Rev. W. M. Rush.
Few men suffered earlier, or more, than the subject of this notice. For many years the name of the Rev. W. M. Rush has been conspicuous on the rolls of Missouri Methodism. Prominent amongst her ablest and truest ministers and foremost in her aggressive evangelism, he has stood through many years of her history. Identified with her early struggles and a faithful laborer upon her broad foundations, he has grown with her growth and strengthened with her strength, until his life and her history are one. Few men have been more conspicuous in her councils or more distinguished in her fields of labor and conflict. The class-mate of Marvin, the senior and compeer of Caples, the companion of Monroe, and Jordan, and Smith, and Eads, and Johnson, and Redman, and the noble band of Methodist pioneers and patriots, his name will adorn the early annals of the Church, as it will illustrate her later persecutions.
Mr. Rush does not care to conceal the fact that he is a native of Missouri. He was converted to God July 8th, 1838, and united with the Methodist Church the following August. He was licensed to preach in Sept., 1841, and was admitted on trial in the Conference the following October, at Palmyra, Bishop Morris presiding and W. W. Redman acting as Secretary. He has ever been, since that date, an effective itinerant preacher—never sustained any other relation to the Conference.
While traveling the Brunswick district, in 1856, and by the advice of Bishop Pierce, he made arrangements to settle his family in a permanent home, and selected Chillicothe, Livingston county, as the most central and suitable location. He purchased eligible lots, with land adjoining the town, and erected an excellent and commodious residence for his large family. He also improved, furnished and stocked his adjoining lands to make them productive. Here he settled his family and remained until 1860, when he was appointed to St. Joseph station, and it became necessary for him to lease out his property in Chillicothe and move his family to St. Joseph, where he was living when the war broke out in 1861. He was deeply impressed with the necessity of caution and prudence in the conduct of his pulpit and public services, as the people to whom he ministered were divided on the questions at issue in the war. He was so careful not to give offense to any that he framed a somewhat formal prayer to be used in public services touching the troubles of the country.
It was about as follows: “O Thou, who art infinite in wisdom, in goodness and in power, we pray thee so to direct in the affairs of this country, that the events that are now transpiring may all result for thy glory and the well-being of humanity. We pray that those in authority may have wisdom to direct them in adopting such measures as shall be promotive of the best interests of all the people.”
To this form of prayer and the sentiments it contained he thought all good citizens of either party could say, Amen. He carefully abstained from every expression that would be offensive to the sectional feelings and views of any of his congregation. In this he was particular, and, he thought, successful. Matters passed on well enough until early in February, 1862, when, after preaching on Sabbath, he called on the Rev. W. C. Toole, a local preacher, to close the service with prayer. He was a strong partisan, and his language in the prayer was extremely bitter toward those in rebellion against the Government. Though the congregation was much divided in sentiment, they were at peace among themselves. This prayer was like a firebrand. It excited a good deal of feeling, and people of opposite views thought it much out of place. Upon reflection and consultation with his leading brethren, he determined thereafter to close his own services with prayer, which ministers should always do unless other ministers are present and in the pulpit. He pursued this course but one Sabbath afterward, and then a brother minister, the Rev. S. W. Cope, preached for him, when, during the week following, Brigadier-General B. F. Loan, then in command, sent for Mr. Rush to report himself at his headquarters. This he did, and Gen. Loan told him that he had concluded to close his church. Mr. Rush asked him on what account. He replied, “Because of disloyalty.” He was then asked in what respects they were disloyal, and answered that he was informed that a prayer for the Government could not be offered in that church without giving offense.
The whole matter of the prayer of Mr. Toole and the general character of the service were then explained to Gen. Loan. Mr. Rush was careful to give the reasons for avoiding the introduction of anything savoring of sectional views into the public service; that they could not settle the troubles of the country in the church service; that such an effort would only destroy the peace of the church without in the least benefiting the country; that no prayer savoring of secession had ever been offered in the church or would be tolerated on any account; that the course pursued was the only proper one; and that if all the churches in the land would attend to their appropriate work and let politics alone it would be far better for the country. To all of this the General replied that the time had come when there must be a distinction in the churches between patriots and traitors. Mr. Rush told him that he could not discriminate in his church on account of political opinions; that he had been in the ministry more than twenty-five years, and in all that time he had not in a single instance, in prayer or sermon, given utterance to a word or sentence by which his opinions could be known upon any political questions at issue before the country, and that he did not expect in the future to depart from that course. He replied that his mind was made up to close the church. The interview ended, and the church was closed.
Soon afterward the General directed a special order to be issued forbidding Mr. Rush from preaching or conducting any kind of religious service within the bounds of his military district. Thus he was silenced—deposed from the ministry, and his ordination credentials revoked by a military satrap. An ambassador for God stricken down by one stroke of a pen to which bayonets imparted power! A messenger of salvation to dying men silenced by the caprice of shoulder-straps, and one to whom the risen Messiah by his spirit said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” suspended from his divine commission by the decree of human power! A “legate of the skies” at the feet of a miserable specimen of human weakness clothed with a little brief authority! Impious presumption! equaled only by sacrilegious contumely and prurient vanity.
After Gen. Loan was dismissed from the military service by Gov. Gamble, and Gen. W. P. Hall had succeeded him in command of the district, Mr. Rush addressed a note to Gen. Hall, calling his attention to the order of Gen. Loan, and asking its revocation. Mr. Rush hoped for much consideration at the hands of Gen. Hall from a somewhat intimate acquaintance of sixteen years, and the further fact that at the beginning of the troubles their views were in perfect harmony. He had no doubt whatever but that the silencing order of Gen. Loan would at once be revoked. But for once he had mistaken the man. Mr. R. did not then properly estimate the power of the German Radicals of the district nor the ambition of Gen. Hall—the necessity for him to manufacture a character for extreme loyalty, in doing which he would sacrifice any man or any principle that stood in the way of his personal promotion.
Gen. Hall not only refused to revoke the order of Gen. Loan, but published in the St. Joseph Herald, a paper that circulated extensively in the military camps, his letter to Mr. Rush, in which the latter was denounced as a traitor and unworthy the protection of the Government. While Gen. Loan, in his personal intercourse with Mr. Rush, was courteous and gentlemanly, Gen. Hall was abusive, ungentlemanly and tyrannical. His published letter unveiled his true character, while it subjected its helpless victim to suspicion, insult and attempts at brutal assassination.
Mr. Rush, in the midst of such trials and dangers, had to give up his charge and return to Chillicothe. Here he found his beautiful home laid waste; the fencing destroyed, the house broken up, horses stabled in three rooms on the first floor, and soldiers quartered on the second floor, and the fruit and shrubbery all destroyed.
He rented a house for his family, and while the officers of the post always treated him with courtesy and kindness, Gen. Hall’s letter had stirred up the common soldiery until his life and the lives of his family were in constant peril. When he discovered this state of things, he wrote Gen. Hall a polite letter, protesting against his published letter, representing the injustice he had done him, and the danger to his person and life caused by it. Gen. Hall returned his letter, and in reply threatened him with a military commission.
About the 1st of May, 1863, a bold attempt was made to assassinate him in his own house. His house was first assailed with stones and brick-bats, by which the windows were crushed in and the door battered. Pistol shots were then fired through the doors and windows; but a kind Providence protected him and his family from serious injury.
Upon reporting the facts to the officers in command, protection was promptly furnished, and a guard stationed at the house. But, at the same time, the officers advised him to seek safety elsewhere; that with all their efforts to protect him the assassin’s missile might any moment put an end to his life.
The week after this occurrence he went to St. Louis to attend the sessions of the Grand Masonic bodies of the State. These grand bodies gave to his ministerial and personal character their highest endorsement, by electing him Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge, also of the Grand Chapter, and also of the Convention of High Priests for the State of Missouri.
The following is the written order which Gen. Loan directed Col. King, his subordinate, to issue deposing Mr. Rush from the functions of the ministry in his military district:
“Headquarters Reg’t M. S. M., }
Chillicothe, Mo., April 24, 1862. }
“Rev. W. M. Rush, Chillicothe, Mo.:
“Dear Sir—I am directed by the Brigadier-General commanding the district to notify you that it is deemed advisable and necessary to suspend you from the performance of your duties as a minister, or preacher, within this military district, so far as they relate to any of the public services in the church. This will, you observe, include all preaching, the conducting of prayer meetings, &c., &c. Of said suspension you are hereby notified.
“This, I will add, results from information, deemed entirely reliable, of your disloyal sentiments, and of your very great desire to actively promote the cause of the traitors.
“I am, sir, very respectfully,
“Walter King, Col. M. S. M.,
“Commanding Chillicothe Post.”
Mr. Rush had been prohibited by verbal order from preaching in St. Joseph. After he left St. Joseph he preached once in Plattsburg and once in Chillicothe, whereupon General Loan ordered Colonel King to issue the above order. It was this order which Mr. Rush requested Gen. Hall to revoke.
The reply to the letter asking the revocation of Gen. Loan’s order, besides being published, was sent as a private note also, and is as follows:
“Headquarters N. W. Dis., }
St. Joseph, Mo., February 17, 1863. }
“Rev. W. M. Rush, Chillicothe, Mo.:
“My Dear Sir—I am in receipt of yours of the 16th inst. I regret that I am not able to comply with your request. According to my views, a religious congregation that can not endure prayers for its Government is disloyal; and a minister that encourages such a congregation in its course is also disloyal.
“I agree with you, that allegiance and protection are reciprocal. But allegiance requires the citizen to protect the Government against all enemies. This you not only refuse to do, but you are not willing to pray for the success of your Government over traitors. You claim to be neutral. A citizen has no right to be neutral when enemies are assailing his Government.
“I can not relieve you from Gen. Loan’s order.
“Very respectfully,
“Willard P. Hall,
“Brig.-Gen. Com’dg.”
The following letter was written to General Hall after Mr. Rush had suffered long and much from the effects of his published letter. It explains itself:
“Chillicothe, Mo., April 30, 1863.
“Gen. W. P. Hall:
“Dear Sir: Some months ago I requested you to relieve me from Gen. Loan’s order. This you declined to do, and at the same time (unintentionally, I hope,) inflicted upon me a severe injury. Your letter was published in the Herald, and was made the basis of various actions against me. Dr. Hughs, who classified those who were exempt from military duty as loyal and disloyal, enrolled me disloyal. I asked him on what ground he so enrolled me, and told him that I claimed to be as loyal as any man in the Government, and that I challenged any man to show the contrary. He told me that he acted upon your letter and did not feel himself authorized to go behind it. He assigned no other reason. Dr. Hughs, you may know, is an extreme Radical man.
“On the 1st of January Capt. Moore, Provost-Marshal of this post, gave what are called free passes to my negro woman and girl, and they are now in Kansas. I called on him to know on what ground he based his action. He said he concluded from your letter that I was rebellious, and, therefore, gave the passes without any charge or proof.
“On the first Monday of April, at our municipal election, my vote was challenged by a Lieutenant from St. Joseph, I believe. I asked on what ground. He said my name was on the disloyal list. I told him I did not put it there. Capt. Moore said it was put there by order of Gen. Loan.
“Such are some of the open effects of your published letter, and, as a lawyer, you doubtless know the extent of your legal responsibility for such publication.
“In your published letter to me you regarded me as disloyal because, as you say, I encouraged a congregation that could not endure prayers for its Government. If by the Government you mean the country and the Constitution, I beg to inform you that prayers are regularly offered for the country, in the public congregation as well as in my private family; and in private I pray to Him who is infinite in wisdom, in goodness and in power, that he would so direct in the affairs of the nation, and so control the events that are now transpiring as that all things might yet result for his glory and the well-being of humanity; that he would grant unto our rulers wisdom to adopt such measures as would speedily bring peace and prosperity to our distracted country.
“If by the Government you mean the measures of the Administration, I must say that I do not pray for the success of the President’s Proclamation liberating the slaves of the South.
“Since these troubles began, I have claimed to be, and I believe I am, as loyal a man as there is in the country, and the Constitution does not permit you, nor any body of men, to prescribe a form of prayer as a test of my loyalty. Since the commencement of these troubles I have been a man of peace. I believed that war would be disastrous to the country, and that if persevered in it would tear down the fair fabric which my fathers helped to rear, and that my children would be left without a country.
“Sir, I boast not of family, but an ancestral name stands on the Declaration of Independence, and the family has represented the Government at Paris and at London. Sir, I can pray for peace, but I can not pray for war. I never in public or in private prayed for the success of the sword as wielded by any power on earth.
“What was my offense? I labored to preserve the peace of my congregation. I thought that the Church was not the proper arena for the strife of those contending opinions that were convulsing the nation.
“Why did not Colhoun and Lyon of the Presbyterian Church offer such prayers as that offered by W. C. Toole? I will answer. They had too high a sense of religious propriety. Sir, political preaching has sown the seeds that are bringing forth the death of the nation. In more than twenty years in the ministry I have never given utterance to a political sentiment in the pulpit. But now these political preachers are heroes, and I am without a pulpit.
“You have, also, published to the world that I have no claim upon the Government for protection. Thus I am published by you as an outlaw, to be slain by any one who may be so disposed. And this, notwithstanding I have constantly performed every duty enjoined upon me by the Constitution and laws of the country.
“On last Wednesday evening, just at dark, my son William, while feeding, was shot at by some one who had secreted himself but a few yards from him. The bullet entered his cap just over his forehead and passed out behind. An inch lower would have killed him. The shot was, no doubt, intended for me.
“When I wrote to you before, I did it that you might make your own record in my case. You had the opportunity of revoking Gen. Loan’s order or of sustaining it. You saw proper to exceed very much the order of Gen. Loan.
“One word more. I had a financial interest of $1200 a year in my pulpit so long as my pastoral relation to the Church should continue. That relation still continues, but my financial interest in the pulpit has been confiscated, without the authority of law and contrary to a general order issued by the General commanding the department. I am advised by eminent legal counsel that yourself and General Loan are financially responsible to me.
“General, I have thus written to you candidly, as I think a man of conscious integrity has a right to write to one to whom he is willing to accord equal integrity. If you think that order should still remain in force, so let it be.
“Your obedient servant,
“W. M. Rush.”
To this letter General Hall made the following reply:
“Headq’rs Seventh Military Dis’t of Mo., }
St. Joseph, Mo., May 2, 1863. }
“Rev. Wm. Rush, Chillicothe, Mo.:
“Sir—I return herewith your very extraordinary letter of the 30th ult. Notwithstanding the threats contained in it against myself, you surely did not consider what you were writing. My opinion was, and is, that it would do a serious injury to the public for me to rescind Gen. Loan’s order with reference to yourself. To threaten an officer for the discharge of his duties, especially in times like these, is a serious offense, which a Military Commission would promptly punish. I bear you no malice. I have done what I have done in your case because I believed my duty required it. My advice to you is, to make no more threats.
“Very respectfully,
“Willard P. Hall,
“Brig.-Gen’l E. M. M.”
Neither explanation nor comment is necessary to the full meaning of this instance of heartless cruelty and wanton oppression. The fact that General Hall’s mother-in-law, with whom he lived, was at the time one of the most devoted, pious and prominent members of Mr. Rush’s Church, only shades the deeper and darker the character of this Missouri Nero.
General Hall’s skepticism and political ambition made him a ready and a cruel instrument of religious persecution. Without the moral courage to avow his skepticism, and denied the force of character necessary to meet and master opposition, he was just the man to use the authority of shoulder-straps to make war upon the institutions of heaven and persecute God’s chosen ministers of salvation; and he will feel very uncomfortable in the history he has made.
Mr. Rush found it necessary for his own safety to remove his family to St. Louis, and remain there until the close of the war. He found the Mound Church without a pastor, and by the appointment of the Presiding Elder took charge of that Church, and there remained until the quiet and safety that succeeded the war was restored to the State. Mr. Rush will appear again as a victim of the New Constitution, and a noble champion of the liberty of conscience and the supremacy of Christ in his Church, which the infidel provisions of that instrument endeavored to strike down.
It will be appropriate to close this chapter with an account of the murder of the