EMORY UNIVERSITY LIFE HENRY AND TIMES .—OF— M. TURNER THE ANTECEDENT AND PRELIMINARY History of The Life arid Times of Bishop H. M. Turner. His Boyhood, Education and Public Career, and His Relation to His Associates, Colleagues and Contemporaries. -Ey- M. M. Ponton, A. M., S. T. D. Author of: "In the House of David," "An Apology for Southern Prejudice," "Religion of Religions," "How to Read the Bible," And a number of religious and social works. 1917. A. B. CALDWELL PUB. CO. Atlanta, Ga. Entered According to an Act of Congress in the year 1917 by A. B. CALDWELL PUB. CO. Atlanta, Ga. In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C. DEDICATION To the surviving heroes in arms, who were comrades of Bishop H. M. Turner on the fields of blood and carnage in the conflict for right against wrong, which ultimately ended with the emancipation of four millions of slaves: To all those now living, who followed him through the awful days of reconstruction, to the adoption of the "Civil Rights Bill." And to all the Bishops, general officers, ministers and laymen of the African Methodist Episcopal Church: To the friends of freedom, and to the Negro race wherever dispersed upon the globe, is the history of the greatest Negro champion for human rights and the freedom of his race, most respectfully inscribed. M. M. P. "No porter guarded the passages of your door, T' admit the wealthy and exclude the poor; For God who gave the riches, gave the heart To sanctify the whole, by giving part; Heaven, who foresaw the will, the means have wrought And to the second Son a blessing brought; The first—begotten had his father's share: But you, like Jacob, are Rebecca's heir." TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I Page Birthplace, Early Environments, Education, Honored by Universities 33 Chapter II. Antecedent and Preliminary History, The Man and the Hour 37 Chapter III. Family Life, The Man, The Husband, The Father, The Christian Gentleman 45 Chapter IV. The Soldier and Statesman, Army Chaplain, Recon- structionist, Freedman's Bureau and Civil Service Agent 49 Chapter V. Bishop Turner the Churchman, A Pioneer Preacher, A Presiding Elder, A Genial Officer, A Lecturer, A Bishop and Publicist, A Missionary and African Emigrationist 65 Chapter VI. Some Peculiar Traits in the Private and Personal Life of Bishop Turner 82 Chapter VII. Some Peculiar Traits and Prevailing Features and Characteristics in the Official Life of Bishop Turner. 89 Chapter VIII. Bishop Turner's Defense of the A. M. E. Church and the Ministry 101 Chapter IX. The Character of Bishop Turner's Education, His Personal Appearance, His Literary Life, The Author and Scholar, The Deep Thinker, The Prodigious Writer and Publisher . 123 Chapter X. The Home Life of Bishop Turner, His Last Days . . 133 Chapter XI. Last Days and Obsequies of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner 139 Chapter XII. Tributes to Bishop Turner 151 PREFACE. This book is the result of a desire on the part of the Author to tell the life story of a man whose life and actions impressed themselves upon the times in which he lived. It will be necessary, in this connection, to discuss the environ¬ ments and conditions of the different periods of his life as a background to the story. It is not an easy task to portray faithfuly and trace accurately the varied activities of a man like Henry M. Turner, whom the race delights to honor as a scholar, a soldier, a statesman, an eminent Divine and an eloquent defender of human rights. Every age has produced men who, by the force of their own original genius and high aspirations, have stood as her¬ alds in the forefront of human progress, and the develop¬ ment of civil life and religious freedom. There have come men upon the stage of action who seemed to have been born for the occasion and for the time. One man comes upon the stage to point the prophetic finger to the coming issues which, sooner or later, are to try men's souls, as did Charles Sumner. Another man comes upon the stage to sway and lift the public mind by the power of his persuasive eloquence, as did Gladstone, in the English Parliament. In all times men have been raised up to meet the emergencies and exigencies that have con¬ fronted mankind. These men have bravely pursued their way and performed their duty, unterrified by opposition, of force, or power of any kind, and beyond the reach of slan¬ der or bribery, they have followed the direction of their chosen course to the end. Thus Webster and Clay, Jackson and Calhoun, Allen and Payne, and Douglass, stand out as dauntless and fearless figures in the time of our country's greatest crisis. Such a man was Henry McNeal Turner, who passed through some of the most excruciating ordeals that men have been made to pass, and the bitterest experiences in the history of his race. In that awful struggle for human freedom, during the 24 LIFE AND TIMES OF Sixties, he stood up as a prophet of hope, as a safe leader and a wise counsellor. He stood up without a tremor as the small man's friend to relieve the oppressed. The prow¬ ess of his genius and the power of his unflinching spirit aimed at all times to break the power of the oppressor, and let bondmen go free. And the power of his experience and in¬ fluence was felt all along the line of conflict. He was in every contest, in w|ar, and in peace, in the reconstruction of the States, and their restoration to their place in the Union. He was in the battle for the "Bill of Rights," and the en¬ franchisement of his race—the transferring of four millions of people from chattel to citizens of the greatest Republic on earth. I admit that there were others who grandly fought and spoke for human freedom, but none, beginning with the earliest agitators for freedom, spoke more eloquently, more learnedly, more effectively, and enunciated more profoundly the eternal principles of human rights than did Henry McNeal Turner. Nor did any one before him nor during his palmy days more profoundly and persistenly attempt to impress upon the public mind the plea of his race for justice, freedom and right. The career of Henry McNeal Turner is a lesson of inspi¬ ration to his race and to mankind, and it is the hope of the writer that this book may so present his "life and times" that it may serve as an inspiration to the lovers of manhood, home, freedom and life everywhere, and will serve to keep in memory the life of this great man. The writer has attempted this task under many serious difficulties and inconveniences, and, therefore, regrets he was not fortunate enough to review the many very inter¬ esting letters upon public questions which rriade up a corre¬ spondence of nearly sixty years between Bishop Turner and some of the greatest men of the wlorld. The notes of his travels in America, Europe and Africa and the islands of the sea, and thousands of other incidents in his life would make many volumes of interesting reading and valuable in¬ formation. But the writer hopes that this book, which but touches, here and there, the outer skirts of his great activity, may BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER. 25 serve to point the way to larger usefulness on the part of his readers. The writer expresses his sincere thanks to all the friends of Bishop Turner with whom he has talked, and who in any way have aided him in this compilation. INTRODUCTION. In writing The Life and Times of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, the Author purposes to steer clear of any thought that has the tinge of a polemical nature. Such a thought would be foreign to this class of literary production, and, therefore, would not be fair to the subject of this sketch. The actions of men at particular or various times are not surprising nor out of the ordinary as long as they are right actions. Men never differ when they are right. Men differ when they are wrong, and during this period of wrong action surprises are constantly appearing. Right actions comprise the normal demeanor of all men. Believing that these fundamental conditions obtain in the whole life of man, the writer, therefore, will not take upon himself the task of opposing nor defending, approving nor abusing the actions of Bishop Turner, his contemporaries, colleagues and associates in the ministry, only as such actions shall be the means of leading to the authority for their existence. The interest in what man may or may not do at any given time is small and insignificant when compared with the right and authority for their actions. The Life and Times of Bishop Henry M. Turner, in his relation to his contempo¬ raries, colleagues and associates, is the answer to those questions which ask a reason for every movement of his mighty life from the cradle to the grave. Hence the whole story will be told in an apologetical style, in which province the writer will have sufficient latitude not only to defend the actions of Bishop Turner, but to protect the Church for whom he acted. By this method alone can he put to flight those who because they do not understand the Church, her discipline, polity and usages, would attempt to impugn the motive for wlhich the Church exists, and condemn the min¬ istry as unworthy men. Hence, if the writer has any fight to make, it is from the outside, and not from the inside. He is an apologist, not a polemist. Thus, he purposes to 28 LIFE AND TIMES OF make himself clear in the outset, because it is easy for a mistaken conclusion to be drawn, as well as a wrong" con¬ struction to be placed upon words which were never in¬ tended. The facts of all biography, as well as autobiography, are the same in character, if the writer tells the truth; and they are the most original of all truths entering into literary composition. The difference, aside from their originality, is in the manner and object for which they are told. But biography is the most uniform of all literature in its delinea¬ tion of the truths touching human life and character. The facts, however, are not always found, nor are they generally sought, because, in w'riting of a man after his death, or a man writing about himself, writes in deference to his readers rather than to the facts. What he seeks to do, is to write a good story of himself or of some one else. He who would write the true story of his own, or of another man's life, ought to know that life, and tell his story faithfully. That is, he should so portray the environments of that life that no possible place for doubt could be found for the consequence of that life. In short, the life story of a man is little less than a mental camera. He takes the picture of the person as he appears before him; and that is the only real and true photograph. But such a picture, however much it resembles the original, is not of market value, and if the photographer depended upon that method of being honest and telling the truth for subsistence he would soon go out of business. But, he being a student of human nature, and knowing the satisfaction deception gives, and how it pleases people to be humbugged, flattered and deceived, he hies himself to some dark corner of his shop and conjures up his deception; and there, in the dark, with! easel and pallette, wtith paint and brush, he touches his picl ture here and there. He tones it up here and tones it dowraj there; in short, he spoils his picture—makes it contradiclf itself; then it is ready for the market. It has commercial! value. And so with the life story of a man. It might be! embellished here, amplified yonder and magnified at this place and minimized at that and the other. That is, the worldj is so crooked that every man of whom we write must be BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER. 29 straightened out so that he can be seen as he is. In short, much of the biography now written is so foreign to the life and character of the person it is intended to portray, that, if it were possible for the subject to read the story of his own life, he would not know the person about whom the writer was speaking, and would ask, as did the eunuch of Philip, "I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet—of him¬ self, or of some other man?" There are two criticisms, more or less severe, which a biographer must meet. First, if he tells the plain, simple facts in a man's life as he lived that life, he is liable to be charged with taking advantage of the man and saying things about him dead he would not dare say were he alive. And, second, if he adorns and beautifies the life and char¬ acter of his subject, the public will charge him with giving his subject credit for what he is not worthy. The writer of this portraiture, therefore, knows not what criticism may befall this little contribution to the lit¬ erature of the race, and cares less, but be it assured that he wtfll not swerve from telling the true story of The Life and Times of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, as that story is known to him. It is the purpose of the writer to deal with the ante¬ cedent and preliminary history as it was actually made; and he finds no reason why he should not. There is so much valuable information that ought to be known, and so little in the life of Bishop Turner that ought not to be known, that one can write with perfect freedom and ease. Bishop Turner is best-known by the coarseness and roughness of his nature. He was robust, as well as grotesque, in mind, and thought, and life. In fact, he was a rough ashler, as though he were a shapeless stone blasted from the quarry; and the true story of his "life and times" is here told in re¬ lation to his environments, as well as to his associates and contemporaries. He was as restless and tireless in his effort and energies as the waves of the sea! He was ever driven and tossed. 'Tis not in the mind of the writer whom he pleases, nor whom he does not please, but the burden of his soul is to tell the truth of a saintly soul—not a truth that will so LIFE AND TIMES OF interpret this little book, but a truth which interprets itself, and stands alone in its own defense in a living character. Bishop Turner, the subject of our story, .fought his way up through that impassioned, impatient and madaeneH time of slavery—the cruel days of civil war and the awful time of reconstruction, at a time when men waited not for argument, nor heard the voice of reason; when Ku-Kluxism and murder stalked abroad as a midnight pall and filled every home of our Southland with terror and consternation not far from death! He fought hisjvay up at a time when the idea of a free man, free speech and a free press, and a free country, had not fully conquered a place in the heart of our nation. Through it all, he was loved, protected and unharmed. God was with him. During the early days of his activity, he met men in public life, half wild and savage in conduct, and half civi¬ lized; men half ignorant and half intelligent, half free and half slave. But Henry McNeal Turner was the "fearless Negro Navarre whose white plume" was "his glory shock of crinkled fleece surmounting a head that" had "never bowed in servile submission to any outrage." And it is upon this man's grave we lay the cultivated flowers of his own planting. One has well said, "If a stranger should find his way into an assembly whose platform was filled with noted char¬ acters and to be told to pick out the one who had upbraided the nation and made creation black, he would have pointed out the robust, restless, granite-skinned, line-lipped, silver-fleeced, full-veined, eagle-eyed and lion-ported man whom we call Henry McNeal Turner." Bishop Turner had a heart which was ever aglow with the tenderest devotion for the well-being of his race, "and with an intellect no less restricted than was his emotional powers." It is but natural to find him exploring the visible and invisible realms from zenith to nadir, with the hope that his excursions would be rewarded with profit to his people, and to the discomfiture of their adversaries in any way. He was a partisan and a patriot of the staunchest type, yet these he never accorded a superior place when compared to the allegiance due his people. Wherever the hydra of caste BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 31 was seen to lift its unsightly head, or the jim crow fiend and mob law demon exposed their hideous shape, this in¬ domitable knight of the quill, this untiring crusaders for the rights of the people, with poised and even pointed weapon, was always on the alert, to smite them down; and, when enraged, he was daring and presumptuous enough to im¬ peach his own beloved section; and, like an enraged lion, he would arraign the nation and denounce the tribunals of the land for what he supposed to be their inactivity; and there is no essay, no book, nor pamphlet, so bitter in denun¬ ciation in the English language ever published such scathing phillipics against those in authority and high political func¬ tionaries as were published in his booklet entitled, "That Barbarous Decision of the Supreme Court," and in his papers, "The Southern Christian Recorder," "The Voice of Mis¬ sions," and "The Voice of the People." Let him have the enviable place he has so gallantly and heroically won for himself, his race and the country he loved. The purpose of the Author in writing this book is: I. To give a true epitome touching the agitation of the slave question at the time of the birth of our subject, in order to learn, if possible, how far that agitation went as an environment to help to shape and mould his life and character and to determine his destiny. * II. To give a brief history in a wide and general sweep of the relation sustained between him and his asso¬ ciates, as well as those of an earlier date, and his contem¬ poraries, on those great questions of human rights for which he contended. And, III. To give a correct and complete and perfect replica of the life and character of Henry McNeal Turner as a per¬ son, a mere social being among other men, as that life and character have been enacted by himself, and told by those who had watched his career from the beginning. We write of him thus, because he stands first and the highest in the patriotic and religious records of the Negro in modern times. Not only in the United! States is his name exalted, but it is honored and revered wherever he has trav¬ eled among the nations of the earth; and no honest student of the history of the Negro race would attempt to place an- 32 LIFE AND TIMES OF other name above that of Henry McNeal Turner, because no other name connected with the history of the struggle for human rights can bear the searchlight of human in¬ vestigation and remain blameless. The one adjective, great, expresses the wholeness of the life of the last one of that long line of men who helped to bring the Negro from slavery to freedom, and to make our nation once more a happy and united people, and the Southland the home where the two races can live prosperously, as well as peacefuly, together. In fine, the only apology the writer offers for writing this book has already been expressed, but for the sake of a deeper emphasis, he adds that the book can be accounted for only upon the ground that the writer desired to discuss a public man, in the midst of public men, in his relation to the activities of his age, and, without partiality or favors, discuss public issues upon their merit; and then leave the matter to posterity for the final decision touching his worth or worthlessness. It is of Bishop Turner, the man and his times, we w^rite, who performed so well his duty. CHAPTER I . BIRTH PLACE, EARLY ENVIRONMENTS—EDUCATION HONORED BY UNIVERSITIES. Henry M. Turner was born February 1st, 1834, near Newberry, Abbeville, South Carolina, of free parentage. While he was not a slave, he was subject to slave environ¬ ments. Ownership in himself, only, excepted. He was the grandson on his mother's side of an African Prince, who was brought to this country in the latter part of the Eighteenth Century and held in Slavery, but was soon afterward set free, because South Carolina, at that time, was a part of a British Colony, and it was contrary to British law to enslave royal blood; hence the freedom of this young P'rince was accorded. David Greer, the illustrious sire of this still more illus¬ trious descendant, not being able to procure passage back to his native country, married a free woman near Abbeville, and planned to make this his home. To this union, aside from many other children, Sarah, his youngest daughter, was born, whom Hardy Turner wooed and wedded. From this union came Henry McNeal Turner, their firstborn, Feb¬ ruary 1, 1834. Although young Turner was born of free parents, yet the environments of the Negro slave were of such a nature, that there was not much difference between his condition and that of those in actual bondage. He worked side by side with them. They were the companions of his youth and early manhood. He did not enjoy the advantages of the freeborn Negro of his day, because in early life he was deprived of a father's care. Hence he became a subject of that cruel system known in the States after the British yoke was thrown off. as the' Guardianship Ordinance. Thus he grew up to considerable boyhood in the cotton fields of South Carolina, where he was forced to labor. This environ- 34 LIFE AND TIMES OF him an opportunity to taste some of the at his race with patience and fortitude. But when he was hammer, he struck, and struck hard. His cruel irony and penetrating sarcasm were weapons of power and might against the forces of wrong, and the enemies of his race. At the age of fifteen, through the kindness of a white lady, and a boy with whom he played, he learned the alpha¬ bet, and was taught how to spell the simple words then in common use. But this food which fed the flames of his mighty mind was soon stopped, as it was unlawful in those days to teach Negro children how to read and write. His mother decided this was not the section of country for the growing ambition of her son. She moved to Abbeville, where she employed a white lady to give young Turner les¬ sons every Sunday. This attempt resulted in failure, for the lady was threatened with imprisonment if she further persisted in teaching a Negro boy how to read and write. This disappointment embittered young Turner's mind against the haters of his race and had much to do with the contempt which he showed in after years for those who opposed the progress of his people. In Abbeville he found employment in the office of a law firm, at the Court House. Here he had free access to all the books of the firm and the current, literature of that day, as well as an opportunity to hear speeches and dis¬ courses from the most learned men of that time. Here he learned to read and write more accurately and the lawyers took great interest in helping him. He studied under them Arithmetic, History, the Bible, Geographv »nH Astronomy. This is the foundation upon which he built BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 35 that education for which he is now known throughout our country. But as he grew to manhood, the narrow, contracted surroundings of Abbeville were too small for the concep¬ tion of his mighty brain. He is set on fire with an ambition to see the world and enter into her service. Hence, through the aid of friends, he found employment in a Medical Col¬ lege in Baltimore. Here he quietly studied Anatomy, Physi¬ ology and Hygiene, and read works on law and Theology until he got a working knowledge of them all. There is little said or known about his conversion. He is one of those geniuses where conversion was natural. His place is so unique in his Church and the history of our country, and his rise from obscurity to renown and fame is so regular and orderly, that the writer leaves that ques¬ tion to be taken for granted, as it is not significant at this time. He was born for an awful time, and his achievements so overshadowed the environments of his early life, that his struggles are often forgotten. In 1851, at the age of 17, he connected himself with the M. E. Church, South ; this membership enabled him to travel unmolested through the Southern States. In 1853, he was licensed to preach the Gospel among his people. Large crowds of white and black would come long distances to hear his sermons and listen to the power of his eloquence. Thus he traveled through South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana and up the Mississippi River as far as St. Louis. At St. Louis, in 1858, he severed his connection from the M. E. Church, South, to join the African Methodist Epis¬ copal Church. From the Conference, which was then in session, presided over by Bishop Daniel A. Payne, he was transferred to the pastorate of Baltimore Mission, Baltimore, Maryland. During the four years he remained here, he continued his studies, and further prepared himself for the great task before him. While in Baltimore, he entered upon a more regular and systematic course of study at Trinity College. He pur¬ sued a course in English Grammar, Latin, Greek, Hebrew and German, in addition to special lessons in Oratory under 36 LIFE AND TIMES OF the Rt. Rev. Bishop Cummins, of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Thus he steadily built an education upon that founda¬ tion which was laid broad and deep in the heart of the boy in the cotton patch and the corn field among the slaves at Abbeville, South Carolina. This boy of two generations ago gave place to a man of genius, of power, of ability and force and of character. No longer is he conceived of as the humble boy crouching among cringing slaves. He is now looked upon as the scholar, the orator, the statesman, diplo¬ mat and a most grave and reverent prelate. In 1872, on account of the greatness of his knowledge, and the power of his genius, the University of Pennsylvania conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, and he was worthy. He was conversant with every conditioin of our American life, our laws and our institutions. He was a bold and fearless champion for human rights and liberty for all men, women and children of whatever race. In 1873, on account of his great service as a Christian minister, and his large contribution to the literature of his race, Wilberforce University conferred upon him the Degree of Doctor of Divinity. And for his great statesmanship and diplomacy, the College of Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, in 1894, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Canonical Law. Thus he climbed the ladder round by round, from the bottom of human degradation and obscurity, out of an environment of darkness and slavery, discourage¬ ment, hardship and even from the mouth of the grave and the jaws of death to the highest and most responsible posi¬ tion in the gift of his race, and the most honorable in the gift of mankind. These beautiful lines can be truly cited here as illustrative of the progress and prowess of the genius of Henry McNeal Turner, the great Pathfinder of an humble race : "The height by great men reached and kept Was not attained by sudden flight; But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night." CH APT|E R II. ANTECEDENT AND PRELIMINARY HISTORY. THE MAN AND THE HOUR. The Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln making four millions of Negro slaves free is an event long since passed into history. But the present generation knows but little of the struggles which freedom cost, and less of the men and women by whose self-sacrficing toil that free¬ dom was achieved. At present, so far as the Negro is concerned, the chap¬ ters of the history of that period are very imperfectly written. Hence for the true story of that time, we must rely largely upon the scraps of facts gathered from the recollection of the most venerable actors of that awful period who now live. But they are rapidly disappearing from the field where their battles were fought and their vic¬ tory won. And the Civil War, which terminated with the freedom of the slaves,—that war in which so many mighty moral and material forces were engaged, and where the Negro took such an active part in his own emancipation, will, in the coming years, be appropriately celebrated in the history of mankind. But the underlying causes, the antecedent his- toiy, i he preliminary struggles and the moral and political excitement,—the agitation, passion and bitter contention, which preceded and led up to the emancipation of the slave, will not be long remembered. And many of the noble and heroic men and women who played a conspicuous and honor¬ able part in the struggle for freedom will not receive from posterity that tribute of respect which is due them for their courageous devotion to the cause of justice, liberty and law. But the ranks are rapidly being broken, and the long line of those who took part in that struggle is growing thin¬ ner and thinner, as well as shorter and shorter. And soon every one who was an actor in that awful scene, and who can rehearse the story of its terribleness, will be sleeping among the mighty dead. 38 LIFE AND TIMES OF History is a repetition of the world's events. Hence, originality does not belong to any human occurrence. Be¬ cause all changes in human affairs, great or small, come from causes whose operation can be traced to the remotest past. Hence, all we shall claim of originality touching the life and times of Henry M. Turner lie in the fact that we compile the facts originated by him, rather than attempt to create them. American slavery was not a new institution, nor was the method of dealing with it a new policy in civil govern¬ ment. It was among the oldest institutions. Its origin was not in America, nor was America the first to protest against it. There was no originality in the Anti-Slavery Movement. The underlying principles of the Anti-Slavery cause were as old as civil society. Freedom boasted of her martyrs and champions long before the discovery of Amer¬ ica, and before Africans were enslaved in the western hemi¬ sphere. During the Colonial period of our country, and long after the adoption of the Constitution, in 1789, there was continualy rising a strong, as well as formidable, opposition and protest against human slavery. In the discussions against slavery, even prior to the Revolutionary War, was involved the question of the fundamental principles of human rights, as well as human liberty. The thoughtful men and women throughout the Colonies and the States were conscious of the guilt and shame involved in slave-holding. The Declaration of Independence put its seal of condemnation upon slavery, and the fathers of our country regarded it as an element foreign to human nature and a system con¬ trary to the laws of God. With this declaration of rights lifted before the gaze of the world, the American people put themslves on record and committed themselves to the cause of freedom. But when they enslaved and made merchandise of human flesh, their inconsistencies challenged the best judgment of man¬ kind, and upon a few of America's best statesmen, ministers and men of affairs and philanthropists, the sting of this crime fell like a pall in the night. Franklin, Hamilton and Hopkins, Edwards, Stiles and Jay, and many of their asso- BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 39 ciates were opposed to American slavery. Woolman, Lay and Benezet deserve an honorable place in the hall of fame for their unyielding opposition to American slavery. And as early as 1780 the Quakers, as a body, emancipated all of their slaves, which were numerous in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. But it remained for another generation to complete the work so nobly begun by these men who were the foreseeing prophets in our national life. The only apology we offer for these preliminary state¬ ments on the introduction of slavery and its subsequent history and the effort on the part of some of the fathers of our Republic to resist its encroachments is to show some¬ what of the environments out of which the subject of this little volume came, and with which, in after years, by the ruling of a peculiar fate, he was forced to grapple. Just five years before the subject of this sketch was born, or in 1829, there began a movement to abolish slavery in the United States. And this movement went forward with such constantly increasing momentum that no cessa¬ tion came until the fetters of slavery were melted from the limbs of every slave under our flag by the hot flames of civil war. At the beginning of this period, the agitation hardly created a ripple of excitement in any section of the country. The fathers of the republic had fallen asleep since the anti- slavery sentiment of the country had been defeated in the Missouri muddle in 1821. That early sentiment against human slavery was in the throes of death, and in its feeble¬ ness, it was gasping for breath. Time rapidly passed, but no mention was made of the subject. The Press was silent from year to year, and the pulpit was muzzled. Those Anti- slavery societies in which Franklin and Jay and Rush were once active participants were dead and cold and forgotten. But all was not dead; all was not lost. There w&s slumbering in the conscience of Benjamin Lundy a voice, destined to be heard crying in the wilderness. It was through "The Genius of Universal Emancipation," his little news¬ paper, that he sounded loud with the pen, as well as with his voice against the mart of the domestic slave traffic. His 40 LIFE AND TIMES OF was a brave voice. It was really tremendous, but it was not heard at first outside of the Quaker Communion, to which he belonged. These were awful times, because of the im¬ mense profit in cotton, which was the product of Negro slavery. And Quakers and others, as well, loved and shared in these profits, and grew immensely rich. It was not easy even for the Quakers to abandon this nefarious traffic, this iniquitous commerce in human souls, because the still small voice of conscience was subdued and hushed by the coarse, ugly, shrill voice of avarice, and ill gotten gain. At the time of the birth of Henry M. Turner, the senti¬ ment of this country was committed to the absolute necessity of slavery for the production of cotton, because that staple filled the coffers of the country with gold, and added to the wealth of the nation. Thus was paralyzed the moral sense of the people everywhere, and upon this theory the people of the country both North and South justified themselves in committing a crime, which was what Mr. Wesley called "The sum of villainy." The slavery question was regarded as dangerous, and the country would not survive its agitation. Hence, it re¬ mained for Benjamin Lundy to keep the fire of anti-slavery sentiment from dying out during those dark and awful days. It was Benjamin Lundy who put the burning torch of liberty into the hands of Garrison, a man born in due time, and raised up by Providence to join this army of mighty and powerful forces against the slave power of our country and to help break the chains of the slave. As students of history, let us take a retrospect of all this checkered past through which we have come; and let us note with what order and regularity in every crisis of human affairs men have come upon the stage, pre-eminently qualified to do the wfork needed to be done at that particular time, and to carry every issue to a successful conclusion. The clock of destiny strikes the hour; the wheel of God's providence turns and, lo and behold, a man steps upon the stage of action to stop the drift of the ages and to declare the signs of the times. Such was the awful time in which our subject was born. Such was the hour and the time that Henry McNeal Turner came upon the stage. BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 41 God equipped him with a vigorous, robust, coarse na¬ ture for the coarser, rough and robust task before him. He was commissioned in the service of God and man. To him was given the keynote of freedom's rallying cry of liberty and law. To him who was not a slave was given the charge to sound forth a trumpet against prejudice, ostracism and crime that shall never call retreat. Against this foe he fought with sword and pen and battled in the thick of the fight against the mightiest of the enemy, and he fought to the last. Such men as the subject of this story are as truly called of God to -warn the nation of the iniquity of its crimes as were the Jewish prophets. From the beginning of his public life in South Carolina to the close of his long and useful career on the wharf at Windsor, Canada, he never ceased to warn her to repent for her crimes against the Negro, and to warn her of God's just retribution for her sins against mankind. In his day he was truly God's prophet to declare to his generation the mighty uplifting forces of mercy, truth and justice, of liberty and law1. But he, like all prophets, in nil ages, was sometimes misunderstood and misrepresented. He, too, was persecuted, maligned and prosecuted as well; and sometimes he was almost slain. But, in every instance, whether in his native State, amid the slaves and the slave¬ owners, in the pulpit, in the councils of the nation, in bloody war or reconstruction times, God honored him, took care of him; and, at last, in Georgia, his adopted State, in whose soil where now all that is mortal that remains of him rests, he was honored in his obsequies such as no American Negro was ever honored before. The South loved Henry M. Tur¬ ner. The name of the subject of this sketch belongs in the catalogue with men whom the world does not always at first recognize. He belongs to that class of men whose bloody footsteps are the way marks of human progress. To such men as the sketch of this story portrays, the Negro race owes much of that which it has acquired which is use¬ ful and serviceable in its own civilization. To them, we owe the very application of Christianity to our social and 42 LIFE AND TIMES OF civil life. To such men the Negro race owes its loyalty to American institutions and its love for the flag of the nation. And thus Henry M. Turner was raised up by Divine Providence, out of the awful environment of which We have been speaking to be a spokesman for his race and to help deliver the government of the United States from the crime and sin of human slavery. And how significant is the time of his appearing, the circumstances, the state of the coun¬ try, the influence of Love joy, the labors of Garrison, Phil¬ lips and Wilberforce, Whittier and Sumner and Douglass, Clarkson, Brougham and O'Connell—these men were about to envelop the nation into civil strife. The dissolution of the Union was heard on every side. Secession was the watchword. The nation was just awaking from her long sleep, and was fearfully listening to the rumbling earth¬ quake which threatened her destruction. President Buch¬ anan did not take a decisive stand against slavery, which, he foresaw, would become, in a few years, a vital question before the American people. But thus handicapped by old age and the great issues before the country at that time, a man of his years could not hope to successfully deal. Thus he allowed the country to run down under his administra¬ tion, and he lost control of the government. The construc¬ tive statesmen and the patriotic leadership of the country lost confidence in him. They were demoralized. Dissolu¬ tion knocked at the door of the Republic. Secession threat¬ ened to sever the Union and to destroy the nation. A new era dawned. The nation was passing through a new birth of freedom and a deeper consecration to the service of mankind and a new baptism of love, liberty and law. What an awful time is this! The State is morally cor¬ rupt and its energy paralyzed. The pulpit is silent and dumb, and the Church hears not the cry of the slave, because the minister openeth not his mouth. It was about this time, or in 1858, about the middle of Buchanan's administration, that the main question discussed in the historical debate between Abraham Lincoln and Ste¬ phen A. Douglass was, "Whether the Negro Was a Man." Douglass argued that he was not, and so not included in that clause of the Declaration of Independence, which de- BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 43 lares that "All men are created equal." Chief Justice Taney, in the famous Dred Scott case, had put forth the ;ame opinion. But, two years later, the negative of this question had become the shibboleth of a great national oarty, which raised an issue which was settled finally and 'orever, by a cruel civil war, at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. And in the midst of that awful struggle of blood and iron, which threatened to overthrow the nation and to sever the Union, stood the towering form of Henry M. Turner as a unique figure and the most potent factor of his race, with a heart as firm as granite, and as unyielding in his purpose as steel. He was as thoroughly committed to the conviction that this nation could not endure half slave and half free as was Abraham Lincoln when he debated the question with Douglass a few years before. Upon the colossal form of Henry M. Turner all eyes were turned, and they watched him with misgivings such as no Negro had been watched before. i The commerce of our country was built upon a greed for gain, wihich was piled up and hoarded by the unrequited ''labor of the slave. Men had lost their judgment and reason 'and "bloody treason flourished over all." Justice no longer '-'ruled. Truth had lost her place in the hearts of men. She ihad reeled and staggered and had fallen in the street. ^Equity had no place in civil society. The American people ichad defiled themselves at the altar of slavery. Their fingers iiwere soiled with the blood of the innocent. Their lips were imade to lie on their conscience because they made their lips [approve what their conscience condemned. But out of the midst of this darkness the voice of Henry M. Turner was neard. He spoke for his race. He spoke for God. He a-spoke for God's outraged law. He spoke for Justice and soLove. He spoke and wrote and preached for the inalienable ights of man, and he has most thoroughly, as no other man Ifiias, rebuked the sin that has preyed upon the life of the sanation since the fall of slavery; and it is thus we compile Stnis history and write his name high up on the altar of im- nortal fame. He was a true American, filled with Southern Chivalry. Jt- It is to Henry M. Turner belongs the credit more than 44 LIFE AND TIMES OF to any other one Negro for the ushering in of those oppor¬ tunities which made possible a Robert Brown Elliott, a Jefi Long, a Cain, a Kainey, a Hyman, a Revels, a Bruce and thai large army of colored men who were such potent factors ir the struggle for human liberty. He led the way, and they followed in his wake. He, like an eagle, soared high above that sapient throng of noble men and women of that early day. His hour had come. CHAPTER III. FAMILY LIFE: THE MAN—THE HUSBAND—THE FATHER THE CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN. The home life of Henry M. Turner was like Alexander Stephens in that its doors stood open for everybody. It was 'Liberty Hall," where all men felt they were welcome and made to feel at home. His home was the gathering place for that class of men who banded with him to fight slavery until it was driven completely from the American soil. In lis home there was no compromising spirit. In it there were noulded those shafts of sentimental warfare and those Dolts of opposition which meant war to the hilt. Therefore, ;o him his home was not a social center, nor was it so nuch the place of social enjoyment as it was the magazine >f reason in which he forged those mighty mental projectiles vhich he hurled with such mighty force from time to time igainst the nation for her cruel treatment to his race. His lome was more the reclusory for thought, the library for in- ormation and the Atheneum for the scholar, the place for esearch, rather than a social habitat. At his house every- iody was at home. Thirty Yonge Street, Atlanta, Georgia, the index of his ormer residence, is famous not so much for its location, iut on account of the famous man who lived there. It was ormerly the residence of the late Bishop T. M. D. Ward. But, like Alexander Stephens, Henry M. Turner was not society man in the common meaning of that term. He 'as not an entertainer, but a great listener. He was an istructor and an advisor, a leader and a teacher. Hence, is home was a university in which information of every irpe and character was found. It was the Mecca for all ho sought information touching the Negro in all ages. He Iways had a full house. Aside from his large family, he ept on hand a large clerical force, who were indispensable ids in dispatching his literary work and other public busi- 46 LIFE AND TIMES OF ness, together with the local affairs of his Church. H was too busy to entertain his own family or to allow the: to entertain him. His home was his work shop, and nc his banqueting hall. And in there everybody worked, eve: "Father." His home was a fortress of strength. To hit it was the shop in which he formed those bitter anathema: he hurled at an ungrateful nation and the stupdity of hi; own people. As a man he was admired by all with whom he cam in contact. And even those who did not believe in hi teaching loved to hear him, and admired him for the earr estness of his argument and the boldness of his contentior as well as for the tenacity with which he held to what h thought was right. He was conscientious. He had stroiij convictions and the manly courage to express them. H would rather have gone down alone in the right than t have had the plaudits of the crowd in the wrong. He spoki and wrote as the fearless leader. For this he was admire in every part of our country. He Was a devoted husband. This does not carry tb idea that he worshiped or idolized his wife. To him, a wif was a partner in the execution of life. Devoted here mean; as a husband he made provision for every enjoyment ar. comfort for the woman he selected as his companion ar. partner in life, so that no complaint could come to hi: from her to retard him in his God-given work. He \\'i companionable enough to be loving, as well as devoted, an he was devoted enough to be honored, respected, loved ar! revered. As a husband, his will was the supreme law ar. the controlling influence of his home. But he never ua that will as a master, but as a loving husband. His houst hold lovingly, Willingly and reverently abided his will, an on account of his greatness, co-operated to make his hor a veritable paradise for him. Little interest did he take ordering and constructing his home, only as that orderi: and constructing pleased his wife. She was the object his tenderest care. To her, he was devoted in love a faith and kindness. And as rough and coarse as the exter. of his nature was, within he had a heart as tender and loving as a laughing girl upon her mother's breast BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 47 As a father he loved his children and, as such, he in¬ dulged them in the right and rebuked them in the wrong, as though they were not his children. The shadow of his greatness was so ponderous, that neither one of his children has yet approximated it. He did not encourage wrong¬ doing in them, but his greatest desire for them was that they would become useful, serviceable and active men and women and lovers of their country. He was married to Miss Eliza Ann Peacher, Columbia, South Carolina, 1856. A number of children blessed this union, of whom John P. and David M. Turner are the only survivors. With this union began the most critical and painstaking period of his life. He had not only traveled extensively in the North, but in the Southern States as well. He had made his home at various times in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Missouri and Baltimore. In 1862 and '63 he pastored Israel Church, Washington, D. C., and made this his home during the dark days when the nation was in the grip of civil strife. It was during his residence in Washington, he was brought in contact with all the great actors on the political stage of that day. 'Twas during this time he laid the foundation for that political career which ever afterward, to the day of his death, char¬ acterized him as the most conspicuous Negro in American politics. After the death of Mrs. Eliza Ann Turner, who had so much to do with the shaping of the destiny of her noted husband, he Was again united in holy wedlock in 1893 to Mrs. Martha Elizabeth DeWitt, of Bradford, Pennsylvania. This union was of but a few years. At the death of this most loving character, he again, in 1900, tried his fate at Hymen's altar, and was united in the bonds of holy matrimony to Mrs. Harriet A. Wayman, the widow of the late Bishop Wayman, whom he survived. After a few short but fretful years, his last marriage was to Miss Laura Pearl Lemon, of South Atlanta, Georgia, who became the loving companion and solace of his later years. She guided and protected him in his old age and protected his tottering form, as he wended his way to the close of his great and useful career. For her loving care, her patience and for- 48 LIFE AND TIMES OF bearance had much to do with the preservation of his life. And for her he made a most devoted and loving husband. But, as a Christian soldier, he never grew1 weary, fretful and tired. He exhibited the Christ spirit. He was busy serving others to the hour of his death. Death met him and claimed him for its own while he was on an errand of mercy and service. He fell in the harness, as he had lived, with his face toward the enemy. And as he viewed for the last time his native country—the land of his fondest hopes, where he had given so many years of useful service, lest he should be idolized, God permitted him not to return, but took him from the banks of a foreign shore up to the bosom of his Father and his God. CHAPTER IV. THE SOLDIER AND STATESMAN—ARMY CHAPLAIN—RECONSTRUCTIONIST— FREEDMAN'S BUREAU AND CIVIL SERVICE AGENT. When Bishop Henry M. Turner was pastor of Israel Church in Washington City, he attracted the attention of some of the wisest men of his day by his public utterances from the pulpit and platform. They saw in him the embod¬ iment of the spirit of John Quincy Adams, William Slade, Seth M. Gates and Joshua R. Giddings. These were among the earliest agitators in the Congress in the cause of freedom. His pastorate in Washington, just at this time, fitted him in as a connecting link between the early and latter advocates of freedom, and no Negro in public life at that time was better fitted to come upon the scene in the struggle for the emancipation of his people than was Henry McNeal Turner. Born just three years after the Nat Tur¬ ner insurrection, which occurred in 1831, in the State of Virginia, he naturally imbibed the spirit which that event excited throughout our country. That was an awful year for the slave-holders of the South. In the 1831-32 session of the Legislature of Virginia, Mr. McDowell, who was after¬ ward Governor of the State, said it was not the fear of Nat Turner and his deluded, drunken handful of followers that had so excited the people; it was the suspicious element attached to the slave himself—a suspicion that a Nat Tur¬ ner might be in every family, that the same bloody deed might be enacted over at any time and in any place, that the materials for it were spread through the land and were always ready for a like explosion. 'Twas Henry McNeal Turner, at that very time maturing in the nature of his parents and breathing their life, preparing to strike in later years a blow more formidable than that struck by Nat Tur¬ ner—but a blow more sane and more patriotiic. And we can but be proud of his genius and prowess, when we think of those early day contemporaries, who so 50 LIFE AND TIMES OF materially aided and supported him in his contention for right against might and wrong, and the men of that period of trouble and strife, who so valiantly stood out against the wrong, a few of whom are yet living actors moving and achieving great things for our people and the good of the country we love. It is with that loving grati¬ tude, near akin to devotion, we think of Slade and Giddings, Gates and Hale, Wilson and Sumner, Morris and Chase and of others who, in their day, exhausted every power of the Constitution in their reach to resist and finally to drive into everlasting exile slavery and the slave system, and thus to forever prevent its encroachment in our country to burden our people. But, towering above them all, when we think of Abra¬ ham Lincoln, the patient, conscientious, firm Lincoln, like a mighty Numidian beast, crouched to leap upon its prey— Lincoln, who had waited long for the hour and the man, when, as Commander-in-Chief of the military and naval forces of the United States, he would, under the Constitution and in hearing distance of the Omnipotent Judge, with a. single stroke of his pen, fully and completely strike the fet¬ ters from the slave and lift four million human beings from the condition of chattel to that of free men, women and children, and thus hand the Republic back to the people forever absolved from the shame and guilt of slavery. Lin¬ coln found the man he sought in himself. ^ ; If you ask us whence this freedom, which made it i possible for the race to produce a Henry M. Turner, we will tell von. It was the madness of the slave power which , opened the door for this glorious hope. It wias the confu- ekn of the South and the madness of her sympathizers that b'azed the way that brought the Negro into freedom—this; gicv-'cHs consummation which we had so long devoutly j wished. Many of the actors of that time are in the spirit land with the just men made perfect. Some few—a very few-— of either race still linger here among the scenes of earth and times. And even the subject of this sketch is now numbered with the blessed, that immortal tribe of heroes and martyrs. And the author of this little volume gives; BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 51- them a passing salute of recognition for making it possible for this famous man to take such an active part in the freedom of his race from American slavery. And upon the bier of all those who toiled in this labor of love, we lay a garland. And we salute each one of the unknown dead—- that innumerable host who fought on both sides of the line with him and without him, to redeem this Republic and to break the fetters from the slave. Henry M. Turner was commissioned Chaplain of the First Regiment, United States Colored Troops, in 1863, by President Lincoln. Thus he was the first Colored Chaplain fcver commissioned in the United States. In 1865 he was mustered out of the service, but he was immediately re¬ appointed Chaplain b^.the Regular Army by President John¬ son, and was assigned to detail duty in the office of the Freedman's Bureau in the State of Georgia. But he soon resigned this commission and turned his attention to the organizing of the A. M. E. Church in Georgia, thus better preparing himself to fight the battle for the rights of his people. We shall largely depend upon those of Henry M. Tur¬ ner's comrades in arms for information touching his life as a soldier and a statesman. Rev. R. French Hurley, D. D., an eminent clergyman of the A. M. E. Church, who was ac¬ quainted with Henry M. Turner for nearly sixty years, in his address at the Quarto-Centennial of Bishop Turner's Episcopacy in the A. M. E. Church, in 1905, spoke of him as fallow's: "Permit me to say our Regiment was a splendid one. It was twice favorably mentioned in general orders, once by Maior General Win. H. Smith and once by Major Gen¬ eral Benjamin F. Butler. A splendid Regiment with a splendid record. The first Negro Regiment recognized by the United Slates government, A splendid Regiment with a splendid Clmr)lam. The first Negro Chaplain commis¬ sioned by President Lincoln. Henry M, Turner was a true man at the most critical period of this nation's history, and at the most dangerous and most uncertain epoch in the historv of the American Negro." "The Emancipation Proclamation was less than three 52 LIFE AND TIMES OF years old when we were discharged. The condition of the country as seen by the wisest men was chaotic, but, as seen by the Negro, it w to have you study¬ ing, praying and singing for whole nights in Quarterly Conferences, trying to teach both preachers and their of¬ ficiary what the law of our Church required, even to the minutest point. And you need not be reminded of my pul¬ pit labors—you certainly have not forgotten how I had to preach three tinges every Sabbath and every night in the week, for month after month, and then come out of the BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 69 pulpit and explain the history, character, purpose and object of our Church, for hours, to satisfy the colored and whites, who would often look at me as if I was a bear or a lion; sometimes just commencing the organization of the Church about twelve or one at night. But why attempt to enter upon a detailed review? Why, in one year alone, I trav¬ eled over fifteen thousand miles in this State, organizing and planting Churches, and superintending the work, to¬ gether, and preached and spoke over five hundred times. 1 have been also accused of recklessly licensing preachers by the cargo, etc., because I had to license such a number. I admit that I did, on several occasions, exercise rather ex¬ traordinary powers in this respect, but in no instance where the emergency of the case would not justify such action. I was for a long time Elder, Superintendent and everything else, and sometimes had to make preachers of raw material at a moment's notice. I have licensed preachers while rid¬ ing on the cars, but I always put you through an exami¬ nation; sometimes would examine you for three or four hours. And while it is not only gratifying to me to know that some of these arbitrarily licensed preachers are now among our most useful and intelligent Presiding Elders, but, what is more gratifying, is that not one of them has ever been expelled or silenced for any crime whatever. In¬ deed, my hastily made preachers have been among the most useful. And my labors have not stopped in the religious sphere; but it is well known to every one that I have done more work in the political field than any five men in the State, if you will take out Colonel Bryant. I first organized the Republican party in this State, and have worked for its maintenance and perpetuity as no other man in the State has. I have put more men in the field, made more speeches, organized more Union Leagues, political associations, clubs and have wtritten more campaign documents that received large circulation than any other man in the State. Why, one campaign document I wrote alone was so acceptable that it took four million copies to satisfy the public. And as you are well aware, these labors have not been performed amid sunshine and prosperity. I have been the constant target 70 LIFE AND TIMES OF of Democratic abuse and venom and white Republican jeal¬ ousy. The newspapers have teemed with all kinds of slan¬ der, accusing me of every crime in the catalogue of villainy; I have even been arrested and tried on some of the wildest charges and most groundless accusations ever distilled from the laboratory of hell. Witnesses have been paid as high as four thousand dollars to swear me in the penitentiary; white preachers have sworn that I tried to get up insur¬ rections, etc., a crime punishable with death, and all such deviltry has been resorted to for the purpose of breaking me down,—and with it all they have not hurt a hair of my head, nor even bothered my brain longer than we were going through the farce of an adjudication. I neither replied to their slanders nor sought to revenge when it hung upon my option; nor did I even bandy words with the most in¬ veterate and calumnous enemies I had; I invariably let them have their say, and do their do; while they were studying against me, I was studying for the interest of the Church and working for the success of my party, and they would expose their own treachery and lies and leave me to attend to my business, as usual. So that, up to this time, my trials have been a succession of triumphs. I have enemies, as is natural, but, at this time, their tongues are silent and their missiles are as chaff, while my friends can be counted by hundreds of thousands. And I can boast of being one of the fathers of the mammoth Conference of the A. M. E. Church—an honor I would not exchange for a royal diadem. Thus, having reached the goal of my ambition, I only ask now to be retired from weighty duties of the past, and given the humble and more circumscribed sphere of preacher in charge. I am perfectly willing, if the Bishop will consent, to let some of my sons in the Gospel be my Presiding Elder, and I trust I shall be able to honor them as highly as they honor me, for I can say I have yet to be resisted or ques¬ tioned by a single preacher. And while I shall try to rest more regularly and comfortably in my retired relation, and enjoy life more pleasantly than I have for the last nine years, I shall, nevertheless, endeavor to be equaly as useful to the Church in the literary department, for I purpose to give my future days to the literary work of our grand and grow- BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 71 ing connection. Since I have been trying to preach the Gospel, I have had the inestimable pleasure of receiving into the Church, on probation fourteen thousand three hundred and eighteen persons which I can account for, besides some three or four thousand I cannot give an definite account of. And I would guess, for I am not certain, that I have received- during and since the war about sixteen or seventeen thou¬ sand full members in the A. M. E. Church, by change of Church relation—making in all nearly forty thousand souls that I have in some manner been instrumental in bringing to religious liberty; and yet I am not quite thirty-nine years old. Hundreds of these persons have, in all probability, fainted by the way and gone back to the world; but I am, on the other hand, happy to inform you that hundreds have since died in triumph and gone to heaven, while thousands are today pressing their w!ay to a better land, scores among whom are preaching the Gospel. I make no reference to these statistics to have you suppose I am better than other men who have not been thus successful, for I am only a poor, worthless creature, and may yet be a castaway; I only men¬ tion these facts to express my profound gratitude to God for His abundant favors which have been bestowed upon me so undeserving. If Bishops Payne and Wayman were here, I would take great pleasure in laying my gratitude at their feet for the support they gave me in the early establishment of this Conference; but, as they are not, I trust Bishop Brown will allow me to tender him my heartfelt thanks for the continued manifestations of respect shown me under his administration—he who has so ably presided over our Con¬ ference for the last four years, and done so much to advance and elevate the members of this Conference. I Would also say to the brethren of the Conference: You are now Deacons, Elders, Presiding Elders and many of you pulpit orators, so now you must bear your own responsibil¬ ities and look, in addition to your Bible, Discipline and Bishop, to our Father who art in Heaven for direction and counsel; you are welcome to the benefits of my experience at any time you may wish them. But I trsut it will not be my province to exercise any further control over a single member of the Conference. With those remarks, Bishop 72 LIFE AND TIMES OF and Conference, I again pray to be relieved of my heavy, taxing- responsibilities. May the God of grace keep you, is my prayer. Elder Gaines moved that Mr. Turner's request be granted, and that his remarks be printed, with the minutes, and in the Christian Recorder. Passed unanimously." During the following four years he did pastoral work in and about Savannah, and kept up his political activities at the same time. It was not an easy task for him to break en¬ tirely away from politics, and it is thought by some of his friends and most ardent admirers that the early political spirit served him to the day of his death. It is a strange fact, and worthy of note, that, after retiring from the arduous duties of the Presiding Eldership, he thereafter gave the Church forty-three years of the best service of his life, and thirty-five of them as Bishop in the denomination, and survived every member of the Conference of January 5-14, 1872; and during his Episco- pancy, he survived nineteen of the thirty Bishops with whom he sat in council at St. Louis, Misouri, from May, 1880, to February, 1915, in St. James' A. M. E. Church, New Or¬ leans, Louisiana, where he first connected himself with the A. M. E. Church. But Bishop Turner's real work as a Churchman did not begin in the A. M. E. Church until 1876. It was at this time he laid aside all matters pertaining to politics of a local nature and all others except such as naturally concerned him as an American citizen and the citizenship of his people. From this date onward, he played politics after the order of the old school, and this method was most beautifully man¬ ifested in some respects touching his last days. As a Churchman, Bishop Turner was strong of will power. Herein lay the strength of his mighty brain. Like a great cataract, the thoughts of his mind rushed on, un¬ restrained, unchecked and in spite of all opposition. No per¬ suasion, no force and no argument turned the current of his thoughts when he was once convinced that his cause was just. All of his acts seemed to have been to prove and justify, as well as to satisfy, his own conscience and to obey the ruling influence of his own will. BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 73 At the May, 1876, General Conference, he was elected General Manager of the A. M. E. Book Concern, located at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In this office he served with credit to himself, and the connection was fully justified in selecting him for the place. And, in 1880, at St. Louis, Missouri, he was elected one of the Bishops of the con¬ nection. As a Bishop of the A. M. E. Church, he held a unique, as well as distinct, place, altogether his own. One not knowing Bishop Turner would suppose he was a man who took pleasure in contrarieties and oddities, and was con¬ stantly labornig to establish and to make practicable the unusual and the unprecedented; and that he differed from other men for the sake of being odd and alone. Thus he was often .misjudged. He had decided and peculiar views touching the functions of the office to which he had been elected and his relation to the men who were to be his new colleagues in service. But he held no views that had not been held by the Christian Church at some time of her history. In fact, his peculiar views were rather an evidence of his w'jde knowledge of ecclesiastical law, Church usages and practices in all ages. They were historical, to say the least. Bishop Turner did draw a very clear and distinct line of difference between that which was orthodox and that which was historical. Hence, he freely expressed himself touching the claims of the Bishops in his own Church in their rights as Episcopates. But, so far as the office related to his own Church was concerned, he adhered strictly to her polity and discipline, and, therefore, did not allow his personal and private opin¬ ions to intrude upon his duty and obligation to propagate the doctrines, practices and usages of his connection. Yet down in his heart he Was a sacerdotalist; that is to say, he not only believed in the historic Episcopacy, which in¬ volves the nature and character of the ministry, as well as its form. He believed in an Episcopal Hierarchy and a House of Bishops, with an Archbishop, as the; highest legis¬ lative body in the Church, with a lower assembly composed of the lesser clergy. Thus the Bishops would be the su¬ preme lawmakers in the Church. He held that the Bishops, 74 LIFE AND TIMES OF by virtue of their Apostolic authority, should exercise the same power now invested in our General Conference, which is the supreme lawmaking powter in our American Meth¬ odism. Therefore, he preferred the term, House of Bishops, to that of Bishops' Council, because the House of Bishops, according to historical Episcopacy, constituted an ecclesi¬ astical court, where the Bishops collectively, officially and authoritatively sat together for the purpose of adjudicating Church and religious matters, while the Bishops' Council was a mere assembly of Bishops, convened for consultation, or td seek information or advice from one another, as needs may have required from time to time. But such a Council had no legislative function and no judicial authority. It is interesting to know that while he was a strong believer in the Apostolic succession and the Historic Epis¬ copacy, this position never affected his practices in the ful¬ filment of his duties as a Bishop of the A. M. E. Church. He accepted all the practices and usages of Methodism. He acknowledged and bowed willingly to the one "General As¬ sembly, the General Conference," the supreme lawmaking body, presided over by Bishops. Thus he recognized the Methodist Church as an ecclesiastical "government with Bishops, but not by Bishops." But while he could not swing his Church around to his views, he naturally kept himself in touch with the position of his Church. Although he would, at times, proclaim loudly that the) Bishopric was an order and surrounder with sacred and mystical rights, he showed his consistency in the fact that, according to the manner of election and induction in office, he regarded the Bishopric of his Church as an office and not an order; and the term Bishop another name for Elder when an Elder has been set apart to superintend the work of the Church, and with delegated and limited au¬ thority to overseer the Church under prescribed rules and terminal authority. And thus he serves as a part of the ministry of the Church. These High Church views were a source of much an¬ noyance to Bishop Turner and sometimes were the cause of his receiving some very severe criticisms. But we BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 75 do not mean here criticism in the sense of argument, but we mean here he was severely denounced by some of his colleagues, as well as some leading clergymen of his time; and even some in his Church did not regard his position as an expression of his sincerity, but, rather, they claimed that his utterances along this line were a part of those irrational expressions which were at times common to his nervous nature. But others called this attitude Bishop Tur¬ ner's peculiarities or his personal idiosyncracies. This seeming inconsistency, aside from ordaining a woman to the diaconate, led Bishop Turner, under the plea of that form of emergency which makes necessity law, to ordain Owana Vicar Bishop of South Africa. For this act he had neither law nor precedent in the A. M. E. Church, but he cited a precedent in the Roman Catholic Church, in English ecclesiastical law and in the Protestant Episcopal Church. No one attempted to meet Bishop Turner with argu¬ ment upon these historical questions and century-old dis¬ cussions. He held his opinions alone. And the writer has heard but two men discuss the question of the status of the Bishops of a Methodist Church on its merits; and we refer to Henry C. Sheldon, Professor of Historical Theology in Boston University, and the Turner Theological Seminary Spicey Lectures by Rt. Rev. J. S. Flipper for 1917, upon "His¬ toric Episcopate or Apostolic Succession." Thus, so far as the A. M. E. Church is concerned, Bishop Turner has had the field to himself, and the opposition that has come against him has been more in the form of abuse or grumbling complaints than discussion of propositions or conclusions from premises. But Bishop Turner avoided all such modes of argument and absolutely refused even to defend himself against any and all such unwarranted at¬ tacks. He never would disappoint his mind by allowing it to be tied to irrelevant and frivolous discussions when vital issues were at stake. Bishop Turner was never known to be unemployed. He was a busy man all the time. He worked until he slept; then he slept until he worked. Like Aristotle, he always found something to do. 76 LIFE AND TIMES OF His mind at times was cyclonic in action. His thoughts would suddenly turn from the given course of reason his an¬ tagonist seems to have had in mind to the thoughts of his own mind, and he would contend for the righteousness of his course with a tenacity that was remarkable indeed. Those who did not understand him and others who were afraid to venture where he dared to lead, charged him with errati- cism, wabbling and roving from one thing to another. But it is just to his critics, as well as to him, to say of them they had but little penetration, and, therefore, could not fathom the depth of his mighty brain. And many times the most fundamental activities of his mighty mind were called Bishop Turner's ramblings from side to side and from one thing to another. But these excursions of his most pro¬ digious thoughts Were in the new fields for reasoning and reflection, new territory for the wandering of his mind, new lands to be added to the plains of his activity. He was a busy man and as restless as the ocean. God made him that way. And could he be thought of today as rendering serv¬ ice in the other world for information or for the instruction of the angels, we would conceive of him walking out upon the frontier of Heaven, trying to solve the mystery of the Milky Way or secreted in some quiet corner in glory con¬ sidering time and space; and then, if our ears were acute enough, we would hear him exclaim, "God, my God! How great and infinite are all thy works! The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Thy greatness. My God! How wonderful art Thou in all Thy Being !" These advance positions demonstrate the stretch and reach of his mighty mind. He was not a non-conformist, neither was he a dissentei^If he lived now, he would be called a Progressionist. Qle believed the Church was so sbasically established in doctrine and Church government by ; the wisdom of the fathers that expansion could not weaken any part of her great system of activity and life, but, rather, would serve as a means to enlarge the whole, so that African Methodism might be found wherever the Negro settled dow^n in search of a Christian Sabbath home. Thus was planted and grew that Missionary spirit which has revolutionized the A. M. E. Church, which had long slept BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 77 over her opportunities. And his position on African emigra¬ tion is too well known for comment here. It is known wherever Christianity has planted the Cross of Calvary and civilization has walked upon the earth. He had a keener vision than many of his contempora¬ ries. He saw civilization as a growing and developing some¬ thing. He explored regions of Africa, his fatherland, and heard the voicg of his people welcoming him back home, in that Macedonian cry, "Come over and help us!" And thus he firmly believed and preached, lectured and wrote that God brought the Negro to America and Christianized him so that he might go back to Africa and redeem that land, and the Continent itself, before the nations of the earth would gobble it up and parcel it out among themselves. His prophecy has become true. The nations of Europe have made a great African civilization impossible. Thus his religion and missionary zeal had a business and practical value. 'Twas his opinion, and part of the doctrine he preached, that the American Negro was brought here, under God, to be civilized and Christianized for the purpose of returning to Africa and building a civilization of his own, which would embody the principles 6f Negroid life and activity, so that, wherever he settled for permanent habitation, there would spring up the free school for his children; the right of unimpaired religious liberty; a home ruled and protected by an honest ballot; a government and a nation, with force sufficient to establish the will of the majority; and, in some way, make these rights the source for the safeguard of social order. There, race rancor and infamy would be unknown. It Would be a country where the greatest possible civil and political courtesies would be exchanged between the greatest nations of the earth. A great government where religion, liberty and equity and law would reign supreme. This was his ideal Republic—his Oceanica. Bishop Turner hungered and thirsted more for political power and civil authority than he did for ecclesiastical con¬ trol. His mind was more of a legal turn and a civil cast than of a religious turn. He used to say any person could get religion and die, but it takes a man to live. Although 78 LIFE AND TIMES OF his loyalty and devotion to the Church cannot be doubted. His work and service speak for themselves. Few men of his day, if any, where the means of bringing more people into the A. M. E. Church than Bishop Turner. And, like the Wesleys and Whitfield, his pulpit Was not always found in the meeting house, but often in the open air, under a clear sky, with the stars for his taper and the sky for his sound¬ ing board. Thus, with the keen insight of the statesman and the wisdom of the economist, he saw the possibility to build, out of the rich, material resources of the great Continent of Africa, the wealthiest and mightiest nation on earth. Upon this proposition, and the doctrine of African emigra¬ tion, he was the principal agitator, as well as the leading spirit. Here he stood alone, and fearlessly battled long and hard for what he thought to be right. Dr. H. B. Parks, who, subsequently, became Bishop Parks, in speaking of Bishop Turner as a missionary and promoter of missions, speaks of him along this particular line as follows: "When in future generations, the culture and the refinement, the peculiar type of civilization, which shall be wrought out in Africa by the native, inborn, God-given spirit of the Negro race, then shall they react upon the rest of mankind, remove prejudice, excite mutual sympathy—thus adding a rich stock of the fruits of the heart and intellect to the common stock of the world, and, above all, exhibiting the divine love and fatherhood of God in the real and universal brotherhood of man. How brightly, then, shall shine, in the galaxy of the world's heroes, the name of that great man who was the real pioneer of all this magnificent achieve¬ ment, as the first Negro missionary to the Negro race! His place in this great movement can never be obscured. He has not only been a pre-eminent missionary in his own person, but he is the spiritual father from whom has sprung a. prolific progeny of missionary children. He has kindled the fire of missionary enthusiasm in unnumbered souls. Gifted with an abiding faith in the capacity of our race; gifted with a profound insight into the immediate duties of the Church; gifted with a far-seeing vision of the future opportunities for advancing the Church and the race, Bishop BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 79 Turner has been a m(ighty leader, a Moses conducting a sometimes reluctant people toward the Promised Land." Dr. B. F. Watson, speaking of Bishop Turner, in con¬ nection with the spread and extension of the A. M. E. Church and the progress of his race, said: "The extension of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, under Dr. H. M. Turner and his compeers during the reconstruction period, was greater by far in members and territory than all the previous years of her history." What a Herculean work for one man to accomplish during his own lifetime! "In 1864, there wfere less than a dozen Churches south of Mason and Dixon's line, with no opportunity to enter that territory, until an invading army had laid waste the fields and broken the manacles from the enslaved laborers. In the wake of the smoke and carnage, imbued with Apostolic fervor, the African Methodist preacher lengthened the cords and strengthened the stakes of his beloved Zion. To H. M. Turner was given the superintendency of the State of Georgia, with no Church funds to aid him in the support of his family. The people to whom he was sent were homeless, and many of them' nameless, and yet they were eager to hear the Word of Life from one of their own race. Night and day, Sunday and week days, the heroes went forth to their task." Dr. W. D. Chappelle, since Bishop Chappelle, said: "We would place the name of Henry McNeal Turner above that of Daniel Alexander Payne; we do not mean by this ex¬ pression to say that the life the Apostle of Christian educa¬ tion was imperfect in the sphere iri which he spent his ener¬ gies, but we do mean to say that the life and work of Henry McNeal Turner touched all shores and spheres of human existence, and will shine forth forever in the characters who are to follow him. The contribution to this occasion will serve as an inspiration to the young of the Church, and, with it, they will rise to the sunlit hills of human greatness whereupon the matchless Turner stands unequaled and with¬ out a peer." Professor H. F. Kealing takes a broad and sweeping view of Bishop Turner from a layman's standpoint, and gives an estimate of him from those who were the largest bene- 80 LIFE AND TIMES OF ficiaries of his great service to mankind. He speaks of him as follows: "Let us now consider what our Turner stands for, and how he appears to the great lay world, that looks on him as a social, civic and political force outside of his ecclesiastical place and denominational preference. It is no disparagement to any one to say that, though there may be, or may have been, several within the pale of the Church who have been as potent as Churchmen as he whom we dis¬ cuss, but none, however, so far as we know, have had so much power outside of the Church as Bishop Turner. In¬ deed, to those who know the cosmopolitan sweep of his sym¬ pathies and the pugnacious vitality of his temperament, it is little less than surprising that he could persuade himself to remain in any one Church; but, on the other hand, it is easy to see that, having decided to confine himself to some one, that one would be the Church that was born in a storm, like the African Methodist Episcopal Church. If the ob¬ server knew his man, he would also be prepared to hear that the Church wlas, every now and then, in turmoil, because our subject argued that where there was no law against a thing, he Liber Homo, free to become law unto himself. * * * "In manners," he said, "Bishop Turner was sudden, abrupt and usually unexpected. But he was never weak, nor aimless. He was unconventional, and had no soft words for the man with nerve. He gave and took, but one must take from him, whether he could give or not. If a man stood up and struck back at him, blow for blow, where Bishop Turner struck most fiercely, that man would never want for a friend in the future time; but, if he whined when Bishop Turner whacked, his place would be found among the scullions, and cowards and traitors to his race. The attitude and deliverances of this great Churchman on prohibition and the temperance issues were often so radi¬ cal as to both arouse his adversaries on these subjects and put his friends to their wits' end to defend him. Returning from one of his triumphal campaign tours in the Southwest, one of his friends informed him of the stinging newspaper 'roasting' by a certain able lady quill driver, hoping thereby to precipitate the 'old Roman,' as he wfas called, into a news¬ paper conflict. 'I will wait,' said the chivalric and far- BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 81 sighted tactician, and he did not wait very long, but long enough to bow gracefully in turn for that lady's smiles, and declined a proffered seat in the Hymeneal car, as it slowed down for the celebrated and available passenger." And Dr. H. T. Johnson, from whom I have just quoted, closes his address at the Quarto-Centennial of the Episco¬ pacy of Bishop Turner, at St. Louis, in May, 1905, as fol¬ lows : "To be sure, our hero suffers the disadvantage of too close proximity to those who would do him the fullest measure of honor, or accord him the fullest credit for robust and original mental activities. By and by, when viewed from a more distant range, and through the perspective of a dispensation less materialistic and superficial than the present, other eyes will gaze upon him, perhaps, then as now, as the aggressive Jove with poised trident, smiting right and left, casting up highways, and lifting up a stand¬ ard for his people. Yet undoubtedly, from the arena of a loftier plain, he will look down and an admiring posterity will survey himj resting in the shadow of the crucifix, point¬ ing to a redeemed Continet—the intrepid, tireless knight of the quill, whose pen, ever stimulated by the hoc signo' of Constantine, has ever proven to be mightier than the sword." Dr. J. D. Barksdale, in his comparison of Bishop Tur¬ ner with his colleagues, says: "Nobly and majestically stands this grand old hero, overtopping the forest of great men around him. And of him it might be said, as of Napoleon, that 'Alone he stands, wrapped in the solitude of his own grandeur,' far in advance of his age and generation, in the subtility of his thought and insight of the things yet hid in the womb of the future." CHAPTER VI. SOME PECULIAR TRAITS IN THE PRIVATE AND PERSONAL LIFE OF BISHOP TURNER. While Bishop Turner was honored and revered by his race, possibly as no other Negro was, he never, however, allowed that honor and reverence to take advantage of him. He could not be bought so cheaply. He was the same H„ M. Turner in the society of the high and affluent as he- was with the humble and the lowly. In fact, his crude and awkward manners fitted him better for the latter than for the former. While he was not selfish nor jealous in his manner and method of dealing with people, yet he was not passionately friendly in his appearance and deal¬ ings with any one. The disposition to yield to flattery which has marred the life of so many great men was no- part of his career. This disposition not to yield is accounted for by the fact that in his training in the school of poverty and adversity he did not have the advantage of associating with those circles of thought which group themselves in college men when they are preparing themselves for life's work. Hence he lacked the polish of the scholar, as well as of the school room. The real fact that made his relation to other men pecu¬ liar was that he owed his achievements to no one person, but to all with whom he came in contact; and thus he had the uttermost confidence in the ultimate success of mankind. Hence, the men with whom he had the most to do in his private and public life, as well as in his social career, were more his attaches, persons who served his pur¬ pose, rather than mere social friends and neighbors, of whom he was passionately fond. He was a good neighbor and was generally looked upon as the first man in the com¬ munity, by white and black. His education and training were of such a peculiar na¬ ture that no one professor was willing to claimi him as BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER S3 his student. They divided him among themselves in order to give him a place in the literary world. And in this par¬ ticular he was a unique character, in a class to himself. In the traits of his character, his manner and methods of de¬ porting himself, he resembled no Bishop of his Church, no minister in the connection. He was just like himself, and what nature had made him. He was Bishop Turner; that w&s all. And it is highly doubtful if his like will ever rise up in the Church again. It is prophesied that the race will not have another Bishop Turner. Like Caesar, he was the greatest of his class, and the end of a most illustrious line. Thus Bishop Turner was the most misunderstood Bishop in the A. M. E. Church, and was looked upon with more misgivings than any man of his day in America. And he was misinterpreted by some of his colleagues on the bench, as well as by some of his co-laborers on the field. He was regarded by many persons of both races as a dan¬ gerous man. Bishop Daniel A. Payne once said: "Turner will scourge the Church." But subsequent events have proven that he came nearer purging the Church; for it was his bold stand on many of the great public questions, such as the temperance and missionary movements, that aroused the Church to activity and service. Some of his closest friends doubted whether he was the proper person to assume the authority of Senior Bishop, when the time came. Many were the ugly prophecies, but the Church grew right on; peace and harmony prevailed, and her borders were enlarged more rapidly than they had ever been before. He belonged to that class of men who span centuries, like Asbury and Simpson, like Washington and Lincoln. Hence, he naturally falls in line with Allen and Payne. These three—Allen, Payne and Turner—stand out upon the pages of the unwritten ecclesiastical history of African Methodism as clear and distinct as the peaks which adorn the Alps. Each of these men stand single and alone in his peculiar work for the Church and the race. Allen, the pioneer and founder; Payne, the educator; and Turner, the expansionist and missionary. These men tower above their surroundings like the peaks in a mountain range. But Bishop Turner, in his own conceptivity, stands out like Mt. 84 LIFE AND TIMES OF Blanc, towering away above his colleagues up into the regions of eternal snow. The first half century of African Methodism was pre¬ eminently dominated by the spirit of Bishop Richard Allen; the second half by the spirit of Bishop Daniel A. Payne. The half century now beginning will be dominated by the spirit of Bishop H. M. Turner. But, because of the fact that Bishop iurner trained no successor, and he was not a particular ideal of any one of his colleagues and survivors, therefore it will be a long time before his real spiritual suc¬ cessor comes. He is yet to be born. No Bishop in his Church today can approximate him in permanent activity, usefulness and service. His genius towered so high above his surviving colleagues that they look like little hills be¬ neath a mountain peak. While Bishop Turner reverenced and respected all his colleagues, yet he evinced a peculiar liking for Bishop Shaf¬ fer, Bishop Parks and Bishop Jones—not, however, that he disliked any one of the others. And it might have been that Bishop Shaffer would now be practicing medicine in Philadelphia had it not been for the advice and persuasion of Bishop Turner, who was God's messenger to him. He assumed a relation to Bishop Parks and Bishop Jones unlike that he held to any other of his colleagues, and this is ac¬ counted for by the fact that Bishop Turner loved to be indulged and they knew how to handle him. He cared nothing for flattery and much of the twaddle with which BishoDs are over-smeared and which have weakened some of our strongest men. The peculiar indulgence and respect Bishop Parks and Bishops Jones showed Bishop Turner were regarded by him as the proper deference for his worth to the race he had served so faithfully and so long. Hence, he appreciated their deportment toward him. A lasting impression was left upon his mind whenever he visited them, or they visited him. Bishop Jones not only treated him as a colleague and showed him those courtesies which belonged to him as a Bishop and a high Church func¬ tionary, but, in his Conferences, Bishop Turner was given the right of way: and on measures, when and where doubt appeared respecting a ruling, Bishop Turner's advice was BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 85 freely sought, and it was as freely given. For hesitation formed no part of his nature, and yet hei was a most modest man—slow to speak, only when occasion required. It is doubtful whether there were three other men whose career was watche;d so closely by Bishop Turner as was of Bishop Shaffer, Bishop Parks and Bishop Jones. At the 1896 General Conference, at Wilmington, North Carolina, no man there worked harder for the election of Dr. H. B. Parks, wftio subsequently became Bishop Parks, for Mis¬ sionary Secretary than Bishop Turner. And in this canvass the good Bishop Turner resorted to some of his old time political manoeuvering and wire-pulling; for Dr. Parks had a very strong opponent in Dr. E. W. Lee, from Georgia. But even this friendship was so peculiarly guarded that it was not always noticed by the casual observer, and Bishop Parks himself did not always understand Bishop Turner. And I don't know any one person who ever did. But his friendship was none the less sincere and genuine ; and sometimes he confided to them things he did not trust to any one else. But Bishop Turner was peculiar in the fact that he did not unbosom himself to any one person. Whenever he had a matter of secret import to reveal, he told it in parts and sections to a number of his friends, so that any one of them betraying his confidence would only betray him in part. Hence, it was not easy to prove an accusation against him, because his accuser would have only a fragment of the mat¬ ter charged against him. Bishop Turner revealed himself to groups of friends and singly to each member of the group, and the individuals in the group were known only to him; and because of this method of dealing with men in public life he was not understood by many who were, otherwise, very close to him and regarded him the greatest political trickster of his time. He was bold, daring, venturesome; in nothing daunted. His method of revealing himself was on the installment plan. He was careful and exclusively guarded with sacred in¬ terests ; those of his thoughts which were precious and dear to him. He revealed such thoughts to but few persons, and to such only as wtere widely unknown to each other, as 86 LIFE AND TIMES OF well as widely separated from each other. In matters per¬ taining" to his own personal interest, he was a most careful and painstaking man. Few people, aside from his creditors, knew anything about his private affairs, his debts and obli¬ gations, and still fewer knew what he owned and controlled. He was not inquisitive, nor a busy-body, in other men's mat¬ ters, nor did he allow other men to busy them|selves in his matters. Yet he was always ready to receive new ideas or information; and at times he received information from an informant which had already been given him with that readiness and surprise as though he was listening to it for the first time and, therefore, ignorant of the story being told him. While he was not a social entertainer, yet, when he souhgt information about matters of great concern, he adapted himself to the situation and, when occasions re¬ quired, he discussed questions pro and con in a social way until he got the information he sought. But more often, in his seemingly seeking information, it was not at all times to add to his already full stock of information; but he was seeking it rather as a confirmation of his own opinion or somle conclusion about a matter upon which his mind had been fully made up; or he would listen in order to verify a story he had already heard. Bishop Turner's social life had a tinge of jocularity about it that w!as really admired, and it was a great feast to some of his good friends to get him started off as the introduction of this kind of conversation was called, and then he could talk all night and not tire. He enjoyed a good joke, and, like Abraham Lincoln, he was a splendid story teller. His memory was accumulative. He could call up what he once knew and wished to use on any specific occasion at will, and in detail as he had heard it years before. This power of will made him an interesting talker and also enabled him, in his jocular moods, to rehearse many of those old fireside tales with a weirdness almost akin to reality. He told these stories as they were told by his suffering people, under the dim glare of a flickering light, when he Was a lad; and it was these stories and tales of suffering, of torture and hardships that helped to make him the great champion for BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 87 human rights he became in after-years—for they fired his heart and stirred his soul. But out of that jocular m£>od and period of story-telling, he would become as ugly and as furious as a prowling hyena. He would then utter some of the bitterest invectives against "the nation for her cruel treatment of the Negro and her dis¬ regard of the Constitution, that language and thought could create. Then, feeling himself imprisoned and hemmed in on every side by the unjust laws of his country and the deplor¬ able condition of his race, he, like Spartacus to the Gladiator at Capua, would attempt to stir and arouse the spirit of madness and resistance against wrong done his helpless people by branding the Negroes as brutes, cowards and scul¬ lions, if they stood silently and suffered the afflictions the ■country imposed, without a protest. Then he would encour¬ age them, by appealing to their pride and patriotism, as no other Negro ever dared to do before nor since. He urged them to be men and band together for self-defense; gain, lawfully and honorably, every vantage point possible to keep in memory the bloody work of their sires at Roanoke Island, Port Wagner and Fort Pillar. He urged his people not to be scullions and cowards and crouch and crawl like "bela¬ bored hounds beneath their master's lash;" but, if they were forced, and "must fight," fight for themselves and their country; and, if they must slaughter, then slaughter their oppressors and the enemies of their country; and, if they must die, then die "in noble, honorable battle" for right against wrong; for peace against oppression. Thus Bishop Turner, with perfect ease and seeming -composure, could pass from the ridiculous to the sublime, and from the frivolous to the most profound; and these periods of transition cast no shadows before them—they came without warning, like thunder in a clear sky. But the •disappointment was greater when they did not come than was the surprise when they did come. And yet Bishop Tur¬ ner was not as sour and morose as the exterior of his nature •seemed to indicate; but, rather, behind that coarse and rough exterior, was a soul as sweet and serenely gentle as the zephyrs at eventide. Some men's lives run evenly and smoothly, like the 88 LIFE AND TIMES OF gentle flow of the brook, even from the cradle to the grave. Other lives begin with the forming of the first storm-cloud and end where the last whirl of the cyclone has passed and the wailing winds have died away. Bishop Turner cam(e upon the scenes of activity in an awful time—a time of war, in which he was destined to fight in many battles, and he did not know defeat. When he did not accomplish his purpose in the first effort, he suspended energy, but he did not abandon the field. He took a retreat and waited patiently for the hour to strike another blow, and to strike hard. His lifei wlas not like a steady flowing stream, smoothly and uninterruptedly, between its banks. But it was like angry waters, pitching and dashing over jagged rocks, water¬ falls and cataracts, until it mingled with the waters of the troubled sea. Hence, to tell the story of his life faithfully, the writer finds himself oftimes in a whirlpool of activities and a tangled web of movements, from which it is not easy to extricate himself and, at the same time, do justice to his subject. In telling the story of Bishop Turner's career, we are compelled to constantly refer to the beginning of that career, in order to learn just what particular part we are discussing and to make our story connected and consistent, as well as consecutive. Bishop Turner was like a many pointed star, with each point emanating from a different center. Thus we have endeavored to give somje of the prevailing features and peculiar characteristics in the life of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, which embellished his career and magnified his service to mankind. BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER CHAPTER VII. SOME PECULIAR TRAITS AND PREVAILING FEA¬ TURES AND CHARACTERISTICS IN THE OFFICIAL LIFE OF BISHOP TURNER. Having discussed briefly the peculiar traits in the pri¬ vate and personal life of Bishop Turner, let us, in the second place, review the peculiar features in the trend of these traits, review the peculiar features in the trend of these get an unobstructive view from all points of his life and character and learn what he began to do and to be. This character of writing is a peculiar type of literary production, and, if the real truth in its fulness is told, the writer is woefully condemned either for what he says or for what he does not say. He is only free from the abuse of" the subject of his story who can raise no objection to any¬ thing that may be said of him, right or wrong. It is not an easy matter, however, in the light of a well trained and cultured sentiment, to say things about that which an antecedent sentiment has condemned, because sentiment is a severe weapon in the armor of our civilization, and men seldom go contrary to it. Thus he who attempts to write a story of a man's life, or even his own autobiog¬ raphy, attempts no easy task. Men are so fragile as well as fleeting in their life and career, that it is difficult at all times to place them where they really belong. They won't stay placed, because they are vacillating and careless in their life. In short, men know but little of how much they are watched while passing through life. Therefore, sometimes, with all the efforts of the writer- to make them a fixture, they won't stay fixed; that is, they must be known to the world by some peculiar purpose, aim or endeavor or some peculiarity of the workings of their own genius. They must deposit themselves by some old' trick of their own pattern. They cannot be other than themselves. They won't down. It can be said of Bishop Turner, however, that he- 90 LIFE AND TIMES OF started right, and was trained amidst an environment with wihich he was forced to grapple for more than sixty years. He needed no polish of thought, character nor expression for the coarse and rough work awaiting him. The fact of his starting life right was the foundation upon which, in after years he built a successful career. Success cannot be hoped for from a wrong beginning. A child, born sickly, will be a weakling all its life, because of its inability to throw off the disease; so wrong never accomplishes anything worth while. If a young man would be successful, he must learn well what he does learn before he starts out in life. Then be himself at all times. This lesson Bishop Turner thor¬ oughly learned. In fitting himself for life's work, he studied the work best fitted for him and for which he was best adapted. And no one can ever accuse him of being any other, at any time, except H. M. Turner. This knowl¬ edge formed the basis for all of his future work, which he loved, and upon which he concentrated his mind, his life and all of his energy. This was the kit of tools with which he started life and with which he worked out his destiny. This was all the capital with which to start life and the largest bank account he ever had. Reverting again to writing the life of a man, it is op¬ portune to say here the writer is in danger of having the wrath of the living poured upon his head, because there are men in public life who are jealous of the dead, as well as of the living; and the stealing of flowers from the graves of the dead is not confined to non-professional men; and there are others who would dare to become jealous of what one may say of the dead. It is courteous, indeed, to allow the dead to rest, and say as few bad things about them as possible, because they cannot rebut what is said. There is no need of publishing the wrong-doings of people who are dead, for, whether it is planned or desired, "The evil that men do lives after them. 'Tis the good that is oft interred with their bones." The true life story of the dead is the story of the dead, told in its relation to the story of the living. And thus we write the true story of the life of Bishop 'Turner, who regarded that which was sometimes called a BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 91 •difference among men not a real difference but a kind of mental mirage, an inverted trick of the imagination, a cre¬ ation wholly in the air. The only difference he conceived in men that was real and appreciable, was a difference of mind manifestations; all other differences were assumed. He was in harmony with Pope in the belief that the greatest thing in the world was man and the greatest thing in man is mind. "My God!" he would exclaim, "what is mind ?" and his answer to his own query would ultimately be, Mind is what man is, and man is no greater, nor lesser, than liis mind; mlind power and mind force and mind manifesta¬ tion make the only difference that exists between one man and another—the size of the brain has nothing to do with it; as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he—he is what his "thoughts make him. Bishop Turner considered, "Speak, that I might see thee," with more interest than he did "Speak, that I might hear thee," because he knew that "Thy ^language betrayeth thee," could be said of each man, woman and child with equal truthfulness, as it was said of the Gal¬ ilean fisherman. So he made language the gateway to his mighty mind, the home of his ponderous thought and the working of his mighty brain. Bishop Turner looked upon man as the middle fact between God and the earth, which was created for a human "home. And he believed, that it is to that same God, every man alike must seek and find his preservation. Hence he treated all men alike in his official dealings in the fear of God, as brothers and sons of a common father. He was gentle ■and kind to all alike. He was unlike some of his associates, colleagues and contemporaries, in that he did not magnify his office, but magnified and exalted his service to mankind. Hence he had no square holes for round pegs, and no round holes for squuare pegs. But he ever strove to adjust mat¬ ters according to their nature, and to help men fit them¬ selves where they belonged, and to seek their own place in life. He was a leader of men. He was not a coward. He sought to take advantage of no one. He met every man, the humble and the exalted, squarely upon the level plain of life he walked. He did not use the function of his office to punish his enemies, nor to reward his friends. That misuse 92 LIFE AND TIMES OF of power, and abuse of authority, which stultify and impair the usefulness of public servants were never laid at his door, and were no part of his short comings. He regarded char¬ acter as the very language of life, and about all, that was worth knowing about any man, was, after all, character building. Bishop Turner was a strong believer in the study of the language of life, as well as in the study of the lan¬ guage of the races, because, as a student of human nature he had learned that the language of life gives expression to the deepest needs of the soul, as well as to the most perfect harmony. To him it was the language of growth and prog¬ ress of the purest morals, and the divinest of all govern¬ ments, and that which inspires religious faith. To him, the language of life was the most holy and sacred thing in all human nature, and of this language no one race, be it ever so high or low, could claim a monopoly. And in his Confer¬ ences, he allowed every one who would to talk. The more at the samte time, the better he enjoyed it. And what was confusion to othrs was harmony to him. He could accom¬ plish more in one storm, than some men could work out in the calm of a lifetime. But that man is weak, indeed, and is an impostor, who would attempt to assume the position of a teacher, and that coveted relation of a leader of a people, when he himself is ignorant of that science Which deals with the delineation of human life and character. These two elements which are so essential to the development of human happiness, and human progress, he posessed in large measure. Bishop Turner could speak of but little he had read in hooks; while he had an extensive library, he never was re¬ garded as a bookworm. His library was a shapeless mass of unclassified books. He spoke out of an ex¬ perience of many years of travel, extensive observation, as well as of investigation. He moved in and out among every condition and phase of Negro life in all sections of the country. He knew their inner life, and was acquainted with their needs. Therefore, he could easily claim, "without res¬ ervation, but with pardonable pride, that he who had no knowledge of the people's needs, and their true condition, was not qualified to be their leader. This accounts for his* BISHOP HENRY M. TURNER 93 opposition to the placing of inexperienced and inefficient men into place of responsibility and obligation. Experience meant jmore to inm than the brain of the University. This accounts for his bitter exposition from time to time, to inexperienced men, unfit for leadership, who aspired to the office of Bishop in his church, and ultimately to leadership in his race. But unfortunately for him, and possibly for the Church, he could .not stem that tide, but subsequent events justified the wis¬ dom of his opposition. And thus we have learned from this exalted position of Bishop Turner, that elevation to a position is not a sign nor a substitute for experience, nor can it take the place of the knowledge of a people's condition, a people's hope, and a people's needs. Such a man elected to office, even though it be the highest in the gift of a people, he can never become „a leader because the elements of leadership are not in him. He may be able to draw people. But there were a large num¬ ber of Bishop Turner's contemporaries, colleagues and asso¬ ciates ignorant of the difference between leadership and boss- Ism. In short, many of them were drivers of men, instead fof leaders of the people. And no man knew the seriousness of this weakness better than Bishop Turner. And no man sought more vigorously to discourage it than he. He knew its weakness and danger points. He had served under it -and had suffered much of its infliction and inconveniences. Therefore, he never approved of such conduct in any class of men. A driver was as odious and offensive to him as the 'worst enemy of mankind. And he regarded men w