to exist only for a day!
No, no, man was made for immortality."
~Abraham Lincoln
Famous Mediums, Part 4
Judge John Worth Edmonds (1816-1874), a well-known lawyer, New York State Senator, Judge of the New York Supreme Court Judge and Court of Appeals, was a Spiritualist and a medium. His daughter, Laura, also had the gift of mediumship and spirit contact.
Apparently Judge Edmonds stood firm in his Spiritualist beliefs and research he did into the credibility of several other mediums, even while being attacked often in the press and in political and social circles for his beliefs. The chief communicators were alleged to be Emanuel Swedenborg and Francis Bacon. Judge Edmonds wrote the following: Letters and Tracts on Spiritualism; Spiritualism, Volume I (1853); Spiritualism, Volume II (1855); and Uncertainty of Spiritual Intercourse (1856).
Those of you who have read my blog for awhile and know of my
Abraham Lincoln was regarded as a spiritualist by many and was said to have held s'eances in the White House and "frequently attended s'eances at the residence of the Lauries in Washington. The daughter was a medium." In his 1903 book, What is Spiritualism?, Dr. James Martin Peebles, M.D., recounts some of that history. "It was in this same family that Miss Nettie Colburn was entranced by spirits purporting to be Jefferson, and the fathers of our country, and who plead of President Lincoln to free those four million slaves in bondage. (See Mrs. Nettie Colburn-Maynard's work, entitled 'Abraham Lincoln, a Spiritualist.') Lincoln's emancipation message was an inspiration from the spirit world. Judge Edmonds, delivering an oration in Hope Chapel, N.Y., upon the life of Lincoln, gave the proofs of this. It is undeniable."
Though Dr. Peebles did not give us details of any of those proofs, he did give some background on Judge J. W. Edmonds. He served as an attorney in the law office of ex-President Martin Van Buren, became a New York State Senator in 1831, was appointed a Circuit Judge in 1845, was elected Judge of the (New York) Supreme Court and later, in 1851, took his seat upon the bench of the Court of Appeals. Peebles explained that Edmonds considered himself an agnostic until his wife's death in 1850 when he began experiencing her presence and on-going contact from the Other Side, until by 1851, he "became quite fully developed himself as a medium for visions, allegorical pictures, and direct communications from the spirit world written through his own hand. His daughter Laura also became a writing medium, and a trance medium with the gift of tongues. The Judge now openly avowed his Spiritualism, lectured upon it in public, wrote articles in the American and foreign press."
Peebles quotes the Judge as saying, "Spiritualism has deepened my faith in God, and the spiritual life and teachings of Christ. It has also inspired me with the most kindly Christian feelings toward all conscientious religionists of whatever name or party."
Continuing further, Dr. Peebles explains, "The pride, as he was of the New York bar for years, a jurist of unimpeachable integrity and keen discernment, as well as an authority on international law, Judge Edmonds was not only a Spiritualist, but a spiritual medium with fine clairvoyant gifts."
Judge Edmunds wrote of his daughter Laura's mediumship and xenoglossy. On occasion, while in trance and contact with a spirit, she would bring messages forth in other languages, Greek, Spanish, and American Indian: Chippewa and Menomonie tongues.
To Read
Famous Mediums, Part One, Betty
Famous Mediums, Part Two, Lenore E. Piper
Famous Mediums, Part Three, Eileen J. Garrett
~Linda
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