Page 406 - Demo

Continued from Page 7the hereafter like many church leaders,DftAnKor rrnxrta nonnlo cnmothino tft KollPVP o~ %u2022 v r*-vr*~ -%u00ab...%u00ab%u2022%u25a0%u2014o %u2014 ------ -in and fight for in the here and now. Toallay their guilt about their new foundprosperity, Beecher told his bourgeoisfollowing in Brooklyn Heights andelsewhere that their affluence if legitim ately attained was nothing to be ashamed of. Itwas their due, the just rewards of hardwork. At the same tim e, through theatricsand oratorical persuasion, he tried to inculcate a revulsion towards iniquity, staging auctions at Plymouth Church, wherecongregants could buy the freedom ofslaves.During the 1850%u2019s, Beecher raised funds toassist the Kansas free-soilers in their armedconfrontations with pro-slavery forces. Themoney raised by the appeal bought 25 Sharprifles which were dispatched to the Kansasabolitionists. The rifles came to be knownas Beecher%u2019s Bibles after a remark madeby the Reverend to the effect that firearmsin this case would speak louder than astackful of scripture.%u201cThe Great Divine%u201d was also an energeticwartime propagandist. He was one of themost vociferous supporters of the Unioncause during the Civil War and during theearly years of the conflict he clamored,after som e initial waffling, for the issuanceof an emancipation proclamation, an actLincoln delayed until 1863, when the tide ofthe war was already turning.WENT TO ENGLANDWhile the war was in progress, Beechertook time to voyage to a then proConfederate England to try and rail support for the Union cause. (Because of Unionnaval blockades directed at AngloConfederate commerce, and especiallySouthern cotton cargoes bound for Englishtextile m ills, the British were not very happy with the North at the tim e). Beecher encountered hostile crowds which sympatheticchroniclers reported he won over with hisimpassioned speeches. Some contemporaryhistorians, however, question the objectivityof those versions.Beecher, in his later years, lived an exceedingly comfortable life. By the 1870%u2019s hewas the highest paid man of the cloth in thecountry, earning $20,000 from hisministerial salary (as much as the president of the United States), and an additional$20,000 from his outside work as a writerand lecturer.The Brooklyn Historical Society%u2019s exhibtion was mounted entirely in-house. All theitems displayed %u2014 prints, newspapers, artifacts, photographs and memorabilia %u2014came from the society%u2019s collection, and allthe research, cataloguing, writing anddisplay work was done by the staff.Curator Reich admits to being a little nervous about reaction to the exhibition when itP B S ffiM XDuring the 1850's Beecher raised funds to assist the Kansas free-soilers in their armedconfrontations with pro-slavery forces, and pushed for an emancipation Proclamation.opened. She was relieved that Beecher%u2019sgreat-grandaughter, Alice StuyvesantBarry, who had been unhappy about otheraccounts of her great-grandfather%u2019s life,was delighted by the society%u2019s presentation.Reich noted that Beecher%u2019s fam ily andPlymouth Church are particularly sensitiveabout Beecher%u2019s 1874 adultery trial. In thatscandalous case, Beecher was accused ofseducing the wife of his former friend andcolleague from %u201cThe Independent%u201d ,Theodore Tilton. Although he was cleared ofthe charges, his reputation was somewhattarnished by the months of unsavorypublicity.Reich hopes visitors will leave the exhibition with a sense of Beecher%u2019s impact on histim es and maybe be inspired to read moreabout Beecher. She has her own philosphyabout historical exhibitions.%u201cThe museumgoer,%u201d she says, %u201cshouldnot be overwhelmed by dates and facts, thetext should only explain and reinforce thedisplays. In other words, an exhibitionshould not m erely be a book on a wall. It%u2019svital that a show capture some of the flavorof the respective historical period, whichwas why we employed Victorian colors andmotifs like maroon and paisley in thedisplays.%u201dReich feels Beecher was a specialhistorical personage. He had an uncanny instinct on how and when to come down onany particular issue. It%u2019s sometimes difficult to say if he swayed public opinion orwhether he was in perfect synch with it.There really isn%u2019t another public figurealive today, who can compare with him.%u201dWhen pressed on the point, however, shedoes have one possible candidate. %u201cMaybe,Bill Cosby,%u201d she adds sheepishly.THE GREAT DIVINE: The exhibitfeaturing Rev. Henry Ward Beecher willcontinue at the Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont St. through October.Two lectures are scheduled: Sept. 17,6pmon the sibling rivalry between Henry andHarriet; and October 8 at 6pm on diePlymouth Church. Lectures are free. Thegallery is open Tuesday-Saturday, noon to5pm. For info call 6244890.Beecher A ble To Take O ld Problems A nd Give Them Fresh SolutionsBY JOHN L. HOPKINSIt is no exaggeration to say that in the second half of the 19th Century, Henry WardBeecher was one of the best-known men inAmerica. Yet today, the average Americanwould be hard-pressed to explain who hewas or why he was important.To understand Beecher%u2019s influence, hemust be seen in the context of his tim es.The America of the Revolutionary War era,an agrarian nation of small towns whoserelatively homogeneous population was concentrated along the Eastern seaboard, wasdisappearing. In its place, the foundationsof an industrial, urban society were rising.In Beecher%u2019s lifetim e, the United Statesdoubled in area and quadrupled in population. The rising tide of westward migrationspread the population over thousands ofsquare m iles of new territory, while in theEast immigrants crowded into cities likeNew York and Brooklyn to work in the newindustries as fast as ships couid carry them.Scientific advances were pushing back thefrontiers of th%u00b0 im k rftnm Qn^ nnfv> fKom tv>oclaim s of traditional religion as well.The men and women who made upBeecher%u2019s congregation in Brooklyn HeightsJohn Hopkins is on the staff of theBrooklyn Historical Society.were members of the emerging middleclass, businessmen and professionals whoprovided the organizational and managerialskills behind the expansion of industry andcommerce. Like Beecher him self, manyhad been bom in New England, in closeknit, church-centered small towns. Nowthey commuted to their jobs in New YorkCity.D ie changes which were reshapingAmerican society were a source of greatanxiety to them. Brought up to believe in astem Calvinist God who decreed that anywealth beyond what was necessary to comfortably sustain one%u2019s family should bedevoted to helping the community, theyworried about their own growing affluenceand the luxuries it bought. They worriedabout scientific challenges to religion. Theyfeared the seemingly endless influx offoreigners and their susceptibility topolitical demagoguery.Beecher understood their anxieties andsought to reinterpret the old values to meetth o nw>Hs nf this pmIn place of the Calvinist God of wrath,Beecher emphasized the principle of divinelove and the availablity of salvation to altwho accepted that love. While reaffirmingthe old ethic of hard work, he also affirmedthe value of leisure, which allowed men thetim e to reflect and improve them selves.The natural world, whose workings werebeing steadily revealed by science, wassimply a reflection of God%u2019s immutablelaws.Above all, Beecher was an optimist. Hebelieved in progress, in the uplifting of thehuman race, and he believed that God hadchosen the United States %u2014 and the risingmiddle class in particular %u2014 as His chiefBeecher understood theanxieties of people andsought to reinterpret theold values to meet theneeds of the new era.agents in this process. Beecher saw societyas an organic entity, and it followed thatwhat helped one part inevitably helped thewhole. In creating a comfortable life for hisfamily, a man was also increasing the wellbeing of the community. %u201cNothing is moreremote from selfishness,%u201d he wrote, %u201cthangenerous expenditure in building up a homeand enriching it with all that shall make itbeautiful without and lovely within. A manwho builds a noble house does it for thewhole neighborhood, not for himself alone.He who surrounds his children with books,refines their thoughts by early familiaritywith art, is training them for the State.%u201dThe social reforms he espoused %u2014 fromtemperance to abolition of slavery to improved public education %u2014 were all part ofa larger effort to uphold the values andsense of social order so dear to the Victorian heart.This creed, projected from the Plymouthpulpit with his considerable oratoricalskills, made Beecher an im m ensely popularfigure. That popularity spread far beyondBrooklyn thanks to his tireless efforts aswriter, lecturer and supporter of politicalcandidates, as well as preacher. From 1855until his death in 1887, Beecher averaged100 or more public lectures a year, in addition to his regular weekly sermons. He wassought out for endorsements of everythingfrom sewing machines to throat lozenges.Henry Ward Beecher, wrote historianWilliam G. McLaughlin, was %u201ca man neverahead of or behind his tim e, but always inperfect step with it.%u201d In a society undergoing rapid and fundamental changes,Beecher provided anxious people with a fixed point of reference, an assurance that thevalues of their fathers still could be relevant to a bewildering new age. He came tobe both the spokesman and the embodimentof a new American middle class ethos.8, THE PHOENIX, August 14,1988