pe for the best, and even can see beyond
the clouds of the hour a brighter day. God bless the whole family, North,
South, East and West. I will never divide them in my heart however they
may be politically or geographically divided."

His hopes of a peaceful solution of the questions at issue between the
North and the South were, of course, destined to be cruelly dashed, and
he suffered much during the next few years, both in his feelings and in
his purse, on account of the war. I have already shown that he, with many
other pious men, believed that slavery was a divine institution and that,
therefore, the abolitionists were entirely in the wrong; but that, at the
same time, he was unalterably opposed to secession. Holding these views,
he was misjudged in both sections of the country. Those at the North
accused him of being a secessionist because he was not an abolitionist,
and many at the South held that he must be an abolitionist because he
lived at the North and did not believe in the doctrine of secession. Many
pages of his letter-books are filled with vehement arguments upholding
his point of view, and he, together with many other eminent men at the
North, strove without success to avert the war. His former pastor at
Poughkeepsie, the Reverend H.G. Ludlow, in long letters, with many Bible
quotations, called upon him to repent him of his sins and join the cause
of righteousness. He, in still longer letters, indignantly repelled the
accusation of error, and quoted chapter and verse in support of his
views. He was made the president of The American Society for promoting
National Unity, and in one of his letters to Mr. Ludlow he uses forceful
language:--

"The tone of your letter calls for extraordinary drafts on Christian
charity. Your criticism upon and denunciation of a society planned in the
interests of peace and good will to all, inaugurated by such men as
Bishops McIlvaine and Hopkins, Drs. Krebs and Hutton, and Winslow, and
Bliss, and Van Dyke, and Hawks, and Seabury, and Lord and Adams of
Boston, and Wilson the missionary, and Styles and Boorman, and Professor
Owen, and President Woods, and Dr. Parker, and my brothers, and many
others as warm-hearted, praying, conscientious Christians as ever
assembled to devise means for promoting peace--denunciations of these and
such as these cannot but be painful in the highest degree.... I lay no
stress upon these names other than to show that conscience in this matter
ha