In South Carolina. 329 



tall, gaunt, one-eyed man, in rather shabby dress, 

 enter and walk up toward the pulpit, and to my aston- 

 ishment the awkward stranger entered it and went 

 through all the motions preparatory to preaching. 

 Mortification succeeded to astonishment. Is it possi- 

 ble that this fine congregation is to be bored and mor- 

 tified by this awkward, blundering backwoodsman? 

 At length the preacher arose. The whole congrega- 

 tion seemed disappointed, and there was an almost 

 universal hanging of heads. The preacher proceeded 

 to read his hymn, and there was something hopeful 

 in that part of the performance. He prayed, and I felt 

 that there was more in the preacher than I had sup- 

 , posed. He proceeded to his text and the»sermon, and 

 a few minutes sufficed to raise every head and fix 

 every eye. Meanwhile the preacher advanced in his 

 discourse, rising higher and higher, till he carried the 

 congregation, as it were, by storm." 



Mr. Dougherty lived at a time when the Carolina 

 and the Charleston public especially was easily excited 

 by any public reference to the subject of slavery, and 

 Methodist preachers were objects of suspicion and 

 dislike. This arose from the insane zeal of some of 

 the early preachers on that subject. The course of 

 Dr. Coke had been particularly influential in produc- 

 ing this state of feeling. It is not strange, therefore, 

 that a few injudicious remarks made in one of the 

 Charleston churches by a transient Methodist preach- 

 er, probably misrepresented or misunderstood, should 

 have produced some excitement. A company of wild 

 and reckless young men went to the Methodist meet- 

 ing-house, determined to give the offending preacher 

 a taste of mob law, but, mistaking their man, they 

 seized Mr. Dougherty, and dragged him to the pump, 



