PREFATORY NOTE.
“In the following pages the reader may find an account of some of those horrible outrages perpetrated on Christian ministers in Missouri, chiefly because they were Christian men and Christian ministers; but scarce a tenth of all such outrages have been, or likely ever will be, placed before the public. They have cast a foul and ineraseable blot upon the fame of the State of Missouri, and must consign the immediate perpetrators to an infamy as lasting and as hateful as that of the most cruel persecutors of Christians in gone-by ages. And what deepens, blackens and renders more odious the guilt of these things is, they were for the greater part done by, or under the sanction of, men professing to love and follow the Lord Jesus Christ; with a claim to, and under the pretext of, a purer patriotism and holier Christianity, they committed atrocities that would disgrace barbarians and savages.
“It is well the record of these horrible deeds be preserved, that the better portion of the people in this and other States may have some knowledge of what was done and suffered here during the dark and bloody days, from 1861 to ’65.
“Many of those, directly or indirectly, implicated in these deeds of cruelty and shame are now loud and earnest in their entreaties for ‘by-gones to be by-gones,’ and profess great grief that anything should be said or done ‘to keep alive the feelings of the past.’ It is not strange they should feel thus; but can they reasonably expect an honest and outraged people should continue to cover up such abominations, receive those who committed them into respectable society, and treat them as though they were innocent, honest, high-minded, Christian gentlemen? That would be strange—passing strange! No! Truth and righteousness, justice and mercy, alike demand that a faithful record of all such inhuman outrages be made, extensively circulated and carefully preserved; that all the perpetrators, instigators and abettors be consigned to that infamy they so deservedly earned. Of such a record this is the first volume, and it is hoped another, and another, and, if need be, yet another, will be forthcoming, until the whole matter shall be placed in its true and proper light.
“Of the manner in which the author has performed his work in the pages following I need not speak. Each reader will judge for himself, and each will find something to interest and instruct. The facts developed are exceedingly suggestive, and suggestive, too, in regard to all the interests of society.
“The thoughtful render will naturally inquire as to the cause of, and reason for, such things, as well as to their natural and legitimate effects, and this may induce an honest, healthful inquiry as to what influences should be brought to bear to make men better, and thus prevent the recurrence of such things as are here detailed. Let the book be extensively circulated, carefully read, and its contents well considered.
“D. R. M’ANALLY.
“Carondelet, Mo., December 29, 1869.”
“St. Louis, December 24, 1869.
“Rev. W. M. Leftwich:
“Dear Sir—I have seen the proof sheets of a large portion of the first volume of ‘Martyrdom in Missouri,’ now soon to come from the press.
“The publication of this book meets my hearty approval. I have met with some who say, ‘Let the past sleep; let all its crimes, and the had blood engendered by them, be buried forever.’ I have not so learned Christ. He, the Incarnate Love, charged the blood of the prophets upon the sons of their murderers. The true work of Christian charity is to eradicate crime, not to ignore it. The maudlin sentiment that would daub over the great public crimes committed by the highest dignitaries of the Northern Methodist Church and their representatives in the South and along the border, is not charity. It is at best a clumsy counterfeit of that chief of the virtues. True charity will seek to bring them to confession and recantation of their deeds.
“To all their former misdeeds they now add, to avoid the shame of the past, denials, equivocation and, as in the case of the Holston property seized by them, false recriminations. The sober truth is that they never hesitated during the time of our public trouble to use the influence an active partisanship gave them with the party in power, to take possession of our property, either by military order, or terrorism, or mob violence. The public conscience of that Church seems to have been debauched by their efforts to defraud us of our property at the time of the division of the Church.
“But the stench of these recent atrocities is so strong in the nostrils of the people that the perpetrators resort to the ever open refuge of the evil-doer—denial. This book is opportune. The great body of the preachers and members of the Church North are honest men. The denials made by their leading men and Church papers they suppose to be true. Here are facts in detail, with places, names, dates, and copies of legal proceedings taken from official sources.
“Before the war, when Northern preachers were objects of suspicion, and public demonstrations were sometimes made against them, the editor of the St. Louis Christian Advocate, Rev. D. R. M‘Anally, raised his voice against all mobs and mob violence with a will and an emphasis that left no covert suggestions of encouragement to those who might have been disposed to resort to violent measures. Led by the Advocate, the whole Southern Church in the State gave its influence, publicly and privately, against all violent proceedings. If that paper and our Church had, at that time, pursued the course that the Northern preachers and papers did towards us during the war, they would have been driven from the State. As it was, in order to get credit for persecution, they had to resort to the most remarkable tricks. Take, for instance, the case, given with proper names in this book, of one of their camp meetings being broken up by the preacher in charge of it being caught in the act of adultery—broken up by their own members. This they published to the world as a case of persecution by Southern people.
“While I do not agree fully with all the views set forth in the preliminary chapters of this volume, I am prepared to say that the facts bearing on the main topic have been collected and verified with great care, and that there can be no doubt of the accuracy of the statements. You have been pleased to hold yourself responsible, giving proper names, dates, etc. I do not hesitate to invite upon myself a full share of the responsibility.
“Hoping that you will soon have the second volume, containing the names of our other murdered brethren, ready for the press,
“I am, very respectfully,
“E. M. MARVIN.”
INTRODUCTION.
BY
REV. T. O. SUMMERS, D.D.
The author of the following work has desired an expression of our opinion in regard to its publication. We have read the manuscript with painful interest, and are free to say that we have had some misgivings as to the expediency of sending it forth to the world. The facts here brought to light are so revolting, and their record is so damaging to the reputation of those by whom they were perpetrated and their aiders and abettors, that we might well hesitate, as to the propriety of their publication. As Methodists, in particular, we are strongly tempted to throw the veil of oblivion over those scenes of oppression and outrage, in which many of our co-religionists of the North bore so conspicuous a part.
But the cause of truth and righteousness demands the publication. There is a measure of retribution which must not be relegated to the “judgment to come,” but which must be dealt out in the present world.
We owe it to “the noble army of martyrs,” whose lives were sacrificed to appease the demands of fanaticism, bigotry, cruelty, and hate, that their murderers shall not go unwhipped of justice—at least, such castigation as the truth of history can inflict.
We owe it to those who were made widows and orphans by the monsters who enacted these bloody scenes, to let the world know that the husbands and fathers of these innocent sufferers were not rebels and traitors, but good men and true, “of whom the world was not worthy.”
We owe it to the institutions of our country to let it be known that the appalling scenes that were enacted during the late reign of terror were not the result of the principles which underlie our Federal and State governments, but of the palpable contravention of them.
We owe it to the ecclesiastical bodies of the South that posterity shall be told who invaded their rights; who robbed them of their churches, parsonages, cemeteries, and seminaries; who murdered, scourged, and plundered, and banished many of their ministers and lay members, including even women and children, because they would not compromise principles which they held dearer than life itself.
It is well for the world to be told that moral heroism has not, like Astræa, left the earth and ascended to the skies. Thank God! there have been heroes in our times; and we are encouraged to believe that the race will not soon become extinct. The night of persecution would bring such stars to view again. Daniel and the “three children,” the Maccabees, the Apostles, Polycarp, Ignatius, and other victims of Pagan persecution in primitive times—the Albigenses, Waldenses, Huguenots, the Marian martyrs, and other victims of papal persecution—Nonconformist and Remonstrant confessors, who “took joyfully,” or at least patiently, “the spoiling of their goods,” imprisonment, exile, and sometimes death—these have had their successors in the fearful times through which we have passed, and the record of them gives us a guaranty that under similar circumstances such heroes will appear again.
In perusing this work one is constantly reminded of the saying of the wise man, “Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time which was before us.” He had seen similar evils to those which we have seen and suffered. “There is an evil which I have seen under the sun as an error which proceedeth from the ruler: folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place. I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.” “So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter.” Then, as in our late calamitous times, good men mourned as they were forced to
——bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes.
The history of these terrible transactions is valuable, too, as an admonitory lesson, teaching us that no sect is absolutely proof against the seductive influence of political power and ascendency. Down to the present decade the Methodists could plume themselves with an honest satisfaction upon the fact that while nearly all other sects had risen to power and abused it to persecuting purposes, they never had. It was, indeed, sometimes insinuated that they never had persecuted because they never had the power to do so. But they contended, and, it was thought, with good reason, that the principles of Methodism, being so pure, spiritual, and catholic, would be a sure safeguard from political alliances, worldly ambitions, and persecuting practices; but, alas! that ground of boasting is taken away. The devil came with his “third temptation” to Northern Methodists, including even bishops of the Church, and they did not say, “Get thee hence, Satan!” They ascended by the devil’s ladder to “thrones of power,” and played such tricks during the continuance of their brief authority as made the angels weep! The wrongs of 1844 and 1848 developed into horrible atrocities in the sun of political prosperity which shone upon them during the war which subjugated the South. The lesson, we repeat, is admonitory. We trust in God no such temptation will ever be set before the Southern Church; it seems to be “a test for human frailty too severe.”
It is not intended by these remarks to inculpate all the ministers and members of the Northern Methodist Church. God forbid! There are thousands among them who have not bowed the knee to Baal. They are attached to the Northern connection because of their location—they denounce the evil deeds of their brethren; indeed, in many instances they are not apprised of them, or honestly believe that they are gross exaggerations.
These enormities, however, are, to a great extent, charged upon the Northern Methodist Connection because they were perpetrated by its bishops and other agents; endorsed, or at least not disowned, by General and Annual Conferences, and have not been repented of until this day. Need any one seek further for a reason why the Southern Church wants no fellowship with those who murder, rob, oppress, and slander its ministers and members, or sanction those who do?
It must not be supposed that we lay all the blame upon Northern Methodists—other Churches furnished their quota of persecution and oppression, though, for obvious reasons, Southern Methodists suffered more from their Northern co-religionists than from any other parties. Thus was it with pagan and popish persecutions—a man’s foes were frequently those of his own household. Apostates have ever been the most bitter and unscrupulous persecutors. This is a painful reflection. The eagle is pierced by an arrow feathered from an eagle’s wing! Thus history repeats itself.
The perusal of this work will teach us not to put our trust in man, not even in princes; no, nor in institutions of our own framing, written constitutions, compacts, and the like, which upon occasion may prove to be worth no more than the parchment on which they are engrossed.
Nothing is perfectly true, and just, and good, and stable, but the kingdom of God. Nevertheless, the recital of the horrors portrayed in this book, which contains a mere modicum of what might be narrated, ought to lead us to thank God most devoutly that these calamities are nearly overpast, and we have the prospect of civil and religious liberty, which we know better than ever how to appreciate. The changes which have taken place in the government of the United States lead many to entertain gloomy anxieties for the future, and to despair of the permanency of republican institutions; yet we venture to hope that a wise, gracious, and powerful Providence will so interpose in behalf of our country that these forebodings will not be realized.
We may just state that we are assured of the truth of many of the details in this work by other testimonies; and for the rest we depend confidently on the accuracy of the author, who has taken great pains in collecting his materials from the most trustworthy sources. He is a reputable minister of the Missouri Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and holds himself responsible for all that he narrates.
T. O. S.
Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 22, 1869.