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of the United States to take the decisive step which he afterwards took.

During my intercourse with Governor Buckingham as a member of this body, he often talked to me about his experiences as Governor during the war. We often compared notes upon that subject. He evidently regarded his services as Governor of Connecticut during the war as the great event of his life, and on several occasions expressed his doubts as to whether it was wise or expedient for him to accept a seat in this body, and whether he ought not to have retired from public life when the war was over.

Just before the close of the last session, and before his departure, he came across to my seat where I was sitting, and said: Well, we are about to separate. I hope we will meet next winter in better health." He said: "I am an old man, and feel that my race is nearly run." He said: "There are only three of us left who served as governor of our respective States throughout the entire war," referring to himself, Governor Curtin of Pennsylvania, and to myself. He said that Yates and Andrew were gone, and that we, notwithstanding our utmost hopes, must soon follow; and taking me by the hand, expressed the hope that we should meet the coming winter in better health. We parted to meet no more.

In the House of Representatives, also, similar tributes were paid to the Senator from Connecticut, by Messrs. Starkweather, Kellogg, Wilson of Iowa, Potter of New York, and General Hawley, who afterwards succeeded him in the Senate. Those especially of the Connecticut members are not only discriminating and heart-felt, but they are more at length in historic detail and illustrative facts, and justify what has been said by others. So that there is no great difficulty in telling what kind of a man "the War Governor of Connecticut" was, or what he did for the country, for the Union, and for freedom. It is evident what Connecticut thinks of him, when she puts the statue of Trumbull, her" War Governor of the Revolution," as her representative in the Capitol at Washington, and lets the statue of Buckingham, her " War Governor of the Rebellion," greet you when you enter her State Capitol at Hartford. She means that they shall go down together in history, as her legacy to the country, to Republican government, and to humanity.

CHAPTER XXXI.

PERSONAL TRAITS OF CHARACTER.

Governor Buckingham's Connection with Christian and Benevolent Associations-The First Triennial Congregational Council-IIis Ability as its Moderator-His Style of Writing and AddressPhotograph Copy of His Letter to the President in Transmitting their Paper on the “State of the Country."

Little more remains to complete the Memoir of Governor Buckingham, than to refer to his connection with the leading religious, educational, and philanthropic organizations of the times. With all such he was in sympathy, and with some actively concerned in their management, und among their most generous supporters.

He was a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, the oldest, we believe, of the American foreign missionary societies, and certainly one of the most efficient and successful in its work. Here he was a counselor, as well as generous contributor to their work, and one of those who, when the times were bad and the contributions of the churches falling short, could be called upon to mako up such deficiencies. He was a special friend to missionaries, and with his high respect for their motives and self-denying labors, he could not do too much to make them enjoy their occasional visits to this country, and contribute to their comfort when they should have returned. He was also a friend and steadfast supporter of the American Home Missionary Society, whose object is to aid the feeble churches of the East, and plant new ones in the growing settlements of the West, and which has been

so successful in the work that, of all the Congregational churches there, probably the majority of them have been planted and nursed into self-support through its agency. The Western College and Education Society was another of those organizations of which he was president, adviser and supporter for years. This was a society to found and support Western colleges, and also to aid young men in their education for the ministry.

When the war was over, and the South was left with all her emancipated slaves, and with the rights of citizenship. conferred upon them, it was natural that the North should pity and help her, as well as have some regard for the safety of the nation, with such an element given the right to vote. Then with a magnanimity that was noble, and a generosity that was superb, there came those Peabody, and Slater, and Hand endowment funds, for the education of the South, and that noble American Missionary Association, which undertook to look after both the educational and religious welfare, not only of the freedmen, but of the "mountain whites" of that section of the country, and which is meeting with such marked success. Of course Governor Buckingham appreciated it, and was for a number of years its honored president, giving it his wisest counsel and generous aid.

He was also well known as a good friend to the temperance cause. His father was the first in his native town to give up the use of ardent spirits in his family and upon his farm, and he himself entered upon his business life with such principles and habits. He had too much reflection not to see what mischief the drinking habit was causing, and how easily it could be prevented by total abstinence, and regard enough for others to make the little sacrifice required to aid so good a cause. And the ease with which he did it, in the various positions he occupied, and in the circles where he moved, as his Washington friends would

tell you,* caused him no embarrassment and only won from others the more respect. Governor Buckingham was for several years the president of the Connecticut Temperance Union, which is still engaged by lecturers, colporteurs and publications in promoting this cause.

But the most important and probably the most interesting position of this kind offered to Governor Buckingham, was to be called to preside over the "First Triennial Congregational Council," held in Boston, June, 1865. This was a part of the reconstructional work called for at the end of the war, which had reference to the Congregational churches of the country.

From the first settlement of New England, Congrega. tionalism and Presbyterianism were so much alike in Christian faith and church government, that they carried on their home missionary and foreign missionary work through the same organizations. Their members and ministers were always recognized in one body as well as the other. And when Congregationalists removed to the new States, it was considered advisable that they should connect themselves with Presbyterian churches already established, and not divide their strength by rival enterprises. But when the New England settlers became numerous, it was necessary that their love for their own form of church government should be gratified, and for the interest

When Secretary Bayard, of President Cleveland's cabinet, came North a few summers ago to deliver the annual address to the Law School of Yale University, and was introduced, at the president's levec, to the Governor's nieco, as he hoard the name, he asked if she was any relative of Senator Buckingham, and being told of the relationship, he smilingly said: "You know your uncle was a good temperance man, and that while he gave us good dinners, he never would give us ny liquors. A party of us were dining with him one evening, when we happened to be almost all Democrats. We rallied him, and told him that he was evidently trying to kill off the Democratic party, because he would give no liquor. It so happened that in the course of the evening there came a sleet storm, such as is common at Washington during the winter, and when we came out we all found ourselves slipping down and helping each other up, like a company of intoxicated people. The next morning the story was told at the Senate chamber before Senator Buckingham arrived, and when he came he was rallied upon having turned out such a drunken crew at that hour of the night from his temperance mansion."

of the country that they should be encouraged and aided in that work. The South, too, and Southwest, where there were no such churches, but mostly Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian, was to be thrown open to Northern settlers, and it was desirable that the best of our churches should be introduced, as well as our industry, and skill, and system of education. But more than oll, our civil government was so essentially modeled after this form of church government each State self-governed, and by the majority, and in the general government all the States having the benefit of the wisdom and co-operation of the rest—that it seemed as if this best school for training in citizenship ought not to be shut out from any part of the land. It allowed each church to adopt its own creed, and if it was deemed by the rest sufficiently scriptural and evangelical, it was recognized by the rest as a Christian church, and could administer its own discipline and manage its own affairs. Only in matters of "common concernment," such as the organization of churches, and the ordination of their ministers, and the settlement of difficulties which they cannot settle themselves, are they expected to seek advice of other churches, and in this consists the difference between them and simply independent churches, like those of Great Britain. Even the results of these advisory councils are not authoritative, but advisory, as one of the early New England fathers, Richard Mather, has said: "The result of any council hath only so much force as there is force in the reason for the same." While another of those fathers, Cotton Mather, happily testifies that "in the early periods of our ecclesiastical history, such bodies were so judiciously constituted and their decisions so respectfully received, that the councils in the churches of New England rarely met with contradiction from the churches whose cases were laid before them."

And while they believed that.no particular form of church

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