History of the young Men's Christian association ...

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Preface

The history of an organization resembles the biography of an individual. The value of each consists not only in the character and work of the organization or individual, but chiefly in the relation of each to life as a whole. The historian of a movement like the Young Men's Christian Association is confronted with a perplexing multiplicity of events and he must have a principle of selection. I have tried from almost a chaos to select those incidents which begot the future. If I have failed, I must beg the indulgence of my reader, as I have spared neither thought nor industry. Events are like children in a large family. It is only those members who are to render important service to the world in later life whose childhood story is significant ; some of them make no contribution, others do not make a stir until late in their careers. For this reason new developments require the rewriting of history. The events and personages are the same, but they had an unsuspected meaning. A revaluation is necessary.

Recent progress has made this particularly true of the Young Men's Christian Association. The world has wondered where this unheeded organization came from, where it got its ideals and methods, why it had so much enterprise and such great success with the armies, why it had the limitations it exhibited and made the blunders it did. What is its future and what function has it in the new world order?

I am under great obligation to Jacob T. Bowne, librarian of the International Young Men's Christian Association College. Mr. Bowne established the hisiv PREFACE

torical library of Association publications which bears his name. Without this library it would have been impossible to assemble the data necessary for the reconstruction of this period.

The manuscript has been submitted to several of my associates on the faculty; also to Richard C. Morse and Paul Super. I have asked Robert E. Lewis, General Secretary of the Cleveland Association, to make such comments in footnotes as he may see fit. I hardly need add that no one except myself is responsible for the point of view expressed in this monograph.

Chapter I PAGE

Sec. 26. — Political Developments 2

Sec. 27. — Moral and Religious Divisions over Slavery ... 5

Sec. 28. — Industrial and Economic Developments 23

Sec. 29. — Problems of the Confederation 29

Chapter II THE LEADERS WHO MOULDED THE THOUGHT AND LIFE OF THE CONFEDERATION

Sec. 30. — William Chauncy Langdon 30

Sec. 31. — Zalmon Richards 42

Sec. 32.— William J. Rhees 44

Sec. 33.— William H. Neff 50

Sec. 34. — Samuel Lowry, Jr . , 51

Sec. 35.— H. Thane Miller 54

Sec. 36. — George H. Stuart • ,. . 56

Sec. 37. — Howard Crosby 62

Sec. 38. — Richard C. McCormick 64

Chapter III Sec. 39. — Events of the Period 66

Sec. 40. — The Washington Administration 68

Chapter IV Sec. 41. — The Second Central Committee 83

Sec. 42. — Third Central Committee 90

Sec. 43.— A Repudiated Leader 100

Sec. 44. — Student Associations Ill

Sec. 45. — Administration of the Fourth Central Committee . . 117 vi CONTENTS

Chapter I

It is our purpose in the coming chapters to discuss the development of the Young Men's Christian Association during the critical years from 1855 to 1861.

The leadership of the movement was soon to be transferred to the American side of the Atlantic. The American Associations were seeking to find themselves in a new country which during this pre-Civil- War period reached a point of economic prosperity previously unequalled and then saw that prosperity overwhelmed with dire disaster. The Confederation, as it was then called, existed during a period of six years, torn by political strife over slavery and agitated by the threat of approaching civil war. The decade before the Civil War saw the economic and industrial transition to modern conditions. It was a period during which the churches were divided sectionally over slavery and during which the agitation of this issue produced a great moral enthusiasm in the North. This, combined with the serious frame of mind resulting from the financial collapse of 1857, produced the most stirring and far-reaching religious revival the country had ever experienced — a revival in which at its inception in New York City the Association was the leading factor and in the promotion of which the Associations of the country were the chief agents.

It is necessary to examine very briefly the life of the nation during these six years in order to understand the problem of our organization which was gradually awakening to national self-consciousness.

Could a religious movement inaugurated and promoted by laymen endure? Could such an organization find a needed sphere of service ? Could it clearly define its own mission and also have the power of consecutive service necessary for fruitful success? It is true that this experience demonstrated the insufficiency of volunteer leadership unaided by employed officers and revealed by the method of "trial and error" many things the Association should not attempt. But it did show how volunteers can have a wide vision, can cooperate in a sensible and unselfish manner, and can be depended upon to arrive ultimately, even though instinctively, unerringly at the right decision. While wrong decisions were reached at many conventions of the Confederation, the immediate matters of chief importance were always settled right. This chapter is a triumph for democracy. The Confederation was always sound on the great question of the founding of the international alliance of the American Associations and it is because this was accomplished in the manner it was that the Associations of all time are indebted to Langdon and the young men of 1855-1861.

Sec. 26. — Political Developments

The years from 1855 to 1861 were dominated in the nation at large by the struggle between the proslavery forces of the South and the anti-slavery forces of the North. Friends of the South in the North and many persons in the North who feared the disruption of the Union opposed all anti-slavery Yneasures and deprecated anti-slavery agitation. But gradually and irresistibly the North became united in its opposition to the extension of slavery and the South became "solid" in its determination to defend to the uttermost its peculiar institution. Step by step the conflict developed until the one side came to look upon the slave as property, and the other, having less pecuniary interest at stake, looked upon the slave as a man. During the six years which preceded the outbreak of the Civil War the question of slavery determined every election of importance, state or national. It also dominated every significant act passed by Congress and every step taken by the national Administration.

The first American convention of the Young Men's Christian Association when it met at Buffalo in 1854 had a young man from Kentucky as its most influential leader. The election of Mr. Helme of New Orleans as president of the convention was a guarantee that slavery should not be discussed, but the introduction of an anti-slavery resolution by the one delegate present from Canada showed how difficult it was to smother this issue even in a small gathering of thirtyseven young men who had met for a national, altruistic purpose.

The historic Missouri Compromise of 1820 had been accepted in the North as a sacred pledge that slavery would never be extended north of 36 degrees 30 minutes latitude. For thirty years this agreement had maintained peace between the two sections and preserved the Union.

The annexation of the great territory of Texas and the Mexican War undertaken at the behest of the slavery leaders to extend slave territory reawakened the slumbering apprehension in the North. The bill admitting Texas provided that it might be divided into four states. As each of these would have two senators, there would be eight votes added to the strength of the "solid South" in the Senate. In 1850 Clay and Webster engineered the second great compromise on the slavery issue. The North, for the sake of peace and union, accepted the ignoble fugitive slave law. The South agreed that the partition of Texas should be postponed. California was admitted as a free state. The region intervening between Texas and California, then called New Mexico, was organized as a territory without the "Wilmot proviso" against slavery.

Peace between the two sections seemed restored, but the "irrepressible conflict" was only delayed a few brief years. With scarcely a note of warning Senator Douglas, in his hope of securing the support of the South for his presidential aspirations, threw the whole question again into the caldron of discussion by the Kansas-Nebraska bill.

This bill provided that the power of Congress to decide on the extension of slavery into new territories be abrogated and that the question be left for "local sovereignty" to determine. Thus the whole question of slavery extension was to be decided by the party which could muster the most votes at the time of the adoption of a constitution by a new state. This was the most important political step in fomenting the bitter anti-slavery agitation between 1855-1861. It showed that the South was determined to extend slavery. It brought on the struggle over Kansas, led to the formation of the Republican party, the unifying of the North against slavery, and the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency.

Jefferson Davis, who was the leader of the extreme slave party in the Senate, maintained not only the doctrine of Calhoun that the Constitution permitted slavery in the territories, but went further and demanded that slave owners were entitled to the protection of their property in new territories belonging to the national government. He did not hesitate on July 6, 1860, at the Democratic State Convention of Mississippi to declare, "In the contingency of the election of a President on the platform of Mr. Seward's Rochester speech, let the Union be dissolved." ("History of the U. S.," Rhodes, Vol. II, p. 373.)

By 1860 there was also a pronounced agitation in the South for the revival of the African slave trade.

These political questions filled the minds of the young men and their advisers who were active in the work of the Young Men's Christian Association. They were of especial moment to those who wished the organization to become not a local but a national movement.

Sec. 27. — Moral and Religious Divisions over Slavery

But even more than the political, the moral issue raised by slavery was a challenge to any organization which bore the name of Christian. The publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe synchronized with the establishment of the New York Young Men's Christian Association in 1852. The fugitive slave law of 1850 had aroused the sympathy of many Christian people in the North, and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" "was an outburst of passion against a wrong done to a race." ("History of U. S.," Rhodes, Vol. I, p. 279.) Three hundred thousand copies were sold the first year of its appearance and the sale soon reached a million and a half copies. The book was dramatized and translated into twenty languages.

(Report of Investigating Committee of New York City Association, 1857, p. 7.)

In 1853 the library committee of the New York

Association aroused considerable stir by excluding as the report states "a book called 'Uncle Tom's Cabin.' " This controversy led to a careful definition of the powers of the library committee. Its action, however, was sustained, a vote by the board being passed as follows, "Resolved that the library committee have power to exclude from the library such books as in their judgment are improper." An effort was made at the next meeting of the board to require the library committee "to report all works excluded and a statement of their reasons for such exclusion." This motion was laid on the table and the young men of the New York Association were protected from the influence of Harriet Beecher Stowe's volume. The fatherly and sheltering practice of the leaders at this time is indicated in the president's report for 1853 where he says : "It is not deemed proper that this library should contain all works from the press. Theories and opinions of every shade are freely spread upon the printed page — so that youth is compelled to pass an ordeal which, though it may possibly strengthen and expand the mind of a few, will prove fatal to others." Out of 1,009 volumes 383 were listed as "moral and religious works" and the chairman of the library committee remarks reluctantly, "While it has been our determination to exclude novels and romances, we have felt it incumbent on us to admit, to some extent, works of fiction acknowledged to be of a sound moral and religious character."

Anti-slavery sentiment evidently developed in the New York Association until it was the attitude of the dominant element of the members. Discussion over this issue reduced and nearly disrupted the organization. While the New York Association never yielded to the attempts of some of the zealous members to secure the passage of resolutions denouncing slavery, nevertheless the agitation lost to the Association financial support and the sympathy of a considerable portion of the community. The conservative element, which was made up of many ("Life of Mc- Burney," pp. 40-41) of the leading young men in business circles in the city, to the number of 150, decided to withdraw in a body. Their resignations were all signed to one paper; but the other party learned of this effort of the "dough-faces" and created not a little surprise when the resignations were presented by announcing a list equally long of new applicants for membership. The young men who withdrew were, however, more influential and the prosperity of the New York Association seriously declined.

The character of the agitation can be seen from the following incidents recorded in a report of twenty-four printed pages issued in 1857 by a special "investigating committee" appointed by the members of the New York Association to investigate the action of the board of directors in expelling the committee on rooms and library which occurred after a number of stormy meetings.

In the summer of 1856 a number of the Association members ("Life of McBurney," p. 40) were active in the Fremont campaign and figured in a procession given that summer.

(These statements are based on notes taken by the author in an interview with Cephas Brainerd in 1901.) "This procession was savagely caricatured by the New York Express, a rather violent political organ. The chairman of the library committee, Mr. George P. Edgar, excluded the Express from the rooms of the Association in August, 1856. This was done simply by stopping the subscription which caused no trouble; but the ground of the action became noised about and the Express began an attack on the Association as a political organization. Mr. Edgar on his own responsibility, and other members, replied through the columns of the Post. During December, 1856, and January, 1857, a heated newspaper controversy was waged. The board of directors voted to expel the library committee and to return the Express to the Association reading rooms. A committee of the Association appointed to investigate the affair, after extended and animated hearings, reported that the library committee had not been fairly dealt with and asked for the resignation of the entire board of directors."

(Langdon, "Early Story of the Confederation," Year Book, 1888, p. 21.)

Langdon relates at the first public anniversary of the Washington Association, July, 1852: "We were addressed by a Southerner, the Hon. Robert M. Charlton, United States Senator from Georgia. On the next public occasion it was therefore necessary to invite a Northerner and accordingly the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop of Boston was asked for the December following. We were forced to consider national prejudices and even politics in everything. At a meeting of the board of managers, September 27, one of our Southern members — to quote my diary — 'threw a firebrand among us by an attempt to expel the National Era, an abolition newspaper, from our reading rooms. The bringing in of politics was most desperately opposed by "several of us" and the casus belli was laid on the table for the present.' "

While the slavery issue was a menace to the internal development of 1 ocal Associations with a divided membership like those of Washington and New York, it was a still greater obstacle in the pathway of an international organization. Langdon stated (1855 Report, p. 74) in his report to the Second Annual Convention that the Baltimore Association "earnestly requests that the Convention be assured that it is not from the want of the most sincere and thorough Christian sympathy and affection toward the cause in which their brethren are engaged that they withhold their participation therein, but from the belief, founded on reasons elaborately urged in the report, that permanent harmony cannot be secured from the elements of which the Confederation is composed."

The opposition of Howard Crosby, president of the New York Association, has been mentioned in our discussion of the founding of the early Associations. (See Vol. I, p. 132.) He did not believe a national organization could be established.

Through his influence the New York City Association refused to enter the Confederation. It was unwilling to take its natural place of leadership as the largest Association in the country. (New York City Report, 1854, p. 11.)

The New Orleans Association in a letter to the Convention held at Cincinnati in 1855 writes (Cincinnati Convention Report, 1855, p. 51) : "As a band of Christians, as friends, and as countrymen you have been called together and are therefore prepared no doubt to yield private opinions for the general good. Differences must of course exist, but they need not mar the peace of the body. Let each forget for the time his sectional prejudices and legislate for the good of the whole. Then will the croaking of our enemies be silenced."

On the other hand, in Associations in sections where strong abolition sentiments prevailed there was a growing determination not to compromise on the slavery issue. Many believed they would sacrifice their Christian principles by fellowshipping with any religious organization which was silent on this issue.

Speaking of the first Convention at Buffalo in 1854, Langdon relates : "Mr. Holland of Toronto offered a resolution which illustrated the ground of opposition to the Convention. It was to the effect that 'as in Christ Jesus there is neither bound nor free,' therefore that all young men 'of whatever degree or condition in life' be invited to an equal participation in the advantages of the Association. This resolution was without debate referred to the business committee and not reported. It was at that time the only course which could possibly have been taken. As long as slavery existed, certain social results followed. The Young Men's Christian Association neither could deal nor did it propose to deal with the institution itself. To what practical purpose were any resolutions of protest or nonrecognition of those social results? At the adjournment the president, Mr. Helme of New Orleans, frankly admitted that great fears had been entertained that the Convention would be the scene of wrangling and strife, that sectional questions would be agitated. Had the Holland resolution been admitted to debate these fears would have been realized, that they were not is the more remarkable in such a body of Northern young men."

But this lack of action at the Convention did not satisfy the Toronto Association. This Association at first approved the founding of the Confederation and then sought to induce the Central Committee to take a stand against slavery.

The great task confronting Langdon and the newly appointed "Central Committee'" was to secure enough Associations as members of the proposed Confederation to establish it authoritatively. They found the slavery issue their chief obstacle and were compelled to take action announcing their policy. ("Early Story of the Confederation," Year Book, 1888, pp. 36-37.) The Association at Toronto through its corresponding secretary, C. R. Brooks, addressed the Central Committee on this subject. Brooks was also the Canadian representative on the Central

Committee. He proposed that the Central Committee incorporate in the organic law of the Associations some provisions recognizing the rights of Christian slaves to become members of the Association "as a principle which should be adopted as fundamental by any Confederation of Young Men's Christian Associations. " Brooks stated that the Toronto Association had ratified the resolution to join the Confederation only by a small majority and "in the hope that when the Central Committee should adopt a constitution, some such principle would be proposed to the Associations as a test of their connection with one another."

"The Southern Associations on the other hand were equally sensitive of anything which would reflect on the Christian principle with which they conformed to the social and political conditions under which they were constituted and under which alone of course they could do their work. Some of these therefore were unwilling to expose themselves to having these principles called to question — as for instance : Baltimore, Charleston, and indeed the Association at New Orleans also."

The Central Committee accordingly issued a circular on November 18, 1854, stating that the Central Committee (Cincinnati Convention Report, 1855, p. 105) was "not a ruling power, but an agent" through which the local Associations might act and that it had no power whatever to adopt a constitution for the Confederation.

Toronto and Providence at once withdrew. The Pittsburgh Association wrote that they would send delegates to the Cincinnati Convention only on the condition "that they should be free to bear their conscientious testimony against what they believed to be a national sin."

Langdon decided to stand firm on the position that it was not the province of the Central Committee to pass on the slavery issue.

The question of the autonomy of the local Association was also involved.

Five additional Associations refused to enter the Confederation — Portland, Maine; Boston; Brooklyn; Detroit, and Nashville.

The slavery issue even appeared at the World's Convention held at Paris in 1855. Through the request of the American delegate, Rev. Abel Stevens of New York City, a resolution was adopted as a part of the Paris Basis, which after referring to the faith and object of the Associations states: "That any differences of opinion on other subjects, however important in themselves, but not embraced in the specific designs of the Associations, shall not interfere with the harmonious relations of the Confederated Societies."

How interwoven with the life of its times is any vital organization! This simple society for the spiritual welfare of young men made necessary by the new urban conditions which industry was creating found itself even before it could realize its corporate existence tossed on the waves of political strife and social unrest.

As the controversy over slavery waxed more intense so the difficulties of the national organization increased. It is no wonder when one considers the experience of the different denominations that Association leaders despaired of creating a national organization and it is a proof of Langdon's statesmanship that one was successfully established.

In 1850 the churches were already divided on this issue. In the Senate Calhoun said: "The cords that bind the States together are not only many but various in character. Some are spiritual or ecclesiastical ; some political, others social. The strongest are those of a religious nature, but they have begun to snap. The great Methodist Episcopal Church has divided. There is a Methodist Church North and a Methodist Church South and they are hostile. The Protestant organization next in size, the Baptist Church, has likewise fallen asunder. The cord which binds the Presbyterian Church is not entirely snapped, but some of its strands have given way." ("History of U. S.," Rhodes, Vol. I, p. 128.)

In 1854 during its passage the Kansas-Nebraska act had called out a petition of protest to Congress which was signed by Rev. Stephen H. Tyng of New York, one of the vice-presidents of the New York Association and a delegate to the Paris Convention of 1855, by Rev. G. T. Bedell, and Chancellor Isaac Ferris, both of whom attended and addressed the meeting at which the New York Association was organized (1852), and by Rev. Theo. L. Cuyler, who was the most active clergyman in New York in supporting the work of the Association.

Rev. Lyman Beecher of Boston joined in a similar protest signed by 3,050 out of 3,800 clergymen of New England. Mr. Beecher had delivered the address at the founding of the Boston Association and was one of the four clergymen upon whose advice the evangelical church basis for active membership was adopted by the Boston society.

This petition was couched in strong language. ("History of U. S.," Rhodes, Vol. I, p. 478.) It said: "The undersigned clergymen of different religious denominations in New England, hereby in the name of Almighty God and in his presence do solemnly protest against the passage of what is known as the Nebraska bill. . . . We protest against it as a great moral wrong, as a breach of faith eminently unjust to the moral principles of the community and subversive of all confidence in national engagements ; as a measure full of danger to the peace and even the existence of our beloved Union and exposing us to the righteous judgments of the Almighty."

("History of U. S.," Rhodes, Vol. II, p. 152.) The Kansas-Nebraska bill of 1854 which permitted slavery in a new territory, but left it for the people to decide whether the territory upon becoming a state should exclude or permit slavery, brought on the armed conflict over slavery in Kansas. The North hastened into Kansas settlers who favored freedom. These men were armed with "Sharp's rifles," then considered superior weapons. The slavery leaders of the South in a similar manner sent armed representatives to the debated territory. Early in 1856 Buford's battalion of 280 armed men assembled at Montgomery, Alabama, in the Baptist Church. "The Methodist minister solemnly invoked the divine blessing on the enterprise. The Baptist pastor gave Buford a finely bound Bible and said that a subscription had been raised to present each emigrant with a copy of the Holy Scriptures. ... A distinguished citizen made an address, saying, 'on them rested the future welfare of the South; they were armed with the Bible, a weapon more potent than Sharp's rifles.' "

Mr. Rhodes in his history of this period further states (Vol. II, p. 153) : "The most warlike demonstration and one which excited the greatest attention, was at New Haven, Conn. Charles B. Lines, a deacon of a New Haven Congregational Church, had enlisted a company of seventy-nine emigrants. A meeting for the purpose of raising funds was held in the church shortly before their departure. Many clergymen and many of the Yale College faculty were present. The leader of the party said that Sharp's rifles were lacking, and that they were needed for self-defense. After an earnest address by Henry Ward Beecher, the subscription began. Professor Silliman started it with one Sharp's rifle; the pastor of the church gave the second; other gentlemen and some ladies followed their example. "As fifty was the number wanted, Beecher said that if twenty-five were pledged on the spot, Plymouth Church would furnish the rest. The number of rifles wanted was subscribed. Previous to this meeting Beecher had declared that for the slave holders of Kansas the Sharp's rifle was a greater moral agency than the Bible and from that time the favorite arms of the Northern emigrants became known as "Beecher's Bibles." The anti-slavery tide rose higher and higher in the North and the determination to maintain slavery even to the point of secession strengthened in the South. The difficulties of preserving the unity of the Confederation increased. The Southern Associations were given every consideration. The International Convention was held in 1857 at Richmond, in 1858 at Charleston, in 1860 at New Orleans, and the one for 1861 was scheduled for St. Louis. At the New Orleans Convention W. F. Munford of Richmond was chosen president. The attendance of delegates at these conventions was larger from the South than from the North. The Central Committee for 1860 was located at Richmond. The Association at New Orleans issued a magazine which circulated widely among other Associations.

Affectionate greetings and interchange of good fellowship neutralized to a degree feelings of antagonism, but these could not alter the fact of a widening divergence of conviction. At the Montreal Convention the delegates were given a reception on the top of Mount Royal. At Richmond an entire day was spent in an excursion into the surrounding country, and at Troy, in 1859, the largest convention of this period, the nearly 300 delegates were taken in a body by the Troy Association to Saratoga Springs, where a dinner with post-prandial speeches was served in truly modern style. But none of these occasions equalled the reception extended at Charleston in 1858 and at New Orleans in 1860. As if shrinking from imminent separation the fellowship of these co-workers was the more intense.

At the Charleston Convention the first afternoon in place of formal addresses of welcome was spent in a sail around the harbor and a picnic on Sullivan Island. The Report (1858, p. 11) states "that the steamer sailed past Fort Sumter to Sullivan Island . . . martial music waking patriotic echoes . . . under the gentle reign of peace, on the spot where patriot blood was shed . . . when independence was born and present national happiness ushered in." The report speaks of the influence of this social fellowship as a bond of union which would "long survive the separation and vicissitudes of life." At New Orleans in 1860 the hymn of welcome written for the occasion says, "Here we meet in unity." The entire convention marched later in the procession at the unveiling of a statue of Henry Clay. In his address of welcome at the opening of the Convention, Rev. J. B. Walker said, "We know no North, no South, no East, no West, but love our common country from ocean wave to ocean wave and for the preservation of the institutions of that country we will labor with men and intercede with God."