7 August 1870 • Elmira, N.Y. (Larned 1870, UCCL 11729)
Mr. Langdon was great & noble man, in the best & truest acceptation of those terms. He stood always ready to help whoever needed help—wisely with advice, healthfully with cheer & encouragement, & lavishly with money. He spent more than one fortune in aiding struggling unfortunates in various ways, & chiefly to get a business foothold in the world. He had so charitable a nature that he could always find some justification for any one who injured him; &Ⓐemendation then his forgiveness freely followed. Instead of sending to prison a man whom he had pecuniarily befriended in time of need, & who, being persuaded by an ill-adviser, defrauded his benefactor out of a great sum, he forgave him & helped his family when straightenedⒶemendation circumstances fell to their lot again.1explanatory note All the impulses of Mr. Langdon’s heart were good & generous. He could not comprehend the base or the little. His nature was cast in a majestic mould.
Whatever he did, he did with his whole heart. He never was hesitating or lukewarm in anything. In business he worked with all his might; & as fast as his great gains accumulated he toiled to sow them broadcast for the good of the city, the church & the poor.2explanatory note In politics he showed the same decision & energy; he was an Abolitionist from the cradle, & worked openly & valiantly in that cause all through the days when to do such a thing was to ensure to a man disgrace, insult, hatred & bodily peril.3explanatory note
Throughout his long illness all grades of the community, from the highest to the lowest, came daily to inquire about his state; & the cheer that lit their faces when the news was good, or the sadness that fell upon them when it was ill, was touching testimony to the truth of what is here set down concerning him & to the whole community’s respect & strong love for him.4explanatory note He was a very pure, & good, & noble Christian gentleman. All that knew him will grieve for his loss. The friendless & the forsaken will miss him.5explanatory note
On the evening of Sunday, 21 August, Thomas K. Beecher delivered a memorial tribute to Langdon before “one of the largest audiences that ever assembled in the Opera House” (“The Late Jervis Langdon,” Elmira Advertiser, 22 Aug 70, 4). Beecher remarked that:
tenderness of heart and weakness of resistance, when his sympathies were once enlisted, was Mr. Langdon’s principal fault or blemish. . . .
I can not remember a time in the sixteen years of my acquaintance with him in which he was not embarrassed by pecuniary obligations, incurred for friends, and generally incurred against his better judgment, being led by his heart rather than guided by his head. The administrators of his estate will find, among the hardest problems they have to solve, the liquidation of debts and settlement of accounts which have come upon his books against his will, and contrary to his judgment, but because he could not say No to them whom he loved or pitied. (Thomas Kinnicut Beecher, 31)
Langdon’s “great gains” resulted in an estate of about one million dollars, which was to be divided among his wife and their two children, Olivia and Charles. Susan Crane, his adopted daughter, received title to Quarry Farm (Jervis Langdon; “In Memoriam,” Elmira Saturday Evening Review, 13 Aug 70, 5).
Beecher recalled:
At a time when opposition to slavery was costly, when it ruled a man not only out of his political party but out of his church and out of good society, and caused his children to be pointed at with a sneer; at a time when his business prospects must needs suffer, and even his personal property be endangered, Mr. Langdon was a pronounced and determined anti-slavery man.
Very few fugitives from slavery have passed through this region without receiving a benefit from him. . . . And when at last, by the costly compulsions of civil war, the system of slavery was abolished, Mr. Langdon’s redoubled exertions in behalf of the now freed men were sufficient testimony that his previous zeal had not been a cheap destructiveness, rejoicing in judgments and denunciations, but a true and tender-hearted philanthropy. He has given, I can not tell you how many thousand dollars, toward the education of whites and blacks in our southern states, and, without murmuring, has paid other thousands annually, in the shape of taxes, which he scorned to swear off or dodge in any way, even though he might feel that he was paying more than his share. (Thomas Kinnicut Beecher, 27–28)
Among those Langdon assisted was Frederick Douglass ( L3 , 428 n. 2).
On 8 August, by request of Elmira Mayor John Arnot, local businesses closed for two hours during Langdon’s funeral (Elmira Advertiser: “Notice to Citizens,” 8 Aug 70, 1; “City and Neighborhood,” 8 Aug 70, 4; “Funeral of Mr. Langdon,” 9 Aug 70, 4).
The cover letter that presumably accompanied this tribute, which Clemens probably wrote early on 7 August, has not been found. The Buffalo Express’s obituary of Langdon appeared on 8 August and incorporated Clemens’s eulogy, described as “a brief communication that we received from him yesterday” (Larned 1870). The following day the Elmira Advertiser, which had published its own tribute on 8 August, reprinted the Express, and on 13 August the Elmira Saturday Evening Review published still another obituary (Elmira Advertiser: “Death of Jervis Langdon,” 8 Aug 70, 1; “Death of Jervis Langdon, of Elmira,” 9 Aug 70, 1; Elmira Saturday Evening Review: “In Memoriam,” 13 Aug 70, 5).
Josephus N. Larned, “Death of Jervis Langdon, of Elmira,” Buffalo Express, 8 Aug 70, 4.
L4 , 181–183; Elmira Advertiser, 9 Aug 70, 1, in addition to the copy-text.