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Henry Ward Beecher: an American portrait

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Of the early Beecher, he observes, "It was not slavery, but theology that caught Henry Ward Beecher in its grip at this particular junction of his life." (Pg. 53) In an 1853 address to the American Anti-Slavery society, Beecher said, "My earnest desire is that slavery may be destroyed by the manifest power of Christianity. If it were given me to choose whether it should be destroyed in fifty years by selfish commercial influences, or, standing for seventy-five years, be then the spirit and trophy of Christ, I had rather let it linger twenty-five years more, that God may be honored, and not mammon, in the destruction of it." (Pg. 126)

He admits, however, "If there was one act in Henry Ward's life that was contemptible without excuse it was his attempt to prove Theodore Tilton immoral because of his association with [Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony]. It is perhaps, also, the most convincing measure of the frivolity of Beecher's defense. Either woman could at any moment have ruined Henry Ward Beecher. Yet even after he was dead, and Susan Anthony came to publish her diary, she deliberately suppressed the portions of it that would blast his reputation." (Pg. 232)

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Availability

171111726

289 HIB h

Z. HANDIMAN

Available

Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

289 HIB h

Publisher

New York : The Press of The Readers Club., 1942

Collation

xiv, 361p.; 23 cm.

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

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Classification

289

Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

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Subject(s)

PURITANISM

Specific Detail Info

v

Statement of Responsibility

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