On Saturday, March 12, 1887, Henry Ward Beecher’s body was buried in
Greenwood. His hearse was followed not only by his comrades of the
Thirteenth Regiment, his family, friends, parishioners, and fellow
Brooklynites, but in sympathy and honor by millions of his countrymen.
Not in this generation, at least, has there been a funeral so nobly
significant. In the stately procession walked the viewless forms of
principles, of governments, of nations, and of races; the guardian
spirit of the slave whom he helped to liberate; the fair, sad genius of
the Green Isle, for which he so often and so eloquently pleaded; the
dusky representative of the Chinese Empire, in behalf of whose sons he
again and again _and again_ demanded justice; the fair form of modern
science with the radiance of the morning sun on her queenly brow; the
benign angel of charity, clothed in the whiteness of that purity which
renders sin invisible; Democracy, with her free step, flowing hair and
cap of many hues; Columbia, full of matronly grace and as benign as the
atmosphere of June; and Christianity, calm, motherly, and
forgiving--these were the pallbearers by whom the body of our hero was
borne to its resting-place.
[Illustration: LYMAN ABBOTT]
The Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott was introduced to me by Henry Ward Beecher in
his library one morning in 1877 as the editor of _The Christian Union_,
then known as “Henry Ward Beecher’s paper.” We were about leaving for a
long lecture tour in the West, and the doctor had called to consult and
advise with his chief before leaving. I don’t know when I was ever more
favorably impressed with a gentleman than I was with Dr. Abbott as I
listened to his conversation and the general outline he was submitting
for work ahead. Turning to me, Dr. Abbott said:
“Major Pond, we are anxious to secure from Mr. Beecher full accounts of
his Western tour, as editorial correspondence, and I want to ask your
help. You know how valuable such material must be, as all his friends
are anxious to read every word he writes.”
This is the spirit that Dr. Abbott always manifested as associate editor
with Mr. Beecher up to the end of that partnership, and Mr. Beecher’s
love and appreciation of his friend was equally steadfast.
Mr. Beecher’s interest in _The Christian Union_ never diminished, even
after he left it, he insisting that now he was out of it Dr. Abbott
would feel much more freedom in carrying out his own ideas. Dr. Abbott
was a man of remarkable resources, could work easily, and grasp the
right and the fitness of things, and he was also a man of great
originality of thought, with a mind as clear as crystal, and was
progressive. Mr. Beecher said he wished Dr. Abbott had a body equal to
his head, but, he added, “he works easily and makes no false motions or
superfluous exertion. Every faculty counts.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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