Henry Ward Beecher ALS [autographed letter signed]

Brooklyn, NY, 1853. Original Manuscript . Soft cover. About near Fine. 8.25" x 6.25. Henry War Beecher ALS [autographed letter signed]. Written Brooklyn, NY, February 15th, 1853. 8.25" x 6.25", mounted on 9.5" x 6.75" paper leaf. Vertical and horizontal creases to actual letter, light toning of mounting leaf, small divots on left side of mounting leaf from removal from a bound volume, else Near Fine. Nicely preserved early example of a handwritten and signed letter by the perhaps preeminent Protestant minister in American history (and an early social liberal), written in Brooklyn, NY, where he was by then giving sermons to crowds of more than 2,500 from his pulpit in the Plymouth Church (Congregational). The letter is a written as vouching for a student who had spent the evening at Beecher's home, and thus deserved a "credit mark". Born in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1813, Beecher was schooled in Amherst (Mt. Pleasant Classical Insitution)and eventually ordained by the New School Presbytery of Cincinnati. His ultimate international repute as an orator, lecturer, and advocate of such causes as the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, evolutionary theory and scientific biblical criticism began to grow after he developed, in an Indianapolis pastorate prior to his famed Plymouth Church tenure, his notion that a sermon should focus on a single moral point for the purpose of specific moral development of the listener - a sermonal technique which still thrives. Among his more famous written works were: Seven Lectures to Young Men (1844); Evolution and Religion (1885); Life of Jesus the Christ (1871-91); Yale Lectures on Preaching (1872-74); and a novel, Norwood: A Tale of Village Life in New England. L-32