Starr King in California
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William Day Simonds >> Starr King in California
Dedicated to the Memory of Honorable Horace Davis of San Francisco as
the only Tribute of Respect Now Possible to one whose Friendly Interest
and Assistance the Author Here Gratefully Acknowledges
Up to the time of Starr King's death it was generally believed that he,
more than any other man, had prevented California and the whole Pacific
Coast from falling into the gulf of disunion. It is certain that Abraham
Lincoln held this opinion
Edwin Percy Whipple
Contents
Introduction
Part I
In Old New England
Part II
California in 1860
Part III
California's Hour of Decision
Part IV
Philanthropist and Preacher
Part V
In Retrospect
Illustrations
Starr King Monument
Portrait of Starr King
Introduction
This book is the result of the author's strong desire to know the truth
relative to a critical period in the history of California, and a
further strong desire to deal justly by the memory of a man recent
historians have been pleased to pass by with slight acknowledgment.
What was the nature and measure of Starr King's influence on the Pacific
Coast during the Civil War? To be able to answer that question has cost
more time and study than the reader could be brought to believe. It has
necessitated a thorough examination of all published histories of
California, of numerous biographies, of old newspapers, memoirs, letters
and musty documents. It has involved interviews with prominent persons
as well as a careful study of earlier writings upon Starr King in books
and magazines. Best of all it has compelled the writer to the delightful
task of renewing his acquaintance with the published sermons and
lectures of the patriot-preacher.
It is believed that no important data has been overlooked, and it is
hoped that a genuine service has been rendered to all students of
California History, and to all lovers of Starr King - he who was called
by his own generation, "The Saint of the Pacific Coast."
Part I
In Old New England
When Starr King entered the Golden Gate, April 28, 1860, he had passed
by a few months his thirty-fifth birthday. A young man in the morning of
his power he felt strangely old, for he wrote to a friend just a little
later: "I have passed meridian. It is after twelve o'clock in the large
day of my mortal life. I am no longer a young man. It is now afternoon
with me, and the shadows turn toward the east."
There was abundant reason for this premature feeling of age. Even at
thirty-five King had been a long time among the most earnest of workers.
Born in New York City, December 17, 1824, of English and German
ancestry, son of a Universalist Minister who was compelled to struggle
along on a very meager salary, the lad felt very early in life labor's
stern discipline. At fifteen he was obliged to leave school that by
daily toil he might help to support his now widowed mother and five
younger brothers and sisters. Brief as was his record in school, we note
the following prophetic facts: he displayed singular aptitude for study,
he was conscientious yet vivacious, he was by nature adverse to anything
rude or coarse. Joshua Bates, King's last teacher, describes the lad as
"slight of build, golden haired, with a homely face which everybody
thought handsome on account of the beaming eyes, the winning smile and
the earnest desire of always wanting to do what was best and right."
This is our earliest testimony to the lovable character of the man whose
life-story we are now considering. It will impress us more and more as
East and West, Boston and San Francisco, in varying phrase tell again
and again, of "the beaming eyes, the winning smile, and the earnest
desire of always wanting to do what was just and right."
A bread-winner at fifteen, and for a large family, surely this is the
end of all dreams of scholarship or of professional service. That
depends on the man - and the conditions that surround him. Happily
King's mother was a woman of good mind who knew and loved the best in
literature. Ambitious for her gifted son, she read with him, and for
him, certain of the masters whom to know well is to possess the
foundations of true culture. It is a pretty scene and suggestive - the
lad and his mother, reading together "till the wee small hours"
Plutarch, Grote's History of Greece, Bullfinch's Mythology, Dante and
the plays of William Shakespeare. Fortunately his mother was not his
only helper. Near at hand was Theodore Parker who was said to possess
the best private library in Boston, and whose passion for aiding young
men was well known. He befriended King as he befriended others, and
early discovered in the widow's son superior talents. In those days very
young men used to preach. Before he had reached his majority, King was
often sent to fill engagements under direction and at the suggestion of
Parker. The high esteem of the elder for the younger man is attested by
the following letter to an important church not far from Boston.
"I cannot come to preach for you as I would like, but with your kind
permission I will send Thomas Starr King. This young man is not a
regularly ordained preacher, but he has the grace of God in his heart,
and the gift of tongues. He is a rare sweet spirit and I know that after
you have met with him you will thank me for sending him to you."
This young dry-goods clerk, schoolmaster, and bookkeeper, for he
followed all of these occupations during the years in which he was
growing out of youth into manhood, was especially interested in
metaphysics and theology. In these, and kindred studies he was greatly
impressed and inspired by the writings of Victor Cousin, whose major
gift was his ability to awaken other minds. "The most brilliant meteor
that flashed across the sky of the nineteenth century," said
Sainte-Beuve.
When Thomas Starr King was eighteen years old, William Ellery Channing
died. Of that death which occurred amid the lovely scenery of Vermont
upon a rare Autumnal evening, Theodore Parker wrote, The sun went toward
the horizon: the slanting beams fell into the chamber. Channing turned
his face toward that sinking orb and he and the sun went away together.
Each, as the other, left 'the smile of his departure' spread on all
around: the sun on the clouds, he on the heart."
Channing's "smile on the heart," his pure philosophy, his sweet
Christian spirit so influenced King that his best sermons read not
unlike the large, calm utterances of Channing when he spoke on the
loftiest of themes. To other good and great men our student preacher was
deeply indebted. To Dr. Hosea Ballou (2d) for friendship and wise
counsel. To Dr. James Walker for the inspiration of certain notable
lectures on Natural Theology. Most of all to Dr. E. A. Chapin, his
father's successor in the Universalist Pulpit at Charlestown, Mass. Dr.
Chapin - but ten years King's senior - was then just beginning his
eminent career as pulpit orator and popular lecturer. He recognized the
undeveloped genius of his young friend, he knew of his earnest
student-ship, he delighted to open the doors of opportunity to him. It
was a gracious and honorable relation and most advantageous to the
younger man. Writing to a good Deacon of a neighboring church Chapin
said: "Thomas has never attended a Divinity School, but he is educated
just the same. He speaks Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and fairly good
English as you will see. He knows natural history and he knows humanity,
and if one knows man and nature, he comes pretty close to knowing God."
In 1846 Chapin was called to New York, and through his influence Starr
King, then twenty-two years old, was installed as his successor in the
pastorate of the First Universalist Church of Charlestown. If his
preparedness for an important New England pulpit is questioned it must
be admitted that he entered it wholly without academic training, but we
need not be distressed on that account. From the first he had adopted a
method of study certain to produce excellent results, thorough
acquaintance with a few great authors, and reverent, loving intercourse
with a few great teachers. Little wonder that the "boy preacher" made
good in the pulpit from which his honored Father had passed into,the
Silence, and wherein the eloquence of Chapin had charmed a congregation
of devoted followers.
Two years pass and he is called to Hollis Street Church in Boston, a
Unitarian Church of honorable fame but at the time threatened with
disaster. It was believed that if any one could save the imperilled
church, King was that man. Not yet twenty-five years of age, established
as minister of one of Boston's well known churches; a co-laborer of
Bartol, Ballou, Everett, Emerson, Theodore Parker and Wendell Phillips,
- surely he is to be tried and tested as few men so young have ever
been, here in the "Athens of America," the city of beautiful ideals and
great men.
It is certain that King regarded the eleven years he gave to Hollis
Street as merely preparatory to his greater work in California. Writing
playfully from San Francisco to Dr. Bellows in Boston he said: "At home,
among you big fellows, I wasn't much. Here they seem to think I am
somebody. Nothing like the right setting." The record shows that even
among the "big fellows" Starr King was a very definite somebody, for
although crowds did not attend his preaching in Boston as in San
Francisco, he was able to congratulate himself upon the fact that he
preached his last sermon in Hollis Street Church to five times as many
people as heard his first. Nor do we need to await the judgment of
California admirers to be convinced of his ability as a preacher or his
popularity as a lecturer. It was said of him that "he was an orator from
the beginning:" that his first public address "was like Charles Lamb's
roast pig, good throughout, no part better or worse than another." "His
delivery," says a candid and scholarly critic, "was rather earnest than
passionate. He had a deep, strange, rich voice, which he knew how to
use. His eyes were extraordinary, living sermons, a peculiar shake and
nod of the head giving the impression of deep-settled conviction.
Closely confined to his notes, yet his delivery produces a marked
impression."
Hostile criticism, which no man wholly escapes, enjoyed suggesting that
King had been educated in the common schools of Portsmouth and
Charlestown, and that he had graduated from the navy yard into the
pulpit. A Boston correspondent passed judgment upon him as follows: "He
was not considered profoundly learned; he was not regarded as a
remarkable orator; he was not a great writer; nor can his unrivalled
popularity be ascribed to his fascinating social or intellectual gifts.
It was the hidden interior man of the heart that gave him his real power
and skill to control the wills and to move the hearts, and to win the
unbounded confidence and affection of his fellow-beings."
William Everett is authority for the statement that in those early years
in Hollis Street Church "Starr King was not thought to be what a teacher
of Boston Unitarianism ought to be. He was regarded rather as a florid
platform speaker, one interested in the crude and restless attempts at
reform which sober men distrusted." Another reviewer mingles praise and
criticism quite ingeniously. "He astonishes and charms his hearers by a
rare mastery over sentences. He is a skilful word-marshal. Hence his
popularity as a lyceum lecturer. However much of elegant leisure the
more solid and instructive lecturers may have, Mr. King is always
wanted. He is, in some respects, the most popular writer and preacher of
the two denominations which he equally represents, being a sort of soft
ligament between the Chang of Universalism and the Eng of Unitarianism."
This last criticism invites us to notice - all too briefly - a phase of
King's experience in New England fitting him most admirably for the
larger work he was to do on the Pacific Coast. From 1840 to 1860 the
Lyceum flourished in the United States as never before or since. Large
numbers of lecture courses, extending even to the small cities and
towns, were liberally patronized and generously supported. In many
communities this was the one diversion and the one extravagance. To fill
the new demand an extraordinary group of public speakers appeared;
Emerson, Edward Everett, Wendell Phillips, Dr. Chapin, Oliver Wendell
Holmes, George William Curtis, Henry Ward Beecher, Frederick Douglas,
Theodore Parker and others, whose names are reverently spoken to this
day by aged men and women who remember the uplift given them in youth by
these giants of the platform.
That he was always wanted with such rivals as those is proof enough of
King's power with the people, of his fame as an orator, even before his
greater development and his more wonderful achievements in California.
His lecture circuit extended from Boston to Chicago. His principal
subjects were "Goethe," "Socrates," "Substance and Show," a lecture
which ranks next to Wendell Phillips' "Lost Arts" in popularity. Not
withstanding the academic titles King gave his lectures they seemed to
have been popular with all classes. "Grand, inspiring, instructive,"
lectures," said the learned. "Thems' idees," said unlettered men of
sound sense. It was thought to be a remarkable triumph of platform
eloquence that King could make such themes fascinating to Massachusetts
farmers and Cape Cod fishermen. In fine phrase it was said of him that
he lectured upon such themes as Plato and Socrates "with a prematureness
of scholarship, a delicacy of discernment, a sweet innocent combination
of confidence and diffidence, which were inexpressibly charming."
It may be claimed with all candor that few public teachers have ever
been able so to enlist scientific truth in the service of the spirit.
That spirit and life are the great realities, that all else is mainly
show, at best but the changing vesture of spirit, is set forth in King's
lectures so completely that he may be said to have made, even at this
early age, a genuine and lasting contribution to the thought of his
time. All this be it noted before he had set foot upon the Pacific
Coast, where he was destined to do his real work.
One other service King had rendered the country, and especially New
England, should here be gratefully recalled. Always in delicate health,
he had formed the habit of spending his vacations in the White Hills of
New Hampshire. Benefited in mind and body, and charmed by the rare
beauty of a region then unknown, he endeavored to reveal to the people
of Boston, and other Eastern cities, the neglected loveliness lying at
their very doors. The result was King's "The White Hills, Their Legends,
Landscape and Poetry." Although this pioneer nature-book is now probably
quite forgotten, even by the multitudes who visit the scenes it so
glowingly describes, it is well to remember that it was, indeed, one of
the first attempts to entice the city dweller "back to nature."
Published in 1859, it followed Thoreau's at that time unread "Walden" by
only five years, while it preceded Murray's "Adventures in the
Wilderness," and the earliest of John Burroughs' delightful volumes, by
a full generation. It was in every way a commendable, if not great,
adventure in authorship.
From this brief review it is evident that when Starr King preached his
last sermon in Boston, March 25, 1860, he had made for himself an
enviable reputation in three difficult fields of work, as preacher,
lecturer and writer. The feeling of Boston and New England upon his
departure was fittingly expressed by Edwin Percy Whipple in a leading
journal of the day in which this eminent author "appealed to thousands
in proof of the assertion that though in charge of a large parish, and
with a lecture parish which extended from Bangor to St. Louis, he still
seemed to have time for every noble work, to be open to every demand of
misfortune, tender to every pretension of weakness, responsive to every
call of sympathy, and true to every obligation of friendship; all will
indulge the hope that California, cordial as must be the welcome she
extends him, will still not be able to keep him long from
Massachusetts."
On the day before he sailed from New York a "Breakfast Reception" was
given him at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, at which three hundred guests were
seated at the tables. The poet, William Cullen Bryant presided, and
other men hardly less distinguished testified to the nature of King's
work, and to the varied charm of his unique personality. Best of all,
perhaps, was the tribute of his friend and neighbor, Dr. Frederick H.
Hedge. "Happy Soul! himself a benediction wherever he goes; a living
evangel of kind affections, better than all prophecy and all knowledge,
the Angel of the Church whom Boston sends to San Francisco."
Such was the man who came to California in the greatest crisis of her
history to exert upon her destiny an influence unequalled and unexampled
even in that most romantic and eventful story of the Golden West.
Part II
California in 1860
The federal census of 1860 gave California 379,984 inhabitants and San
Francisco 56,802. Historian Bancroft informs us that here was "a
gathering without a parallel in history." It may be said that the whole
history and development of California is without parallel. The story
reads not so much like the orderly growth of a civilized community as a
series of unrelated and episodical events. There is little of logical
order or sequence, and much of surprise, adventure, of conflict and
crisis. Said an aged philosopher, "It is the unexpected that happens," a
saying illustrated if anywhere in the world, in the history of the
Golden State.
Although discovered early in the sixteenth century by adventurous
Spaniards, no serious attempt was made at settlement of any portion of
the territory now included in the boundaries of California until the
year 1769, when Father Junipero Serra arrived at the Bay of San Diego.
Then followed a half century constituting the Mission Period of
California history, during which Spanish Governors and Franciscan Friars
ruled the land. Inspired more by religious zeal than by lust of
conquest, or hope of gain, the Spanish Padres planted a chain of
missions extending from San Diego to the Bay of San Francisco. At these
missions, consisting often, at the beginning, of nothing more than a
rude cross and altar, with some miserable make-shift of tent or huts as
protection from the heat of summer and the cold of winter, the faithful
priests labored to convert the surrounding Indians. They tried to make
of them not alone good Catholics, but good farmers, and vineyardists,
and according to the need of the time, capable carpenters and builders.
As the result of their labors a long period of simple prosperity was
enjoyed at the missions. Buildings were erected that still delight the
traveler. They were for the most part of Moorish architecture, built of
adobe, painted white, with red-tile roofs, long corridors and ever the
secluded plaza where the friar might tell his beads in peace. Around the
missions, some twenty in number, lying a day's journey apart between the
southern and the central bay, Indian workers cultivated immense fields
of grain, choice vineyards, olive orchards and orange groves; great
herds of horses, cattle, and sheep were cared for, and the women became
adept at weaving and spinning. Nor were the Spanish Governors idle. They
encouraged the immigration of settlers both from the mother country and
Mexico by a most liberal policy, assisting the newcomer to build a home,
acquire stock, and establish himself in a country where there was an
abundance of game, and where the earth yielded her bounty with the
minimum of labor. Thus in the half century between 1770 and 1820, these
Pius Padres laid the foundations of California, as they believed
securely, after Catholic and Spanish tradition.
Not securely so it proved, for in 1822 Mexico won her independence from
Spain, both political and religious. The California Padres being
Spaniards naturally suffered persecution at the hands of successive
Mexican Governors, who were envious of the lands, orchards and herds of
domestic animals belonging to the various missions. Ruthlessly the
Friars were plundered of their well tilled fields, their fine vineyards,
their flocks and herds, and their Indian converts were enticed or driven
into the service of the new Masters of the country. Some of these
officials were of Spanish blood and some of Mexican but now they proudly
called themselves, Californians. And proudly they lived, these Spanish
and Mexican Dons. Owning immense tracts of land, riding upon fleet
horses, relieved of all necessity of honest work, they soon became in
their manner of living, veritable hidalgoes.
Vain, ridiculously boastful, pleasure chasers, they loved above all else
the frolic, the dance, and a good horse. All the way from San Diego to
Shasta were located the immense ranchoes, more than six hundred in
number, ever since celebrated in song and story. This was the period so
often called by poetic writers the Romantic Age of California. Although
much of the glamor of the dear old days of plenty and pleasure has been
dispelled by the careful researches of conscientious scholars, it must
still be admitted that here also were developed certain characteristics
and here a kind of foundation for the future laid, ignorant of which we
can not understand either the California of 1860 or even the State as we
of today know and love it. If it is true that the first settlers in any
community leave a lasting impress upon after generations it is evident
that the Franciscan and Spanish background of California must be
reviewed as we approach the more serious days of American conflict and
conquest.
Although the first American settler arrived in California in 1816 his
example seems to have been without effect for in 1822 there were but
fourteen persons not of Mexican or Spanish blood in all the province. In
the early '40's emigrants from the "States" began to come in parties,
but so slowly that by January 1, 1848, the entire population (not
including Indians) numbered only 14,000, and Yerba Buena (San Francisco)
the only Pueblo of any size contained barely 900 inhabitants. This be it
noted was but twelve years before the arrival of Starr King, so close
was the old aristocratic rule of Spain to that stirring conflict in
which he was to become a central figure.
As we have already observed it is the unexpected that happens in
California history. In this same month of January, 1848, gold was
discovered in the upper Sacramento Valley, an event that rivals the
discovery of America by Columbus, if regarded in the light of results
affecting the development of modern society. "The Gold that Drew the
World" so Edwin Markham heads his story of that strange hegira which
converted far-away California into a new Mecca and made of San
Francisco, that sleepy Spanish Pueblo, in a few months' time a
cosmopolitan city of fifty thousand people. Two years earlier, as a
result of the Mexican War, California had been declared an American
Territory, though not formally ceded to the United States until February
2, 1848. It was generally believed that the Mexican War had been waged
and California acquired in the interest of negro slavery. James Russell
Lowell voices this belief in the Bigelow papers as follows:
"They just wanted this California
So's to lug new slave states in,
To abuse ye and to scorn ye,
And to plunder ye like sin."
However this may have been, it is certain that among the immigrants of
the fifty's there was a large number of forceful and brilliant men,
loving the old South, and fully determined to swing the new state into
line as a pro-slavery asset. It is true they were not strong enough to
prevent the adoption in 1849 of a constitution prohibiting slavery, yet
for all that, as Southern men they rejoiced when September 9, 1850,
California was admitted to the Union.
It is no part of our purpose to give in detail the strange story of
California during her first ten years as an American Commonwealth. By
1850 her population had increased to 120,000 people, mostly young men
drawn by the lure of gold from every quarter of the civilized world,
including not less than 4000 Chinese. Yet the majority were Americans,
and of the Americans the larger number were from the slave states. Nor
was this condition much altered up to the outbreak of the Civil War.
Trustworthy authorities estimate that not less than forty per cent of
her entire population were at that time of Southern birth, naturally
Democratic in politics and for the most part pro-slavery in sentiment.
It should be remembered that during the decade under consideration the
national government was under the brilliant leadership of the
slave-masters who were ever alert as to the attitude of this new
Eldorado of the West. Consequently every position of trust and honor
under national control in California was given to "safe men" whose
attitude towards the "peculiar institution" was favorable beyond
suspicion. To such an extent was this a matter of public knowledge that
the Customs Station of San Francisco was popularly dubbed the "Virginia
Poor House." During all these years California was under the absolute
control of the Democratic Party, and the party was under control of its
Pro-slavery leaders.