USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Lodge no. 61, F. and A. M., Wilkesbarr?, Pa. with a collection of masonic addresses > Part 35
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Philadelphia, John Sergeant, I brought forward a resolution asking for information at the Treasury Department, having reference to the subject; so drawn that the answer should present striking facts in a narrow compass, so that everybody might read and comprehend in a minute the view I wished to present. That so simple a request for in- formation should have been debated several days, rejected, and then revived, will show the degree of sensation it produced. Finally adopt- ed, the information came-and, without detracting from the merits of other gentlemen, I may say, that any one who will look to the resolu- tion, and the reply thereto, will have no difficulty in according to my efforts some small portion of the credit of accomplishing that most desirable object."
In the subject of slavery Mr. Miner took a deep interest, laboring diligently in behalf of rational measures for its melio- ration, when to touch the subject was to meet the frowns and censures of all the Southern and many of the Northern members, and demanded a moral courage that few possessed in that day. He introduced a bill for the suppression of the slave trade and slavery in the District of Columbia-or at l'east to diminish the wrongs and outrages perpetrated at the Federal capital. He procured the signatures of a majority of the property owners of the District to a memorial in favor of the bill, and with this in his hand he advocated the meas- ure in an able speech in the House of Representives, Jan- uary 6th and 7th, 1829, contrary to the wishes and advice of timid friends. He failed in these attempts, but happily lived to see a consummation far surpassing his most san- guine expectations-the abolition of slavery, not only in the District of Columbia, but in all the States and Territories of the Union !
It was he who awakened the attention of the country to the silk growing business. He drew and introduced the first resolution upon the subject, and wrote the able report which was introduced by Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer as chairman of the Committee on Agriculture.
At the end of his service in Congress Mr. Miner returned
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to West Chester, and continued to edit The Village Record. (He had been joined by his brother in 1825, and from that year the Record was edited and published by Asher and Charles Miner.)
In 1832 Mr. Miner determined, on account of his deaf- ness and increasing age, to return to the Valley where his literary career had been begun, in the midst of the beauti- ful scenery and quiet people of which he had plumed his wing for a loftier flight, and where he had ever hoped to pass the evening of his days in rest and prosperity. Here then he came, laying aside editorial honors and political prefer- aments, at the age of fifty-two years. He was followed by his brother Asher in 1834-The Village Record having been sold to Henry S. Evans, who had been an apprentice and then an employé in the office, and had secured the confi- dence of his employers to such an extent that he was invited to purchase the establishment and left to earn the money and make payments at his convenience. A confidence well placed, since the Record was published for many years by Mr. Evans, and after his death by his sons.
Mr. Miner took up his residence on a farm which his wife had inherited from her father, and which was situated in Wilkesbarré township, about two miles north-east of the borough of Wilkesbarré, in what is now the borough of Miner's Mills. He called his new home "Retreat." Much excluded from society by local position, he sought relax- ation from labor on his farm, with more than usual pleasure, in his books.
In December, 1835, he paid a visit to West Chester, when the young men of the place, without regard to party dis- tinctions, anxious to testify their respect for him, tendered him a dinner at Everhart's hotel. Joseph Hemphill, Jr., presided at the dinner, and John H. Brinton and John T. Denny were Vice Presidents. Among the large number present were Washington Townsend, N. Strickland, John
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Rutter, David Meconkey, Henry S. Evans, Wm. P. Sharp- less, and U. V. Pennypacker. After dinner the chairman proposed the following toast, which was responded to by Mr. Miner in a long and interesting speech : "Our Guest, the Hon. CHARLES MINER-as a public man, we hail him for his services in promoting the interests and happiness of our beloved country ; as a private citizen, we thank him for the example of his virtues ; and he has our warmest wishes that his future years may be as happy as his past life has been useful and honorable."
But even in retirement Mr. Miner's busy mind must find something to work upon, and his ready pen some object upon which to expend its energies. This was found in earn- est efforts-begun in 1833-to obtain "all the facts which obliterating Time and relentless Death had spared, relating to the history of Wyoming." During the next two or three years he visited and conversed with "thirty or forty of the ancient people who were here at the time of the expulsion," and he carefully examined and studied all accessible and available records and documents-written and printed-re- lating to Wyoming. The earliest results of his diligent and painstaking efforts were incorporated in "The Hazleton Travelers," a series of historical and biographical sketches, in which the author introduces two gentlemen of Hazleton, Luzerne county, traveling through Wyoming. One, per- fectly acquainted with the valley, its people and history ; the other, eager to learn everything that concerned them. These sketches were written for The Wyoming Republican and Farmers' Herald, Kingston, and the first ones appeared in 1837. Their publication ceased in the Summer of 1838, but in December following was continued-with the following preface :
"The writer of 'The Hazleton Travelers' presents his respects to the public, and begs leave to say * * that what was first intended as a few brief portraitures, has grown under his hand insensibly to many
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columns. The interest taken in his sketches, at home and abroad, together with a wish to rescue from oblivion events which have been disclosed to his researches, lead him to resume his pen."
The sketches contained, in a series of familiar conversa- tions, many vivid pictures of the adventures, sufferings, and characters of the old settlers of the Valley ; and they were subsequently utilized by Mr. Miner in preparing for the press his "History of Wyoming," published in 1845. This history was the last great effort of his life, and it was well done. The book was written at the request of many interested friends, who knew how great his knowledge was of the progress of events in the Valley, how intimate his acquaint- ance with the survivors of the massacre of 1778, and of the civil conflicts of 1782-'6. On the eve of the publication of the book Mr. Miner wrote concerning it :
"Then again, and with reason, have I dreaded censure, lest I should be regarded as prejudiced and partial. I plead guilty ! My honest purpose was to have been strictly impartial in coloring as well as in fact. But a Yankee, and an Intruder-having resided seventeen years in Wyoming-courted and wedded there-sent early to the As- sembly-petted by her rude and hardy woodmen, like a spoiled child -how could I help it if affection led me, or misled me, to view their cause with partial favor? In truth, no one who did not make it a labor of love, ever could or would have taken the pains I have done to gather the materials of which my history is composed ; and the facts, according to the best of my knowledge, are accurately stated. * But would I do injustice to Pennsylvania ? Heaven forbid !"
The history has always been considered authentic and re- liable. Having been out of print for over fifty years it is now a rare and valuable book.
During a period of twenty or more years following his return to Wyoming, Mr. Miner was often called upon to de- liver public addresses before various bodies and organiza- tions. In October, 1839, he delivered a very interesting ad- dress in Wilkesbarré upon the occasion of the Centennial celebration of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In the
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course of the address he made the following remarks rela- tive to himself :
"Though several of my family, I am happy to say, are members of the Methodist Church, for my own part I claim connection (would to Heaven I was worthy that connection should be nearer !) with another persuasion. Educated by parents who belonged to the Presbyterian Church, in their pious arms I was presented at the baptismal font, under the ministry of the Rev. Joseph Strong. All my recollections of that venerable man are associated with feelings of the most devoted respect and affection. Not merely his instructions from the pulpit do I remember, but his pleasant recognition-'the good man's smile'- his gentle admonition. The indelible impressions made on my youth- ful mind by our beloved pastor, if they have not kept me wholly free from evil, have never ceased to cheer me when my path was right, and warned me from error with a parent's tenderness when crossed by temptation."
A portion of the address was devoted to the claims of the superannuated ministers of the Church, and Mr. Miner made an earnest plea in their behalf, and supplemented it with a liberal donation of money to the fund being raised for their aid. He said, in closing :
" Surely, surely, if there is on earth an object of affection and re- spect next to that of our own parents, it is the poor, superannuated minister of the gospel. Who for his relief would give grudgingly ? What generous heart, in such cause, would not deem it a pleasure to contribute ?"
In 1839 Gen. William Ross, Capt. Hezekiah Parsons, and Charles Miner, all natives of Connecticut, but inhabi- tants of Wyoming, were delegated by their fellow citizens to visit the General Assembly of Connecticut, to solicit an appropriation of $3000 to complete the monument, which had been begun at Mr. Miner's suggestion in 1833 at Wyo- ming, to the memory of the brave men who perished in the battle and massacre of July 3d, 1778. Mr. Miner was the author of the plea delivered before the Legislature, and the case was ably presented to, and enforced upon, that body, but without success, by the gentlemen named above, who
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journeyed to Hartford at their own expense. The towns of Wyoming during the whole of the War of the Revolution, though not exactly an integral part of Connecticut, yet as much belonged to that State as did New London, Norwalk, Danbury, or Fairfield. These towns, which were burned and desolated by the enemy, received remuneration from the State. But neither of them suffered the horrors of Wyo- ming ; and although Wyoming contributed her full propor- tion of revenue to the treasury of the State, and raised a goodly number of the 'Connecticut Line,' and poured out her best blood like water, yet of compensation she never received a dollar. And when she appealed for a few thou- sand dollars to perpetuate the remembrance of the martyrs who bled, and of the cause in which they fell, it was a burn- ing shame-a disgrace which every son of Connecticut should forever feel-to have the petition denied.
May 6th, 1854, Mr. Miner wrote to Judge Conyngham of Wilkesbarré :
"I am no Abolitionist in the party acceptation of that term. I pro- tested against Garrison and Benny Lundy going into Maryland to publish an Abolition paper. What I did in Congress was sustained by sixteen slaveholders, and was fully endorsed by Judge Cranch, Judge Morsel, and more than one thousand property holders in the District, in a beautiful petition to abolish both the slave trade and slavery itself there. My humble efforts are directed to emancipate and protect the white race. * * * In the twenty exciting years I have been here I do not remember having written a word on the subject till now."
Two years later Mr. Miner published his views on the subject of slavery, in a little book entitled "The Olive Branch; or, the Evil and the Remedy." The book was an 8vo of 35 pages, and was issued by T. K. and P. G. Collins, of Philadelphia. It was dedicated to " Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the United States, and to his Associate Justices," and comprised an introductory address and several letters. The following paragraphs are from the book :
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"The introductory address, delivered at West Chester, Pa., at a cel- ebration July 4th, 1821, immediately succeeding the excitement grow- ing out of the admission of Missouri, is republished, to show the sen- timents of the author then, which he has ever sincerely cherished, without variableness or shadow of turning, and as giving him some claim to a dispassionate hearing at the West and South on the deli- cate and exciting question of slavery.
"He may be permitted to add, with pride, that the late Chief Justice Marshall caused the publication of the address in a Richmond paper, with a commendatory introduction ; and, among other numerous testi- monials of approval, he received a flattering notice from the then President of Princeton College, to whom he was personally a stranger. * *
* I hold that slavery is recognized by the Constitution. That there are certain concessions made to it in that instrument inalienably obligatory, except with the consent of the States where it exists. That slavery being at variance with natural law it cannot be established de novo anywhere, and can have no existence, rightfully, where it does not now exist. That at the time of the framing of the Constitution slavery was universally regarded as an evil present existing, to be kept within well-understood bounds. * * * * My proposition, sub- * mitted with all due deference, is this: That $100,000,000 be appro- priated for the gradual but certain extinguishment of slavery in the seven States-Delaware, Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas. This money to be apportioned among the States named, or either of them which shall pass laws, in the nature of irrevocable contracts with the Federal Government that no person born on or after July 4th, 1876, shall be a slave ; and that after that day slavery shall cease to exist within the limits of the same, respectively."
The following letter, written about two weeks after the execution in Virginia of John Brown and his followers, re- lates somewhat to the subjects discussed in "The Olive Branch," and may be appropriately introduced here :
" 'RETREAT,' Decr. 18th, 1859.
"Eli K. Price, Esq., Your remarks [at the Union meet- ing in Philadelphia] I read with unqualified approval. The value of the Union is inappreciable to the South, to the Centre, and the North. Here, over the mountains in Luzerne, we have 10,000 voters. I do not believe there is one-I never heard of one-so wicked and foolish as to wish the Union dissolved.
"Several years ago when Chester Butler was our Representative, and
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the so often recurring war-cry of Dissolution was raised, I was fright- ened-absolutely scared-and I wrote to him, 'The cry of Disunion sounds like the rattling terrors of the vengeful snake, and for Heaven's sake put it down at any sacrifice !' The present threat has not alarmed me the least. The act of violence and treason of old crazy Brown, has alarmed and distressed me. I said at once, 'The man is crazy !' The means were so totally and palpably inadequate to the proposed end ; they showed as complete an aberration of the reasoning faculty, as the simpleton that should attempt to upset the Blue Mountain with a straw. Mr. Buchanan, I think, met the crisis with propriety and dignity.
"I cannot join in the compliment to Governor Wise. Perhaps the keen sarcasm of The Charleston Mercury, and the still keener of ex- Senator Clemens on the 'mighty fuss,' may have misled me. Nor have I any notion of sympathy with old Brown, Cook, or any of the gang. I said at once, 'Nonsense of his sincerity.' I have no idea of a fellow going into a community scattering fire-brands, firing a maga- zine, or stirring up a servile war and crying, 'I am a philanthropist ! I go by the Bible !' "
In September, 1859, the 200th anniversary of the settle- ment of Norwich, Conn. (Mr. Miner's native town), was cele- brated. A special invitation was sent to him to attend and take part in the exercises. He was unable to do so, but in- stead sent a long letter filled with interesting reminiscences, in which he ran over the scenes of his childhood, and en- deavored to sketch "Norwich up-town, the plain, and round the square," as memory recalled it, seventy years before. The letter is printed in full in the "Jubilee Book." Apropos of the jubilee he wrote for The Record of the Times of Wilkesbarré the following :
"An hundred Norwich people sleep on the plains of old Westmore- land [Wyoming]. A thousand of their descendants live in the limits (as first constituted) of Luzerne. Capt. Robert Durkee and Capt. Rezin Geer (bold 'Bean-Hill' men) rest on the battle-field. In our Wilkesbarré grave-yard repose Colt, Robinson, Beaumont, Tracy, Miner, Chapman, Trott, Brown, Adgate, and others from 'Up-town.'
Not incurious-in Norwich earliest history three names are honor- ably mentioned as having sailed in a canoe from Saybrook, and re-
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lieved Uncas besieged by the Pequots. Leffingwell, Tracy, Miner- descendants of all three mingle their ashes in our borough ceme- teries."
In his literary work Mr. Miner did not restrict himself to writing prose, but, like his friend President Adams, some- times soared into the realms of poetry. Probably the most popular and best known of his poetical effusions was the commemorative ballad entitled "James Bird," written in 1814, and beginning,
"Sons of Freedom, listen to me, And ye daughters too give ear ; You, a sad and mournful story As was ever told, shall hear."
James Bird, a native of Pittston, Luzerne county, was a private in the Wyoming Volunteer Matross, of Kingston, attached to Colonel Hill's Regiment of Pennsylvania Ar- tillery, in the War of 1812 *. Bird was a patriot, and a man of great courage. In the battle of Lake Erie he was on board the Niagara, where he fought like a tiger, and being severely wounded, was ordered by Commodore Perry to leave the deck.
"'No,' cried Bird, 'I will not go. Here on deck I took my station ; Ne'er will Bird his colors fly ; I'll stand by you, gallant Captain, Till we conquer or we die !' "
For his bravery Bird was promoted Orderly Sergeant of Marines, on the Niagara. Shortly afterwards, Perry having been ordered to the seaboard to take command of a frigate, Bird, wearied with rolling listlessly on the lake-fondly at- tached to his commander-his ardent spirit all on fire to share the dangers and glory in the new cruise on the ocean -deserted, not his country's cause, but to place himself
* See page 335, ante.
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under Perry's command. He was arrested at Pittsburg, tried by a court-martial for desertion, and sentenced to be shot. Had Commodore Perry received intelligence of the proceedings in time, Bird's life would have been spared ; but, although he prayed for time to lay his case before Perry, it was denied him.
"Sad and gloomy was the morning Bird was ordered out to die ; Where's the breast not dead to pity, But for him will heave a sigh ?
See ! he kneels upon his coffin ! Sure his death can do no good ; Spare him ! Hark, oh God they've shot him ! Oh ! his bosom streams with blood !"
That this ballad kept its place in the public recollection for at least forty years is no doubtful compliment. The editions that were published were almost innumerable. Many years after the ballad was first published Mr. Miner, passing along the streets of a village more than a hundred miles from Wyoming-where he was nearly a stranger-was attracted by a voice singing to a crowd gathered around a window. Said Mr. Miner afterwards, "May I confess the pleasure I felt when 'O he fought so brave at Erie,' struck my ear ?" In 1853 Mr. Miner, in speaking of the ballad, said : "A year or two ago, picking up an old worn song- book printed in New York, behold 'James Bird,' sadly mutilated, occupied its page."
At a meeting of LODGE 61 held on Christmas eve, 1801, the following petition was received and read :
"To the Worshipful Master, and Members of the Lodge of Free Ma- sons in Wilkesbarre.
"The subscriber, having a desire to become a brother of your frater- nity, takes this opportunity of soliciting admission as such-the grant- ing of which will be considered as a favour conferred on
" Your friend, CHARLES MINER."
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The petition was immediately acted upon, and Mr. Miner received his first degree in Free Masonry the same night- he being then not quite twenty-two years of age.
In 1804, and again in 1811, he was Junior Warden of the Lodge; Senior Warden in 1805 and 1812, and Worshipful Master from December, 1805, to December, 1807.
Having removed to West Chester he withdrew from the Lodge April 21st, 1820; and February 9th, 1822, was ad- mitted to membership in Lodge No. 50,* West Chester. Upon his return to the Wyoming Valley in 1832 he did not reconnect himself with LODGE 61, though he continued always solicitous for its welfare and prosperity, and often attended its meetings.
From the time when he was "brought to light," until that time when the powers of Nature failed, and he sank tran- quilly into his last sleep, he was a faithful and zealous Free Mason. Sensitively alive to the interests and reputation of the Fraternity, he defended it with his best abilities, and he mourned when the misconduct of an individual Brother gave its enemies an advantage, and caused them to exult in an imaginary triumph.
* December 6th, 1790, a Warrant was granted to John Smith, W. M., John Bartholomew, S. W., and John Christie, J. W., for a Lodge to be held at "the sign of the White Horse in East Whiteland, in the county of Chester, State of Pennsylvania." [See note, page 28, ante.] At a Quarterly Communication of the Grand Lodge held January 5th, 1807, permission was granted Lodge No. 50 to remove to the borough of West Chester, Chester county. September 20th, 1835, the Lodge "suspended labors for two years"; and June 18th, 1838, resigned its Warrant-there being at that time fourteen members, all in good standing.
The writer has in his possession a circular letter issued by Lodge No. 50 in 1828, while Brother Miner was a member, in which an ap- peal is made to the Fraternity throughout the State for aid in the "erection of an appropriate Hall" for the use of the Lodge. The let- ter is signed by Wilmer Worthington, H. T. Jefferis, and Dan'l Buck- walter.
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When the wave of anti-Masonry swept the land, and car- ried John Quincy Adams* from the side of his old political friends, he wrote a long letter to Mr. Miner deprecating any estrangement or breach of personal friendship on that account, and enclosed some original verses àpropos. A por- tion of the letter is given herewith, followed by the verses in full.
* Dr. Rob. Morris, in "Eli Bruce, the Masonic Martyr" (1861), says: "The connection of Mr. John Q. Adams with the anti-Ma- sonic excitement (which continued until the decadence of the party) may be said to have commenced this day [July 22d, 1831]. His ini- tial step of a public character was the issue of a letter of this date, in which the character of the Masonic Institution was vilified, his father's (John Adams) non-participation in the Institution strenuously argued, and the action of the Craft in the Morgan trials rebuked. Mr. Adams entered into the crusade with all the zeal natural to his
excitable character ; wrote a series of letters to Wm. L. Stone, a se- ceding Mason of New York, which were largely published, and for five years devoted talent and learning worthy of a better cause to the vain attempt to overturn Masonry. He lived to be very much ashamed of his course, and his biographers find but little in this stage of his career worthy of note."
In 1847 there was published in Boston "Letters on the Masonic In- stitution," by John Quincy Adams ; an 8vo book of 284 pages. It ap- pears to have been a resuscitation of things which Mr. Adams had from time to time given to the public on the subject of Free Masonry, and was edited by his son, the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, who wrote an introduction containing these words : "It is now twenty years since there sprung up in the United States an earnest and at times a vehement discussion, of the nature and effect of the bond entered into by those citizens who join the Society of Free and Accepted Masons. * * * From the moment of the adoption of a penal law, deemed strong enough to meet the most serious of the evils complained of, the apprehension of further danger from Masonry began to subside. At this day the subject has ceased to be talked of. The attention of men has been gradually diverted to other things, until at last it may be said, that few persons are aware of the fact, that not only Free Masonry continues to exist, but also that other associations, partaking of its se- cret nature, if not of its unjustifiable obligations, not merely live, but greatly flourish in the midst of them."
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