USA > South Carolina > Charleston County > Charleston > History of the New England Society of Charleston, South Carolina, for One Hundred Years, 1819-1919 > Part 3
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AARON SMITH WILLINGTON
Aaron Smith Willington, fourth president of the New England Society, was born at East Sud- bury, now Wayland, Massachusetts, March 12, 1781. His father was Josiah Willington, "a soldier of the Revolution." His mother died in giving him birth; and at the age of ten he was put under the care of his grandfather, who ordered him to manual labor, giving him the advantage however of attending school three months annu- ally. From this early period of his life he earned his own living; subsequently he was apprenticed to the proprietors of the Boston Palladium, where he learned the art of printing.
He came to Charleston in 1802 under the auspices of Loring Andrews, of Boston, who in
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1803 established the Charleston Courier and made young Willington his foreman. Within a decade the energetic and ambitious young foreman became editor of the Charleston Courier, succeed- ing the erudite Dr. Frederick Dalcho, who retired upon entering the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
Under the able editorship of Mr. Willington, the Courier became one of the leading newspapers of the country, and was regarded highly in all parts of the United States as an interpreter of the best Southern thought, in the great issues which had at various times agitated the country. In the era of nullification, it was the leading Union organ in the state, and upheld the Union against what it regarded as an unconstitutional and incon- gruous attempt to resist the laws of the Union within the Union. In the secession crisis of 1851 and 1852 it still upheld the flag of the Union and threw its weight in the co-operation against the secession scale, as a choice of evils. In the seces- sion era of 1860 it held the election of a sectional president, on grounds of political and fanatical hostility to the constitutional rights and cherished domestic institutions of the South, to be properly and inevitably the knell of Union, and went with
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the state and the South in dissolving a connec- tion with unfaithful confederates and establishing an independent Southern Confederacy. In these views Mr. Willington, although of Northern parentage and birth, heartily concurred; and he died as he had lived, faithful and devoted to the home of his adoption and choice and the field of his useful, honorable, and successful labors. In proof of his Southern feeling, in the year 1860 he said to a friend: "This is my last visit North, for I am thoroughly disgusted with abolitionism."
It is of more than passing interest to note that James Gordon Bennett began his newspaper career under the direction of A. S. Willington in the office of the Charleston Daily Courier (as it was then called) as a paragraphist and translator of Spanish.
Mr. Willington was the fourth and last of the original members of the New England Society to be chosen president. During his term of office, which covered a very critical period-from 1847 to 1862-the affairs of the Society were managed with great wisdom and wonderful tact.
Mr. Willington died February 2, 1862, in his eighty-first year. Among the many tributes paid to this noble Christian gentleman by men of
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distinction from all parts of the nation, two are selected, both of which were written by intimate friends who lived in Charleston.
"He was a man of great public spirit, liberal hospitality, and unstinted benevolence. Readily and bountifully did he aid, with purse and influ- ence, enterprises for the public good. He ever had a heart to devise and a hand to do liberal things. He realized by a happy experience the scriptural truths that 'the liberal soul shall be made fat,' and that 'he that watereth shall be watered himself'; that 'he becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich'; that 'he that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given, will he pay him again'; and 'often did he cause the widow's heart to sing for joy.' His was that true and undefiled religion which consists in visiting the widow and fatherless in their affliction, and keeping himself unspotted from the world. There was a daily beauty in his life which, although it made not the lives of other men ugly, yet served as an example and model for imitation, surrounded him with troops of friends, and won the general esteem and love of the com- munity in which he lived.
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"A self-made man, he yet attained a high degree of social distinction and bore a prominent part in political and business life. He served as a warden or alderman of the city, was a member of the state legislature, a director in banks and insurance companies, even up to the time of his death, having been in the directory of the Planters and Mechanics Bank, and a member of various charitable institutions."
I've scann'd the actions of his daily life,
And nothing meets mine eyes but deeds of Honor.
"Of his public career, his patriotism, fidelity, and usefulness in various positions of honor and of trust, his record as a good citizen is before the country and community. His social virtues, too, the genial companionship with all of all ages who approached him, the generous hospitality which he dispensed so cordially and gracefully, endeared him to many warmly attached friends. His civility and the ordering of his entertainment- the reception and entertaining of his guests-was remarkable for its welcome and refinement. Though it cannot be said 'his eye was not dimmed' in later years, yet his natural force of intellect was not abated by the approach of age; so far from this, as time alone can make the almond tree to
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flourish, so his old age seemed to grow kinder and kinder as he ripened for Heaven, rendering him more and more attractive at the close of life by the loveliness of the qualities he then displayed.
"It frequently happens that the good spirit of a single mind makes the mind of multitudes take a right direction. A good example is like a mirror unto a generation, into which the young can look and see reflected what is best for their ultimate good, having a more 'efficient influence upon society than the most stringent laws that can be passed for man's control. It is in this way that example is more powerful than precept, and we become in this world mutually profitable-'our lives in acts exemplary not only win for ourselves good names but give to others matter for vir- tuous deeds!'
"There was in the character of Mr. Willington a repose and a quiet dignity which rendered it eminently fascinating. It is pleasant and will be profitable to remember his ways of life-the serene light that seemed ever to be shining upon his path, that path so placid and pure. No man ever shrunk more from notoriety than he did, and yet few men have ever enjoyed more popularity and greater respect from their fellow-men. His head
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and heart were of the best order to make a man beloved. He was not only polite, abounding in the courtesies of life, but he was much more than this: he was a Christian gentleman, the principle of whose life is to conform himself as far as pos- sible to the Image of Him who was Himself the incarnate Image of God!
"We ought to be very grateful that such a great man was permitted to live among us; and as we are not likely soon again in the present excited condition of the country to witness his counterpart, it is to be hoped that the rising generation will remember his well-balanced char- acter and strive by Divine aid to imitate his many virtues."
Mr. Willington was a devout member of the Episcopal Church. His tomb in the cemetery of St. Philip's Church bears the following inscription:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF A. S. WILLINGTON DIED FEBRUARY 2ND, 1862 IN HIS 8IST YEAR HE WAS THE SENIOR EDITOR
OF THE CHARLESTON NEWS AND COURIER NEARLY SIXTY YEARS "THE MEMORY OF THE JUST IS BLESSED"
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OTIS MILLS
Otis Mills, fifth president of the New England Society, was born at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, May 8, 1794. Early in life, and when in moderate circumstances, he came to Charleston and organ- ized the firm of O. Mills and Company, grain mer- chants. His business venture prospered rapidly, and in a very few years he became one of the most prominent merchants and one of the largest owners of real estate in Charleston. In 1845 he purchased the United States Court House prop- erty, located at the corner of Queen and Meeting streets, and four years afterward had the building pulled down and the hotel known as the Mills House erected on the spot. Mr. Mills also pur- chased three Atlantic wharves, which he improved and developed.
He became a member of the New England Society in 1822, served for many years as a mem- ber of the committee on charity, and was unani- mously elected president in 1862. He was the man of the hour, and steered the Society through its most critical crisis, from 1862 to 1869. It is indeed wonderful that the New England Society in Charleston should have grown and prospered at this crucial time.
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Mr. Mills died October 23, 1869, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was a member of St. Michael's Church and is buried in the cemetery attached to that church.
The Charleston News published the following appreciation of Mr. Mills at the time of his death:
"He came from a family in Massachusetts who have ever been closely identified with the Demo- cratic party. His brother, John Mills, was the leader of the party in Massachusetts, and was for over twenty years district attorney for the state, having been appointed under the administra- tion of President Jackson. His nephew, Darwin Beech, was the Democratic candidate for gover- nor of the state.
"Mr. Mills was no politician, albeit his sym- pathies were extremely Southern, and the 'Lost Cause' had no more devoted friend, no more staunch supporter, than he. At the inception of the late war he sold almost every lot of city land-almost every building that he possessed- and invested the proceeds in Confederate bonds. When he announced his intention to sell the 'Mills House' his friends remonstrated with him, but remonstrance was in vain and that valuable property was also sold. When the citizens of
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Charleston were called upon to aid the military authorities in erecting fortifications around the city, none responded more readily than Mr. Mills, and he and his slaves were at work incessantly day and night where their services were most needed. His practical faith in the success of our cause and his excessive generosity in risking his fortune therewith left him at the termination of the war almost penniless.
"During his business career he was known as the young man's friend. Generous to a fault, no one ever applied in vain to his office for assistance. He was most willing and always ready to lend assistance to the young man; and it is said that ยท the name of Otis Mills was more frequently on the notes and bonds of the younger portion of our business community than that of any other man in the city. It speaks well for Charleston when we add that one who was intimate with him said that, to his knowledge, Mr. Mills never lost a dollar by reason of his kind generosity.
"A good man has left us, one who has proven himself a benefactor to the city in the widest sense of the term, and his memory will be cherished by Charleston as one of her dearest and most valued sons. He was generous to all who knew or needed
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his assistance, staunch in his devotion to the home of his choice and adoption, energetic in his busi- ness relations, kind and courteous to all with whom he was thrown in contact, and liked by all who knew him. His life was guided at all times by the principles of the highest morality, and exemplified to the fullest extent 'the noblest work of God.'""
JAMES BUTLER CAMPBELL
James Butler Campbell, sixth president of the New England Society, was born at Oxford, Massachusetts, October 27, 1808. He graduated at Brown University in 1822, which institution subsequently conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D.
His great ancestor, the Reverend John Camp- bell, of the Scottish Campbells, of London, was so staunch an adherent of the Stuarts that in 1717 he came to America a political refugee, and in 1721 became the first Presbyterian minister at Oxford, Massachusetts.
Mr. Campbell came to South Carolina in 1826 and taught school a number of years on Edisto Island. During this period he began the study of
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law, which he subsequently continued in Charles- ton, in the office of Hugh S. Legare. Mr. Camp- bell took an active part in public affairs and was engaged in the great nullification contest. His first vote in South Carolina was cast on the Union side. In 1831 Mr. Campbell removed to Charles- ton and began the practice of law. His zeal, capability, and daring soon attracted the atten- tion of the Union leaders of the day and he was selected as one of the delegates from Charleston to the Union convention which met in Columbia at a time of intense excitement, and when it was thought that the duty involved personal danger. Mr. Campbell afterward became the confiden- tial agent and correspondent at Washington of the Union Committee of South Carolina. While there, he resided for a time with General Jackson at the White House and was in daily communica- tion with the President and many other prominent men. Among the number was Daniel Webster, with whom Mr. Campbell then renewed an acquaintance formed in his boyhood. It soon ripened into friendship, and Mr. Campbell and Mr. Webster continued to correspond with each other as long as Mr. Webster lived. In South
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Carolina Mr. Campbell had the entire confidence of Drayton, Cheves, the Hugers, Petigru, Pringle, and Poinsett. Their esteem he enjoyed through- out their lives. About the year 1837 Mr. Camp- bell married the youngest daughter of Governor Bennett, of South Carolina.
In 1850-52 political excitement in South Carolina again ran high. Mr. Campbell was elected a member of the state legislature and opposed strenuously the extreme views and propo- sitions of that day. Finally he prepared and carried through the legislature the Convention Bill, which by its provisions and machinery brought the questions at issue directly home to the people.
When the secession movement culminated in South Carolina, in 1860, Mr. Campbell stood entirely aloof and declined to be a candidate for election to the legislature or to the state conven- tion. It is claimed by those who knew him best that he predicted that the Southern cause would be lost if the South began war or allowed itself to be made chargeable with the commencement of hostilities. He was confident that it would be the policy of the party then coming into
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power in the Union to tempt the South to com- mit some act of aggression. Mr. Campbell there- fore opposed the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and denounced publicly the declaration of Mr. Walker, the secretary of war of the Confederate States.
Mr. Campbell believed firmly in the justice of the Southern cause, but believed that an armed collision, unless in the strictest self-defense, could not fail to be disastrous. What he. apparently hoped for was that there would be a civil revolu- tion in politics. In 1862, when the magnitude of the struggle began to be appreciated, Mr. Camp- bell was elected a member of the legislature, serving in that body with Governor B. F. Perry. Mr. Campbell was one of the minority in the legislature who opposed the administration of President Davis, while Governor Perry was the leader of the administration party. Both Mr. Campbell and Governor Perry had been under the ban in the earlier days of secession on account of their opposition to the policy which was adopted by the people. Mr. Campbell, in a word, was a Union man from first to last. His sympathy with the South was ardent, but none loved the Union more sincerely than he.
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In December, 1866, under the provisional government, Mr. Campbell was proposed as a candidate for the United States Senate and was elected. Concerning this election, a statement from the Reverend Dr. Boyce is of value.
"The gentleman elected owed his election in some respects to the valuable services he had been able to render to the citizens of the state while visiting Washington City upon professional busi- ness. It is said that his advice and favor were not confined to his clients but were given gratuitously to other citizens who sought them. It was dis- tinctly avowed that to this fact, no less than to his rare personal merits, J. B. Campbell owes his present position of senator-elect for six years from the 4th of March next, as well as of the unexpired term of Governor Manning, who sent in his letter of resignation upon the election of Mr. Campbell as his successor.
"The senator-elect is a man of fine personal presence, very astute intellect, and a debater of great eloquence, sarcasm, and ingenuity. He occupies at present the first position at the Charleston bar; indeed, it may be said that he is there almost without a rival. He is about fifty-five
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years of age, and bears in his countenance the evidence of his Scotch ancestry. There is per- haps no man in South Carolina whose sympathies were with the South and yet whose love for the Union and the Constitution has been stronger than that of Mr. Campbell. His views were well known, and the election, decidedly the most complimentary ever received for United States senator, shows that this state is not disposed to place a stigma upon a citizen who loves the Union when she knows that citizen to be one true and faithful also to her interests; and more than this, that a man of Northern birth is as much regarded by her when worthy of her confi- dence as though he first drew breath upon her own soil."
It is a matter of history that the Southern states were denied representation in congress under the provisional governments, and Mr. Campbell was excluded with the senators and representatives from the other states "lately in rebellion."
Mr. Campbell's letter resigning his seat in the General Assembly of South Carolina evinces his fine literary ability:
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES December 20, 1886
To the Honorable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives
GENTLEMEN:
Hereby accepting the office of a senator of the United States, to which the choice of this general assembly has elevated me, I resign my place as a member of this house.
There is no earthly honor I should as much value as the uninvited good opinion and confidence of the people of South Carolina. That their representatives should have called me into their service in the place of highest honor within their gift, at a time of extreme gloom and despondency, impresses me with feelings of profound gratitude.
With my official farewell to the members of this house, I venture to tender to each, personally, the expres- sion of my friendship and hearty good wishes. There is no one of them, so far as I know or have cause to believe, who bears toward me any other relation than of kindness and considerate good will. I know there is no one of them who has not a place in my friendship and an acknowl- edged claim to such kind offices as may be in my power to offer.
Considering the frailty of my own excitable tempera- ment, and the habitual collisions of debate, this I recog- nize as the evidence of remarkable forbearance toward me. The recollection of all these things will adhere to me for the remainder of my life. They will cheer me under the depression of a comparison with the great intellects who have preceded me through the better days of the
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Commonwealth, and, adding strength to the great debt of gratitude I acknowledge, will stimulate me under the peculiar responsibilities of the honor you have conferred to steadily persevere, to the end that, even under the present glimmering hope, I may yet do something for the welfare and the honor of South Carolina.
I am, with great respect
JAMES B. CAMPBELL
In 1877 Mr. Campbell was unanimously nomi- nated by the Democratic convention as a candi- date for state senator for Charleston County and was elected without opposition. He never held public office again.
Mr. Campbell became a member of the New England Society in 1831. He was elected secre- tary and treasurer in 1833, served for a number of years as a member of the committee on charity, was elected junior vice-president in 1851, senior vice-president in 1866, and president in 1869. He delivered more addresses at the annual celebra- tions of the Society than any other president, with the single exception of Dr. C. S. Vedder. He was the first annual orator to cast aside the established custom of reading a laboriously prepared address. In 1848 he delivered a masterful oration without notes or memoranda. His effort on this notable occasion thrilled both members and guests.
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Mr. Campbell was an intimate friend and staunch supporter of Wade Hampton. During his term as president of the Society, Governor Hampton was invited to deliver an address at the annual celebration, and, being unable to attend, sent the following letter of regret:
STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA EXECUTIVE CHAMBER Columbia, December 20, 1877
GENTLEMEN:
It would give me very great pleasure to be with you on the 22d, but unfortunately I had made engagements for that day before the reception of your polite invitation. But for this circumstance, I should join most cordially in the celebration of the anniversary of your Society.
Regretting my inability to do so, and with my best wishes, I am,
Very respectfully and truly yours
WADE HAMPTON
Mr. Campbell died November 8, 1883, in his seventy-sixth year, in Washington, D.C., where he had gone to complete his work as com- missioner for South Carolina, under act of congress of 1862. In this case, and in many others, his brilliant legal attainments made him the peer of the great lawyers of the nation. Among his last words were: "I want to be buried in Charleston,
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because the people of that city speak so kindly of the dead."
Mr. Campbell was a staunch member of the Presbyterian Church. His old home, located on Beaufain Street, is now the Presbyterian Home for Indigent Ladies.
WILLIAM SMITH HASTIE
William Smith Hastie, seventh president of the New England Society, was born in the city of New York, of Scotch parentage, July 3, 1807. He was educated at Pickett University, an institution of high repute at that time. He married a daughter of John Franklin, a descendant of the colonial family after which Franklin Square, New York, was named.
Mr. Hastie came to Charleston in 1853 as the mercantile partner of P. C. Calhoun, president of the Fourth National Bank of New York City. The wholesale house of Hastie, Callioun and Company was dissolved in 1869. Mr. Hastie then organized the insurance firm of W. S. Hastie and Son, which after more than fifty years of honorable service is still one of the most promi- nent insurance agencies in the city of Charleston
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and is owned and managed by one of his descend- ants, Mr. C. Norwood Hastie.
Mr. Hastie was a director in a number of busi- ness organizations, the organizer and first presi- dent of the Board of Trade, and held many other positions of trust and confidence.
Mr. Hastie became a member of the New Eng- land Society in 1855. He served for a number of years as a member of the committee on charity, was elected junior vice-president in 1875, senior vice-president in 1879, and president in 1883. He died October 22, 1884, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.
In assuming the presidency of the Society, the Reverend Dr. C. S. Vedder paid the following tribute to his predecessor in office:
"When my brothers were in Europe for years, they placed their entire estates in the hands of William S. Hastie, to do with them as his judg- ment should dictate; and I have in my possession the correspondence which followed their return to America, and it is one of which any man might be proud.
"These are, in substance, the words of a letter received since the decease of our lamented presi- dent. They refer to a period forty years ago, and
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are specially significant as illustrating the reputa- tion for stainless integrity which our friend brought with him to Carolina. There is also in the possession of his family today a beautiful and costly service of silver, suitably inscribed, pre- sented by the brothers-of whom the writer of the above was one-testifying their appreciation of the noble fidelity of Mr. Hastie in the discharge of this most delicate and responsible trust. It bears the date, January 1, 1849. It was with a character and with credentials such as these things imply that four years afterward our late president came to this city. It was a future which such repute insured that he voluntarily relinquished when he removed from the great commercial center where it was acquired. He gave up a large, lucrative, and ever-increasing business in obedience to that which was the ruling principle of his life-tender concern for the health of a beloved wife while she lived, and devotion to her memory until he joined her in another life.
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