Whitman was not a man to loiter, and we next hear of him closeted
with the staunch friend of Oregon, Horace Greeley of the New York
Tribune. Greeley knew and admired a heroic character, and he highly
complimented Whitman and his work in the Tribune. He proceeded to
Boston to report to the American Board, to receive any reprimand for
violation of rules and to transact minor affairs of the missions in
Oregon. The enemies of Whitman have again and again gone over the old
records of the American Board to find some severe rebuke to the man
who "dabbled in politics." But if any rebuke was offered, it was
careful to make no record of it. But it may be said the governors of
the American Board evidently failed to comprehend in their anxiety to
keep clear of all complications between "Church and State," that they
were dealing with an _inspired man_, who had rendered the greatest
possible service to the nation and to Protestant Christianity. They
did another good act, either through pride for one of their
missionaries or from generosity they sent him to a tailor shop for a
complete suit of cloth clothes, which his own slim pocket-book could
not afford. It took the American Board just fifty years from the
date of his death to see that the man in furs and leather breeches
from Oregon, who stood humbly before them upon that occasion, was one
of the grandest characters, as Christian and patriot, that they ever
before or since enrolled as missionary! They waked up to that fact in
1897, when the great organization assembled in annual council, called
attention to the fact, that it was "the fiftieth anniversary of the
death of Dr. Marcus Whitman, an eminent missionary of the Board," and
appointed special services to be held in several leading cities, and
a general observance of that day. It was a thoughtful, educational,
Christian act, which, if the old martyr could from his eternal
mansion look down and hear, would make him glad.
The good Presbyterians who were a part of the American Board at that
time, and were not then at all anxious to share in any honors to
Whitman, latterly saw new light in something of the character
grandeur of the neglected missionary. They caused a beautiful statue
of Dr. Marcus Whitman to be placed in their Witherspoon building at
Philadelphia. To the boys and young men, let me say the lesson in
this is, that all good things come to the good who wait! Stand true
for the right. It was that which has resurrected the name and honor
of Whitman, after long years of neglect, and will make his name
shine, and glow with increasing luster, as the years come and go!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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