THE APOSTLE OF PEACE. A REVIEW OF HIS LIFE AND LABORS; PEACE ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS IN AMERICA, Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. University of Illinois Library FEB »5 1971 JUN 0 L161— 0-1096 — Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/reviewoflifeofwiOOhemm : «« a i. nof Fw^ A W( . T| „, 3 , U54 IrLcieit. FAGE Introduction, by Elihu Burritt, - 7 Chapter I, - - 17 “ IT, 27 “ III, 38 “ IV, 45 “ V, 58 " VI, 70 YII, -------- 82 “ VIII, 92 •“ IX, - - 100 “ X, 112 « XI, 122 “ XII, 131 " XIII, 139 9 \ o I INTRODUCTION. The following extracts from the “ Introductory Notes,” by Elihu Burritt, to the Memoir of William Ladd, we append as an appropriate Introduction to our abridge- ment of the original work : “ The greatest wealth of any country or age is the immortal lives it produces for itself and the world. There are rich and proud empires that look upon such lives as their peculiar and most precious treasures. “ When America comes to make up her jewels, or to compare them with the jewels of other nations, it is doubt- ful if she will be able to show a life of longer radius and serener light than the life of William Ladd. This Maine farmer arose by the power breathed into his soul, to the very first order and rank of that nobility of the great world which numbers but a few men in a single age. Every country has its illustrious patriots, whose souls can only take in and worship its soul good and glory. But philan- Till INTRODUCTION. thropists, with hearts large enough to take into their embrace fifty nations, with a pulse of sympathy and good- will beating warm and ceaseless for each and all — such men have been few from the birth of time, and they are few to-day, though increasing in number. They are the only order of nobility recognized and honored by the empire of humanity. Patriots may make a more brilliant lustre, but it is more temporary, and confined to local illumination. Often a shade of national selfishness dis- colors its aspect to other countries. The light it sheds upon its own land may have been kindled at the ashes of their prosperity. It may, to the eyes that most admire it, shine the brighter for the darkness it has made around it. But true-hearted philanthropy, of William Ladd’s order of will and work, ascends to a higher level of view and life. As from the mount on which Christ sat and preached his immortal sermon, it looks off upon the great world in the pathway of his eye and with the pulse of his heart. It looks from such a lofty point of vision that the boundaries between nations seem but the narrow streets of one great city, not walls to sunder its habitations. From such a height it can not or doe3 not notice whether the faces on one side be black, and on the other white, or a shade between. To its ear the human voice has but one lan- guage, the human heart but one divine fashion of sensi- bility, the human soul but one stamp of origin and value. INTRODUCTION. ix “Such was the philanthropy of William Ladd, and such was the eye with which he looked, the heart with which he felt, the hand with which he worked, and the life he led, for the common weal of mankind. The order or mission of philanthropy to which be gave all these faculties of his life was at the time but just instituted. No other special work of good-will to man set agoing since the angels sung thear song to that string and tune, ever re- quired more faith and hope against hope. It was the effort to abolish a system of violence and bloodshed, which, every year from the flood to Waterloo, had destroyed more human lives than perished in the waters that upbore Noah's ark, or at that average of destruction. Christianity had not checked war, neither by making it less frequent or furious. Even when paganism had succumbed before the banners of the Cross, religious wars between nations that raised those banners against each other, raged with heathen fury sometimes for a generation. Christendom was one continuous field of battle, with only short breathing spaces called times of peace. Ail the nations of the civilized world, including America, had just emerged from a long and terrible struggle, terminating at Waterloo. They were all still bleeding with their wounds, and burning with ani- mosities that blood bad not quenched. Heroism, chivalry, patriotism, military history and glory of all the Grecian and Roman centuries; of the middle ages, and all other X INTRODUCTION. ages ; Homer, Virgil, and all the classical romance of martiad deeds and daring — all these took hold of press, pulpit, and people, and made a new literature in prose and verse to feed the appetites they had created. Such was the time at which a few men in private life, of small in- fluence, but of great faith and holy purpose, came together, each band a little handful, in London and Boston, almost simultaneously, without concert or mutual knowledge. These men, few and feeble in political and social force, addressed their minds to the question how the long reign of war could be broken, and banished from the Christian world. It required a faith which few men had attained in a thousand years to believe that the great destroyer could be bound and cast into the utter darkness that gave it birth. The struggle would be long and desperate, but not doubt- ful in the far-off end. This they believed. With this faith in the power of the Christian religion, reason, and the enlightened conscience of nations, they believed that the war system might be abolished like other evils that had yielded to the same moral forces. Still there was one great difference between this system and all other pernicious customs that had been put down or remained to be abol- ished. It was in this aggravated and formidable difference that these early friends of peace, and all who have since espoused the cause, met their greatest difficulty. *“ This difference between war and slavery or intern- INTRODUCTION. XI perance, or any other great form or wrong and oppression, has its most serious distinction in the fact, that one is an international, world-wide custom, and the other, local or national evils, to be abolished only by local efforts or national legislation. England could and did abolish slavery in her colonies without asking concert or consent of other countries. The United States did the same. Intem- perance has been and is a terrible evil in both countries ; but it is for the people of each to put it down in their own borders. The example and sympathy of one are helpful to the other, as a stimulus to new faith and exertion, but the real work and result are local. Each must do the one and achieve the other by and for itself. But no one, nor two, nor three nations can abolish war. To banish this great evil from the civilized world requires the co-work- ing and co-partnership of all the great nations of Christen- dom, no three of which speak the same language. Beside this difficulty, they greatly vary in temperaments, institu- tions, and in progress of enlightenment. Now, not only the governments, but the people of these nations had to be virtually educated and brought to see the wickedness and folly of the war system, and to join in the effort to abolish it. To reach and convince the minds of these rulers and peoples, and to enlist their effective co-operation, involved an effort from which even men of sanguine faith and hope might well have shrunk. Xll INTRODUCTION. “ But war was not only an international custom, to be abolished by the whole family of nations working in co- partnership, but it was upheld by influences which no other evil habit or system ever won to its support. Slavery never produced any attractive literature to deepen its hold upon the popular mind of any country that tolerated the evil. It had no martial chivalry or heroes to sing about slave- hunting raids in Africa, or incidents of 11 the middle passage,” or of barracoons and slave-pens in America, Cuba, or Brazil. It furnished no tropes or illustrations for the press or pulpit rhetoric. It touched no enthusiasm ; it stirred no romantic sensibility in its favor. It had no hold upon the better nature of man; nor found any defense or reason for its existence, except in the lowest instincts of self-interest of a man, of which his moral conscience was secretly ashamed. Intemperance was as poor in literature, in prose or verse, as slavery. It had only the low language of appetite in its defense or apology. Its bacchanalian songs touched no chords of sympathy in the popular mind. It would not enlist music, poetry, and painting, nor make any attractive romance for novels. The earnest men and women in America and England who banded themselves against these evils, could pierce them through and through with the arrows of truth. There were no thick bosses of classic literature and classic history to turn or dull the points of their weapons. INTRODUCTION. xiii “ How different, in these respects, has ever been and still is the popular status of war ! Nearly two-thirds of the written history of mankind has been the history of this destroyer of the race. It has suborned to its service and glorification the most brilliant literature of all the ages. One continuous line of poets, from Homer to Tennyson, has sung its glories with a genius the world has called divine. Music and painting and sculpture, and every other art that could throw a romantic gloss or glamour around its bloody deeds, have given their power to the beast. Every college that has opened its doors in Christendom for the last thousand years, has nursed and fed the minds of its students with this literature. More than one hundred lines of Mars’ bible have been taught and learned against one line of Christ’s gospel committed to memory. And perhaps the press and pulpit never dealt in military allu- sions and illustrations more freely than at this very day that we have reached. All the human industries and enterprises, all the heroic and patient philanthropies that have been set on foot for human good since the flood, have never made such poets, painters, and singers as war has brought into the world to celebrate its glories, “ Such, then, was the work which a small band of men, meeting in Boston almost simultaneously with a sim- ilar band in London, had faith and hope enough given them to set their hands to, soon after the battle of Water- INTRODUCTION. 3&Y loo. The venerable Noah Worcester virtually led this forlorn hope in America, supported by a few others who shared his views and labors for the cause. His “ Solemn Review of the Custom of War” made a deep impression upon many thoughtful minds, and the new and unpopular society he represented gradually gained adherents in the face of general indifference and much ridicule. But the cause was now to win one who may be called its first apostle in America. “At the age of forty-one, William Ladd, then a retired farmer in Maine, found himself drawn to the point of a new departure in his life of labor and duty ; and, like Paul, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision that opened up to him a field of effort for which he had been unconsciously prepared. The readers of his biography will notice the process of this preparation, and the affini- ties of his natural temperament and disposition for the work. In the first place, he had had a very remarkable education and experience, producing and illustrating that almost endless versatility of genius and working capacity so peculiar to a genuine New England character. Indeed, few men, even of this race, had ever fitted themselves for so many different positions and occupations, and filled them all so effectively. Graduating from Harvard to a place before the mast as a common sailor, and then from the mastership of a vessel of his own to a cotton plantation in INTRODUCTION. XV Florida, and alternating between other occupations, on sea and land, at home and abroad — he had a training in the knowledge of the world and of human nature, that fitted him in this respect admirably for his apostleship in the cause of Peace. But this training supplied, as it were, only the muscular force of intellect and experience for the work, and it would not have led him into it by its own impulse. A kindness of heart and tender regard for man and beast ' a deep and generous sympathy with the oppressed and the suffering, whatever their color, race, or condition, were manifested and cultivated in all the enterprises he had set his hand to, and fitted him for an advocate of a new course of philanthropy, suddenly brought before him under impressive circumstances.” A few days after the death of William Ladd, the following, in a notice of his death and character, appeared in the News Letter , published at Exeter, N. H. : “His biography, if well w'ritten, will make one of the most interesting and useful books of the age. But who shall write his biography ? Who shall describe the changes of his eventful life ? Who shall speak of him as the acad- emy boy, the collegian, the sailor, the sea captain, the agri- culturist, the public speaker, the Sabbath-school teacher, the advocate of temperance, the friend of the African race, the promoter of missionary and Bible societies, the bene- factor of the widow and the orphan, the Apostle of Peace, KYI INTRODUCTION. the humble Christian, the minister of the gospel, the friend of man, the servant of God?” Nearly thirty years passed away, however, before a biographer was found. At length John Hemmenway, from the love he bore to his character, and the cause he so earnestly advocated, undertook the task. “ No one,” he says, “ can regret more than myself, that the important work of writing the Memoir of Ladd has, in the providence of God, fallen to one so poorly qual- ified for such an undertaking. A biography worthy of him can not now be written, as a large portion of his manuscripts can not be found, and probably are not in being, as the most diligent search and inquiry have brought but little to view ; and the most of his friends and acquaintances, w T ho could have furnished much valuable material, are now numbered with the dead.” But notwithstanding the scantiness of material, and the low estimate the biographer entertains of his abilities, he has succeeded in bringing prominently to view all the different traits of character alluded to in the Exeter News Letter , and has happily produced “ one of the most interest- ing and useful books of the age.” In abridging the work, we have endeavored to pre- serve and make prominent all these different traits of character in a smaller compass, for the special benefit of youthful readers. A REVIEW OF THE LIFE OF WILLIAM LADD. WILLIAM LADD, CHAPTER I. William Ladd was born in Exeter, N. H., on the 10th of May, 1778. He was the eldest son of Eliphalet Ladd, an eminent merchant, who re- moved to Portsmouth about the year 1705, and died in 1806, respected as a patriot and a Christian. His wife, the mother of William Ladd, whose maiden name was Abigail Hill, was a woman of superior mental and moral excellence. William, it is said, in his countenance much resembled his mother. She became the second wife of the Rev. Joseph Buck- minster, D. D., of Portsmouth, who died in 1812. She continued his widow to her death in 1884, at the age of eighty-eight years. 18 WILLIAM LADD. “ Ig w ould be interesting,” says his biographer, “ to evejry one<, \>l>c truly deserves the scriptural title of ‘a lover of good men/ to linger among the eariiejr of t\ip life of him who, in a long course of years, gave the best of all evidences that he loved God, by ardent and holy love of man ; but unfor- tunately little can be found to gratify this worthy curiosity. That the ‘ Apostle of Peace/ the peace- maker of the nineteenth century, was an amiable boy, full of peace and love to all, a favorite with his mates and school-fellows in the quiet and beautiful town of Exeter, is an unquestioned fact. Such a record v 7 as made of him many years ago, by one of his cotemporaries.” The school hours of his earlier years seem to have been, according to his own account, rather tedious to his frolicsome spirit ; and when released from being pinned to the darned apron, a bond as indissoluble as a chain of adamant, he says : “We remember how hats and caps flew into the air when the welcome cry of ‘All out* pro- WILLIAM LADD. 19 claimed our liberty, and the shouts, the loud laugh- ter and the antic capers by which the long pent-up spirits at length found vent.” ‘ ‘ William Ladd fitted for college at the academy of his native town, and entered Harvard University in 1793, and received his degree of A. B. in regular course, 1797, at the age of nineteen years. Ur. Beck- with says ‘ he attained, on the green side of twenty, such a reputation for scholarship as entitled him, on the close of his collegiate course, to an honorable appointment in a class which produced some of our most distinguished men.’ “William Ladd had no ambition to be consid- ered a learned man. He was very much inclined to rank himself low as a scholar in comparison with other literary and scientific men. He would some- times say, sportively, ‘ the knowledge which I gained in college the salt water washed out of my mem- ory. ’ ” He says, in reference to his knowledge of Greek writers : 20 WILLIAM LADD. “ All that remained of my labors by the midnight lamp, over the pages of Homer and Xeno- phon, was the admiration of feats of arms and mili- tary glory, and that, at last, thank God, has vanished too, having been dissipated by the light of the blessed gospel, which plainly showed me that it was only a delusion of Satan.” He was considered, however, by those who knew him well, as a good Greek scholar. He subsequently gives his opinion as adverse to the study of the Greek and Roman writers, as he considered the influence of their sentiments inju- rious, especially to the young. Although long fol- lowing the multitude in the blind adoration which is paid to classical literature and the works of great heathen authors of antiquity, he says : “ Investigation has, on this, as well as on many other subjects, entirely changed our opinion. How- ever we may admire the harmony, beauty, and sublimity of Homer’s verses, and the brilliancy of his imagination, all must confess that his heroes are WILLIAM LADD. 21 as opposite to the heroes of the gospel as light to darkness, heaven to hell. The virtues which he extols are the vices against which Christians warn us.” “The year he left college, William Ladd sailed, as a common sailor, in one of his father’s vessels, and visited London and other parts of Europe. The next voyage he went as mate ; and in eighteen months from the time he embarked as a sailor, he took command of one of the largest ships that had ever sailed out of Portsmouth, being then but twenty years of age. He soon became one of the most highly-esteemed sea captains in New England. He followed the sea for several years, and gained much useful information. At about the age of twenty-one years, he married Sophia Ann Augusta Stidolph, of London, who was then nineteen years of age.” On leaving the sea in 1800, Captain Ladd settled as a merchant in Savannah, Ga., but in a few months after removed to Florida. Though not an experimental Christian at that time, one object in settling there was for the purpose of introducing the free labor of European emigrants, with the hope 22 WILLIAM LADD. of substituting free for slave labor, in the culture of cotton. He was not successful in his efforts, and left Florida on the death of his father in 1806, and settled in Portsmouth ; and again returned to the ocean for a livelihood. “ Captain Ladd,” says his biographer, “contin- ued year after year, to spread the sails of his ships, visiting many and far-distant lands, increasing in wealth and knowledge of the earth and of man, till the war with Great Britain, in 1812, compelled him to furl his canvass in Portsmouth, as it proved for- ever. “It would be interesting to follow him, voyage after voyage, as he sailed, accompanied with the loved wife of his bosom, who, though of a timid nature, clung to him at all times with singular ten- derness and constancy. Were materials at hand for such a purpose, the ‘pen of a ready writer ? might portray a history more enchanting than the most marvelous web of fiction that shuttle of novelist ever wove. “About two years after he left the ocean, he WILLIAM LADD. 23 removed to Minot, in the State of Maine, and lived upon a large farm that belonged to his father at the time of his death ; having bought of his three brothers their right in this patrimonial estate.” During the following eight or nine years of William Ladd’s life, his biographer found no docu- ments to draw from, and his account is necessarily brief; but during this period “-he appears to have employed himself very diligently in building, plant- ing trees, erecting stone walls, cultivating his land, and raising stock, principally sheep. He was an enthusiast in agriculture. He loved it for its ow r n sake, rather than for its profits. A lady that knew him well, recently said, that ‘lie seemed to wish to make everything better than he found it — not only in the moral but in the material world.’” “The natural scenery of Minot is beautiful, and the climate remarkably healthful. His farm consisted of two hundred acres of land, and he also owned four, and for a number of years six other farms, or lots of land situated in different directions from his homestead. These out places were occupied 24 WILLIAM LADD. principally in pasturing his large flocks of sheep. His farm during the latter part of his life produced about one hundred and fifty tuns of hay. When he purchased it, it produced but five tuns. “ He built barn after barn, until there were six large barns on the homestead. “ He was probably the largest farmer in the county of Cumberland, and perhaps in the state. It might have been truly said of William Ladd, as a philanthropist, a true patriot, a man of noble, enlarged views, and probably also as a farmer, ‘ He was the greatest of all the men of the East/” But with all his prosperity and greatness he was yet an unconverted man. “Soon after he came to Minot,” continues his biographer, “he bought a library of religious books, with the intention of ‘ reading himself into Chris- tianity/ as his pastor expressed it. He seems to have been, when he removed to Minot, in a serious state of mind, having considerable desire to know, by regenerating knowledge, Him of whom Moses in WILLIAM LADD. 25 the law and the prophets did write, even Jesus of Nazareth. Mr. Ladd said he could not become relig- ious in Portsmouth, there was so much in that place to draw his attention from the one thing needful. But in reality, the great difficulty was not in Ports- mouth, but in himself. Still, as he wished to quiet his conscience, he tried to reason himself into the idea that it would be well for him to postpone his attention to religion, not only until ‘a more conven- ient season/ but also to a more convenient place. He thought that in the quiet country town of Minot, he could easily turn his feet into the narrow way that leads unto life. But his books did not have sufficient power to cause him to come to Christ as a lost sinner, and he continued, for several years, much the same that he was when he came to his rural home. “A man, for many years a resident of Minot, who knew Mr. Ladd well, once remarked to me : ‘ When Captain Ladd first came to Minot, he felt just as if he was standing on the quarter-deck of a ship.’ By this expression he meant to convey the idea that Captain Ladd intended that every man for 26 WILLIAM LADD. miles around should, like sailors at sea, take the word from him as master, and implicitly obey it.” Such was the man who, “ some time in the year 1816, as he was in Portland one day, stepped into Deacon Cross’ tin-shop to buy a dish, and gave the deacon a bank bill, who told him it was worthless, as the bank had failed. Mr. Ladd, as he took the bill, uttered a curse or some improper expression against the bank. Deacon Cross said to him, ‘Remember, you will* have to give an account of every word you say.’ This pointed rebuke was the means, by the blessing of God, of his conversion. From this time forward they were firm friends. This proverb of Solomon, ‘ Reprove a wise man and he will love thee,’ was strikingly verified in the conduct of Wil- liam Ladd. After thus embracing the gospel of Jesus, he became, and continued to the close of his life increasingly, one of the meekest and most phi- lanthropic of human beings.” WILLIAM LADD. 27 CHAPTER II. Having traced the life of William Ladd up to the time when he became a sincere and earnest Christian, we find him ready and willing to enter upon any work his Divine Master should call him into. “I had the privilege,” he says, of witnessing some of the last hours of Rev. Jesse Appleton, D. D., President of Bowdoin College. In his joyful anticipations of the growing improvement of the world, and the enumeration of the benevolent socie- ties of the day, he gave a prominent place to peace societies ; and this was almost the first time I ever heard of them. The idea then passed over my mind as the day-dream of benevolence ; and so ©very one views the subject who does not examine it. It is probable that the impression made at this interview 28 WILLIAM LADD. first turned my attention to the subject, but it prob- ably would soon have escaped from me, had not the Solemn Review , which came soon after into my pos- session, in a very singular way, riveted my attention in such a manner as to make it the principal object of my life to promote the cause of peace on earth and good will to men.” In a letter written to a friend some time after this, he says : “It was long my inquiry, ‘Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? ’ and when this neglected part of the vineyard was pointed out to me by the finger of Providence, immediately I consulted not with flesh and blood, but joyfully seized on the work, and all I lament is the feebleness of my arm, which prevents my doing more.” It is not known that he said or wrote much expressly to promote Peace, till he began his first series of Essays on Peace and War, thirty-two in number, in the Christian Mirror at Portland, in July, 1823. In his introduction to these essays, he says : WILLIAM LADD. 29 “ In consequence of reading the ‘Friend of Peace/ and other tracts, published by the Massachu- setts Peace Society, I became convinced that war is an evil which ought to be banished from civilized society, and it is the duty of every man to lend a helping hand to bring about so desirable an event. I felt it a duty which I owe to God and my fellow 7 - creatures, to do something to hasten the glorious era when men shall learn war no more ; which is cer- tainly predicted in the scriptures, but which must be brought about by God’s blessing on the exertions of the benevolent. Every individual is responsible for his conduct in this respect. He who does not give his prayers, his influence, his talents, and, if neces- sary, his purse, to hasten the millennium, fails in his duty as a Christian and a man.” These essays were completed in the Mirror in 1824, and in 1825 were published in a volume. In an article written in 1825, he says : “ What is strange to tell, and what will appear inscrutable to future generations is, that benevolent 30 WILLIAM LADD. men, bearing the Christian name, have been engaged in the slave-trade, both as owners and officers, and were unconscious of their wickedness. By the exer- tions of a few benevolent individuals, cases of this barbarity were brought distinctly before the public, and the trade was abolished. I hope that by expos- ing some of the horrors of the war-trade I may be, in some feeble measure, accessory to the abolition of war, which has been a thousand times more mischievous to the happiness of the human family than the slave- trade, because it extends to a thousand times greater portion of the human race, and enslaves not only the body, but eternally destroys the soul.” Also, in 1825, William Ladd began a second series of Essays on Peace and War in the Mirror , numbering thirty-seven, and finished them in 1826. In 1827 they w r ere also published in a volume. In his preface, he says : “ If my feeble exertions shall in any way ad- vance the great cause of ‘ Peace on earth and good- will to men/ which brought the Savior from heaven, WILLIAM LADD. 31 the small space I have filled in existence will not be left a blank, and my fellow-creatures will be bene- fited more than they could be in any other way by me,” The following sentences are from a Fourth of July address in 1825, before the peace society of Oxford county : u Truth is wholesome medicine, though some- times disagreeable.” “ Ware are necessary to armies, and armies to kings, No army, no king ; and I wish I could say, no king, no army.” “Injustice, as it generally precedes, so it com- monly follows wars, and the victorious acknowledge no right but power.” “We are free — politically free. Shall we not then be morally free, and drive from us all those prejudices which enslave the mind? Shall we not remember that we are men, and that all mankind are our brethren ? ” “As you love virtue and happiness, as you 32 WILLIAM LADD. prize liberty and independence, as yon desire to be true disciples of the Prince of Peace, ‘study the things that make for peace.’ Above all, beware of being dazzled by the glaring meteor of military glory which, like an ignis fatuus, beguiles mankind into perdition, both temporal and eternal. Give honor to whom honor is due, but do not confound the destroy- ers with the benefactors of our race.” In February, 1824, he delivered an address before the Maine Peace Society, and in December, 1826, an address in Boston before the Massachusetts Peace Society, both of which were reprinted in London. The following is from the Portland ad- dress : “ The greatest anomaly in the moral world is a fighting Christian, — especially a Christian fighting under the pretext of spreading the gospel of peace. . . . . As one star differs from another in glory, so we may suppose those who have saved the world from war will shine with superior lustre. What sources of immortal happiness do they deprive WILLIAM LADD. 33 themselves of, who refuse or neglect to be fellow- workers with God in the pacification of the world. “Nor are you, ladies, to be idle spectators of this change. On you, no less than on us, depends whether the custom of war shall be abolished. You are the guardians of our infancy. From you we receive the first impressions and the associations of ideas which we form in the nursery, which go with us through life, and descend with us to the grave. It is yours to give the tender plant a direction favor- able to peace. O, how melancholy is the fact, that female beauty, softness, and delicacy should so often have smiled on scenes of carnage and bloodshed, and rewarded the perpetrators of the blackest crimes with smiles of approbation! When your sex shall frown on the custom of war, then, and not till then, will it be abolished.” It was in 1819 when William Ladd, then forty- one years of age, left the bedside of Dr. Appleton, with the first brief impression on his mind of the cause of Peace, but which doubtless would soon have 34 WILLIAM LADD. been lost, had not the Solemn Review singularly fallen in his way. The Solemn Review was one of the first fruits of the labors of Dr. Worcester in the peace cause. “The cause of peace in modern times,” says Dr. Beckwith, “began very much with the press. In December, 1814, Noah Worcesters celebrated pam- phlet, A Solemn Review of the Custom of War , was published anonymously in Boston ; in the December following the Massachusetts Peace Society was organ- ized, only six months before the London Peace Soci- ety ; and the next month Dr. Worcester sent forth the first number of the Friend of Peace , and continued it, though with little aid of any sort, for twelve years, until at the age of seventy he retired from public life, and left his mantle as a peace reformer to fall on William Ladd.” Thus it appears that the writings of Dr. Wor- cester were mainly instrumental in the conversion of William Ladd to the cause of Peace, and he proved himself well worthy to receive the mantle of his illustrious predecessor. WILLIAM LADD. 35 “ As a speaker,” says Elihu Burritt in his iutro- duction to the memoir, “he had remarkable power to impress an audience with the eloquence of his earnest and deep conviction. All the trainings of his varied occupations and experience now came into effective use; and the telling and happy illustrations they supplied, boih to embellish and enforce his arguments, made his addresses very interesting and convincing. His whole heart and soul were in the work, and, speaking in earnest, he was listened to in earnest by all who heard him. .... “In a few years after his interview with Dr. Appleton, at the closing hours of that good man’s life, he became know T n and esteemed, both in Eng- land and America, as the Apostle of Peace. For he not only gave himself, heart, soul, mind, and purse to the work, but he was able to do what no one had done before — to go up and dow 7 n through the coun- try, preaching the gospel on which it was founded with an earnestness that always secured him an attentive hearing. To these labors was soon added a large correspondence with the friends of the cause in England and other countries.” 36 WILLIAM LADD. “There are two characteristics of Mr. Ladd’s apostleship and labors for the cause which the thoughtful reader must notice. All men who enter upon a great Christian work, see at first its princi- ples, as did at first the partially-opened eyes of the blind man in scripture, ‘like trees walking.’ They do not at first plant their feet fully and firmly on the rock of truth, and they soon begin to feel- no strength in their standing. This was Ladd’s first experience. He espoused the cause of Peace just as thousands of the early friends of temperance did, who allowed a moderate or occasional use of intoxicating drinks, not realizing how ‘ the fatal precedent will plead ’ with the voice of a growing appetite. He was not a total abstainer, but admitted the right of defensive war. He soon found that his feet stood upon the sand instead of the rock ; that the inch which he allowed brought in all the elk that a Bonaparte, a Frederick, or a Wellington could wash to ask, — that every war that had wasted the earth could come in through that inch of allowance; that wars in defense of honor could and would plead for even higher authority than wars for the defense of life or prop WILLIAM LADD. 37 erty; and that every nation was the sole judge of its own honor, and of the occasion to fight for it. So he found, what every effective friend of the cause must find, that total abstinence is as vital a doctrine to peace as it is to temperance. From that time forth, to the day of his death, he held and demon- strated the principle that all war is inconsistent with the spirit and teachings of the Christian religion.” “ The other characteristic of Mr. Ladd’s advo- cacy was the clear perception of the most practical plan for abolishing war, and organizing permanent and universal peace. The theory of confederations, leagues, diets, and congresses of nations to this end, had been brought before the world by men of differ- ent countries. But Mr. Ladd was the first to give an American shaping to such an assembly. He was the first to assimilate it in structure and func- tion to our National Congress and Supreme Court.” Further notice will be taken of this part of his w T ork as we proceed. 38 WILLIAM LADD. CHAPTER III. “For several years,” says Elihu Burritt, “after Mr. Ladd came into the work, the peace societies were mostly, if not entirely, confined to the New England States, or rather to Massachusetts and Maine. The one organized in Boston was the mother of them all in age and inspiration. It was now one of Mr. Ladd’s early and successful efforts to form a national organization in New York, called the American Peace Society. This was accomplished in May, 1828, after a long series of lectures delivered in New England and the Middle States. In the same year and month, Mr. Ladd issued the first number of the Harbinger of Peace , which he continued for three years. It was a monthly magazine of twenty- four pages, of which 1,500 copies were printed monthly. All this while he retained his residence and carried on his farm at Minot, in Maine ; laboring WILLIAM LADD. 39 on it in the sowing and ingathering seasons of the year, and lecturing on Peace between the close of fall and opening of the spring work. But he could not intermit his editorial labors for the cause in this way. These he had to perform in the busiest months of farming life. Even in the hot weeks of haying and harvest, he had to write or provide twenty-four pages of matter for his Harbinger.” In reference to the Harbinger , William Ladd, some years afterward, made this statement: “ At that juncture I solemnly pledged myself to the friends of Peace that, if God spared my life and health, there should be a peace periodical, whether I was assisted or not. The first number of the Har- binger of Peace was published, and also the last in New York; and the others at Portland, Portsmouth and Boston — wherever I might happen to be. Under such circumstances, there could not rationally be ex- pected any great effect, and but little was realized.” “How beautifully modest in regard to his own 40 WILLIAM LADD. labors,” says John Hemmenway. “ Although he thought he accomplished but little for Peace by his Harbinger , yet he actually performed a great and good work for mankind, which will be more and more evident, as the blessed age of peace and love draws nearer and nearer, and the sound of war grows cheeringly fainter, till it shall expire, to the sublime joy of a regenerated world.” The following extracts from private letters written during 1827, the year previous to the forma- tion of the Ajnerican Peace Society, will convey a graphic view of his preliminary labors : “ January 1st, 1827. “ The part I have taken in the cause of Peace, I humbly trust, was dictated by a sincere desire to advance the tem- poral and eternal interests of my fellow-creatures, and I have been amply rewarded. Could conquerors and heroes appreciate the happiness I have experienced in my success in this righteous and glorious cause, they would sicken with envy, and hold their laurels cheap. But, alas, they have no taste for the exercise of benevolence, and it is to them like flesh to an ox, or hay to a dog.” WILLIAM LADD. 41 “ When I begin the subject of peace, I never know when to stop. “As soon as my private affairs will admit, I intend opening my winter campaign ; I have some prospect of success, but that depends on God. I have a prospect of establishing a peace society at the Theological Seminary at Andover, which I should consider as a great point gained. I am not used to despair, as perseverance is my motto. “The formation of a National Peace Society is, I think, highly important to the success of our cause. At the reorganization of the Peace Society of Maine, last winter (1826), I laid the plan before the society, and the following vote was pased, viz : * That it is expedient to take measures for the formation of a National Peace Society/ ” Referring to the long journeys which he com- templated in behalf of the cause of peace, he says : “ The sacrifice, to be sirre, will be great ; but it is not the sacrifice I mind ; 1 fear my want of ability. But that, I hope, may be made up by exertion, as velocity makes up for weight in given momentum. Small causes often pro- duce great effects.” “March 1st, 1827. “ We come now to the consideration of the great object, the formation of a National Peace Society. The object of 42 WILLIAM LADD. the society will be to give a tone of prominence, unity, and strength to all the exertions of all the friends of Peace in the United States, and indeed to all the inhabitants of North America who are favorable to the cause. But I can not at present enlarge on the benefits to be derived from such a society, and will barely remark that, as knowledge is power, so union is strength. “ The object of peace is so copious that the only diffi- culty lies in the choice of what things to say first. Some of my friends, who have not looked much into the subject, are afraid I shall exhaust it ; but I tell them that ministers will sooner preach out the Bible. “In general I try to make out my addresses suitable to the character of the audience ; for instances, in addressing the audience at Portsmouth, when last there, I addressed motives of general philanthropy, patriotism and economy, and endeavored to expose the false glory of war, and the dangers arising from it. “At the Theological Seminary, Andover, where I lately formed a large, and, I trust, energetic peace society, my motives were chiefly drawn from the anti-christian nature of war, and its direct hostility to the peaceable principles inculcated by Christ and his apostles, and the obstacles which were thrown in the way of propagating the gospel among the heathen. “You may, perhaps, be surprised at my enthusiasm; WILLIAM LADD. 43 but when you consider that the success I have met with has been twenty times greater than I anticipated, and when you are informed that I never have been so happy as since I embarked in the great and good cause, you ought rather to wonder at my being so lukewarm. Indeed, I grudge every moment I am not engaged in it. I allow my mind to be taken up in other objects only as the means of a greater usefulness, and I never can be sufficiently thankful to my Heavenly Father for having directed my feet into a walk at once so useful and so pleasant as that which his beloved Son came to earth to point out to erring mortals.” “ Minot, June 11th, 1827. “If you knew how much I have to do you would excuse me in not answering your letters more punctually. I have been writing a series of lectures on Peace, preparatory to my next winter’s excursion, and thought to have com- pressed them into four, but they have extended to six. I have had to complete my second series of essays, and some of the numbers required a great deal of research. I have, beside, a considerable mercantile establishment to look out for, and a farm of five hundred acres to see to daily, beside some manufacturing and mills, some journeys to make, a great many letters to write, and am personally engaged for three evenings in a week for religious meetings, and once a fortnight beside ; and then I have forced upon me 44 WILLIAM LADD. offices in many benevolent and literary institutions, and in some of the smaller I must be ‘ factotum .’ I hope all these things will apologize for my long silence.” “November 10th, 1827. “ We celebrated our anniversary of the Minot Peace Society on the 7th instant. We had a violent snow storm; but we had a large and respectable and 'patient audience, for the exercises continued between two and three hours. My address exceeded an hour and a quarter, and was heard with the utmost attention notwithstanding the severity of the cold.” “ You know that my object is to form a National Peace Society, located at either New York or Philadelphia, and I shall make my utmost efforts for this purpose; and so shall want every grain of aid I can get from every friend of Peace in America, and perhaps shall fail after all. If I do not try, I am sure I shall not succeed, and I can try if I can do nothing else. To do great things one must attempt great things. Hitherto my success has altogether exceeded my expectation.” WILLIAM LADD. 45 CHAPTER IV. “ Philadelphia, February 12th, 1828. “ I have not yet found any one who would do for a- corresponding secretary. Many would do it for pay, but such will not do at the present, for where is the money to come from ? and besides that, I want a better motive. I am sanguine, however, as to a National Peace Society.” “My reception in this city has been noble. All the churches are open to me. Since I began this letter I have been interrupted by a party of ladies , who call upon me by appointment, all ardent friends of Peace Nothing but the cause in which I am engaged prevents my being homesick. O Minot, when shall I see thee again? and O wife, too ? My time is entirely occu- pied in preaching from house to house, and I have more appointments than I can well meet.” “Minot, April 28th, 1828. “I should be very happy to visit Brooklyn, Conn. r going or returning' from New York; but you must consider 46 WILLIAM LADD. what the spring is to the farmer. I am obliged to have a great number of men to work, in order to bring my previ- ously-laid plans to a close. Agriculture was formerly my hobby. I was delighted with the idea that posterity would enjoy the fruit of the trees, the seed of which I have planted ; and that my huge and expensive stone-walls would protect the crop of the farmer in the millennium, when the walls of cities and fortresses and triumphal arches and Bunker Hill monuments will be pulled down for the material to build churches and fences. But now I look at moral improve- ments, rather than physical. Still I delight in farming, and would not sacrifice it to anything but Peace, and the hope of being in some small degree instrumental in convert- ing the sword to a plowshare.” The preceding extracts from his private letters make us better acquainted with the active life of William Ladd. We here get a glimpse of how much was done during the year preceding the organization of the American Peace Society. The letter of the 28th of April left him in the midst of his spring work on his farm. On the 8th of May, ten days afterward, before the day of railroads, we find him in New York, four hundred miles distant, at the first meeting of the American Peace Society, just two days before he WILLIAM LADD. 47 completed his fiftieth year. Thus the first great object of his life was accomplished, and he at once grasped the next great idea, the Congress of Nations, and spent the residue of his life in laboring for its accomplishment. Although the cause of Peace engrossed the larger portion of his time and thoughts, yet “ William Ladd was a generous and steadfast friend of all truly benev- olent causes, as temperance, Sabbath schools, the African and the Indian races, seamen, home and foreign missions, etc. Whatever society or cause was designed for the happiness and improvement of mankind, for time or immortality, he affectionately embraced in the wide-extended, arms of his philan- thropy. He was always ready to open his mouth and his purse in their behalf. Pie frequently spoke in favor of mariners. The Portland Advertiser thus refers to an address he delivered in Portland, in 1826 : “The address of Mr. Ladd was such as we had anticipated. After receiving a liberal education, many years of his early life were devoted to the 48 WILLIAM LADD. ocean. All the habits of life and peculiarities of thought and expression of our hardy sons of the 4 mountain billows ’ were familiar to him. He had witnessed the many dangers with w T hich they are surrounded, become familiarized with their wants, and participated in their hardships and sufferings. He was therefore peculiarly qualified for the import- ant purpose of his address. A very numerous col- lection of sea-faring men were present, to whom in a very feeling and appropriate manner he principally directed his discourse. He very pathetically en- treated their attention to that compass, the direction of whose needle never varies from the true point, by an obedience to which they might avoid all the rocks and shoals and quicksands with which they are sur- rounded, steer their ship over the tempestuous ocean of life in safety, and enter the haven of eternal rest with a cargo that never perishes, of infinitely more value than all the wealth of India.’ ” William Ladd was an earnest and faithful mem- ber of the Congregational Church. His pastor. Rev. Elijah Jones, said of him : WILLIAM LADD. 49 “ From the time of my acquaintance with him till the day of his death, which was about twenty years, he might truly be said to be growing in grace. Yet often did he lament that he had not become religious while young, and enter sooner on the good work in which he was engaged, that he might have a whole lifetime to labor for the cause of righteous- ness. Let our young men think of this “ It was not in the cause of Peace alone that he was accustomed to shine. He was a devoted Sab- bath-school teacher, and often had the satisfaction to see the school, of which he was superintendent, watered with the showers of Divine grace. “ He was a man eminently industrious ; usually rising early, and not retiring till late. Sometimes he would continue his labors till midnight. When admonished, as he frequently was, that such intense application would prove unfriendly to life, he usually answered that he could have but a few years to labor, there was a great deal to be done, and he felt anxious to be continually about his Master’s business ; and though he w 7 ould regard advice so as to relax a little for a season, such was his love for application, and 50 WILLIAM LADD. his devotedness to the cause, that no one who knew him would expect him to spare his exertions. “Though considered wealthy and generous, he was yet, in his house and on his farm, frugal and eco- nomical He considered wealth valuable as a means of doing good ; he understood the great principle by which a man’s property is, morally speaking, a part of himself, and lie was desirous his property should labor for him in the cause of Peace when his own hands should be in the grave. Who can doubt the sinceriry of a man who thus devotes all he possesses?” His biographer says : “ I understand that, in all the houses in a pretty thickly settled neighborhood within two miles of Minot Centre Congregational meetinghouse, family worship is maintained, with only one or two exceptions. The lady who stated this fact to me, added, ‘ We see here the influence of Mr. Jones and Mr. Ladd.’ “ Mr. Jones was a good minister, and the people of Minot were greatly and mainly indebted to Mr. Ladd fir him. WILLIAM LADD. 51 “That good, unpretending minister of Jesus Christ was a preacher well suited to the piety and taste of William Ladd “During a protracted religious meeting in Minot, in 1831, Mr. Ladd arose one morning, and said, with tears freely flowing down his face, ‘ My tears are not the tears of sorrow but of joy. I spent nearly the whole of last night in prayer for the conversion of my wife; and I had resolved to continue in prayer to-night, but this morning my wife entains a hope that she is a new creature in Christ Jesus.’ “Mr. Ladd prayed with his family, morning and evening, reading from the Old Testament in the morning, and the New Testament in the evening. His prayers were varied according to the circum- stances of the time, of his family, and the community. He always prayed for the time to come when swords shall be beaten into plowshares. How many followers of the Prince of Peace do this? He generally stood in family prayer, according to the ancient custom of New England. In prayer, his eyes were open and fixed intently upward toward heaven, with the sub- limest reverence, his whole majestic person except 52 WILLIAM LADD. his lips, as motionless as a statue of marble. In this attitude it seemed as if he would, with the highest gratitude of soul for the wondrous gift of eternal life, through a crucified Savior, gaze upon the glories of the upper world, and him that sitieth at the right hand of God. “ After Mr. Jones came to Minot, for many years he preached every other Sabbath, two miles distant from the meetinghouse, near Mr. Ladd’s. He always wished his whole household to regularly attend meeting on the Sabbath. But he did not ask any one to w T alk. He w^ould furnLh all, even robust young men, with hordes and carriages to ride ; although it would not have been really wearisome for a strong young man to walk two miles, yet he wished to make going to meeting on the Sabbath a pleasant exercise. The Ladd mansion, on Sabbath, would often be left entirely without inhabitants. As there were frequently many visitors there, the number that left for public worship was often quite large. “He was one of the kindest and best of husbands, and he was regarded by his wife with an affection that amounted almost to idolatry. Her intense affec- WILLIAM LADD. 53 tion for him is evidence that he was one of the tenderest and noblest of husbands. Mrs. Ladd was said to be by nature a very timid woman : would tremble even at crossing a brook ; but she braved all the dangers of the . mighty deep, during nearly or quite all of Mr. Ladd's sea voyages after their marriage. At one time she was the means of saving his ship in a storm. His sailors were sick, and she with her husband worked at the pumps till the danger was past. They had no children. “Mr. Ladd was one of the first in Minot to move in the temperance reform. For a number of years he supplied his farm laborers with rum, as was the universal practice. And when he discontinued the custom, he added the value of the rum to their wages. He at first abstained from the use of rum, brandy and gin, but as he was a great lover of good wine, he, with other good men, continued to partake of the juice of the grape for several years after he gave up ardent spirits. But Mr. Ladd found that his use of wine retarded the progress of temperance, as some of the people said they would sign the pledge of total abstinence from ardent spirits, if they could 54 WILLIAM LADD. afford to drink wine as Mr. Ladd did. On being informed of this fact, he at once and forever bade farewell to his much-loved wine cup. He also gave up the use of cider.” “In an address before the Congressional State Conference at Augusta, Maine, in 1836, he said: ‘Not long since one of my hired men got drunk on cider, and, worse still, on my cider. I at once gave orders to have my cider mill cut into oven wood, for I was determined to have no more cider about my premises. ’ “Mr. Ladd gave up the use of tobacco soon after he became a Christian. He gave the amount he used to spend, or rather waste, for tobacco, which was a considerable sum every year, for the education of a heathen boy, under the care of the A. B. C. F. M. Few Christians ever lived, who more entirely and cheerfully ‘crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts’ than William Ladd.” William Ladd Jones, son of the pastor, thus writes of him : WILLIAM LADD. 55 “ In rel'gious meetings his words were ready and appropriate. Some of the most stirring appeals I ever heard were from him. I distinctly see his face and hear his voice to-day, although more than thirty years have passed since he stood in the midst of a crowd in my father’s house, one Sabbath evening, and entreated the people to be more zealous for the salvation of souls. He then told, with choked utter- ance and streaming eyes, how one of his men, having fallen overboard, called out to him, ‘ O captain, save me! ’ But he soon sank, and was seen no more. The appeal which followed, and the exhortation to lose no time in seeking the great salvation, were not soon forgotten. “Mr. Ladd used to spend his winters in travel- ing ai)d lecturing on his favorite theme. With the return of spring he came back to superintend his farm, and to pursue in retirement his studies, $uid make preparation for another winter’s work. “ It was a day of rejoicing, in at least one family, when he returned ; and many a little face looked up the street, many times a day, to catch the first sight of his coming. 56 WILLIAM LADD. “But one spring, instead of him, there came a letter bringing the tidings that he had- gone where ‘ everlasting spring abides/ and he had found a world of peace ” The preceding chapter gives a view of the public labors of William Ladd up to the formation of the American Peace Society, and the establishment of the Harbinger of Peace in 1828, some eight years after he commenced his labors in the promotion of the cause of Peace. The present chapter gives a view of his religious and moral character. We have seen how deeply he was interested in the cause of Peace; we now see that he was not a man of idea, but as an earnest, elevated Christian, was faithful in the performance of all his religious duties. We thus become acquainted with the whole man, and as we proceed in a review of his further labors, we shall be the better able to appreciate them, knowing on what foundation the structure is built. In his far-reaching vision he contemplated the end from the beginning. He believed in the fulfillment of the prophecy, and that the prophecy of universal peace “must be WILLIAM LADD. 57 brought about by God’s blessing on the exertions of the benevolent.” When he first entered upon the work he found but few coadjutors, and it was only by his great perseverance and energy that he obtained co-workers. He early conceived the necessity of a National Society, as a means of extending a wide- spread influence, and thus enlisting valuable assist- ance, and of dispelling the doubts and fears of the incredulous. Previous to the establishment of the National Society, many local societies were established in the New England States, mainly, no doubt, through his influence. By the increasing interest in the cause produced by these agencies he was greatly stimulated and encouraged in the further prosecution of the work. 58 WILLIAM LADD. CHAPTER V. William Ladd early saw the necessity of a peri- odical, and we have seen that in the same month in which the National Society was formed, he com- menced the publication of the Harbinger of Peace , which was continued three years, entirely under his control; the first and last numbers, as before stated, in New York, the others wherever it suited his con- venience. The following extract from a private letter gives a graphic view of his editorial labors : “I suppose you have received the third number of the Harbinger of Peace , which is not much more free from errors than the preceding. The fact is, I com- pose the numbers at some leisure at home, run down to Portland and put them into the hands of the printer; and, heels over head in business, while there hurry the printers (for I can not leave home WILLIAM LADD. 59 without a sacrifice), get through as soon as I can, hurry over the proof, and hurry back home ; and when I get there, on the receipt of the finished numbers blush up to the ears, though all alone, at the errors which have escaped me and others The difficulty of printing at a distance of thirty-five miles is greater than I expected, and will demand a greater sacrifice ; but it must be attended to, cost what it may.” In order to obtain relief from such arduous edit- orial labors, the Harbinger was discontinued and the Calumet took its place, as the organ of the American Peace Society, an octavo of thirty-two pages, to be published once in every two months. This was con- tinued for years by a committee to whom the board entrusted the editorial department. William Ladd says, although his name will continue in the com- mittee, his labors will be only occasional ; but in the last number he said : “I continued to furnish most of the original matter and selections, until May, 1833, when I expo- 60 WILLIAM LADD. rienced a paralytic shock in New York, two days after the anniversary of the American Peace Society. By the blessing of God I have thus far recovered my health as to take the labor on myself, and for all the errors of the last four numbers I alone am responsible. I have made a visit to Hartford, and concluded a treaty by which we are to relinquish the Calumet after the present number ; and the American Advocate of Peace is to be published for the American Peace Society. My labors in the publish- ing and editorial department of the American Peace Society have now come to a close, though I hope to have more leisure to extend my exertions as general agent. I feel more encouraged than ever in the good cause, more willing to make sacrifices of time and money.” During these years of editorial labors, we find that his mind and pen were also otherwise actively employed. In 1830, he wrote a tract entitled “Reflections on War,” which was published by the Minot Peace Society. In this tract he says : WILLIAM LADD. 61 “Only to imagine the lambs of Christ’s flock biting and devouring each other ; the members of Christ’s body tearing each other in pieces ! O, how horrible is the sight! Yet such sights are seen in war. And the Church of Christ — the Lamb’s wife — sits still, with arms folded, as though her children were only at play, and does not lift a finger to- reprove them.” Between the years of 1829 and 1832, William Ladd wrote and published the following books on Peace, for the instruction of young people: “The Sword, or Christmas Presents,” “Howard and Na- poleon Contrasted,” “The French Soldier,” “History of Alexander the Great; ” and also, in the Harbinger of Peace , and in a separate pamphlet, a dissertation on a Congress of Nations, being the first work on that subject ever printed in America. During the year 1833, he was almost con- fined at home by sickness, and merely wrote one article for the Giristian Mirror on the duty of Christians praying and contributing for the cause of Peace. 62 WILLIAM LADD. The following letter shows that his interest did not abate during the long confinement : “ Minot, April the 28th, 1834. “ To the Members of the American Peace Society, assembled at their Annual Meeting in New York, May the 6th, 1834. “ Dearly beloved brethren: My health is not yet suffi- ciently restored to permit my joining you in this very interesting celebration ; for I could not be with you without great excitement, which my physicians caution me as much as possible to avoid. But, though absent in body, I shall be present with you in spirit, and intend to devote a great part of the day of our anniversary to fervent prayer for the success of our great and holy cause. u And, brethren, why should we doubt for a moment of our ultimate success ? We have God on our side, and can plead his reiterated and unequivocal promise that the time shall come when nations ‘ shall beat their swords into plowshares; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more,’ 1 for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.’ Cl But it is so ordered in providence that, generally, no great good can be accomplished without great sacrifices. The Prince of Peace himself died on the cross to redeem mankind from a state of sin and misery, and to banish war WILLIAM LADD. 63 and every other evil custom from the earth ; to proclaim peace on earth and good-will to men, and his apostles laid down their lives in the same holy cause ; and Stephen, the first martyr, prayed for his enemies, saying, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ; and the primitive Christians took joyfully the spoiling of their goods; and in the course of one age the gospel was preached to the whole known world. Now, unless we have the Spirit of Christ in us, we are none of his. Hitherto our sacrifices in the cause of Peace have been very small. But little money, little talent, no suffer- ing of self-denial, have been expended in his holy cause ; which, though regarded by the prejudiced and unthinking as the last of all the benevolent operations of the day, commends itself to the unprejudiced inquirer after truth, as indeed the first of all, though it militates more against the pride of the human heart, and all the world calls good and great, than any other. Yv r hen it is considered what sins and vices are promoted by the practice of war among Christian nations, the removal of the evil appears to be among the first things for Christians to seek after. “ Impressed with these sentiments, and considering that I have devoted all that I have, and all that I am, to my Maker and Bedeemer, and being confident that this holy cause is the cause of God, I believe I can not do better with the little property he has intrusted to my keep- ing than to devote it to the dissemination of the principles 64 WILLIAM LADD. of Peace ; and I offer to give three hundred dollars a year, as long as it shall be necessary, to the extent of at least five years to come, in aiding the support of a suitable person as corresponding secretary and editor of the soci- ety’s publications, and another person to labor as a travel- ing and preaching agent, to lay this cause before the American churches, provided all the other friends of Peace in this country will make up the amount to the sum of two thousand dollars a year. “ When the true Christians of all nations shall join in a concert of prayer for the abolition of war, and the intro- duction of- the millennium, we can have no doubt that they will be heard by our Heavenly Father, and war, with all its sins and its horrors, will cease from among Christian nations, and the heathen will again have occasion to say, ‘See how these Christians love one another.’ Then a nation shall be born in a day, and all mankind see the salvation of God. To this end, my dear brethren, let us labor and pray without ceasing • and that God may hear our petition, and bless our labors, shall be the constant, fervent prayer, dear brethren, of Your fellow-laborer in the cause of Peace, William Ladd.” In 1834, William Ladd published a “Solemn Appeal to Christians in favor of Peace,” and, in WILLIAM LADD. 65 1835, a work on “The Duty of Women,” to pro- mote the cause of Peace. “In September of this year, he attended a convention at Portland, consisting of seventy-three delegates of the most intelligent and best men in the State of Maine, which formed a union in behalf of the colored race. William Ladd was chosen presi- dent of the convention and also of the union. The purposes of this society were very philanthropic ; how much it was able to do for the good of this unfortunate and neglected race is not known.” In May of this year Dr. Humphrey, president ©f Amherst College, in a speech before the London Peace Society, made the following remarks : u Before I sit down, permit me to say a word respecting that Apostle of Peace, William Ladd. He has devoted his talents, which are not small, and his heart, which is very large, and his property, which is very considerable — he has devoted all to this cause. Hearing that I was expected to visit England, he came, in an inclement season of the 66 WILLIAM LADD. year, about one hundred miles, for the express pur- pose of seeing me, and exhorting me to do whatever I could here and everywhere else to promote the cause of Peace. I have thought it but a bare act of justice to say that that distinguished philanthropist, this friend of his country, and of your country, and of the world, is co-operating with you day and night, and devoting his all to the promotion of permanent and universal peace.” In 1836 and 1837, William Ladd published, in the Christian Mirror , twenty-two essays, entitled “ Obstacles and Objections to the Cause of Peace.” These able articles were afterward published in book form. “In 1837,” says his biographer, “ the constitu- tion of the American Peace Society was revised, and the high ground taken that all war is contrary to the gospel. This was in full accordance with the sentiments and wishes of Mr. Ladd, as well as nearly all of the influential and prominent friends of Peace. President Allen, of Bowdoin College, however, was WILLIAM LADD. 67 strongly opposed to this change ; and he, an honest and able man, measured his sword with William Ladd on this question. All candid and intelligent persons who have reviewed this encounter, must be of the opinion that the president of the college, at the best, came out of the contest only second best.” William Ladd also wrote four articles on the practice of the primitive Christians in regard to war, to confute the arguments of “A.” (doubtless Presi- dent Allen), in the Mirror , who maintained that the early Christians engaged in war. In the conflict “ Fhilanthropos” brought forward facts from history which “ A.” could “ neither gainsay nor resist.” He also, in the year 1837, wrote nine articles for the Christian Mirror , addressed to ministers of the gospel, in which he endeavored to awaken and instruct them in their duty to the cause of Peace. He also addressed a letter to William IV, of England, on International Peace, which was replied fo by Lord Palmerston, saying : 68 WILLIAM LADD. “The king has been very much gratified by the friendly and approving expressions contained in the address.” His pastor states, that “afier lecturing for many years, he became desirous of addressing congregations on the Sabbath, because, especially in country towns, a larger assembly could on that day be gathered ; and finding that Christians objected that one who was not a minister should occupy the pulpit on the Sabbath, he, therefore, desired and obtained license to preach.” This was in 1837. In this year, Lovejoy, of Alton, 111., was killed while endeavoring to repel a lawless body of men who assaulted his house for the purpose of destroying his printing press. William Ladd wrote an article in the Christian Mirror, showing that Lovejoy departed from the true Christian course by resorting to carnal weapons for defense, saying, “he took the sword and perished by the sword.” In conclusion, he says : “I would not be thought to palliate or justify any single act of the mob at Alton. I look upon WILLIAM LADD. 69 their conduct with pity and abhorrence ; but I would not give up the plain principles of the gospel to support the cause of anti-slavery or any other cause. The principles of peace, long suffering, gentleness, forbearance, meekness, and, in fine, the principles of and examples of Christ, should lie at the foundation of every benevolent effort.” 70 WILLIAM LADD. CHAPTER VI. In the previous chapter, William L$dd refers to a visit to Hartford, but only alludes to his treaty by which the Advocate of Peace was to take pkce of the Calumet . In allusion to that visit, the editor of the Advocate writes: “This city has recently been honored with a visit from the general agent of the American Peace Society. During the few days he passed here in making some arrangements relative to the publications of the society, this indefatigable servant of God, who, to use his own words, ‘ counts that day lost in which he has not done something for the cause of Peace/ delivered five public lectures, in three instances to large congregations, and contributed much, also, by private conversation, to awaken an interest in this subject During the fourteen years that WILLIAM LADD. 71 have elapsed since Mr. Ladd’s attention was awakened to this subject, his labors have been unceasing, and very various.” In a previous number of the Advocate the editor, under the head of “ Peace Societies,” writes: “The American Peace Society held its sixth annual meeting in New York, on the 6th of May last. The report was highly interesting, and proved that the cause is advancing. Within the past year most of the large ecclesiastical bodies of New England have passed resolutions favorable to the objects of the society, and two hundred and sixteen clergymen of various denominations have engaged to preach on the subject at least once a year. A prize of one thousand dollars has been offered for the best essay on a ‘ Congress of Nations’ ; the time for presenting them is extended to the 20th of June. Addresses were made by the Eev. Messrs. Galutia, of Utica ; Hicock, of Litchfield, Connecticut; Dr, Cogswell, of Boston; A. Stewart, Esq., of Utica; and E. M. Chapman, Esq. A letter from William Ladd was 72 WILLIAM LADD. read, excusing his absence on account of ill health, and offering three hundred dollars a year toward the support of an editor and agent.” In the Advocate of the following year we find a long and interesting report of the Executive Com- mittee, presented to the seventh anniversary of the American Peace Society. At the close they state : “We have had more of an encouraging nature to report than ever before. Never in any one year has the cause of Peace advanced so much. Both wind and tide have been propitious.” In regard to the prize essays, it says : “Thirty-seven dissertations, many of them very voluminous and well-written, were presented for the prize. They were submitted to a sub-committee named by the board of directors, who selected seven from the number, to be submitted to the high per- sonages who have consented to act as umpires, viz: WILLIAM LADD. 7& the Hon. Joseph Story, the Hon* ^/^t^nd' the Hon. John McLean.” These men could not decide on any one, and recommended that the award should be divided between five of the best essays. This not being united with, they were referred to another com- mittee. The following paragraph refers to the labors of the general agent : “In speaking of what more immediately concerns the American Peace Society, we are happy to report that the health of our general agent is, thank God, perfectly restored, in consequence of which he has resumed his labors in the cause of Peace. He has traveled, since the last anniversary, in the service of the cause, about one thousand three hundred miles. He has delivered forty public addresses ; edited and distributed four numbers of the Calumet; collected nine hundred and sixty-two dollars and twenty-six cents for the society, and procured eight life mem- 74 WILLIAM LADD. C C C c C C r C C C C c c c c € ' c c : c c r pledges for others, besides writing numerous essays for the newspapers, and keeping up an extensive correspondence. All these things have been done without any expense to the society, except that of postage.” Can there be any better evidence of sincerity and earnest zeal and faithful labors in the promotion of the cause of Peace than in the above record? Let the peace men of to-day ponder it well. We pass over many interesting incidents in the life of William Ladd, and come to his darling object — the Congress of Nations. As before stated, the first committee not being able to agree on the best essay, they were referred to a second, viz : John Quincy Adams, James Kent, and Daniel Webster ; and they were also unable to decide the question. The peace society therefore concluded to accept the proposal of the first committee, and published the five best, and requested William Ladd to add a sixth, taking all the matter from the rejected essays worth preserving, which is not contained in the essays selected for publication. He says : WILLIAM LADD. 75 “I have attended to this duty. In reading over these essays I have noted down every thought worth preserving; and I present them here in a body, with such reflections, additions, and historical facts as occurred to me during my labor; so that my claim to originality in this production rests much on the thought of separating the subjects into two distinct parts, viz : “1. A Congress of Ambassadors from all those Christian and civilized nations we should choose to send them, for the purpose of settling the principles of international law by compact and agreement, of the nature of mutual treaty, and also of devising and promoting plans for the preservation of peace, and ameliorating the condition of man. “2. A Court of Nations, composed of the most able civilians in the world, to arbitrate or judge such cases as should be brought before it, by the mutual consent of two or more contending nations : thus dividing entirely the diplomatic from the judicial functions, which require such different, not to say opposite characters in the exercise of their functions. I consider the congress as the legislature, and the 76 WILLIAM LADD. court as the judiciary, in the government of nations, leaving the functions of the executive with public opinion, * the queen of the world.’ ‘ 4 This division I have never seen in any essay or plan for a Congress or Diet of independent nations, either ancient or modern ; and I believe it wiU obviate all the objections which have been heretofore made to auch a plan.” Dr. Beckwith thus wrote in regard to the essay of William Ladd : ‘‘This work, first published here in 1840, and soon after by the London Peace Society, is by far the most comprehensive and satisfactory discussion we have ever seen of its great theme. It was prepared by special request of our society, to embrace whatever was the most valuable in the forty essays that com- peted for a prize of one thousand dollars, and is worth more than all of them put together. No one desir- ous of investigating the far-reaching and vastly important subject of which it treats, can afford to overlook this valuable work.” WILLIAM LADD. 77 Says Elihu Burritt : “When we consider that such a permanent High Court of Nations would not only be the noblest and loftiest bar that could be established on earth for the appeal and settlement of all serious questions of difficulty between them, but that such a bar would be a bond of confederation to them, we must recog- nize the fullness of Mr. Ladd’s plan for abolishing’ war, and establishing permanent and universal peace.” The six essays were published in one volume, which Burritt says “was the largest and most costly volume ever published on either side of the Atlantic on the subject of Peace. As soon as it left the press, Mr. Ladd set himself to the work of distributing copies to the crowned heads and leading men of Christendom, with all the glowing zeal and activity which he brought to the cause. And it is the best tribute to his clear, judicious mind that the main proposition, as he developed it, has been pressed upon the consideration of the public mind of Chris 1 - 78 WILLIAM LADD. tendom ever since liis day, without amendment, addition, or subtraction. The writer of these intro- ductory notes, who was one of Mr. Ladd’s disciples and successors, felt it his duty to present the proposi- tion, pure and simple, as his master developed it, at the great Peace Congress at Brussels, Paris, Frank- fort, and London; and to-day it stands before the world, the scheme of William Ladd.” William Ladd’s essay is divided into fifteen short chapters. The last concludes as follows : “In conclusion I would only remark, that if we have done no other good, by procuring and publishing these essays, we have set up a landmark for the guidance of those who may succeed us. When the American Peace Society first entered upon this work there were only two essays in the whole world on the subject, viz: William Penn’s and St. Pierre’s, both very meagre, crude, and undigested. Beside these, we had only what could be gathered from Sully’s account of the great scheme of Henry IV. Now, within these ten years there have been about fifty WILLIAM LADD. 79 dissertations written, many lectures delivered, and petitions presented to state legislatures, and resolu- tions favorable to the plan passed. Petitions have also been presented to the American Congress, with a report on them widely circulated, and a petition to the British Parliament ; and the subject has been much discussed, both in. public and private, and there has been evidently a great advance in public opinion in favor of the plan, which needs only to be fully and extensively understood to insure its adoption by all the enlightened nations of Christen- dom; which adoption will insure the extension of Christendom to the earth’s remotest bounds.” The establishment of a Congress of Nations appears to have been a prominent object with the founders of the American Peace Society, but their notions on the subject were crude and undigested ; and William Ladd says: “ It has been by constantly thinking, writing, and speaking on this subject for eleven years, that their ideas have got to be more mature; and they 80 WILLIAM LADD. now see that a distinction ought to be made between a Congress of Ambassadors and a Court of Judges.” Previous to the publication of the volume of essays, the subject had been brought before congress by numerous petitions, which were referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, which made a long report, and ten thousand copies were ordered to be printed. They report adversely to a Congress of Nations, but they “ heartily concur with the memori- alists in recommending a reference to a third power of all such controversies as can be safely confided to any tribunal unknown to the constitution of our ow r n country.” William Ladd, who took a journey to Wash- ington to attend to the business, says he had a special interview with the president, and conversed with some of the leading members of congress ; from all of whom he gathered what indeed he knew before, that “ if the rulers in representative governments are to be induced to adopt any new measure of public ability, it must be through their constituents.” .... WILLIAM LADD. 81 “ Before either the President or Congress of the United States will act on this subject, the sovereign people must act; and before they act, they must be acted upon by the friends of peace, and the subject must be laid before the people in all parts of our country, as much as it has been done in Massachu- setts, where there has, probably, been as much said and done on the subject as in all the other states of the Union. When the whole country shall under- stand the subject as well as the State of Massachusetts, the Congress of the United States will be as favorable to a Congress of Nations as the General Court of Massachusetts ; and when the American Government shall take up the subject in earnest, it will begin to be studied and understood by the enlightened nations of Europe.” Under a sense of these convictions, William Ladd no doubt felt the necessity, greater than ever before, of pressing the subject upon the minds of the people. He therefore made preparations for another journey, and of greater extent than any previous one, and which proved to be the last. 82 WILLIAM LADD. CHAPTER VII. The first letter giving an account of the last journey of William Ladd, is dated “ Albany, N. Y., October 15, 1840,” in which he says he left Boston on September 30th. After describing his journey, he concludes as follows : “In all my journeys thus far, I have found the pulpits open to me, and a great desire to hear about peace. This is a great advance on former times, and shows the progress of peace principles. Not long since, peace was considered a temporal subject only, not suitable to the Sabbath. Even now, I believe, there are some ministers who think Christ’s Sermon on the Mount — the first peace sermon ever preached — rather ultra. Such men like to preach in abstractions against sins in general, and their audiences go to sleep under their preaching. A rumseller never goes to sleep under a faithful sermon from the text, ‘Cursed is every one who putteth a bottle to his neighbor’s mouth.’ ” WILLIAM LADD. 83 The next letter is dated “Troy, October 28th. ” After describing the interest awakened, he con- cludes : “ Thus, you see, we have passed through the ordeal of ridicule and contempt, and have almost passed the more chilling state of indifference. Both the church and the world begin to awaken to the subject. But still a great deal of labor and sacrifice is necessary to complete the work. I feel the infirmities of age, yet hope to see the Church of the Prince of Peace adopt the principles of peace, as part and parcel , at least , if not the sum and substance of the gospel. Then I should say, with old Simeon, 1 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace/ For, if the church go before with the silver trumpet of the gospel, the world will follow with the congress of nations, and they willfbeat their swords into plowshares and learn war no more.” The next letter is dated “ Auburn, December 25th,” in which he says : “ On Sunday I preached at the Baptist, the Presbyte- rian, and the Congregational churches. The evening meet- ing was very crowded, notwithstanding the storm.” 84 WILLIAM LADD. “Canandaigua, N. Y., February 3, 1841. “ My last letter, I believe, was written at Auburn. From thence I went to Geneva, and preached three times on the Sabbath, as usual to large and attentive audiences. But my strength failed me in the last sermon, which was to an overflowing audience, and I was obliged to request the minister to give out a hymn in the middle of the sermon, which was an hour and a half long. On the first Monday of the year, I addressed the monthly concert, and showed the obstacles which war throws in the way of the conver- sion of the heathen. On Wednesday evening I lectured on a Congress of Nations ; and, on Thursday, went to Canandaigua. Here I was most hospitably entertained in the seminary, under the care of Misses Upham and Smith. On Sunday I preached to the Baptists, the Methodists, and the Congregationalists ; but at the last two I was obliged to sit on a high stool in the pulpit. I gave out a notice for a lecture, Monday evening, in the courthouse. On return- ing to my lodgings, I found my strength completely pros- trated. On Monday, I grew still weaker; and when eve- ning came, my friends remonstrated against my lecturing, especially as the night was dark and rainy, and the going muddy. I sent a messenger to the courthouse to adjourn the meeting to a more favorable time, but he returned with the intelligence that it was already half full. I petermined on going, come what would. A carriage being WILLIAM LADD. 85 provided, I went, but nearly fainted before I finished my lecture. I returned under great debility, and called in medical advice. The doctor told me I had overdone my- self, and that I was ten years older in constitution than in years. Indeed, I am compelled to feel that I am an old man. O, that I had another life to devote to the holy cause of Peace ! It appears to me that I never understood its beauty and its excellency until now ; and perhaps yet I am far below the truth. It is a cause to die for ; and when I die, let it be in the pulpit pleading for Peace. It is to me the field of glory — the field on which my Savior died. “I have reason to praise God, that, if I must have broken down in this holy cause so far from home, it was just here. The ladies of the institution have been as kind to me as sisters, although I do not remember ever to have seen one of them before. It must, therefore, be out of love to the cause and not personally to me, and that makes me the more grateful. No wounded red-cross knight of the olden times was ever more tenderly nursed in a convent of the Sisters of Charity than I have been by these ladies. May the blessings which the Prince of Peace pronounced on the peacemakers be their reward. “ After more than a fortnight confinement to my bed, I sat up a while the day before yesterday; and yesterday all day. To-day I feel strong, and to-morrow, or next day, hope to go on my way rejoicing to the West. But I have 86 WILLIAM LADD. given up my long-expected journey to Ohio. May God speedily raise up some other and better messenger of peace, to take my place. 1 Let him send by the hand of him by whom he will send.’ I hope to be able to retrace my steps in March, and to be at home about the first of April.” The following is an extract from a letter written the next day : “ How few of the professed followers of Him who laid down his life to redeem the souls of his enemies, act as though they believed the soul to be infinitely precious ! How many there are of the professed followers of Jesus who, both speculatively and practically, set the temporal good of themselves and their nation above the value of souls ! I do not mean of their own souls . No man would give his own soul for the good of his country, nor does Christianity require him to do it. But how many are there of professed Christians who would coolly take meas- ures, which they are sure will result in the loss of ten thousand souls, to save to their nation some temporal good ? ” The next letter is dated “Rochester, March 19, 18 41.” He had previously been to Batavia, Lock- port, and Buffalo ; also to Niagara Falls. He says : WILLIAM LADD. 87 “ On the Sabbath, which I spent here, it was sacra- ment day, and I preached a peace sermon adapted to the occasion. Thirty persons were received into the church by profession. At the request of the minister, I addressed the whole church, and the new converts in particular, on the solemnity of the occasion. They had partaken of the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of their Re- deemer, broken and shed for his enemies. They would exclude from their communion any member who would fight a private duel. But, though Christ’s table is all over the world, if a thousand Christians should fight with a thousand Christians of another country, and kill one-half of them, instead of being excluded from the communion, they would be received with honor. I reminded those who had just taken the vows of God upon themselves, that in promising never to enter into any employment in which they would be required to violate the Sabbath, they had virtually promised never to enter into military service ; for war acknowledged no Sabbath. A revival season is the best time to preach peace.” In reference to his visit to Niagara Falls, where he lectured on a Congress of Nations, after describing his various views of the Falls, and the impressions made on his mind, he says : 88 WILLIAM LADD. “ But my journey here was not on account of any other fall than the fall of man, nor to examine any other rapids than the rapids of human passions, which have, ever since the fall of Adam, been hurrying fallen man into the abyss of misery.” The following concludes the published corres- pondence : “ I have great reason to 1 thank God and take courage’ at the result of my tour to Buffalo. I had been told that there was so great a war excitement in Batavia, Lockport, and Buffalo, that 1 might expect only total neglect or bad usage. But I was never heard with more attention, treated with more respect, or did more for the cause of Peace, in the same length of time, than I did in these three places.”* Elihu Burritt, in the “ Introductory Notes,” thus alludes to this last journey : “He evidently felt that his last tour through Central and Western New York was to close his public labor in the cause he loved so well. The * We have no farther account of his journey, or his labors, from his own pen. WILLIAM LADD. 89 reader must peruse the narrative of this last journey with peculiar interest and sympathy. The writer, happening to follow him through these towns the next year, learned the precious memory he had left. There were many who remembered and told how the dear old man grew more and more earnest as his strength waxed weaker and weaker ; how, when his paralytic limbs became unable to sustain him, he would stand on his knees in the pulpit, and, with his beaming face just above the desk, pour out his trembling utterances upon the breathless audience. Young men then, but in gray hairs now, still remem- ber those utterances, and the voice and face of the Apostle of Peace, saying his last words to a genera- tion to whom he was resigning the work and mission of his life.” A minister of the Methodist church writes, four years after William Ladd’s death : “X have just returned from a tour through AVestern New York. I met with some of the fruits of the labors of the late devoted, self-sacrificing 90 WILLIAM LADD. Ladd. His last address on Peace was at Cazenovia Seminary. I learned by Professor Clark, who heard him at that time, and who was himself convinced of the truth of the Peace principles, that much fruit still remains as the result of his labors. Surely he did not labor in vain. Many there call him blessed. The history of the Peace cause is interesting, as connected with that seminary and the last efforts of Ladd.” “ We now approach,” says his biographer, “ the peaceful close of this good man’s life on earth. After leaving the State of New York for his home in Minot, Me., he tarried several days in Boston, and then proceeded to Portsmouth, N. H., by railroad, where he arrived at half-past 7 p. m. on the 9 th of April, 1841. He spent the evening pleasantly in conversation with his wife and some other fries ds; but remarked, in course of the conversation, that he could live but a few months at most. This his wife did not hear. As he retired, about 10 o’clock, she said to him, ‘Now let us kneel down, and thank God that you are safe returned.’ They knelt, and WILLIAM LADD. 91 prayed fervently. Immediately on lying down, he felt the approach of death, and spoke to his wife ; but before a physician could be called, his spirit had fled to join the ‘spirits of just men made perfect/ where praise is everlasting, and ‘love is joy forever/ Thus suddenly and gently was he transferred from prayer to praise.” 52 WILLIAM LADD. CHAPTER VIII. Those who have followed us to the close of the life of this good man, will, I trust, be prepared to say with his biographer, that “A more devoted philanthropist than William Ladd our world never saw. His all — body, mind, affections, time, talents, prayers, labors, property — were consecrated to God for the good of man in the cause of Peace. He was the first president of the American Peace Society ; its first corresponding secretary ; its first general agent; and the first editor of its first periodical. Dr. Beckwith says : ‘ His purse, and no other, was pledged for its bills ; and long did he issue its appeals, and deliver its lectures, and circulate its publications, and carry on its operations with little more aid from the community than their consent that he might manage the cause very much as he pleased, and their occasional commendations of its WILLIAM LADD. 93 incomparable perseverance and zeal. It is not too much to say, that had it not been for William Ladd, there is no good reason to believe that there would have been established, to this day, a National Peace Society. ’ ” “ It is sweet to look forward to that blessed period in the coming ages of time, when love and peace shall be co-extensive with the dwelling-place of man. Then, beneficence shall be the hight of human glory. Then, the name of William Ladd shall be in grateful remembrance, as one of the worthiest and most honored characters to be found recorded in the history of man. It is comforting to look forward to ‘ that latter day of glory/ al- though the philanthropist has to look with sighs and tearful eyes beyond lowering clouds of war, and over the prostrate forms of the many worshipers of mili- tary glory, to that blissful day, distant though it may be. “Now violence and destruction abound in the earth, and the military hero and conqueror is the light and the glory of nations, and the people of peace are ‘a little one/ But it shall not always be 94 WILLIAM LADD. so. Earth, as one whole land, shall yet, rejoice in Messiah’s reign of universal peace and love. Glory forever to him who hath said, ‘I will make thine officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wast- ing, nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shall call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise.’” In the Rev. Asa Cummings, editor of the Christian Mirren', William Ladd always had a friend and coadjutor. His paper was ever open to receive his contributions, and no one, perhaps, felt more keenly the great loss himself, personally, and the public, had sustained in his death ; which is thus alluded to in his paper : “A report w T as in circulation here on Monday that Mr. Ladd, a friend of God and man, had suddenly deceased. We could not think such an event inevitable, but still hoped the rumor would prove premature ; but on Tuesday morning the mournful intelligence W’as confirmed. We can not give expression to our feelings at this time, except WILLIAM LADD. 95 in prayer, ‘ Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth.' We shall not soon tire of seeing this good man’s name in our paper.” The following tribute is from the Portsmouth Journal : “Mr. Ladd was one of the most eminent phi- lanthropists of our country; and his name will be held in lasting remembrance by all the friends of humanity. His private character and Christian deportment were well known to the people of this place, by whom he was greatly beloved ; and it affords us a mournful satisfaction that his remains rest in our midst.” A letter from Hon. Amasa Walker, dated Feb- ruary 5, 1872, remarks : “Mr. Ladd was wholly consecrated to his work. There was no reserve, no hesitation, no doubt. Of its ultimate triumph he never entertained a question, though acting under what, to other minds, would 96 "WILLIAM LADD. have been regarded as hopelessly discouraging. He would write, he would print, and he used to say, jocosely, 'he would read, if nobody else would, what was written on his great theme. “ Mr. Ladd early discovered what the special object to be secured by the friends of permanent and universal peace was, viz: International action ; mutual agreement ; a High Court of Arbitration ; and a Congress of Nations ; as the means by which this result should be secured. "Mr. Ladd saw that here was the laboring point, and to this he directed a large part of his labors, by correspondence abroad and at home, and thus laid the foundation of a structure w 7 hich already begins to rise to the view of mankind. " The w r orld can never have peace while nations are constantly preparing for war. A mutual, simul- taneous disarmament is the first condition of uni- versal peace. To secure such a disarmament, nations must act in concert; to secure united action, they must meet in council, and arrange the necessary preliminaries. "Hence, a general Congress cf Nations is indis- WILLIAM LADD. 97 pensable, in order that the first effective movement in favor of permanent peace may be made. “To that single object the friends of the cause are now directing their labors ; and in doing so are but endeavoring to complete the great work com- menced by their venerable friend and co-laborer, so justly regarded as the 'Apostle of Peace.’ ” The following is from a lady brought up on the adjoining farm : “ As you have made request of me, I will com- ply with it according to the best of my ability. The name of William Ladd is ever dear to me. . I think I was about eight years old when I first recollected him. He was the means of getting up the first Sabbath school in Minot. The recollection of that evening is vivid to my mind. I remember the interest he manifested at the organization of that school. He never had any children of his own; but I have often said, I never saw a man more interested for the young and rising generation than he v T as. . . . . . It is plain to my mind now with WILLIAM LADD. 9S what earnestness Mr. Ladd talked to us children. He told us the story of the blessed Jesus ; of his birth, his stay here on earth, and how he took little children in his arms and blessed them ; also of his crucifixion, and then he had gone to heaven to prepare a place for all that would love him and keep his commandments. . . . He always no- ticed me, and spoke a kind and encouraging word to me. He was the means of leading me to Christ. There are many, I think, can say the same of Wil- liam Ladd. “ He was kind to the poor, the widow, the orphan. I was a motherless child myself. He always encouraged me to do right, and gave me a Bible while in the Sabbath school, and to a number of others he gave Bibles. “ How many times I have seen him rise in church to give an exhortation. He would speak of the love of Jesus, in coming into the world to save sinners. He warned the young, encouraged the middle aged, and comforted the aged. He often spoke of his own unworthiness — said he had been a great sinner. He would speak of the goodness WILLIAM LADD. 99 of God in forgiving his sins. He was a man of deep-toned piety; and I feel that I am not suffi- cient to give you the information concerning him I wish to.” 100 WILLIAM LADD, CHAPTER IX. In the death of William Laid, the cause of Peace lost its strongest advocate, as the first utterance of the American Peace Society fully shows. In their report in May, 1841, they say : “ A cloud darker than ever before has come over the society’s prospects. Its father is no more ; for God has taken him. Its founder and president, its chief support and brightest ornament, William Ladd, has been called, we trust, to the peacemaker’s reward in heaven. He fell a martyr to his zeal in the cause. Peace to his memory ! He rests from his labors, and long shall his works of universal philanthropy follow him. We feel strongly inclined to linger on the memory of our venerable and much loved friend; but the passing notice of a report can do little justice to his merits. Few are aware how WILLIAM LADD. 101 much he attempted, or how much he accomplished. We might speak of his conversations on his favorite theme, as he traversed the land, the charm of every circle, and a living encyclopedia on the subject of peace ; of his lectures delivered from seminary to seminary, from village to village, from city to city ; of the books and tracts, and numberless essays and letters that came in such quick succession from his pen, ever fresh and glowing, like his own ardent, vivid, elastic mind. It will take the world ages to learn how much he did for its welfare ; but we already know enough to embalm his memory in the admira- tion and gratitude of mankind.” The London Peace Society also deeply felt the loss the cause of Peace had sustained, as shown by the following report : “ This meeting has learned with great sorrow, the mournful tidings, that William Ladd, Esq., the president of the American Peace Society, has termin- ated his earthly career. Peaceful and laborious was his course, great was his usefulness, and the only 102 WILLIAM LADD. considerations that tend to alleviate the painful feelings with which this meeting has received this intelligence are, the full persuasion that he has gone to that world where all the air is love, and all the region peace; and that the cause in which he so diligently labored will live and prosper, as it is the cause of the Prince of Peace. This meeting offers its deepest sympathy with the American Peace Soci- ety in the loss which they, and the friends of the cause throughout the world, have sustained ; but with them they rejoice that such a man lived and adorned their country, assured that ages to come will refer to his history with wonder and admi- ration.” From an eulogy delivered by Rev. G. C. Beck- with, the following paragraphs are selected : “The friends of Peace meet to-day under cir- cumstances peculiarly afflictive. Death has smitten down the charm of these annual solemnities. That manly form, that countenance beaming with benig- nity, that tongue always ready with its captivating WILLIAM LADD. 103 eloquence to plead for every cause of God and man, are now in the grave. Our father and leader, the founder of our society and the champion of our cause, the apostle and martyr of Peace, has gone to his final reward, and left us to mourn his sudden, irreparable loss, and gather from his memory fresh motives to zeal in behalf of an object to which his talents, his property, and his life were all devoted.” “It would be interesting to follow our champion through his subsequent career. The fate of our cause seemed to rest on him alone; and he girded himself for the work with an energy of purpose that never faltered, and an ardor of zeal that grew more and more intense to the last day of his existence. He planned for it; he toiled for it day and night, from one end of the year to the other ; and finally, on this altar of his favorite cause, he sacrificed himself a whole offering. It was his ruling passion ; and, as he approached his heavenly home, and caught from the nearest summit of Pisgah a wider, clearer view of the promised land he had sought so long — the reign of universal peace — it seemed to fill 104 WILLIAM LADD. his fahole vision, like the flood of glory which burst upon the raptured eye of the dying Pay son.” “ The difficulties of the peace reform, nothing but experience can fully teach. For this arduous work, so much above the character and even the aims of most Christians, our late president was eminently fitted. Cast in one of Nature’s largest molds, he possessed a constitution able to perform, month after month, an amount of labor that would have crushed a man of common strength. His intellect was much above the common range of minds. His mind turned at once to meet the most sudden emergencies. Few ever caught him by surprise. He was ex- tremely quick to see and grasp the main points of an argument; and his skill in debate, the fairness and pertinency of his replies, and his tact in managing all sorts of minds, made him a favorite advocate of peace, alike in halls of science, and the dwellings of the illiterate.” “ There was about him a charm quite inimitable ; and, wherever he went, his social qualities gave him, WILLIAM LADD. 105 even as a reformer, a ready welcome to every mind and place. There was no resisting such a spirit as his. His bosom was full of kindness, and it was constantly flowing out to all around him. His wit and pleasantry, and kindness, and guileless sim- plicity, and amusing, instructive anecdotes, all united to render him the charm of every place. He used, wherever he went, to converse on his favorite theme. Hope was strongly predominant in his character; and, but for this, he would never have continued a month in a cause so depressed as he found that of Peace. His constitutional bouyancy of spirits was quite an essential qualification for his work. “ Benevolence was the mainspring of all his movements. Not only was it seen in the kindness that distilled like gentle dew on the domestic circle ; in the hospitality that made his house a free hotel ; in deeds of benevolence to all that came in his way — but it went forth in search of objects, and extended itself over the whole earth, and encircled the whole human family. And can we wonder that such a philanthropy sprang at once into the enterprise of 106 WILLIAM LADD. peace as the noblest reform ever attempted or con- ceived by man? Can it surprise us that such a philanthropist vowed, on the altar of his God, perpetual hostility to war, as man’s deepest disgrace and deadliest foe, as an outrage on humanity, and a base libel on our holy religion ?” “ But more than this passing notice is due to his indomitable energy. Not one man in ten thousand would have prosecuted an enterprise so little appre- ciated, though so long, so unbroken a series of obstacles well nigh insurmountable; but through them all he held on his way. Some ridiculed, others pitied, and even professed friends of the cause de- spaired, and begun, one after another, to stand aloof ; but he clung to the helm with a grasp stronger than ever, and steered the ship in the very teeth of wind and tide. Often have I seen him anxious, but never saw the slightest symptom of wavering in his pur- pose ; that was unalterable. He had nailed his flag to the mast, and had he been left entirely alone on board, I verily believe he would have remained there till the vessel sank, before he would have left his WILLIAM LADD. 107 post. All this wps interwoven with qualities which served to disarm opposition and produce kindness and confidence. His honesty, his candor, his frank- ness, his bland spirit, his conciliatory address, his delicate regard for the feelings of others, his pru- dence, his respect for the opinions and even the prejudices of mankind, his sympathy with good men of every name on the great points of truth and duty, all conspired to make the community feel safe ..under his counsels. . . . ‘‘The friend of God and man sleeps with his fathers; but never shall the influences he set at work cease to operate, till they shall accomplish the blessed consummation of laws and courts and Christian principles applied to nations as now to individuals; never till swords shall be beaten into plowshares, and all nations shall learn war no more.” The Rev. Asa Cummings says : “One trait of Mr. Ladd’s character, which we have not seen recognized in any published notice of him was pre-eminently valuable, and distinguished 108 WILLIAM LADD. him from most other modern reformers with whom we have been acquainted. His fellow-men might oppose or neglect him, or treat his scheme as Utopian ; yet he cdivays kept his temper. He never dealt in denunciation. He was too magnanimous to resent either opposition or indifference. The latter was much the harder for him to bear; and he was often grieved by it, not on personal accounts, but from its effects on the blessed cause to which he had devoted himself. But nothing seemed to inter- rupt the perpetual flow of kindness and good-will w 7 hich characterized him. If he erred at all, it was by an excess of pleasantry ; or more truly perhaps, by ill-timed pleasantry, suffering it occasionally to break out amidst the solemn exercises of a religious meeting. This would not interfere with the edifica- tion of minds constituted like his own; but all can not make such sudden transitions. “ But he is gone ! and the time and circumstan- ces of his departure were ordered in great mercy to himself. His was an enviable death. He was found in his Master’s service. His transition was sudden from th$ kbors of earth to the rest of heaven. And WILLIAM LADD. 109 yet we can hardly repress the feelings of melancholy which arhe as we reflect that we shall never again be cheered by his hearty greetings, or enlivened and made wiser by his instructive conversation.” The Rev. Andrew P. Peabody said : “Few men have left so many warm friends as he; and we doubt whether he has left an enemy; sure we are that he was no mans enemy. The angel of death found him as free as he was in infancy, from malice and hatred. “He has for years exerted a commanding in- fluence over the public mind, both in our own country and abroad. When he commenced his labors in the cause of Peace, he stood almost alone. But our friend hoped against hope, and toiled on, undaunted by the seeming fruitlessness of his efforts. He knew that he was laboring in the cause of God and of man, and therefore not in vain. He has left many able and faithful fellow-workers ; but the most of them derived their first impulse from his dis- courses, or publications ; and if mankind are to- 110 WILLIAM LADD. cease from war, if our country is to take the lead in puttiug away violence between nation and nation, his name must go down to posterity as essentially connected with the earliest steps of this Christian movement, and be transmitted for the lasting gratitude of his race.” The Rev. William Clark, D. D., after sketch- ing the general character of William Ladd, says : “ What gave him while he lived, and what will give him in coming generations the prominent posi- tion he held and will retain in this and other Christian nations, were his peace principles , and his earnest, untiring efforts at whatever expense of treasure and labor, to make them bear upon the practice of nations. “ On the unutterable evils of war, whether foreign or civil, he read, reflected, wrote, and spoke until his great soul was kindled into a flame that burned brighter and more brighter until his death. “Mr. Ladd’s interest in peace, his unceasing efficient advocacy of it, whether through the press, WILLIAM LADD. Ill the pulpit, or the platform, before ecclesiastical bodies, schools, colleges, theological seminaries, in frequent long journeys over the country, and liberal expenditure of money ; it was this that made him conspicuous before the American people and the European nations. “The great object for which he so strenuously labored in connection with showing the terrible effects of war on human life, property, morals, and religion, creating national debts, and disorganizing society, was to create a public sentiment throughout the Christian world hostile to war, and that should induce nations to settle their difficulties by a Con- gress of Nations.” 112 WILLIAM LADD. CHAPTER X. In the book from which this Review is mainly compiled, are many additional testimonies to the life and character of William Ladd, by those who knew and loved him. Some were written soon after his death, but mostly in answer to the biographer’s request, thus after the lapse of years giving their impressions and recollections of the man, that all without exception felt to be no ordinary one. The first sight of him caused impressions that were never effaced. Says one : “ I can readily call to mind his portly look and manly gait, his ruddy countenance and genial smile, and how he edified and electrified us by his speeches and remarks at our annual conferences, and how delighted we all were to see and hear him, and v r hat a commanding influence he wielded over us and the WILLIAM LADI). 113 state and nation ; and how sad we all were when he departed this life, that we should see that pleasant face and hear that well-timed voice no more.” Says another : “ He was a genial, social, pleasant old gentle- man, supremely devoted to his one object of peace, and yet a liberal friend to all good objects. He was a grand story teller, and always interested people in his speeches.” Another says : “ He was a brim-full man, overflowing with humor, anecdote, illustration ; was a gentleman by instinct. There was an underlying sense of taste in him that kept him from improprieties. And yet, it would not have answered for a man of smaller capacities to say and do what he could do and say without giving offense. He was a privileged char- acter. There could be but one Captain Ladd. “No matter whether on Sunday, or in the public conference or convention, when the majestic 114 WILLIAM LADD. form of Mr. Laid rose, surmounted by that sunlike face, there was a predisposition in the audience to smile. “ The quaintness of his style, the sharp angles of thought, the ceaseless outflow and overflow of ideas and illustrations provoked good nature always, and often convulsed his audience/’ Lev. John S. C. Abbott says : i( A little over forty years ago, when I was a student in the theological seminary at Andover, Captain Ladd addressed the young divinity students there upon the subject of Peace. As I remember him, he was a florid, handsome man, looking like the bluff Christian sailor. Plis address was very fervent and convincing, though at this distance of time I can not recall its details. He was received cordially by the students. His arguments were appreciated; and with no little enthusiasm, as I remember, a peace society was organized in the seminary. Captain Ladd was exceedingly gratified with his reception.” WILLIAM LADD. 115 “Eminently given to hospitality/’ says the Rev. William Clark, “ he delighted to entertain his large acquaintance in his spacious mansion, generously and gracefully imparting to them the products of his farm, garden, and orchard. In harmony with his princely hospitality, Captain Ladd was gentlemanly, courteous, dignified in bearing, though exceedingly affable, making all classes — even the humblest — feel at home with him. Naturally a lover of his race, his interest in all men was en- hanced by his Christian character and sympathies. Loving God, he loved his fellow-men, and was happy in efforts to promote their temporal and eternal well-being. . . . Here it should be stated, that Mrs. Ladd, his wife, an excellent English lady, was in full sympathy with her husband in all deeds of hospitality and humane Christian objects.” Rev. Asa Bullard writes : “ Yours of the 20th has come to hand, and it has awakened recollections of a man who for many years I greatly esteemed and loved. . . . We 116 WILLIAM LADD. often conferred together on the early training of the young. He frequently wrote articles bearing upon his favorite subject of peace, for a juvenile periodical that I edited. Though he had no children of his own, he was greatly interested in children, and easily secured their love. For many years he was a most faithful and successful superintendent of the Sabbath school in Minot. “Captain Ladd was a most affectionate and faithful husband. Notwithstanding the deafness of Mrs. Ladd, he never wearied in raising his voice to answer all her inquiries and communicate to her everything of interest. His attentions to her were very remarkable ; and, in return, her love for him and her tender solicitude for his comfort and hap- piness were almost passionate. “ Captain Ladd’s constant cheerfulness, ready wit, great fund of anecdote, and general intelligence, made his company most agreeable. I never knew a man who was so invariably cheerful, and whose laugh was so hearty and frequent. And yet he was by no means frivolous or given to levity. He ex- pressed his feelings of joy and pleasure more strongly WILLIAM LADD. 117 in this way than most persons do. His laughter was spontaneous, gushing forth from a fountain of good humor, ever full and ever flowing. “He was a man of strong religious feelings and sympathies ; and his tenderer emotions were also easily excited. Any of the more affecting truths of the gospel, or any tale of suffering and woe, would start the tears as easily as a witty reply would call forth a laugh.” The Rev. T. C. Upham, near the close of life, says : “ I am able to write now only a few words. Your view of Captain Ladd agrees entirely with mine. ‘ He was the philanthropist of the nineteenth century .’ ” “More than thirty years have passed,” says the Rev. Nathaniel Boughton, “yet even now his image is vividly before me. He was then in the full maturity of manhood ; large, well proportioned, and dignified in person ; his voice full and sonorous, 118 WILLIAM LADD. and, when his emotions were kindled, he rose often- times to a high pitch of eloquence; his face was placid and benignant, and when aglow with his theme, it reflected his own pacific spirit. The very word peace, as he pronounced it, as his temper and language recommended it, seemed to disarm all opposition, and recommended his principles to gen- eral adoption.” ( Samuel E. Cowes thus writes : “ There is no want of respect and confidence and love on the part of the people for such a man as William Ladd, who raises himself above the common tone, and stands upon the high moral elevation of the principles of Jesus Christ. “Wherever William Ladd spoke, the people crowded to listen to him. They hung upon his accents with delight, for his soul was in his work. During the last years of his life, he never failed to fill the largest churches and public buildings ; and if he made not converts to his own faith, he left his audience standing in the light of a friend WILLIAM LADD. 119 to each and every one who had listened to him. He uttered his convictions boldly, manfully. He would say, ‘ The sword shall be beaten into a plow- share; the day is coming when men shall learn war no more. I believe it, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it ! * And then he would draw so beautiful a picture of a world in peace, of the day when every nation shall draw together the bonds of love, when man shall knit himself close to his brother man, when, in place of the sword, men shall approach each other with the olive branch in their hands, and w 7 ith words of kindness on their lips, with love glistening from their eyes! We wonder not that he drew all hearts to him. ItSTo wonder that he touched and moved his audience. If he made them not peace men to the full extent, he left on their minds a deep impression of the false nature of martial glory, of the hideous lie that is covered up by the splendor of military array. 4 ‘His speech and manner w r ere peculiar — diffi- cult to imitate or describe. In person he was large, even to corpulancy; his face round and full, beam- ing with intelligence and benevolence, his forehead 120 WILLIAM LADD. high and noble. His appearance impressed the audience with the striking traits of his character — philanthropy, gentleness, enthusiasm, and intelli- gence. “ We have heard it imputed as a fault in William Ladd, that he was in his discourses too much inclined to create a laugh ; that his exu- berant flow of spirits, his ready fund of anecdote, often tempted him from the dignity of his subject. But they w T ho make this imputation do not know the springs of human nature. To many minds the facts, the outside bearing, the personal illustration, are essential. Beside, the way to reach the heart is first to arrest the attention, and establish a sym- pathy with the hearer — more readily done by the pleasant story than by the soundness of logic. If his humor and playfulness at times overcame the sobriety of the temple, his frequent pathos and his powerful appeals to the sympathies of his audience carried them away captive to his eloquence. If at times some humorous strain came from his lips, it was sure to be followed by an appeal that shook [lie stoutest heart, .and none left the meeting WILLIAM LADD. 121 without having fixed upon his mind ‘the old man eloquent.’ ” Many pages might be filled with similar testi- monies, showing how much he was esteemed by all who knew him. 122 WILLIAM LADD. CHAPTER XI. In a preceding chapter we have given a sketch of the farm of William Ladd and his surroundings, and his biographer has given various instances of his kindness and generosity to those in his employ, from which we select the following : “At a certain time, one of his hired men, Reuben Morrow, who labored for him from 1818 to 1829, was taken very sick ; and had watchers twenty nights. Mr. Ladd sent to Portland for medicine for him, and he was taken excellent care of, and recovered his health after forty-one days of lost labor. When Mr. M. was able to work, he said to Mr. Ladd, ‘I want to settle with you now/ ‘Settle for what?’ said Mr. Ladd. ‘For the ex- penses of my sickness.’ Mr. Ladd replied, ‘I have no bill against you, all is settled.’ Mr. M. said, ‘I WILLIAM LADD. 123 have lost forty-one days of time.’ Mr. Ladd answered, ‘You have lost no time; your wages have not stopped during your sickness/ And this was the rule with this great philanthropist: to take care of his hired men/” “ A young woman who lived in Mr. Ladd’s family for several years, was taken sick with fever. She wished to be carried to her home near by. Mr. Ladd carried her home in a carriage, with great gentleness and care, frequently inquiring of her if it hurt her to ride. He sent her, during her sickness, rare delicacies suited to her condition, which her parents could not easily procure.” “ A negro by the name of Richard Dawes, came to Minot while Reuben Morrow lived with Mr. Ladd, and wished Reuben to get him a place to w r ork. Mr. Ladd said he had as lief hire a negro as a white man ; but told Reuben he need not eat w T ith him if he did not wish to. Reuben replied, ‘I will not work w r ith a man that I will not eat with/ Mr. Ladd laughed and said, ‘When I followed the sea, I used to sit dow T n and eat with my sailors. I helped myse'f, and they helped themselves/” 124 WILLIAM LADD. “ Richard worked with Mr. Ladd for several months, but left before winter ; but afterward was taken sick, and returned to Minot the following summer in a very poor state of health. He called on Reuben, feeling very disconsolate, and said he was sick, and had no friends and no home. On Mr. Ladd being informed, he stepped out to him and said very kindly, ‘Richard, how do you do?’ Richard an- swered, ‘ I am sick, and have no home/ Mr. Ladd replied, ‘ Well, I have a home, and you shall have a home as long as I have; make my house your home. When you get well, you may work for me and pay me ; but if you never get well, I am paid already.’ ” “Poor Richard cried like a child. This great and unexpected kindness completely overcame him. Mr. Ladd conducted him to a chamber furnished with as good a bed as the mansion contained, and told him that that room was his own while he should be sick. Richard soon became very sick, and it was very evident that the end of his life on earth was near. Some ignorant or heedless person had told him that when he died he would be buried in a highway or some lonely place in a pasture. This troubled Rich- WILLIAM LADD. 125 ard so much that he wept, and on Mr. Ladd being informed that Richard had some peculiar trouble, he immediately stepped to his bedside and inquired the cause. Richard told his trouble, and said he did not know as it ought to grieve him that he could not be buried in the graveyard with white folks. Mr. Ladd assured him that he should be buried in the graveyard. Richard was a pious young man, and soon after this he sweetly fell asleep in Jesus. He was buried in as becoming and costly a man- ner as if he had been a member of the family, and Mr. and Mrs. Ladd, as chief mourners, fol- lowed poor Richard to his peaceful grave in Minot Center burying-ground.” ‘ ‘ Mr. Ladd used to say he was willing to bear a portion of the misfortunes of the persons in his employ, and this was his rule to take care of his men and maidens in their sickness, and also to continue their wages the same as when in health. ,, Many interesting circumstances and anecdotes are recorded of William Ladd, some of which we transcribe, as showing more vividly the true charac* 126 WILLIAM LADD. ter of the man. Beference has been made to the great interest he took in the temperanec reformation, and the following incident will show the manner by which he became a teetotaler. Being present at a very large temperance meeting, an occasion of special importance for the advancement of the good cause, he was prompted, as he usually was, not only to speak, but to do his best as its advocate and cham- pion. He used to say, that he never made so good a temperance speech in his life. He used up all the objections of his opposers, and thought nobody could get away from his arguments. “I sat down,” said he, “ thinking that he who could withstand the appeal I had made must be a hard one indeed.” Suddenly, a little, hard-looking man got up in a distant corner of the house, and said: “Ha! if the squire will give us some of his good wine, we wouldn’t drink the nasty rum no more! ” This was a cut which the good man little expected, and which he could neither gainsay nor resist, for he was a real friend of Temperance, and he saw in a moment both his inconsistency, and the reason why he had met WILLIAM LADD. 127 with no more success. He sprang to liis feet, and with the frankness of a child, confessed his mistake, and gave up from that hour every kind of intoxicat- ing drink. The same writer says: “Mr. Ladd possessed a very happy faculty of talking to children, and winning them over to his peace principles. He used to relate the following incident. A distinguished teacher, having two hoys that were quite in love with military display, of which he could not cure them, requested Mr. Ladd to try his eloquence with them. Calling to him the oldest boy, he said, ‘Do love to see the soldiers V ‘Yes, I love to see the rub-a-dubs.’ ‘Would you like to be one yourself?’ ‘O, yes.’ ‘But do you know what these soldiers are for?’ ‘No/ ‘ Why, they are learning to kill people. Those bright bayonets are made to stab and kill people with.’ The boy turned pale. He never entertained such a thought. ‘Do you know who killed the babes of Bethlehem, because a wicked king told them to ? ’ ‘ No.’ ‘ They were soldiers.’ ‘Do you know who crucified our 128 WILLIAM LADI>. Lord?’ The boy was silent. ‘They were soldiers; and soldiers would burn your house, and cut down your fruit trees, and kill your father, if they were told to do it.’ The boys were astonished; tears stood in their eyes. ‘ Do you want to be a soldier? ’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you want to see the rub a dubs?’ ‘No.’” Another writer says : “I met him in a social circle, in Brunswick, Maine. He was the life of the party, full of fun and frolic. He played with the children as though he were one of them. Some one pleasantly remarked, 6 When you become a man, you should put away childish things.’ He promptly replied, ‘ Ah, I fear that I shall never be a man. I can never be any- thing more than a Ladd. 1 ” Another writer says : “I give from Rev. Dr. Ide, of Midway, Massa- chusetts, the following : He and Captain Ladd, and a company of clergymen, were returning from New WILLIAM LADD. 129 York City, when they held a peace meeting in the cabin of the steamer. In the course of the debate — pro and con — Dr. Ide proposed this question, to whoever might answer it : * Man has two fists ; and, when he is prested or abused, he feels inclined to use them to defend himself. Now, what was man made so for ? ’ ‘‘Captain Ladd immediately sprang to his feet, in the best of humor, exclaiming, ‘ I’ll answer him ! I’ll answer him ! ’ And reaching out his two hands with fingers all spread out like claws, repeated from Dr. Watts: ‘ Let dogs delight to bark and bite, For God hath made them so ; Let bears and lions growl and fight, For his their nature to.’ “Then looking round on the company, like a father on his children, continued : ‘ But, children, you should never let Such angry passions rise, Your little hands were never made To tear each others’ eyes.’ “ This recitation, in the captain’s comical man- ner, brought down the hcuse in a roar of laughter.’” 130 WILLIAM LADD. At an anniversary meeting of the New Hamp- shire Missionary Society, numerous pledges of thirty dollars, by ministers, laymen, and ladies, were made to constitute their sons and daughters life members of the society, with the request not unfrequently that prayers should be offered for them. These public pledges and requests awakened great interest in the audience. In the height of the excitement, William Ladd arose, his majestic person towering above all others, his tremulous voice heard above all other voices; he was deeply affected, saying: “I have an only beloved daughter, very, very . dear to me; I will make her a life member of the New Hampshire Missionary Society if you will pray for her. The name of my daughter is American Peace Society .” On the spot he paid thirty dollars ; and now, after the lapse of nearly forty years, “ The American Peace Society” is enrolled among the life members of the New Hampshire Missionary Society. The announcement of the noble man, and the corres- ponding deed, awakened deep emotions in the great congregation. WILLIAM LADD. 131 CHAPTER XII. His biographer says : “ Probably it will be interesting to many to read Mr. Ladd’s military history. His ‘ military record’ is much better than Alexander’s or Napo- leon’s, for it is unstained with human blood. “Mr. Ladd says: ‘New Hampshire, about thirty five years ago (1790), labored under the delu- sion of a military fever. The aged, the halt, and the purblind turned out, shouldered their rusty muskets, and took the ranks. The exempts were enrolled in what was called The Alarm List. The boys, too, caught the fever from the aged ; and I flourished, with my wooden sword, as lieutenant of a company of what might have been literally called light infantry. But on getting possession of an old rusty hanger, which had served in as many capac- 132 WILLIAM LADD. ities as Hudibras’s, I was elevated to the captaincy, as being a lad of the most metal of them all ; a qualification which has generally had its weight in military elections/ The boys finally disbanded their company. “Mr. Ladd continues: ‘We boys found our wooden guns very serviceable in the game of bat and ball; and thus, if we did not turn the sword into a plowshare, we changed a mock tragedy into a real comedy/ “Mr. Ladd goes on to say: ‘I do not know how much my early promotion in the militia line might have puffid up my vanity, and made me a son of Mars, instead of an Apostle of Peace, had it not been for an impression of a contrary tendency which was made on my mind soon after my promo- tion. I was sent on an errand to borrow a darning- needle and a pinch of snuff for Marm Creighton, my old school-mistress, to the cottage of old Granny Hall, who kept a sort of nursery for unfortunate children, whose parents were ashamed of theip, whom she boarded at the low stipend of a shilling a week. The old lady kept the children as neat WILLIAM LADD. 133 and clean as circumstances would allow. But, as their parents often forgot them, the boys would outgrow their clothes, so that their legs would pro- trude far out of their envelopes, and the clothes of the little girls were in no better condition. But there is no station so low in which pride and vanity may not be exhibited. These little creatures, seldom seeing anybody but one another, thought themselves mighty fine. On this occasion one of the little girls, in a frock of many colors, ran up to me, and point- ing with her tiny finger at a piece of new yellow baize — of a shape not to be found in Euclid — which was sewed on her waist, exclaimed, ‘See my new patch! see my new patch ! 9 I can not tell whether the association arises from the similarity of color, but I never see a new-made officer, strutting under his gold epaulette, but I think I hear him exclaim, with Granny Halls bantling, ‘ See my neiv patch ! see my new patch ! ' 99 His estimate of military trappings is also shown in a speech at a public meeting, saying : 134 WILLIAM LADD. “ The ladies are often accused of being vain, and fond of dress ; but what shall we say of those men, who, in order to make a fine appearance, have robbed the bears of their fur, the geese of their feathers, and the horses of their tails?” This was so amusing, and spoken in so amusing a manner, that even grave and venerable clergymen joined in the hearty laugh. The sheep story has often been quoted, but as related by William .Ladd to a fiiend, is as follows: “He had a neighbor whose unruly sheep were getting into his lot and injuring his growing crops. Repeated requests to have them taken care of re- ceived no attention. At length he became irritable over the matter, and threatened to have them driven to the pound, which did not help the matter at all. At length he began to reflect that he was not acting consistently with his own principles. He must take a different course. He soon called where his neigh- bor was at work, but his friendly greeting was roughly responded to. ‘ I have come/ said he, ‘ to talk WILLIAM LADD. 135 with you about your sheep.’ ‘I care nothing about the sheep nor you neither/ was the pettish reply. 4 Well/ said Mr. Ladd, 4 1 have a lot off at a dis- tance, where there is good feed, and I would like to have you turn your sheep in there. They will thrive well there, and do no one any injury. You shall be entirely welcome to do it.’ ‘Are you in earnest, ’square ? ’ said the man. 4 Certainly, I am,’ said Mr. Ladd ; 4 it will be better for you and for me.’ 4 ’Square, my sheep shan’t trouble you any more,’ said the man, and so the difficulty was ended.” A lady, who knew him, writes : “Mr. Ladd, in his youth, was fond of gunning. On one occasion, he bad been out without finding anything at which to point his gun. As he was returning homeward, he saw a robin singing in a tree. He lifted his gun and fired, bringing the bird to his feet. As it fluttered, dying, its reproachful eye lifted to his seemed to say, 4 Why did you shoot me? why did you shoot me?’ He then said to himself, 4 1 will never shoot another bird ; ’ and he never did. 136 WILLIAM LADD, “ Mr. Ladd was ever ready to confess his faults, even to a child. He once sent a little girl to get a corkscrew. She brought him a gimlet. He was in haste to use the instrument, and said she was a ‘ dull, stupid girl/ and sent her back again. As she left his presence, he said, ‘I ought not to have spoken so to her.’ As soon as she returned again, he said, ‘ I ask your pardon for speaking to you as I did/ “ There were two boys in the neighborhood, who were in the babit of being too free with his trees of choicest early apples. He had never seen them take the apples, but he had good reason to believe that they did take them. One day, as the boys were near his house, he said to them, ‘Boys, can you show me where I can find some good apples ? ’ The boys immediately conducted him to the trees that bore his best apples. Mr. Ladd then spoke out, right merrily, to them : ‘ Ah, ha ! boys ! I see you know where my apples are as well as Ido.’” He is reported as saying at a conference : WILLIAM LADD. 137 “ We often hear professed Christians complain of want of religious enjoyment. Now I think if we would, after praying over the subject, take a parcel of good religious tracts, and go among our friends and acquaintances, distributing them with such words as their subjects and circumstances might suggest, we should, I think, return to our homes with higher religious enjoyment. ” The clerk of a religious anniversary meeting held in Maine, 1837, records that, “In accordance with previous arrangements, Mr. Ladd occupied the last hour in the forenoon, and introduced his subject — Peace — in the happiest manner, by observing that he had purposely re- frained from saying much on the topics that had been discussed, although they were open to all who were disposed to speak ; for he perceived that all these subjects, and others not named, such as Tem- perance, and Moral Reform, ran like rivulets into the broad and deep river of Peace. His object would be to show that Peace embraced them all. And probably in the judgment of all present he 138 WILLIAM LADD. made out his case pretty clearly; for Peace, being founded on the great law of Love , must embrace all good works and cherish all good feelings.” Says William Lloyd Garrison, in 1871: “Such was my appreciation of his character and labors that, more than forty years ago, I dedi- cated to William Ladd the following* sonnet, which was printed in the first volume of The Liberator : ” SONNET. The conquerors of earth have had their day — Their fame lies weltering in a bloody shroud ; As crime and desolation haste away, So fade their glory and their triumphs proud. Great Advocate ! a fairer wreath is thine, Base Envy can not soil, nor Time destroy ; Thou art enlisted in a cause divine, Which yet shall fill all earth and heaven with joy. To calm the passions of a hostile world ; To make content and happiness increase; In every clime to see that flag unfurled, Long since uplifted by the Prince of Peace : This is thy souPs desire, thy being’s aim, No barrier can impede, no opposition tame. WILLIAM LADD. 139 CHAPTER XIII. The first chapter of this Review contains a brief description of the farm and homestead of William Ladd, during the earlier period of his life. “ A few years before his death,” writes the late Professor Upham, “ I visited his retired residence. He showed me the room in which he had written the numerous papers, and even volumes on the subject of w T ar. Walking with him in one of his beautiful fields, he pointed to a cluster of trees at a little distance, and said, ‘ It was beneath those trees that I solemnly consecrated myself in prayer to this one work of impressing upon the minds of men the principles of peace.’ I met with him often, and have been deeply affected with his simplicity and fixedness of purpose. He fully believed that God had inspired within him that central idea, around 140 WILLIAM LADD. which the labors of his life turned ; and those who knew him intimately, could hardly fail to be im- pressed with a similar conviction.’” The following interesting description of the Ladd homestead in 1844, three years after his death, is taken from the Leiviston Falls Advertiser: “The day on which we visited the mansion, was one of the clearest of the Indian summer. The house was situated in Minot, not more than four or five rods from the- road, but nearly concealed from it by a profusion of elegant trees. The windows are shaded by clumps of pine and spruce, among which glisten the silver firs, and over the pathway wave enticingly the bright red berries of the mountain ash. On the north, it is shielded from the cold winds by a long row of Lombardy poplars. The garden on the south, is entered under a tasteful arch, and is well arranged. The smooth, gravelly walks are hemmed in by shrubbery ; and fruit and ornamental trees are scattered, with a plentiful hand, through the grounds. WILLIAM LADD. 141 “The fields are smooth as a lawn, and the barns, six in number, are large and well filled. 4 The Majordomo/ who showed us about the prem- ises, communicated many interesting anecdotes of its late occupant. The house is spacious enough to accommodate the train of a feudal lord ; and had Mr. Ladd’s taste been different, he might have stabled his hundred horses, and ridden over his grounds, attended by a hundred horsemen, and made his home like a castle in the days of chivalry. It is situated on the top of a long swell of grounds, and we could not wonder that Mr. Ladd had chosen this place fur his residence, when we looked from the windows upon the vast prospect of green hills and cultivated fields spread out below. The white moun- tains at a distance of fifty miles, glistened with the snowbanks and ice-bound rivulets of early winter. “But as we walked through the large empty rooms, and the walls sent back only hollow echoes to our tread, it was not difficult to feel that the mas- ter’s presence was not there to animate, and that his absence had filled the place with gloom. Yet, there was a charm about the deserted home of him who 142 WILLIAM LADD. had spent the latter years of his life in attempting to perfect one of the most glorious systems that ever flourished on the ‘ tide of time/ a system which will do away with one of the scourges of society, disarm Mars of its thunders, and give to the fiendish strug- gles for suj^remacy, only a record among the barbaric institutions of the past.’” Such was the description of this venerated home- stead before it had gone into other hands. In 1860, sixteen years afterward, it was via ted by John Hemmenway, who writes: “I called on Kev. Elijah Jones, who very kindly walked with me to the Ladd mansion. As we entered the parlor, which remains, excepting the furniture, just as Mr. Ladd left it, he pointed to the hearth and said, ‘ There is where my wife and I have spent many happy evening hours in the com- pany of Mr. Ladd.’ We then went into the north- east corner room. This was his library. This was the spot where he conceived and w T rote the most of his great and loving thoughts of peace and good-w T ill WILLIAM LADD. 143 to man, with books, pamphlets, and papers, filling the shelves around him. Here, in this little room, William Ladd prayed and read and meditated, and wrote with hope and cheerfulness, and a disinterested spirit of benevolence as wide as the world and as comprehensive as the woes and wants of all man- kind ; and unborn generations shall arise and bless his name, when w T ar’s mightiest heroes shall be remembered only with pity and abhorrence. “ Slept in the north chamber, called, 4 the min- ister’s chamber,’ and slept, as Mr. Jones said I would, ‘in peace.’ After breakfast, I went up into the little roofless enclosure on the top of the man- sion. Here the ‘ Apostle of Peace’ often sat during the warm, bright sunny hours. From this position is an enchantingiy beautiful view, one of the loveliest in New England. It is extensive in all directions ; variegated with fields, pastures, woodlands, water, churches, dwellinghouses, orchards, hills, vales, and mountains. How beautiful all this must have been in the eyes of him who loved God and man so well ! “ The summerhouse is still standing near a solitary flourishing chestnut tree, near the central 144 WILLIAM LADD. part of the garden. This neat building, in the hot summer days, afforded the pious sage and philanthro- pist of Minot an agreeable and healthful place of seclusion and rest, where he could calmly meditate upon his great plan of benevolence for the good of the whole family of man. “A great change has taken place in the appear- ance of the homestead since his death. It should have been carefully kept, as a place of sacred and pleasant resort, for devoted pilgrims of peace philan- thropy in all future times, down to and through the joyful day, when the sound of war shall be heard no more, and peace and love reign on earth as wide and universal as the sunlight which cheers all the world.’” We will close our Review of the life of William Ladd, with the following from a traveler’s journal, dated September 11th, 1868: <: Left Portland this morning by railroad at fifteen minutes before 7 o’clock, for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where I arrived at 9 o'clock A. M. WILLIAM LADD. 145 As soon as I stepped out of the car, I walked down to the South Cemetery. It is situated about half a mile from the city, and contains about thirty-five acres. Through the central part is a valley of gentle descent, containing about eight acres, and passes from southwest to northeast, where flourish many large trees of the maple, elm, and other sorts. In the central part of this valley is a small pond, about two hundred feet in length by one hundred feet in breadth, with a smooth, grassy, artificial margin. This valley is covered with artificial grass; but the land is not used as a burial place, being too moist. “ This cemetery is very beautiful in itself, and also for situation. William Ladd, the ‘Apostle of Peace/ is buried here. I came to Portsmouth to-day for the sole purpose of visiting his sepulchre. It is about seventeen rods from the gate at the entrance of the cemetery on the left. The main road, which is one rod in width, bare and gravelly, passes di- rectly by, about ten feet southwest of the monu- ment which stands directly over the good man’s grave. 146 WILLIAM LADD. “The following is a description of the monu- ment : “The foundation stone is a granite block, forty- two inches square and eighteen inches thick ; upon this rests a marble stone thirty inches square and four inches in thickness. From this a marble pyra- midal pillar rises to a height of seven feet two inches, which is at its base twenty-one inches square, and twelve inches at the top. Whole height of the monument, nine feet. “The monument is very modest, simple, and plain, being more agreeable to the character and taste of the good apostle than of costly and curious form. I should have been grieved to have found an expensive and lofty monument of cunning design erected in memory of William Ladd, the meek philanthropist and humble Christian. Peace to his ashes ! ” The epitaph on the southwest side, reads as follows : WILLIAM LADD. 147 WILLIAM LADD. Born May 10, 1778, Died April 7, 1841. BLESSED ARE THE PEACE MAKERS, FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHILDREN OF GOD. Erected by the American Peace Society. (On the opposite side.) Sophia Ann Stidolph, Widow of William Ladd. Died Dec. 29, 1855, AGED 75 YEARS. /