“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
Rev. Nathaniel Wollard,
A minister of the Calvinistic, or, as generally termed, “Hard-Shell” Baptist Church.
Elder Wollard, or “Uncle Natty,” as he was familiarly called, was an aged man, in his seventy-second year. He had lived a long time in Dallas county, Mo., where he was extensively known and very highly appreciated as a true man, a good neighbor, a kind father, an affectionate husband, a peaceable citizen and an acceptable minister—highly esteemed in love by his denomination for his character and work. He could not, nor did he desire to, take any part in the strifes, excitements and dangers of the war. He craved the boon of living at home unmolested, and spending the evening of his life in peace in the bosom of his family.