The Attorney General, Secretary of State, the President and Alexander Campbell

Judge Jeremiah Sullivan Black(1810-1883)

Alexander Campbell

Letter from A. Campbell to Judge Black dated 18 June 1855

Letter to Judge Black from Alexander Campbell dated 18 June 1855.Since my debate with now Archbishop Purcell of Cincinnati I have been more afraid of its Jesuitism and aggressive spirit than ever before. The tree of Liberty cannot grow in a papal soil or in a papal clime. But as a Christian I know no man after the flesh, and hate no man however heterodox on account of his faith. I have known some honorable Romanists in whom the law of humanity triumphed over the law of his hierarchy. In our wide spaced community, as a church, we have almost an equal number of Whigs, Democrats, and of Know Nothings a goodly number, but as the Christian Kingdom is with me paramount I have not hitherto and intend not hereafter to know, or not to know any man according to the flesh.

Judge Black’s eulogy of A. Campbell at Bethany, W. Virginia – 1875 Dedication of an Italian Marble Bust“As a great preacher, he will be remembered with unqualified admiration by all who had the good fortune to hear him in the prime of his life. The interest which he excited in a large congregation can hardly be explained. The first sentence of his discourse ‘drew audience still as death,’ and every word was heard with rapt attention to the close. It did not appear to be eloquence; it was not the enticing words of man’s wisdom; the arts of the orator seemed to be inconsistent with the grand simplicity of his character. It was logic, explanation and argument so clear that everybody followed it without an effort, and all felt that it was raising them to the level of a superior mind. Persuasion sat upon his lips. Prejudice melted away under the easy flow of his elocution. The clinching fact was always in its proper place, and the fine poetic illustration was ever at hand to shed its light over the theme.”

Judge Black -1855

James Buchanan and his Cabinet

James A. Garfield (1831-1881)

Judge Jeremiah Black

Handwriting on top is prior to May 1869 with right hand; Handwriting on bottom is after 1870 with left

hand.

Judge Black in 1870

Chauncey F. Black on Judge Black

• It will be unnecessary to inform the reader of the following pages that Jeremiah S. Black was a devout Christian. Fearing nothing else in this world, he went always and humbly in the fear of God. His whole mind and being were saturated with the morality of the Testament of Christ, which, he said, was “filled with all forms of moral beauty, and radiant with miracles of light.” He was baptized in 1843 by Alexander Campbell, whose eulogy he pronounced upon the unveiling of his statue at Bethany, West Virginia.