Abraham Lincoln: The Thirtieth Anniversary of His Assassination; Tributes from His Associates; Incidents and Stories; His Speeches in New York and New ... of Soldiers, Statesmen and Citizens
(Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln: The Thirtieth Anniversary o...)
Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln: The Thirtieth Anniversary of His Assassination; Tributes From His Associates; Incidents and Stories; His Speeches in New York and New England; The Tragedy at Ford's Theater; Reminiscences of Soldiers, Statesmen and Citizens
In reply. General Grant did not unfold his plan, but in the fullest manner he expressed his satisfaction with the support that he had received, and he then said in sub stance. If the results shall be less favorable than I hope and the Government expects, the fault will not be the fault of the Administration.
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Henry Chandler Bowen was an American merchant, publisher, and editor. He is famous for founding The Independent, a weekly congregationalist newspaper that was closely associated with Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, of which he was a founding member.
Background
Henry Chandler Bowen was born on September 11, 1813 and was descended from Lieutenant Henry Bowen, one of the first settlers of Woodstock, Connecticut, who had come from Wales with his father, Griffith, in 1638.
George Bowen, a descendant in the fifth generation from Henry, kept the country store and tavern at Woodstock, and there Henry Chandler was born. His mother was Lydia Wolcott Eaton.
Education
Bowen was educated at Woodstock and Dudley Academies.
Career
After four years as a clerk in his father's store, Henry Bowen went to New York to work in a silk house. In 1838, he established the firm of Bowen & McNamee, which later became Bowen & Holmes. In 1850, Bowen & McNamee were attacked, especially by the Journal of Commerce, because of their refusal to sign a call, prepared by a large group of prominent merchants, for a meeting to endorse the fugitive slave law. They published a card in which they informed the public that while they were silk merchants, as individuals they entertained their own views "on the various religious, moral and political questions of the day. " They then added, "We wish it distinctly understood that our goods, and not our principles, are on the market. "
In 1848, Bowen joined in founding the Independent, a weekly journal of Congregationalism with strong antislavery principles. Later he became its publisher and finally its sole proprietor. He promptly brought the paper from a losing to a paying condition.
Henry Ward Beecher and Theodore Tilton became successive editors of the Independent and Bowen was drawn by his intimacy with them into the mazes of the famous legal action of Tilton vs. Beecher for alienation of affections. On December 26, 1870, he carried from Tilton to Beecher a letter demanding that the latter, "for reasons which you explicitly understand, " immediately resign his pastorship of Plymouth Church and leave Brooklyn.
A few days later, he abruptly terminated the contract which he had with Tilton as a special contributor to the Independent and as editor of the Brooklyn Union, which he also owned. In April 1872, as the result of an arbitration by friends of the three men, a tripartite agreement was signed by Bowen, Tilton, and Beecher in which Bowen declared that "having given credit to tales and innuendoes affecting" Beecher and having repeated them, he now felt that he had done Beecher wrong.
He expressly withdrew all "the charges, imputations, and innuendoes" and promised that he would never by word or deed "recur to, repeat or allude" to them again. At the same time, he paid Tilton $7, 000 in satisfaction of the broken contracts and published in the Independent a card in which he recognized Tilton's "honest purposes, and his chivalrous defense of what he believes to be true, as well as those qualities of heart which make him dear to those who know him best. "
Beecher reprinted with his cordial approval this "honorable testimony from Mr. Bowen" in the Christian Union, which he was then editing. In December 1873, charges were brought against Bowen before Plymouth Church of "uttering slanders affecting the good name" of its pastor, but the recommendation of the Examining Committee, that they be dismissed on the ground that he had agreed to keep to the letter and the spirit of the "tripartite agreement, " was adopted.
Shortly afterward he published a card protesting against the action because he had never seen a copy of the charges and because the committee had not put its recommendation "on the only pertinent basis that there was no evidence to sustain the charges. "
(Excerpt from Abraham Lincoln: The Thirtieth Anniversary o...)
Religion
In his religious affiliation Henry Bowen was a Congregationalist and became instrumental in the raising in 1852 of the Albany Fund for the erection of Congregational churches throughout the country.
Views
Quotations:
Bowen expressed amazement that the "tripartite agreement" had been made public, "all the parties to which were solemnly pledged not to reveal it. "
Membership
Bowen was a member of the Woodstock Agricultural Society and of the Congregational Church Building Society.
Connections
Henry Bowen was married on June 6, 1844, to Lucy Maria, daughter of Lewis and Susanna (Aspinwall) Tappan of Brooklyn, and on December 25, 1865, to Ellen, daughter of Dr. Hiram and Marian (Chandler) Holt of Woodstock. He had seven sons and three daughters by his first wife and one son by his second.