Part 10 (1/2)

”If, on the other hand, it should be determined that my election is a little in advance of the times, I am willing, as a good citizen, to bow to the majesty of law, and, as a member of the Legislature, to consult its dignity and decline the exalted position tendered me by the House; and I will now decline it. With pleasure I will surrender to the House this trust and the honor and retire to private life.”

This speech was delivered amid interruptions of loud applause, and made a great sensation throughout the State. And not in Maine only; it was commented on in many of the newspapers and appeared in the columns of English journals. Pictures of the fighting Quaker were made, with the order to his troops printed below. It even came out in an African journal; so that what seemed like an unimportant pleasantry on the part of the members of the Legislature gave Eli Jones an opportunity to preach peace to a very extended audience, and his voice was heard far beyond the little State capital. From this time he was regarded with much respect by all the members, and he received encouragement and support in whatever he desired to accomplish.

At the close of the session he called to thank the governor for his kindness to him and his help in different ways, and he remarked to the latter that he had been in rather a peculiar place during the winter and had felt somewhat like a ”speckled bird.” The governor said, ”Mr.

Jones, what you call being a 'speckled bird' has given you more influence than anything else could possibly have done.” Whatever he may have accomplished in other lines during his term of office, he gave powerful testimony in favor of peace and temperance and against the use of oaths, and he went back to his quiet farm in China thoroughly respected by all with whom he had been a.s.sociated.

OAK GROVE SEMINARY.

It may be a fitting place to speak of his connection with Oak Grove Seminary, as he was at work for its interests not long after this time. As I have in my possession a letter written by him in regard to the beginning and early days of the school, I will insert it here:

”Oak Grove Seminary was started about the year 1850 by John D. Lang, Samuel Taylor, Ebenezer Frye, Alden Sampson, and Alton Pope. They had in view the guarded and religious education of the children of Friends. It was to be a '_select_' school. William H. Hobbie was the first princ.i.p.al. I visited his school and thought him a wonderful teacher. He stood before his cla.s.s without a book, and seemed to be himself the book. Up to that time I had never seen the like. Franklin Paige, the present publisher of the _Friends' Review_, followed William Hobbie in the princ.i.p.als.h.i.+p. Financially, the undertaking after a while proved a failure, and the school was closed.

”At a meeting of the yearly meeting's committee on education, held in China in the autumn of 1856, I advocated an effort being made to open Oak Grove Seminary again. It was opposed by some on the ground that we needed primary schools more than high schools: to that idea my answer was, We must first have high schools to prepare teachers for the primary schools. A meeting of the original proprietors of the seminary was called, and the question put to them, 'Are you willing to have other Friends join you in opening the seminary?' Samuel Taylor replied, 'We want to know first what you will do; we do not want to depend upon a rope of sand.'--'What are the conditions on which we can join you?'--'Do as much as we have; give $2500.' To this Alden Sampson replied, 'It is useless to think of opening the school with $2500; we must have $15,000. If you will raise that amount I will give $1000.'

Ebenezer Frye responded as liberally. A committee was appointed to raise the fifteen thousand dollars. Eli Jones, William A. Sampson, Joseph Estes, and Thomas B. Nichols were the chief workers in raising the proposed sum. They were successful. It was nearly all subscribed by six hundred Maine Friends. They const.i.tuted an a.s.sociation for the opening and management of Oak Grove Seminary.

”In the summer and autumn of 1857 the boarding-house was built. James van Blarcom was chosen princ.i.p.al, and Sarah B. Taber of Albion teacher. It was found that James van Blarcom's engagements would not allow of his occupying the place for one year, consequently Eli Jones took this position for the first year. The school opened in the 12th month, 1857. The season had been wet, and the building and preparation for the school proceeded slowly. Much hard work devolved upon the princ.i.p.al and teachers. The pupils were numerous, and the spring term brought 140. A case of scarlet fever, resulting in the death of a lovely girl, rapidly reduced the number, which has not been reached since.

”At the opening of the second year Albert Smiley became princ.i.p.al and James van Blarcom governor and boarding-master.

”Albert Smiley was followed by Augustine Jones, and he by Richard M.

Jones.

”Oak Grove has furnished princ.i.p.als for Friends' School at Providence for nearly a quarter of a century, and to the Penn Charter School of Philadelphia for about thirteen years. Ten or twelve of its pupils have been or are ministers in the Society of Friends; some are to-day leading business-men.

”The writer of this notice has been connected with the management of the inst.i.tution for the last thirty years, sometimes influentially, sometimes wellnigh powerless. As the record has been made, so it will stand. I have rejoiced in the times of its prosperity; I have wept over the ashes of its fine buildings, its library, its geological museum. I now see the second temple rising from the ashes of the first with an unlooked-for splendor. May it long stand for the benefit of our race and the glory of G.o.d!”

CHAPTER XI.

_IN WAs.h.i.+NGTON._

”Follow with reverent steps the great example Of Him whose holy work was 'doing good;'

So shall the wide earth seem our Father's temple, Each loving life a psalm of grat.i.tude.

Then shall all shackles fall; the stormy clangor Of wild war-music o'er the earth shall cease; Love shall tread out the baleful fire of anger, And in its ashes plant the tree of peace.”

WHITTIER.

Sybil Jones was at work in the Southern States during a part of the year 1860, and returned to her Northern home only a few weeks before the attack on Fort Sumter. The sound of war carried sorrow to the hearts of herself and her husband. They were loyal to their country and the great cause of human freedom, but they were loyal also to the Prince of peace.

”They prayed for love to lose the chain; 'Twas shorn by battle's axe in twain!”

For years they had longed to see the light of freedom break in on the South, but they had hoped no less for the day ”when the war-drum should throb no longer” and universal peace should gladden the long watchers for its dawn. Now they saw the oncoming of a most terrible civil war, threatening the life of the nation. They mourned for mothers and fathers who must see their boys go to the field; they thought of the homes shattered for ever; but they did not yet realize that their eldest son was to go forth to return only on his s.h.i.+eld--that the son who had urged them to go forward in the work of love in Liberia, their n.o.ble son, was to be demanded as a sacrifice.

The war was hardly begun when James Parnel Jones resolved to volunteer. President Lincoln's call seemed a call to him. He had been a logical reader of Sumner, and had closely watched the development of slavery, and to his mind the war to save our nationality would necessarily free the slaves. He wrote from the South: ”Did I not think this war would loose the slave's chains I would break my sword and go home.”

That it was hard for him to go when his parents were praying for peace there can be no doubt, but his mind was filled with the thought of saving the life of a nation, and he certainly felt that the path of duty was in that direction.

The members of the Society of Friends felt almost universally that they owed allegiance to two fatherlands. ”There was a patriotism of the soul whose claim absolved them from the other and terrene fealty,”

and there was a manifest inconsistency between being members of ”Christ's invisible kingdom” and taking arms in support of a dominion measured by acres.[7] Some felt otherwise, and they took upon themselves the hard duty of turning from society and friends to do battle.