THOMAS STARR KING
Thomas Starr King. To understand, even in a slight degree, the character
of the one man all of California remembers with love, reverence and gratitude,
Thomas Starr King, one must go back to the brilliant record of his life before
his blessing California with his presence. For he had already won more than the
usual honors accorded a man before coming here.
Born in New York City, December 17, 1824, of English and German ancestry,
the son of a poor Universalist minister, his early boyhood was a struggle, not
only for himself but his family. The death of his father compelled him at the
age of fifteen years to take up the burden of supporting the five younger
children and his mother. He had always displayed a refinement of character, an
eagerness for learning rarely seen in those days. His last instructor, Joshua
Bates, described him as "slight of build, with golden hair, a most winning
smile and always actuated by the earnest desire to do what was best and
right."
Fortunately, his mother was well educated and most ambitious for her
talented son, and read with him and for him the masters, Shakespeare, Grote’s
History of Greece, Dante, Plutarch and many others, thus laying the foundation
for the true culture he afterward possessed. Soon, aided by men who perceived
his genius even then, he was soon filling the pulpits of many churches. It was
said of him: "He is a rare, sweet spirit, with the gift of tongues and the
grace of God in his heart." And all this time he was also, in turn, a clerk,
a schoolmaster and a bookkeeper, and studying also metaphysics and theology.
Soon the great men of the pulpits and lecture platform were welcoming him as a
equal. King could then speak Greek, Hebrew, French and German, and he always
spoke the purest English.
In 1846 he was installed as pastor of the First Universalist Church of
Charlestown, the church of which his father was pastor when he passed on. In
two years the "boy preacher" was called to the Hollis Street
Unitarian Church in Boston, and saved it from disaster, remaining there eleven
years in building it up. At that time he had to speak always from notes. He was
also becoming a popular writer and lecturer, lecturing from Boston to Chicago,
and always more than holding his own against such great men as Emerson, Oliver
Wendell Holmes, Henry Ward Beecher and others.
He preached his last sermon in Boston on March 25, 1860, one of the
East’s most brilliant, learned preachers, lecturers and writers. At the
breakfast reception given him in New York, 300 of the most brilliant men of the
day were in attendance. One closed his speech with the words: "Happy soul;
a benediction wherever he goes, the angel of the church whom Boston sends to
San Francisco."
And to San Francisco came the man of whom it was written: "No heart
ever ached because of him until he died." To a San Francisco strongly
Southern, to a California aptly termed: "A secession rendezvous." The
customhouse of San Francisco was known as the "The Virginia Poor House,"
and for some time a miniature man of war in the office of the United States
marshal, named "Jeff Davis," bore the flag of the Confederacy.
California was absolutely in the control of the democrats, which meant men from
the South. It is all well known history, the fight in California against the
extension of slavery, the bitter fight for and against secession, and back of
all this turmoil, the dream of a Pacific empire separate from the states, a
dream fostered by governors, senators and congressmen. Into this bitter
conflict, in this most critical hour, came the patriot preacher, all
unknowingly, the man of the hour, Starr King.
His fame had preceded him, and he was called at once to the lecture
platform as well as to his pulpit. From the first he pleaded for a united
country, a glorious land from the Sierras to Maine, his central theme always
the greatness of the Union, "One and undividable." Always striving to
show how great the privilege of being an American, he faced the forces of
disloyalty and disunion. He was plunged at once into a community where
everything was still in the making. History states that he "took the
people out of the hands of disloyal politicians, lifted them up to the level of
his own ardent soul, and not only saved the state for the Union, but indelibly
imprinted his own generous and magnanimous spirit on its forming life."
All know the effect of Starr King’s appeal to the voters of California in the
presidential election of 1860, and also in the election of Leland Stanford one
year later, as the first republican governor of California.
Then came his war work, and by reading all the histories, papers and
documents of that time it is evident that King was the man that did more than
any other to keep California in the Union. His was the vision of a restored,
peaceful and majestic America. For this he gave himself to a real martyrdom, to
herculean labors, virtually giving his life for the cause of freedom. This he
knew, for he said that if he had time to do so he would break down, that he was
beginning to look old.
If only that matchless eloquence, that rare golden voice could have been
preserved. But, as he said in his lecture on Webster: "Alas for the
perishableness of eloquence. It is the only thing in the higher walks of human
creativeness that passes away. Saint Peters is a perpetual memorial and
utterance of the great mind of Angelo; the Iliad is as fresh today as
twenty-five centuries ago, but great oratory, the most delightful and marvelous
of the expressions of mortal power, passes and dies with the occasion."
Many books have been published giving the life and history of Starr King,
as he was popularly known, the Thomas having been dropped. One of the best is
"Starr King in California," by William Day Simonds, but all give
testimony to the fact that in Starr King the Union cause was incarnate, that he
saved California from secession. The preacher patriot did more than this. At
the King memorial service held in Boston, April 3, 1864, it was summed up this:
"As a philanthropist, Starr King raised for the most beneficent of all
charities, the most munificent of all subscriptions." And this for the
cause he loved and fought for, the United States Sanitary Commission funds.
Fitzhugh Ludlow said: "Starr King was the Sanitary Commission of
California." He made it his mission to raise money rapidly for our
suffering soldiers, traveling night and day, the principal factor in the
raising of $1,235,000 in the face of the worst agricultural condition
California has ever known. This work is well depicted in "Lights and Shadows
of the Pacific Coast," by S. D. Woods. His experiences amidst all these
activities did not prevent his being known as "The First Pulpit Orator in
America and without doubt no superior in the world."
The unhappy condition of the Chinese awakened his sympathy and he went
earnestly to work to secure them such civic rights as belong to industry. In
private charities he was tireless. Multitudes in distress sought him, an
already heavily burdened man, and always they found that rare sympathy and aid
which helped while it did not pauperize them.
Yet Starr King did not come to California in any capacity but that of a
preacher of liberal Christianity and to build up the church which had called
him here. While occupying that pulpit, a gift came to him he had ardently
wished for, the ability to speak extempore, and he cast aside manuscripts and
never wrote another sermon or lecture. This was to him, with his great gifts
and temperament, of inestimable value. So great grew the throngs to hear him
preach that the church could not hold one-third of them, and so, on December 3,
1862, the cornerstone of a larger and more beautiful church was laid. In front
of this church his body now rests, taken from its first interment in the Geary
Street Cemetery, and it is the mecca today for thousands of tourists and residents
who honor and love his memory.
He insisted upon his right to discuss great questions of the day and of
the nation and state in his pulpit. Many burning subjects he handled, and it
but added to his popularity. Above all, was that rarely, radiant personality,
always charming, yet how persuasive; and that other great gift, genial kindly
humor; a most amusing and entertaining story teller also. He always made the
discovery of science and the beauties of nature serve his need as a teacher of
morals and religion. His faith was so clear, so wonderfully beautiful, that he
made religion a real, glad message to his people.
When he passed on, a young man of only forty years, the San Francisco
Bulletin voiced the feeling of the people when it said "that the news of
his death had startled the community, shocked it like the loss of a great
battle, or tidings of a great public calamity. No other man on the Pacific
Coast would be so much missed. San Francisco had lost one of her chief
attractions, the state its noblest orator, the country one of its ablest
defenders."
As he lay dying, he said: "I see a great future before me," and
his last words were as he lay waiting with unclouded mind: "The Lord is my
Shepherd, I shall not want: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil."
The whole city mourned. The Legislature adjourned for three days and all
the courts adjourned; the national authorities fired minute guns in the bay and
all the flags in the city and on the ships hung at half mast, including foreign
consuls and ships. In American history no private individual has been so
honored by the Federal Army and foreign nations.
One of the giant trees of the Mariposa bears his name; a proud dome of
the Yosemite is named Starr King. On October 27, 1892, a handsomely impressive
monument was dedicated in Golden Gate Park to his memory, with the inscription:
"In him eloquence, strength and virtue were devoted with fearless courage
to truth, country and his fellow men." Hon. Irving M. Scott, in the
dedicatory address, voiced the sober verdict of history: "He was the most
potent factor in effecting the determination of California in the course she
pursued," when speaking of how he saved California to the Union. As late
as 1913 the Legislature appropriated $10,000 for a bust of Starr King to be
placed in the national capital at Washington. To many he is a hero also.
A minor earthquake shook the city the day he died, at it was said:
"Even the earth shudders at the thought that Starr King is dead."
Of the hundreds of poetical tributes two will always live, that of the
dear companion of his San Francisco life, Bret Harte’s "A Pen of Thomas
Starr King," and one by Whittier. One poet said: "If I were a pagan I
would raise altars to him."
Brief as was his life, it was not one of the tragedies of unfulfillment.
He was indeed a star which shone upon the blackest of nights, a guide and a
beacon, giving forth that spark of heavenly fire he held within, fore-gleams of
the mercy that he knew would save the greatest sinners.
Transcribed by Elaine Sturdevant