The Freedom Ring

  Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in Liverpool WHEN the secession movement first assumed serious proportions in the South,  the sympathy of England was with the secessionists . There were many reasons for this. The political control of England was in the hands of the English aristocracy. Feudal England had always looked with both suspicion and aversion on her democratic daughter. The strongest argument against feudalism was the unparalleled growth of democratic America. Commercial England saw in the republic across the sea a rival who would soon contest with the mother country her claim to commercial supremacy, and she was not unwilling to see that rival dismembered, and her own commercial supremacy thus secured to her.  For more than a quarter of a century England had seen the South aggressive and successful, the North timid and retreating. It was not strange that she believed the South brave, the North timid; and England admires pluck and despises cowardice. During the four mon...

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in his 50's When Henry Ward Beecher passed away (1813-1887), t here was a universal expression of esteem, love, and affection, that sprang forth from every part of the country, every class in society, and every religious denomination. This is an indication of how wide and deep a hold he had upon the American people during the 19th Century. No other man has exerted such a wide and profound influence on the progress of thought — moral, political and religious—in this country during the 1800's, as has Mr. Beecher. It may be claimed that other reformers have done more to change the political constitution from a pseudo-democracy governed by a slavocracy to a genuine democracy governed by its free industrial classes. Or, that other teachers have done more to promote that political enthusiasm out of which new parties are born (Republican Party) and by which they must be inspired-or die. Or, that other theological thinkers have exerted a more permanent influenc...

The Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress in September 1850, which increased federal and free-state responsibility for the recovery of fugitive slaves . The Story of How Henry Ward Beecher became an Anti-Slavery Activist Adapted passages from “Henry Ward Beecher: An American Portrait” published in 1887. Henry Ward Beecher was asked by a group of abolitionists to help in presenting two slave girls who were sisters, the Edmonson sisters, to a large audience at the Brooklyn Tabernacle , to present their case with the objective of purchasing their freedom. It was said that these girls had previously experienced some traumatizing incident and those abolitionist who found out about it, wanted to purchase their freedom before they were sold off “down the river.” At the time, Henry Ward Beecher did not talk publicly much about politics or anti-slavery themes. However, that all started to change once he stepped foot on that stage at the Tabernacle. Below we find the story of that night: It...

The Sermon of the Beatitudes Rev. Henry Ward Beecher , America's most famous man throughout the 1800's and the brother to  Harriet Beecher Stowe   the author of " Uncle Tom's Cabin ," gives a sermon on perfecting your life through love. Beecher popularized the Gospel of Love in America, which took hold of mainstream attention during and after the Civil War. SUNDAY MORNING,  August 29, 1875  Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, NY Rev. Henry Ward Beecher

President Abraham Lincoln gesturing as he delivers the Gettysburg Address Preached by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, March 9th, 1862, at the time of the Emancipation Message from President Lincoln “Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken."   - Isaiah lXII. 10, 11, 12. Message from President Lincoln  GREAT reformations in morals can never stop with individuals. Just as corruption of the citizen soon infects the institutions and the laws of the land, similarly the reformation of the citizen reforms laws and usages. It is this sort of reformation that the prophet cele...

This famous sermon by the most popular American preacher during the Civil War, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, was delivered in 1861 to the two Civil War Regiments of the “Brooklyn Fourteenth . ” Many of them members of Rev. Beecher's Plymouth Church , located in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of New York City. The Church on that day contributed $3,000 to aid in the equipment of this Regiment. “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.” – Psalms 1x. 4. FROM the earliest periods nations seem to have gone forth to war under some banner. Sometimes it has been merely the pennant of a leader, and was only a rallying signal. So, doubtless, the habit began of carrying banners, to direct men in the confusion of conflict, that the leader might gather his followers around him when he himself was liable to be lost out of their sight. And thus in our day every nation has its peculiar flag. There is no civilized nation without its banner. A tho...