Chapter I: Preface

“We are making history,” was the convenient and popular boast of certain politico-religious fanatics during the late civil war, and for a few years subsequent to its close. It will not be considered impertinent, now that the “piping times of peace” have come, and men are permitted to look back upon the cooled passions and crystallized events of that dreadful period with somewhat of calm philosophy, if the fact should be announced that “we are writing history.” It is one thing to make the history, it is quite another thing to write it. If others could afford to “make history,” and, then, in popular cant and with prurient vanity, boast of it, we can well afford to write it up for them. And if our part of the task be fairly, candidly and correctly done, they will have little reason to complain if they appear before the world and go down to posterity in the light of the history they have made, and with their true character brought out by the shadows they have thrown forward upon the future. History is valuable, not merely as a catalogue of events and an inventory of things, but for the principles involved and the lessons taught. The events herein narrated are notorious, the principles involved are vital, and the lessons important.

Missouri will ever be conspicuous in the annals of history as the only State in the American Union to inaugurate and authorize a formal opposition to Christianity, as an institution, and legalize the persecution of ministers of the gospel, as a class. The fact will not be denied, and the history furnishes the saddest, wisest lessons. Ministers of the gospel have been robbed, arrested, imprisoned, and even murdered, for no other cause than that they were ministers of the gospel. They have been indicted by grand juries, arrested and imprisoned with common felons, mobbed and put to death for no other cause than that of preaching the gospel without taking the “Test Oath” of the New Constitution. A pure, unsecular Christianity owes much to the moral heroism of the Missouri ministry. The faith once delivered unto the saints, the integrity of the Church of Jesus Christ, as a kingdom not of this world, the purity of the gospel, the divine authority of the ministry, the liberty of conscience, and the rightful sovereignty of Christ in his Church, with every principle and phase of religious liberty, have been illustrated in the lives and sublimely vindicated in the sufferings of the ministers of the gospel in Missouri.

The author fully appreciates the delicacy and difficulty of dealing with such recent events and so many living names—events, too, which belong to the catalogue of crime, and names that will pass into history associated with the persecution and stained with the blood of the Lord’s annointed. But if the task is difficult and the questions delicate, the duty is no less imperative. It is due alike to the martyrs, living and dead, and to the holy cause for which they suffered, that their names and deeds be preserved, and that their unswerving fidelity and sublime devotion to a principle and a cause, equal to the purest heroism of the ancient martyrs, should not be lost to the Church. It is one of the gravest responsibilities of the hour, and one of the most gracious opportunities of the Church, to preserve the history, vindicate the faith, maintain the principles and impress the lessons of the turbulent past upon the peaceful future, that grace may abound through suffering and God may be glorified in his servants.

A diluted charity says, “Let the dead past bury its dead, and let the living present draw the mantle of charity over the unfortunate by-gones.” This might be well enough if the “dead past” did not contain the imperishable gem of a resurrection life that speaks to us with authority in the vital principles of yesterday, to-day and forever, and tells us, amongst other thins, that the chief of the Christian virtues—a pure, discriminating charity—has no mantle for crime, however Christ-like may be its compassion for the penitent criminal.

Both Federal and State legislation shield those who committed the crimes of the war from legal prosecution; but such enactments possess no control over the pen and the press.

In presenting this work to the public the author is fully conscious of its many literary defects. But for all that, he dare not sacrifice the facts of history, even to literary excellence. Many subjects possess an importance and a grandeur wholly independent of those who handle them.

If, in treating of so many men and such recent events, injustice has been done the living or the dead, the author pleads the absence of intention and claims the benefit of a discriminating charity.

Both the work and the author will receive the severest criticism—perhaps censure—possibly abuse. The first—he would not escape if he could; the second—he could not escape if he would; the third—well—it is no new thing under the sun for those who are set for the defense of truth and righteousness to be abused.

The following prefatory notes, furnished by Dr. M‘Anally and Bishop Marvin, together with the Introduction by Dr. Summers, will not only assure the timid and establish the doubtful, but will be as grateful to the Methodist and general public as to the author:

PREFATORY NOTE.

“In the following pages the reader may find an account of some of
those horrible outrages perpetrated on Christian ministers in
Missouri, chiefly because they were Christian men and Christian
ministers; but scarce a tenth of all such outrages have been, or
likely ever will be, placed before the public. They have cast a foul
and ineraseable blot upon the fame of the State of Missouri, and must
consign the immediate perpetrators to an infamy as lasting and as
hateful as that of the most cruel persecutors of Christians in gone-by
ages. And what deepens, blackens and renders more odious the guilt of
these things is, they were for the greater part done by, or under the
sanction of, men professing to love and follow the Lord Jesus Christ;
with a claim to, and under the pretext of, a purer patriotism and
holier Christianity, they committed atrocities that would disgrace
barbarians and savages.

“It is well the record of these horrible deeds be preserved, that the
better portion of the people in this and other States may have some
knowledge of what was done and suffered here during the dark and
bloody days, from 1861 to ’65.

“Many of those, directly or indirectly, implicated in these deeds of
cruelty and shame are now loud and earnest in their entreaties for
‘by-gones to be by-gones,’ and profess great grief that anything
should be said or done ‘to keep alive the feelings of the past.’ It is
not strange they should feel thus; but can they reasonably expect an
honest and outraged people should continue to cover up such
abominations, receive those who committed them into respectable
society, and treat them as though they were innocent, honest,
high-minded, Christian gentlemen? That would be strange—passing
strange! No! Truth and righteousness, justice and mercy, alike demand
that a faithful record of all such inhuman outrages be made,
extensively circulated and carefully preserved; that all the
perpetrators, instigators and abettors be consigned to that infamy
they so deservedly earned. Of such a record this is the first volume,
and it is hoped another, and another, and, if need be, yet another,
will be forthcoming, until the whole matter shall be placed in its
true and proper light.

“Of the manner in which the author has performed his work in the pages
following I need not speak. Each reader will judge for himself, and
each will find something to interest and instruct. The facts developed
are exceedingly suggestive, and suggestive, too, in regard to all the
interests of society.

“The thoughtful render will naturally inquire as to the cause of, and
reason for, such things, as well as to their natural and legitimate
effects, and this may induce an honest, healthful inquiry as to what
influences should be brought to bear to make men better, and thus
prevent the recurrence of such things as are here detailed. Let the
book be extensively circulated, carefully read, and its contents well
considered.

“D. R. M’ANALLY.

“CARONDELET, MO., December 29, 1869.”

“ST. LOUIS, December 24, 1869.

“REV. W. M. LEFTWICH:

“_Dear Sir_—I have seen the proof sheets of a large portion of the
first volume of ‘Martyrdom in Missouri,’ now soon to come from the
press.

“The publication of this book meets my hearty approval. I have met
with some who say, ‘Let the past sleep; let all its crimes, and the
had blood engendered by them, be buried forever.’ I have not so
learned Christ. He, the Incarnate Love, charged the blood of the
prophets upon the sons of their murderers. The true work of Christian
charity is to _eradicate_ crime, not to ignore it. The maudlin
sentiment that would daub over the great public crimes committed by
the highest dignitaries of the Northern Methodist Church and their
representatives in the South and along the border, is _not_ charity.
It is at best a clumsy counterfeit of that chief of the virtues. True
charity will seek to bring them to confession and recantation of their
deeds.

“To all their former misdeeds they now add, to avoid the shame of the
past, denials, equivocation and, as in the case of the Holston
property seized by them, false recriminations. The sober truth is that
they never hesitated during the time of our public trouble to use the
influence an active partisanship gave them with the party in power, to
take possession of our property, either by military order, or
terrorism, or mob violence. The public conscience of that Church seems
to have been debauched by their efforts to defraud us of our property
at the time of the division of the Church.

“But the stench of these recent atrocities is so strong in the
nostrils of the people that the perpetrators resort to the ever open
refuge of the evil-doer—denial. This book is opportune. The great body
of the preachers and members of the Church North are honest men. The
denials made by their leading men and Church papers they suppose to be
true. Here are facts in detail, with places, names, dates, and copies
of legal proceedings taken from official sources.

“Before the war, when Northern preachers were objects of suspicion,
and public demonstrations were sometimes made against them, the editor
of the St. Louis _Christian Advocate_, Rev. D. R. M‘Anally, raised his
voice against all mobs and mob violence with a will and an emphasis
that left no covert suggestions of encouragement to those who might
have been disposed to resort to violent measures. Led by the
_Advocate_, the whole Southern Church in the State gave its influence,
publicly and privately, against all violent proceedings. If that paper
and our Church had, at that time, pursued the course that the Northern
preachers and papers did towards us during the war, they would have
been driven from the State. As it was, in order to get credit for
persecution, they had to resort to the most remarkable tricks. Take,
for instance, the case, given with proper names in this book, of one
of their camp meetings being broken up by the preacher in charge of it
being caught in the act of adultery—broken up by their own members.
This they published to the world as a case of persecution by Southern
people.

“While I do not agree fully with all the views set forth in the
preliminary chapters of this volume, I am prepared to say that the
_facts_ bearing on the main topic have been collected and verified
with great care, and that there can be no doubt of the accuracy of the
statements. You have been pleased to hold yourself responsible, giving
proper names, dates, etc. I do not hesitate to invite upon myself a
full share of the responsibility.

“Hoping that you will soon have the second volume, containing the
names of our other murdered brethren, ready for the press,

“I am, very respectfully,
“E. M. MARVIN.”