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ADDRESS
DELIVERED ON THE DAY OF THE
AfEOlFAE. FAif, MAY M. 11S411,
AT A UNITED MEETING OF THE
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES IN ANDOVER.
â– .S^
BY B. B. EDWARDS,
PROF. IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, ANDOVER.
\
ANDOVER:
PUBLISHED BY WILLIAIW PEIRCE
ALLEN AND MORRILL, PRINTERS.
1841.
Ando-cer, May 14, 1841.
Rev. B. B. Edwards — Dear Sir,
The undersigned, ministers of tlie several denominations of Christians in
this town, having to-day, with tlieir people, listened, with great pleasure, to
your eloquent and appropriate Address on tlie cliaracter of General William
H. Harrison, our lamented Chief Magistrate, and wishing to have the senti-
ments expressed in it placed before their fellow-townsmen, and the public
generally, do hereby most respectfully request a copy for publication.
B. LORING.
S. C. JACKSOxN.
J. PAGE.
S. FULLER, Jr.
J. L. TAYLOR.
N. HERVEY.
Z. A. MUDGE.
WM. H. GRISWOLD.
ADDRESS.
The event whicli has called us together on this occasion,
is commonly spoken of as unexpected. That the President
of the United States should die, immediately upon his ele-
vation to his high office, appears to have been wholly unan-
ticipated. Possibly not one in a thousand of those who con-
tributed to his election, ever imagined, that he could claim no
exemption from the common lot of man. It seems to have
been taken for granted, that after one had reached the object
of his wishes, perhaps the fruit of a long and hard struggle,
he should be permitted to enjoy it awhile ; that even the in-
exorable enemy would show some pity.
But is it so ? Does the crown which was yesterday put on,
sit more firmly than that which has been worn for half a cen-
tury ? Is the life, which is vigorous to-day, insured against the
accidents of to-morrow ? On the contrary, is there not in the
anxiety and heated action which are incident to the pursuit of
power, or wealth, or great usefulness, an obvious cause, why
the over-tasked frame should suddenly fail ? Besides, no ob-
servation is more common, and none is more just, than that
adversity is set over against prosperity ; and often it is an in-
visible line which divides them.
â– We read, last week, in the public papers, of a family that
had come into the possession of about all which is commonly
regarded as desirable. A joyous household shared in the
nameless deligiits which wealth honorably acquired, could se-
cure. But in three or four days, an only son was borne from
that household to his burial-place, and the frantic mother,
like R,achel, refused to be comforted.
Last November, a youthful preacher,^ whom some of you
knew, was set apart to his work. Many years he had spent,
most industriously, in the fields of human and sacred learn-
ing. Rich in acquisition, graceful in manners, bland in tem-
per, strong in aspiration, he entered upon his labors. A large,
and almost for the first time unanimous, congregation hung
upon his lips, as if they uttered the accents of angels. The
educated and the illiterate alike acknowledged his mastery
over them. But he passed away like some dream of the night
which is too delicious to be real. In four short months, he
added another impressive commentary upon frail man's fond-
est hopes. He had hardly essayed his polished armor before
he must put it oft' forever.
On the 17th of April last, a morning newspaper in a neigh-
boring city informed us that the proprietor and principal edi-
tor would on that afternoon embark for Europe. He had
labored long and almost convulsively in his vocation. His
sleepless vigilance was crowned with success. Those for
whom he battled so unintermittingly came into power, and
the worn laborer thought that he might rest from his toil.
"I have dreamed all my life," he said, ''of seeing Europe.
To-day I go : yes, I am going to Rome. These eyes will
" Rev. William Bradford Homer.
soon gaze on tlie Eternal City." He did embark, but it was
upon that great ocean from wliich no voyager returns.
These, however, it may be said, were individuals in private
life. They did not sit in the seat of presidents or kings.
Surely the men who are high in power, and who are en-
trenchina: themselves in the warm affections of millions,
will not thus pass away. Their premature death will
not crush in the germ hopes which are so sanguine. But
what is the testimony of the historian ? What are tlie annals
of States and Empires ? Is it not the concurrent voice of
history both sacred and profane, that it is the good, the ar-
dently beloved among sovereigns who die first, while those,
"whose hearts are dry as summer dust, burn to the socket."
Across the centre of the Holy Land, from the Mediterra-
nean to the Jordan, is a large plain, called the valley of Jez-
reel, or the plain of Esdraelon, which has been the theatre of
many sanguinary battles, from the days of Joshua to those of
Bonaparte and Sir Sidney Smith. Thirty-three hundred years
ago, the brook which winds its way through this plain, was
called the Kishon of battles. A few hundred years later, its
pure water was reddened with the blood of a Jewish monarch,
who there fell mortally wounded. Never, perhaps, did death
come in more affecting circumstances. Hardly in the page of
universal history is there a character more faultless than his.
In his continued life, the very existence of his nation was
bound up. He fell too in the meridian of his days, when he
was just ready to enjoy the fruits of the gigantic reformation
which he had accomplished. Well might the tearful Jere-
miah lament for Josiah, while all the singing men and singing
women spake of him in their lamentations, for the hope of the
6
nation was extinct, and we sliut up the remaining history in
despair.
Coming down to modern times, we find that the best king
that France ever had, Henry the Fourth, the most interesting
monarch, it is said, whom history describes, the defender of
Protestantism against hosts of enemies, whose only victories,
during a large part of his life, were those which he won over
the hearts of his subjects by his generosity, magnanimity and
patience, fell by the dagger of a Jesuit ; he fell too just as
he was on the point of commencing a great enterprise for the
peace of Europe. The grief for his death partook of the
character of madness. Tears were the least tokens of sor-
row. Many persons died on learning the catastrophe.
A few years earlier, the English Josiah, the good king Ed-
ward, as he was familiarly called, died in the sixteenth year
of his age, leaving a nation in tears, the Protestant cause in
despair, and the throne to one whose characteristic epithet is,
" the bloody."
' On the 2d of May, 1816, an English princess, of the age
of twenty-one years, was married. She was the undisputed
heiress to the most enlightened and coveted throne of earth ;
and to which she would have brought the spirit of an Eng-
lish queen of former days. She had read much and with dis-
crimination. There was a mingled dignity and sweetness in
her looks. Warmth and openness of heart marked her con-
duct through life. Her cherished place of resort was not tiie
palace, but the cottage of tb.e poor. She was the favorite of
the religious portion of her people, for she was of ])ious hab-
its, and a strict observer of the Sabbath day. When she
found herself blessed with the husband of her choice, and
saw that choice justified by his virtues, she more than once
repeated, tliat she was the happiest woman in the kingdom.
Just eigliteen months after her marriage, her bonnet and
cloak were on the screen where she placed them, and her
watch was suspended upon the wall by her own hands ; and
there they remained untouched for weeks, for the broken-
hearted survivor would not allow them to be removed, and he
looked upon them with such fixedness, as if his eyes had
been marble. Never, perhaps, was there an instance in
which a whole nation, through all its ranks and degrees, was
more deeply moved. Never had a mourning been so univer-
sal; and its universality attested its sincerity. It was as if the
whole people formed but one aflflicted family, and every indi-
vidual had lost a dear sister, an affectionate friend, or a kind
benefactress. To this universal grief, there was but one ex-
ception, and that was the most lamentable sight of all, for
to the old king, there was neither sun, nor moon, nor king-
dom, nor wife, nor children.*
Somewhat similar has been our experience during the last
few weeks. It is not, indeed, over departed youth and beauty,
that the country mourns, but it is over withered hopes,
blasted expectations, and fallen goodness. The solemn ob-
servance of this day, these tokens of universal grief are not
uncalled for. The sorrow is no less considerate and befitting,
than it is extensive and heart-felt. The United States have
experienced a heavy calamity. Everj^ incident which has come
to light respecting the President since his decease, every new
development of his character which has been brought to our
knowledge, is fitted to awaken a profounder impression of
* See the details in the English newspapers, Nov. 1817.
8
our loss, and to create a more thorougii conviction, tliat but
poor justice was done to him while living, even by his more
immediate friends.
We are aware, that there may be some, who, now that the
first shock occasioned by his death has passed away, do not
regard it as a national calamity at all. He died, they say, at
the critical moment for his own fame, before he had plunged
into the treacherous sea of politics. The government will
move on as strongly and as prosperously as before. Only
one of the many eminent men in the nation has been re-
moved. Let us thank God, and take courage.
But we are not among those who can dispose of a great
event so summarily. We are not ready to brand tliis uni-
versal sorrow as a hollow show, or an irrational sympathy. If
it is not to be viewed in the light of a national judgment ; if
in the President's death there be no cause for mourning, why
was he elected to his office ? Why was he borne to it by an
overwhelming majority ? Why should we raise one to his
high position whose death would be nothing more than an
ordinary calamity ? He was not chosen by a mere popular
impulse. Wise and discerning men thouglit that they saw-
in his honesty, integrity, and comprehensive views, evidence
of his eminent fitness for the station.
We cannot, indeed, say what would have happened, had
he lived. We do not know but that the country may be
more prosperous under his successor, than if he had com-
pleted his term of oflnice. These things do not now concern
us. They are understood only by God. They do not, how-
ever, diminish in the least the causes for the national sorrow.
His death may be, in various aspects of it, a most calami-
9
tous event. It may be that his personal influence was in-
dispensable in order to cany through some one of those promi-
nent measures, on which, in the opinion of memy. the repose
of the countT}' depends. It may appear, without reflec-
tion on any other individual, that a President was needed,
whose home wa^s neither in the North, nor in the South, but
in the controlling West. It is a possible thing, that some of
the great religious interests of the country are destined to
suflfer several additional years of embcurassment ; and that,
too. not through any fault of his successor. It may be found,
that as a people we were not worthy of a President who was
manifestly a religious man, and who had determined to exert
that religious influence, w hich is so much needed at our capi-
tal city, and which is so becoming in the Head of a great
Christian people. It may be, that the fate of the \\Tetched
Aborigines was depending on his continued life. Xo para-
graph in his Inaugural Address was perused with a warmer
gush of emotion than that which asserted his determination
to protect their rights. We had hoped, that the time had
now come when their captivity would be turned back, when
some of the wrongs which we have ruthlessly heaped upon
them should be redressed. Their lot has been a hard one,
and the dav of their extinction draws near. General Harri-
son might not have been able to arrest their descent ; but he
would have wiped some of the tears from their cheeks. The
good old soldier would have placed himself between them
and the remorseless whiskev-dealer of the frontier. His heart
was full of tenderness towards them. His death they may
well mourn with bitterer tears than others shed, for no one who
•2
10
has survived him so well understood their peculiar circum-
stances ; none would have administered so effectually to their
relief. For many years, he stood up their unflinching guard-
ian, when they were infested by hordes of depredators and
swindlers.
It is not my intention, on the present occasion, to narrate
the incidents of General Harrison's eventful life. They are,
doubtless, perfectly familiar to all who hear me.
It has seemed to me, that the main features of his charac-
ter might be legitimately deduced from his Inaugural Ad-
dress. With the political views contained in that document,
I shall not meddle. I refer, mainly, to certain moral linea-
ments which cannot be mistaken. The address is perfectly
characteristic of the mind from which it proceeded. It bears
the indubitable impress of the generous soldier, of the man
of integrity, compassion, forbearance, firmness, patriotism,
unaffected simplicity.
Exceptions have, indeed, been taken to it in several respects;
among others, as a literary performance. It does not exactly
please the refined scholar. There are too many words in it ;
and the classical allusions are too frequent. But General
Harrison was not educated as a scholar. His collegiate course
was early interrupted, and never resumed. The days of his
later youth were passed in the unbroken forests and tangled
swamps of the North West Territory. His intellectual disci-
phne was gained in unravelling the plots of the wary trapper,
and in reconciling the feuds of the jealous and fault-finding
emigrant. His academic halls were the ancient woods of Vin-
cennes ; the lamps by which he read Csesar and Tacitus were
11
the watch-fires of Tippecanoe. Ahnost the whole of his adult
life, from the time when he received an ensign's commission
from Washington, was spent in the most laborious practical
duties, far away from books, and from nearly everything
which could nurture a correct literary taste.
We have, however, but little patience with the men who
dwell on defects of this nature. Such defects are not, in-
deed, to be overlooked in documents which emanate from high
places. But compared with certain other things, they are
lighter than the dust of the balance. What we need in these
papers are evidences of candor, benevolence, love of country,
firmness, incorruptible integrity. We want plain, direct,
straight-forward writing, such as flows from the heart of an
honest man, though the style may not be modelled after
Quinctilian, and though the periods are not altogether grace-
ful.
General Harrison had studied Roman History attentively
and fondly, and in the Latin originals. His address through-
out betrays this predilection, while certain features of his char-
acter are in accordance with the models with which he was
familiar.
He possessed the sterling integrity of some of the old Ro-
mans. At certain periods of his life, he had immense pecu-
niary resources at his command. But no one has detected,
after the sharpest scrutiny, the slightest trace of dishonesty.
General Harrison never prostituted any office to the purpose
of personal emolument. By taking advantage of legal tech-
nicalities, he might have become affluent. In former times,
land-titles in the western country were loosely secured. In
12
one case, it is stated, that an individual recovered .f 80,000 for
property vi^hich liis ancestors had designed to ahenate, but for
which they gave no sufficient title. In circumstances almost
precisely similar, General Harrison, in the right of his wife,
might have ejected the honest purchaser, and entered upon
the possession of property of untold value. But, said he,
*' if I have no 7noral title, I have no legal title." * No man
who has filled an office in our country has enjoyed so many
tempting opportunities as General Harrison did, to amass
gi-eat wealth by deviating from the strict line of integrity, and,
at the same time, with less risk of detection. But he had
that nice sense of honor in pecuniary and official engage-
ments, which shrank from the remotest contact with aught
corrupt or mean. With Roman fastidiousness, he disdained
all modes of acquiring wealth, which would not bear investi-
gation. In the Head of a government, in these times of pecu-
lation and fraud, liow inestimable such an example of more
than Catonian probity !
All who knew General Harrison, speak of his unaffected
simplicity. He was a frank, large-hearted, affable farmer.
In his dress, equipage, manners, domestic arrangements, in
all his intercourse with society, he was a plain man. Pride
of office, superciliousness of aspect, impatience of contradic-
tion, airs of busthng importance, were as alien to him, as if
he had had no conception of their existence. He was not
the friend of the people for the sake of winning their ap-
plause, or of buying their votes. Everywhere, and at all
times, he showed the same guileless, unassuming deportment,
* See the Sermon of Rev. Thomas IJrainerd of Pliiladclphia.
13
in office and out of office, retiring from public life, and a can-
didate for its honors.
These qualities were not, however, isolated and dispropor-
tionate. If President Harrison had the unostentatious sim-
plicity of him who was called from the plough to the dictator-
ship, he had his firmness also. Without a large measure of
it, he could never have fulfilled the numerous and com-
plicated trusts which were committed to him. The governor
of a newly-established, ill-defined territory, filling up with
emigrants from every region, who were dissimilar in habits,
and often involved in bickerings and law-suits, must have
been a man of firm nerves. The superintendent of a score
of Indian tribes, that were at enmity with each other, always
jealous of the encroaching white settler, and often the dupes
of some French renegade, or Canadian sharper, could not
have proceeded a single step, if he had not had a will of
his own.
To these characteristics of integrity, simplicity, and decis-
ion, which might have flourished, and which did flourish on
Roman soil, others were associated, which are more peculiarly
the growth of a Christian land. General Harrison was a re-
markably kind and compassionate man. In the document to
which we have referred, there is an entire freedom from all
acerbity of feeling, from all expressions of bitterness towards
the party which had so strenuously sought the election of an-
other individual. There is not a harsh phrase in it. This
magnanimous forbearance characterised his whole life, military
as well as civil. Many of the anecdotes related of him strik-
ingly illustrate his freedom from censoriousness, his habit of
14
putting a charitable construction upon the conduct of others.
In his protracted, pubhc career, he must have met with many
temptations to indulge in exasperated passion and bitter ani-
mosity. Even General Washington, on one or two occasions,
could not control his anger. But among all the military offi-
cers with whom General Harrison was associated, he had no
enemy. All unite in testifying to his habitual kindness, and
his promptitude, in every emergency, to succor those in dis-
tress. Even the poor comforts which followed him in his wet
encampments and forced marches, he was prompt to resign to
one who had greater need, let him be friend or foe. The
miserable man who had determined to take his life, he prompt-
ly rescued from his deserved punishment ; thus exemplifying
that forgiving spirit, which he could not have learned from
Plutarch or Caesar, but which beams from every page of that
volume which it was both his habit and his pleasure to read
morning and evening.
In respect to the most interesting of all questions relating
to the deceased President — his religious character — his coun-
trymen are not required, nor are they competent, to decide.
This must be left with Him who judges without prejudice or
partiality, and before whom the distinctions of earth are of
no avail. Amid the sorrow in which the country is involved,
it is affecting to observe the solicitude which is felt on this
point, and which is not confined to the religious press, or to
professedly religious men. All other questions are merged in
this : Was General Harrison a true Christian ? Every minute
circumstance, every casual incident bearing on this subject, is
repeated, as affording the most precious consolation which
15
can be set before an afflicted people. It shows what are the
honest convictions of men. We are not content with vague
generahties. In the case of one so much beloved, we cannot
rest calmly on mere negative evidence. We search for some-
thing more specific ; we enter into his secret retirements, and
rejoice to find, that, amid the strife of parties, and even the
excitements of a triumphal march, he did not neglect his Ma-
ker, nor his Bible.
This solicitude indicates, also, that there is a conviction in
the public mind of the indispensableness of moral principle in
him who administers our government. We have ceased to
be frightened with the miserable bug-bear of " Church and
State." We do not demand that a president or a judge
should be an atheist, lest he should infringe on the rights of
conscience. For several years a reaction has been going for-
ward in the public mind towards the better feelings and prac-
tices of our early ancestors. Every recognition of a superin-
tending Providence, every reverential allusion to the Inspired
Word, in the doings or writings of the high oflicers of State,
is welcomed with joy by multitudes in every part of our land,
and of all Christian sects.
When it was seen, that General Harrison went beyond this,
and avowed his profound reverence for the Christian system,
as distinguished from Judaism, or from the religion of nature,
multitudes hailed it as a still brighter omen. And when, fur-
ther, it was understood, that this was not mere profession, but
was the utterance of what the President was, and what he
meant to be and to do, how could a Christian people help
feel a rushing of heart towards him ? The blessed days of
16
the Winthrops, tiie Trumbulls, the Belchers, the Boudinots,
the Witherspoons, were coming once more. The high-
est man in the nation was not ashamed to have it known, that
he bowed his knees daily to the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and that he had determined, whatever others
might do to interrupt him, to hallow the Christian Sabbath,
Now when these joyous anticipations were dashed to the
ground by his sudden departure, how could a Christian peo-
ple suppress their tears ? How could they avoid being aston-
ished at the inextficable mystery ? Most appropriately is it
regarded as a national judgment. Pertinently is this day set
apart to learn the solemn lessons which it cannot fail to teach.
I. One use of this bereavement, we say in general, is the
same, which should be made in every instance of per^nal or
family grief. In such a case, you are the subjects of a new
experience. The stony soil in your hearts is broken up.
The vain things which cheat men out of the great object of
life, you instinctively cast aside. Death and the eternal state
rise up before you as vital realities, which are not to be shuf-
fled away by any of the devices which fools may invent. So
in the bereavement which affects a whole people. The na-
tional heart is softened. The general conscience has an un-
wonted susceptibility. Practices which are at war with virtue
and with God, are felt to be what they are, an impertinence,
or an abomination. When the news of the death of the
Princess Charlotte Augusta reached London, the midnight
reveller stole silently away from his unfinished banquet. Not
a theatre was opened, and, we presume, not an infidel club
was held, that week, throughout Great Britain. Thus, when
17
the intelligence of the great calamity which has befallen our