Huidekoper

His course as judge (1874-98), and his oppo-
sition to "readjustment" of the state debt, re-
stored the prestige of the court and regained him
many old-time friends. During this period he
edited five volumes of United States circuit and
district court reports, and published A Popular
Treatise on the Currency Question Written from
a Southern Point of View (1879); A Chapter of
Personal and Political History (1881); The
American Dollar (1885), in behalf of bimetal-
ism; and several suggestive historical addresses,
among them Editors of the Past (1897), which
contains some autobiographical material. Cool-
ness, intelligence, aggressiveness were his strik-
ing characteristics. He died at his home near
Abingdon; two sons survived him*

£In addition to the pamphlets above mentioned, see
also L. G. Tyler, Encyc. of Va. Biog. (1915), vol. Ill ;
Papers Showing the Political Course of R. W. Hughes
.. . Prefixed by a Biog. Sketch (1873) J F. G. Ruffin,
An Examination of Judge Robert W. Hughes' Decision
in the Case of John P. Faure vs. the Commissioners of
the Sinking Fund of Va. (1884) ; Who's Who in Amer-
ica, 1901-02; the Times (Richmond), Dec. n, 1901.]

CC.P.

HUIDEKOPER, FREDERIC (Apr. 7,1817-
May 16, 1892), theologian, fourth son of Harm
Jan Huidekoper [qsv.~\ and Rebecca Colhoon,
his wife, was born in Meadville, Pa. His impres-
sionable and happy boyhood was fully responsive
to the high aims cherished in his father's house-
hold and to the intensive instruction given in the
family school by a succession of gifted young
graduates of Harvard College. Despite serious
limitation of eyesight, he was able to join the
sophomore class of Harvard at the age of seven-
teen and there his intimate relations with An-
drews Norton and Charles Follen [qq.v.] had
permanent effect on his life. During his junior
year the malady of his eyes compelled him to
leave college, and for four ensuing years, while
healthfully active in farm life at home, his read-
ing was restricted to half an hour or less a day.
Nevertheless, his accurate acquisition and reten-
tive memory made him already a learned man
when, at the age of twenty-two, he went to Eu-
rope for travel and study. In the universities of
Geneva, Leipzig, and Berlin he was occupied
with history, literature, and Biblical studies, and
he enjoyed personal intercourse with Cousin,
Picot of Geneva, Neander, and DeWette,

His letters from Europe show that he was spe-
cially observant of the social care of the poor
and the sick and of the treatment of prisoners.
As fee debated the qttestion how to live most use-
foSy for others, this humanitarian interest made
him <fecide for the vocation of a minister-at4arge
—a minister engaged in social service, He re-
tained to America in 1841, completed his theo-

Huidekoper

logical study at Harvard, and Oct. 14,1843, was
ordained as an evangelist in the Unitarian
Church in Meadville, intending to work in rural
centers of the neighborhood without a parish set-
tlement. He was diverted, however, to the career
of a scholar and teacher. His father had advo-
cated provision for the theological training of the
itinerant preachers of the Christian Connection,
and others had discussed plans for a Unitarian
school west of New England. Accordingly, at
his ordination he was urged by his brother-in-
law, Rev. James Freeman Clarke [q.v.], and Dr.
George Hosmer of Buffalo to receive as pupils
aspirants for the preacher's vocation. This proj-
ect was rapidly broadened and the result was the
foundation in 1844 of the Meadville Theological
School. As a professor in this school he taught
with conspicuous intellectual power until, in
1877, he was checked by complete blindness. He
served without monetary reward, contributing
from his private means to the maintenance of the
institution and sharing with it the use of his ex-
tensive library. He taught in the fields of the
New Testament and church history, but later of
church history alone, concerned more with pre-
cision of detail than with large construction of
the process of historical development

His publications began in 1854 with a mono-
graph on The Belief of the First Three Centuries
Concerning Christ's Mission to the Underworld.
In this he argued that the absence from the Gos-
pels of a belief common in the second century
disproved certain efforts to establish very late
dates for the Gospels. In 1876 he produced an
extensive treatise on Judaism at Rome, a work
of pioneer research in a subject since then thor-
oughly investigated by others. In 1879 ^e Pu^"
lished The Indirect Testimony of History to the
Genuineness of the Gospels, opposing the claim
that the present form of the Gospels is due to late
editors using early materials in the interests of
second-century controversies. These works show
an astonishing acquaintance with the texts of
Greek and Roman authors and the Church Fa-
thers, though they lack clear construction in the
argument and popular effectiveness of style. He
was a conservative Unitarian, little affected by
the Transcendentalist movement, convinced by a
survey of history that faith in a Moral Ruler of
the Universe found security only in revelation,
but he stressed and practised independence of
thought. Before critical views were acceptable
in America, he rejected the Mosaic authorship of
the Pentateuch and in 1857 published a demon-
stration of the analysis of Genesis into Jahvist
and Elohist sources. He was a man of stately
form, of courtly dignity, always urbane in col-

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