USA > South Carolina > Charleston County > Charleston > History of the New England Society of Charleston, South Carolina, for One Hundred Years, 1819-1919 > Part 5
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But it was not so much by his active public exertions or by the multiplication of his felicitous writings as by the experimental workings of reli- gion in his interior character that Mr. Hurlbut deserved the epithet of "godly." He cherished a habitual, living, perceptible sense of the Divine government in the world. You could not be acquainted with him without recognizing the power and beauty of his faith. I never saw and I never read, in any instance of an uninspired character, of the sentiment of religion employed so availably, so efficaciously, so successfully, and even so triumphantly, against the mighty inroads of affliction and adversity, as in the case of him to whom these brief and imperfect notices are devoted. Storm after storm of disaster fell upon him; child after child of extraordinary and pre- cocious promise was snatched from his embrace; year after year of pain, debility, and disease seemed to drag him through existence, yet still you found him erect, elastic, calm, cheerful even, for his soul amidst every earthquake had leaned palpably upon its God. This was not stoical indifference, for he had the keen susceptibilities of a child. It was the power of his clear and deliberate faith. Thus he continued to the last.
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Death came upon him unexpectedly indeed, but took him not by surprise. He calmly made his preparations as for a journey of tomorrow morn- ing. "I shall soon be with them," he said, alluding to the departed spirits of his family. Wearied and shattered, but not crushed or subdued, the hero of many a mighty moral struggle, the sym- pathizing follower of Him who was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, he wrapped his drapery around him, and after a pilgrimage of sixty-three years, he fell asleep, or rather he awoke to an eternal existence.'
"Such is some outline of the life of one whose desert was that of a retiring nature, whose pur- suits and habits were so secluded and domestic that they claimed and received none of that public and popular reward which the force of cir- cumstances frequently bestows upon lesser attain- 'ments. His light never shone in public except when struck out by collision with what he con- ceived popular error, and only on rare occasions did he put forth his powers. The strength of his intellect and the solidity of his moral faculties were only equaled by the depth of his affections; and hence resulted a character of rare balance and harmony fully equipped either to act or to suffer.
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"He has fought the good fight and left to those whose career has not yet closed 'the memory of a well-spent life.' To those who knew him and regarded him, in the words of his Master, we would say, 'If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I go to the Father.'"
The above quotation is, with the insertion of a few facts, from the Christian Examiner for Sep- tember, 1843.
Mr. Hurlbut became a member of the New England Society, April 7, 1819, the year the Society was organized.
In 1828 Mr. Hurlbut published an anonymous brochure-a very strong constitutional argument against nullification, entitled Review of a Late Pamphlet, under the signature of "Brutus." "Brutus" was R. J. Tumbull.
Two of Mr. Hurlbut's sons became distin- guished: Major-General Stephen Augustus Hurl- but of the Union Army, a son of his first marriage; and William Henry Hurlbut, the founder and first editor of the New York World, a son of his second marriage.
Mr. Hurlbut died in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, January 17, 1843.
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WILLIAM CRAFTS, JR.
William Crafts, Jr., was born in Charleston, South Carolina, January 24, 1787. His ancestors came to Charleston from Boston, Massachusetts. William Crafts, Sr., was for many years an emi- nent merchant of Charleston and one of the founders of the New England Society. William Crafts, Jr., was graduated from Harvard at the early age of eighteen. He returned to Charleston and began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar four years later. He was elected a mem- ber of the House of Representatives of South Carolina in 1811 and again in 1813. In 1817, just twelve years after his graduation, young Crafts was selected as the Phi Beta Kappa Orator at Harvard, which was an exceptional honor. His oration on that occasion evoked scholarly com- mendation. He was passionately fond of citizen soldiership, and at an early age became com- mander of the Washington Light Infantry, a corps originating before the War of 1812 and which has fought heroically in every war in which this nation has been involved for over one hundred years. William Lowndes was the first comman- der of this gallant military company.
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William Crafts, Jr., became a member of the New England Society in 1819.
He died at the age of thirty-nine. At the time of his death he was a member of the state senate, where he had rendered conspicuous service since 1820.
In an address delivered before the Charleston Library Association upon the occasion of the pres- entation of a portrait of William Crafts, Jr., as jurist, orator, scholar, and legislator, the Honor- able J. W. Barnwell said:
"He entered life under the most favorable auspices. 'He was admired,' says Hugh Legare, who knew him well, 'even to idolatry, for his talents and accomplishments-honored with the confidence of the virtuous and the attentions of the fashionable and the gay-and seeming to have at his command whatever could gratify the fondest ambition of an aspiring young man.'
"These bright promises were never fulfilled. The lack of habits of industry, the fondness for convivial society, the choice of the losing side in politics, for he was a Federalist in his views, pre- vented his short life from being successful and he died with his ambition ungratified.
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"His literary work, so far as we now know it, is contained in a volume, containing a selection from his miscellaneous writings. It consists of orations and addresses delivered on various occasions, fugi- tive pieces contributed to the newspapers of the day, and verses published from time to time. The orations are more ornate and metaphorical than the taste of the present more severe and prosaic age approves, yet, aided by his melodious voice and pleasing manner, doubtless deserved the applause which they assuredly received. Legare, whose criticism of his work in the Southern Review is certainly severe, nevertheless thus describes a speech delivered in the South Carolina legislature on the impeachment of a minor judicial officer for injustice and oppression:
" 'We shall never forget his manner of deliver- ing that speech, which, for a young man, was truly admirable and has in some respects probably never been surpassed on that floor. His shrill but musi- cal voice, elevated to a thrilling pitch, his fine countenance animated with the ardor of debate, that perfect grace and decorum of his gesticula- tion, free from all constraint or artifice, the unaffected elegance and manly simplicity of his diction, the clearness of his statements, the close-
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ness and cogency of his reasonings, the apparent disinterestedness of his zeal, his lofty indignation against injustice, the vigor and perseverance with which he maintained his ground in the debate against a formidable array of talent and influ- ence-all conspired to give earnest of a high de- gree of excellence at a more advanced period of life.
" 'His noblest effort, however, was, I think, in behalf of the free schools of the state, when an attempt was made to suspend the appropriation for that purpose during the War of 1812. He spoke as follows:
" ' "Who that has seen man in a high state of improvement, in the midst of the arts and sciences, actuated by the desire and blessed with the means of usefulness, full of noble ambition and gaining in their turn all its honorable rewards, who, I say, can appreciate the immense disparity between such an individual and the unhappy being, born and living and dying in penury and ignorance ?
" ' "Sir, my compassion is always painfully excited by the condition of many of the country people whom I see on my journey here. Without education themselves, or the means of imparting it to their children, how many sources of happi- ness and utility to them are forever closed! How
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much of intellect is there running wild and waste! How much of manly ardor and sensibility, with- out an object to elicit them! How much help- lessness against the misfortunes of life! How much of the vice and misery which are the lot of igno- rance!
" ' "In several of their lowly cottages I have seen signs of those mental fires that are doomed to struggle in vain for exercise and display. I have seen beauty buried in obscurity, as in a premature grave, and genius, unconscious of its aims or its powers, indolent and useless.
" ' "As I pitied their situation, I was delighted with their reply, when we addressed these humble inhabitants of the woods and proffered the means of instruction on behalf of the state; we were as wise as we were liberal. We consulted their happiness not more than the state's. We unveiled to them their duties and their rights. We extended the horizon of their hopes and their views. We opened to them a new world, hitherto occupied by the rich almost exclusively; and, rescuing them from their obscure destiny, we bade them aspire after all the needs of emulation. """"If we abolish free schools, let the eagle be removed from over your head, Mr. Speaker. It is
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the image of a bird that lives upon light. It can- not endure darkness. Either shroud it in mourn- ing, or send it away." '
"In memory of his efforts in behalf of educa- tion, one of the public schools in our city has been given his name.
"The poetry of Crafts meets the approval neither of Legare nor of Professor Trent, and yet I venture to agree with Mr. Lewisohn in his inter- esting articles on the literature of South Carolina when he says with regard to some of it that no verse more graceful or tender had been written in America up to that time, and none more surely deserves a place in any anthology of early Ameri- can poetry, and I select for quotation the extract given by him:
The snowdrop is in bloom, And the young earth's perfume Scents new the floating air; It is the breath of love- Beneath, around, above, Young love is there. Come let us try to snare him-see, Love smiling waits for you and me. Bind him with the jasmine flower, Hide him in a myrtle bower,
On the thornless roses let him rest;
See his gracious eyelids move,
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Hope and joy are eyes of love, Kiss them and be blest. Love gives his own dear heart to thee, One-half for you, one-half for me.
"Of course, South Carolina at the beginning of the last century was not Greece or Rome, or Eng- land or France, or Italy or Germany-but in com- parison with early American verse of the kind Crafts does not suffer."
At the second anniversary dinner of the New England Society of Charleston, December 22, 1820, William Crafts, Jr., delivered the following address:
"On this day, two hundred years ago, a handful of individuals landed at an inclement season, on an unknown and barren coast; in the land of pesti- lence, on the territory of the savage. Fraud or accident had diverted the course of their voyage, and they were placed beyond the protection, weak as it was, of European charters. Neither the Church nor the State accorded them the privilege of monopoly or of participation, and they landed with no better plea than their necessities, and no protector but their God.
"Providence was not unmindful of them. That . they might with scrupulous honesty occupy the
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soil, its former inhabitants had perished by dis- ease or wandered into exile; that they might in infancy be secure from Indian warfare, the natives had been withdrawn from the seashore; and lest famine should involve them in early ruin, the scanty granaries of the savage became the treasure- trove of the stranger. The soil was rugged and mountainous, indicating the labor and persever- ance which its culture required. It had not the baneful reputation of gold and silver mines, the cheap ruin of adventurers and nations. It was primitive and virginal, like the snows that invested it. Scarce a path on its surface but the track of the hunter and his game, scarce a sound in its forests but the rude chorus of the winds.
"Well may we ask what worldly inducement impelled this little band of men, women, and children, away from their friends and their home, in a little barque, across the perilous ocean, to an ice-bound, rocky shore. Was it ambition-that master-passion of the human breast that knows no difficulties in the pursuit of power ? To charge them with ambition were to accuse them of lunacy. Was it avarice that chameleon curse of our nature, which assimilates us to all climates and all suffering in pursuit of gain ? They had no
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means to traffic and no arms to plunder. Were they convicts, doomed to expiate aniong the savage their sins among the civilized ? They had been sinned against, not sinned themselves. It was that sense of wrong which he who feels it at all feels most acutely, and forgives never. It was that species of oppression which he who endures all else never will endure, that gave birth to this desperate and heroic enterprise. You may invade a man's opinions, one by one, and dispossess him of them all, until you interfere with his religious sentiments and his rights of conscience. You then strike a spring whose elasticity increases with its pressure, rallying every other power in the system and quickening the motion of them all. You provoke his love of truth-his regard for early impressions-his sense of duty-his hopes of happiness-his pride-his zeal-his obstinacy- his chagrin and his resentment. He who would willingly encounter these knows nothing of the lessons of history. It appears to be the decree of God that religious persecution shall avail its authors only shame and remorse, while it endows its victims with extraordinary courage, insures them the Divine protection, and fits them for heroic suffering and achievement.
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"The ancestors of New England, driven from their home by the persecution of Laud, after a short residence in Holland, where religious and political discussions prevailed with much force and freedom, embarked for America in the hope of enjoying religious liberty, if not at home, yet under the authority of their monarch. They asked his license to live in an uncomfortable wilderness, crowded with dangers; but so obnox- ious were their doctrines and so slighted their loyalty that they were refused protection and only promised indifference. They came, however, and the treachery of the Dutch, who had furnished tliem a refuge, caused them to be landed far north of their original destination.
"Houseless, frozen, miserable outcasts! Why not forsake your hopeless enterprise, and leave the great men of the earth the costly office of planting colonies, enliglitening the heathen, and taming the savage ?
"'It was not,' to use their own language, 'with us as with common men, whom small things could discourage or small discontents cause to wish to be again at home.' They formed on board their ship a plan of civil and political government, a strict and 'sacred bond to take care of the good
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of the whole,' and disembarked with a fearless intrepidity, inspired by conscience and justified by Heaven.
"If on this day, after the lapse of two cen- turies, one of the Fathers of New England, released from the sleep of death, could reappear on earth, what would be his emotions of joy and wonder! In lieu of a wilderness, here and there interspersed with solitary cabins, where life was scarcely worth the danger of preserving it, he would behold joyful harvests, a population crowded even to satiety-villages, towns, cities, states, swarming with industrious inhabitants, hills graced with temples of devotion, and valleys vocal with the early lessons of virtue. Casting his eye on the ocean, which he past in fear and trembling, he would see it covered with enterpris- ing fleets returning with the whale as their captive, and the wealth of the Indies for their cargo. He would behold the little colony which he planted grown into gigantic stature and forming an honor- able part of a glorious confederacy, the pride of the earth and the favorite of Heaven. He would witness with exaltation the general prevalence of correct principles of government and virtuous habits of action; how gladly would he gaze upon
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the long stream of light and renown from Har- vard's classic fount, and the kindred springs of Yale, of Providence, of Dartmouth, and of Bruns- wick. Would you fill his bosom with honest pride, tell him of Franklin, who made the thunder sweet music and the lightning innocent fireworks -of Adams, the venerable sage reserved by heaven, himself a blessing, to witness its blessings on our nation-of Ames, whose tongue became and has become an angel's-of Perry,
Blest by his God with one illustrious day, A blaze of glory, ere he passed away.
"And tell him: Pilgrim of Plymouth, these are thy descendants. Show him the stately struc- tures, the splendid benevolence, the masculine intellect, and the sweet hospitality of the metropo- lis of New England. Show him that immortal vessel whose name is synonymous with triumph and each of her masts a scepter. Show him the glorious fruits of his humble enterprise and ask him if this, all this, be not an atonement for his suffering, a recompense for his toils, a blessing on his efforts, and a heart-expanding triumph for the Pilgrim adventurer. And if he be proud. of his offspring, well may they boast of their parentage.
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"The descendants of New England, wherever situated, must regard with sympathy the land of their ancestors and look back with pride upon their common origin. The statesman can find no brighter example of union, strength, and harmony than that under which these early associates grew into celebrity and power. They knew no sectional divisions, they were one-the strong supporting the weak, the weak confiding in the strong. They were wise, but alas, wisdom belongs to poverty and danger, and not to pride or prosperity."
WILLIAM JOHN GRAYSON, JR.
William John Grayson, Jr., was born in Beau- fort, South Carolina, November 10, 1788. He was graduated from the South Carolina College in 1809, studied law, and entered upon its practice in his native town. He was a many-sided man- he possessed the rare capacity of doing many dif- ferent things and doing them well.
He was successively a commissioner in equity of South Carolina, a member of the legislature, and state senator.
Mr. Grayson opposed the Tariff Act in 1831. He served two terms in Congress and afterward
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became collector of customs of the port of Charles- ton. He joined the New England Society in 1841 and was prominent in its deliberations.
During the secession agitations of 1850, Mr. Grayson published "A Letter to Governor Sea- brook," deprecating disunion, and with cogent argument he pointed out the evils that would certainly follow it. In addition to his political prominence, Mr. Grayson was a literateur of attainments. Among his publications were The Hireling and Slave, The Country, 'Chicora and Other Poems, and The Life of James Lewis Petigru.
He was also a patron of art. Through his in- fluence a number of art exhibitions were brought to Charleston from the more advanced art centers of the United States.
His portrait hangs in the Charleston Library as one of the representative men of letters of South Carolina.
He died in Newberry, South Carolina, Octo- ber 4, 1865.
SAMUEL GILMAN
The Reverend Samuel Gilman was a national character. When he died in 1858 there was scarcely a newspaper or periodical of prominence
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in the United States which did not publish a sketch of his well-spent life. The appreciation which follows is taken essentially from the New York Tribune:
"The decease of the Reverend Dr. Gilman, of Charleston, South Carolina, is announced as having taken place on Monday, February 8, at Kingston, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, where he was on a visit for his health at the resi- dence of his son-in-law, the Reverend C. J. Bowen. Dr. Gilman was widely known in New England, of which he was a native, and in his adopted state of South Carolina as a scholar of singularly varied attainments, an able and impres- sive preacher, a writer of a rare and delicate humor, as well as of masculine sense and classical taste, and a man whom it was difficult not to admire for his uncommon social qualities, his large catholicity of view, and his gracious and conciliatory bearing. He was born February 16, 1791, in the old town of Gloucester, Massachu- setts, where his father had been a wealthy mer- chant, but by a sudden reverse of fortune left his family dependent on their own resources.
"At an early age he became a member of the household of the Reverend Samuel Peabody, of
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Atkinson, New Hampshire, whose quaint primi- tive ways are described with inimitable humor in a biographical sketch by Mr. Gilman, published in the Christian Examiner. He entered Harvard College in 1807, and after the usual course of study was graduated in a class which numbers among its members many names of the most honorable distinction in Church and State. With such competitors as Edward Everett, Reverend Dr. Frothingham, Judge B. F. Dunkin, and others who have since become widely celebrated, he obtained honors of a high order, and after com- pleting his professional studies was appointed to an office in the university which he filled with success until 1819, when he accepted an invitation to become the pastor of the Unitarian Church, in Charleston, South Carolina. He was soon after ordained, and for nearly forty years labored in the position in which he was placed in early manliood. "During his residence in Cambridge he was a frequent contributor to the North American Review, in which periodical his papers are marked by their polished elegance of diction, the grace and felicity of their illustrations, and their racy humor. After his removal to Charleston he continued to write for different periodicals, his
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contributions embracing a wide range of subjects, from profound philosophical discussions to spar- kling satirical essays. A selection of these was published in a volume a few years since, and now forms an appropriate memorial of his fame. Among his productions the "Recollections of a New England Village Choir" has perhaps become the most generally popular. For apt logical description, a keen sense of the ludicrous, and a happy intuition of characteristic peculiarities, it has seldom been matched in the humorous litera- ture of this country.
"Dr. Gilman also possessed the gift of poetry, which he cultivated with no inconsiderable suc- cess. He had luxuriant fancy, an excellent com- mand of natural imagery, and great fluency of expression, though no one could claim for him the higher powers of imagination or depth of passion.
"As a pulpit orator he was affectionate and persuasive, equally removed from languor and vehemence, never boisterous, but always in earnest, loving the sphere of universal ethics rather than the subtleties of sectarian doctrine, and commending the great lessons he taught by the shining and noble example of his private life.
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His influence was not confined within the precincts of his own church but spread a kindly and attrac- tive atmosphere in the midst of strenuous theo- logical differences. Although his natural tastes would perhaps have inclined him more strongly to an academic or a purely literary life than to the clerical profession, he never shrank from the most faithful allegiance to the duties of his calling. Succeeding a man of rare endowments and admir- able personal traits, he soon won not only the devoted affection of his charge, but the esteem of the whole community to which he came as a stranger but where he was at once recognized as a friend. His occasional visits to the home of his youth kept his ancient intimacies unbroken; old associations were preserved amid the excitement of novel scenes and fresh interests; and now that he has passed away, his remembrance will be tenderly cherished both by those to whom he devoted the maturity of his strength, and those among whom he has found a grave."
Mr. A. S. Willington, editor of the Courier, and president of the New England Society, paid the following tribute to the memory of Dr. Gilman:
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