Henry Whitney Bellows was American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 clergyman, and the planner and president of the United States Sanitary Commission

United States Sanitary Commission

The United States Sanitary Commission was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. It operated across the North, raised its own funds, and enlisted thousands of volunteers...

, the leading soldiers' aid society, during the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. Under his leadership, the USSC became the major source of spiritual and physical aid for wounded Union

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 soldiers.

Bellows was born in Boston, Massachusetts.He graduated at Harvard College

Harvard College

Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 in 1832, and at the Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...

 in 1837, held a brief pastorate (1837-1838) at Mobile, Alabama

Mobile, Alabama

Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

, and in 1839 became pastor of the First Congregational (Unitarian) church in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 (afterwards All Souls church), in charge of which he remained until his death.

Here Bellows acquired a high reputation as a pulpit orator and lyceum lecturer, and was a recognized leader in the Unitarian Church

American Unitarian Association

The American Unitarian Association was a religious denomination in the United States and Canada, formed by associated Unitarian congregations in 1825. In 1961, it merged with the Universalist Church of America to form the Unitarian Universalist Association.According to Mortimer Rowe, the Secretary...

 in America. For many years after 1846 he edited The Christian Inquirer, a Unitarian weekly paper, and he was also for some time an editor of The Christian Examiner. In 1857 he delivered a series of lectures in the Lowell Institute

Lowell Institute

The Lowell Institute is an educational foundation in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., providing for free public lectures, and endowed by the bequest of $250,000 left by John Lowell, Jr., who died in 1836. Under the terms of his will 10% of the net income was to be added to the principal, which in...

 course, on The Treatment of Social Diseases. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he planned the United States Sanitary Commission

United States Sanitary Commission

The United States Sanitary Commission was a private relief agency created by federal legislation on June 18, 1861, to support sick and wounded soldiers of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War. It operated across the North, raised its own funds, and enlisted thousands of volunteers...

, of which he was the only president (1861 to 1878).

He was the first president of the first Civil Service Reform Association organized in the United States (1877), was an organizer of the Union League Club of New York

Union League Club of New York

The Union League Club of New York is a private social club in New York City. Its fourth and current clubhouse, which opened on February 2, 1931, is a building designed by Benjamin Wistar Morris, III, located at 38 East 37th Street between Madison and Park Avenue in the Murray Hill section of...

 and of the Century Association

Century Club

Century Club may refer to:*Centurion, a variation of the drinking game known as Power Hour*The Century Association, a prominent private authors and artists club, with its own building, in New York City...

 in New York City, and planned with his parishioner and friend, Peter Cooper, the establishment of Cooper Union

Cooper Union

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...

. In 1865 he proposed and organized the national conference of Unitarian and other Christian churches, and from 1865 to 1880 was chairman of its council.

He died in New York City on the 30th of January 1882. A bronze memorial tablet by Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Augustus Saint-Gaudens was the Irish-born American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation who most embodied the ideals of the "American Renaissance"...

was unveiled in All Souls church in 1886.

Works

His published writings include:

• Restatements of Christian Doctrine in Twenty-Five Sermons (1860)
• Unconditioned Loyalty (1863), a strong pro-Union sermon, which was widely circulated during the Civil War
• The Old World in its New Face: Impressions of Europe in 1867-1868 (2 vols, 1868-1869)
• Historical Sketch of the Union League Club (1879)
• Twenty-Four Sermons in All Souls Church, New York, 1865-1881 (1886)