USA > Illinois > Shelby County > Historic sketch and biographical album of Shelby County, Illinois > Part 10
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Here let me say, once for all, that in re- lating such cases of foul play and rash judg- ment, my sole purpose is to arouse a hatred of the ignorance and prejudice that make such wrongs possible. Ionly wish to serve and bless those who may have ever in any way misjudged or wronged me. Standing over their graves I have none but tender recollections with sincere regrets that I could not or did not help them more. Life is too short for holding grudges. 1 am happy in having no ill will toward any hu- man being.
TAKING THE ENROLLMENT.
A short time after that libel had been widely circulated I was appointed to take the enroll- ment for the draft in this county. a perilous task
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of course. Bloody riots in resisting the enroll- ment were of frequent occurrence in Southern Illinois and Indiana. Some enrolling officers had been shot down. All the people seemed to be walking on the thin crust of a volcano that was ready to burst at any hour. I then lived in a small cabin eight miles southeast of Shelbyville. The Knights of the Golden Circle were drilling in sight of my home on the prairie every day, to resist the "tyrant Lincoln." as they called him. I could talk and reason with some of my neigh- bors ; but many were glum and mum, and would give me no chance to talk with them. Some had vowed they would shoot the first man who came around to take their names for the draft. I was begged by some friends not to attempt it. But others said I was the only one there to do it and it must be done, and they advised me to go thoroughly armed. I was offered a company of soldiers to assist me. But I said, "No, I will have no weapons and no soldiers." I took the precaution to disguise myself and ride a dif- ferent horse every day, and go only to those 1 thought I could trust and get names of the others from the trusty ones. This worked very well. except in a few instances 1 made the mis- take of revealing myself to foes instead of friends. Some had read that bushwhacker's libel in their party papers and they believed their papers then more than they did their Bibles. It was just such ignorance and partisanship that made the Civil war possible.
The first day, at one house where I went. the man grasped his old shot gun and said : "Now go home or you will be shot!" I took from my pocket a little pen knife and replied : "This is all the weapon I have. I don't want to harm a hair of your head. But I am not going home now. This work must be done. Hf yon want to shoot me. just bang away. There are
thousands more to take my place." The fellow laid his gun down and said: "Jasper. I don't want to shoot you : your mother is such a good woman : but you will be shot. sure. if you keep on." I was then warned to stop. by Knights of the Goklen Circle committees, and a dozen shots were fired into the open door of my house at night to give emphasis to the warning. But the enrollment was completed without bloodshed. Years after, men came to me to confess and apologize and to thank me for doing the work in disguise : for they said they had determined to kill me if they saw me at it.
It was hard for me to realize that such kind- ly disposed people as I had always known those neighbors to be. could be led to think of such muurderons acts. But if war teaches what' a man may be at his worst. it also teaches what he can be at his best. The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table once apostrophized war as a diviner teacher than peace, saying-
"As the wild tempest wakes the slumbering sea. Thou only teachest all that man can be."
Many are the memories of encouraging words that were whispered or spoken aloud in hours of trial. About that time 1 preached a sermon on "The True Path to Peace" by a vig -. orous prosecution of the inevitable war and by freedom to the slaves. It was resolved by ser- eral who were opposed to my views that I should be silenced and sent out of the world with dis- patch if I persisted in expressing such senti- ments, and praying for the President of the United States. Accordingly, one bright Sunday morning at the hour I had appointed for services. a large crowd gathered in and around the little log school house (Old Salem). They were armed with shot guns, rifles, revolvers, bowie knives and heavy canes. They looked sour and surly. The congregation gathered and filled the house.
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li any of my friends were armed I did not know it. Scarcely a word was spoken by any one. The time came to begin service. AA deathly silence reigned as I took my seat in the pulpit. Everybody seemed to be asking himself, "What next?" Just then a quiet, conservative man whom I had never known to take any active part in any meetings, and whom I did not know as being in sympathy with me, walked gently up the aisle and, drawing near, whispered in myear : "Douthit, go on, and preach and pray as you be- lieve is right. There is plenty of us to stand by you." I was determined to do that anyhow, and did clear my conscience very well that day. Nevertheless, I have always regarded that action of so modest and quiet a man as a very special providence.
And that was only one among many trying ordeals in which most humble men and women came to the front with an inspiration of wonder- ful heroism that I should never have thought them capable of.
THE UNITARIAN POSITION AND NAMIE
I will now turn to the more distinctly Uni- tarian phase of my mission work. And in the first place, as there is a very general misunder- standing about Unitarians, I beg to state, clear- ly as I can, precisely the Unitarian position.
Unitarians do not stand for a sect, if by sect is meant a body of believers who make as- sent to certain tenets a condition of church fel- lowship and co-operation. The Unitarian de- nomination is not a sect except in its opposition to all sectarianism in religion. Dr. William Ellery Channing was among the first of distin- guished Americans to take the name Unitarian. He then declared (A. D. 1828.) that though he cheerfully took that name for good and honest
reasons, yet, said he: "I wish to regard myself as belonging, not to a sect, but to the community of tree minds, of lovers of the truth, of followers of Christ, both on earth and in heaven." This is the position of the Unitarian denomination to- day. It is a body of free and independent Chris- tian believers who claim no authority to dictate a creed or interpret Scripture for others. U'ni- tarians welcome differences held honestly in the right spirit.
Unitarian churches are congregational in their form of government : that is, cach church is independent and self-governed : it is a democ- racy or republic within itself. each member and both sexes having equal rights and privileges in choosing a pastor, electing officers, adopting a covenant of faith, etc. (I say "covenant." for we convenant to walk together in brotherly love rather than profess to think alike in creed.) All of these churches are not named U'itarian ; and when they meet in conference it is not for dicta- tion, but mutual counsel and inspiration and co-operation in good works.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNITAR- LAN AND TRINITARIAN CON- GREGATIONALISTS.
However, to avoid misunderstanding by many people, it should be stated that all Con- gregational churches are not Unitarian. There are Trinitarian Congregational churches. These churches were formed of people who, when Dr. Channing and his associates took the Unitarian position, withdrew from their fellowship, insist- ing upon the old Calvinistic creeds of Predesti- nation, three persons in the Godhead, etc. These are known as Trinitarian or orthodox Congrega- tionalists, and these churches, unlike the Uni- tarians, do dictate in their conferences and in-
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sist upon a Trinitarian creed, But U'nitarians never did in their history exclude by creed-tests or church rules Trinitarians or any other sincere disciples of Christ. There is not a case in all history of Unitarians excluding or persecuting others for opinions' sake. This was the marked difference between Unitarian and Trinitarian Congregationalists, although now with many people the difference is only in name. Now the most radical Unitarians of Dr. Channing's day would find welcome in nearly all Trinitarian Congregational churches.
For the reason that U'nitarians were so jeal- ous of their independence and freedom, and so opposed to creed-tests, many of the churches stood aloof from each other and were slow to come together and organize in National Con- ference with a common standard of fellowship and working basis ; but they finally did unite as will be seen in the following :
BANNER OF THE NATIONAL CON- FERENCE.
The following Declaration was unanimously and enthusiastically adopted by the National Conference of Unitarian and other Christian churches at Saratoga, N. Y., in 1894:
"These churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding, in accordance with His teaching, that practical religion is summed up in love to God and love to man."
While it is a fact that most members of Unitarian churches "are distinguished." as Dr. Channing said, "by believing that there is one God, even the Father, and that Jesus Christ is not this one God, but His dependent and obed- ient son," yet nevertheless all members are free to receive or reject this belief ; they are welcome to believe (if they must to be honest) that Jesus
was the identical Jehovah, and that
there are three persons in the God- head. other doctrine. Unitar- ians will have no contention or division on these points. They respect honest convic- tions : they stand for the utmost tolerance so long as the life is right ; they stand for a church with the door wide as the door to the kingdom of heaven: for full freedom of thought to all honest seekers after God's truth and for cheer- ful co-operation in works of righteousness with all good people, everywhere. "In every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him." (Acts. x:35), and shall be with us.
But as has been truly said : "We Unitar- ians are not so eager to make people call them- selves by our name as we are to impart some- thing of the spirit-this Holy Spirit of all truth. We know nothing of creed-tests or name- tests. Whoever loves and lives our ideals of rea- son. fellowship and service better than we, is our teacher, whatever church or age he belongs to."
It was because. as I have said. that Unitar- ians were the only religious body I found on earth that would welcome me to such freedom and universal fellowship. that I received ordina- tion at their hands; and upon that basis 1 have been laboring as a missionary nearly forty years.
OBJECT OF "THE AMERICAN UNITAR- LAN ASSOCIATION."
For most of this time I have labored under the auspices of the American U'nitarian .Asso- ciation, Boston, Mass. This Association was founded in 1825. Dr. Gannett, (Dr. Channing's colleague), who was the first secretary of the
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Association, thus describes the motive of its founders :
"The American Umtarian Association had its origin not in a sectarian purpose, but in a desire to promote the increase of religion in the land .. .. The name which was adopted has a sectarian sound. But it was chosen to avoid equivocation on the one hand, and misappre- hension on the other."
The object of this AAssociation as declared in its By-Laws, Art. 1, is "to diffuse the knowl- edge and promote the interests of pure Chris- tianity." That is just what I have been trying to do all these years.
While the name Christian is dearer to us than Unitarian, yet, being only one class among so many classes of Christians, we dare not as- sume a monopoly of that name : we do not claim to be Christian par excellence. But in order to show our colors and stand by them, we must have a name-it is the only way to do honest business : and we take the name Unitarian be- cause in the course of history it has come to signify, more than any other word, our great principles of U'nity and our purpose and aim, namely: To unite with all people who will unite with us.
"To build the Universal Church. Lofty as is the love of God. And ample as the wants of man." -Longfellow.
"UNITARIAN" STUMBLING-BLOCKS.
However, it should be said that Unitarians have no patent right on the name. Individuals and societies may appropriate and use. or rather misuse the name in a way to greatly prejudice good people against the principles and purposes of the Unitarian body proper. Persons may
call themselves Unitarian or "Liberals" who are merely indifferent about religion-perhaps never identifying themselves with any church, but tramp around from one church to another or stay away from public worship to play poker, visit or entertain visitors or do anything else they please, instead of attending to religious duties. I must say, that such persons have been greater stumbling-blocks in my mission work than all other sinners combined ; and the more respectable and influential such "U'nitarians" are, the worse their influence for building up a church and promoting the cause of pure Chris- tianity. If such persons were the only depend- ence, there could be no Unitarian church any- where: nor any other sort of church for that matter. The true church must have members who are willing to be martyrs for it against all the world. the flesh and the devil.
One of the most mortifying experiences of my life was when I went to a new railroad town of several thousand inhabitants and inquired of the Postmaster if he knew any Unitarians liv- ing there. "I know only one man who calls himself U'nitarian," was the reply; and when I asked where I should find that one, I was toldl he kept a saloon. On further inquiry in that same town I found another man-a leading business man-who claimed to be a Unitarian or "Liberal," and he never went to church, he said, except to hear the greatest preachers in the land. He said he could learn more to stay at home and read than he could to listen to the ordinary preacher. The idea seems never to have entered his brain that he should go to church for the example of it, and the good it might do others, and that the best part of church-going is not in learning some "new thing" but in the habit of associating with our fellows in a way to quicken and strengthen cach
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other in what we already know to be true and. good. As a rule, with very rare exceptions. the man or the woman who gets in the habit of staying away from regular worship with his fel- lows grows worse himself and of course sets a dangerous example to others. So in the case of the business man referred to. I met him by chance thirty years after, and was startled to find him a miserable wreck of his former self- a degenerate son of noble Puritan stock. I know whole communities that have been made worse by a similar misuse of freedom.
"There are two freedoms-the false, where a man is free to do what he likes : the true, where a man is free to do what he ought," says Charles Kingsley. The last is the only freedom to which U'nitarians or liberal Christians are called.
REPRESENTATIVE UNITARIANS.
Unitarians, like any other class of believers. can only be fairly judged by their united dec- laration of faith, and also by their truly repre- sentative and faithful men and women. These include many of the highest and best in the world's intelligence and action, such as several of the Fathers of our Republic, like Franklin, Madison and the Adamses : and also such edu- cators as Horace Mann, the founder of our com- mon school system: John Pounds, founder of Ragged Schools; Noah Worcester, founder of Peace Societies : such scientists as Darwin and Agassiz : such poets as Longfellow. Lowell. Bry- ant and Holmes: such historians as Prescott. Bancroft, Sparks and Parkman : such statesmen as Webster, Sumner. Morrill and Hoar: such philanthropists as Florence Nightengale. Dor- othy Dix and Clara Barton : such authors, sages and saints as the Channings ; as Emerson, Bel-
lows, James Freeman Clarke. Robert Collyer and Edward Everett Hale: such writers as Louisa May Alcott, author of "Little Women" : and such hymn writers as Julia Ward Howe. author of "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Sarah Flower Adams, author of "Nearer My God to Thee." and Sir John Bowring, author of "In the Cross of Christ I Glory."
Such characters are the best representa- tives of the Unitarian faith, name and move- ment.
THE BEGINNING AT LOG CHURCH !.
After graduating at Meadville. the begin- ning of my missionary work under the name U'nitarian, was at old Log Church, on the road a mile south of Middlesworth station and about a half mile from Jordan Chapel. Log Church was built by the Baptists. (Predestinarian) nearly 60 years ago, on a spot close to where Willis Manning now lives, three miles cast of Shelbyville, and when the survey of the railway (then called the Indianapolis and St. Louis line) was made. it ran against this meeting house. So the house was moved to the place above mentioned. It was built of great hewn logs, hav- ing enough timber in it. if sawed, for two or three houses of its size. (25 feet square.) After being removed. it was "weather-boarded." so that the logs could not be seen except on the inside. It became unfit for public meetings a dozen years ago, and is now serving as a stable on Mr. Jesse Barker's farm. By an unexpected turn. this Log Church came into hands favor- able to my mission, (one of the trustees being a Catholic), though the remnant of Baptists were still allowed to use it. Here my wife and I did our mission work for the years 1867-8-9. One Sunday morning-or rather afternoon
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-after two of the preachers had preached an hour and a half or two hours each, and had de- nounced Sunday schools, and new-fangled col- lege preachers (meaning me, largely), I arose, and announced a meeting the next Sunday for the organization of a Sunday school. The novel announcement created a sensation ; and there was a crowd on hand the next Sunday, mostly children of Irish laborers working on the rail- road, (now "Big Four"). We had a crowded Sunday school. Then my wife started a sub- scription school, and had a houseful, the greater number being Irish Catholic children. 1 held meetings every night for several weeks. The okl house was crammed and jammed and running over with people. But it could stand the pres- surc.
The crowd that gathered at the Sunday school hour did not all come from religious mo- tives. Sometimes a few of them came to settle quarrels that had begun at a dance or at the race. Once, in Sunday school, while I was ex- pounding the Beatitudes, a rough man who was fired with drink, rose, and said, "That's a - lie." Then he said he had come there to whip the abolition preacher and he was going to do it right away, and started toward me. But sev- eral stout Irish and American boys clinched him, held him fast and carried him to his horse. put him astride, and on his promise of good be- havior he was allowed to go his way. Then we. called all the scared and scattered crowd back to the church and "sang with the spirit and un- derstanding" the temperance song, one of a few we knew how to sing :
"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging."
My wife and 1. with our two older children, were then living in a little shanty about ten feet by twelve, which was afterward used as a hen house. We tried to live on what she carned by
teaching and by my cultivating a garden and 20 acres of land. The whole community, except the Catholics, were "dead set" against paying a preacher anything. They had always been taught by Baptist ("Hardshell") preachers that it was wrong to pay for preaching, and all the more so if the preacher was "eddicated" at a theological school, and a temperance "fanatic" who tried to interfere with divine decrees by teaching little children religion. A foreigner. however, who became a regular attendant at my meetings, came to me one day, and said : "I do not see how you live without any pay for your preaching. Come down to my house, and I will give you a little sweetening to help along." lle gave me a big jug of sorghum molasses. That was my first year's salary as a preacher in this mission. The next year I received $5 from the people to whom I preached. Then an old her- mit who hailed from Novia Scotia and who was inclined to scoff at religion said : "I find that since these meetings begun my chickens are not stolen so much, and life and limb are safer. 1 for one am willing to chip in to help keep the thing a-going." And so he headed a subscrip- tion with Sto and went with it to Shelbyville and got some more subscribed. Thus my third year's salary was increased to about $50. al- though my wife made much more even then raising chickens and turkeys, than I did preach- ing.
In the first year ( 1868) of my work at Log Church, I began to preach in Mattoon. At first the Methodist and Cumberland Presbyter- ian churches were kindly opened for me : and then the public halls. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Concord sage, gave me a labor of love in Union Hall, that city, on Sunday. Dec. 15. 1868, and on the following Sunday. Dec. 22 .- Forefathers' Day-Unity
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Church of Liberal Christians, Mattoon, was or- ganized.
During that period of work at Log Church I also preached at the school houses round about, tried to cultivate a little farm of 20 acres with fruit and grains, and edited a department in the Shelbyville Union, called "The Preaching Corner." This was, of course, purely a labor of love, but it required the best part of two days of each week for preparing copy, reading proof and going, on foot or horseback. to and from Shelbyville.
WITH THE LOCAL PRESS, ETC.
By the way, I may here say. I have been more or less a contributor to the local press most of the time for forty years, beginning as associate editor of the Shelby County Freeman. the first Free Soil or Republican paper started in this region of Illinois. Mr. E. F. Chittenden was editor-in-chief. That was in 1860-1. The Freeman did not live long. The Union was es- tablished in 1863 by John W. Johnson. He was a sort of Parson Brownlow editor, and a terror to "Copperheads." as the disloyal element was called, and his columns were always open for anything I wished to say. Several of my ser- mons on the war were published in the Union. In 1868 the late Capt. Park T. Martin, of Dan- ville, Illinois, became editor and. in part. pro- prietor of the Union, and invited me to edit "The Preaching Corner" of three columns, more or less. This I did for the year 1870; and I continued to contribute often to the local press. mostly the Union, until 1 started Our Best Words in 1880. With a few rare and conspicu- ous exceptions, I have always been treated with marked courtesy and even generosity by the editorial fraternity. The exceptions were dur-
ing the Civil war and in my first radical crusade against the saloon in politics, and the "treat- ing" custom of candidates for office. I will refer to this crusade later.
ORGANIZING UNITARIAN GATIONS.
CONGRE-
While regarding the church as the divinely ordained organ of inspiration for all good works, vet the main object of my mis- sion has not been to make proselytes and increase the membership of my congregation, so much as to quicken all souls into newness of life, urge men to be honest before God and man and to unite with all good people against all evil. and for more and better work for all mankind. And so, in the beginning of my mission. I had preached regularly at okl Salem school house, near the late Jacob Sittler's home, for a long time, when one of my audi- tors, the late Curtis Hornbeck, Esq., (father of Rev. Marcus Hornbeck. now a prominent Methodist minister.) said to me one day: "Brother Douthit, you are the queerest preacher I ever knew. Here you have been preaching for two years and never once given any of us a chance to join church. If you had. myself and wife and all my family would have joined. but now it would be a little awkward for us to do so, as we have joined another church." I took 'Squire Hornbeck's words as a just rebuke of my neglect, and a few Sundays thereafter I gave an opportunity for people to join church, and as a result a Congregation of Liberal Christians with eight members was organized. Sunday, June 1. 1868. at above named school house. Eller Jolin Ellis, named in another place, was present and assisted. This was the first Unitarian congrega- tion in this region of Illinois. Its covenant is
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in nearly the same words as one of the first churches organized in New England. That was at Salem, Mass .. in 1629. nearly 400 years ago, and that covenant was drawn up by the pastor. Rev. Francis Higginson, who was the ancestor of Col. T. W. Higginson, the Anti-Slavery Re- former and popular author of Boston.
Oak Grove Chapel was built jointly by U'ni- tarians and Christians. This was dedicated Sept. 20. 1870. Rev. Robert Collyer, of Unity Church, Chicago, preaching the sermon. Over sixty persons became members of this congregation. and there was a flourishing union Sunday school in the Chapel for several years. But the members were mostly young and poor people and early moved to other parts, and several died. Finally, in 1891. the bulk of the remain- ing members united in building Jordan Chapel. This was dedicated Sunday, July 24. 1802. Rev. John 11. Heywood of Louisville, Ky., preaching the sermon, and Rev. T. B. Forbush assisting. I am pleased to say that the Disciples of Christ. or "Christian" brethren, hold regular Sunday services and are doing good work now at Oak Grove Chapel; and their church door is wide enough to admit all sincere followers of Christ except in one particular : you cannot go in, un- less you go under water.
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