Samuel Eells - Subsequent Career and Philosophy

Subsequent Career and Philosophy

After graduating from Hamilton, Eells moved to Ohio, where his father had already gone in the intervening years. On the way, he had a nearly fatal bout with cholera, but surprised nearly everyone by surviving and recovering. Once in Ohio, he supported himself by teaching at a small school that he founded himself. He studied law on his own, passed the Ohio bar exam, and began practicing on his own in Cincinnati. He prided himself on taking pro bono cases for poor or unpopular clients, and built enough of a reputation for himself that he was taken on as a partner by Salmon P. Chase; Chase was a famous lawyer and jurist who would go on to become a leading abolitionist and a justice on the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Eells was delivering noteworthy speeches and orations, especially to meetings of religious and philanthropic organizations, many of which were subsequently reprinted and preserved. His speeches and essays were fervently religious and showed a progressive, optimistic philosophy. He spoke on the value of liberal education, including the study of art and the Classics, on history, and occasionally on controversial social topics. Several of these writings and speeches can be found in the "Memorial of Samuel Eells," collected by his nephew James Eells in 1873 (Cleveland, Oh., Cobb, Andrews & co., 1873).

Probably his most noteworthy work is the "Address to the Biennial Convention of Alpha Delta Phi: On the Law and Means of Social Advancement," delivered and published in 1839. Here, he argues that the general law of human history is progress. Each successive phase of human history brings greater fellowship amongst all humanity and freedom for the individual soul. Although tyranny and suffering may prevail in certain places and times, truth and freedom will always overcome them in the long run. Absolute perfection may never be achieved, but human society will always be pushed forward towards true freedom. He asserts that only spiritual and philosophical change—not material advancement or political reform—can lead to real progress; he cites the mistreatment of the Native Americans as proof that democratic government and law are not enough in themselves to preclude tyranny. Rather, Eells believes that the spread of Christianity around the world will help begin a new era of equality, justice and peace.

While the trust that Eells places in Christian missionaryism may seem naive at best, one must remember that he was raised on a very liberal, humanistic strain of early-nineteenth-century Protestantism. His philosophy is clearly influenced by his family's Congregationalism, by Enlightenment humanism, by Hegel's dialectical philosophy of history, and by the philosophers of Transcendentalism and the Second Great Awakening, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller and Bronson Alcott. Although his idea of unstoppable progress may seem very familiar or cliché today, at that time it was connected to a radical counterculture that was overthrowing conservative beliefs in the continuous decline of humanity.