lliliiiHImll BttHiiinniUimiiiiitniiniiiii! i'ii:i'ni'i ii .hiii'"h' /' LJX •''*Cj2'^-"^== CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Goodkind Book Fund In Memory of MARTIN H. GOODKIND Class of 1887 Cornell University Library BX8495.M478B861908 The life of Chaplain McCabe :Bishop of t 3 1924 008 322 590 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924008322590 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE &&>. YccJ- THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church BY FRANK MILTON BRISTOL ILLUSTRATED CINCINNATI : JENNINGS AND GRAHAM NEW YORK : EATON & MAINS / Copyright, 1908, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY SECOND EDITION New York : 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago : 80 Wabash Avenue Toronto : 25 Richmond Street, W. London : 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh : 100 Princes Street TO HIS BELOVED REBECCA PREFACE is with no little hesitation that I let this inade- ITquate biography of Bishop McCabe go to the pub- lic. Yielding to the request made by friends, whose kind partiality may have obscured their judg- ment as to my fitness for such a task, I undertook a work the demands and difficulties of which soon embarrassed me. Bishop McCabe! Who of us did not know, or think we knew, this unique and glori- ous man? But he has been growing on us since he passed from our company and we have been study- ing anew his great life-work. We begin to see how large he was by the vacancy which his death has made in the ranks of our foremost leaders. He was so many-sided, and so brilliant on every side, as is the diamond of multitudinous facets, so like no man but himself, that he well-nigh baffles adequate bio- graphical characterisation. Our story must fall far short of giving satisfaction to those who might have done this work more skilfully and with a more com- prehensive thought-grasp of Bishop McCabe's person- ality and mission. There are those among his thou- sands of friends who will regretfully piiss herein many a worthy, wise, and witty thing that might have been said of him; many an incident and anecdote that had been tenderly associated with his life; but the limits of this volume forbid the repetition of many of the lov- 8 PREFACE ingly familiar incidents of his diversified career which we cherish in memory. It is to be hoped that the reader will be gratified to find in this biography so much that may be called auto- biography. Extensive use has been made of the Chap- lain's own words, letters, journals, and addresses. And herein it will be found that the man is his own best biographer. It may be asked, "Why call this 'The Life of " Chaplain McCabe ' ? The answer is, it was as Chap- lain McCabe that he first became widely and greatly distinguished; as Chaplain McCabe he was known and honoured, loved and remembered by the old soldiers who would never hail him by any other name; as Chaplain McCabe his name had been familiar as a household word in the Methodist Church for more than thirty years before he was made a bishop; and to the close of his life the first word of greeting that sprang to the lips of a friend on meeting him was: "Chaplain!" In this instance the deference due to the dignity of an ecclesiastical title, however high-sounding it may be, will not seem to have been irreverently and unjustly sacrificed to the humbler name of affectionate familiar- ity. Chaplain McCabe ! By that name we first learned to admire him, love him, and follow him; by that name we shall remember him—as with all the dignities of higher office he ever remained, so shall he forever re- main, our glorious Chaplain McCabe. Washington, D. C, F. M. B. May, igoS, CONTENTS Preface I. The Land of His Birth 13 II. Genealogy and Birth 16 III. Father and Mother .24 IV. Boyhood in Athens 33 V. Iowa—Conversion—Call to the Ministry . 40 VI. Preparation for the Ministry—Ohio Wes- LEYAN University 47 VII. The Student — Mental Characteristics — Books 53 VIII. School Teaching— Marriage—Pastorate . .64 IX. Civil " The War—" Chaplain McCabe . 70 X. Captured—"On to Richmond" ... 80 XI. LiBBY Prison 87 XII. Lights and Shadows—Letters from Libby Prison g2 XIII. Letters — The Fever — Release — Homeward Bound 105 XIV. Lecture—"The Bright Side of Life in Libby Prison" 118 XV. The Christian Commission—Personal Ex- ' perience and Reflections . .146 XVI. Work among the Soldiers—Revivals—Con- versions 155 XVII. "Doomed to Raise Money"—Success—Esti- mate OF Men—FisK, Vincent, Simpson, Ames, Merrill 163 XVIII. Co-workers—Christian Patriots—D. L. Moody —Jacob Sirawn 173 XIX. Back to the Army—War Scenes—Conver- sions among the Soldiers . .181 XX. The Gift of Song—"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" 188 XXI. Abraham Lincoln and the Battle Hymn . 197 9 lO Contents CHAPTEK FACE XXII. Death of Abraham Lincoln—Funeral- Burial 204 XXIII. Close of the War—Return to Pastorate- Inner Life ai7 XXIV. Secretaryship—Church Extension—Dr. A. J. Kynett—The Loan Fund .... 230 XXV. Success—Frontier Work—Liberab Laymen —Great Responsibilities—Bishop Simpson AND President Lincoln .... 242 XXVI. The Rescue of Salt Lake City Church— Power of Song—Results of Lectures—In- gersollville 252 XXVII. Chaplain McCabe's Dream of Ingersollville . 262 XXVIII. A Glance Backwards 268 XXIX. Evangelistic Spirit—Conversions—Col. H. H. Hadley—Bishop Wiley—T. D. Collins— Bishop Simpson's Convert—The Coloured Superannuate 276 XXX. Mental Characteristics—Attitude toward Rationalism and Infidelity . .291 XXXI. Promotion—A New Field—Missionary Sec- retary—^The Slogan 301 XXXII. "A Million for Missions" .... 313 XXXIII. Victory 326 XXXIV. Election to the Episcopacy . 33S XXXV. Bishop McCabe—In the Chair—Episcopal Residence—Texas—Forward Movement . 345 XXXVI. Episcopal Administration—Spiritual Power —Singing Conferences—Business and Re- ligion . ., . .355 XXXVII. Mexico—Champion of Morality—Bullfight- ing—Moody's "Critic"—Growth of Meth- odism 365 XXXVIII. South America—Europe—American Uni- versity 378 XXXIX. Philadelphia Residence—Great Labours— Glorious End — 395 XL. Obsequies Eulogies—Appreciation . 403 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Chasles Casdwell McCabe Title Sarah Robinson McCabe 24 Robert McCabe 24 Bishop McCabe's Childhood Home, Athens, Ohio . 34 Lorenzo Dow McCabe, D.D., LL.D 48 Chaplain McCabe, 1861 66 Mrs. McCabe, 1861 66 Charles Cardwell McCabe, i8s7 70 Charles Cardwell McCabe, 1864 70 Autograph Letter from Julia Ward Howe . .192 Autograph Copy of "Battle Hymn of the Republic" 194 Chaplain McCabe, 1887 230 Secretary McCabe, 1890 302 Charles Cardwell McCabe, 1896 356 / Mrs. Charles C. McCabe, 1906 396 THE LAND OF HIS BIRTH CHARLES CARDWELL McCABE, the Grand Field-Marshal of Methodism, was born on historic ground, and came of a race whose genius and energy had transformed the wilderness to a garden and blazed the way for the westward march of Empire. Athens County, Ohio, with Washington County, of which it was originally a part, may claim the distinc- tion of being the site of the first white settlement made in the Northwest Territory. The close of the Revo- tionary War inaugurated a new epoch of westward migration in which many of the officers and soldiers who had won the battles of freedom and independence sought that inviting region just beyond the frontier of civilization which only awaited the coming of thrifty and intelligent toilers to make its savage wilds rejoice and blossom as the rose. The Ohio Country had been an attraction to the more enterprising and adventurous from the time of the French and Indian War. In the interests of Eng- lish land-speculators and at the suggestion of Governor Dinwiddle of Virginia, the youthful Washington, in the fall of 1753, started for the West to secure, if pos- sible, concessions of land in the Ohio Country from 13 14 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE the French and Iroquois. Although his mission was not successful, Washington had reached the borders of the great and mysterious Westland, had stood upon the banks of the Ohio River, and had journeyed so far north as to be able to look out upon the blue expanse of Lake Erie. He returned to this country from Vir- ginia a few months later, with the ill-fated Braddock, to recapture from the French " the Key to the Ohio Valley," Fort Du Quesne. The complete rout of the English and Virginians, the death of Braddock and the narrow, almost miraculous, escape of Washington within twenty miles of Fort Du Quesne, was all that came of this expedition. Washington had seen enough of the great West, however, to wish to see more, yes, and to possess as much as possible of its rich and fertile lands. Hence, in 1770, with Dr. James Craik and two or three servants he started the third time for the Ohio Country, reached the river, and in a canoe descended as far as the Great Kenawha, surveying with eager and speculative eye the very banks which afterwards were included in the county that took his name. A patent of 20,000 acres of land was granted Washington, and with such advantages and prospects he might have been tempted to go West had not the Revolution called him to another destiny. Benjamin Franklin was also lured by the prospect that presented itself to the enterprising and ambitious of his time in the opportunities of the great West, and he went so far as to propose to the Rev. George Whitefield that he join him in an undertaking to evan- gelise those benighted regions.