the sad ages may a little change their course. Not only is it true that
the "blood of martyrs slain is the seed of the church," but it is also
true that a man never touches the heights of power until he has made a
total, irreversible, affectionate surrender to the cause he professes to
serve. When he has done this the cause becomes incarnate in the man; and
he speaks as one inspired. And this was the power of Starr King in that
great Summer and Fall of 1861 in California. Of course he did not speak
in vain. Leland Stanford, backed by a Union Legislature, was elected
Governor of California, and by October, King joyfully writing an Eastern
friend was able to say "the State is safe from southern tampering."



Part IV
Philanthropist and Preacher



"As a philanthropist, Starr King raised for the most beneficent of all
charities the most munificent of all subscriptions." These words were
spoken at the King Memorial Service held in the city of Boston, April 3,
1864. They call our attention to a unique service our Preacher-Patriot
rendered the cause he loved.

It seems almost beyond belief that the North rushed into the Civil War
wholly unprepared to care for the Nation's Defenders, either in health
or in sickness. Transportation facilities were of the poorest! Young men
just from the home, the farm and the college were crowded into cattle
cars as though they were beasts, frequently with no provision whatever
for their comfort. And rarely were proper arrangements made for their