LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1862
To James Monroe
18 December 1862
[MS in James Monroe Papers, Oberlin College Archives, 30/22. The letter is in the handwriting of James H. Fairchild, and is signed personally by the senders.]
Oberlin College Dec. 18 1862
To Prof. James Monroe.
Our Dear Friend & Colleague,
The pro=
vidence of God appears to call you for a
time to a distant sphere of responsibility
We wish you to bear with you a few
lines which may ever & anon tell you of
our paternal regard.
It is now many years that you have
been associated with us in College labors
& responsibilities in an institution which
has had a leading part in the development
of Western intellectual & moral life. In all
these years our love & respect for you, & our
admiration of your character & abilities have
been ever increasing. And we are persua=
ded that the hundreds of young men & women
whom you have trained in solid & elegant
culture, of the Christian type, for life's respon=
sibilities, will carry a memorial of you in
their hearts during all their life's work.
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The ability for eloquent speech & wise counsel,
which your fellow citizens could not but discern,
led to your call into the work of State legislation.
The esteem with which you impressed your fel=
low legislators, notwithstanding old prejudices against
Oberlin & your political views, was finally attested
by the unanimous vote of all parties by which
you were made president of the State Senate--
such a vote as in Ohio was never before given
to any man.
In the responsible duties you go to per=
form at Rio, we doubt not that you will,
by the grace of God, manifest the same wisdom
& impartiality. And there you will be known
not only as the good & able Consul, but as the
Consistent Christian, not ashamed of Christ &
his gospel where he is little known & less
obeyed.
J. H. Fairchild John Morgan
J. M Ellis C. G. Finney.
Geo. N. Allen
C. H. Churchill.