Dr. Crummell is one of our ablest speakers. His style is polished, graceful, and even elegant, though never merely ornate or rhetorical. He has the happy faculty of using the expressions best suited to the occasion, and bringing in allusions which give a popular sympathy to the best cultivated style. He is, we think, rather too sensitive, and somewhat punctillious.
Dr. Crummell is a gentleman by nature, and could not be anything else, if he should try. Some ten years since, he wrote a very interesting work on Africa, to which country he emigrated in 1852.
We have had a number of our public men to represent us in Europe within the past twenty-five years; and none have done it more honorably or with better success to the character and cause of the black man, than Alexander Crummell. We met him there again and again, and followed in his track wherever he preached or spoke before public assemblies, and we know whereof we affirm. Devotedly attached to the interest of the colored man, and having the moral, social, and intellectual elevation of the natives of Africa at heart, we do not regret that he considers it his duty to labor in his fatherland. Warmly interested in the Republic, and so capable of filling the highest position that he can be called to, we shall not be surprised, some day, to hear that Alexander Crummell is president of Liberia.
Avery College has just done itself the honor of conferring the degree of Doctor of Divinity upon this able man; and sure we are that a title was never better bestowed than in the present instance.
Since writing the above sketch, we learn that Dr. Crummell has returned, and taken up his residence in the City of New York, where he is now pastor of a church.
HENRY HIGHLAND GARNETT, D. D.
Though born a slave in the State of Maryland, Henry Highland Garnett is the son of an African chief, stolen from the coast of his native land. His father’s family were all held as slaves till 1822, when they escaped to the north. In 1835, he became a member of Canaan Academy, New Hampshire. Three months after entering the school, it was broken up by a mob, who destroyed the building. Dr. Garnett afterwards entered Oneida Institute, New York, under the charge of that noble-hearted friend of man, Beriah Green, where he was treated with equality by the professors and his fellow-students. There he gained the reputation of a courteous and accomplished man, an able and eloquent debater, and a good writer.
His first appearance as a public speaker, was in 1837, in the City of New York, where his speech at once secured for him a standing among first-class orators. Dr. Garnett is in every sense of the term a progressive man. He is a strenuous advocate of freedom, temperance, education, and the religious, moral, and social elevation of his race. He is an acceptable preacher, evangelical in his profession. His discourses, though showing much thought and careful study, are delivered extemporaneously, and with good effect. Having complete command of his voice, he uses it with skill, never failing to fill the largest hall. One of the most noted addresses, ever given by a colored man in this country was delivered by Dr. Garnett at the National Convention of Colored Americans, at Buffalo, New York, in 1843. None but those who heard that speech have the slightest idea of the tremendous influence which he exercised over the assembly.
Dr. Garnett visited England in 1850, where he spent several months, and went thence to the island of Jamaica, spending three years there as a missionary. He has written considerably, and has edited one or two journals at different times, devoted to the elevation of his race. Dr. Garnett was, for two or three years, president of Avery College, where he was considered a man of learning. He also spent some time in Washington, as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in that city. At present, he is located over Shiloh Church, New York City.
For forty years an advocate of the rights of his race, forcible and daring as a speaker, having suffered much, with a good record behind him, Dr. Garnett may be considered as standing in the front rank as a leader of his people.