Most of the people of Alabama had but little time for reading, and those who had the time and inclination were usually obliged to content themselves with old books. The family Bible was in a great number of homes almost the only book read. Most of the new books read were published in Atlanta, Richmond, or Charleston, though during the last two years of the war Mobile publishers sent out many thousand volumes. W. G. Clark and Co., of Mobile, confined their attention principally to text-books, but S. H. Goetzel was more ambitious. His list includes text-books, works on military science and tactics, fiction, translations, music, etc. The best-selling southern novel published during the war was “Macaria,” by Augusta J. Evans of Mobile. It was printed by Goetzel, who also published Mrs. Ford’s “Exploits of Morgan and his Men,” which was pirated or reprinted by Richardson of New York. Evans and Cogswell of Charleston published Miss Evans’s “Beulah.” Both “Macaria” and “Beulah” were reprinted in the North. Goetzel bound his books in rotten pasteboard and in wall-paper. Goetzel was also an enterprising publisher of translations. In 1864 he published (on wrapping-paper) a four-volume translation, by Adelaide de V. Chaudron, of Muhlbach’s “Joseph II and His Court.” He published other translations of Miss Muhlbach’s historical novels,—her first American publisher. Owen Meredith’s poem, “Tanhauser,” was first printed in America in Mobile. An opera of the same name was also published. Hardee’s “Rifle and Infantry Tactics,” in two volumes, and Wheeler’s “Cavalry Tactics” were printed in large editions by Goetzel for the use of Alabama troops.
Lieutenant-Colonel Freemantle’s book, “Three Months in the Southern States,” was published in Mobile in 1864, and in the same year the works of Dickens and George Eliot were reprinted by Goetzel. An interesting book published by Clark of Mobile was entitled “The Confederate States Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge.” It appeared annually to 1864 in Mobile and Augusta, and resembled the annual cyclopædias and year-books of to-day. Small devotional books and tracts were printed in nearly every town that had a printing-press. It is said that the church societies published no doctrinal or controversial tracts. Hundreds of different tracts, such as Cromwell’s “Soldier’s Pocket Bible,” were printed for distribution among the soldiers. But not enough Bibles and Testaments could be made. The northern Bible societies “with one exception” refused to supply the Confederate sinners. The American Bible Society of New York gave hundreds of thousands of Bibles, Testaments, etc., principally for the Confederate troops. At one time 150,000 were given, at another 50,000, and the work was continued after the war. In 1862 the British and Foreign Bible Society gave 310,000 Bibles, etc., for the soldiers, and gave unlimited credit to the Confederate Bible Society.[609]
After the surrender the material of the newspapers and publishing houses was confiscated or destroyed.
Sec. 7. The Churches during the War
Attitude of the Churches toward Public Questions
The religious organizations represented in the state strongly supported the Confederacy, and even before the beginning of hostilities several of them had placed themselves on record in regard to political questions. As a rule, there was no political preaching, but at conferences and conventions the sentiment of the clergy would be publicly declared.
The Alabama Baptist Convention, in 1860, declared, in a series of resolutions on the state of the country, that though standing aloof for the most part from political parties and contests, yet their retired position did not exclude the profound conviction, based on unquestioned facts, that the Union had failed in important particulars to answer the purpose for which it was created. From the Federal government the southern people could no longer hope for justice, protection, or safety, especially with reference to their peculiar property, recognized by the Constitution. They thought themselves entitled to equality of rights as citizens of the republic, and they meant to maintain their rights, even at the risk of life and all things held dear. They felt constrained “to declare to our brethren and fellow-citizens, before mankind and before our God, that we hold ourselves subject to the call of proper authority in defence of the sovereignty and independence of the state of Alabama and of her sacred right as a sovereignty to withdraw from this Union, and to make any arrangement which her people in constituent assemblies may deem best for securing their rights. And in this declaration we are heartily, deliberately, unanimously, and solemnly united.”[610] Bravely did they stand by this declaration in the stormy years that followed. A year later (1861) the Southern Baptist Convention adopted resolutions sustaining the principles for which the South was fighting, condemning the course of the North, and pledging hearty support to the Confederate government.[611] Like action was taken by the Southern Methodist Church, but little can now be found on the subject. One authority states that in 1860 the politicians were anxious that the Alabama Conference should declare its sentiment in regard to the state of the country. This was strongly opposed and frustrated by Bishops Soule and Andrew, who wanted to keep the church out of politics.[612] From another account we learn that in December, 1860, a meeting of Methodist ministers in Montgomery declared in favor of secession from the Union.[613]
In 1862 a committee report to the East Liberty Baptist Association urged “one consideration upon the minds of our membership: the present civil war which has been inaugurated by our enemies must be regarded as a providential visitation upon us on account of our sins.” This called forth warm discussion and was at once modified by the insertion of the words, “though entirely just on our part.”[614]
In 1863 the Alabama ministers—Baptist, Methodist Episcopal South, Methodist Protestant, United Synod South, Episcopal, and Presbyterian—united with the clergy of the other southern states in “The Address of the Confederate Clergy to Christians throughout the World.” The address declared that the war was being waged to achieve that which it was impossible to accomplish by violence, viz. to restore the Union. It protested against the action of the North in forcing the war upon the South and condemned the abolitionist policy of Lincoln as indicated in the Emancipation Proclamation. It made a lengthy defence of the principles for which the South was fighting.[615]
By law ministers were exempt from military service.[616] But nearly all of the able-bodied ministers went to the war as chaplains, or as officers, leading the men of their congregations. It was considered rather disgraceful for a man in good physical condition to take up the profession of preaching or teaching after the war began. Young men “called to preach” after 1861 received scant respect from their neighbors, and the government refused to recognize the validity of these “calls to preach.” The preachers at home were nearly all old or physically disabled men. Gray-haired old men made up the conferences, associations, conventions, councils, synods, and presbyteries. But to the last their spirit was high, and all the churches faithfully supported the Confederate cause. They cheered and kept up the spirits of the people, held society together against the demoralizing influences of civil strife, and were a strong support to the state when it had exhausted itself in the struggle. They gave thanks for victory, consolation for defeat; they cared for the needy families of the soldiers and the widows and orphans made by war. The church societies incorporated during the last year of the war show that the state relief administration had broken down. Some of them were, “The Methodist Orphans’ Home of East Alabama,” “The Orphans’ Home of the Synod of Alabama,” “The Samaritan Society of the Methodist Protestant Church,” “The Preachers’ Aid Society of the Montgomery Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.” The Episcopal Church was incorporated in order that it might make provision for the widows and orphans of soldiers.[617]