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Henry Ward Beecher Biography

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BEECHER, HENRY WARD (1813-87). A Protestant pulpit orator, born in Litchfield, Conn., June 24, 1813. He was the eighth child and third son of Lyman Beecher. From his father he inherited a virile nature, a Puritan conscience, indomitable courage, and great force of character; from his mother, Roxanna Foots, of Cavalier ancestry and Episcopalian training, susceptibility to culture, love of music and art, a mystical disposition, and an almost feminine tenderness of nature. He entered Amherst College at 17, attained only moderate standing in college studies, but threw himself with enthusiasm into the study of English literature, phrenology, and elocution, and was active outside the college in prayer meetings, lectures, and lay preaching. In Lane Theological Seminary he pursued the same enthusiastic but somewhat fitful methods of study and alternated between a missionary enthusiasm and great spiritual depression accompanied with skepticism. His doubts were finally settled by a spiritual experience of Jesus Christ as the revelation of a God of infinite love and pity, which became the foundation both of his theological thought and his Christian life. On graduation he accepted the pastorate of a Presbyterian church of 20 members at Lawrenceburg, Ind., on the Ohio River, where he served both as sexton and preacher. He was thence called after two years to a New School Presbyterian church in Indianapolis, where his engaging personality, vivid imagination, and dramatic oratory brought him overflowing congregations. Eight years later he was called to the newly organized Congregational "Plymouth Church," in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Here he preached for nearly 40 years to congregations of between 2000 and 3000. During a large part of his ministry one sermon each week and his Friday evening "Lecture Room Talks" were reported and published in full. Congregational singing was a feature of the public service, and the "Plymouth Collection," edited by Mr. Beecher in 1855, though since superseded by better hymnals, was the pioneer of them all. Several notable revivals of religion took place, and the church grew in membership to between 3000 and 4000, with two connected chapels or missions. Mr. Beecher also took an active part in the antislavery campaign, readily cooperating with the extreme Abolitionists, though he himself always advocated non-interference with slavery in the States and its gradual extinction under the Constitution by prohibiting its extension. He was also heard from the platform on every public question and was in great request as a Lyceum lecturer. The most notable of his addresses outside the pulpit were five orations delivered by him in England in 1863, where he successfully faced and eventually controlled more than one mob, and where he exerted a great influence in transferring the public sympathies of England from the southern to the northern side in the American Civil War. At the close of that war he advocated a policy of trust in the South and limited suffrage for the negroes with generous provision for their education and by so doing separated himself politically from the Republican party leaders. He was an early student of Spencer, Tyndall, Darwin, and Huxley, though not their follower, and accepted the doctrine of evolution on its first appearance, believing and teaching that it confirmed a rational Christianity. He accepted the Higher Criticism and applied it to the interpretation of the Bible. By instinct and temperament always an advocate of minimum governmental interference, he threw himself enthusiastically into the campaign for the election of Mr. Cleveland in 1884 on the platform of tariff for revenue only. He retained his pulpit power to the last and died after a brief illness of apoplexy on the 8th of March, 1887.

When the Independent was established, Mr. Beecher became first a regular contributor, then an editorial writer, then editor in chief. He soon resigned this position, his friend, Theodore Tilton, taking his place. The paper continued to publish his sermons until his break with the Radical leaders on the reconstruction problem, when their publication was suspended. In 1870 The Christian Union was established, with Mr. Beecher as editor in chief. This was shortly followed by an attack by Mr. Tilton upon Mr. Beecher, ending in a suit against him for adultery. The trial, which lasted for six months, ended in a disagreement of the jury, 9 of the 12 voting in Mr. Beecher's favor. Other investigations were more decisive. The largest and most representative council of the Congregational churches ever known in the history of the denomination declared unanimously their undiminished confidence in him; and at a public meeting tendered to him on the occasion of his seventieth birthday by the citizens of Brooklyn, without respect to church or party, eight years after the trial, and presided over by the justice who had presided at the trial, the public confidence of the community in him was expressed in the strongest terms.

In his later ministry Mr. Beecher habitually spoke extemporaneously. He was as dramatic in private conversation as on the platform, and his imagination was as fertile. Surpassed in charm of manner and grace of diction by many orators, in combination of charm and power he was surpassed by few or none. The fervid passion of his oratory swayed his audience at the time, his marshaling of facts and his appeal to the reason rendered the impression permanent, while a mystical imagination often opened to the hearer a vision of a world invisible. He married (1837) Eunice White Bullard, born in West Sutton, Mass., Aug. 26, 1812. His widow, three sons, and one daughter survived him.

Consult Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, by his sons, William C. Beecher and Samuel Scoville, assisted by Mrs. Beecher (1888); Life of Henry Ward Beecher, by J. H. Barrows (1893); Henry Ward Beecher, by Lyman Abbott (1903); and Henry Ward Beecher: A Study of his Life and Influence, by Newell Dwight Hillis (1913). Of his published works all are reprints of sermons, addresses, or occasional periodical articles with two exceptions: Norwood, a tale of New England life, and the Life of Christ. Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit (1867) interpret his devotional spirit; Yale Lectures on Preaching (1872-74) gives both his philosophy of preaching and his pulpit and pastoral methods; Evolution and Religion (1885-86) affords the best interpretation of his theological views.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. III (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 52-53.