USA > South Carolina > Charleston County > Charleston > History of the New England Society of Charleston, South Carolina, for One Hundred Years, 1819-1919 > Part 4
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"For more than thirty years Mr. Hastie was closely and prominently identified with the in- terests of this city, maintaining in every sphere and relation the same repute for honor, integrity, and capacity with which he came hither.
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"Of marked individuality of character, he formed his own opinions and had always the cour- age of his convictions. If there were times when his views of public policy differed from those of very many around him, his unfaltering firmness never failed to command respect and never impaired the relations of friendship. In the time of social and civil upheaval which immediately followed the war, he was called by the best senti- ment of our community to an official position of great delicacy and difficulty in Charleston, and discharged its duties with singular prudence and wisdom. With prophetic insight, he counseled them to a course of political action which vindi- cated itself when it was adopted ten years after- ward. Essentially a man of practical thought and effort, Mr. Hastie responded instinctively to every appeal of need and trouble. His adminis- tration of his official duties brought upon him the blessing of the widow and orphan, and there lies before the author of these lines, as he writes, a letter of overflowing gratitude to Mr. Hastie from one of historic name whom his exertions and influ- ence had so munificently served that she says: 'It seems to me that you were raised to be my true friend by a Heavenly Providence.'"
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Mr. Hastie was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
CHARLES STUART VEDDER
Charles Stuart Vedder, eighth president of the New England Society, was born in Schenectady, New York, October 7, 1826. In his boyhood it was his ambition to become an editor. He wished to begin at the bottom and learn all the branches, and so he started as a printer on a small paper in New York, under the management of the Harper Company. At the end of four years he was editor of the paper. Having accumulated a small sum of money, he decided to study for the ministry, entering Union College. He was gradu- ated in 1851 at the head of his class. After graduation from college he developed throat trouble and accepted an appointment as tutor and professor for a number of years.
Deciding that a milder climate would be bene- ficial to his health, he came to Columbia, South Carolina, entered the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, and graduated with honors. His first pastorate was at Summerville, South Carolina. In 1866 he became pastor of the his- toric Huguenot Church, in Charleston, which posi-
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tion he held for fifty years. He was a member of the Charleston Presbytery fifty-six years.
In 1876 New York University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. The College of Charleston conferred the same degree simultaneously. Later the College of Charleston gave him the honorary degree of Doctor of Law. Union College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Humanities.
Dr. Vedder was a member of the Holland Society of New York, and wrote a poem which was read at one of its anniversary celebrations.
He was a prominent member of the Huguenot Society and for a quarter of a century president of the Howard Association of Charleston. He was one of the founders of the Confederate Home and College, located in Charleston. He presided at the organization meeting in 1867 and at the annual meetings for forty years ensuing. For a number of years he taught in this institution, serving without compensation.
Dr. Vedder's reputation as a preacher, orator, and lecturer was nation-wide. Many of his ser- mons, poems, and lectures were published and widely read. He also acquired a great reputation as a postprandial speaker. A distinguished New
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York editor was present at one of the annual celebrations of the New England Society and heard Dr. Vedder speak. His comment was: "I have heard Chauncey Depew at his best; Dr. Vedder is his superior."
Dr. Vedder was elected to membership in the New England Society in 1881. Three years later he became president, which office he held for thirty- two years. Upon the occasion of his golden wed- ding anniversary the Society presented to Dr. Vedder a large loving cup as a token of the affec- tion and high esteem in which he was held.
Dr. Vedder died March 1, 1917, in his ninety- first year. At his own request he was buried by the side of his wife in the cemetery of the New England Society at Magnolia.
Mr. J. P. K. Bryan, one of the most brilliant lawyers in the South, was designated by the Society to prepare a minute on the death of its venerable president. His worthy tribute follows:
"CHARLES STUART VEDDER, D.D., LL.D., L.H.D.
"A great spirit has passed and yet abides with us.
"Others may celebrate the virtues of his exalted life, his earnest patriotism, his devotion,
-
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though a stranger in this city, to the Southern cause, and his lofty sacrifice, renouncing family, early friends, and fortune in giving himself wholly to the help of the people of the South in the long years of their direst need, and as a watchful guardian of the orphans of her heroic dead.
"It is for others to recall his ecclesiastical learning, his power in the pulpit, and his long years of faithful service as the pastor of the only Huguenot Church in America.
"A grateful people celebrates his big-hearted charity as the ever loyal friend of 'Tiny Tim' in all the years of this city.
"It is moreover for others to portray his poetic genius and his literary gift, and to measure their power and influence, as it is for those nearest to him to speak of the sacred cominunion of home and family and the love and blessing he shed there.
"But here, in this Society, it is our special privilege that lie was one with us. As our presi- dent for over thirty years, there was for him and for us a peculiar bond of close friendship and fellowship. For this Society he cherished a deep affection and a strong pride in all of its history and gave to its upbuilding the best efforts of his mind and heart.
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"He knew well the deep foundations of the life of New England. He loved and reverenced the stern, abiding principles of the Pilgrim Fathers, even as he loved and reverenced the heroic mould and quenchless faith of the Huguenot. He sought here, in the home of the cavalier, to keep the sacred fires burning on all these altars, and with the sterner elements and their spiritual meaning he sought ever to blend all the graces of life and the charm of letters.
"In this Society he was always at home among friends, and here his versatile gifts had full expres- sion; here he poured out his heart; here his imagi- nation reveled in all kindling associations, his playful humor was unfailing, and the sallies of his wit gave endless mirth; here indeed he was always wise and yet always human and tender.
"But his greatest service was in making the Society nation-wide in its fame and attracting here great intellects in his time. We will remember him at his best as presiding on the great occasions in celebration of Forefathers' Day, when he was indeed our noblest host, as it was his pride to give royal welcome to our distinguished guests- great rulers, judges, orators, statesmen, and men of letters-and to vie brilliancy with those gifted
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spirits that have stirred and charmed us for two generations about our board.
"And among that goodly company of the great and learned his genial, familiar face stands out, a shining memory, in abiding inspiration. Although he was ninety when he died, he never grew old. Though bowed by the weight of years, his heart was ever young; and though long the light had faded from his eyes, no cloud ever rested on the mental vision of the prophet.
"And now he has passed from Death unto Life.
"In the words he loved so well, 'He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest him life forevermore.'"
In order to give the reader an idea of Dr. Ved- der's versatility, a short address delivered at one of the anniversary dinners of the New England Society and two poems conclude this sketch.
In an anniversary address he said:
"To say that the Pilgrims were not faultless is but to say that they were human. But their very faults were so far from being vices that they were virtues in excess and exaggeration; they were extremes, certain of rebounding to the mean which circumstances had made them overpass. Certain tremendous aspects of truth were so
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exclusively contemplated as to secure their com- plements and correlatives. They were momen- tarily dazed by looking upon the sun. But even the acknowledged defects of the forefathers had their elements of sublimity whilst enshrining within themselves the principles of their own cor- rection. If they seemed to fear more than they loved God, it was because they would have every safeguard against merely sentimental piety. If they were intolerant toward others, they were even more unsparing toward themselves. We may take larger views now, but even their views were larger than those the world took elsewhere. We may take larger views now, under a wider and clearer firmament of knowledge and intercourse, but they were laying the corner stone of a new world, and it must have no speck or suspicion of unsoundness; they were nurturing an infant state, and its first steps must be such as would insure its right path in maturity; yea, they were sowing the seeds of principles whose harvest a hemisphere should reap, and no germ of weed or thistle must drop into the open furrow to choke the golden grain.
"Ours may be a sunnier, but it cannot be a safer, faith than theirs. Ours may have a broader
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vision, but it can never see clearer than theirs the polar star of duty. Ours may be a more pro- pitious lot, but we can never weave its oppor- tunities into a more glorious chapter than that which crowns their memories. More and more the world sees this. There is a sentiment which challenges the eager suffrage of every right heart:
Though love repine and reason chafe, There comes a voice without reply:
.' 'Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the Truth he ought to die.'
"The Pilgrim heard and heeded that voice, if ever man did upon earth. He was not only ready to die but to brave far more than death for con- viction; and therefore wherever the just, the true, the good, the brave, the self-sacrificing, the generous, the noble are, of every land, of every tongue, of every lineage, there is an ever-extending throng who claim the honor of a common kinship in men who illustrated their common humanity, and whose voices blend with yours in perfect har- mony of acclaim in saying, 'The day we celebrate.' Can you then too sacredly cherish that patrimony of memory which does not become less but more yours, because to it virtue everywhere covets and seeks to establish some claim of mutual heirship ?
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"As the word 'patriot' denominates anyone who loves his country, so the term 'New Eng- lander' has gone beyond the limits of territory, and embraces everyone who has the qualities of thrift, energy, self-sacrifice, and love. The New Englander is the man of persistence. The New Englander is the conservator of energy. The New Englander is the builder of railroads and cities, of schools and churches. He is a friend of the poor. The New Englander has done what all men respect; he has harnessed the ideal and the practical and made them pull together.
"At one time in the late war there occurred a crisis in the Northern ranks. Men were wet, wounded, and starving, and the relief train had broken down-the engine had become disabled. In despair, the commanding general cried out, 'Come, boys, who can fix this locomotive ?' Instantly there stepped from the ranks a private. Walking up to the broken monster, he patted her on the shoulder and said, 'I ought to know; I made her, General.' If at any future time this nation shall become imperiled, it will be the New Englanders who will say, 'We made the country; I guess we can save her.' The brotherhood of
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New England has no symbol but that of holy energy. It is what Emerson calls the I in power. It goes everywhere. Proud Charleston by the sea and the Golden Gate know it as well as Boston on her tea-steeped bay. You will never find a New Englander on the minus side of the great account. A society like this is true to its principles when it takes into its membership not only those of Pil- grim descent but also men of Pilgrim spirit, born a thousand miles or more from that historic mass of granite known as the Pilgrim Rock.
"New Englanders are not like the Jews, con- tinually looking toward the Holy Land as their final abiding-place. But where they work is their Jerusalem. They have the patriotism that seemed to animate a colored brother whom I saw in the police station not many weeks ago. A special officer brought him in, a great deal debilitated from an overdose of applejack, known to a few as 'Jersey lightning.' At any rate, the bolt had struck.
"'What's your name?' asked the orderly ser- geant.
"'Dunno. Lemmy go.'
"'Not yet. Tell me your name first.' "'Haint got no name. Lemmy go.'
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"'Tell me your name and I will let you go.' "'I'm a poor man; haint got no name.'
"'Not too poor to have a name. Tell me your name!'
"The imperious tone seemed to recall his drift- ing intelligence, as with an exultant leer, he said:
"'I'm a son of South Carolina. Now lemmy go.'
"In life or death, or worse, when drunk, he might forget his name, but never his native state. Patriotism may learn a lesson even from the police court. Let us not forget that we are the most responsible people in this country."
At the sixty-first anniversary of the New England Society, Dr. Vedder responded to the toast, "That Day and This." Dr. Vedder's response was a poem written after the manner of Hudibras, and drawing a striking and powerful contrast between the civilization of their fore- fathers-"their simple faith and true heroism, and their magnificent endurance"-and the achieve- ments of the present times. Has moral progress, he asked, kept pace with material greatness ? The closing lines of this poem, which has already been regarded as one of Dr. Vedder's best efforts, were as follows:
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How much, indeed, our times could teach That ancient time in grace and speech! No lexicon of theirs had room For such a stunning word as "boom." Ironic scorn ne'er said "too thin," Nor plumed itself a choice "hair-pin," Or answered some misdoubting elf, "You know, of course, how it is yourself." No satire's force caught all its zest In bidding man "adjust his vest," Or "Hire a hall," "mouchoir his chin"- Or classic phrase to these akin. No Pilgrim lip did ever straddle Such words as "mosey" or "skedaddle."
"Spondoolics" were no name for lucre, Nor did men call deceiving "euchre." They had, perhaps, not thought it fit To bid a man "git up and git." To die then owned death's dread effects- 'Tis now but "passing in your checks." And yet, methinks, to serious thought, The terms to later language taught May argue poverty, not wealth; May symptomize disease, not health! The current deep hath noiseless flow- The pebbly shallows babbling go; The empty drum gives clash and clang, The empty minds give trash and slang. The solvent bank on gold upbuilt Has genuine coin, not glittering gilt- The scheme no panic fear can shock No issue has of watered stock.
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Each Pilgrim phrase as they defined it, Had grand reserves of sense behind it. Where speech with senseless sound is fraught, Be sure it tokens bankrupt thought; Its over-issued scrip of phrase No dividend of meaning pays; Its small change currency of talk Of specie payment truth will balk. To get, would sure be no disaster, Old Pilgrim gold for this shinplaster. Their earnest, honest yea and nay Said all they meant or sought to say, And if, with sober, soulful speech, That ancient day our day could teach Its hate of sin, its dread of wrong, In fear of God, undimmed and strong, Ah, then, were we more blessed than they, And then were this Time's halcyon day- For, clothed with strength they did not know, Our bettered world that strength would show! Then, progress, progess were, indeed, As safe in step, as swift in speed! That this may be, we hope and pray, For this we keep Forefathers' Day!
During the Civil War Dr. Vedder was an ardent syinpathizer with the Southern cause, serving as chaplain of the state soldiery in General de Saussure's brigade, and after the conflict serv- ing as chaplain of Camp A. Burnet Rhett, United Confederate Veterans.
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The following poem was written for Confed- erate Memorial Day and has been read a number of times on similar occasions:
Why mourn the dead whose ashes lie Enshrined in native sod, Who thought it sweet and right to die For liberty and God ?
Ah! Not to question God's behest That made their valor vain, And not to break the honored rest Of martyr brothers slain. And not to wish that they had feared Their duty's call to heed,
But saved the lives to us endeared With timid soul and deed! Ah, no! Ah, no! The bloodiest shroud That wraps their precious clay
Were purple royal, rich and proud, Compared with shame's array. And laurel, by their sisters brought And brothers crowned their dust, To hail the cause for which they fought As overborne, though just.
These mounds of earth such virtues tell In men who wore the Gray, As bid us live as bravely well And stainless die as they.
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Their dust with tenderest pathos pleads, From 'neath each voiceless stone That we should make life's noblest deeds The mould to shape our own!
The ninth president of the New England Society is the author of this history and a descend- ant of Henry Way, original settler, Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1630.
:
DUDDRIDGE CROCKER
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DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS MARTIN LUTHER HURLBUT
"Martin Luther Hurlbut was born at South- ampton, Massachusetts, May 1, 1780. His boy- hood was spent on a farm, where he assisted his parents in earning a modest living.
"His education was such as is usually bestowed upon the village boys of New England, but his mind, early and deeply impressed with the value of knowledge, pressed forward to its attainment with a vigor and steadiness never relaxed through his long life. At an early age he entered Williams College and there received such instruction as the then limited means of that institution could afford. After graduation in 1804, he continued and completed under the roof of the venerable Dr. Appleton the studies appropriate for the Christian ministry, upon which he had resolved to enter. The tenets which had been instilled into his mind from childhood were Calvinistic, and such was his profession of faith. To one, how- ever, of such a clear and forcible intellect, and withal of so true, pure, and loving a heart, the
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inconsistencies of the system were apparent, and the appalling injustice of its leading tenets jarred strangely on his soul. Then ensued the long struggle of the spirit and the custom, not resolved into a solid, unwavering certainty for many years. A disease from which he never fully recovered having compelled him to abandon the pulpit, he devoted himself to the tasks of a teacher. The slight traces in possession of his family scarcely mark the outline of his life at this period until about 1807, when he resided in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. There in the admirable society which that place afforded and in the intimate converse with minds of high order, some of which still illuminate the country, he trained and culti- vated the powers of his mind and won a high posi- tion as a classical and general scholar. But this state of things was, like the few other sunny spots of his life, but of short duration. He was driven by pulmonary complaints to seek a more southern clime and, after a short visit to South America, settled in Beaufort, South Carolina, as the presi- dent of a college established in that place. His character and unrivaled skill in imparting knowl- edge soon attached to him many friends, who adhered to him notwithstanding the fierce political
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animosities dividing the country upon the subject of the approaching war. Robert W. Barnwell, who was graduated with first honor at Harvard University in the class of 1821, of which Ralph Waldo Emerson was a member, and who subse- quently became United States Senator from South Carolina and president of the South Caro- lina College, and John A. Stuart, a distinguished editor of the Charleston Mercury, were pupils of Mr. Hurlbut at Beaufort. Here, too, he formed an attachment, concluded by marriage with Miss Lydia Bunce. In 1815 he removed to the city of Charleston, whither his reputation had preceded him, and commanded for him a school unequaled perhaps in number, and from which issued many of the brightest ornaments of the present time in that city, and in the state. Among Mr. Hurlbut's pupils in Charleston was Stephen Elliot, who afterward became the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the state of Georgia.
"For a long series of years his reputation and usefulness continued to increase, and his eminent abilities ripened with time and extended farther and farther his acquisitions. But his health, never firm, yielded more and more to the incessant labor of his profession and the influence of climate.
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Added to this, numerous and severe private afflic- tions bent him to the earth. A wife tenderly loved, child after child dear to the affections and full of bright promise and proud hope, perished around him. He was persuaded that change of residence, the more bracing air of a northern clime, would en- due him with more strength to fulfil his duties and prolong an existence most important to his de- pendent family. He had married again, in 1823, Miss Margaret Morford, of Princeton, New Jersey, who fulfilled a mother's duty to the children of his first marriage. With her and those who still remained to form the family circle, he moved to Philadelphia, where he established a school for boys. Horace Howard Furness, who became famous as a Shakespearean scholar and legal writer, was a student in this school.
"But it is from his connection with Unitarian Christianity that peculiar mention is here due to Mr. Hurlbut. He was, in truth, among the most efficient in establishing the Unitarian congrega- tion in Charleston, and frequently lent his aid to the defense and maintenance of the positions he believed. Having himself by many struggles arrived at the truth and cast off the domination of
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custom and education, he was fully master of the subject and an admirable guide to those who were still uncertain of the road. Nor can this influ- ence of his be better sketched than in the words of a funeral discourse pronounced by the Reverend Dr. Gilman in the Unitarian Church of Charleston, upon receipt of the news of his death.
"'Although educated a Calvinist, and having commenced preaching in the belief of that religious denomination, yet his mind had long been gradu- ally assuming more liberal views of Christianity. He had been an associate of the youthful and elo- quent Buckminster, and was intimate with the excellent Dr. Parker, of Portsmouth, New Hamp- shire. Accordingly he entered with the fullest and most active sympathy into all the struggles, principles, and conduct of the Reverend Mr. Forster. When Mr. Forster felt constrained to promulgate those views of Unitarian Christianity which resulted in the separation of this church, he was countenanced and supported in the most effectual manner by Mr. Hurlbut, who, in con- junction with the late Judge Lee, Mr. Hugh Paterson, and several other votaries of religious liberty, secured the existence, establishment, and
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subsequent prosperity of this religious society. He was willing to stake his popularity, his stand- ing, and his prospects of future support on a cause which he deemed to involve the best and dearest interests of society, and which, from profound and patient study, he felt convinced was identical with all necessary and fundamental religious truth. Few of you who are now enjoying in quiet your spiritual privileges can appreciate the degree of Christian heroism required to introduce a new modification of religion against the prejudices, convictions, and opposition of a whole community. But with all the tremulous uncertainty of the experiment, Mr. Hurlbut and his coadjutors man- fully took the stand. He defended the ark in which were deposited his most precious spiritual treasures by his tongue, by his pen, by his sub- stance, by the sacrifice of his ease, and the exposure of all those earthly blessings, which less disinter- ested men imagine are the first to be looked after. He wrote several impressive essays in the Uni- tarian Defendant in 1822. He published a charm- ing life of Mr. Forster; and he still continued to enlighten and favor the public by several essays inserted in the Christian Examiner and among the tracts of the American Unitarian Association.
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