“He prepared and presented many bills to Congressional Committees at Washington, and appeared as counsel in several Louisiana and Florida election eases.  His arguments before the Supreme Courts in several important patent cases were reported to the country by the Associated Press.  He had at one time considerable influence with the President and Senators in political appointments, and some of the best men still in government office in this State (Massachusetts) and in other New England States, say they owe their appointment to his active friendship in visiting Washington in their behalf.  But it does not appear that through all these years of work and political influence he ever asked for an appointment for himself.”

Catholics, Jews, Protestants and non-sectarian charities sought his aid in legal matters, and so broad was his love for humanity that all found in him a ready helper.  At one time he was guardian of more than sixty orphan children, three in particular who were very destitute, were through his intercession with a relative, left a fortune of $50,000.  Yet despite all these activities, he found time to lecture, to write boots, to master five languages, using his spare minutes on the train to and from his place of business for their study.  In 1872 he made another trip abroad.  Speaking of him at this time, a writer in the London Times says: 

“Colonel Conwell is one of the most noteworthy men of New England.  He has already been in all parts of the world.  He is a writer of singular brilliancy and power, and as a popular lecturer his success has been astonishing.  He has made a place beside such orators as Beecher, Phillips and Chapin.”

Thus the busy years slipped by, years that brought him close to the great throbbing heart of humanity, the sorrows and sufferings of the poor, the aspirations and ambitions of the rich, years in which he looked with deep insight into human nature, and, illumined by his love for humanify, saw that an abiding faith in God, the joy of knowing Christ’s love was the balm needed to heal aching hearts, drive evil out of men’s lives, wretchedness and misery from many a home.  More and more was he convinced that to make the world better, humanity happier, the regenerating, uplifting power of the spirit of God ought to be brought into the daily lives of the people, in simple sincerity, without formalism, yet as vital, as cherished, as freely recognized a part of their lives as the ties of family affection which bound them together.

CHAPTER XV

TROUBLED DAYS

Death of Wife.  Loss of Money.  Preaching on Wharves.  Growth of Sunday School Class at Tremont Temple from Four to Six Hundred Members in a Brief Time.  Second Marriage.  Death of Father and Mother.  Preaching at Lexington.  Building Lexington Baptist Church.