A Christian in search of religious freedom

Southern Quarterly, Winter 2003 by Aiken, David

THE PLACE OF CONVENTIONAL RELIGION in the life of William Gilmore Simms has been mostly a puzzle to scholars who have dwelt on it. For the most part, Christianity is not an obvious theme in Simms's works as it is in the works of many of his early nineteenth-century contemporaries. Morality in literature, he said on several occasions, meant only that one wrote the truth. Late in life he saw the invasion and occupation of the South as tribulations on his homeland and found some consolation in believing that they would purify and strengthen southerners. But a subtle theme from the beginning to the end of his writings, both public and private, reveals Simms's faith in the essential tenets of the Christian faith.

Simms was a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Radcliff Borough, Charleston. He owned a Bible in which the births and deaths of family members were recorded. He proclaimed himself a Christian in private correspondence and in public speeches. During the northern invasion of the South, he protested the shelling of Charleston churches in poems printed in local newspapers. The Reverend James Miles heard his death-bed confession of faith in the mercy of the atoning Christ. When he died on 11 June 1870, the bells of St. Michael's "pealed their requiem to Simms," and at five o'clock, Monday afternoon, the 13th of June, his funeral ceremonies were conducted at St. Paul's.

Even so, Simms was no conventional Christian. He did not regularly attend church. He worked, hunted and fished on Sundays. He was fond of cigars, wine, and whiskey. He was fascinated by spiritualism, consulted mediums, and more than once spoke of himself as a sinner. In letters, he complained that his pride and ambition often called down the wrath of Heaven upon his head. He never claimed to be a saint, but he did claim to be "opposed to every creed of every Christian Church extant." Can his repeated assertions that he was a Christian be supported? Is there evidence of essential Christian beliefs in the way he pursued his profession, in the way he related to friends and family, in the way he lived his life? If he was a Christian, what kind was he?

A brief overview of his letters is revealing. On 27 October 1857, Simms wrote to Mary Lawson, "I sometimes despond, through weariness, but ... never despair. I have a most perfect faith in God" (Letters 3: 512). On 3 February 1859, he wrote to William Porcher Miles: "He who gives us tear for tear, is the loving Christian friend" (4: 118). A year later he again said to Miles: "I have been sorely harassed, perplexed, & defeated. But God is over all. A poet has faith" (4: 227). On the eve of war, he wrote to James Lawson of New York, "I have faith in God, who has never yet suffered me to drown" (4: 249).

In a 7 November 1861, letter to his son William Gilmore Simms,Jr., he said, "Be a man, my son, faithful and firm, and put yourself in God's keeping. All that the love & confidence of parents can do for you will be done. Yourself, with God's aid, must do the rest. We are in his hands, all of us! Pray to him" (4: 379). In a letter of condolence to Richard Yeadon, Simms wrote, "For my own part, I have learned to thank God for all his punishments. They have hurt my house frequently; but I do honestly believe they have helped my heart" (4: 408). To Evert Duyckinck on 23 February 1870, Simms wrote, "There is really but one sovereign consoler, and to Him alone do I commend you. Go to your knees; take fast hold of the altar and though eyes weep and your voice chokes it will suffice if you feel and say-'Father, thy will & not mine be done"' (5: 297).

From this sampling of correspondence emerges a portrait of Simms as a man unashamed of his Christian convictions, yet unattached to the profession of a particular dogma. He shares his faith freely but makes no attempt to convert anyone. He is content to say, "We are in God's hands, all of us." Although he does not often produce a completely religious piece of writing, Simms makes consistent use of the Bible: he refers to God without apology; and he rarely shies away from a religious theme in prose or poetry. Simms had faith in the Providence of God and a high regard for religious freedom.

As early as 1838 Simms wrote a story that deals with the issue of good versus evil in a Christian context. Carl Werner draws upon the New Testament in its portrayal of a character pivotal to the story: Simms says, "In the character of the venerable guest of Matilda, it will be seen that I have ventured upon a faint delineation of one of the apostles, and that I have moreover presumed to suggest a notion of their continued toil on earth in the cause of heaven" (89). In the same year his Southern Passages and Pictures contains a section of poetry devoted to Scripture Legends, and in the essay "Literature of the Bible" (1845) Simms remarks on "the indebtedness of modern literature to the Bible itself." He also notes that "wherever present, the Bible has certainly fostered the spirit of sound learning," improving not only individuals but also whole societies.