USA > North Carolina > Lives of the bishops of North Carolina from the establishment of the episcopate in that state down to the division of the diocese > Part 14
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the battles of the Confederacy. Nor did laymen alone take up the sword, for one great Bishop, Leonidas Polk of Louisiana, a native North Carolinian of heroic Revolutionary lineage, yielded to the pressure of the times and reluctantly laid aside pastoral staff to accept the command of an army corps raised to fight the invaders-later being killed at Pine Mountain. Several other Southern Bishops passed away more peacefully during the progress of hostilities-Cobbs of Alabama, Meade of Virginia, and Otey of Tennessee, all being taken at a time when their wise counsels were sorely needed.
In North Carolina much damage was done to Church prop- erty, nor were the clergymen themselves exempt from personal indignities. The Reverend William R. Wetmore was ejected from Christ Church in New Bern, and a Chaplain from the Federal Army placed in his pulpit. Grace Church in Plymouth was three times struck by shells and badly damaged during a bomb- ardment. Saint Peter's Church in Washington, Beaufort County, was burned; while Saint James's Church in Wilming- ton, and other houses of worship throughout the State, were taken possession of for Federal hospitals.
Toward the close of the war, Bishop Atkinson's family had been removed by him to Wadesboro, in Anson County, as it was thought to be a safer neighborhood than the vicinity of Wil- mington. Upon the advance of some of Sherman's marauders toward that village, the Bishop-being a non-combatant-de- cided to remain, thinking his age and sacred office would be some protection. In this he was mistaken, however; for one of the soldiers held a pistol at his head, while the others robbed his home of such possessions as could be carried away. Alluding to this matter later, the Bishop said: "While I do not affect to be indifferent, either to the outrage or to the loss I have sustained, I felt at the time, and still feel, that it is a weighty counter- balancing consideration that, partaking of the evils which the people of my charge have been called upon to undergo, I could more truly and deeply sympathize with them in their suffer- ings."
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Never was there greater need for the people to pray for de- liverance from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death, than at the time when the War Between the States was in progress-yet even then the energies of the Church were by no means paralyzed. Houses of worship were dedicated, the clergymen pursued their labors without murmuring at privations which were the common lot of all, and the Bishop went on his visitations to the congregations throughout the Diocese. In passing through Scotland Neck, in Halifax County, where the principal crop could not be marketed on account of the war, Bishop Atkinson asked whether the con- gregation of Trinity Church, in view of their reverses, would be able to raise the usual contributions to missions and the amount necessary for the support of the parish, and received the answer that their contributions to the Church would be increased, be- cause there was greater need for them. One lady of that parish, Mrs. Martha Clark, hearing that the Church's educational inter- ests were suffering for lack of funds, sent two thousand dollars to the Bishop to aid the work. Josiah Collins gave a thousand dollars to finish the Church in Plymouth. The debt on Saint Peter's Church in Charlotte had borne heavily on the congrega- tion of that parish, and it was feared that it would be several years, at least, before it could be discharged, when one member, Captain John Wilkes, paid off the entire encumbrance and thus enabled the Bishop to proceed with its consecration. These and hundreds of other contributions, smaller in amount, but large in proportion to the means of the givers, were received by the Church during the terrible ordeal of war through which she was passing, and enabled her to retain life until the coming of better times.
Peace came to the land at last, and with it came many perplex- ing problems and responsibilities-problems requiring ecclesias- tical wisdom and Christian forbearance, coupled with that self- respect which compels respect from others. If re-union could be arranged with the dioceses throughout the United States on
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terms honorable to both sides, the Southern Church was ready to rejoin the Northern dioceses; on the other hand, if the North had waited for the Southern dioceses to come back as prodigals, it would still be waiting-and it is greatly to the honor of both sections that the American Church is now undivided. Nor was the Southern Church in any way at the mercy of outsiders, as the American Church had been at the close of the Revolution, for it had a valid Episcopate within its own borders. It was not altogether unlike the Church of England at the time of the Reformation-many of the same Bishops being in office both before and after the change took place, and able to transmit their powers to successors in the Episcopate. This was the status of affairs at the close of the War between the States.
As to the war which had just closed, Southern Churchmen, as a class, had more cause to be embittered than was the case with members of religious denominations which had no liturgy con- taining a prayer for the President of the Confederate States. When Portsmouth, Virginia, was occupied by United States forces under General Benjamin F. Butler, the Reverend John H. D. Wingfield, afterwards Bishop of Northern California, was sent to the chain-gang, and there clad in the garb of a convict, because he would not pray for the President of the United. States when ordered to do so by the military authorities. At a somewhat earlier date, Butler's "exploits as an ecclesiastical dis- ciplinarian" had also been performed in New Orleans, when (among other acts in keeping with his character) he caused the Rectors of three Churches in that city to be arrested and sent North for likewise neglecting this prayer for the President of the United States. In North Carolina, the Reverend Cyrus Waters was imprisoned by some subaltern authorities in the United States Army during the war, "not on the ground that he had committed any offense, but to deter others from offending." Upon hearing of this case, the post commander at New Bern, General Palmer, ordered his release, but the cold contracted in prison soon developed into consumption, and Mr. Waters died
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from its effects, two years after the return of peace, in his native State of Maryland. In Alabama, just after the war, when Bishop Wilmer would not obey orders which warned him not to omit the prayer for the President, every house of worship in his Diocese was closed and guarded, by direction of General George H. Thomas, who issued an order that "the said Richard Hooker Wilmer, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Dio- cese of Alabama, and the Protestant Episcopal clergy of the said Diocese, be, and they are, hereby suspended from their functions, and forbidden to preach or perform divine service." Considering its source, this is probably the most remarkable de- cree of its kind ever framed in America-a sentence of deposi- tion passed upon a Bishop of the Church and all of his clergy by an officer of the United States Army! This absurd order was later set aside by the authorities in Washington; and, when left undisturbed by military interposition, Bishop Wilmer volun- tarily resumed the use of the prayer which he had declined to have forced down his throat by military power. During this controversy, one weak-kneed clergyman in Alabama offered to use this prayer "under protest" if his church were allowed to remain open. Well might Bishop Wilmer ask (as he did) how much the President would be benefited by "prayers offered under protest." The recollection of these, and other wrongs which they had suffered, was not calculated to put Churchmen at the South in a very amiable frame of mind at the close of the war. yet they remembered that the injuries done their Church and clergy had come from military sources and not through any decrees by councils of the Church in the Northern States. For- tunately for the cause of Church re-union after the war, many warm friendships, formed between the various Bishops from both sections in ante-bellum days, still existed. Only one Gen- eral Convention in the North had been held during the war (New York, October 1st-17th, 1862), and, in that body, the roll- call of the House of Deputies had begun, as of old, with "Ala- bama," first on the alphabetical list. So far as the Journals of
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the two Houses showed, one might almost suppose that the Southern Bishops and deputies had been delayed by late trains or some other commonplace cause, and were hourly expected to appear and take their seats. The first General Convention, after the war, met in Saint Andrew's Church, Philadelphia, October 4th-24th, 1865. Prior to its assembling, the Right Reverend John Henry Hopkins, of Vermont, Presiding Bishop (with the approbation of his Northern colleagues) had addressed a letter to the Southern Bishops, urging them to come and resume their places, and to see that their dioceses were represented in the House of Deputies. The North Carolina Diocesan Convention passed a resolution favoring this re-union if it could be obtained upon honorable terms. In response to Bishop Hopkins's invita- tion, Bishop Atkinson and Bishop Lay proceeded to Philadel- phia, their chief purpose being to confer informally with the members of the Convention and ascertain whether objectionable conditions would be imposed upon the South as pre-requisites to re-union. The two Southerners took their seats in the body of the Church at the opening of the Convention; and, when their presence was observed they were immediately invited to join the other Bishops within the chancel-but this invitation they felt it proper to decline. After the services, they were warmly greeted by many of their brother Bishops, who assured them of con- siderate treatment and a friendly reception, and prevailed upon them to take their seats. On questions involved in the action of the Church in the Confederacy, Bishops Atkinson and Lay asked to be excused from voting, being determined to let the responsibility rest with those who represented the Church in the North. After reviewing the case of Bishop Wilmer, the House of Bishops held that his consecration was valid, though some- what irregular in preliminaries (such as not obtaining consent of the required number of Bishops throughout the United States), and decided that he should be admitted to a seat in the House of Bishops after subscribing the usual declaration. Bishop Lay's own case might have raised a perplexing question,
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but for his own sensible action. Before the war, he had been Missionary Bishop of the South-west, which Jurisdiction in- cluded Arkansas. Under the authority of the Confederate Church. Arkansas had been severed from that part of the Missionary Jurisdiction not embraced within the Southern Confederacy, and erected into a separate Diocese with Doctor Lay as Dio- cesan Bishop. Yet, on the rolls of the Church in the United States, he was still recorded as Missionary Bishop of the South- west. The General Convention stood ready to recognize Arkan- sas as a Diocese, but Bishop Lay stated, in effect, that this newly created diocese had been swept away by the war-that two priests, without parishes and laboring in secular callings for a livelihood, were all that remained of his clergy, while no lay delegates could be gathered together ; hence it was impossible for even the semblance of a diocesan convention to assemble in Arkansas to consider the situation. Under these circum- stances, he thought the only course open was for the State of Arkansas to be made a Missionary Jurisdiction. This action, he declared, would be no reflection upon the Church in the late Confederacy, since the General Convention had expressed its willingness to recognize him as Diocesan Bishop of Arkansas. He was accordingly made Missionary Bishop of Arkansas ; and, some years later, became Bishop of the Diocese of Easton, which is that part of the State of Maryland east of Chesapeake Bay. One of Bishop Lay's sons, the Reverend George W. Lay, is now a clergyman in the Diocese of North Carolina, being Rector of Saint Mary's School at Raleigh.
This General Convention of 1865, at Philadelphia, however, was not an uninterrupted love-feast. Several resolutions were offered which came perilously near causing a permanent division of the Church. Of these matters, and Bishop Atkinson's action thereon, we find a full account in the History of the American Episcopal Church, by the Reverend Samuel D. McConnell, D. D. That writer says :
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"The harmony came near being destroyed by an unexpected means. The House of Bishops proposed a thanksgiving service for 'the resto- ration of peace and the re-establishment of the National Government over the whole land.' The Bishop of North Carolina protested that his people could not say that. They acquiesced in the result of the war, and would accommodate themselves to it like good citizens; but they were not thankful. They had prayed that the issue might have been different. They were ready to 'return thanks for peace to the country, and unity to the Church,' but that was a different matter. Bishop Stevens of Pennsylvania moved to substitute the Southern man's words for the ones in the resolution offered. His motion was carried by sixteen to seven. When the amended resolution was offered in the House of Deputies, Horace Binney of Pennsylvania moved to restore the original phrase giving thanks 'for the re-establishment of the National Government over the whole land,' and to add to it 'and for the removal of the great occasion of national dissension and estrangement to which our late troubles were due' (referring to slavery ). A storm of discussion at once arose, both within and without the Convention. The secular press of the country took up the matter ; declared that the loyalty of the Church itself was upon trial; that it dare not refuse to pass Mr. Binney's patriotic resolution ; that too much tenderness had already been shown to 'unreconstructed rebels.' Dr. Ker- foot, President of Trinity College, came to the rescue. He had been. all through the war, a Union man in a place where his loyalty had cost him something. His college [Saint James] in Maryland had been well-nigh destroyed. He had tended the wounded at Antietam and South Mountain, battles fought at his very door. He had been seized a prisoner by General Early's order. His goods had been destroyed by the Confederate soldiery. He, if any one, had the right to speak. His own loyalty was beyond all question. He begged the Convention to remember that it had itself invited and urged the Southern dele- gates to come; that the place to celebrate the triumph of Northern arms was outside of the Church; that not only the present but the future peace of the Church was at stake; that if the Church should be led by its passions now, future unity would be impossible; that 'their thanksgiving for unity and peace should ascend to the throne of God in such a form that all could honestly join in it.' His wise and earnest argument prevailed. By a vote of twenty dioceses to six, Mr. Binney's amendment was defeated, and the House of Bishops' more generous terms were carried. This action settled the question of reunion. The Southern Church met once more in Augusta, closed out its affairs decently, and was no more."
In reporting his attendance upon the General Convention of 1865 to his Diocesan Convention of 1866 Bishop Atkinson said that he learned (while in Philadelphia) that if no South-
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ern Bishops and deputies had there presented themselves, there would either have been no re-union of the Church, or it would have been accomplished upon terms altogether distasteful, and not very creditable to the South. Of the final outcome of the deliberations at Philadelphia, he said: "This most auspicious result must, under God, be ascribed mainly to the truly Chris- tian and magnanimous spirit displayed by the great body of the Bishops and other Delegates from the Northern Dioceses who attended that Convention. All of them had to expose them- selves to prejudice, and some of them to the danger of actual privation and penury for venturing to do their duty in that crisis of the history of the Church. But none of these things moved them, and they went forward and acted as became Bishops and ministers and members of the Church of God. who must give an account to Him for what they did; and, under His blessing, the result has been that none, so far as I have heard, has suffered. And the character and position of the Church have been immeasurably exalted in the eyes of the people." When another triennial General Convention assembled (in the year 1868), every Southern Bishop was in his place and harmony again prevailed in the national councils of the Church.
In the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies at the General Convention of 1865, North Carolina was well represented, only one lay deputy (Colonel Robert Strange) failing to attend. Those present were the Reverend Doctors Richard S. Mason, Joseph Blount Cheshire, Sr., Fordyce M. Hubbard, and William Hodges, of the clergy; and Judge William H. Battle, Mr. Richard H. Smith, and Doctor Kemp P. Battle, of the laity.
For the part they had taken in the General Convention of 1865, Bishops Atkinson and Lay received a letter of congratu- lation from General Robert E. Lee, in which that incomparable soldier and devout Churchman highly commended the wisdom of their course. For many years General Lee and Bishop Atkinson were close personal friends.
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From February till November, 1865, Bishop Lay and his family lived at Lincolnton, North Carolina; and, while there, he sometimes administered the rite of confirmation in the sur- rounding country, at the request of Bishop Atkinson, in addi- tion to performing other offices in connection with the sacred ministry.
During the month of October, 1865, in the lawless and de- moralized period immediately succeeding the war, the Church lost one of its most zealous and highly esteemed clergymen under circumstances peculiarly shocking. The Reverend Rob- ert A. Castleman, Rector of Saint Mark's Church in the town of Halifax, was then living at Gaston, in Halifax County, and went to take tea with one of his friends in the neighboring vil- lage of Summit, which was within walking distance of his home. Late in the evening he said good-night to his host, and was never again seen alive by any of his friends. His family becoming alarmed in the morning, a search was instituted, and his body was found dead from the effects of a bullet fired at such close range that the powder had scorched his clothing. Strict investigation failed to reveal the identity of his assassin, who, as Bishop Atkinson said, "either bore him a grudge- the existence of which he himself did not suspect-or who mis- took him for another person." The latter presumption seems more likely true, as a contemporaneous newspaper account of the tragedy, in speaking of Mr. Castleman, stated that he "was universally beloved in his section, had no enemies, and certainly no one could have slain him for the purpose of robbery."
The honorable re-union of the dioceses which had been tempo- rarily separated by the war was a source of great joy to Bishop Atkinson. Just before the General Convention of 1865, when referring to the probable result of permanent separation, he declared : "Rival congregations will be established in the same town, altar will be set up against altar, and preacher inveigh against preacher, until, instead of the Church being as hereto- fore, the refuge of those who love peace and prefer religious
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instruction and exhortation to political harangues, it will be- come a den of controversy and a fomenter of political passion. Similar results may be expected, in some degree, at the North, especially in the border States and the great cities; for, in these, congregations with Southern sympathies, might well be organ- ized. Let us, then, endeavor to forecast the future as well as we can, for we are not deciding any ephemeral question. The conclusion to which we shall now come is one in which our chil- dren and our children's children have a deep interest as well as ourselves." In this same address, the Bishop said: "During the war, language was undoubtedly used by ministers and mem- bers of the Church at the North which appeared to us justly liable to exception ; but no act has been done by the Church, as a body, of which we can complain." Indeed, the Church as a body, church societies, and church members, in more favored sections of the Union, were neither unmindful nor neglectful of the impoverished Southern parishes after the war, and it is a pleasure to record here their generosity-especially in view of the fact that truth has already impelled us to tell of so many wrongs coming from political and military sources. In 1866. Bishop Atkinson acknowledged the receipt of twelve hundred dollars from the Committee on Domestic Missions; seven hun- dred dollars from Church members in Louisville, Kentucky; one hundred and fifty dollars from persons in Maryland; two hundred and fifty dollars from the Bureau of Relief; a box of clothing, for the destitute, from Cooperstown, New York, and another box from the parish of the Reverend James A. Buck, in Maryland; also gifts of many Bibles and Prayer Books from the Bishop White Prayer Book Society of Philadelphia, and the New York Bible and Prayer Book Society. Besides these donations to the Church, Bishop Atkinson mentioned that he had personally received many tokens of affection, in the shape of gifts, from his former parishioners in Baltimore. In 1867, a friend of the Bishop's in Boston (who wished his name with- held) sent a hundred dollars for the relief of destatute persons
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in the Diocese of North Carolina; a society of ladies in New York sent four hundred dollars; for the relief of the poor of Wilmington, irrespective of creed, the sum of eight hundred dollars was sent to the Bishop from St. Louis, Missouri; one hundred and thirty-five dollars came from the congregation of the Reverend Mr. Fuller, in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, through Bishop Kerfoot; and one hundred and seventy-eight dollars from the congregation of the Reverend Doctor Eames at Con- cord, New Hampshire. In 1867, reference was made by the Bishop to gifts (for diocesan uses) from Grace Church, in Baltimore, amounting to three hundred dollars; and two hun- dred and fifty dollars came from a North Carolina lady residing in the same city; fifty dollars was given by the congregation of the Reverend Doctor Doane, in Albany, New York; and upwards of five hundred dollars (through Bishop Horatio Pot- ter) was donated by an association of gentlemen in the Diocese of New York. In 1870, gifts were acknowledged including ten shares of railroad stock from John H. Swift, of New York; three thousand dollars from the estate of Caleb Dorsey, of How- ard County, Maryland; nearly six hundred dollars from the congregation of Grace Church in Baltimore for Ravenscroft School at Asheville; and three hundred dollars, by bequest, from Miss Charlotte Hicks, of Michigan, who had died in North Carolina and from whose estate the Bishop said that about twenty-five hundred dollars would later be paid to the Diocese. These, and many unrecorded gifts in that time, as well as in later years, materially aided the work of the Church, and also did much to allay the fire of sectional bitterness; for, though a large part of the above amounts were sent by Southerners in Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and other border States, the sums of money which came from more northern localities were by no means inconsiderable. Nor were these gifts from outside confined to the Episcopal Church, for other Chris- tian bodies and the poor of all religious beliefs profited by similar liberality. That uncompromising old Confederate and
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Calvinist, General Daniel Harvey Hill, when addressing a Baltimore audience some years after the war and alluding to the generosity formerly displayed by residents of that place toward more Southern localities, said: "It was at this time, when our whole people were shrouded with a pall of gloom and anguish, and absolute starvation was imminent in many places, that the generous heart of your city throbbed with one simul- taneous pulsation of pity. Then both sexes, all classes and conditions, friends and foes alike, forgetting political and sec- tional differences, vied with one another in sending relief to the afflicted South. In the name of my countrymen, thus rescued from despair and death, I invoke the blessings of Almighty God upon the heads of their deliverers, whatever be their religious creed or political faith; whatever be the skies of their nativity, or their opinion of the righteousness or unrighteousness of the Southern cause."
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