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roused by the disposition which he saw manifested ‘to crush worthy, innocent Friends, for mere difference of opinion;’ and no one, who knew him well, could doubt that on this subject, as on others, he was impelled by a sincere love of truth and justice.
But neither he nor any other person ever entered the lists of theological controversy without paying dearly for the encounter.
Perpetual strife grieved and disturbed his own spirit, while his energy, perseverance, and bluntness of speech, gained him many enemies.
Wherever this unfortunate sectarian schism was introduced, it divided families, and burst asunder the bonds of friendship.
For a long time, they seemed to be a Society of Enemies, instead of a Society of Friends.
In this respect, no one suffered more acutely than Isaac T. Hopper.
It was his nature to form very strong friendships; and at this painful juncture, many whom he had long loved and trusted, parted from him. Among them was his cousin Joseph Whitall, who had embraced Quakerism at the same period of life, who had been the friend of his boyhood, and the cherished companion of later years.
They had no personal altercation, but their intimacy gradually cooled off, and they became as strangers.
He had encountered other difficulties also, at a former period of his life, the shadows of which still lay across his path.
About twelve or fifteen years after his marriage, his health began to fail.
His
Boston, J. P. Jewett and Company; Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor and Worthington; London; Low and Company, 1854.
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