. 
 
 Whether in jest or earnest, it was at one time 
 suggested that Dr. Eliot should be appointed a 
 police commissioner of St. Louis. This called 
 forth, in one of the daily papers, the following 
 humorous editorial comment, which is an index 
 of his reputation as an energetic reformer : — 
 
 " Dr. Eliot may not desire to be police com- 
 missioner, and the suggestion of his name may 
 be meant as a joke, but we sincerely wish the 
 joke to become a reality. Forty-eight hours af- 
 ter Dr. Eliot assumed the reins of the police 
 department there would be no gambling houses 
 in St. Louis. Dr. Eliot would be no joke in the 
 police board, but a sensible, strong reality. 
 
312 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Governor Phelps could do no better thing than 
 to appoint him." 
 
 There exists in manuscript form, as written by 
 Dr. Eliot, an " Appeal " addressed to the mem- 
 bers of the Senate and House of Kepresentatives 
 of Missouri, asking that prohibition, as a con- 
 stitutional amendment, be submitted to the vote 
 of the people at the next general election. This 
 petition, written toward the close of his life, was 
 probably never forwarded. His views regarding 
 the evils of intemperance had been confirmed 
 by large personal experience. " I am pleading," 
 he declared in the second of his " lay sermons," 
 " as in a case of life and death, and with all the 
 earnestness of which I am capable ; for the facts, 
 the social unwritten statistics of intemperance, 
 as they have directly come before me, in an 
 active life of full fifty years, justify me in so 
 doing." 
 
 To women Dr. Eliot believed in giving the 
 largest opportunities of education and usefulness. 
 In an address delivered in 1871 on " Woman's 
 Future in America and the Education needed to 
 prepare her for it," he especially emphasized the 
 desirability of a sound practical education carried 
 to the highest practical point. This he consid- 
 ered equally necessary for woman in her natural 
 or providential sphere of the home ; in her im- 
 portant work as an educator of the young ; in 
 her social and political relations in America ; and 
 
SOCIAL REFORM 313 
 
 in the special work confined to a few. He was 
 naturally conservative, and believed that the 
 great majority of women would prefer to remain 
 in " the quiet discharge of household duties," 
 but that there was a large field of educational 
 work in which they excelled, and it was of the 
 utmost importance they should be fitted for 
 the proper performance of its requirements. To 
 the few fitted for and desiring special work, 
 special opportunities for preparation should be 
 given. 
 
 In considering the question of woman's social 
 and political relations in America, he asked : 
 " Shall woman be included in the republican 
 idea as having the full rights of equal citizen- 
 ship ? " and answered the question in the affirm- 
 ative. He believed that the " logic of republi- 
 canism, inevitable and irresistible, would solve 
 the problem as it had the problem of universal 
 suffrage and of the freedom of the slave," and 
 that woman should have power, the only prin- 
 ciple which society permanently respects, rather 
 than merely the protection which had always 
 been vouchsafed her. He did not regard the 
 extension of suffrage to women as a privilege 
 or concession of a right, but as a duty to be 
 imposed. There was no cause for surprise that 
 women did not wish for it as if it were an enjoy- 
 ment or a luxury, since few intelligent men so 
 regarded it. Those only desire it who see its 
 
314 WILLIAM GREENLEAE ELIOT 
 
 great uses, and women must vote as men do, to 
 discharge a moral and social responsibility from 
 •which they could not escape when once the right 
 to vote was given them. As a preparation for 
 these extended rights of citizenship which should 
 be conferred upon women, he advocated more 
 of a common-sense practical business education 
 than heretofore, that they might learn to take 
 care of their own property and have a better un- 
 derstanding of the new responsibilities imposed. 
 For both men and women, as necessary to the ex- 
 ercise of the franchise, he would have preferred 
 an educational qualification. In his early resi- 
 dence in Missouri he had considered such restric- 
 tion of suffrage as a reform to be effected, but 
 concluded it would be impossible to obtain the 
 necessary legislation. 
 
 Of legislative measures Dr. Eliot was always a 
 close observer, especially in the interest of the 
 weaker classes, whom he consistently strove to 
 benefit and protect. In 1875 there was intro- 
 duced into the Missouri Legislature an amend- 
 ment to a leasing contract made by the State 
 two years previously with certain lessees of the 
 labor of the Jefferson City penitentiary. By this 
 amendment, the lessees were authorized to work 
 gangs of convicts in any part of the State where 
 they could find employment for them, within a 
 mile of any city or town, provided the sanc- 
 tion of the local authorities could be obtained. 
 
SOCIAL REFORM 316 
 
 This measure was opposed by Senator James J. 
 McGinniss, who made a minority report on con- 
 ditions in the penitentiary, incidentally showing 
 that under the leasing system the convicts had 
 not been properly fed and clothed, and insub- 
 ordination had resulted. 
 
 To Mr. McGinniss Dr. Eliot, then vice-presi- 
 dent of the National Prison Association, ad- 
 dressed an open letter on the " Leasing System," 
 which was published in the " St. Louis Globe " 
 of February 25, 1875. In this letter he stated 
 that he had made prison discipline a careful 
 study since he left college in 1830, forty-five 
 years previously ; that for many years he spent 
 several hours each week with prisoners in jails 
 and prisons, and that at one time he " knew 
 quite as much of human nature inside the walls 
 as outside." He had also kept himself familiar 
 with the various plans and systems both in this 
 country and Europe. The treatment of the guilty 
 he declared to be the " one grand problem of 
 society," and that when it was successfully solved 
 the " greatest triumph of civilization would have 
 been gained." 
 
 Dr. Eliot regarded the leasing system as the 
 worst of all systems in vogue among civilized na- 
 tions, if the real objects of prison discipline and 
 penal jurisprudence are taken into consideration. 
 These objects are the protection of society and 
 the reformation of the criminal; and although 
 
316 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the latter object is secondary, it is the most effec- 
 tive and the only permanently effectual means 
 for the attainment of the former. The lessee has 
 no interest in the reformation of the criminal, his 
 principal or only object being to make money 
 through a " stern and hard system of compulsory 
 labor, in which brute force is the only acknow- 
 ledged master." Dr. Eliot thought that even the 
 most degraded convicts resented being sold or 
 leased out as if they were cattle to men whose 
 chief aim was to make money out of their mis- 
 fortunes or crimes. He considered that the true 
 secret of prison discipline was to treat the pris- 
 oners like human beings, and while imposing 
 strict disciplinary rules, to observe justice and to 
 govern them by the same motives which appeal 
 to other men. As a result of such treatment 
 the influence of prison life would be greatly 
 improved, and men would no longer leave the 
 prison " full of vindictive hatred, morally and in- 
 tellectually educated for new and greater crimes." 
 He agreed with modern reformers, that convicts 
 should be rewarded for diligence and good be- 
 havior by giving them some of the fruits of their 
 earnings. He expressed the opinion that " the 
 average of personal character in the prison is 
 not so much below that of the surrounding 
 world as generally supposed," and with a fair 
 chance a large part of the convicts could be 
 replaimed. 
 
SOCIAL REFORM 317 
 
 He sent a copy of this article with an ac- 
 companying letter to Governor Hardin. The 
 "Amendment" passed the Missouri Legislature 
 by a large majority, but was fortunately vetoed 
 by the governor, on the ground that it was 
 " contrary to public sense, cruel and inhuman to 
 the convicts," and for other reasons. 
 
 Dr. Eliot felt very deeply the responsibility of 
 the higher classes of society towards the lower. 
 In reporting in 1865 the wretched condition of 
 the prison system of St. Louis, he thus closed his 
 report: "Of one thing be sure. God does not 
 forget those who are ' sick and in prison,' and the 
 laws of social life will not be repealed in our be- 
 half. These lower depths of crime and suffering 
 may seem too far down for our selfish humanity 
 to reach. We may flatter ourselves that it is 
 none of our concern, but we cannot so wash our 
 hands of it. . . . The lowest stratum of society 
 affects the one immediately above it, and the in- 
 fluence is carried up to the top. Let the mouth 
 of the common sewers become choked two miles 
 from your pleasant homes, and the polluted air is 
 secretly diffused and the evil extends itself until 
 the pale cheeks and failing breath of your own 
 dear children prove the presence of a poisoned 
 atmosphere for which you cannot account. And 
 so does the moral poison become diffused, work- 
 ing its way upward through unobserved chan- 
 nels, by all the diversified relations of social life, 
 
318 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 until our own homes feel the contagion, and our 
 young men are stricken down. Every passing day 
 gives proof of it. 
 
 " The frightful increase of crime fills our 
 hearts with sadness, and we tremble for the fu- 
 ture. The community is thoroughly awake to the 
 material interests of commerce, manufactures, and 
 trade ; let it also awaken to the social and moral 
 interests upon which all real prosperity depends. 
 The prevention of evil belongs to our firesides 
 and schools. The work of reformation — to raise 
 the fallen, to redeem the lost — is more difficult 
 and less attractive, but for our own social salva- 
 tion it must be done. Let us take hold of it, at 
 whatever cost, with a vigorous hand." 
 
 For the prevention of pauperism and crime, 
 Dr. Eliot advocated not only temperance mea- 
 sures, but education, which must be compulsory 
 if rendered necessary by the indifference or negli- 
 gence of parents, — and also the cultivation of 
 habits of industry. He always deprecated the 
 giving of relief to able-bodied men and women 
 without some equivalent in services rendered, 
 believing that such aid was permanently demor- 
 alizing. This principle was not as universally 
 recognized in his day as at present. 
 
 Dr. Eliot was interested in all measures for 
 material as well as moral improvement in the 
 community. In 1871 he urged through the press 
 the building of the new Merchants' Exchange, 
 
SOCIAL REFORM 319 
 
 and when the building was completed he was 
 present at the dedication exercises and made the 
 opening prayer. He performed the same office 
 at the meeting of the Southern Pacific Eailroad 
 Convention in 1875, ten years after the close 
 of the Civil War. On this occasion there were 
 seated on the platform the quasi ex-President 
 Jefferson Davis, General Joseph Johnston, and 
 General P. T. Beauregard, with General Sherman 
 and many other distinguished men. In his prayer 
 Dr. Eliot said : " Almighty and most merciful 
 God, ... we have come here in the interest of 
 peace and of national union. Wilt thou guide 
 our minds to wisdom of counsel ; wilt thou fill 
 our hearts with fairness and with justice, and 
 with brotherly love. May there be no place for 
 discord, may no angry word be spoken. May we 
 leave behind us narrow selfishness and sectional 
 feeling, remembering that we are here as citizens 
 of the same great country to work together for 
 our common good. God, wilt thou bind us 
 together more and more closely, not only by the 
 bonds of iron, but by the bonds of fraternal love. 
 Thou hast taught us by thy Word that we are 
 members one of another. By sore experience 
 we have learned that one member cannot suffer 
 without any suffering with it. We can neither 
 suffer nor rejoice alone. Wilt thou therefore teach 
 us to live according to the great law of Christian 
 rectitude, not only individually, but as represent- 
 
320 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 ing different communities and cities. . . . We 
 pray for thy blessing upon our beloved country 
 which thou hast so greatly distinguished. May 
 this people become free indeed by escaping from 
 the bondage of sin, by escaping from the wicked- 
 ness of strife, and to thy name be the glory and 
 the praise forever through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 In November, 1884, on the completion of his 
 fifty years of residence in St. Louis, a letter 
 signed by Wayman Crow and thirty-three other 
 gentlemen was addressed to Dr. Eliot, tendering 
 him a public reception in honor of his " very 
 early interest in the moral and intellectual pro- 
 gress of the city during its formative period, 
 an interest constantly and uninterruptedly main- 
 tained," and manifested by " earnest, constant, ac- 
 tive personal identification and assistance," which 
 had been " a widespread, beneficent, and perma- 
 nent influence." To quote from the letter : " That 
 influence has been in this city as broad as human- 
 ity itself, and has always tended to the placing 
 of the religious, moral, and social life of the city 
 upon a higher plane. . . . We recognize in it a 
 conspicuous example of the power which may be 
 exerted by the individual in civic life, and of 
 what may be accomplished in one generation by 
 steady and persistent effort in the pursuit of 
 honorable purposes consecrated by Christian 
 faith." 
 
 While deeply appreciative of the regard which 
 
SOCIAL REFORM 321 
 
 had prompted the suggestion contained in this 
 communication, Dr. Eliot felt compelled to de- 
 cline the proffered compliment, stating that he 
 did so "from a clear sense of duty." He once 
 wrote : " I hear men complain that public service 
 is not paid for even in thanks. The balance is 
 always the other way. Every man receives more 
 than he gives. Every man is a debtor to all men." 
 And on this occasion in his letter of acknowledg- 
 ment he wrote : " In my judgment the best citizen, 
 who devotes himself most earnestly to the public 
 service, receives from the community he serves far 
 more than he can give." He also declared that 
 in much that he had done or attempted to do he 
 had simply been the agent of generous men who 
 had hidden themselves in their work, and to whom 
 the praise of his seeming success really belonged. 
 Much of " the work intrusted " to him was still 
 "incomplete." 
 
 He had indeed been the agent of generous men, 
 to whom a later generation owes a debt of grati- 
 tude. They responded to his appeals and sus- 
 tained him in every movement for the public 
 good. Their aid had been freely given because 
 of their faith in the wisdom of his undertakings. 
 " Dr. Eliot's executive power was rare," said his 
 friend Dr. John Heywood, " but still greater and 
 rarer was his power to inspire and energize. He 
 could breathe life into an organized body. The 
 spirit of the living creature must be as the pro- 
 
322 WILLIAM GKEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 phet tells us and experience shows, ' in the wheels 
 also ; ' and to inbreathe that spirit is, under God, 
 the All-inspirer, the prerogative and function of 
 consecrated genius. Dr. Eliot had the genius for 
 work, noble, humane, divine work. He had ex- 
 traordinary power of will, and that will was sur- 
 rendered reverently and unreservedly to the will 
 of God. Hence his marvelous capacity of work 
 and his power of inspiring others to work." 
 
 Dr. Heywood believed that action and thought 
 were not incompatible, and objected to the dic- 
 tum, " A man of action rather than of thought, 
 a doer rather than a thinker," as applied to Dr. 
 Eliot. " A very fine thinker," he said, " was Dr. 
 Eliot ; able to grasp and solve profound problems, 
 and who, if he had made literature his profession, 
 would have stood high on its rolls. Merchants 
 of St. Louis, recognizing the sagacity, foresight, 
 and broad wisdom which led them not infre- 
 quently to seek and accept Dr. Eliot's advice, 
 were wont to say that had he given himself to 
 mercantile affairs he would have become one of 
 the first merchants of the land. . . . The min- 
 istry was his vocation — no avocation for the 
 occupancy of leisure hours, but his vocation to 
 which, under his dominating ideas of steward- 
 ship and consecration, he gave himself unreserv- 
 edly, putting his thoughts into earnest sermons, 
 into noble characters, into grand institutions. 
 And what elaborate volumes give better or finer 
 
SOCIAL REFORM 323 
 
 expressions of broad and profound thought, than 
 great institutions coming into being at the 
 call of a far-seeing, deep-thinking mind, and 
 remaining a perpetual memorial of the creative 
 thinker." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 
 
 When in 1834 William Eliot left the older set- 
 tlements of the East to make his future home in 
 the West, he was conscious that for a time at 
 least he, like other pioneers, must leave behind 
 him the world of books and intellectual pursuits. 
 This deprivation he accepted as one of the needful 
 sacrifices of his vocation. That there were times, 
 especially in the early years of his ministry in 
 St. Louis, when he felt it very deeply, is evident 
 from his letters to his friend Rev. James Freeman 
 Clarke. In 1836 he wrote to Mr. Clarke, then 
 visiting Boston, requesting him to procure for 
 him a copy of " Sartor Resartus," of which he 
 had read a review, and of Wordsworth's works 
 including " Yarrow Revisited," declaring that he 
 must have those books whatever they cost, espe- 
 cially Wordsworth, for which his soul had " pined 
 all the year." 
 
 When James Freeman Clarke started in Louis- 
 ville a Western Unitarian periodical, of which he 
 was editor, Mr. Eliot was very desirous of assist- 
 ing his friend both by contributing articles to 
 the magazine and obtaining subscribers. The 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 325 
 
 former task he found difficult. "I shall get a 
 good many subscribers at Alton," he wrote, " but 
 this soliciting marrow from a shriveled brain 
 makes my heart ache to think of it. However, we 
 must put on courage and strength and do our 
 best." In a succeeding letter Mr. Eliot inclosed 
 a cheque for fifty dollars with a list of names, in- 
 forming Mr. Clarke in a postscript that the same 
 fifty dollars was a wedding fee for which he rode 
 thirty miles. 
 
 After leaving the divinity school and entering 
 upon the active work of the ministry, with, as he 
 said, " a lif e broken into fragments by the cares 
 and occupations unavoidable in a new community 
 during the revolutionary days of progress," Wil- 
 liam Eliot had little time for intellectual pursuits 
 apart from practical objects. His record of ac- 
 complishment lies more in what he planned and 
 executed than in his written works, which are 
 necessarily few in number. Most of the books 
 published by him were compilations of sermons 
 or lectures. Such was his " Doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity" issued by the American Unitarian Asso- 
 ciation, with the statement that they were " short, 
 simple, clear expositions of Christian doctrine, 
 breathing a spirit of enlarged charity and devout 
 reverence for the Sacred Scriptures." This book 
 had a large circulation. The " Lectures to Young 
 Men " and the " Lectures to Young Women " had 
 been delivered as evening discourses in the Church 
 
326 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 of the Messiah to crowded audiences in the 
 winter of 1852-53. The latter work was altered 
 and revised by Dr. Eliot, and republished under 
 the title of " Home Life and Influence " in 1880. 
 The writing of this book was to him a labor of 
 love. Although an advocate of the higher edu- 
 cation of women, he attached especial importance 
 to their "home life and influence." "I well re- 
 member," said a Mary Institute graduate, " that 
 Dr. Eliot, in addressing the pupils of the school, 
 once told us that we must remember we came to 
 ' the Mary ' for three purposes. These were, first, 
 the formation of womanly character ; secondly, the 
 acquirement of ladylike deportment ; and thirdly, 
 intellectual improvement." " We were all much 
 impressed by the Doctor's remarks," continued 
 the young lady, "because he placed womanly 
 character and ladylike deportment before intel- 
 lectual improvement." 
 
 The little book entitled " The Discipline of 
 Sorrow " was written and published in 1855, a 
 few months after the death of Dr. Eliot's eldest 
 daughter Mary, to whom he was tenderly at- 
 tached. Owing to the lack of school facilities in 
 St. Louis at that time, Mary Eliot had been her 
 father's pupil and companion, spending several 
 hours every day in his study with her books. 
 Reticent as he was in the expression of his deep- 
 est personal emotions, in " The Discipline of Sor- 
 row " Dr. Eliot voiced a grief " common to all 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 327 
 
 who mourn." In the preface of this book he ex- 
 pressed the hope that those "upon whom the 
 heavier burden had been laid," and who did not 
 seek " diversion from grief, but the power of 
 Christian endurance," would recognize in his 
 words their own individual experience, and be 
 assisted in obtaining the strength they personally 
 needed. The best preparation for sorrow Dr. 
 Eliot found in a lif e of purity and Christian faith, 
 devoted to the performance of duty ; the com- 
 pensation of its discipline in perfected human 
 nature and enlarged spiritual life. 
 
 Dr. Eliot's sermons were earnest and impres- 
 sive, and characterized by simplicity of diction. 
 Eegarding Christ as the exemplar of the perfect 
 life, he made him and his teachings the subject of 
 frequent discourse. His tone and manner added 
 impressiveness to the message he delivered. One 
 of his oldest and warmest personal friends thus 
 wrote after Dr. Eliot's death of his preaching : 
 " As a teacher, — a moral and religious teacher, 
 — who, addressing himself to his congregation, 
 warns them of the sins that most easily beset 
 them, and admonishes them of the sacred obliga- 
 tions of duty in any crisis, he was of almost un- 
 exampled power. His earnest words went to the 
 hearts of his hearers, for they carried the con- 
 viction of his own sincerity, and were enforced 
 by the most lofty morality. He was eminently 
 distinguished by practical common sense, and 
 
328 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 believing as he did that it never was, never could 
 be, expedient to palter with conscience, he seldom 
 failed to command the assent of those whom he 
 addressed. ... In the pulpit he sought to con- 
 vince and persuade, but he never attempted — I 
 should say never descended to, an oratorical flight 
 in aid of a demonstration of moral duty. For 
 awakening the attention of the careless, for rous- 
 ing the conscience of the selfish, and for teach- 
 ing all the supreme obligations of duty, he had 
 few equals. But it was the daily beauty of his 
 life which chiefly influenced those to whom he 
 spoke." 
 
 Dr. Heywood very truly said of Dr. Eliot that 
 his mind was quick to discern and firm to hold 
 essential fundamental principles. In all his writ- 
 ings the presence of this underlying basis of 
 principle and conviction is manifest, and in his 
 sermons vital truths are reiterated and enforced 
 in their varied application. Conservative he was, 
 by nature and training, as might be expected of 
 one educated under the influence of Channing 
 and other apostles of the Unitarian denomination ; 
 yet his conservatism was based on reverent faith, 
 and bore no relation to dogmatism. His mind 
 was constructive rather than destructive, cherish- 
 ing all that was sacred and memorable in the past, 
 as a priceless legacy, a repository of truth, even 
 though commingled with error. In his student 
 days he was devoted to metaphysical studies, and 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 329 
 
 never underestimated the value of speculative 
 thought, for which, to his regret, he had later 
 little time. Like Martineau, for whom personally, 
 and for whose " conservative radicalism " as he 
 termed it, he had great respect, he deemed im- 
 possible any conflict between scientific and reli- 
 gious truth, and, as already stated, desired for 
 Washington University the motto, " Truth for 
 truth's sake," " Veritas pro veritate." Of Mar- 
 tineau he said : " He has the essence and strength 
 of the most steadfast faith, the freedom of the 
 largest philosophy." Martineau led the philo- 
 sophic religious thought of his day, preaching to 
 a choice audience of the thoughtful and learned, 
 and could teach abstract spiritual truth, to which, 
 in an active ministry, it behooved Dr. Eliot to 
 give concrete expression through the life and ex- 
 ample of Christ. 
 
 When in 1870, after a continued pastorate of 
 thirty-six years, Dr. Eliot retired from the pulpit 
 of the Church of the Messiah, it was because he 
 realized that his strength was no longer adequate 
 to its duties. Although he did not leave the 
 Christian ministry, he regarded with keen regret 
 his retirement from its active work, and appar- 
 ently ever afterwards felt that something was 
 gone from his life. In the draft of an anniver- 
 sary sermon prepared for the meeting of the 
 National Unitarian Association in 1870 appears 
 a statement afterwards suppressed in the copy, 
 
330 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 which indicates his state of mind at that time. 
 He wrote : " I am here not even as the pastor 
 of a church, for by my own act that relation has 
 ceased, and the pulpit of the Church of the Mes- 
 siah in St. Louis is waiting for an occupant. I 
 say it with feelings of profoundest regret, for 
 the work had become too great for me to do, and 
 stronger and abler men must have place to do 
 it. But in laying down that office held through 
 thirty-six years of earnest endeavor, under cir- 
 cumstances of difficulty and trial which few men 
 know, I have taken up a cross the weight of 
 which was greater than I had thought, and my 
 heart fails within me to bear it. Dearer to me 
 than life itself is the precious ministry of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Most sacred of all commands 
 is his word, ' Feed my sheep.' Higher than all 
 worldly honor is the privilege of speaking in 
 Christ's stead, persuading men to be reconciled 
 to God. Only for a season therefore, and under 
 providential necessity, have I left the work, and 
 in some humbler way shall hope to resume it 
 again." 
 
 In a sermon on " The Inspiration and Work 
 of the Christian Ministry," published ten years 
 later, in 1880, Dr. Eliot presented a very high 
 ideal of a minister's vocation. Taking as his 
 theme the conversion of Saul, he asserted that 
 a like inspiration to that received by him, fill- 
 ing the heart with a pervading and controlling 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 331 
 
 purpose of self-consecration for truth and good- 
 ness, was still needful, and without it the most 
 eloquent preaching of the most stately pulpit was 
 of little effect. Dr. Eliot attributed the conver- 
 sion of Saul to the memory of the " patience 
 and sublime courage " of the martyred Stephen, 
 the recollection arousing his conscience until " the 
 divine elements of his nature overcame the sel- 
 fish and carnal." Such a change need not be, 
 usually is not, sudden or violent. 
 
 Skepticism and agnosticism, Dr. Eliot thought, 
 had no place in the pulpit, since faith in the liv- 
 ing and ever-present God, in the human soul 
 and its personal immortality, in universal brother- 
 hood, in the infinite difference between right 
 and wrong, " in a word, faith in Christian truth, 
 which embraces all spiritual truth, from whatever 
 source it may come, and in the life of Jesus as 
 the embodiment of the truths he taught, . . . 
 this faith ... is the needful inspiration of the 
 gospel ministry." 
 
 Of such faith, Dr. Eliot declared, " the direct 
 and necessary consequence " was self-consecration 
 to the work given to the minister to do. " Self- 
 consecration, the grandest word in the English 
 language," he exclaimed, " the key to all hero- 
 ism, the first condition of all great attainment 
 whether in art or knowledge or philanthropy or 
 spiritual life ; leading to self-denial and self-sac- 
 rifice, but carrying us far beyond them by making 
 
332 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the will of God our will." Self-consecration was 
 always an essential principle in Dr. Eliot's creed, 
 and he inculcated it by precept and example. 
 
 In answer to the question, " How shall the 
 gospel be declared ? " Dr. Eliot indicated three 
 methods : " By direct precept, whatever can 
 make the beauty and excellence of Christ's life 
 and his doctrines known ; by regard for the in- 
 stitutions of Christianity ; by lives of righteous- 
 ness, purity, self-denial, and active usefulness." 
 
 Christ's life and teachings were, we know, a 
 frequent subject of discourse with Dr. Eliot. To 
 the institutions of Christianity, baptism and the 
 Lord's Supper, he attached especial importance, 
 not " from superstitious regard," but as a " sym- 
 bol of faith," the " time-honored bond of Chris- 
 tian brotherhood." His manner on such occa- 
 sions was unusually impressive and reverential, 
 as if he were conscious of the divine presence. 
 He considered the communion table the centre 
 of the religious life of a church. 
 
 Above all else, Dr. Eliot regarded the righteous 
 life of the minister as the most potent influence 
 for good among his people. " This is the great 
 power," he said, "the irresistible argument for 
 the truth as it is in Jesus. . . . Even in the 
 Great Teacher himself, this is the chief power 
 of persuasion, the source of abiding authority. 
 The Christian religion would have died out long 
 ago, under the load of corruptions and abuses, 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 333 
 
 if the life of Jesus had not been its continued 
 salvation." 
 
 Believing as he did in the power of spiritual 
 truth as manifested in the life and character, and 
 in the infinite value of exalted personality, Dr. 
 Eliot always declared the importance of personal 
 allegiance to Christ, and this doctrine he asserted 
 with increasing emphasis as a judgment strength- 
 ened by experience. In a sermon on " The Chris- 
 tian Faith and Life," he said : " To do justly, 
 to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God, is 
 everywhere and always a sure passport to his 
 favor, whether in Christian or heathen lands. 
 But . . . here in Christendom, where the Chris- 
 tian religion is the recognized standard of moral 
 civilization, and open and avowed allegiance to 
 Jesus Christ as guide, teacher, and spiritual re- 
 deemer is the wise and rational course, no great 
 moral movement, no spiritual organization, cer- 
 tainly no Christian church, can be successfully 
 maintained without a recognized leader, a spirit- 
 ual authority, to whom there is the highest ap- 
 peal. If the time ever comes for such authority 
 to be superseded, it must be only because a higher 
 and better light comes in. A new leader, a more 
 glorious redeemer, must first appear, to whom 
 the transferred allegiance may be given. But al- 
 ways, on the common principles of human nature, 
 it is to a personal guide, a living redeemer, that 
 we must look. Abstractions, however pure and 
 
334 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 glorious, do not comfort, do not strengthen the 
 desponding soul, do not save from besetting sins. 
 The counsel of a trusted friend who speaks from 
 experience and transfers to us the consolations 
 and strength of his own heart is better than them 
 all." 
 
 In Martineau's Introduction to Taylor's " Re- 
 trospect of the Religious Life of England," he 
 lays the same emphasis on the power of a lofty 
 personality to embody and vitalize the truths of 
 morality and religion, which, thereafter no longer 
 " logical and abstract," appeal to the mass of 
 mankind with greater force after they have " come 
 through human life." He also says : " There are 
 many Unitarians . . . who expect no help in 
 their approach to God and ascent to higher duty, 
 except through the hierarchy of greater and holier 
 minds, but who see in Jesus Christ the supreme 
 term in that hierarchy." 
 
 A series of four sermons by Dr. Eliot, delivered 
 in 1864^-65, was published in pamphlet form, un- 
 der the title of " Christ's Record of Himself, an 
 Expression of Faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ." 
 Dr. Eliot, in 1882, had this pamphlet reprinted 
 from the first edition, " as a renewed expression 
 of that Faith in Jesus Christ and his Gospel " by 
 which he had been " measurably sustained in the 
 duties and trials of a life already prolonged be- 
 yond the assigned limits of threescore years and 
 ten." They were written for those " whose hearts 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 335 
 
 yearned" for a Saviour who could "show them 
 the Father," and relieve them from the conflict 
 of doubt and ignorance by assured words of con- 
 scious spiritual nearness to God. These sermons 
 were written in confirmation of the " divine mis- 
 sion " of Christ, Dr. Eliot declaring this to be " the 
 great religious question " of the day, and also 
 asserting that there was a wider and more im- 
 portant difference " between the rejection of 
 Christ's spiritual authority and its admission, 
 than between any two believers in him who 
 differ only as to the degree of his exaltation ; 
 since when the authority of Christ is admitted, 
 his commands and doctrines rest upon the divine 
 sanction with sufficient certainty, whatever be 
 the opinion concerning his nature." Accepting 
 his "record of himself," Dr. Eliot maintained 
 that Christ claimed a degree of dignity, author- 
 ity, and power such as no one else in all the re- 
 cords of history has ever claimed ; and secondly, 
 that he distinctly declared the fact of limitation 
 and his own entire dependence upon God. 
 
 In a sermon on " Christ and Liberty," deliv- 
 ered at the National Unitarian Conference in 
 1870, Dr. Eliot renewed his assertion of faith in 
 the spiritual authority of Christ, and expressed 
 his sense of the value of Christian obedience. 
 He said : " The teaching of Jesus Christ is the 
 truth of God, and his commands are the law of 
 God, and our spiritual freedom is then most per- 
 
336 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 fectly attained when we have most fully received 
 his truth and law into our hearts." 
 
 Although Dr. Eliot did not claim for Christian- 
 ity a monopoly of spiritual truth, he believed that 
 most men, like himself, felt the need of a " guide 
 and saviour." " There are two conceivable ways,' ' 
 he said, " by which men may come to the know- 
 ledge of the highest spiritual truth, and to a per- 
 fect system of morality. One may be called, for 
 distinction, the rational or philosophical ; the 
 other is the faith of Christian obedience. By the 
 former a few persons of studious minds, and with 
 opportunity for self-scrutiny and metaphysical 
 thought, may rise from step to step, seeking after 
 God if haply they may find Him, until at last 
 they come to the highest that man can know, and 
 find it to be the same which Jesus taught to the 
 Samaritan woman eighteen hundred years ago : 
 ' God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must 
 worship Him in spirit and in truth ; ' or, in seek- 
 ing to attain the perfect ideal of human virtue, 
 we determine to five every day up to our highest 
 convictions of duty, to do no wrong, to indulge 
 no impure thought, to have no selfish motive, to 
 make the best of every faculty and control every 
 tendency of evil. Slowly and painfully we struggle 
 upwards, with many doubts and fears, questioning 
 of the way and with uncertain aim, until, having 
 labored long and hard, we come, perhaps, to one 
 who ' opens the Scriptures ' and shows us, in 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 337 
 
 Christ's example and the gospel system of mo- 
 rality, the rule by which we have unwittingly 
 been striving to live." 
 
 " To the vast majority of men, and to the young 
 universally, the plainer path of Christian obedi- 
 ence is the safer way. Others must judge for 
 themselves ; but for myself I am ready to avow 
 my need of a guide and saviour by voluntary and 
 hearty submission to Jesus Christ. We are not 
 humbled, but exalted, not brought under a law 
 of bondage, but under the law of liberty, which 
 is perfect freedom." 
 
 If a man so well poised as Dr. Eliot could be 
 said to have a " ruling passion," it was surely the 
 love of doing good. From early youth until the 
 close of life he was devoted to the service of 
 humanity, recognizing in mankind that common 
 bond of fellowship which Christianity emphasizes. 
 As the " Son of man " who had borne the sor- 
 rows and " carried the griefs " of mankind, he 
 reverenced Christ and regarded him with peculiar 
 affection. 
 
 In a sermon from the text, " Inasmuch as ye 
 have done it unto one of the least of these my 
 brethren, ye have done it unto me," Dr. Eliot 
 declared that " the least of these my brethren " 
 might be the lowest and most degraded of the 
 human race, but were not for that reason removed 
 from the sympathy of Christ nor should be from 
 that of his followers. " This," he said, " is the 
 
338 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 new theory of religion. It is the divinely revealed 
 rule of worship. It is the new and acceptable 
 service of God. It is the final test of Christian 
 discipleship. It is the practical platform of the 
 broad Christian church." 
 
 Dr. Eliot thus continued : " He who recognizes 
 in every human being the presence of the Son of 
 man, the glorified divine humanity which consti- 
 tutes every immortal soul, however scarred and 
 stained, the child of God ; ... he who can look 
 through all the incrustations of sin, and with the 
 Christian's eye of faith discern there, in the cen- 
 tre of the world-corrupted heart, the holy child 
 Jesus, the divine seed of spiritual life which will 
 surely find its development and growth to man- 
 hood in the ages of eternity ; he who thus reads 
 human nature in the mystery of its degradation, 
 and treats it with reverent tenderness because it 
 is allied to him who by his sinless glory is the 
 incarnation of the invisible God, is the one who 
 best understands the gospel of Jesus Christ. . . . 
 
 "We puzzle ourselves about the nature of 
 Christ, and how he stands related to God ; but 
 the more important thing for us to know is, how 
 he is related to man, and wherein his glory as the 
 Son of man consists ; for by understanding this 
 we partake of it, and shall discern it, or seek for 
 it, in every human being. 
 
 " We are weary of the discussions about Chris- 
 tian worship and creeds. What place in the God- 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 339 
 
 head does Jesus hold ? ... As if he cared about 
 that ! As if the highest terms of praise and ado- 
 ration were anything but mockery and contempt, 
 when spoken by those who refuse to give him food 
 and shelter and kindly sympathy by refusing to 
 give them to ' these his brethren.' 
 
 " We leave Jesus the Son of man to suffer the 
 pains of cold, and hunger, and loneliness, while 
 we are bitterly disputing how we may acceptably 
 worship Jesus the Son of God. 
 
 " We would only go back to Jesus Christ and 
 him crucified ; the Christ of self-denial, the 
 Christ of self-sacrifice, the Christ of humanity 
 and love. From him we will not go." 
 
 In the largest work of philanthropy, not less 
 than in the best development of religious thought, 
 we believe that " other foundation can no man 
 lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 
 
 Dr. Eliot always inculcated the highest moral- 
 ity. Though charitable to the offender, he was 
 always earnest and impassioned in his denuncia- 
 tion of sin. " The most serious of all subjects," 
 he wrote, " is sin. It should never be spoken of 
 lightly. By all the happiness it destroys, by all 
 the misery it produces, by the glorious inheritance 
 of which it deprives us, by the brutal debasement 
 to which it brings us down, I conjure you never 
 to think lightly of sin. It is our worst enemy ; 
 let us so regard it. Nay, it is our only enemy. 
 All other enemies can be converted into friends, 
 
340 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 but this — never. Only by absolute, unconditional 
 resistance can we find peace here or hereafter." 
 
 Of the sins of omission he wrote : " What 
 right have we to think that the opportunity of 
 to-day will be renewed to-morrow ? To-day vic- 
 tory is offered, the enemy is unprepared, the way 
 is open. To-morrow, forewarned, he is armed and 
 ready ; the way is closed, and instead of victory, 
 defeat. Opportunity is offered to every one ; he 
 who knows how promptly to improve it is the 
 most successful man. While we hesitate to strike, 
 the iron cools, and then no vigor of striking will 
 do. It is sin, this loss of opportunity, this pre- 
 suming on to-morrow. A little more sleep, a little 
 more slumber, a little more folding of the hands 
 in sleep ; so shall poverty come upon thee like 
 an armed man." 
 
 Among sins of omission, Dr. Eliot especially in- 
 cluded neglect of the lowly. When in 1865, after 
 the Civil War, he visited the prisons of St. Louis 
 County, which were then in wretched condition, 
 he published a statement addressed to his fellow- 
 citizens, wherein, after giving the results of his 
 careful inspection of the jails, he urged reform as 
 a Christian obligation, maintaining that "sins of 
 omission were sometimes as heinous as crimes 
 of the worst barbarity." 
 
 Although when called upon to speak without 
 preparation Dr. Eliot's speech was always appro- 
 priate and felicitous, his sermons were usually 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 341 
 
 written beforehand, or he preached from full 
 notes. Whenever he spoke extemporaneously, so 
 logical was his reasoning, so convincing his argu- 
 ment, that the discourse bore the stamp of careful 
 preparation. As an instance of his readiness in 
 such unpremeditated utterance, his friend Rev. 
 John H. Heywood relates how on the 10th of 
 April, 1841, Dr. Eliot went to Louisville to preach. 
 The news of the death of President Harrison had 
 just reached that then distant outpost. There 
 was no time to write the sermon which the im- 
 portance of the event demanded, and so with no 
 opportunity for preparation Dr. Eliot entered the 
 pulpit and preached a sermon, which was, Dr. 
 Heywood declared, " plain and unpretentious, 
 but so admirable in arrangement, so clear in state- 
 ment, so exact in analysis, so fairly and finely ap- 
 preciative of the late President's life and character, 
 so justly interpreting the moral and spiritual les- 
 sons taught by the event, that the mind of every 
 hearer was held in closest, deepest attention." 
 
 Prayer Dr. Eliot regarded as the sublimest ex- 
 pression of religious feeling of which the human 
 soul is capable. To Dr. Clarke, evidently in re- 
 sponse to some remark from him, he wrote : 
 " You cannot pray ! It is strange — very strange 
 — that when the mind is so exhausted that it can- 
 not think one sentence, it should be unable to 
 engage in the most powerful exercise of which it 
 is capable. . . . When I came from Peoria two 
 
342 WILLIAM GRBENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 weeks since I was fresh. ' I will pray earnestly 
 every day,' but I cannot. I could ' say prayers,' 
 but that I will not. For a few minutes daily I 
 pray, and for the rest I try to live and think and 
 feel in the spirit of prayer. It is the highest 
 effort of the whole mind ; to realize the Presence 
 — to feel the Love — to trust implicitly, yet not 
 idly, in God. I am perhaps too lenient to myself, 
 but I will no longer harass myself because my soul 
 will not work in the traces which Richard Baxter 
 wore. He was a good man and prayed by the 
 hour. I will be a good man by God's help, and 
 pray as much as I can." 
 
 For a very few special occasions Dr. Eliot wrote 
 prayers, of which several exist in manuscript form. 
 One of these, written under the strain of a great 
 sorrow, is given for the sake of other parents who 
 have suffered the loss of children. On the 20th 
 of February, 1865, Dr. Eliot's daughter Ada, a 
 young girl then sixteen years of age, was drowned 
 while skating with two companions, only children 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Salisbury. The first 
 shock of the news of this terrible event com- 
 pletely overwhelmed Dr. Eliot, but he soon recov- 
 ered himself. Mindful of his duty as a pastor, 
 and sympathizing with the parents who were more 
 completely bereaved than himself, he attended 
 the funeral of the Salisbury children, and from 
 the depths of his own sorrow thus addressed the 
 mourners present : " You who are parents know 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 343 
 
 full well that there is no strength, no hope, no 
 consolation except in God. Thanks be to God 
 who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. It is given to us ; we do not accomplish 
 it. We can fight the good fight, we can keep the 
 faith. But the victory over death and the grave 
 is given to us by God, through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. They cannot return to us, but we shall 
 go to them. All of them are together now, dear 
 friends, the children whom God gave to you. 
 ' The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; 
 blessed be the name of the Lord.' Even Jesus 
 prayed, ' Let this cup pass from me.' May God 
 help us also to say, ' Thy will be done.' 
 
 " And to you who are young and full of fife 
 and hope as they were, I entreat you to be also 
 as pure and religious and good. They always 
 lived near to God and to his holy child, Jesus. 
 They had given their hearts to him who died 
 for them. They were with him here on earth, 
 they are with him now in heaven. You cannot 
 secure length of life, but by God's help you may 
 secure its blessedness. You may consecrate your 
 hearts, your lives, your all, in the Christian ser- 
 vice, as those who have been taken from us have 
 done." 
 
 On the following day, at the funeral service 
 of his own daughter, Dr. Eliot prayed : — 
 
 "Almighty and most merciful God, who has 
 taught us to call thee our Father, we thank thee 
 
344 WILLIAM GKEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 for this, that as a Father pitieth his children, so 
 thou dost pity us. Most sorely do we feel the 
 need of a Father's sympathy and love. Our 
 hearts are bruised, they are broken ; but the 
 broken and contrite heart thou wilt not despise. 
 
 " We try to say it : ' Thy will, not ours, be 
 done.' We struggle with ourselves, with groan- 
 ings not to be uttered. The spirit is willing but 
 the flesh is weak. Thou knowest our weakness. 
 Thou rememberest we are dust. Have pity upon 
 us, God our Father ! Out of the depths of sor- 
 row we cry out to thee, the Living God. Give 
 us strength ; withhold not from us thy consola- 
 tion. Our hope is in thee ; let us not be con- 
 founded. 
 
 " For this blessed one, God, and for all our 
 family in heaven, we thank thee. They still be- 
 long to us, for they are with thee. The joy of our 
 lives is fading away by the loss of their daily 
 presence, and our beloved homes seem desolate 
 and our hearts are bereaved. God, pity our 
 bereavement ! pardon the unreasonableness of 
 grief ! The dark waves of trouble have so 
 often gone over us, we are cast down, almost de- 
 stroyed. Yet we thank thee for them. All that 
 remains of life is not more precious than their 
 memory. Thou alone knowest how we loved 
 them. But we would not call them back. Our 
 souls faint within us when we say it, for they 
 were dearer than our life. But thou art giving 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 345 
 
 us the victory. We are dumb with silence, because 
 it is thy doing. Thy will, not ours, be done." 
 
 Not only at this time, but always, Dr. Eliot 
 sympathized in the sorrows of his people, as he 
 also rejoiced with them. There seems to be a 
 popular delusion that a man cannot be both a 
 faithful pastor and a good preacher. If one 
 regards a sermon simply as a literary production, 
 an essay with well-rounded period and graceful 
 simile, this may be true ; but if its purpose be 
 rather to rouse the conscience than delight the 
 ear, to quicken the spiritual life and engender 
 hope and faith rather than merely to stimulate 
 the intellectual powers, then that minister who 
 has had the largest and deepest human experi- 
 ence, who has been nearest to his people in their 
 joys and sorrows, ought to be able to move and 
 influence them as could no theorist of the study. 
 
 One only of Dr. Eliot's books may be consid- 
 ered purely secular, and this is the " Life of 
 Archer Alexander." While upholding the prin- 
 ciple of allegiance to law, Dr. Eliot maintained, . 
 as already mentioned, that under rare circum- 
 stances a true higher law might cause one to 
 stand in direct conflict with the " authorities 
 that be," and that to the state or community this 
 was nothing but the right of revolution, to the 
 individual the call to martyrdom. Doubtless in 
 making this statement he had in mind the Fugi- 
 tive Slave Law, a law which, in a slave State, he 
 
346 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 had denounced from the pulpit, and declared 
 that he would not obey, preferring rather to 
 "bear the penalty of paying the price of the 
 non-surrendered slave, or of the adjudged im- 
 prisonment." When such an issue arose, he was 
 prepared to meet it, as related in his " Life of 
 Archer Alexander." 
 
 Archer Alexander was a slave, who at the out- 
 break of the Civil War lived in St. Charles 
 County, not far from St. Louis. He was an intel- 
 ligent man, and, from the discussions which he 
 frequently overheard, realized that the interests 
 of his race, and their hope of freedom, lay with 
 the party of the Union. When therefore in Feb- 
 ruary, 1863, he learned that the supports of a 
 bridge over which the Union troops were to 
 pass had been sawed through, he walked five 
 miles by night to the house of a Union man, to 
 convey the intelligence and give warning. He 
 fell under suspicion, his life was threatened by 
 secessionists, and with the fear of assassination 
 to spur him on, he succeeded in making his 
 escape to St. Louis. He came to work as an 
 employee on Dr. Eliot's place, and soon revealed 
 his identity. The city was then under martial 
 law, and Dr. Eliot obtained from the provost 
 marshal a permit for Archer's service during a 
 period of thirty days, or until his master estab- 
 lished a legal claim. Meantime with the purpose 
 of immediately enfranchising Archer, Dr. Eliot 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 347 
 
 endeavored to purchase him, and a note con- 
 taining the request and offer was sent by Judge 
 Bates of St. Louis. The only effect of this com- 
 munication was the violent abduction of the 
 poor slave from Dr. Eliot's place by hired ruf- 
 fians. As the period of thirty days, for which 
 Archer's permit had been granted, had not yet 
 expired, Dr. Eliot appealed to the military 
 authorities, and by the aid of detectives Archer 
 was discovered in jail, from which place his 
 abductors expected to take him to Kentucky. 
 He was returned to Dr. Eliot, to whom was 
 granted protection for the poor man for an 
 indefinite period. Again Dr. Eliot offered to 
 purchase him, but no attention was paid to his 
 second communication, and eventually with the 
 rest of his race Archer became a free man. 
 
 At the request of his children, Dr. Eliot em- 
 bodied the incidents of Archer Alexander's life 
 in the form of a narrative which reads like 
 fiction. Incidentally the " Life of Archer Alex- 
 ander " became what the author termed in the 
 preface, " a fair presentation of slavery in the 
 Border States for the twenty or thirty years pre- 
 ceding the outbreak of hostilities." Of the 
 justice of this claim Dr. Eliot was convinced, 
 when a leading publishing house in a Northern 
 city, to whom the manuscript was submitted, 
 objected to its publication as being " too tame 
 to satisfy the public taste." Parties equally 
 
348 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 prominent in a city farther south declared that 
 the judgment of slavery and slaveholders was 
 too harsh, and that the publication of Archer's 
 story would be prejudicial to the publishers. Dr. 
 Eliot tells us that he then asked the opinion of 
 several friends who, having always lived in the 
 slave States, had yet devoted their lives to the 
 cause of freedom, and were therefore qualified to 
 give a dispassionate judgment as to the truth of 
 his delineation " of the relation between master 
 and slave, and the social condition of slavehold- 
 ing communities." They more than confirmed 
 the truth of Dr. Eliot's statements. 
 
 In the preface to the " Life of Archer Alex- 
 ander," Dr. Eliot also declared that only those 
 who had lived in the border slave States from 
 1830 to 1860 could understand the complica- 
 tions and difficulties of the irrepressible conflict, 
 or how hard it was to maintain self-respect 
 " under the necessities of deliberate and cautious 
 action," and " to speak plainly without giving 
 such degree of offense as would prevent one from 
 speaking at all." Yet it was in these States that 
 " the first and hardest battles for freedom were 
 fought, and where the ground was prepared upon 
 which the first great victories were won." 
 
 Upon this subject Dr. Eliot might well speak 
 with deep feeling. He himself had worked with 
 unchanging persistency of purpose in the cause of 
 emancipation, yet had been censured for adopt- 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 349 
 
 ing a " temporizing, time-serving policy," while 
 the very fact of his continued residence in a slave 
 community was held as a reproach against him. 
 Yet there, true to his principles, he was endeavor- 
 ing to acquire an influence that he could use to 
 good purpose when the fitting time arrived. What 
 he thus accomplished has been already shown. 
 
 The value of Dr. Eliot's impartial presentation 
 of the social condition of slaveholding commu- 
 nities may at some future time be more fully ap- 
 preciated. " Uncle Tom's Cabin " will always be 
 popular ; yet a future generation, knowing it to 
 be a work of fiction, may believe the picture over- 
 drawn. In the true story of Archer Alexander, 
 Dr. Eliot declared that there is nothing in all the 
 scenes of " Uncle Tom's Cabin " to which he him- 
 self could not find a parallel in all he had seen 
 and known in St. Louis previous to the war of 
 secession. To such books as the " Life of Archer 
 Alexander "the student of history must turn for 
 reliable information regarding the " peculiar in- 
 stitution." 
 
 Archer Alexander, the man, has been immor- 
 talized by Thomas Ball, a sculptor, in the bronze 
 group surmounting a monument erected by the 
 colored people of the United States as a memorial 
 to Abraham Lincoln, and known as " Freedom's 
 Memorial." It stands in the Capitol grounds at 
 Washington, and its duplicate in Park Square, 
 Boston. In this group Lincoln is represented in 
 
350 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the act of emancipating a negro slave, who kneels 
 to receive the benediction while grasping his 
 chain as if to break it. In the original design 
 the figure of the slave was ideal ; but at the re- 
 quest of the Western Sanitary Commission, the 
 active agent in collecting the funds and erecting 
 the monument, the figure of Archer Alexander, 
 as the representative of his race, was substituted. 
 The likeness is exact. 
 
 The Freedmen's Memorial Monument to Abra- 
 ham Lincoln was inaugurated in Lincoln Park, 
 Washington, D. C, on the eleventh anniversary 
 of his death, April 14, 1876. To Dr. Eliot was 
 assigned the presentation of the monument " for 
 the acceptance and approval of those who had 
 contributed the funds for its erection," and he 
 was also expected to give a brief history of the 
 memorial. This he prepared and forwarded to 
 Mr. James E. Yeatman, with the request that he 
 act as the representative of the Western Sanitary 
 Commission on this occasion. To Mr. Yeatman 
 Dr. Eliot's absence was a matter of regret, and 
 in a letter he said : " To you more than to any 
 one else is the success of our Commission to be 
 attributed. It was your head that conceived, 
 planned, and developed the work. It was your 
 hand at the helm that guided the ship in its 
 course. . . . We can spare any one better than 
 yourself, the most important, the soul and 
 embodiment of the Commission. Your lifelong 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 351 
 
 sympathies with the cause of freedom should 
 prompt you to be present to witness the crown- 
 ing act of gratitude of the emancipated to the 
 emancipator." 
 
 The "Life of Archer Alexander." was pub- 
 lished in 1885, little over a year previous to the 
 death of Dr. Eliot. His strength was then gradu- 
 ally failing. For many years he had been subject 
 to headaches, constantly increasing in frequency, 
 and lasting for longer periods. This was the pro- 
 test of an overtaxed brain while the mind was 
 still clear and active, full of plans for the future 
 of Washington University and other useful work. 
 
 In the summer of 1886, on his seventy-sixth 
 birthday, August 5, 1886, Dr. Eliot wrote the 
 poem "Nunc Dimittis," which voiced his own 
 consciousness of his approaching end, and his 
 desire of release from suffering and disability, 
 while ready to live or die " as the Lord willed." 
 
 " Fain would I breathe that gracious word, 
 Now lettest thou thy servant, Lord, 
 
 Depart in peace. 
 When may I humbly claim that kind award, 
 
 And cares and labors cease ? 
 With anxious heart I watch at heaven's gate — 
 
 Answer to hear ; 
 With failing strength I feel the increasing weight 
 
 Of every passing year. 
 Hath not the time yet fully come, dear Lord, 
 
 Thy servant to release ? 
 
 " Be still, my heart I In silence God doth speak, 
 Here is thy place; here, not at heaven's gate; 
 
352 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Thy task is not yet finished; frail and weak, 
 
 Doing or suffering, steadfast in thy faith, 
 
 Thy service is accepted, small or great; 
 
 His time is thine — or soon or late, 
 
 If daylight fades, work while the twilight lasts." 
 
 Dr. Eliot, very frail and feeble, returned in 
 the fall of 1886, from Jefferson, New Hamp- 
 shire, to his home in St. Louis. With indomitable 
 will he continued to struggle against increasing 
 weakness, longing to achieve purposes still unac- 
 complished for which he would gladly have lived. 
 At the beginning of the new year he was taken 
 south to the milder climate of Pass Christian, 
 Mississippi, where he died January 23, 1887. 
 His active mind remained clear and conscious to 
 the last moment of life. 
 
 What was the secret of Dr. Eliot's power? 
 Above all else, his absolute self-consecration to 
 the service of God and man, which was to him 
 not only a duty but a divine instinct inspired by 
 love. This it was that impelled him to leave home 
 and friends and the attractions of the older com- 
 munities to work in the then " far West," and 
 later to resist the temptation to return eastward 
 under favorable auspices. He went to St. Louis 
 not only as an evangelist, a missionary of a 
 liberal faith to spiritualize Unitarianism in the 
 West, but as an educator, a philanthropist, a 
 patriotic citizen of the Republic, to assist in 
 founding institutions of learning, in advancing 
 all humane objects, and in making Missouri a 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 353 
 
 free State. Strong and decided in his convictions, 
 he never wavered from a purpose once formed, 
 founded as it was sure to be on eternal principles 
 of right and justice. He wrote truly to James 
 Freeman Clarke in his student days, that princi- 
 ples were what his nature craved. Upon these as 
 a foundation was based all his work. He began 
 his ministry in St. Louis, with an assertion in his 
 first sermon delivered there of the principles upon 
 which a Christian society should be founded, de- 
 claring that the primary object of such an organ- 
 ization ought to be the accomplishment of the 
 Christian character in the individual members, 
 while next in importance were usefulness in works 
 of kindness and benevolence and the diffusion of 
 Christian truth. These principles were not for- 
 gotten by the pastor or people of the Church of 
 the Messiah, as attested in many a life of integ- 
 rity and usefulness. 
 
 In assertion of the principle of the supreme 
 importance of high personal character, Dr. Eliot 
 declared in his sermon on " Social Reform " that 
 the regeneration of society depended upon the 
 individuals of which it was composed, and their 
 moral and religious status determined public sen- 
 timent and action. 
 
 Ardent in the cause of education, Dr. Eliot ad- 
 vocated absolute non-sectarianism in the conduct 
 of the free schools, and this principle was recog- 
 nized in the charter of Washington University, 
 
354 WILLIAM GBEENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 for which institution he would fain have adopted 
 the motto, " Veritas pro veritate." Faithful 
 also to the ideal of " a good education for the 
 many, the best possible education for the few," 
 no financial exigency ever betrayed Washington 
 University into lowering its standard of educa- 
 tion for the sake of increasing the number of its 
 students. 
 
 Living in a slave State, and regarding slavery 
 as a curse and eidl scarcely to be endured, Dr. 
 Eliot yet believed that as an institution of long 
 standing it permeated the social fabric, and had 
 received the sanction of law, regard for which and 
 the Constitution was a sacred obligation. With- 
 out a violation of the principle of the supremacy 
 of law, by legitimate methods he desired to see 
 slavery abolished, with the least possible injury 
 to established rights and forms of law. For this 
 reason, and because he realized the momentous 
 social change involved in the altered relation be- 
 tween whites and blacks in the slave States by the 
 abolition of slavery, he advocated gradual eman- 
 cipation ; yet when finally the problem approached 
 solution during the war period, no man could be 
 more eager and anxious than Dr. Eliot to hasten 
 the dawn of freedom. 
 
 During the period of the Civil War, in the pa- 
 triotic sermons delivered by Dr. Eliot on various 
 occasions, the principle of reverence for law was 
 inculcated as a more exalted principle of action 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 355 
 
 than simply the emotion of patriotism. Loyalty 
 to the Union as a sacred obligation he urged 
 again and again. " The soul of our country," 
 he said, " is the Union. A Confederation will 
 not do. It was tried and failed long ago, and 
 now its hope of succeeding would be a hundred 
 times less. Under the secession doctrine no na- 
 tion could exist." 
 
 Although founded on principle, Dr. Eliot's pa- 
 triotism was characterized also by exalted emo- 
 tion. In a sermon addressed to the members of 
 the " Old Guard," referring to his own early re- 
 collection of " the booming cannon and shouts 
 of rejoicing in the city of Baltimore when the 
 British abandoned the attack on Fort Henry," 
 he said : " They may tell us we lack the enthu- 
 siasm of youth and its freshness of feeling, but 
 what can the young man have to inspire him with 
 memories such as these ? With us the love of 
 country is the love of life, and to witness our 
 country's ruin would be the disappointment of 
 all our hopes, the failure of life's work. ... In 
 advancing life the heart's fire burns less impetu- 
 ously, and the pulse is more calm and slow ; but 
 the fire of patriotism never goes out ; it needs no 
 rekindling, and the heart once thoroughly warmed 
 by it, grows cold only in death." 
 
 As Dr. Eliot believed that the Civil War would 
 never have occurred had there existed in the 
 South a proper spirit of reverence for law and 
 
356 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 the Constitution, so he thought that the recogni- 
 tion of this principle and that of national suprem- 
 acy as opposed to the extreme doctrine of state 
 rights was essential to the work of reconstruction. 
 The record of Dr. Eliot's public services dwin- 
 dles in comparison with the story of his deeds of 
 kindness to individuals. As a minister he felt a 
 personal interest in each member of his congre- 
 gation. In his work for emancipation he did not 
 overlook the bondman or bondwoman whom he 
 could rescue for freedom. The Western Sanitary 
 Commission, unlike the United States Sanitary 
 Commission, was not organized on a theory, but 
 arose from the exigency of the moment when 
 wounded and dying soldiers were brought to St. 
 Louis, and there was no place ready to receive 
 them. While organizing and directing the work 
 of the Commission, Dr. Eliot visited daily the 
 sick and dying in the hospitals. Long after the 
 war his old horse " Ned " wanted to stop wher- 
 ever there had formerly stood a hospital. His 
 sympathies were limited to no caste, color, creed, 
 or party, except as he regarded " the least of 
 these my brethren " as more peculiarly under his 
 care, among such including the negro whom he 
 aided from slavery to freedom. In the work of 
 the Western Sanitary Commission he recognized 
 no distinction of friend or foe, of Federal or Con- 
 federate, in the treatment of the sick and wounded. 
 As a minister, although a Unitarian in faith, he 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 357 
 
 belonged to the church universal whose congre- 
 gation includes all humanity. 
 
 In a letter published after his death, a friend 
 wrote of him : " His tender considerateness, his 
 warm and ready sympathy with suffering in all 
 its forms, his generous assistance given with a 
 lavish hand (by this man so parsimonious to him- 
 self) whenever he saw a need, — these were his 
 characteristics. . . . No one observed more reli- 
 giously than he. the precept not to let the right 
 hand know the good deeds of the left." 
 
 Dr. Eliot's work for temperance reform was in- 
 spired by his personal experience of the " social 
 unwritten statistics of intemperance." Through 
 a sort of inductive method, his public measures 
 were often the result of the saving work he was 
 called upon to do in the ministry. In the pur- 
 suit of a cause he never lost sight of the individ- 
 ual men and women who were to be benefited. 
 
 In a memorial sermon Dr. James Freeman 
 Clarke said : " William Eliot was appealed to as 
 an adviser and guide in all kinds of perplexities. 
 He sometimes took long journeys to bring 
 domestic peace to a household, to reconcile 
 parents to children. His wisdom, firmness, kind- 
 ness, loyalty to right, usually brought concord 
 out of discord. This he was accustomed to call 
 the fancy work of a minister's profession." 
 
 A prominent trait in Dr. Eliot's character, 
 acknowledged by himself, was his dread of 
 
358 WILLIAM GKJSENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 praise. Said Dr. Clarke in his memorial sermon, 
 referring to Dr. Eliot : " It was his often ex- 
 pressed wish that nothing should be said of him 
 in the way of eulogy. He disliked praise as most 
 men dislike blame; but I think it is due to 
 truth and to the interest of humanity that one 
 who has led a steady life of self-denying useful- 
 ness should have it put on record, to encourage 
 others to do the same. It is as idle for a man to 
 try to conceal his manliness, as to conceal his 
 faults." 
 
 The motto on Dr. Eliot's family crest was 
 " Tace et fac." Another less commonly used in 
 the family was, " Non nobis solum," and this he 
 preferred. Praise seemed to induce in him a 
 feeling of humility that he had not accomplished 
 more. To God he would indeed give all the 
 glory. Dr. James Freeman Clarke, evidently in 
 one of his missionary sermons, made some laud- 
 atory remarks regarding the liberality of Dr. 
 Eliot's church ; and the latter wrote : " Speak 
 more gingerly of us, — in good-natured general 
 terms, if at all, — as ' our little sister ' at the 
 West, who seems tall only because she stands 
 alone, which is the fact. Seriously, the more 
 unobserved we are, the better for us, and very 
 decidedly the more pleasant." Upon this letter 
 Dr. Clarke wrote : " W- G. Eliot. Answered. 
 'Men do not light a candle and put it under 
 a bushel,' etc.," from which we infer the tenor 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 359 
 
 of his reply. Dr. Eliot somewhat humorously re- 
 cords the fact that he had promised Mr. Reavis, 
 author of " Saint Louis, the Future Great City 
 of the West," that he would write a notice of the 
 book if Mr. Reavis would not put his name in it, 
 a compact which was kept. 
 
 It was inevitable that a man possessed of so 
 much self-control as Dr. Eliot should have pre- 
 sence of mind in any trying ordeal. On at least 
 one occasion his own life and the lives of several 
 other persons were thereby saved. The incident 
 referred to- occurred on Hampton Beach after a 
 storm, when the waves ran high and there was a 
 strong undertow. Most of the bathers had left 
 the water, and Dr. Eliot was just preparing to do 
 so, when he heard his daughter call to him for 
 help. She and several young companions, clasp- 
 ing hands, had ventured out too far and lost 
 their footing. Dr. Eliot went to their assistance, 
 and found that he too was being drawn seaward 
 by the sliding sand. Only two persons on the 
 shore, his little grandchild and her mother, saw 
 the bathers as they were apparently engulfed by 
 an enormous wave. They only realized the threat- 
 ened catastrophe. When after the lapse of mo- 
 ments Dr. Eliot's head emerged from the rush 
 of waters, the expression of mingled agony and 
 resignation on his uplifted face confirmed the 
 worst fears of the two beholders. Amid the 
 thunder of the waves" the cry " They are drown- 
 
360 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 ing ! " was for some moments unnoticed and 
 unheard by persons scattered over the beach, 
 who, engrossed in other things, were unaware of 
 what was happening. This seeming unconcern 
 appeared the very " mockery of grief." In the 
 absence of any means of relief, before assistance 
 could be rendered, the bathers struggled to the 
 shore, spent and exhausted. Dr. Eliot had for 
 one moment believed escape from drowning im- 
 possible, but seeing a huge wave approaching, he 
 cried : " Now, girls, jump for your lives ! " En- 
 couraged by his tones, they made a supreme 
 effort, were carried in a little way, and repeating 
 this with each succeeding wave, succeeded finally 
 in obtaining a footing. One moment of hesita- 
 tion on Dr. Eliot's part, of failure on that of the 
 young girls to obey his direction, and all of 
 them would have been swept out to sea. It is 
 such crises of life that prove the man, whether 
 he be strong or weak. 
 
 Dr. Eliot always maintained that whatever it 
 was right to do, could and must be done, no 
 matter how great the sacrifice required. Natural 
 energy, religious zeal, love of humanity, and the 
 desire to do good, operated as powerful incen- 
 tives to effort. The almost invariable success of 
 his labors often concealed the difficulty of the 
 task. To a friend to whom he appealed for aid, 
 when endeavoring to increase the endowment 
 fund of the Washington University Law School, 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 361 
 
 he wrote : " You know how hard I have labored 
 for thirty years past, and I think you will agree 
 with me that the results have not been without 
 benefit to the general advancement and pros- 
 perity of the city ; but no one can know the diffi- 
 culties and discouragements which I am often 
 compelled to meet." 
 
 Early in his ministry, under the stress of many 
 cares, Dr. Eliot declared that, whatever the re- 
 sult, he could not abandon his chosen field of 
 work. " God has placed me here to work," he 
 wrote in 1836 from St. Louis, "and the work 
 shall be done or I will fail under it. I have no 
 choice here. I cannot ' take it easy,' for that is 
 to be unfaithful." Yet he acknowledged that, 
 with his own experience of "complete exhaus- 
 tion of the whole faculties," he sometimes felt 
 that it was wrong for him to encourage young men 
 to come and do the same, since it brought on 
 "premature old age." 
 
 Dr. Eliot's home life was very dear to him. 
 Always devoted to little children, as he grew 
 older he loved them with an almost increasing 
 fondness, and to his grandchildren came a heri- 
 tage of affection. The days they spent with him 
 were red-letter days, looked forward to with 
 delight and cherished in remembrance. Many 
 were the verses full of quaint conceits he wrote 
 for them on birthdays and other occasions, and 
 warm and cordial the greeting when they came 
 
362 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 to visit him. Hearing then- voices in the hall, he 
 would rise from his reclining chair in the study, 
 and come out with heaming countenance to clasp 
 a child in each arm. At dinner-time, as they sat 
 about him at the long table, he was the picture 
 of beneficence and happiness. An unbroken re- 
 cord of his labors might convey the impression 
 that life to him was altogether serious, but such 
 an inference is erroneous. Naturally cheerful, 
 his hopefulness was increased by his faith in the 
 ultimate triumph of good, while religious resigna- 
 tion and trust tided him over the deeps of afflic- 
 tion. His was a life not given to pleasure, but 
 finding in many ways rest and relaxation from 
 toil. He greatly enjoyed travel, and a glimpse 
 of the ocean always invigorated and refreshed 
 him as if with new currents of vital power. The 
 last summer of his life was spent among the 
 mountains, and at its close he expressed his re- 
 gret that he had not chosen differently, exclaim- 
 ing, " Oh, I so longed for the seashore ! " 
 
 As with many other persons of great earnest- 
 ness of disposition, Dr. Eliot possessed a fine 
 sense of humor, which proved a valuable counter- 
 poise to the pressure of care or burden of sorrow. 
 This side of his nature he manifested more 
 strongly among intimate friends, who loved and 
 understood him. With them he could converse 
 less reservedly, in fight or serious vein, or enjoy 
 an occasional encounter of wit. Although prac- 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 363 
 
 tical duties had interposed between him and that 
 life of study and contemplation which had made 
 his student days so attractive to him, among 
 friends of kindred tastes he found pleasure in 
 the discussion of books and authors, and the apt- 
 ness of his references and quotations proved that 
 his literary tastes were merely held in abeyance 
 to urgent duties. 
 
 A sense of the responsibilities of the pastoral 
 relation was in Dr. Eliot very strong. It was not 
 limited to those of his own parish under his 
 immediate care, but extended to all who in any 
 trouble, any crisis of life, came to him for ad- 
 vice or assistance. The bond thus established 
 remained, and large was the flock he held in 
 remembrance and affection. He especially re- 
 cognized the claim upon him of the poor and 
 humble. In his absence from home a call came 
 summoning him to a home where a child lay dead. 
 " I left the address upon his study table," said a 
 member of his family, " and wrote upon it, ' Pau- 
 per.' I knew he would go at once when he saw 
 that." The colored man, his protege, Archer 
 Alexander, he always regarded as under his 
 special charge, and would never allow him to 
 want for anything essential. After the man's 
 death he took legal charge of his adopted daugh- 
 ter, a little quadroon child, and provided for her 
 several years until a permanent home could be 
 found. 
 
364 WILLIAM GREENLEAF ELIOT 
 
 Id Dr. Eliot's nature seeming diversities were 
 reconciled in a strong, well-balanced character. 
 He was grave and serious as was fitting in one 
 to whom life was so earnest, yet when not over- 
 burdened with care he was full of wit and humor. 
 Reserved in the expression of his own deeper 
 emotions, he responded quietly with sympathy 
 and practical aid to the sorrows and needs of 
 others. Stern in his rebuke of sin, to the repent- 
 ant he was tender and encouraging. Conserva- 
 tive in his religious convictions, in the advocacy 
 of reform he was bold and radical, in all things 
 showing the same conservative radicalism he at- 
 tributed to Martineau. Adverse as he was to the 
 extremes of ecclesiasticism, which he regarded as 
 burdensome and exacting, he found perfect lib- 
 erty in allegiance to Christ. Believing that reli- 
 gion must be a personal expression, an inward 
 turning of the heart to God, he yet appreciated 
 the institutions of religion for their influence in 
 effecting this result, holding them to exist not 
 for the glory of God, but the elevation of human- 
 ity. He practiced a rigid self-denial, which some- 
 times conveyed the impression of asceticism, but 
 it was exercised with a practical object in view, 
 and not as spiritual self-discipline. Sensitive to 
 beautiful surroundings, he enjoyed comfort and 
 luxury ; but he had so many uses for money in the 
 accomplishment of unselfish aims that he was, as 
 already expressed, " abstemious to himself." 
 
SERMONS AND OTHER WRITINGS 365 
 
 Based on a few great principles, ruled by strong 
 convictions, inspired by the love of God as the 
 Supreme Good, and of humanity as full of divine 
 possibilities, the life of William Greenleaf Eliot 
 admitted no complexity of motive, no deviation 
 from a lofty purpose. 
 
 In the Church of the Messiah, St. Louis, at the 
 right of the altar, is erected a memorial tablet to 
 Dr. Eliot, placed there by friends who cherished 
 for him sincere affection and esteem. The inscrip- 
 tion, composed by Colonel George E. Leighton, 
 is classic in its inclusive brevity. It is as follows : 
 "In Memoriam, Rev. William Greenleaf Eliot, 
 D. D., 1811-1887, Pastor of this Church 1834- 
 1873, and the wise helper and counselor of 
 church and people until his death. 
 
 " His best monument is to be found in the 
 many educational and philanthropic institutions 
 of St. Louis, to which he gave the disinterested 
 labor of his life. 
 
 " The whole city was his parish, and every soul 
 needing him a parishioner." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Academy of Science, St. Louis, 
 
 W. G. E. one of the founders of, 
 
 67. 
 Adams, John Quincy, anecdote 
 
 concerning, 5. 
 Alexander, Archer, incidents of 
 
 life, 346, 347. " Life of," 129, 
 
 345-349, 361. 
 Alton, military prison at, 227. 
 Andersonville, Ga., attempt to aid 
 
 Union prisoners there, 249, 250 ; 
 
 National Cemetery at, 251. 
 Arkansas Post, Ark., capture of, 
 
 241. 
 Ashley, General and Mrs., 39. 
 " Atlantic Monthly," 297. 
 
 Bailley, Dr., army surgeon, 215, 
 216. 
 
 Bancroft, George, on emancipation 
 in Missouri, 196. 
 
 Banks, General N.P., in Texas, 246. 
 
 Barnard, James M., 237. 
 
 Bates, Edward, Attorney-General, 
 letter to W. G. E., 165 ; at Wash- 
 ington, 178. 
 
 Benton, Hon. Thomas H., 39, 75 ; 
 letter to, from W. G. E., 143-145 ; 
 political record, 146, 147. 
 
 Boys' Industrial School (after- 
 wards Mission Free School), 
 maintained by Unitarian Society 
 in St. Louis, 65. 
 
 Bridge, Hudson E., director Wash- 
 ington University, 83; gift to 
 University, 118. 
 
 Brookings, Robert S., president 
 board of directors Washington 
 University, 122 ; gifts to Univer- 
 sity, 122. 
 
 Butler, Mann, director Washington 
 University, 83. 
 
 Butterfield, Justin, 73. 
 
 Cameron, Simon, Secretary of War, 
 
 W. G. E. has interview with, 221. 
 Campbell, Hon. William, W. G. E. 
 
 writes letter to, 143, 145. 
 Camp Jackson, 77, 160, 166. 
 Cavender, John, cares for refugees, 
 
 253, 255. 
 Chancellorsville, battle of, 209. 
 Channing, William Ellery, D. D., 
 
 pastor Federal Street Church, 
 
 Boston, 17 ; veneration of W. G. 
 
 E. for, 18 ; views, 21 ; influence 
 
 on W. G. E., 328. 
 Channing, Rev. William Henry, 
 
 ideality, 9 ; decides not to go 
 
 West, 14. 
 Chase, Salmon P., Secretary of the 
 
 Treasury, letter to, from W. G. 
 
 E., 163-165. 
 Chauvenet, William, Chancellor 
 
 Washington University, 86 ; 
 
 death of, 95 ; reference to, 100, 
 
 109. 
 Clarke, Abram, 57. 
 Clarke, Rev. James Freeman, 
 
 D. D., friend of W. G. E., 8, 9 ; 
 
 correspondence with, 10-12, 14- 
 
 17 ; preaches at ordination of, 
 
368 
 
 INDEX 
 
 17 ; extracts from memorial ser- 
 mon, 27, 357, 358 ; letters to, from 
 W. G. E., 136, 137, 341, 342, 358 ; 
 editor of periodical, 324, 325. 
 
 Crafts, Colonel Thomas, reads De- 
 claration of Independence, 5. 
 
 Craneh, Abby A., marriage, 36, 
 (See Mrs. W. G. Eliot, Jr.) 
 
 Craneh, Judge William, 4, 5, 36. 
 
 Crow, Wayman, letter to W. G. E., 
 43 ; member Missouri General 
 Assembly, 80 ; secures charter 
 for " Eliot Seminary," 81 ; vice- 
 president board of directors of 
 Washington University, 82 ; ad- 
 dress at inauguration of Chan- 
 cellor Eliot, 98-100 ; erects Mu- 
 seum of Fine Arts, 111, 112; 
 signs letter to W. G. E., 320. 
 
 Cupples, Samuel, gift to Washing- 
 ton University, 122. 
 
 Curtis, S. K., Major-General, 179, 
 227, 229, 231, 235. 
 
 Cutter, Norman, W. G. E. writes 
 to, 187. 
 
 DaU, Rev. Charles, minister at 
 large, 28. 
 
 Davidson, J. W., Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral, 246, 247. 
 
 Dawes, Margaret, marries W. G. 
 E., Senior, 1. ( See also Margaret 
 Dawes Eliot.) 
 
 Dawes, Colonel Thomas, great- 
 grandfather of W. G. E., Jr., 3. 
 
 Dawes, Judge Thomas, grand- 
 father of W. G. E., Jr., 3, 4. 
 
 De Camp, Dr., Medical Director, 
 223, 224. 
 
 De Lange, Rev. Mordecai, minister 
 at large, 28. 
 
 De Normandie, Dr., quoted, 13. 
 
 Douglass, Dr., associate member 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 222. 
 
 Douglass, Frederick, advice to 
 men of his race, 297. 
 
 Eaton, N. J., director Washington 
 University, 83. 
 
 Eliot, Ada, 342. 
 
 Eliot, Rev. Andrew, great-grand- 
 father of W. G. E., Jr., 2. 
 
 Eliot, Frank Andrew, war record, 
 209, 210 ; memorial to, 210. 
 
 Eliot, Margaret Dawes (Mrs.W. G. 
 Eliot, Senior), mother of W. G. 
 E., Jr., 2 ; instructor of her chil- 
 dren, 6. 
 
 Eliot, Samuel, grandfather of W. 
 G. E., Jr., 4. 
 
 Eliot Seminary, incorporated, 81 ; 
 name changed to Washington 
 University, 84. 
 
 Eliot, Hon. Thomas Dawes, grad- 
 uates at Columbian College, 7 ; 
 letter to, from W. G. E., 92 ; in- 
 troduces resolution in House of 
 Representatives, 183 ; letter to, 
 from W. G. E., 184-186. 
 
 Eliot, Rev. Thomas Lamb, minis- 
 ter at large, 28. 
 
 Eliot, William Greenleaf , birth, 1 . 
 ancestry, 2-5 ; early traits of 
 character, 6, 7 ; graduates from 
 Columbian College, Washington, 
 D. C, 7; employed in Postal 
 Department, at Washington, 7 ; 
 enters Harvard Divinity School, 
 8 ; friendship with James Free- 
 man Clarke, 8, 9 ; interest in 
 German philosophy, 10, 11 j faith 
 in the existence of truth, 12 ; 
 believes it to be found in the 
 "path of duty," 12; friends of, 
 13, 14 ; decides to begin his min- 
 istry in the West, 14-17; or- 
 dained as an Evangelist, 17, 18 ; 
 receives a call to St. Louis, 18, 
 19 ; journey thither, 19 ; a call 
 to New York, possibility of, con- 
 sidered, 23, 24; letter to Dr. 
 Freeman, 21, 22 ; organizes First 
 Congregational Society of St. 
 Louis, 23 ; letter to, from Chris- 
 
INDEX 
 
 309 
 
 topher Rhodes, 23-25 ; goes East 
 to solicit funds for erection of a 
 church, 25, 26 ; secret of success 
 in raising* money, 26, 27 ; or- 
 ganizes Unitarian Society in St. 
 Louis as a charitable association, 
 27, 28 ; letter to Mr. Ticknor, 
 29 ; receives degree of Doctor of 
 Divinity from Harvard Univer- 
 sity, 30 ; sermon delivered by, on 
 twenty-fifth anniversary of the 
 Church of the Messiah, 31 ; ad- 
 dress of, before Franklin Society, 
 33-35 ; marriage of, 36 ; his wed- 
 ding journey, 37 ; character of 
 his preaching, 40, 41 ; pastoral 
 care, 41, 42 ; pressure of duties 
 and effect on, 42, 43 ; goes abroad 
 for rest, 43 ; call to King's 
 Chapel, 44 ; ministrations during 
 cholera epidemic, 45-51 ; leaves 
 St. Louis for rest, 52 ; missionary 
 labors of, 53-58 ; proposes erec- 
 tion of new church, 59, 60 ; pa- 
 ralysis of right arm, 60 ; goes 
 abroad a second time, 61 ; pur- 
 chases building for Mission Free 
 School, 62 ; interest in education, 
 66, 67 ; member public school 
 board, 69 ; plans to increase 
 school funds, 70-73 ; works to 
 obtain law authorizing school 
 tax, 75-77 ; believes free school 
 system of supreme importance, 
 77, 78 ; Dr. Heywood on work 
 of, for popular education in St. 
 Louis, 78, 79; interest of, in 
 higher education, 80 ; relates 
 how "Eliot Seminary" was in- 
 corporated, 81 ; requests change 
 of name, 82 ; elected president 
 board of directors, 82; address of, 
 to board of directors at first meet- 
 ing, 84, 85 ; raises endowment 
 and building fund for Washing- 
 ton University, 86-88 ; appeal 
 for additional endowment in 
 
 Boston in 1864, 89-92 ; resigna- 
 tion as pastor Church of the 
 Messiah, 95 ; inauguration of, as 
 Chancellor Washington Univer- 
 sity, 98-104; his ideal "a good 
 education for the many, the best 
 education for the few," 105; 
 urges increased endowment 
 fund, 106, 107 ; desires " Veritas 
 pro veritate ' ' as motto for Uni- 
 versity, 108, 109 ; ideas regarding 
 comparative importance of clas- 
 sical and scientific studies, 109, 
 110 ; high standard of scholar- 
 ship in either the essential, 110 ; 
 urges creation general lecture 
 fund, 112 ; recommends estab- 
 lishment of a department of 
 American history, 112, 113 ; 
 makes University chief recipient 
 James Smith bequest, 114, 115 ; 
 last formal report to board of 
 directors, 115-120 ; death, 121 ; 
 memorial tribute to, 122-125 ; 
 a lifelong emancipationist, 126- 
 128; position on slavery ques- 
 tion, 128-132 ; withdraws from 
 Western Unitarian Conference, 
 132, 133 ; sermon of, on social re- 
 form, 133-135 ; accused of " com- 
 plicity with slavery," 136, 137; 
 Phi Beta Kappa address of, in 
 1864, 137, 138; sermon of, on 
 slavery, 139 ; publishes articles 
 on gradual emancipation, 140- 
 143 ; writes to legislators on same 
 subject, 143-145 ; references of, 
 to slavery in anniversary sermon, 
 147-151 ; an Unconditional Union 
 man, 154; preaches sermon on 
 evils of disunion, 155; on "The 
 Higher Law Doctrine North and 
 South," 156-159; revises Gen- 
 eral Harney's proclamation, 161 ; 
 letter to Secretary Chase, 163- 
 165 ; to Attorney-General Bates, 
 165 ; to Mrs. Fremont, 166, 167 ; 
 
370 
 
 INDEX 
 
 draws up plan for organization 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 168 ; delivers sermon on " Loy- 
 alty and Religion," 169-171; 
 takes letter from Governor Gam- 
 ble to President, 172; con- 
 tributes to State Fund for ex- 
 pense of enrolled militia, 173 ; 
 writes memorial to Governor 
 Gamble on assessments, 174-177 ; 
 advocates emancipation as a war 
 measure, 182, 183 ; urges passage 
 of compensated emancipation 
 bill for Missouri, 184-189 ; urges 
 emancipation on Missouri Gen- 
 eral Assembly, 189, 190 ; urges 
 calling of convention, 190 ; 
 preaches on "Emancipation in 
 Missouri," 192-194; letter to 
 General Schofield suggesting re- 
 voking issuing of permits for 
 removal of slaves from State, 
 with draft of order, 197-199; plan 
 for enlistment of slaves, 200-202 ; 
 suggests to Secretary Stanton 
 that bounty be paid colored re- 
 cruits, 203, 204 ; endorses Gen- 
 eral Schofield in memorial to 
 Senate, 205-207; chaplain to 
 " Old Guard " of St. Louis, 207 ; 
 sermon to, 207, 208 ; death of 
 brother at Chancellorsville, 209, 
 210; establishes scholarship fund 
 as memorial to, 210 ; his in- 
 fluence during Civil War, 210, 
 211 ; organizes Western Sanitary 
 Commission, 216-218 ; appeals to 
 the public for funds, 218, 219 ; 
 appeals to authorities at Wash- 
 ington against subordination 
 Western Sanitary Commission 
 to United States Sanitary Com- 
 mission, 221, 222 ; reports to 
 General Halleck, 223 ; exposes 
 abuses, 224, 225 ; visits Confed- 
 erate prisoners, 225, 226 ; goes 
 East to solicit funds for Western 
 
 Sanitary Commission, 236, 237; 
 interview of, with Secretary 
 Stanton, 239; advocates schools 
 for children of refugees, 259 ; 
 counsels aid to freed people and 
 schools for same, 262 ; appeal of, 
 for refugees and freedmen, 265- 
 267 ; report concerning freed peo- 
 ple sent to, 267-269 ; advises es- 
 tablishment " Soldiers' Orphans' 
 Home," 272 ; publishes article 
 on Western Sanitary Commis- 
 sion, 273, 274; letter to Mr. 
 Yeatman, 275 ; William G. Eliot 
 memorial, and reasons therefor, 
 277, 278 ; remarks on death of 
 President Lincoln, 280, 281 ; 
 views on reconstruction, 281, 282 ; 
 correspondence with Charles 
 Sumner regarding Greeley's 
 election, 282-284 ; letter to Presi- 
 dent Hayes regarding political 
 situation in Louisiana, 285-289 ; 
 to "St. Louis Republican," 289- 
 291 ; views regarding exodus of 
 negroes, 292-294 ; correspondence 
 with General Sherman regarding 
 " coming presidential contest," 
 295-297 ; advocates industrial 
 education in the South, 298 
 goes abroad a third time, 299 
 "social evil" reform, 300-305 
 temperance reform, 305-312 
 views of, regarding education and 
 political status of women, 312- 
 314 ; interest in legislation — op- 
 poses leasing system for convicts, 
 314-317 ; feels responsibilities of 
 higher classes to lower, 317, 318 ; 
 interest in material improve- 
 ments, 318-320; refuses public 
 reception, 320, 321; Dr. Hey- 
 wood quoted concerning, 321- 
 323 ; sacrifice of intellectual pur- 
 suits, 324, 325 ; publications, 325- 
 327 ; sermons characterized, 327- 
 329 ; regret at leaving ministry, 
 
INDEX 
 
 371 
 
 329, 330 ; ideal of ministers' vo- 
 cation, 331, 332 ; views concern- 
 ing Christ's life and teachings, 
 332-334; "Christ's Record of 
 Himself," 334, 335; sermon on 
 " Christ and Liberty," 335-337 ; 
 love of humanity inculcated, 
 337-339; denunciation of sin, 
 339, 340 ; extemporaneous speech, 
 340, 341 ; views of, regarding 
 prayer, 341, 342; prayers for 
 special occasions, 342-345 ; "Life 
 of Archer Alexander," 345-349 ; 
 tribute to, from Mr. Yeatman, 
 350, 351; writes "Nunc Di- 
 mittis," 351, 352; secret of his 
 power, 352, 353 ; illustrations of 
 basis of principle in word and 
 deed of, 353-355 ; patriotism, 
 355 ; interest in persons individu- 
 ally, 356, 357 ; dislike of praise, 
 357-359 ; anecdote illustrating 
 self-control of, 359, 360; self- 
 sacrifice, 360, 361 ; home life, 361, 
 362 ; sense of humor, 362, 363 ; 
 pastor of a large flock, 363 ; well- 
 balanced character of, 364 ; in- 
 scription to on memorial tablet, 
 365. 
 
 Eliot, Mrs. W. G., Jr., co-worker 
 with her husband, 37 ; describes 
 wedding journey and early St. 
 Louis, 37-39; contributes to 
 scholarship fund, 210. 
 
 Everett, Edward, delivers oration 
 at inauguration of Washington 
 University, 86; reference to, 100; 
 letter to W. G. E., 194-196. 
 
 Federal Street Church, Boston, W. 
 
 G. E. ordained at, 17. 
 First Congregational Society of St. 
 
 Louis, organized, 23. 
 Fisher, Chaplain H. D., solicits 
 
 contributions for freed people, 
 
 262, 263. 
 Fiske, John, quoted, 21 ; non-resi- 
 
 dent professor of American his- 
 tory at Washington University, 
 113. 
 
 Floating hospitals, 227-229, 232- 
 234. 
 
 Forbes, John Murray, letter to, 
 from W. G. E., 200, 201 ; reply, 
 201 ; collects funds for West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission, 262. 
 
 Fort Donelson, battle of, 228. 
 
 Fort Pillow, battle at, 234. 
 
 Freedmen's (Colored) Orphans' 
 Home, established by Western 
 Sanitary Commission, 270. 
 
 Freedom's Memorial, 350, 351. 
 
 Freeman, Dr. James, friend of W. 
 G. E., 13 ; letter to, from W. G. 
 E., 21. 
 
 Fremont, John C, Major-General, 
 164, 166, 181, 221; takes command 
 Department of the West, 163 ; 
 issues as Special Order Number 
 159, " Suggestions " of W. G. E. 
 for organization Western San- 
 itary Commission, 168 ; issuance 
 and revocation of emancipation 
 order, 182, 183 ; interest in hu- 
 manities of war, 222, 223 ; re- 
 moved from command Depart- 
 ment of the West, 222. 
 
 Fremont, Mrs. Jessie Benton, let- 
 ter to, from W. G. E., 166, 167 ; 
 copies manuscript of W. G. E., 
 168. 
 
 Fugitive Slave Law, 139, 140, 148, 
 157. 
 
 Fuller, Margaret, friend of W. G. 
 E., 13. 
 
 Furness, Rev. William, officiates 
 at ordination of W. G. E., 17. 
 
 Gamble, Hamilton R., Conditional 
 Unionist, 154 ; made provisional 
 governor of Missouri, 161 ; let- 
 ter to, from Colonel T. T. Gantt, 
 172 ; organizes state militia, 173 ; 
 order for enrollment of militia, 
 
372 
 
 INDEX 
 
 173 ; memorialized regarding as- 
 sessments, 174-177 ; consequent 
 action of, 177-180 ; convenes 
 Missouri Convention, 191 ; atti- 
 tude regarding enlistment of 
 Hacks, 200. 
 
 Gannett, Rev. Ezra Stiles, D. D., 
 reverence of W. G. E. for, 13. 
 
 Gantt, Colonel Thomas T., 30, 73 ; 
 ■writes to Governor Gamble re- 
 garding state militia, 172. 
 
 Garrison, William Lloyd, a promi- 
 nent abolitionist^ 120. 
 
 Getty, Dr., army surgeon, 226. 
 
 Giles, Rev. Henry, anecdote con- 
 cerning, 308, 309. 
 
 Glasgow, William, Jr., goes abroad 
 ■with W. G. E., 43. 
 
 Goodwin, Mr., 17. 
 
 Grant, General Ulysses S., at Pitts- 
 burg Landing, 232 ; at Vicks- 
 burg, 243 ; supplies sent to, 245 ; 
 interest in well-being of soldiers, 
 243. 
 
 Gratiot Street prison, renovated, 
 227. 
 
 Greeley, Carlos S., member Wes- 
 tern Sanitary Commission, 218 ; a 
 " model treasurer," 276. 
 
 Greeley, Horace, Democratic nomi- 
 nee for presidency, 282-2S4. 
 
 Greenleaf, R. C, 237. 
 
 Greenleaf, William, great-grand- 
 father of W. G. E., Jr., 4 ; reads 
 Declaration of Independence, 4. 
 
 Halleck, H. W., Major-General, 
 181, 225, 226, 231 ; letter to Gen- 
 eral Curtis, 179, 180 ; approves 
 ■work Western Sanitary Commis- 
 sion, 223 ; approves plan for float- 
 ing hospitals, 229 ; W. G. E. calls 
 on, in Washington, 239; issues 
 orders.for quartering of refugees 
 in houses of secessionists, 253 ; 
 order for assessment rebel sym- 
 pathizers, 255. 
 
 Hammond, Dr. William A., 234. 
 
 Hardin, C. H., governor of Mis- 
 souri, 317. 
 
 Harney, William S., Brevet Major- 
 General,; signs and issues procla- 
 mation, 161 ; relieved from com- 
 mand, 162. 
 
 Harrison, William Henry, death 
 of, 341. 
 
 Hay, John, 202. 
 
 Hayes, Rutherford B., letter to, 
 from W. G. E., 2S6-291 ; his pol- 
 icy of conciliation, 292 ; Sher- 
 man on, 297. 
 
 Hemenway, Mrs. Augustus (or 
 Mrs. Mary), gift to Washington 
 University, 92 ; interest in Amer- 
 ican history, 112 ; gift from, used 
 as beginning of a fund for crea- 
 tion of a department of American 
 history in Washington Univer- 
 sity, 112. 
 
 Henderson, Haven, 46. 
 
 Henderson, Hon. John B., intro- 
 duces in Senate bill for compen- 
 sated emancipation in Missouri, 
 184. 
 
 Heywood, Rev. John, D. D., ex- 
 tracts from memorial sermon, 
 56, 78, 79, 130, 321-323, 328, 
 341. 
 
 Hindman, Thomas C, Major-Gen- 
 eral, 173. 
 
 Hitchcock, Ethan A., Major-Gen- 
 eral, -writes proclamation for 
 General Harney, 161. 
 
 Hitchcock, Hon. Henry, services 
 to Law School, 93. 
 
 How, John, director Washington 
 University, 83. 
 
 Howard, Oliver O., Brevet Major- 
 General, 259, 260. 
 
 Hoyt, Joseph G., 100, 109; inau- 
 gurated as Chancellor of Wash- 
 ington University, 86. 
 
 Hunt, Wilson P., postmaster at 
 St. Louis, 7. 
 
INDEX 
 
 373 
 
 Jackson, Claiborne F., 160, 161 ; se- 
 cessionist governor of Missouri, 
 153, 156. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 141. 
 
 Johnson, Dr. J. B., member of 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 218. 
 
 King's Chapel, epitaph there, 3 ; 
 
 W. G. E. called to pastorate of, 
 
 44. 
 King, Rev. Thomas Starr, 273. 
 Krum, Hon. John M., director 
 
 Washington University, 82. 
 
 Leighton, Colonel George E., 365 ; 
 elected president board of direc- 
 tors of Washington University, 
 121 ; his retirement, 121 ; author 
 of inscription on memorial tablet, 
 365. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 130, 153, 154, 
 168, 169, 181, 183, 201, 222 ; in- 
 terview of W. G. E. with, regard- 
 ing Missouri state militia, 172, 
 173 ; endorses memorial of W. 
 G. E., 180 ; order of, regulating 
 enlistment of slaves, framed by, 
 in accordance with suggestion of 
 W. G. E., 202 ; approves sugges- 
 tion of W. G. E. that a bounty be 
 paid to colored recruits, 204, 205 ; 
 confirms nomination of Schofield 
 as major-general, 205 ; W. G. E. 
 appeals to, in person against sub- 
 ordination of Western Sanitary 
 Commission, and is sustained, 
 221 ; W. G. E. on assassination 
 of, 279-281 ; freedmen's memo- 
 rial to, 349. 
 
 Lovejoy, Elijah P., martyr to cause 
 of freedom, 147, 148. 
 
 Lyon, Nathaniel, Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral, heroism of, 164, 166. 
 
 Mann, Miss Maria R., work of, for 
 freed people, 261. 
 
 Mann, N. M., report of, to W. G. 
 E., 267-269. 
 
 Martineau, James, 329, 334. 
 
 Mary Institute, established, 86 ; 
 W. G. E. in reference to, 326. 
 
 McCreery, Phocian R., member 
 board of directors Washington 
 University, 83. 
 
 McGinniss, Hon. James, 315. 
 
 Meadville Theological School, 47, 
 53. 
 
 Mellen, W. P., 264. 
 
 Messiah, Church of, dedicated, 61 ; 
 account of, 62-65 ; resignation of 
 W. G. E. as pastor, 95 ; his ser- 
 mon on occasion of thirty-sixth 
 anniversary of, 95-97; sermon of 
 W. G. E. on "Social Reform," 
 133, 134 ; attitude of members 
 towards slavery, 135, 136 ; ex- 
 tracts from sermon on fiftieth 
 anniversary of, 147-151 ; effect of 
 sermon on "Loyalty and Reli- 
 gion," 171 ; prayer offered in, 
 191 ; discourse delivered in, 192 ; 
 regret of W. G. E. on resigning 
 pastorate of, 299, 329, 330 ; prin- 
 ciples inculcated by W G. E. as 
 pastor, 353. 
 
 Ministry at large, 28, 62-65. 
 
 Mission Free School of Church of 
 the Messiah, 62-64. (See Boys' 
 Industrial School.) 
 
 Negroes, exodus of, 292-296. 
 
 Newell, Rev. F. R., agent Western 
 Sanitary Commission, 235, 236. 
 
 New Orleans, emigrant steamers 
 from, 235, 236. 
 
 Newspapers: " Christian Illus- 
 trated Weekly," 302; "New 
 York Evening Express," 301 ; 
 " New York Tribune," 283; "St. 
 Louis Democrat " (now " Globe- 
 Democrat "), 178, 179; "St. 
 Louis Globe " (merged with 
 " Democrat "), 315 ; "St. Louis 
 
374 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Republican ' ' (now ' ' Republic " ), 
 
 180, 181, 289-291. 
 Xicholls, General Francis T., 285, 
 
 287. 
 Nicolay, John G., Nicolay and 
 
 Hay, 202. 
 Noell, Hon. John W., introduces 
 
 in House bill for compensated 
 
 emancipation in Missouri, 184. 
 " North American Review," 148, 
 
 272, 273. 
 
 O'Fallon, Colonel John, gifts to 
 
 O'Fallon Polytechnic Institute, 
 
 85. 
 O'Fallon Polytechnic Institute, 85, 
 
 93,94. 
 "Old Guard" of St. Louis, 207, 
 
 208, 355. 
 Old South Church, 112. 
 
 Packard, S. B., 285-287. 
 
 Palfrey, Rev. Cazneau, officiates at 
 ordination of W. G. E., 17. 
 
 Parkman, Dr., Secretary Society 
 for Propagation of the Gospel, 55. 
 
 Partridge, George, director Wash- 
 ington University, 83 ; member 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 218. 
 
 Peabody, Miss Elizabeth, 261. 
 
 Peabody, Rev. Ephraim, officiates 
 at ordination of W. G. E., 17. 
 
 Pea Ridge, Ark., battle of, 229, 230. 
 
 Pegram, George, director Wash- 
 ington University, 83. 
 
 Phelps, John S., governor of Mis- 
 souri, 312. 
 
 Phi Beta Kappa Address of W. G. 
 E., quoted, 77, 78, 137. 
 
 Phillips, Wendell, 129. 
 
 Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., battle 
 of, 229, 233. 
 
 Plattenberg, A. W., agent West- 
 ern Sanitary Commission, 230- 
 232, 244, 245. 
 
 Post, Rev. T. M., D. D., 302. 
 
 Prairie Grove, Ark., battle of, 235. 
 
 Price, Sterling, Major-General, 
 161, 166, 173 ; threatens St. Louis, 
 207 ; raid into Missouri, 229 ; cap- 
 tures Pilot Knob, 258. 
 
 Ranlett, Seth A., director Wash- 
 ington University, 83. 
 
 Reavis, L. U., condition under 
 which W. G. E. writes notice of 
 his book, 359. 
 
 Refugees' Homes, 253-255, 257,259, 
 260. 
 
 Refugees' and Freedmen's Home, 
 258. 
 
 Rex, Dr., army surgeon, 243-245. 
 
 Rhodes, Christopher, 18-20, 23-25. 
 
 Riddick, Colonel Thomas F„ 68. 
 
 Roosevelt, James, 239. 
 
 Russell, Samuel, director Wash- 
 ington University, 83. 
 
 Salisbury, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen, 
 342. 
 
 Schofield, John, Major-General, 
 173, 235, 262 ; issues order of as- 
 sessment, 174 ; letter of W. G. 
 E. to, relative to evasion of pro- 
 visions of emancipation ordi- 
 nance by slave-owners, 197-199 ; 
 order regulating enlistment of 
 slaves in Missouri, 202 ; memo- 
 rial of W. G. E. to Senate con- 
 cerning, 206, 207 ; gives military 
 prisons into charge of Western 
 Sanitary Commission, 262. 
 
 Schuyler, Rev. M., D. D., associate 
 member Western Sanitary Com- 
 mission, 227. 
 
 Shackelford, Richard C, 178. 
 
 Sherman, William T., General, at 
 Vicksburg, 241 ; praises work of 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 248 ; care of his soldiers, 243 ; in- 
 terest in Andersonville prisoners, 
 
 249, 250 ; views concerning war, 
 
 250, 251 ; regarding exodus of 
 
INDEX 
 
 375 
 
 negroes, 292 ; regarding office of 
 president, 296, 297 ; at Conven- 
 tion, 319. 
 
 Simmons, Dr., suggests floating 
 hospitals, 228. 
 
 Smith, James, 20, 83 ; death, 113 ; 
 bequest to W. G. E., 114; me- 
 morial to, 115. 
 
 Smith, William H., gives lecture 
 fond to Washington University, 
 112. 
 
 Soldiers' Homes, 2S1, 252. 
 
 Soldiers' Orphans' Home, estab- 
 lished and endowed by Western 
 Sanitary Commission, 272. 
 
 Stanton, Edwin M., letter of W. 
 6. E. to, 203, 204; reply, 204; 
 confirms and extends privileges 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 239, 240. 
 
 Staples, Rev. Carlton A., minister 
 at large, 28 ; vice-president St. 
 Louis Provident Association, 64. 
 
 Steele, Frederick, Brevet Major- 
 General, 246, 247. 
 
 Stetson, C, Scribe, 17. 
 
 Sumner, Charles, letter to, 187 ; 
 advocates election of Greeley to 
 presidency, 282-284. 
 
 Taylor, Edward (" Father "), offi- 
 ciates at ordination W. G. E., 17. 
 
 Thayer, Nathaniel, gift to Wash- 
 ington University, 92 ; Nathaniel 
 Thayer professorship, 92. 
 
 Thomas, George, General, 199. 
 
 Thomas, James S„ 178, 179. 
 
 Thompson, Thomas J., 178, 179. 
 
 Ticknor, George, 29. 
 
 Tileston professorship, Washington 
 University, 92. 
 
 Treat, Samuel, director Washing- 
 ton University, 83. 
 
 " Uncle Tom's Cabin," 129, 349. 
 United States Sanitary Commis- 
 sion, organized, 212, 213 ; " His- 
 
 tory of," 213, 214 ; theory of, 214, 
 215 ; attempt to subordinate 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 
 221, 222. 
 
 Vancourt, Rev. Mr., death from 
 cholera, 50. 
 
 Ward, Rev. Carlos, minister at 
 large, 28 ; distributes " Poor 
 Fund," 63. 
 
 Ware, Rev. Henry, Jr., 15, 16, 18 ; 
 officiates at ordination of W. G. 
 E., 17. 
 
 Warriner, Dr., associate member 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 222. 
 
 Washburn, C. C, Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral, establishes "Camp Ethio- 
 pia," 260. 
 
 Washington, Booker T., quoted, 
 297, 298. 
 
 Washington University, incorpo- 
 rated as Eliot Seminary, 81 ; 
 change of name, 82 ; made non- 
 sectarian by constitution, 83 ; 
 idea of incorporators of, practi- 
 cal, 83, 84 ; impelling motives in 
 founding, 84, 85 ; O'Fallon Poly- 
 technic Institute, 85 ; prepara- 
 tory school, 86 ; inaugurated 
 as a university, 86 ; Chancellors 
 Hoyt and Chauvenet, 86 ; endow- 
 ment fund for, 86-88 ; Civil War 
 period, 88, 89 ; appeal to friends 
 in New England for funds for, 
 89-92 ; Law School, 93 ; O'Fallon 
 Polytechnic Institute and Li- 
 brary conveyed to Public School 
 Board, 93, 94 ; scientific depart- 
 ment organized, 94, 95 ; death of 
 Chancellor Chauvenet, 95 ; in- 
 auguration of W. G. E. as Chan- 
 cellor, 98-108 ; high standard of 
 scholarship maintained, 109, 
 110 ; lecture fund, 112, 113 ; 
 made chief recipient James 
 
376 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Smith bequest, 114, 115 ; last 
 formal report of W. G. E. as pre- 
 sident board of directors, 115- 
 121 ; death of Chancellor Eliot, 
 121 ; Colonel Leighton made 
 president board of directors, 
 121 ; his retirement, 121 ; Mr. B. 
 S. Brookings president, 122; 
 large additional endowment of, 
 122. 
 
 Waterman, H. J., agent Western 
 Sanitary Commission, attacked 
 by guerrillas, 246, 247. 
 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 created to meet exigency of mo- 
 ment, 214-216 ; plan of organiza- 
 tion of, 216, 217 ; members of 
 board of, 217, 218 ; work of, 218- 
 220; United States Sanitary Com- 
 mission requests subordination 
 of, 220, 221 ; W. G. E. protests, 
 and is sustained by authorities at 
 Washington, 221, 222 ; excellence 
 of general hospital system of, 
 223; opposition to that system, 
 224, 225 ; given charge military 
 prisons, 226, 227 ; floating hos- 
 pitals, 227-229, 232, 233; aid 
 furnished by, after battles, 228- 
 232 ; aid to Mississippi Naval 
 Squadron, 234 ; area of work ex- 
 tended by capture of Memphis, 
 234, 235 ; aid rendered Schofield 
 in Missouri, 235 ; appeal for funds 
 in New England and response, 
 236-239 ; privileges confirmed 
 and extended by order Secretary 
 of War, 239, 240 ; stores sent to 
 Grant at Vicksburg, 242-245 ; to 
 
 General Steele and General 
 Banks, 246 ; to Sherman's army, 
 248 ; to Andersonville prisoners, 
 249, 250 ; soldiers' homes estab- 
 lished by, 251, 252.; refugees' 
 homes, 253, 255, 257, 258 ; freed- 
 men's home, 258, 259; schools 
 for refugees, 259 ; work of, for 
 freed people, 261-265 ; holds Mis- 
 sissippi Valley Sanitary Fair, 
 265-267 ; receipts and expendi- 
 tures of, 269-275, 277. 
 
 White Cloud, steamer, burned, 47. 
 
 Wilson, Hon. Henry, 187. 
 
 Wise, Captain, of gunboat flotilla, 
 234. 
 
 Wyeth, George A., agent Western 
 Sanitary Commission, 247. 
 
 Yeatman, James E., president 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 217, 218 ; zeal of, 220 ; on prison 
 committee, 226 ; at Pittsburg 
 Landing, 233 ; visits Boston, 240 ; 
 goes to Vicksburg with sanitary 
 stores, 245 ; correspondence of, 
 with General Sherman, 248-251 ; 
 letter of, to General Howard, 
 259, 260 ; report of, on condition 
 of freed people, 263, 264 ; author- 
 ized to carry into effect plans of 
 Western Sanitary Commission, 
 264 ; at Vicksburg, 269 ; refuses 
 position of Commissioner Freed- 
 men's National Bureau, 271, 272 ; 
 views of, on slavery, 274, 275; 
 letter to, from W. G. E., 277; 
 proposes memorial to W. G. E., 
 277 ; remarks thereon, 277, 278. 
 
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 II 
 
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