Russell H. Conwell.
South Worthington, Mass.,
September 1, 1913.
[1] The life of Henry Ward Beecher parallels that of Russell H. Conwell in many respects. His Plymouth Church in Brooklyn became the largest in America with a seating capacity of nearly 3,000. But it was not to this audience alone that he preached; for, believing as Dean Conwell did after him, that all things concerning the public welfare are fit subjects for a minister's attention, his opinions on all questions were eagerly followed by the public at large. He was, perhaps, the most popular lecturer in the country of his day, and was an unrivaled after-dinner speaker. He allied himself with the Republican party as soon as it was formed, lent his pen and pulpit to further its aims, and during the canvass of 1856 traveled far and wide to speak at mass meetings.
Beecher visited Europe in 1863 for his health and when in Great Britain he addressed vast audiences on the purpose and issues of the Civil War, speaking in one instance for three hours consecutively, and changing materially the state of public opinion. He was a strong advocate of free trade and of woman suffrage. His last public speech was in favor of high license, at Chickering Hall, New York, Feb. 25, 1887.
It was as a speaker that Beecher was seen at his best. His mastery of the English tongue, his dramatic power, his instinctive art of impersonation which had become a second nature, his vivid imagination, his breadth of intellectual view, the catholicity of his sympathies, and his passionate enthusiasm made him a preacher without a peer in his own time and country. Later, like Beecher, Conwell was without peer in his day and the description which characterizes the former applies with equal force to Conwell himself.
[2] Preach on Sunday.
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