Rev. R. N. T. Holliday.
The following account of the persecutions of this good and useful minister of the gospel is furnished by Dr. Oregon Richmond, “who was an officer in the Federal army, and always anxious for the triumph of the Union forces.” Upon that ground he properly claims the absence of undue bias from his statement. The whole case is so fully and minutely reported that it needs neither introduction nor comment to aid in a due appreciation of the facts:
“Canton, Mo., March 8, 1869.
“At the request of Rev. R. N. T. Holliday, I have consented to put together and transmit the somewhat remarkable events of that period of his life connected with the late war troubles. This request is the result of an antipathy on his part to acting the part of a self-eulogist. In my judgment no greater eulogy can be written of a minister of the gospel than that of a calm, unvarnished recital of the persecution to which that class of our citizens was subjected during the prevalence of, and immediately subsequent to, the late war.
“And perhaps, after all, it is but simple justice that these facts should be written by one who was an officer in the Federal army, and always anxious for the triumph of the Union forces. Though an officer in the Union army, he can thank God that his military life is unstained by a single act of cruelty or persecution; and, above all, is he thankful that he never made use of his military power to war against the institutions of Heaven or the chosen instruments ordained for their establishment amongst men. In other words, he was not attached to a Missouri regiment, is not a son of Missouri, and hence has never been instructed in the mysteries of that department of military tactics that teaches the wonderful doctrine that the truest patriotism consists in the abuse of defenseless women and children, and the subversion of the sublimest precepts of religion by the persecution and murder of its chosen apostles.
“In September, 1860, Rev. R. N. T. Holliday, the subject of this sketch, was appointed by the Missouri Conference of the M. E. Church, South, of which he has long been a member, to Rushville, in Buchanan county, Mo. In the ensuing spring the war commenced, but it was not until May, 1861, that he received the first intimation of the approaching trouble that would draw him into its clutches, and ultimately make him a wanderer and an exile from his chosen field of usefulness.
“About that time a Union meeting was held near Rushville, and addressed by Hon. Willard P. Hall and others from St. Joseph. Mr. Holliday was urged to be present and reply on behalf of the South; this he declined to do. He was not even present at the meeting, believing that ministers of the gospel should keep themselves unspotted from the political strifes of men. Yet his enemies said that he stayed away through personal fear, and he was henceforth the subject of various kinds of annoyances and petty persecutions.
“The Conference of September, 1861, returned Mr. Holliday to Rushville. He was not molested until March, 1862, when Brig.-General W. P. Hall issued a proclamation requiring all men subject to military duty to enroll themselves in the State militia. Mr. Holliday refused to enroll, upon the ground that ministers were exempt from military duty. Gen. Hall sent him word at once, that if he did not enroll he would have him arrested. Mr. Holliday replied that, being exempt from military duty by the laws of the State, he could but consider the demand extra-official, and if an arrest must be the result of non-compliance with an illegal demand, he preferred to be arrested. Upon this General Hall addressed a note to Mr. H. in the politest terms, requesting an interview to arrange the difficulty. Trusting the General’s honor, Mr. Holliday complied; but, upon presenting himself at headquarters, the General refused to see him, and ordered him taken to the Provost-Marshal’s office for enrollment. Gen. Bassett, the Provost-Marshal, had the entrance to his office securely guarded after Mr. H. was admitted, and informed him that he must enroll under Order 19, as a Union man, and submit to a physical examination, or under Order 24, as a rebel sympathize; and pay a commutation fee of $30. Finding submission inevitable, or something worse, Mr. H. registered under Order 24, but refused to pay the commutation as an unlawful and an unauthorized exaction, and demanded his exemption papers as a minister of the gospel, at the same time producing his ordination parchments. General Bassett, after some delay, gave him exemption papers, and, after considerable annoyance, he gave him a pass also, which enabled him to travel back and forth and fill his appointments without further molestation than an occasional petty persecution, the instigation of malice, and an occasional threat of being shot.
“During the summer of 1862 Mr. Bassett was superseded in the office of Provost-Marshal by a Mr. W. Tool, who had been up to that period a minister in the M. E. Church, South. He had, however, apostatized, and joined the M. E. Church, North.
“Mr. Bassett’s brief apprenticeship in villainy fitted him for, and he was appointed to, a higher office. Mr. Holliday was requested to fill the pulpit made vacant by the military prohibition upon Rev. W. M. Rush, of St. Joseph, and the ladies of the church in which Mr. Rush had been silenced waited on Provost-Marshal Tool and requested permission for Mr. Holliday to fill the silent pulpit. Mr. Tool, who was acting in the interest of the North Methodists, refused to permit Mr. H. to come to St. Joseph to preach the gospel.
“In September, 1862, Mr. Holliday was sent to Platte City, and there remained unmolested until the following June, when soldiers from Kansas took his horse, which he never saw afterward. He borrowed another, which was also stolen and carried off. He thus lost two horses in as many weeks.
“About the middle of July, 1863, Col. Jennison, of Kansas, went to Platte City and burned the town. His men were ordered to shoot Mr. Holliday down at sight. Knowing the character of Jennison’s men, and being apprised of the order by a Union man, Mr. H. made good his escape, leaving his family at Mr. Redman’s. On the evening of his flight his house, containing all that he had in the world, except what the family had on, was given to the flames. His family were thus made destitute and reduced to beggary.
“The next day, at 3 P. M., Mr. Holliday was arrested, by order of a Clinton county militia captain, and taken to Plattsburg. He was there subject to some indignities, until Mr. Cockrell informed Captain Irvine, commander of the post, of the facts, who, being a gentleman and a Mason, ordered the instant release of Mr. Holliday.
“The next day Capt. Irvine was killed in an engagement with the rebels. This very much enraged the militia, and an order was issued again to shoot Mr. H. on sight. He again made his escape by flight and concealment. He remained ten days at the residence of Mr. Powell, of Clinton county, but upon hearing of the order to shoot him, he, with two other ministers, Messrs. Tarwater and Jones, took refuge in the woods, and made their way on foot to Osborn, where Mr. Holliday met his family, and all took the train to Quincy, Ill. They remained in Illinois until the war closed, in 1864, doing the best he could as a minister of the gospel. Returning to Missouri in 1865, he met the Conference at Hannibal, and was appointed to the Shelbyville circuit.
“By this time the New Constitution had been declared the fundamental law of the State, and under it all ministers of the gospel were required to take the iron-clad ‘test oath’ as a qualification for the work of the ministry, or subject themselves to arrest, indictment, fine or imprisonment.
“Actuated by the same motives of conscience that impelled all true ministers of the gospel, he promptly refused to take and subscribe said oath. He was, therefore, arrested and indicted by the grand jury of Shelby county for preaching and teaching as a minister of the gospel without having, under oath, attested his past and present loyalty to the Government of the United States. The said indictment bore the signatures of Wm. M. Boulware, Circuit Attorney, E. S. Holliday, Foreman of Grand Jury, and James Ralph, C. R. Colton and Wm. Colton as witnesses. A copy of the indictment is in Mr. Holliday’s possession, to be handed down to his children as a memento of his sufferings and triumphs in the cause of his Master. It will doubtless make their faith doubly strong in the principles of that holy religion for which he endured so much privation, persecution and personal danger.
“Mr. Holliday was subsequently indicted for the same offense, and held in a bond of $500 for appearance at the November term of the Shelby Court. Mr. M. C. Hawkins, a lawyer of Canton, made an able argument on a motion to quash the indictment, which motion was not sustained, and the case was continued to the ensuing May term, when a nolle pros equi was entered and Mr. Holliday released.
“The facts above narrated I have received from Mr. Holliday’s own lips. He was so reticent of matters concerning himself personally that I can not but regard this as a very meagre epitome of all that he was required to do and to suffer in the performance of the work his Master gave him to do. He evidently is already richly rewarded in the depths of his own consciousness, and justly decided that nothing man may say for him can serve in the smallest degree to increase that reward.
“[Signed] Oregon Richmond.”
The persecutions in the early part of the war were not without a sharp discrimination in favor of the prominent ministers of the M. E. Church, South. Few were exempt. The exceptional cases were either in the large cities or under the protection of partisan loyalty. For some reason the leading ministers of the Church, South, were looked upon as the very ringleaders of the Southern revolt against the Government. So general was this belief amongst the officers of the Union army, that whoever escaped their surveillance had to prove a negative in the face of the most unwarranted and unfounded presumptions of guilt, supported and flanked by the deepest rooted prejudices and the most blinded passion. Nor is this putting the case too strongly. It is not in excess of the facts.
No matter how guarded, how prudent, how cautious in public or private life, the tongue of the accuser always reached the official ear before the accused was aware of his summons to the official bar.
That good old maxim of the English common law, that assumed a man to be innocent until he was proven to be guilty, was reversed. Men were assumed to be guilty, and they had to prove their innocence if they could, or suffer the penalty of assumed guilt.
And, indeed, the right of trial was granted to but few. Many, very many, suffered imprisonment and death without ever being so much as informed of the crime for which they suffered.
The day of eternity alone will reveal the nameless crimes which men in authority, and men without authority, committed during the late civil war. May a merciful Providence forever spare the country a repetition of the horrible scenes through which it has so recently passed. These reflections are suggested by the murder of the