■ ■a ■ ■ I ■ zm$- m FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Bfabloa 2711/ v.£ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://archive.org/details/lifecorr02smit y Life and Correspondence OF THE Rev. William Smith, D.D., First Provost of the College and Academy of Philadelphia. First President of Washington College, Maryland. President of the St. Andrew's Society of Phila- delphia. President of the Corporation for the Relief of the IVido~.vs and Children of Clergymen in the Communion of the Church of England in America. Secretary of the American Philosophical Society, etc., etc. WITH COPIOUS EXTRACTS FROM HIS WRITINGS. BY HIS GREAT-GRANDSON, HORACE WEMYSS SMITH, Member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Editor of the "Miscellaneous Works of Richard Penn Smith," of " The York- Town Orderly Book, "Andreana," etc., etc. VOL. II. PHILADELPHIA : PUBLISHED BY FERGUSON BROS. & CO., IS NORTH SEVENTH STREET. l88o. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by S. A. GEORGE & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. FERGUSON BROS. &. CO., PRINTERS AND ELECTROTYPERS, PHILADELPHIA. CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXVI. Dr. Smith Preaches in the Churches near the Valley Forge — His Cat- tle and Horses are taken for the Army, but Restitution or Com- pensation is Honorably made by Order of General Washington — Makes Observations along with Rittenhouse and other Men of Science, on an Eclipse of the Sun — Preaches on St. John's Day, before Washington and the Society of Free Masons 9 CHAPTER XXXVII. On the Evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, Dr. Smith returns to the City, and begins the Work of Re-establishing the College — His Great Services of every sort, Literary, Fiscal and of Business Generally, herein — The College Finances put upon as good a Foot as Practicable in the Supremacy of Continental Paper — Instructors brought back, and Degrees again Ordered to be Conferred 13 CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Abrogation of the College Charter by President Reed and the Legislature of Pennsylvania — A Truthful and Eloquent History of the Transaction by the Provost Stille — The Transaction Characterized and Condemned — The Episcopal Academy Founded in Consequence of the Injustice done to the College — Dr. Smith left without means of living — Final Repeal in 1789 of the Act of Abrogation as Repugnant to Justice, Unconstitutional, and Danger ous to Chartered Rights 18 CHAPTER XXXIX. Dr. Smith interests himself in having General Washington made a Grand Master over all the Masonic Lodges formed or to be formed in the United States 29 CHAPTER XL. Dr. Smith goes to Chestertown, Kent County, Maryland, and estab- lishes his School, which finally became Washington College — Takes charge of a Parish there — Preaches a Thanksgiving Sermon for the Establishment of Peace and Independence, July 4.TH, 1780 — Assembles the Church in Convention, November 9TH, 1780 — The First Church Convention in Maryland — Address of the Parishes (3) CONTENTS. to the General Assembly of the State — The Name " Protestant Episcopal Church" first given to the Church of England at this Convention CHAPTER XLI. 34 Dr. Smith Preaches a New Year's Sermon in St. Peter's Church, Phila- delphia— Proposes General Washington as a Member of the Ameri- can Philosophical Society — General Washington's Letter of Ac- ceptance to Dr. Smith — Dr. Smith to Caesar Rodney — Dr. Smith Preaches a Funeral Sermon at the Burial of Mrs. Coudon — Preaches in May, 1781, a Fast Sermon in Chestertown, and in De- cember of the same Year a Thanksgiving Sermon — Extracts i rom these Two Last — Death of John Wemyss — Extract from the Min- utes of the Grand Lodge — The Ahiman Rezon 39 CHAPTER XLII. Dr. Smith Preaches a Funeral Discourse on the Rev. Hugh Neill, of whom some account is given — Death of Mrs. Blackwell, Wife of the Rev. Mr. Blackwell — Notice and Elegiac Stanzas upon her Death attributed to Dr. Smith — The Convention of 1782 in Mary- land— Success of Kent County School, and Development of Wash- ington College, Maryland— Death of William Moore, Esq., of Moore Hall 59 CHAPTER XLIII. Dr. Smith's Account of Washington College — Address to the Inhabi- tants of Maryland in regard to the College — List of the Sub- scriptions— Dr. Smith and Peregrin Lethbury to the Assembly of Maryland — Address of the Visitors to the Assembly — Dr. Smith in behalf of the Visitors to General Washington — General Wash- ington to Dr. Smith in reply — Proceedings of the Assembly of Maryland 65 CHAPTER XLIV. First Commencement of Washington College, May 14, 1783 — List of Graduates — Corner-Stone Laid — Convention at Chestertown, May 12, 1783 — Petition the Assembly — Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White — Convention at Annapolis, August 13, 1783 — Petitions to the Gen- eral Assembly of Maryland — Declaration of Rights — Notice of Rev. Thomas Gates — Dr. Smith Chosen for Bishop of Maryland — Clergy of Maryland Give Recommendation of him for Consecration to the Bishop of London — Notices of the Rev. Dr. Gordon and of the Rev. Dr. West — Marriage of Dr. Smith's Eldest Daughter. ... 87 CHAPTER XLV. Dr. White, Dr. Blackwell of Pennsylvania and Dr. Beach of New Jersey Desirous of a Continental Convention — Dr. Smith in Mary- land Assists the Project — Dr. Smith to Dr. White — A Church CONTENTS. 5 Conference is Made at a Meeting of the Clergy to Re-establish the Corporation for the Relief of the Widows and Children of the Clergy, Founded, 1769 — Ecclesiastical Convention of Pennsylvania, May 25TH, 1784 — Declaration by it of Principles — Ecclesiastical Convention of Maryland, June 22D, 1784 — Dr. Smith's Sermon at it — Declaration by it of Principles Sufficiently Harmonious with those of the Pennsylvania Convention — Convention of Several States in New York, October 6th, 1784 — Dr. Smith Presides — Fundamental Principles Declared by it, and Proceedings End — Dr. Smith Chair- man of Committee to Frame an Ecclesiastical Constitution and to Framc and Propose a Proper Substitute for the State Prayers — Dr. Smith Elected President of the Corporation for the Relief of the Widows, etc 103 CHAPTER XLVI. Convention of the Church in Seven" States, held a. d. 1785, at Christ Church in Philadelphia — Dr. Smith Chairman of a Committee to make a Review of and Further Alterations, with Additions to the Liturgy — The Thirty-nine Articles Presented in a Condensed Form — The Alterations, Additions and Condensation Adopted by the Convention — The Whole Ordered to be Printed in a Book — The Proposed Book — Dr. Smith Requested to Preach a Sermon at the Close of the Convention suited to the Solemn Occasion — He does so — Extracts from the Sermon — Dr. White, Dr. Smith and the Rev. Mr. C. H. Wharton, at this time of New Castle, Delaware, but better known afterwards as Dr. Wharton, of Burlington, New Jersey, appointed a Committee to see the Proposed Book through the Press 118 CHAPTER XLVII. Correspondence between Dr. Smith and Dr. White, with a Letter from Dr. Wharton to the latter while the Copy of the " Proposed Book " was going through the Press, including Dr. White's " Hints for a Preface," and Dr. Smith's Preface — Dr. Smith to the Rev. Samuel Parker 141 CHAPTER XLVIII. The " Proposed Book " — Absurd Pretensions of the so-called " Re- formed Episcopal Church," that the Schism of their Sect found Support in it— History of the Formation of the Book — Dr. Smith chiefly entitled to the Credit of it — Some Description of the Respective Ecclesiological Characters and Tastes of Dr. Smith, Dr. White and Dr. Wharton, as applied to this Subject — Dr. Smith's Services in Procuring the Episcopal Succession — Adjourned General Convention of 1786 at Wilmington — A Partial Compliance with the Suggestions of the English Archbishops — Dr. White, Dr. Provost and Dr. Griffith Recommended to the English Bishops for Conse- cration— Maryland Convention of 1786 — Attestation by his Parish Officers in Maryland of Dr. Smith's Fitness for Consecration.. .. 203 O CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLIX. Matters Contemporaneous with and Collateral to the General Ec- clesiastical Councils — The Proposed Book, etc. — Church Convention in Maryland, 1784 — Efforts to Prevent the Apostacy of the Meth- odists— Second Commencement of Washington College — General Washington Honors it with his Presence— Dr. Smith to Dr. West about the Funds for the College — Christian Frederick Post — His Death and a Notice of him — A Friendly Letter from Dr. Muhlen- berg to Dr. Smith — Ordination by Bishop Seabury of a Pupil of Dr. Smith Prepared for Holy Orders by the Latter and Recommended for them by him — Bishop Seabury's great Satisfaction with the Candidate — Church Convention in Maryland, a. d. 1785 — Death of Dr. Charles Ridgely, a Brother- in-Law of Dr. Smith — The Rev. John M. Languth — Death of General John Cadwalader, a Nephew of Dr. Smith by Marriage — Dr. Smith Preaches at the Funeral — Letter of Dr. Smith's Wife referring to the Deaths of Dr. Ridgely and General Cadwalader — Maryland Convention of 1787 — Ordination of Dr. Smith's Kinsman, Richard Canning Moore — Efforts to have the Charter of the College at Philadelphia Restored — Dr. Smith to Dr. West 241 CHAPTER L. The Proposed Book not so well received as might have been reason- ably expected — The cause of this thus explained — Proposed by a Convention before the Church was properly Organized by the presence of the Episcopal Order — The New England Clergy alarmed by a wrong impression of the purpose of dr. white's " case of the Episcopal Churches in the United States Considered" — The Alterations not Agreeable to all — Bishop Seabury's statement of some of the grounds of dislike— state pride and jealousy as much a cause for the non-reception as any better reasons — the work too hastily done — letter to dr. west 256 CHAPTER LI. The Convention of 1789, A great Ecclesiastical Council — Dr. Smith is CALLED ON UNEXPECTEDLY TO PREACH ON ITS OPENING, AND SOON AFTER- WARDS ON THE SUDDEN DEATH OF Dr. GRIFFITH, BlSHOP-ELECT OF VIR- GINIA— A Memoir of Dr. Griffith — The Convention delicately situ- ated IN REGARD TO BlSHOP SfABURY — BlSHOP PROVOOST'S SOMEWHAT eccentric course in regard to this eminent and pious prelate — Dignified course of Bishop Seabury — Dr. Smith, along with Bishop White, accommodate matters between Bishop Seabury and the Convention — The Validity of Bishop Seabury's Episcopal Orders, on motion of Dr. Smith, fully Recognized by the Convention — The Convention temporarily Adjourns in order to give time for further Consultation — Correspondence between Dr. Smith and Bishop Sea- bury— The latter, with Representatives from New Hampshire and Maine, comes into the Adjourned Convention — A General Union effected a. d. 1789, in Philadelphia, in the same room in the State COXTEXTS. 7 House where Independence was declared in 1776, and the Constitu- tion of the United States signed in 17S7 — Happy Conclusion of MICH LABOR AND OF MANY SOLICITUDES 264 CHAPTER LII. The Convention now becomes Bi-Cameral — Both Houses sit in the State House; the Clerical and Lay Deputies, over whom Dr. Smith is elected to preside, in the Chamber of Independence — Strange Vicissitudes in Dr. Smith's Life — The History of the Formation of the Book of Common Prayer of the Protestant Epis- copal Church in the United States of America — The House of Bishops consists of Bishop Seabury and Bishop White, Bishop Pro- voost absent — the selection of psalms — some comparison of the Proposed Book with the new Book of Common Prayer — Prospects of the Church — Alterations of the Pray'er Book deprecated unless in conjunction with the Church of England, and unless the Books of the two Churches are made nearly' or quite alike — Dr. Smith writes an Address ordered by the Convention to President Wash- ington AND ONE TO THE ENGLISH ARCHBISHOPS 287 CHAPTER LIII. Restoration by the State of Pennsylvania of the Charter of the College of Philadelphia, Unjustly taken away in 1779 — An Anec- dote Illustrative of Dr. Smith's ready humor — He takes leave of the Convention in Maryland — Bishop White's Tribute to his Services to the Church and Otherwise in that State — Dr. Wroth's Account of Washington College — Dr. Smith's return to Philadel- phia, July ist, 1789 — Proposed Inscription upon his College — Pro- ceedings IN THE DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION ElRST Commencements, Medical, and in the Departments of Arts, since the Restoration — Union of the College of Philadelphia with the University of the State of Pennsylvania under the name of the University of Pennsylvania — The Rev. John Ewing elected Provost — The new institution languished and continued to languish for many years, and until the Provostship of Dr. Stille — Dr. Smith preaches before the cincinnati, july 4th, 179o — engagement and Marriage of his son Charles with Miss Veates — Death of his daughter, mrs. goldsborough — beautiful inscription on her tomb — Letters in connection with her Death 305 CHAPTER LIV. Death of Franklin — Impromptu thereon at a Dinner Party b\' Dr. Smith — Capped by Mr. Thomas Willing — Franklin's Funeral — Dr. Smith to Dr. West — The Same to the Same — Dr. Smith's Eulogy on Franklin — Une Anecdote de Famille — Dr. Odel's Verses on the Franklin Stove — Franklin a Natural Philosopher and not a Statesman 324 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER LV. Dr. Smith appointed by the Masonic Order of Pennsylvania to Pre- pare an Address to President Washington, which he does — He Receives an Answer from the President — Dr. Smith to Jonathan Williams, Esq. — Marriage of Dr. Smith's Daughter, Rebecca, with Mr. Samuel Blodget, of Boston — Mrs. Cadwalader to Mrs. Ridgely, civing an Account of the Wedding, etc 347 CHAPTER LVI. The Yellow Fever of 1793 in Philadelphia — Mr. Mathew Carey's Account of it— Advertisements and Communications in the News- papers about it — Extracts from Dr. Smith's Diary during the Pes- tilence— Death of Dr. Smith's Wife — Address and Exhortation by the Clergy of Philadelphia, etc 365 CHAPTER LVII. The Eight Sermons on the great Visitation of Pestilence remarked on — Distinguished, even above the Author's other Pulpit Discourses, by Seriousness and Solemnity — Extracts from several of them 381 CHAPTER LVIII. Dr. Smith Devotes Himself to Internal Improvement through the Union Canal Scheme — His Half-brother, Thomas Smith, Appointed to the Bench of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania — Death of John Penn — Dr. Smith Preaches on the Subject of Itinerant Missions — Also at Funeral of Col. Joseph Rudulph — Also before the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania — General Convention of 1795 — Consecration to the Episcopate of South Carolina of Dr. Robert Smith — Dr. William Smith Preaches the Consecration Sermon, also that of Edward Bass— Birth of Richard Penn Smith 407 CHAPTER LIX. Dr. Smith III at Lancaster— Fetter to his son, William Moore Smith — Death of Governor Mifflin — Dr. Smith preaches a Guarded Funeral Sermon upon him — Gilbert Stuart makes a Portrait of Dr. Smith— General Convention of 1801— Builds and Inscribes a Mauso- leum— His last Will 411 CHAPTER LX. Dr. Smith begins to publish his Works— Only two volumes printed 421 CHAPTER LXI. Dr. Smith's last illness— Dies— Is buried in his Mausoleum— His funeral 446 CHAPTER LXII. Causes of Dr. Smith not being consecrated Bishop of Maryland — Con- clusion 45° APPENDIX 467 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. CHAPTER XXXVI. Dr. Smith Preaches in the Churches near the Valley Forge — His Cat- tle and Horses are taken for the Army, but Restitution or Com- pensation is Honorably made by Order of General Washington — Makes Observations, along with Rittenhouse and other Men of Science, on an Eclipse of the Sun — Preaches on St. John's Day, before Washington and the Society of Free Masons. As the reader will remember, the last chapter of Volume I. of this work left the British in the possession of Philadelphia, and Dr. Smith and part of his family residing on Barbadoes Island, seventeen miles above the city, within an hour's ride of the Valley Forge. On some occasions during the winter he preached in the churches in the Valley and at Radnor; both churches, as all others in the State, having been vacated permanently or temporarily by their rectors. The Rev. Mr. White, afterwards the Bishop, who was chaplain of Congress at Yorktown, the Rev. Mr. Blackwell, afterwards the well-known Dr. Blackwell, who was chaplain to the First Pennsylvania Regiment and surgeon to one of the regiments at the Valley Forge, and my ancestor, Dr. Smith, were, at this time, I presume, the only three Episcopal clergymen in the State. Mr. Currie, in Chester county, had been for some time pretty much superannuated, and was now, I think, not in the Commonwealth. Mr. White was with the Congress, during the occupation, at York- town. Mr. Blackwell, in his double office of spiritual and bodily physician, was closely occupied on the hills and in the huts of the 9' IO LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_^77^ Valley Forge. So that the only person who could perform any- thing like parochial duty was the subject of our biography. I find but little of Dr. Smith's correspondence during the winter, and but little of his personal history of interest to the reader, except that Michael Rudulph and certain of the troops drove off some of Dr. Smith's cattle and his best horse, which was taken for the use of his friend, General Porter. However, upon an applica- tion to General Washington, his cattle were returned and he received pay for his horse. On the 28th of March, Dr. Smith was present at a meeting of the people, held at Forty Fort, Wyoming, in regard to the claims of Connecticut to lands in Pennsylvania ; a question which long and deeply agitated a portion of the State. Samuel Sutton was chairman, and Dr. Smith reported to the meeting that he and Dr. Ewing had succeeded in having the " Confirming Law" repealed. On the 24th of June, assisted by his old scientific friends of the "Transit" day — Mr. Rittenhouse, Mr. Lukens, and Mr. Owen Biddle — he made for the Philosophical Society the observations of an eclipse of the sun. The result of these observations from the manuscript of Dr. Smith, is published entire in the Appendix of "Barton's Life of Rittenhouse." On the 10th of July, 1778, Dr. Smith preached in Oxford Church, on the first opening of the churches after the evacuation of the city by the British. From the 28th of June, 1777, to the 25th of September, 1778, there were no public meetings of the Board of Trustees of the College. The affairs of the institution during the occupation of the city by the British had a great advantage from a supervision of them by the Honorable Thomas Willing, one of the trustees, who remained in the city during that term ; a gentleman whose patriot- ism was never questioned, although he voted steadily against the Declaration of Independence. His very high personal character saved him from any molestation by either side. Ebenezer Kinnersley died on the 4th of July, in the year last mentioned ; his health, which a residence of considerable length in the islands of the West Indies did not re-establish, having been for a good while before enfeebled. On the 15th of December of this same year, the minutes of the College tell us that " Dr. Smith 'informed the board that some years ago Mr. Kinnersley had made I"S] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. II an offer to the College of his electrical apparatus and the several fixtures belonging to it, upon a valuation to be made by some proper judges; that the trustees were then disposed to accept of the proposal, but that through the disturbance of the times the business had not been completed ; that Mr. Kinnersley being since deceased, the apparatus, by order of his executors, had been valued at about five hundred pounds, was now in complete order, and perhaps equal to any apparatus of the kind in the world, and, therefore, proper to be kept as it stands, for the use of the College." " The trustees who are present," continued the minutes, " are of opinion that the said apparatus should be taken at the valuation set upon it for the use of the College, and that it be inserted in the notices to be given of next meeting ; that money is proposed to be laid out in order to have a full authority for this purchase." At the meeting thus called, and which was held December 23d, 1778, it was agreed "that the treasurer may pay Mrs. Kinnersley on account of the College for the electrical apparatus, as the same has been valued by Mr. Rittenhouse and Mr. Bringhurst, and that the inventory thereof be procured and inserted in the minutes." On the 28th of December, 1778, the anniversary of St. John, the Evangelist, the grand and subordinate lodges of Masons deter- mined to celebrate the day with a procession and sermon. They appointed a committee to wait upon the Grand Secretary, Dr. Smith, and request him to deliver the sermon, and to personally wait on " Brother George Washington, and request his excellency to attend the procession." Dr. Smith, having agreed to preach the sermon, waited upon the General, who courteously promised to take part in the procession. Accordingly, at nine o'clock in the morning of St. John's Day, nearly three hundred of the breth- ren assembled at the College, and at eleven o'clock went in regular procession thence to Christ Church to attend divine service. The order of the procession was as follows, viz. : 1. The Sword Bearer. 2. Two Deacons, with blue wands tipt with gold. 3. The three orders, Dorick, Ionick and Corinthian, borne by three brethren. 4. The Holy Bible and Book of Constitutions, on two crimson velvet cushions, borne by the Grand Treasurer and Grand Secretary. 5. A reverend brother. 12 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Yl17^> 6. Four Deacons, bearing wands. 7. His Excellency the illustrious Brother George Washington, Esq., supported by the Grand Master and his Deputy. 8. The two Grand Wardens, bearing the proper pillars. 9. The Past Masters of the different lodges. 10. The present Masters of lodges. 11. The Senior Wardens, A 12. The Junior Wardens, , ., ,.«. . , , „,, x, V of the different private lodges. 13. 1 he Secretaries, [ 14. The Treasurers, J 15. Brother Proctor's band of music. 16. Visiting brethren. 17. The members of different lodges, walking two and two, accord- ing to seniority. The procession entered the church in the order of their march, and the brethren took their seats in the pews of the middle aisle, which were kept empty for their reception. Prayers were read by the Rev. Mr. White, and the following anthem was sung in its proper place by sundry of the brethren, accompanied by the organ and other instrumental music, viz. : A GRAND SYMPHONY. CHORUS. Behold now good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity. SOLO. I will give thanks unto Thee, O Lord ! with my whole heart secretly among my brethren, and in the congregation will I praise Thee : I will speak the marvel- lous works of Thy hands, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, which Thou hast ordained. SOLO. The people that walked in darkness hath seen a great light, and on them that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death doth the glorious light of Jehovah shine. > 1 7/8] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. I 3 SOLO. Thou hast gathered us from the East, and from the West, from the North, and from the South ; Thou hast made us companions for the mighty upon earth, even for princes of great nations. TRIO. O ! I am ! inspire us with wisdom and strength, to support us in all our troubles, that we may worship Thee in the beauty of holiness. After which Dr. Smith preached a well-adapted sermon. The text was taken from the 1st Epistle of Peter, 2d chapter, and 16th verse. The brethren requested a copy of the sermon for publica- tion, and the profits were applied to the use of the poor. After divine service the procession returned to the College ; the musical bells belonging to the church and the band of music playing proper Masonic tunes. The brethren being all " new clothed," and the officers in the proper jewels of their respective lodges, and their other badges of dignity, made, we are told, " a genteel appearance." The brethren afterwards departed to their respective lodges, where they dined together. The sum of ^400 was collected in the church, among the brethren and others, for the relief of the poor. CHAPTER XXXVII. On the Evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, Dr. Smith returns to the City, and begins the Work of Re-establishing the College— His Great Services of every sort, Literary, Fiscal and ok Business Generally, herein — The College Finances put upon as good a Foot as Practicable in the Supremacy of Continental Paper — Instructors brought back, and Degrees again Ordered to be Conferred. Upon the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British forces, Dr. Smith immediately returned to that city and began to make arrangements to again open the College, Academy and Schools. The opening took place early in January of this year. It at once showed that the character and good fame which the institution had acquired before the war began was still possessed by it. 14 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Vl779 " Pupils," says Dr. Stille, " soon flocked to the schools ; though the greater portion of them was in the lower departments." Political spirit, of course, still ran high. Arnold was in com- mand of the city, and under his permission the worst portion of a party, downright and profligately Tory, was insolently asserting itself. Such a nest brought discredit and insult from the common people to a very different class of persons, and, indeed, to some degree to all who had ever belonged to the ancient proprietary party. Any man who had not been violent in denouncing George III., and equally violent in approving of the Declaration of Independ- ence, exactly as and when made, was a target for the arrows of every illiterate and malignant fellow. Dr. Smith came in for a good share. He had hardly got back to the city before an igno- ramus, named Cress, who, as the jurat showed, was unable to write his name, published in the newspapers an affidavit as follows : Deposition of Peter Cress. Pennsylvania ss. Before me, Plunket Fleeson, Esquire, one of the Justices of the Peace, &c, comes Peter Cress of the City of Philadelphia, Saddle and Harness maker, and being duly sworn, deposeth and saith, That on the day on which the attack was made by the Vigilant on the fortification at Mud island, Doctor William Smith, Provost of the college of Philadelphia, with a number of other people of the City of Philadelphia, was on the banks near the mouth of the river Schuylkill, viewing the attack with a large Spy-Glass or Telescope. That after the firing from the Round Tops of the Vigilant began and was returned from the fort, he, the said Peter Cress, was standing behind and very near the said Doctor Smith, and heard him, the said Doctor Smith, say, that " if they (the men in the Fort meaning) do not surrender they ought every man of them to be put to the Sword," or words to this effect. And further the deponent saith not. his PETER X CRESS. mark Sworn before me at Philadelphia this twentieth day of March, A. D. 1779. PLUNKET FLEESON. Dr. Smith replied to this by a publication in the same paper, in which he denied ever having spoken the words alleged against him, or that he had said anything that could be construed as mean- ing what they did. Of course nothing came of the matter except to show that " Peter Cress, of the City of Philadelphia, Saddle and Harness maker," was a super-serviceabie ass. 1779] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, £>. D. 1 5 Wc now were beginning to feel severely the calamity, which Dr. Smith had foreseen, of entering on war before we were at all prepared for it, and the consequent issue of paper money beyond our ability to redeem it on demand. The crisis, indeed, had not yet come. We were only on the swelling, or rather on the hugely swollen tide of a paper money system. But this was worse than the crisis which soon after did occur. The extravagant deprava- tion of morals was frightful. Arnold was in command of the city, and peculation, speculation, debauchery, and fraud of every kind prevailed. It is set forth in a paper by Mr. F. D. Stone, read in May, 1 879, before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, entitled, " Phila- delphia a Century Ago, or the Reign of Continental Money."* The minutes of the Board of Trustees show that on the 25th of March, 1779, both Dr. Smith and Dr. Alison represented to the Board that their receiving, " in the present currency," only double the nominal sums of their former salary was no way adequate to the increased price of necessaries, and prayed that the fact might be taken by the Trustees into consideration. The Board ordered that in the notices of next meeting it should be inserted that the disposition of money would be part of the business before it. At this next meeting the salaries were raised. The work of the College now goes on, though it is to some degree the work of reconstruction. Dr. Smith and Dr. Alison, at a meeting of May 4th, 1779, informed the Board that they had examined one Mr. Cochran, who offered himself as an usher in the Latin School at the rate of ^400 per annum ; and that they were of opinion that, though he had not for some time been employed in teaching the classics, yet by diligent study he might supply an usher's place. It was therefore ordered that he be received on a quarter's trial. Dr. Smith's universal usefulness exhibits itself now even above what it did in earlier times. He was requested by the Board to visit the tenants on the Perkasie Manor, and to report the state of the farms ; to give the tenants notice that their leases being expired they must come to Philadelphia and enter into new agree- ments for rents in wheat, or the price thereof as it may be at Philadelphia, yearly, when the same becomes due. This, with an * See The Pennsylvania Journal of Biography and History, Vol. 3., p. 361 1 6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [}779 authority " to employ some person to collect the old rails scattered on the different parts of the Norriton Plantation, and enclose the meadows as soon as possible to prevent them being damaged further by cattle and swine," was rather strange business to put upon the Provost of the College, he too a Reverend Doctor of Divinity by diplomas of Oxford, Edinburgh, and Dublin. How- ever, disdaining no office in life where he could be useful to science and letters, Dr. Smith went at it all cheerfully and did it all effectively. A controversy arose with Colonel Bull about the lands which, we have mentioned in our first volume, were sold by him to Dr. Smith, at or near Norristown, and which Dr. Smith had transferred to the College ; Colonel Bull claiming certain small islands or sand-banks, which he pretended had not passed by his grant to Dr. Smith, while Dr. Smith and the College, on the strength of a map which accompanied the deed, asserted that they had ; and, moreover, that as certain parts of the estate, undeniably granted, were wholly useless and incapable of being in the least enjoyed, unless the parts claimed by Colonel Bull passed also, that they were absolutely appurtenant and had been well conveyed. Col- onel Bull finally relinquished his claims. He visited the farms belonging to the College in Perkasie Manor, and, in the presence of witnesses whom he took with him, Mr. John Heany and Colonel Smith, one of the members of Assembly for Bucks county, received the proposals of the tenants for new leases, and appointed them to attend the Board of Trustees at a meeting to be held May 1 8th. The tenants accordingly attended at the proper time, and, being called in one after another, the terms of their future leases, for seven years from the 25th of March, 1779, were settled with them severally, and leases were ordered to be executed to them under the seal of the Corporation, and the counterparts duly executed to be deposited with the treasurer. With respect to the year, from 25th March, 1778, to 25th March, 1779, which they have severally held over their former term, it was mutually agreed to take a note of hand from each of them for the like payments in wheat or its value on the 15th of September next, as they were severally to pay for each year of their new term. Certain trespassers — Clark, Painter, and others — on the Woodlands on Rockhill, by making settlements 17/9] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. \J without leave, were ordered to move off in three months from the day of notice given them by Dr. Smith, and to remain accountable for the damages and waste they had committed. It was further ordered that no persons should be allowed, for the future, to settle on the said Woodlands, but that that portion of the estate be reserved for the supply of the other plantations* now leased, in such manner as the Trustees or their agents should direct. Lastly it was ordered that a power of attorney should be given to Mr. Heany, in whose neighborhood they were, to superintend the plantations now leased in order to prevent waste and breach of covenant. The vigilant and effective agency of Dr. Smith extended itself over every part of the estates of the College. We find him at this same meeting acquainting the Board that part of the " New Build- ings" having been rented by him, at the desire of the Trustees, to one Mr. Dancer, at the rate of ^"30 per quarter, either party to have the liberty of giving the other a quarter's notice for dissolv- ing, and the value of money being now greatly altered, he had given notice to Mr. Dancer more than three months ago, that he could not continue at that rent ; and that Mr. Dancer had never yet paid any rent. It was accordingly ordered that he be called upon for his past rent, and that he deliver up the house unless he comes to a new agreement for a larger rent. How completely, indeed, every detail — even those of the most homely and unappropriate kind — were thrown upon the Provost in these days of war and desolation appears from the records of a meeting of the Trustees, held June 1st, 1777, when Mr. Dancer, having been ejected from the premises for which he would pay only in "bankruptcy" the rent that he had promised to pay in bullion, it was ordered that an inventory be taken of the kitchen furniture, and that Dr. Smith and Dr. Alison direct the same to be sold at public vendue, and these gentlemen were to agree with another person, one Monsieur Marie, for one quarter's rent of the house. However, in the midst of all these disgusting details, the care of which would have been better consigned to a real-estate agent — if, indeed, one who had the capacity, the zeal, the fidelity, and the humility of Dr. Smith could have been found — it is * They were fourteen in number. IS LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [_^779 refreshing to discover an entry or two in the College minutes which show that the groves of the Academy still existed, and that masters and scholars sometimes could refresh themselves in its pleasing walks. At a meeting of the 28th of June, 1779, "The Provost repre- sented," say the minutes, " that the following gentlemen who have been educated in this Seminary and took their Bachelor of Arts degree with great approbation, had applied in due time and man- ner to be admitted to the degree of Master of Arts, for which they are of standing, and qualified according to the rules of the Institu- tion, viz. : Messrs. Benjamin Chew, Jr., John Mifflin, William Moore Smith, James Abercrombie, Thomas Duncan Smith, and Jacob Hall." The names of these gentlemen were accordingly ordered to be inserted in the mandate for admission to the degree aforesaid. The minutes of September 14th, 1779, show equally the zeal of the Trustees and the Provost in getting the College under its ancient and full course of usefulness. He is directed to " advertise for an English and Latin usher, and also to write to Newcastle to engage a gentleman who teaches a Latin school in that place and formerly offered his services as an usher." CHAPTER XXXVIII. The Abrogation of the College Charter by President Reed and the Legis- lature of Pennsylvania — A Truthful and Eloquent History of the Transaction by the Provost Stili.e — The Transaction Characterized and Condemned — The Episcopal Academy Founded in Consequence of the Injustice done to the College — Dr. Smith left without means of living — Final Repeal in 1789 of the Act of Abrogation as Repugnant to Justice, Unconstitutional, and Dangerous to Chartered Rights. We come now to the history of a great event in the life of Dr. Smith, in the annals of the College, and, as we may add, of the State ; the abrogation of the College charter by the President and Legislature of Pennsylvania in the year 1779, on the alleged ground of disloyalty to the new State of Pennsylvania, and of an undue devotion to the interests of the Church of England. '// 9] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, £>. D. 1 9 We have stated in our former volume,* upon Dr. Smith's own authority, that, from private animosity towards Dr. Smith, and political dislike of the Penns, who were liberal patrons of the Col- lege, Dr. Franklin, while in England, in 1764, had represented to sundry dissenters that the College was " a narrow, bigoted institu- tion," put into the hands of the Proprietary party as an engine of government; that the dissenters had no influence in it — although, as Dr. Smith observed, all the professors in it but himself were Dissenters — that the College had no occasion to ask assistance from abroad, and that the country and province would readily support it if it were not for the things above stated ; and that Dr. Franklin, with virulence, had made many other representations grievously reflecting upon the principal persons concerned in the Institution. I have shown how false and how much inspired by personal and political animosities were these statements of the great philosopher. Coming from a man so well known and regarded by so many persons as one of impartiality, the statements were not without a pernicious and, as we shall see, a lasting effect ; one, indeed, as we may admit, greatly beyond — both in the matter of duration and effect — what Dr. Franklin himself — whose object was doubtless confined to thwarting Dr. Smith and to injuring the Penns and their friends in Philadelphia — at all designed or anticipated. At the outbreak of the Revolution the Trustees of the College were composed of a body of gentlemen, the very first in point of birth, property, education, intelligence, integrity, and honor to be found in the city of Philadelphia. While they were not hasty in rushing into a revolution, they were just as far, as a whole, from aiding, abetting, or approving the illegal acts or purposes of the British ministry. And this same state of disposition, it may be affirmed with truth, characterized the body of the best people of Philadelphia. But there was in Pennsylvania a violent party, distinguished by a prescriptive policy, in the eyes of which every man who was not ready to rush into revolution was a Tory, and which, to use the language of Horace Binney, " implicated every such person in a lesser or greater treason, like the bye and the main of Sir Walter Raleigh and his friends." * Vol. I., p. 336. 20 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [^779 President Reed was one of this bitterly prescriptive party ; none of the Trustees of the College were, and none of the professors ; though most of both bodies were true patriots, distinguished bv consistent fidelity, not less to the country and the country's cause than to every interest committed to their charge. On the outbreak of the Revolution Dr. Smith was awake to the perils to which all institutions having property were subjected ; and so early as 1776 and during the sittings of the First Republican Convention of the State, a meeting was held at his house of promi- nent gentlemen interested in maintaining the inviolability of the rights and possessions of religious and scientific corporations. Dr. Franklin, President of the American Philosophical Society, in which many members were suspected of Toryism, was among them, and promised to propose (as he afterwards did) to the Con- vention an article securing all chartered rights. It is probable enough that he thus sought to repair to the College the possible injury which his remarks on it in England were likely to do to it. The article was adopted by the Convention, and was an article of the Constitution subsisting at the time of which we are about to speak. Three only of the twenty-four trustees which composed the Col- lege Board had refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new State of Pennsylvania ; and different vacancies, which had occurred after the Declaration of Independence, were filled by such men as Robert Morris, Francis Hopkinson, Alexander Wilcocks, Edward Biddle, John Cadwalader, and James Wilson. Dr. Smith was the only member of the Church of England in the Faculty, and though a majority of the trustees belonged to that church, no undue prefer- ence had ever been shown to its members, nor the least effort to inculcate its doctrines. It has been commonly supposed, I think, that the action of President Reed and of his political friends was aimed against Dr. Smith and the ancient trustees. The Provost Stille, as we shall see, regards Dr. Smith as having been the chief object of attack. Bishop White, however, tells* us — and his authority, on every account, is of the highest value — that his opinion was, in the beginning, and so always remained, " that what principally gave * Life by \V ' r ^ — note. l779] REV< WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 21 offence was the political complexion of the trustees lately chosen. They were gentlemen," adds the Bishop, " prominent in the Revo- lution, but, in the politics of the State, opposed to those who gov- erned it;" that is to say, opposed to President Reed and some of his friends. They were not of that "popular party" to which President Reed belonged ; though they were Republicans and the faithful and uniform friends of Washington, which it would be hard to prove that President Reed himself ever was.* The interests of the College were defended against this unjust attack with great ability, by James Wilson and William Lewis, two of the ablest and most upright lawyers whom the United States have produced. But I forbear to give in my own words a particular account of this matter, since the history has been succinctly, fearlessly, truthfully, and well told by the Provost Stille, in a recital of it which no man can improve. The Provost says : On the 23d of February, 1779 — more than two hundred pupils having already flocked to the Schools — the Assembly of the State passed the following resolution : "Ordered that Mr. Clymer, Mr. Mark Bird, Mr. Hope, Mr. Gardiner, and Mr. Knox, be a Committee to inquire into the present state of the College and Academy of Philadelphia, its rise, funds, etc., and report thereon to the House, and that they be empowered to send for persons and papers." This Committee was met by a Committee of the Board of Trustees, who, on the 16th of March, 1779, delivered to them an elaborate state- ment prepared by Dr. Smith, containing a complete history of the Col- lege. It was designed to meet, and it did meet fully, every objection which had been made against the Institution by ill-disposed persons. On all points it seems to me most satisfactory, and, therefore, I have made free use of it in the present Memoir. This Committee of the Assembly, so far as I have been able to discover, never made a Report. The matter seems to have been allowed to sleep until July of the same year, when it was mentioned in the Board of Trustees that the President of the State, General Reed, had intimated that it would be improper to hold a public Commencement at that time, some of the Trustees, in the * See his letter of 1776 to Charles Lee, in the dark days preceding the battle of Trenton (Lee's Memoirs, p. 17S), and his letter to General Gates in the darker days of Conway's Cabal, of November, 1777, in the History of the Republic, by John C. Hamilton, Vol. I., p. 368. The latter letter, which, I think, was not in print until printed by Mr. Hamilton (after the Biography of President Reed by his grandson was published), is not given in the Biography. The former, which is, was in print before. 22 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/~9 opinion of the Council, being under legal disqualifications. To this strange menace the Trustees made the very proper reply, that there was a very simple means of ascertaining whether any of them were disquali- fied, and if on that account the Board had lost its chartered rights, and that was, by a judicial inquiry, the matter being wholly out of the province of the President or his Council. The Trustees, however, thought it advisable "to defer to the Executive part of the Govern- ment," and no Commencement was held.* In September, a newly- elected Assembly met, and the President of the State, in his message of the 9th of that month, brought the subject of the College before them in the following terms: "The principal Institution of learning in this State, founded on the most free and catholic principles, raised and cherished by the hand of public bounty, appears by its Charter to have allied itself so closely to the Government of Britain by making the allegiance of its Governors to that State a pre-requisite to any official act, that it might well have been presumed they would have sought the aid of Government for an establishment consistent with the Revolution, and conformable to the great changes of policy and government. But whatever may have been the motives, we cannot think the good people of this State can, or ought to, rest satisfied, or the protection of Gov- ernment be extended to an Institution framed with such manifest attachment to the British Government and conducted with a general inattention to the authority of the State. How far there has been any deviation from the liberal ground of its first establishment, and a pre-eminence given to some societies in prejudice to others equally meritorious, the former inquiries of your Honorable House will enable you to determine." The subject was referred to a Committee of the House, and before the end of September a majority of the Committee (three out of five) made a report which was a mere echo of the message of the President. They conclude by recommending that a Bill should be brought in " effectually to provide suitable funds for the said Co^cge (remodelled), to secure to every denomination of Christians equal privileges, and establish said College on a liberal foundation, in which the interests of American liberty and independence will be advanced and promoted, and obedience and respect to the Constitution of the State preserved." * The following was the Minute and resolve of the Trustees of the College : "College of Philadelphia, July 8th, 1779. "As the President of the State has thought proper to inform this Board, through some of its members, that certain legal objections lay to the exercise of some of their rights under their charter, and to advise the not holding a commencement at the time appointed, the Board have, for the present, deferred holding the commencement from an expectation that some mode will be speedily adopted on the part of Government to draw such their rights into question in a legal way, when this board will take the proper steps to defend their charter according to law. "Resolved, That Mr. Willing, Mr. Powell, and Mr. Hopkinson be a committee to communicate the sense of the Board on this subject to the President." 1779] A£l'- WILLIAM SMITH, D.D. 23 The minority of the Committee reported that "no evidence had arisen during the inquiry to support the same, but that much the contrary had appeared." The House refused a motion that the evidence upon which the report was founded should be laid before it, and also voted against taking the opinion of the Judges of the Supreme Court upon the legal questions involved, although they had been summoned for that purpose. A Bill was accordingly brought in, and on the 27th of November, 1779, was enacted into a law, declaring the charter of 1755 void, dis- solving the Board of Trustees and the Faculty, and vesting the College estates in a new Board of Trustees composed of certain State officials, of the senior Clergyman of each of the principal religious denominations in the City, and of sundry other persons who were conspicuous members of the political party which at that time controlled the State. The Act provided also that the Council should reserve for the use of the new Institution, which was called "The University of the State of Pennsyl- vania," ^1500 a year from the proceeds of the confiscated estates. As this Act of the Legislature was the severest blow which the higher interests of learning in this State ever received (as no one who has read the foregoing account of Dr. Smith's services, and who knows anything of the history of the Institution during the years which followed can doubt"), and as it appears on its face to be a simple act of spoliation, transferring the property of one set of men to the pockets of another, we must examine somewhat minutely the reasons given for this extra- ordinary proceeding. Upon looking at the Preamble of the Act, we find the most frivolous and unfounded of all the pretexts which had been alleged in the report of the Committee and the message of the President as reasons for the abrogation of the Charter, made the basis of the Assembly's action. It is there stated that the Trustees by a vote or by-law adopted June 14, 1764, " departed in the management of the Institution from the free and unlimited Catholicism of its original founders." On turning to the by-law referred to we find that it was the fundamental Declaration adopted by the Trustees in regard to the use of the money then recently collected by Dr. Smith in England, the very object and intention of that Declaration, as has been before stated, being to perpetuate the "free and unlimited Catholicism" of the Founders of the College.* Anything more preposterous than such a reason for so grave an act (strangely ranked by the biographer of President Reed as a trophy of his administration of the government with the Act abolishing slavery in Pennsylvania) it would be difficult to conceive. The only other cause of incapacity alleged in the Act against the Trustees was that provision in the Charter of 1755 which required them before entering upon their office to take certain oaths of allegiance. * See Vol. I., rp. 350, 35 1. -II. W. S. 24 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l779 But these oaths were precisely the same which had been exacted of every one called to fill any civil office in the province prior to the Revolution, and their obligation was always understood to have ceased upon the establishment of a new government. The Trustees were therefore precisely in the same position as any one who had ever held office under the Crown. Test oaths, and oaths of allegiance, are, as we all know, favorite devices in revolutionary times. The Assembly, as a means most probably of discovering the disaffected, directed on the 13th of June, 1777, that every white person above the age of eighteen should take an oath of allegiance to the State, and by another act passed on the first of April, 17 78, enacted that all Trustees, Provosts, Professors, and Masters (among others) should take the same oath before the first of June of that year, or forfeit their offices. The follow- ing is the form of the oath : " I, A. B., do swear that I renounce and refuse all allegiance to George III., King of Great Britain, his heirs and successors, that I will be faithful and bear true alle- giance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as a free and independent State, that I will not at any time do or cause to be done any matter or thing that will be prejudicial or injurious to the freedom and independence thereof as declared by Congress; and also that I will discover and make known to some one Justice of the Peace of said State all treasons or traitorous conspiracies which I now know or hereafter may know to be formed against this, or any other of the United States of America." Twelve of the Trustees, the Provost, and all the Professors, took this oath as required by law, before June 1, 1778. By November, 1779, when the Charter was taken away, the Board was full, and twenty-one out of the twenty- four Trustees had previously taken the oath, the three who had not done so being Richard Penn, William Allen, and Dr. Bond. It is a little remarkable as showing how different were the real reasons for taking away the Charter from those which were assigned in the Act, that notwithstanding his alleged disqualification, Dr. Bond was named in it as a Trustee of the new corporation, as were also three others, who had not only never taken the oath to the State, but had just before taken it to the King, one of whom had served as Chaplain in the British Army while it occupied Philadelphia. The grounds upon which the Assembly proceeded, as stated in the Act itself, being thus wholly without foundation, it is only necessary to add that the action it took was expressly forbidden by the provisions of the Constitution of the State, in regard to property held for the use of churches, colleges, and hospitals, by the well-known doctrine that, no misconduct of a Trustee can work a forfeiture of his trust, and by the equally well-settled rule that, alleged infractions of a Charter are to be determined by judicial proceedings, and not by the Legislature. It has been sometimes said that, although the abrogation of the Charter was made without legal authority, yet that it may have been 1779] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 2$ justifiable at that period of the Revolution for reasons of State policy. Before admitting such a plea as a safe criterion in this case, we must remember that the College Charter was in existence, and the College itself was in full operation at the time of the adoption of the Constitu- tion, which was subsequent to the Declaration of Independence, and that the Convention, with a full knowledge of its organization, solemnly guaranteed the protection of its property and franchises. Nor had any change taken place since, either in the men who controlled it, or in the system of instruction, which could, in any way, be construed as un- favorable to the principles of the Revolution. The vacancies in the Board of Trustees since the Declaration of Independence had been filled by Robert Morris, Francis Hopkinson, Alexander Wilcocks, Edward Biddle, John Cadwalader and James Wilson, and no Penn- sylvanian need be told that these were among the most eminent patriots of the Revolution. The system of instruction was also wholly un- changed, and as if nothing should be wanting to prove that the act was • one of simple spoliation, that system, and every one of the Professors of the old College, in both Faculties, except Dr. Smith and Dr. Alison (who had died during the controversy), were transferred to the new institution. We are, therefore, compelled to conclude that the conduct of the Assembly rested upon no legal authority, nor upon the broader ground of an overruling necessity; but that it is the most striking instance of the baneful effects of an unscrupulous party-spirit recorded in our State history. Its object was to strike down and disfranchise the purest and best men in the community, associated in an undertaking which had brought nothing but honor and advantage to the State. To conciliate the unthinking masses, and as some apology for the spoliation, a pre- tence was made of establishing a new Institution upon a broader basis than the old, and the cheap device was resorted to of endowing it with the proceeds of the confiscated estates. One of the complaints against the old College had been, that it had never applied to the State author- ities for money, and it was thought that the prosperity of the new was certainly assured by the Legislative grant of ^1500 a year. But it never prospered. The original taint of its birth seems to have poisoned all its sources of growth, so that on the 22d of August, 1791, just before its dissolution, when the College estates had been restored to their rightful owners, its debts are stated in a minute of that date to be ^5187, nearly all due to the Professors for arrears of salary, while its resources from its income were: "Debts recoverable by next March, say ^2000; due from the State, ^375. " But there were other sources of decay, inherent in the scheme itself, and rapidly developed by the influences surrounding it, which must have soon proved fatal to it. Of all human institutions, it may be most truly said of Colleges and Universities, that they "are things that grow, 26 LIFE AXD COR RESPOND EXCE OF THE \_I/79 and are not made." A popular error prevails that a large endowment, an extended curriculum, and an imposing array of Professors, are all that is necessary to insure the permanent success of a newly-founded College. Such an opinion is contradicted by universal experience. Both in Europe and in this country, institutions of learning which have gained reputation and success have all had their day of small things, and their present strength is only the natural development of a slow but steady and healthy growth. There have been thousands of failures, where the greatest zeal, aided by large endowments, has established Colleges. Defects in the most brilliant projects have been brought to light by experience, or the soil in which they were planted has not proved kindly to their nurture. Such was the case with the shortdived "University of the State of Pennsylvania." He must indeed have been a bold and sanguine man who thought it possible to establish, with any chance of success, a new College in this State in the year 1779. In the very crisis of the Revolution, with the fortune of every man who had been engaged in trade ruined by the worthlessness of the currency, with the cost of living increased in the proportion of sixty to one, with every nerve strained to keep up the sinking fortunes of the war, with dissensions among the best men in the State more bitter than their hatred of the common enemy; with the belief among nearly all who had been real supporters of learning that the Charter had been taken away from party malice, and that the new institution would be managed in such a way as to subserve party ends; above all, with the ever-present consciousness that the money they were using did not belong to them in law or morals, it is not to be wondered at that the projectors of the new establishment soon found that they had been building upon the sand. There was certainly but one man living in this State, at that time, who could have carried even an old College successfully through the dangers which threatened the interests of learning during the Revolution, and for ten years after- wards, and that was the very man whom a blind party-zeal had driven from his post. When we consider what Dr. Smith did for those inter- ests during the twenty-five years in which they had been in his special charge, we may form some estimate of the loss sustained, both by the College and the State, by the forced employment of the remaining twenty-five years of his life in other pursuits. As the removal of Dr. Smith was, no doubt, the great object aimed at in the abrogation of the Charter, so he was the chief victim of that measure. He had to mourn not merely, in common with all his friends, that the work he had been so long painfully building up was in ruin, and that the pledges which he had given as to the management of the funds which he had collected were shamefully violated, but he was ejected from his office, and without the means of supporting his family. But it was not in the man's nature to despond. Feeling that 17/9] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 2"J he could hope for no redress in Pennsylvania, as its Government was then constituted, he went to Chestertown, in Maryland, and became Rector of a church there. He found at that place an Academy with a few pupils. He was made Principal of it, and in a short time one hundred and forty scholars were in attendance. He then applied to the Legislature of Maryland for a Charter, erecting this Academy into a College, modelled upon the plan of the College of Philadelphia, to be called "Washington College." The charter was granted in the spring of 1782, and within one year from that time this indefatigable man collected, principally from the planters of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, nearly ten thousand three hundred pounds towards its endowment. General Washington contributed fifty guineas, and Gen- eral Cadwalader headed the Maryland subscriptions. This was, of course, before the close of the Revolutionary war, and it is very evident that these gentlemen did not hold the opinion entertained by the party in power in Pennsylvania in regard to Dr. Smith's disaffection to the American cause. But that party ceased to reign in 1783, and Dr. Smith lost no time in seeking justice at the hand of those who took, its place. At the Sep- tember session, 1784, the Trustees and Dr. Smith presented their petition to the Assembly, asking that so much of the Act of 1779, which took away their estates and franchises, should be repealed. The Committee to whom the matter was referred made a report favoring the application, and brought in a bill granting it. But when the bill was about to pass, the minority left the House (in modern phrase, "bolted"}, and thus dissolved the Assembly. The matter lingered for several years, and until March 6, 1789, when the Assembly passed the bill, the pre- amble to it stating as the reason for its action that the Act of 1779 was "repugnant to justice, a violation of the Constitution of this Common- wealth, and dangerous in its precedent to all incorporated bodies, and to the rights and franchises thereof." But of all this I shall speak at the proper time. The act of confiscation, which the Provost Stille describes, has been justly considered a stigma upon the Revolutionary Legisla- ture of Pennsylvania, and still more so upon the name — now much better remembered than are those of most in the Legislature — of General Joseph Reed, the President of the State. Along with his much-suspected disloyalty to his Commander-in-Chief, and his being charged by that patriotic man, General Cadwalader, in a printed pamphlet — of a disregard of truth, that offence which ends the character of a gentleman, and which, truly considering, was the gist of Cadwalader's accusation — this his conduct in regard to 28 LIFE A AD CORRFSPOSDEACE OF THE \_x779 th I College of Philadelphia conspired to bring about that con- dit n of feeling towards him described by Mr. Binney in his "Leaders of the Old Bar of Philadelphia,"* in which tract the author, speaking of President Reed's inability to do to one of his young proteges of the bar any great professional service, says: President Reed's political ardor during his term of office, and an embittered opposition to him which had been kindled among men of business and of importance in Philadelphia, did not make his return to the Bar in 1781 very easy or agreeable; nor, as I have heard Mr. Inger- soll say, did his mind return willingly to the pursuits of the law. The patron, therefore, must have been more willing than able to assist him, and in a short time Mr. Reed's health gave way, and after visiting England, in 1783, he returned towards the close of 1784, and, without attempting to resume his profession, died on the 5th of March, 1785. While speaking thus of President Reed's malevolence towards those politically opposed to him, and of the want of sincerity which distinguished his character, I am not insensible to his many endearing domestic traits, to his considerable abilities, and to his not less considerable accomplishments. We may concede, too, that both by wisdom in council and conduct in action he promoted essentially the Revolution in America; and his want of success in the great struggle of life, after much labor, many privations, and many misfortunes, give, too, to his memory a title to our pathetic regard. But with all this, and after all the efforts that his errand- son and biographer has brought to redeem his reputation,! I look upon the judgment of those who were among the most intelligent of his contemporaries as true — that his talents were more than equal to his integrity; and that in few acts of his life did this un- enviable preponderance appear more manifest than in the trans- action that the Provost Stille above describes. Of few political events of the Revolution did the late Bishop White speak with more emphatic disapprobation. It roused the indignation of the whole Episcopal Church, and was followed at once by the estab- lishment of the Episcopal Academy; an institution still existing in honor, after a century of useful labors. The biographer of the President — one of his grandsons — while defending every act that * Page 84. •j- Life and Correspondence of President Reed, by his Grandson, William B. Reed, 2 vols., 8vo. Phila., 1847. 1780] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 29 was defensible in his ancestor's public life, and one which was much the reverse, glosses over this, but defends it not; indeed, while palliating, is compelled to condemn it.* I do not, of course, forget that the times in which President Reed chiefly figures were times of revolution; that party-spirit had risen to a great height and exhibited itself in scenes of violence; that in the very Congress of the country there were, at this same date, men who, like Rush, Conway, Gates, Lovell, and others, seemed to hate Washington and his friends as fully as they did the common enemy. The best excuse for President Reed is found in his own language in the last letter which he ever wrote, " I was thrown into turbulent times, which did not leave me at liberty to speculate, was obliged to act, and too often without time to consider or advice to guide me." f CHAPTER XXXIX. Dr. Smith interests himself in having General Washington made a Grand Master over all the Masonic Lodges formed or to he formed in the United States. We have noted in our former volume, as a feature of Dr. Smith's mind, and one tending to prove its high order, that no matter in what troubles he might be involved or in what exciting scenes engaged, his mental faculties and his power to use them seemed always undisturbed. Even in such trials as we have de- scribed in the preceding chapter, when his very means of living were taken or about to be taken from him, he interests himself vividly in the affairs of the Masonic Society, and in an endeavor to have General Washington elected a Grand Master over all the Grand Lodges formed or to be formed in these United States. We give some of his correspondence on this subject: Dr. Smith to Joseph Webb, Esq. Philadelphia, August 19th, 1780. Sir: I do myself the honor to address yon, by order of the Grand Lodge of Ancient York Masons, regularly constituted in the City of * Life and Correspondence of President Reed, by his Grandson, William B. Reed. Vol. II., pp. 169-172. f/:nns are to be derived, that with profit may be applied to the instruction of mankind in all succeeding ages. Let us then consider the situation of the Jews, after they had been first spoiled by the Assyrians, and afterwards by the Babylonians, as set forth in the forty-second chapter of this prophecy, now claiming at- tention. And truly melancholy and miserable it was. "This people (saith the prophet) is robbed and spoiled. They are all of them snared in holes, and hid in prison-houses ; They are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none, saith, restore. Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear? Who is there that, by the present judgments, will take warning, and strive to avert the like judgments in the time to come." Think not that these judgments spring up from the dust, or have come upon you without a cause. " For who was it that gave Jacob for I/8l] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 43 a spoil and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord? He against whom we have sinned?" And for what reason did the Lord thus deliver his people to be robbed and spoiled by their enemies? The prophet answers plainly — " Because they would not walk in his ways, nor be obedient unto his Laws — Therefore he hath poured upon them the fury of His anger, and the strength of battle — and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew it not " — That is, all the horrors and fury of war, and their very city and temple burnt to ashes by the Chaldean army, did not lead them to consider and turn again unto the Lord whom they had offended. They still continued in their sins, despised the Law of God, nor from all His visitations would they learn the righteousness. 'Tis true that so far as outward professions would go, so far as having the name of religion in their mouths, and claiming the privileges prom- ised and covenanted by God to their Fathers for keeping the Law — so far as outward professions and claims of peculiar favour would go, they continued zealous before God — Nay, so far as days of solemn Fasting and Humiliation, on special visitations and calamities, might be thought a duty, they were not backward in the appointment and observation of them. But what sort of Fasts they were, we shall soon learn from the Sermon of the prophet, in the chapter from which my text is taken. The first verse is an awful command to him to go among the people on the solemn Fast-day; and to warn them of their sins — " Cry aloud and spare not ; lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgressions, and the House of Jacob their sin." That is to say — In the boldest and most public manner, with all the freedom becom- ing a prophet and messenger of God, concealing nothing through Fear or Love, declare to the people their many transgressions, and especially their open hypocrisy, and "the iniquities of their Holy things." For to all their offences they add this provoking aggravation, namely — high professions and shew of religion — "They seek me daily," or draw nigh to me in all outward ordinances, as a nation that would be thought to delight in knowing my ways and performing righteousness; and they ask of me the ordinances of justice, the rewards promised to holiness ; and, wondering that they do not receive an immediate answer to their Prayers and Fastings, they cry out in the midst of every adversity — "Wherefore have we Fasted, and thou seest not? Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? " Attend, therefore, Brethren, to the Prophet's answer to these most important questions! Astonished at their blindness to their own faults, and their expecting an immediate answer of favour from God, in all their religious approaches to Him; the Prophet reminds them that they are taught from their own scriptures, "that the sacrifices of the wicked are an abomination in God's sight; and that he will not hear sinners" 44 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Ql/8l (though they call to Him in distress) without Repentance and Amend- ment of life. "Behold, says the prophet, in the day of your Fast, you find pleas- ure and exact all your labours " — -Amidst all your pretended Humilia- tions before me, you still find a way of gratifying your own Passions and Covetousness, grieving and oppressing the Poor, and exacting every labour of those over whom you rule — Nay, instead of fasting from the Love and Fear of God — " Behold ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness." Your Fasts have only an out- ward appearance of devotion, while their true design is to promote some selfish or party view, or to sanctify in the sight of men some enormous wickedness; for such was the conduct of Jezebel, who, having deter- mined to destroy Naboth, and rob him of his vineyard, ordered a fast to be proclaimed, and to have him falsely arraigned and condemned of blasphemy, as a part of that day's solemnity. But, saith the Prophet, all this is abomination; and if you would truly Fast, it shall not be as you Fast this day, to make your " Voice to be heard on high," as if noise and outward vehemency could supply the place of true humiliation of soul and inward piety — Instead of having the fear and love of God reigning in your hearts; instead of bending in humble adoration before his throne ; purging away the dross of your iniquity, and setting your whole affections, your hopes of relief and deliverance, on the most High, "You Fast to appear righteous before men, and to promote your own unjust views." But, continues the prophet — " Is it such a Fast as this that the Lord has chosen — For a man to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a Fast, and an acceptable Day unto the Lord? " These are all vain pageantries and insignificant cere- monies of themselves, and no way tending to renew and purify the heart. But, continues our sublime Prophet, would you know the true Fast which the Lord hath chosen, is it not this? — " To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens ; to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are out cast to thy house? When thou seest the naked that thou cover him, and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh." Here is a glorious catalogue of Virtues, a divine frame of Soul to bring with us in our humble approaches to God. For, without this divine frame of Soul, what are all the Mortifications of the flesh ; what are all the penances inflicted on the Body, what is bowing down the head to the earth, the prostrating ourselves on sackcloth, the wallowing in ashes, or any outward rite or performance compared to this holy, humble and benevolent frame of mind, and those deeds of Virtue, Bsneficence, Mercy and Justice which Isaiah prescribes as the true Requisites of a fast ? I /Si] KEF. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 45 As far as Heaven is exalted above the earth, so far the latter tran- scends the former ! and all Bodily Abstinences and Humiliations are of no other value, than as they tend to Purify and Spiritualize the Inner Man. What would it avail us, on this solemn day, to have abstained from our usual food and labours? What would it avail us to have humbled ourselves and bewailed our sins, and to have prayed to God to avert His anger from us, and to deliver us from the judgments with which we are threatened, unless we resolve to " loose every band of wickedness; and to do away every unjust burden which we can remove from our fellow-creatures?" Of this we maybe assured, that nothing but our own sins can stand between us and the propitious smiles of Heaven. When these are done away, 'through the mercies of Christ leading us to repentance and amendment, we shall no longer "fast and the Almighty not see — we shall no longer afflict our souls, and He take no knowledge." For what purpose God has thought fit to permit a continuance of our present calamities, whether in judgment or mercy, or both, is a matter which it becomes every man to consider in his own conscience. I hope but few of the crying offences for which the Jews were reduced to the extremest misery, and delivered over to the power of their enemies, can be justly chargeable to the people of this land ; nor can we poor short-sighted mortals pretend to open the mysterious volumes of Provi- dence and read its future purposes either of mercies or judgments towards ourselves — Nor am I fond of ascribing every striking dispensa- tion of Providence to any particular Interposition of its power. It is sufficient for us that we consider ourselves always under its general government — and that we look upon our own fortunes as suspended at all times in the uplifted hand of the Almighty! And therefore such questions as the following will never be improper — viz. 'Whether an incorruptible spirit prevails in all our public measures? Whether the cries of the Widow, the Orphan, the helpless, never ascended, unpitied and unredressed, among us? Whether no rapacious and extortionate men, lifted into power by us, have sought to heap up wealth for themselves at the expense of their bleeding and suffering country? — But I forbear these and the like questions; because, as I believe, the guilt of none of these things can be chargeable to any who now hear me; so neither is the Redress of such evils so immediately in our power; and a thorough Redress, there is reason to think, will be endeavoured by the proper authorities — What chiefly concerns us is, Repentance, accompanied with earnest endeavours to amend our Lives, and fervent Prayers for Grace to enable us to resist Temptation, "to overcome the world," and to turn from all Iniquity. For this we may be assured of that nothing but our own 46 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/8l Sins and Unworthiness can come between us and the propitious smiles of our merciful Creator. When these are done away, through the Grace of God, leading us to Repentance and Amendment — "We shall no longer Fast, and the Almighty not see — We shall no longer afflict our souls, and He take no knowledge," or pity of our distress. We shall be raised from Sorrow, and receive the blessing promised to the Jews, on the like conduct — "Our light shall break forth as the morning, our Health (or political salvation) shall spring forth speedily; our Righteousness shall go before us, and the glory of the Lord shall be our Rere-ward. We shall call, and the Lord shall answer: We shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am! If thou take away from the midst of Thee the Yoke, the putting forth of the Finger and speaking Vanity; If thou draw out thy soul to the Hungry) and satisfy the afflicted Soul ; then shall thy Light rise in (or out of) obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon-day: The Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: Thou shalt be like a watered Garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not — They that shall be of you (or remain of you, your reformed and happy posterity) shall build the old waste places (that is, the Houses and Cities, that have been destroyed and made desolate, shall again be built up, and become the joyous dwellings of a happy people, by dependence upon God and turning to the ways of his commandment, as warned by his late visitation of you in judgment). Ye shall yet be raised up, as the foundations of many generations — Millions shall spring from your loins to possess an immense and happy country; and every Hero, every Patriot, every Wise and Good Man who contributes his share towards the promotion of the general welfare shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of paths to dwell in." Great and gracious God ! Grant that by thus following the advice of the Prophet to the Jews, for keeping a True Fast, and especially for "hallowing the Sabbath Day, not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words, but delighting in Thee, we may receive the promised reward, and be fed with and preserved in the Heritage of our Fathers; " and to Thy Name, with Thy blessed Son and Holy Spirit, One God, Let the Glory and Praise be ascribed forever and ever ! Amen ! There may be, perhaps, nothing very remarkable in this dis- course. It is in the good old-fashioned style of the Church of England. It is certainly solid, serious and true. The topic being one so very often well treated by others, I should not have made so considerable extracts from it except to follow it by like extracts from a sermon in contrast with it — a sermon preached in the same Chester Chapel, Maryland, after the capture of Cornvvallis, at i;8l] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 47 Yorktown, which was in fact the end of the Revolution, and when the Congress prescribed the 13th of December, 1781, as a day of general Thanksgiving and Prayer throughout the United States. This latter sermon, I think, is in one of Dr. Smith's best styles : a style, at all events, one of his most natural and easy. The text was from Exodus xv. 1 : " I will sing unto the Lord: for He hath triumphed gloriously." After a few words dc circonstancc the preacher breaks forth : Songs, or Hymns of praise and triumph, addressed to the great Creator of Heaven and earth (or to the Divinities considered by the nations that knew not the true God, as the supreme benefactors of man- kind), were among the oldest and most exalted compositions of Poets, and other writers, inspired as well as uninspired. There is something in Poetry and Music admirably suited to divine and lofty subjects; and it is natural for the soul of man, when struck with anything surprisingly great, good, or marvellously new, to break forth beyond the cenvnon modes of speech, into the most rapturous strains of expression, accompanied with correspondent Attitudes of Body and Modulations of Voice. Even the untutored savages around us furnish proofs of this ! Hence it arose, that Poetry and Music were originally appropriated and confined to the worship of the Supreme God, or the divinities of the nations, to whom He was not known ; and the best and wisest men of all ages have had recourse to divine Hymns and Spiritual Songs in the effusions of the soul to the almighty Lord of heaven and earth. Ere yet temples were built, or fixed hours of devotion set apart ; when the voice of Conscience could be heard, and the busy scenes of Art had not seduced away the attention of Man from the grand scenes of Nature; the great Progenitors of our Race, and Patriarchs of Man- kind, as they tended their flocks onward from pasture to pasture, as they beheld the refreshing Rains descend, and the Sun, in his turn, pour down his refulgent beams, to vivify and fertilize the earth, and to rejoice the heart of man and of every living creature; or when they were struck with any more surprising effect or manifestation of Almighty Power and Goodness, kindling their admiration and gratitude — that auspicious moment they embraced, as the Tongue or Organ of Praise for the whole Animal Creation on earth, and rapt into sacred extasy, poured forth their unpremeditated strains to that adorable God, the author of all this bounty, who formed the earth, the Sun and Moon which they beheld ; that poised the clouds in air, that enriched their bosoms with treasure and bade them drop down in fatness, to rejoice herb, and beast, and man. 48 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [i/Sl These divine emanations of the soul, in strains of praise and gratitude to heaven, are surely nothing less than the express inspirations of God himself, through the secret agency of his grace, and the power of his works, in the hearts of men, in those first ages of simplicity and love; and, as this was the first origin of Poetry, Music, and Songs of praise before God, it were to be wished that, among all our other improve- ments, we had not too much improved away this pure primitive inter- course with the Father of Light and Spirits! Yet still, we are to reflect that this is a world of imperfection; and that, as there are advantages, there are also inconveniences, to every stage of its progress, from origi- nal simplicity to its last stage of improvement and refinement. But to proceed; some of the most beautiful pieces of divine poesy are left us by the eastern nations, and especially by the Hebrews; in whose compositions of this kind we are more directly concerned, as they are recorded for us in our Bibles. One of the most exalted of these is the Song of Moses, from which I have taken my text — composed in a trans- port of joy, admiration and gratitude, when he beheld thoMighty One of Israel divide the great deep before his people, and lead them through on dry ground ; while the waters closed with irresistible fury behind them, and whelmed their proud pursuers in the bottom of the sea! This was a subject marvellous indeed, and astonishing beyond a par- allel ! At the blast of the nostrils of the God of heaven, the course of Nature was controuled. A mighty ocean divided itself before the Lord. The waters left their channel in the heart of the sea. They were gathered up on either side, wave on wave, heap on heap, and stood arrested or congealed in liquid mountains at the nod of the Almighty ! The children of Israel passed through on dry ground. Immediately the waters closed with irresistible fury; and the hosts of their proud pursuers were covered, overwhelmed, consumed — as a stone that sinks to the bottom. " Thus the Lord saved Israel that day, out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore — "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this Song unto the Lord, saying — I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed glori- ous!}'. The Lord is my strength and my Song; and he is become my salvation. He is my God and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name." * In such strains as these did the raptured leader of Israel, and all his host of followers, celebrate the God of their fathers, on their deliver- ance from the rage of Pharaoh; leaving an example for all succeeding ages on the like grand occasions. A like sacred example we have in the great festival sacrifice and * Exodus, chapter xv. i;8l] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 49 thanksgiving of David, on receiving back the Ark of God, the groat pledge and deposition of the civil and religious privileges of his nation. On that happy occasion* "He and all the Elders of the people, and the Levites, ami the Captains over thousands, appeared in solemn pro- cession, with instruments of music, psalteries, and harps, and cymbals. and the sound of the cornet and of the trumpet, and the lifting up the voice with joy; and David himself came singing and dancing before them, as a testimony of his true piety and gratitude; though Saul's daughter, beholding out at a window, and not animated with the same godly rapture, despised or laughed at him in her heart as guilty of levity." But why should I mention more examples? The same Reason that calls us to humble ourselves before God, on the marks of his Dis- pleasure, calls us to rejoice before Him, with Thanksgiving, on the marks of his Favour. For a series of years past we have had many days of weeping and sorrow and fasting ; and the hardest heart must bleed to recount the scenes of suffering and anguish and distress which we have beheld. In every city, in every village, nay, in every private house and family, long hath the voice of sorrow been heard, for heroes slain in battle; kindred hands imbrued in kindred blood; fathers de- prived of sons; sons of fathers; wives of husbands; brothers of brothers; and friends of friends. But we are this day called to express our gratitude to God on events of a more pleasing nature, the Success of the allied armies of these United States, almost in every quarter of our country, by land and by Sea; the blessing the fruits of the earth, and giving us plentiful har- vests ; and, particularly, the capture of a General f of the first rank, with his whole army, under the direction of our illustrious commander- in-chief; yielding us the happy prospect of a speedy restoration of our former peace and tranquillity, upon solid and lasting foundations. Although we dare not call this deliverance a miracle in our favour, or in any degree comparable to the miracle for which the song in our text was offered to the God of Israel ; yet when we reflect on the gloomy prospect which lay before us a few months ago ; when we expected the war at our doors, and all its concomitant ravages and distress; when we beheld our Fields waving with Plenty, and almost despaired of reaping them in Peace, or enjoying their Fruits in Safety; can we forbear praising the Lord of Hosts, the God of our salvation, for the deliver- ance he hath wrought for us, and the security we enjoy? Can we for- bear to adore that Providence, which, by means almost unexpected to us, "on the same day; nay almost at the same hour, brought Fleets from the South, and Armies from the North, for our protection and aid?" Can we cease to admire that magnanimity and steady perse- * I Chronicles xv. 16, etc. f Lord Cornwallis. 50 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1781 verance, which enabled our allied forces to accomplish this great deliverance ; almost without any bloodshed of their Enemies ; and to exercise all the Virtues of Moderation and Christian Heroism, even amidst the Triumphs of Victory? This great event hath already been celebrated in Camps, in Cities, in Towns and Villages, by separate and voluntary marks of joy and gratitude — But we are this day called to join, with one voice, through- out all these United States, as a people connected in one great and common interest to celebrate this goodness of the Almighty ; and the ministers of the altar, by their sacred office, are to stand as the mouth or organ of the people, to offer up and convey their public gratitude to the throne of the Omnipotent ! The joy of this day, therefore, Brethren, must not be that noisy and tumultuous joy, which consists in outward actions ; the glare and pomp of victory ; the display of the spoils of War and Enemies ; Shouts of Triumph; Illuminations; Feastings, and carnal Mirth. It must be a Religious Joy ; the Joy of the Heart before the Lord ; mixt with a holy and reverential Fear. We are to rejoice in our prosperity, but yet chiefly as we consider it to be the means of Peace and Safety; and, therefore, while the final issue of things remain undetermined, although we may rejoice, we must rejoice with fear and trembling; lest our future Unworthiness should provoke the Almighty to withhold his promised blessings, and lengthen out the day of our visitation for the further cor- rection of our sins, and the manifestation of his power and goodness. Thus did Israel rejoice on their great deliverance, referred to in our text. For, " Israel saw that great work, which the Lord did upon the Egyptians ; and the people feared the Lord, and his servant Moses. — Who, said they, is like unto Thee, O Lord, amongst the Gods? who is like unto Thee ; glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders ? ' ' In this spirit runs the proclamation for this day's solemnity, which has been recited above. Let us therefore lift up our voices to God, who, for our deliverance, " hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is our strength and salvation, and he shall be the subject of our song. He is our God and we will prepare Him an habitation ; our father's God, and we will exalt Him. The right hand of the Lord is become glorious in power, and hath dashed in pieces the enemy. They said, we will pursue, we will overtake, we will divide the spoil." — But the weakness of God is stronger than the strength of proudest man — When his people were but few, and strangers in a foreign wilderness ; when they went from nation to nation in search of a settle- ment for themselves and their unborn posterity, the Lord suffered no man to do them wrong ; yea He reproved even Kings for their sake. I/Si] KEl'. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 5 I "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for ever and ever: and all the people said Amen, and praised the Lord ! " Be these great examples of Praise and Thanksgiving followed by us this dav; for surely whoever would be tailed a subject of these states, and is content to hold his Liberty and Property under their protection, could never desire to see their peace, however dear, established on Conquest or Force, by any power upon earth ; and therefore we must rejoice when the Almighty in his providence appears to blast and defeat the most powerful reiterated attempts for reducing a free People, to a Government at will, and unconditional Submission. After the days of mourning which we have beheld, the short period of about nine months hath produced such a series of favourable events, for these infant states, as astonishes ourselves ; and, among our pos- terity, will scarcely be believed. Had the incidents which have taken place been but proposed to our hopes a twelve-month ago, by any person living, we should have thought that he mocked our Credulity, or in- sulted our Distress. But all things are possible with God ; and when the affairs of a People are at the worst, then is often the time when the mighty One of Israel is pleased to interpose, and therein to " triumph gloriously." In such cases, it is our indispensable duty to mark the manifestations of his power with humble reverence; and to rejoice before him exceed- ingly; but still, as was said before, we must "rejoice with trembling," because the same almighty Power which raised us up in our low estate, can dash us to the ground again, if, like the proud Assyrian of old, we begin to boast ourselves, and say that our own Hand, or the strength of our own Arm, got us the victory. "Wherefore, Brethren ! let me, in conclusion, as is my duty, earnestly exhort you, in your best and most prosperous estate, to be clothed with Humility, and the Fear of God, in the fulness of his Love ; ascribing only to Him all power and glory and victory. When we come to give Thanks unto God, for blessings received, or to Pray to Him for success in our undertakings, it must be with a con- viction that all the Events of this world, and the fortune and fate of all the People and Nations in it, are in his supreme disposal ! Let us, therefore, be persuaded that the People and Nations, who most fervently and earnestly follow His holy Laws, and support the Purity and Majesty of that Divine Religion, which he hath made known to them, will most effectually serve their country, by obtaining His favour. In the present moment of trial, all who profess to love their country, would certainly wish to shew that Love by their Courage and Heroism, when duly called upon to exercise them. But these glorious qualities can stand upon no foundation but a Conscience at Peace with God, and a Conviction that we are engaged in His divine Cause. I trust that we have long since satisfied our own Reason and Conscience, that the cause 52 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/Sl in which we are engaged is not grounded on the wicked passions of Ambition, Malice, Revenge, Cruelty, and the like ; but that, in sight of Men and Angels, and of Him, who is above all the quires of Angels, we contend for the security of those sacred and unalienable Rights, which the good Providence of God called us to inherit. These we are never to desert, but to strive for them, at every peril, with a holy and unquenchable Zeal ; persevering, if need be, even unto Death. Every People and Country have native and essential Rights, which neither in conscience, nor in duty to God and themselves, they can tamely sur- render. When Liberty is invaded, when Property is insecure, when Devastation, and Plunder, and all the Horrors of War, are around a People, it is their sacred Duty, by every brave and heroic Exertion, to repel such Iniquity ; and to seek for the Re-establishment of Peace and Safety, by every means in their power, hostile or otherwise. In such cases, Resistance is the voice of Nature, and of God. We have resisted — and Resisted even unto Blood; and through the blessing of God, have repelled the danger, and opened the Prospect of future Safety — opened it so far indeed, that, as already observed, our present Hopes, compared with our former Fears, in the short period of about nine months, have converted a kind of temporary Despondency into a well- grounded Confidence, in the Strength of the Almighty Post, therefore, to every sentiment of religious Gratitude should we be, if we did not this day, adore that Providence which has accom- plished such a mighty Salvation for our country ! And especially, let us remember, as I hinted before, to temper our Joy, with the consider- ation, that even the best Fruits of Victory are beset with thorns ; and that what are days of Rejoicing to some, are but days of Mourning to others, whose dearest Relatives, have given their lives, as a sacrifice, in the Contest. This world is a chequered scene, and we are to expect no pure Bliss in it. But let us act the part of good Citizens, good Men and good Christians; and then we may safely trust the Issue to the Direction of that Almighty Being, who is supremely, just, wise, and holy ! Dr. Smith entertained for his family connections in general a warm regard, and in the event of their death, usually made some record of the fact. I find in his "Diary" this entry, May 3d, 1781: "John Wemyss died at this date, at Glasgow, Scotland. He was a Lieutenant in the 42d Royal Highlanders, 2d Battalion, now 73d." * * I infer that this John Wemyss was a relative of Dr. Smith's wife, as she (as will be seen hereafter) was connected with the family of the Earl of Wemyss. Lieutenant John Wemyss had served in America with Bouquet, and had been an officer in Mont- gomery's Highlanders. He had also furnished Dr. Smith with much of the matter out of which he compiled his account of the expedition against the Ohio Indians. James Wemyss, who was an uncle to Dr. Smith's wife, was also with this expedition. He was stationed in New York, but returned to Scotland and became the Fifth Earl of Wemyss. I/Si] REV, WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 53 During the year 1781 Dr. Smith, who had been elected Grand Secretary of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, was re- quested to prepare for the press a new edition, in an abridged form, of the " Rook of Constitutions." This he did, making also a Preface to the work. The minutes of a meeting held November 22, 178 1, give us these records : The Abridgement of the Book of Constitutions being read, the same was unanimously approved of, and ordered to be printed; and also, that the Thanks of this Grand Lodge be given to our beloved Brother, the Reverend William Smith, D. D., Grand Secretary, for the great Care and Attention he has bestowed in revising and abridging the said Book of Constitutions. Resolved, That the Mason's Arms be engraved as a frontispiece for the book, and in case our beloved and illustrious brother Gen1 Wash- ington permit it to be dedicated to him, that his Excellency's arms be engraved and prefixed to the dedication. The Dedication to General Washington is found in the book. It is thus : To his Excellency George Washington, Esq., General and Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States of America: In Testimony, as well of his exalted Services to his Country, as of that no*ble Philanthropy which distinguishes him among Masons. The following Constitutions of the most ancient and honour- able Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, by Order and in Behalf of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, (Sec, is dedicated, By his Excellency's most humble Servant, and faithful Brother, William Smith, Grand Secretary. June 24, 1782. The Preface to the book, as we have said, is from Dr. Smith's pen. It is curious as illustrating the range of his information and interests. To those readers who take pleasure in the recondite subject of Free Masonry, it will have perhaps attraction. For them chiefly I give it here : The design of the following work (according to the appointment of the Grand Lodge) is only to extract, abridge and digest under distinct heads, the several parts of Ahiman Rezon, so as to be most intelligible 54 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1781 and useful to operative Masons in America. The officers of Lodges, and those members who wish to be more completely learned in the grand science and sublimer mysteries of Ancient Masonry, will think it their duty, as opportunities offer, to furnish themselves, or their Lodges, with at least one copy of all approved and duly authorised books of Masonry, which may be published by the learned Lodges, or illustrious brethren, in different languages and countries of the world, from time to time. Upon this plan, therefore, it will not be necessary to detain the reader with any long account of the antiquity of the Royal Art. Certain it is, that when the first man was formed in the image of God, the principles of Masonry, as a divine gift from heaven, were stamped upon his heart by the great Architect of the universe. The same principles were after- wards renewed and placed upon everlasting foundations, by the wisdom of his glorious Son; and they are daily cultivated in every soul that delights in order, harmony, brotherly love, morality and religion, through the grace and goodness of his divine Spirit — thrice blessed Three, in one eternal God-head ! Thus instructed from above, the sublime operative and mechanic part of Masonry was practised by Adam in the bowers of Paradise, and propagated among chosen men of his posterity, in a lesser or greater degree of perfection, through the different nations of the world (as learned brethren have fully shewn), nor was the noble art lost by the Israelites either during their peregrination in Egypt, or journeyings i.i the deserts of Arabia. For there it pleased the supreme Architect to inspire those great Master Masons, Bezaleel and Aholiab, and to put "wisdom and understanding into their heart, and to teach them how to work all manner of work, for the service of the * Sanctuary, and erecting that most glorious Tent or Tabernacle, wherein the divine Shechinah vouchsafed to promise a special residence; which, although not of stone or brick, was framed by Geometry, a most beautiful piece of architecture (and afterwards the model of Solomon's Temple) accord- ing to the pattern that God had shewn to Moses in the Mount." And thus Moses, a man supremely skill'd in all the Egyptian learn- ing, who, to his other titles, added that of King of Jesurun, being divinely taught in the art of building, became Grand Master-mason or Builder among the Israelites, "and often marshalled them into a regular and general Lodge, while in the wilderness; and gave them wise charges and orders, had they been but well observed." — But of this no more must be mentioned. , We pass on to speak more particularly of Solomon's Temple, at the building of which, under the divine direction, were displayed, in an * Exodus xxxvi. I/Sl] ££V. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 55 unparalleled degree, all the glory, beauty and sublimity of Masonry; there being no fewer than * three thousand six hundred Master Masons, eighty thousand Fellow Craftsmen, and seventy thousand Labourers, employed in this magnificent and Heaven-conducted work. But above all the rest, our Grand Master Hiram shone superlatively great, as chief Director, and the most accomplished Mason upon earth. For to this character of him the holy Scripture gives testimony, in the recommendatory letter which Hiram, King of Tyre, sent with him to King Solomon, — "And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan; and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone and in timber, in purple, in blue and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him with thy cunning men and with the cunning men of my Lord David, thy Father." f Thus we see that our great Master Hiram was accomplished in almost every art and science then known upon earth ; as all those should aspire to be, who wish to become useful Masons, the Masters of Lodges, and the Rulers or Instructors of others. It is here further to be observed, that so highly was this Chief of Masons honoured by his master the King of Tyre, that in all probability he had called him Hiram, or Huram, after his own royal name. It would be foreign to our present design (as already hinted) to men- tion the illustrious Masons that in all ages, from the building of Solo- mon's Temple down to the ages of general darkness and barbarity, have adorned the different countries of the world ; as Syria, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Chaldea, Babylonia, Media, Persia, Arabia, Africa, lesser Asia, Grecia, Rome, &c, &c. The remains of temples, pyramids and mighty towers, yet declare their builders' glory; and, even in Gothic ages, the chief monuments of taste and grandeur are to be seen in the works of Masonry and Architecture. Seven hundred years ago, William, called the Conqueror, built the Tower of London; his son, William Rufus, built Westminster Hall; which, as one room or Lodge, is said to be the largest in the known world ; — which grand monuments of Gothic Architecture were all raised in the taste and spirit, delivered down from those ancient Craftsmen and learned Masons sent into England, at the request of the Saxon Kings, by Charles Martell, King of France, more than one thousand years ago. But for the further instruction of the reader, concerning the founda- tion and antiquity of what is called York Masonry, the following record, written in the reign of Edward IV. of England, viz., three hundred * i Kings v. 15; 2 Chron. xi. 18. i 2 Chron. ii. 13, 14. 56 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1781 years ago, is here inserted; which, with another famous record, pub- lished by the great Philosopher John Locke, Esq. ; (and likewise herein after inserted) will be enough on this subject. "Although the ancient records of the brotherhood in England were many of them destroyed or lost in the wars of the Saxons and Danes, yet it is known that King Athelstan, the grandson of Alfred the Great, who was a mighty architect, the first true King of England, and who translated the holy Bible into the Saxon tongue, when he had brought the land into rest and peace, built many great works, and encouraged many Masons from France, who were appointed overseers thereof, and brought with them the charges and regulations of the Lodges preserved since the Roman times. These Masons likewise prevailed with the King to improve the Constitution of the English Lodges according to the foreign model, and to increase the wages of working Masons. "The said King Athelstan's youngest son Edwin being taught Masonry, and taking upon him the charges of a Master Mason, for the love he had to the said craft, and the honourable principles whereon it is grounded, purchased a free charter of his father; giving the Masons a right of correction among themselves (as it was anciently expressed) or a freedom and power to regulate themselves, to amend what might happen amiss, and to hold an Yearly Communication, or General Assembly. "In virtue of this charter, Prince Edwin summoned all the Masons in England to meet him in a congregation at York ; who accordingly at- tended his summons, and composed a General Lodge, of which he was Grand Master; and having brought with them and collected together all the writings and records which were extant concerning Masonry (some in Latin, some in French, and other languages) from the con- tents of the whole, that Assembly or grand Congregation did frame the Constitution and Charges of the English or great ancient York Lodge; and made a law to preserve and observe the same in all future time, ordaining likewise good pay for working Masons. — And the said con- stitution, charges and laws, having been afterwards seen and perused by Henry the VI. and by the Lords of his Council (most of whom were Masons) were consented to and allowed to be right, good and reason- able to be holden, as they were thus drawn out and collected from the records of ancient times." The great Philosopher, Mr. Locke, already mentioned, likewise tells us that the famous manuscript, on the an- tiquity of Free Masonry, found in the Bodleian Library (herein after published) is said to have been originally in the "hand-writing of the same King Henry." 'Tis true, while this Prince was an infant, and his Parliament, it is believed, not very wise (learning being then deemed a crime, and Geometry passing for Conjuration), a law was passed which deprived Masons of some of their ancient charter privileges, by forbidding them "to confederate themselves into Chapters and Congregations." 178 1 ] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 57 "Whereas (says the law) by yearly Congregations and Confederacies, made by the Masons in their General Assemblies, the good course and effect of the statutes for labourers be openly violated and broken, in subversion of the law, and to the great damage of all the commons, our Sovereign Lord the King, willing in this case to provide a remedy, by the advice and assent aforesaid, and at the special request of the com- mons, hath ordained and established that such Chapters and Congrega- tions shall not hereafter be holden ; and if any such be made, that they cause such Chapters and Congregations to be assembled and holden, if they thereof be convict, shall be judged for felons, and that the other Masons that come to such Chapters and Congregations be punished by imprisonment of their bodies, and make fine and ransom at the King's will."— Co. Inst. 3. But, as was said before, this Parliament does not seem to have been made up of many wise heads, and tradition informs us also that they were too much influenced by the ignorant Monks and illiterate Clergy (not like those of modern days, or of the early ages, who were many of them eminent Masons and friends to Masons) but a sett of men, who thought they had a right to know all men's secrets, by means of confes- sion ; and therefore hated the Masons, and represented them as danger- ous to the state, because they kept their own secrets, and made no use of Confessors at all. But the King, when he came to man's estate, ap- proved the Masonic Constitution, as above set forth, without any regard to the said Act of Parliament; which the great Lord Coke tells us is now of no effect — "For," says he, "all the Statutes concerning labour- ers, whereunto this act doth refer, are repealed by the Statute V. Eliz. Chap. IV. ; whereby the cause and end of making this Act is taken away, and consequently this act is become of no force or effect; for ccssante ratione Lcgis, eessat ipsa Lex. And the indictment of felony upon this Statute must contain, that those Chapters and Congregations were to the violating and breaking of the good course and effect of the Statutes of labourers; which now cannot be so alledged, because these Statutes be repealed." This quotation is thought to confirm the tradition that this most learned Judge really belonged to the ancient Lodge, and was a faithful Brother. We read further, that Queen Elizabeth once entertained some con- siderable prejudices concerning the truly, ancient and honourable body of Free Masons. We know it was part of this Queen's character, among all her rare and princely virtues, to be of a jealous temper, with a great curiosity to be Mistress of all secrets, and an enemy to all meetings or assemblies of her subjects, whose business she was not duly apprized of. Being told by some of her ignorant and busy meddling Courtiers, that the Masons had secrets that could not be revealed to her, and altho' as a woman, she could govern a Nation, yet she could not govern a Lodge, nor be made Grand Master (or Mistress) of Masons; she therefore sent 58 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1781 an armed force to break up the annual Grand Lodge at York, on St. John's Day, December 27th, 1561. Sir Thomas Sackvilie, then Grand Master, instead of being dismayed at such an unexpected visit, gallantly told the officers that nothing could give him greater pleasure than see- ing them in the Grand Lodge, as it would give him an opportunity of convincing them that Free Masonry was the most honourable institution that ever was founded, and truly consonant to Laws both divine and moral. The consequence was that he made the chief men Free Masons; who, on their return, made an honourable report to the Queen, so that she never more attempted to dislodge or disturb them, but esteemed them as a peculiar sort of men, that cultivated peace and friendship, arts and sciences, without meddling in the affairs of Church or State. Thus hath Masonry flourished through different ages in the old world, and hath obtained a very noble and solid foundation in this new or American world. Were it necessary, we might proceed to shew that from this ancient Fraternity, "the Societies or Orders of Warlike Knights, and even some religious Orders and Societies, have borrowed many of their wisest institutions and most solemn usages. For none of them were better instituted, more decently installed, or did more sa- credly observe their Laws and Charges, than the Free and Accepted Masons have done; and therefore their whole body, thus cemented, re- sembles a strong and well-built Arch, having as its members and parts, for time immemorial, Princes and Nobles, Gentlemen, Clergymen, learned Scholars and Artists of the first rank, in all countries."* Three dozen of the books of the Constitutions were presented to Dr. Smith " for the great care and attention which he has had in revising the same." This "Ahiman Rezon" is still known as "Smith's." It has a beautifully engraved frontispiece, and is a book much valued by collectors. The preface to it has been the subject of eulogy in my hearing by the accomplished chair- man of thj Library Committee of the Grand Lodge of Pennsyl- vania, Mr. C. E. Meyer, for the skill with which it states matters long the subject of difference between certain Grand Lodges. * The title page is thus : " Ahimax REZON | abridged and digested : | as a | Help to all that are, or would be | Free and Accepted Masons. | To which is added | A SER- MON, I Preached in Christ-Church, Philadelphia, | At a General Communication, | Celebrated, agreeable to the Constitutions, on | Monday, December 28, 1778, | as the Anniversary of St. John the Evangelist. | Published by order of | the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, | By William Smith, D. D. | Philadelphia : | Printed by Hall and Sellers. I m,dcc,lxxxiii." 178 1] A'£I'. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 59 CHAPTER XLII. Dr. Smith preaches a Funeral Discourse on the Rev. Hugh Neill, of WHOM SOME ACCOUNT IS GIVEN — DEATH OF MRS. BLACKWELL, WlFE OF THE Rev. Mr. Blackwell — Notice and Elegiac Stanzas upon her Death attributed to dll. smith — the convention of i782 in maryland — Si (cess of Kent County School, and Development of Washington College, Maryland — Death of William Moore, Esq., of Moore Hall. In the account which we have given in our former volume of St. Paul's Church, in Third street, Philadelphia, the matrix of the low-church parishes in Pennsylvania, we refer to the Rev. Hugh Neill, one of the most respectable of the clergy of this Methodis- tical side of the Episcopal body. Mr. Neill was born in New Jersey, and had been bred a Presbyterian, and preached in that sect in his native State until 1749, when he went to England and took orders in the Church, and was licensed by the Bishop of London for Pennsylvania, March 26th, 1750. He was sent, however, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to Dover, in Delaware, which, indeed, then made a part of Pennsyl- vania, and here he remained until 1760, when he was transferred to Trinity Church, Oxford, Pennsylvania, preaching on Sunday evenings at Germantown. In 1765 he officiated in Philadelphia at St. Paul's, and in 1766, having received from Governor Sharpe, of Maryland, an induction as rector of the parish of St. Paul's in Queen Anne county, he left Philadelphia for that charge, having refused to receive any pay for his services. In order to show their appreciation of this kindness, the vestry of St. Paul's, Philadelphia, presented him with a piece of plate bearing the following inscription : The Gift of St. Paul's Church in Philadelphia to the Rev. Hugh Neill, in gratitude for his disinterested ministerial services to that Church. A. d. 1766. 60 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1782 In 1773, refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the new Gov- ernment, he left his charge. He returned, however, in 1780. By his last will he left the above-mentioned piece of silver plate to St. Paul's Church. He ministered at St. Paul's, in Queen Anne county, Md., sixteen or seventeen years. Though he was, as I suppose, of the school of Wesley and Whitfield, and though Dr. Smith, according to Mr. Neill's own account, treated him, on one occasion at least, very roughly,* he had so many good qualities of personal character, that Dr. Smith came at last to entertain for him a sincere regard, and apparently did so even while he was in Phil- adelphia and connected with St. Paul's there, a parish in which Dr. Smith was no more a favorite than were any other regularly be- haved clergy of the Church of England. After Dr. Smith went to Maryland, he met often his ancient acquaintance of Philadelphia, and at his death preached, January 23d, 1782, an affecting sermon at his funeral. Dr. Smith's text, from Genesis xv. 15 — "Thou shalt go to my fathers in peace ; thou shalt be buried in a good old age " — suggests that Mr. Neill at his death had attained to venerable years. We have mentioned in our first volume the interest which Dr. Smith took while in Philadelphia in " the mission at Gloucester," as it was called ; a mission in New Jersey, of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. With the mission at Burlington (N. J.), occupied by Dr. Smith's accomplished and much valued friend, Dr. Jonathan Odell, it was one of the important mis- sionary stations of New Jersey, especially in its aspects to the Church in Philadelphia. The Rev. Nathaniel Evans, a favorite pupil of Dr. Smith, and a graduate of the College at Philadelphia, a young man of singular talents, accomplishment and piety, had been the first occupant of it, entering upon the mission in 1765, and dying there two years afterwards, in 1767, deeply lamented by all who knew him.f Dr. Smith edited his literary remains, thus showing his regard for him. Dr. Smith was thus a frequent visitor at Gloucester, where he became intimately acquainted with the most important families of the region, including more particularly among them that of Mr. Joseph and Ann Harrison. Dr. Smith took much pains to re-establish the missions after Mr. * See Perry's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania, page 319. -j- For a sketch of, see vol. 1st, pp. 434, 479. 1782] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 6l Evans' death. The Rev. David Griffith, afterwards Bishop elect of Virginia, was in it; only, however, for a short time. The Rev. John Lyons also occupied it for a short time, but neither with effect. In 1772 the Rev. Robert Blackwell entered into charge — a young gentleman of high integrity, amiable disposition, sound sense, solid learning and unquestioned piety. These excellent qualities made him a favorite with all who knew him, and espec- ially with Dr. White and Dr. Smith.* Mr. Blackwell remained at Gloucester until the mission was broken up by the Revolution, when, becoming a chaplain in the army, he went to the Valley Forge, and during the winter of 1777-78 — which Dr. Smith passed close to him at Norristown — the two clergymen were, of course, in more or less consultation as to the exercises of their office ; Dr. White being at Yorktown with the Congress, as we have already stated in an early part of this volume. In 178 1 Mr. Blackwell became one of the ministers of the United Churches of Christ and St. Peter's, in Philadelphia, a post which he occupied with much dignity and usefulness for thirty years, and in which, as in the College of Philadelphia, of which he was afterwards a trustee, he was of necessity in frequent relations with Dr. Smith. While at Gloucester, he became attached to Miss Rebecca Harrison, a daughter of the family of which we have spoken, and for which Dr. Smith had cherished a high regard ; — a young lady of un- usual attractiveness and merit. She died on Monday, the 25th of February, 1782, a year or two after her marriage, in giving birth to a daughter, who survived. An obituary notice of her and some elegiac stanzas addressed to her sister, and attributed to Dr. Smith, may properly be here inserted as an illustration alike of his sympathetic heart and ever-ready and accomplished pen. Such things are indeed in one sense of no great value. Never- theless, like a good deal that I have sought to preserve in my volumes, they show a refinedness of feeling in our early society, and an elegance in our early ephemeral literature which it would be well for our own day if they had descended in a more abundant measure to it. Death of Mrs. Rebecca Blackwell. On Monday morning last, the wife of the Rev. Mr. Blackwell, Assistant Minister of the United Churches, Philadelphia, was safely * For a sketch of this respected gentleman, see Appendix No. I. 62 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1782 delivered of a daughter at his house in Gloucester to the great joy of his family and friends. But the pleasing hopes arising from the happy event were soon changed to the deepest sorrow on perceiving an alteration which indicated her approaching dissolution ; and, notwith- standing that the best medical assistance was procured, she expired about four o'clock the same afternoon. Her remains were deposited on Thursday, attended by a great concourse of friends and acquaintances to pay the last melancholy offices to a character so deservedly esteemed and beloved. Blessed by nature with a comprehensive understanding and most lively fancy, she had improved the one by an excellent education, and refined the other by a solidity of judgment uncommon to her sex. With the former she ever promoted the cause of virtue, and with the latter made folly ridiculous, and put vice out of countenance. Adorned with every social virtue, she felt the most exalted sentiments of friendship; and with a delicacy peculiar to herself, selected such to share her confidence as were capable of the same refined ideas, while the tender- ness of her heart melted at the tale of woe, and from the child of want her face was never turned aside. When the voice of nature and of reason dictated a change of condition, she did not place her affections on pomp or wealth, but bestowed them on one whose propriety of sentiment and purity of morals were consonant to her own. And the happiness of both was such as might be expected from a union where kindred merits and mutual esteem had ripened friendship into love. Thus, though in possession, yet from a conviction of the instability of human happiness, she had Temembered her Creator in the days of her youth, and devoted herself to the practice of those essential duties of religion without the performance of which no true felicity can be enjoyed here, or a happy immortality be hoped for hereafter. Thus living and thus beloved, by a stroke unexpected to her friends, but not sudden to herself, whose lamp was always burning, on the 25th of February, 1782, and in the 25th year of her age, was this amiable pattern of Christian virtues, to the unspeakable grief of her relations, and the irreparable loss of her husband, removed from this transitory scene. Not to be affected with and lament a blow so severe, would discover a want of those feelings which constitute the dignity of human nature. TO STELLA.* CPON" A LATE MELANCHOLY BEREAVEMENT. No more my fancy charms, ye dreams Of earthly bliss: More awful themes Demand a serious strain. Your grief sublimer thoughts inspire Than trifling mirth or vain desires, Or pleasure's gayest scenes. Miss Sarah Harrison, I suppose; sister to Mrs. Llackwell. — II. W. S. 1/82] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 63 The solemn spectacle is o'er, Yet, bowed with grief, you still deplore, With pining anguish, mourn. Forever flow your streaming eyes, Your hosom heaves, with deepest sighs, For her who can't return. She is no more ! The fatal blow Filled every breast with poignant woe. Then what must Stella feel! Whose heart, by strong affection swayed, With fond affection was repaid, And friendship's wannest zeal. On her was every grace bestowed, Soft from her lips persuasion flowed, And charmed each listening ear. Like music through the veins it thrilled, Each breast with sweetest rapture filled, And smoothed the brow of care. But now to parent earth consigned, Oh 1 where shall we her equal find, The joys of life to crown ! Her loved remains in dust reposed, Her radiant eyes forever closed, Where mildest influence shone. Oh, could the grateful Muse's strain Console the grief, assuage the pain, Which fills your tender breast — From sorrow could she draw a smile, Or keen affection's pangs beguile, The thought would make her blest ! Yet can, dear maid, Religion charm Death of its sting, despair disarm: TO THAT RESOURCE APPLY. RELIGION calms the pangs of grief, In HER alone we find relief, When all we value die. But turn, oh, turn your weeping eyes To where her lovely infant lies That claims a mother's care ! A mother's care she'll never know, But Stella will that love bestow, And guard her infant years. Sweet, smiling babe ! Oh, may thy brer.st With peace and harmony be blest ! And may thy Friend, thy parent see Thy mother's graces bloom in thee, And all HER virtues share.* * This prayer was abundantly granted. The child, who survived, became, some- where I suppose about the year 1800, the wife of Mr. Geor;e Willing, and lived till the year 1852, I think; honored and beloved by as many as ever knew her.- -H.W. S. 64 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \ l'/S2 Not long after this event, on the 30th of May, 1782, died Dr. Smith's own relative — his father-in-law — William Moore, Esq., of Moore Hall, Chester county, Pennsylvania. I have spoken of him, and described some incidents in his life, in my former vol- ume.* He belonged to a class of men in Pennsylvania who con- stituted the most thorough gentry that the Province or State ever had; but whose fame, and indeed whose very names, have almost wholly disappeared from its popular history. Their biographies, however, have been written — written only, however, in that kind of ink called " invisible." It is an ink not more legible than water when first put to paper. It lasts, however; and when that sort of fluid, which gave at once its full black force to the eye, has grown dim and finally faded quite away, it will, I think, grow moie and more bright and strong, and present a history full of interest. I venture to offer, in an Appendix, f the embryo of a chapter to whomsoever shall be the future collector of these annals of our ancient gentility. In April, 1782, a third Convention of the Church in Maryland was held. This one was held in Baltimore. We do not learn — there not having been a journal — who were present. We know only that the Rev. Dr. West, of St. Paul's, and the Rev. Mr. John Andrews, of St. Thomas and St. John's, Baltimore county, a cler- gyman well known of former days in Pennsylvania, were added to the number before present. The presence of Mr. Andrews, how- ever, shows that it must have been after his return to Maryland, in April of 1782, from Pennsylvania. From his general activity in affairs of the Church, and especially from his capacity in its councils, we can hardly doubt that Dr. Smith was present. If so, he probably presided. Such had been the success of Dr. Smith in the charge of the Kent County School, at Chestertown, that there were now one hundred and forty students, with prospects of increase. The vis- itors, therefore, asked the Legislature that the School might be incorporated a College. This was granted, and the name given it of Washington College, at the April session, in honorable and perpetual memory of his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief of the Army. * See pages 168-174, *94> 574> n- t See Appendix, Noi II. 1/82] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 65 The College was soon organized, with Dr. Smith as President; Colin Ferguson, A. M., Vice-President; Samuel Armer, A. M., Professor of Natural Philosophy and Logic ; together with two Tutors, a French teacher and others ; one of whom was Mr. Coudon, the former head of the school. Two of these gentlemen, Mr. Cou- don and Mr. Ferguson, immediately became lay readers in vacant parishes, and in due time, with a third, entered into Holy Orders. It was still a time of revolution, of desolating war. The popula- tion of the State had decreased 80,000. Money had become ex- ceedingly scarce, .£200,000 only being the estimated amount in circulation in the State; yet on the Eastern Shore £"10,300 were contributed for the College, and a brick building had been erected for it, 160 feet long and three and a half stories high, capable of containing 200 students. The names of its trustees showed the high standard it aspired to. General Washington headed the list. and then follow those of the Hon. John Henry, the Hon. Samuel Chase, Governor Paca, Rev. Dr. Smith, Rev. Samuel Keene, Rev. William Thomson, Robert Goldsborough, William Perry, Nichol- son, Scott, Bordlcy, Perkins, Gale, and seven others, all of whom were churchmen, prominent and leading men, liberal donors to its funds, and pledged to its interests. In our next chapter we give a more particular account of this College. CHAPTER XLIIL Dr. Smith's account of Washington College — Address to the Inhabitants of Maryland in regard to the College — List of the Subscriptions — Dr. Smith and Peregrin Lethbury to the Assembly of Maryland — Address of the Visitors to the Assembly — Dr. Smith in behalf of the Visitors to General Washington — General Washington to Dr. Smith in reply' — Proceedings of the Assembly* of Maryland. The following account of the College is from the pen of Dr. Smith. We append to the account such documents and letters as assist in giving a true impression of an institution founded under circumstances, as will be seen from what we have stated at the close of our last chapter, of a most unusual kind. Dr. Smith's Account, etc. In that extent of territory which, through the Providence of God, is S 66 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \M%2 now the sovereign Domain of the United States of America, an attentive observer cannot but behold the foundations of an Empire laid, which promises to enlarge itself to vast dimensions, and to become the happy means of diffusing Knowledge, Liberty and Happiness, through every other part of this American continent. In a commercial view, it is almost needless to mention the great and growing importance of these states; on account of their rich variety of soil and produce, their length of sea-coast and other conveniences of navigation, both internal and external. From this variety springs like- wise one of the first of earthly blessings — a blessing, perhaps, not known in an equal degree by any other people, living in the same commu- nity or fcederal union, throughout the globe — We have the staff of life — Bread in abundance, not only for ourselves, and the immense num- ber of industrious settlers, constantly flowing in among us from different parts of the old world ; but likewise for exportation to supply the wants of others, and to multiply the sources and channels of our trade. Nor is tliere a probability, under the favour of Heaven, and a due exertion of our skill and industry (as the experience of near two hundred years can tell us) that we shall ever suffer, through scarcity or want. For, in such an extended country, and with such variety of soil and climate, if the productions of one kind, or of one part of the country should fail, there will remain a sufficiency of the other kinds, and those the far greater part, unless (thro' the direction of Providence for its own wise purposes) a revolution of seasons should take place, whereof neither past experience or memory can suggest any example or precedent. Nor are the soil and climate thus favourable to the productions of the earth only ; but likewise to all the best powers, both of body and mind, in the human species ; nursing up a race of bold and hardy men ; who in the vindication and establishment of their native rights and inde- pendence, have given the most illustrious proofs of their wisdom, valour and magnanimity during a long and arduous contest with one of the most powerful nations upon earth. And with the like exertions of virtue and public spirit, looking up to God as our protector and Guide, we need have but little to fear from any future wars of the old world or the new — should war, in ages hence, continue to be the unchristian mode of arbitrating the differences of Christian nations ! But, we may trust, the time is not distant when "Violence shall no more be heard upon earth ; when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." As a prelude to that happy period, which (we are assured) shall yet come, may not these American States, even now, " beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks?" Remote as we are in situation, may we not keep ourselves alike remote in our inclination, from the intrigues, the ambition and the quarrels of the other powers of the world ; yielding as great a proof of moderation in peace as of magnanimity in war? I782] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 67 The idea is truly animating, and in the hope of its being realized, a friend to mankind cannot but adore that Providence which (in portion- ing out the countries of the new world among the nations of the old) gave that part of America, which seems ordained to preheminence of improvement above the rest, to an enlightened and civilized people — professing themselves the votaries of KNOWLEDGE and freedom in their purest and most improved state. For however flattering it may be to consider the growth of these rising States as tending to increase the wealth and commerce of the world ; they are to be considered in ano- ther more serious view, as ordained to enlarge the sphere of HUMANITY. In that view the great interests of civil liberty, the parent of every other social blessing, will not be forgotten; but every true citizen of the States will consider himself as a chosen instrument for supporting her cause in the new world, at a time when drooping or decaying in the old ; and will accordingly rejoice to water the tender plant that hath taken root among us, and to rear and shelter it from the storm, till it shoot up into a great tree, "sending forth its boughs unto the ocean, and its branches to the utmost rivers." But in this great work, we are not to trust to the most successful struggles either against foreign or domestic enemies, nor yet to the best constituted forms of government for the preservation of our civil or religious rights. We must strive to maintain our own virtue — We must avoid the snares of luxury, venality and corruption among ourselves. We must regard the great concerns of religion and another world. We must attend to the rising genera- tion. The souls of our youth must be nursed up to the love of liberty and knowledge; and their bosoms warmed with a sacred and enlight- ened zeal for everything that can bless or dignify their species. In short, lasting provisions must be made by good education, for training up a succession of Patriots, Lawgivers, Sages and Divines; for liberty will not deign to dwell, but where her fair companion knowl- edge flourishes by her side ; nor can government be duly administered but where the principles of Religion, Justice, Virtue, Sobriety, and Obedience for conscience-sake, are upheld. Every well-regulated Seminary of Learning, therefore, that promises to exalt the genius of our country, and to become the means of diffusing useful knowledge still further and wider over this great continent, should be an object of general regard, wheresoever it is founded ; for in this respect, we have but one common interest to pursue. It is hoped, then, that we may now have leave to mention "Wash- ington-College in the State of Maryland," as an institution of this kind, well worthy of the encouragement of the public in its present infant-state, and more especially of the inhabitants of the Peninsula for whose more immediate advantage it is founded. Altho' some considerable provision had been made by former Legisla- 6S LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE XM^ tures of Maryland for the rudiments of learning in county schools, yet the State had been long without any public seminary of universal learn- ing for the benefit of youth, as is set forth more at large in the act for founding this College ; a copy of which follows, viz. : AN ACT FOR FOUNDING A COLLEGE AT CHESTER, IN MARYLAND.* Whereas Institutions for the liberal education of youth in the prin- ciples of virtue, knowledge, and useful literature, are of the highest benefit to society, in order to raise up and perpetuate a succession of able and honest men for discharging the various offices and duties of the community, both civil and religious, with usefulness and reputation ; and such institutions of learning have accordingly merited and received the attention and encouragement of the wisest and best regulated States. And Whereas former legislatures of this State have, according to their best abilities, laid a considerable foundation in this good work, in sundry laws for the establishment and encouragement of county schools, for the study of " Latin, Greek, Writing, and the like; " intending, as their future circumstances might permit, to engraft or raise, on the foundation of said schools, more extensive seminaries of learning, by erecting one or more Colleges or places of universal study, not only in the learned languages, but in philosophy, divinity, law, physic, and other useful and ornamental arts and sciences. And Whereas this great and laudable undertaking hath been retarded by sundry incidents of a public nature, but chiefly by the great difficulty of fixing a situation on either shore of this State, for a seminary of universal learning, which might be of equal benefit and convenience to the youth of both shores ; and it having been represented to this Gen- eral Assembly, that it would probably tend most to the immediate advancement of literature in this State, if the inhabitants of each shore should be left to consult their own convenience, in founding and freely endowing a College or seminary of general learning each for themselves, under the sanction of law; which two Colleges or seminaries, if thought most conducive to the advancement of learning, religion and good government, may afterwards, by common consent, when duly founded and endowed, be united under one supreme legislative and visitatorial jurisdiction, as distinct branches or members of the same State University, notwithstanding their distance of situation. And Whereas Joseph Nicholson, James Anderson, John Scott, William Bordley, and Peregrine Lethbury, Esquires, William Smith, Doctor in Divinity, and Benjamin Chambers, Esquire, the present Visitors of Kent county school, in the town of Chester, have represented * The important features of this Statute were no doubt suggested by Dr. Smith; and probably its exact language. — II. W. S. I782] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 69 to this General Assembly, "That the said school hath of late increased greatly by an accession of students and scholars, from various parts of the Eastern Shore of this State, and the neighbouring Delaware State; there being now about one hundred and forty students and scholars in the said school, and the number expected soon to increase to at least two hundred, — and that the Latin and Greek languages, English, French, Writing, merchants' accounts, and the different branches of Mathema- tics are taught in the same, under a sufficient number of able and approved Masters ; that sundry of the students are preparing, and desirous, to enter upon a course of philosophy, and must repair to some other State, at a very grievous and inconvenient expence, to finish their education, unless they, the said Visitors, are enabled to enlarge the plan of the said school, by engrafting thereon, a system of liberal education in the arts and sciences, and providing necessary books and apparatus, with an additional number of Masters and Professors." And the said Visitors have further expressed their assurance, that if they were made capable in law of erecting the said school into a College or general seminary of learning, for the Eastern Shore or Peninsula between the bays of Chesapeake and Delaware, (maintaining the original design of the said school, as a foundation not to be violated) very considerable sums could be raised in a few years within the said Peninsula, by free and voluntary contributions, for the establishment and support of such seminary. And have accordingly prayed, that a law may be passed to enable them, the said Visitors, to enlarge and improve the said school into a College, or place of universal learning, with the usual privileges. Now this General Assembly taking the said petition into their serious consideration, and being desirous to encourage and promote knowledge within this State, have agreed to enact, and be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That the said Joseph Nicholson, James Anderson, John Scott, William Bordley, Peregrine Lethbury, William Smith, and Benjamin Chambers, the present Visitors of Kent county school, and their successors, shall have full power and authority to erect the said school into a College or Seminary of universal learning, and to increase the number of Visitors and Governors thereof to twenty-four, in manner following ; that is to say, First. The said Visitors of Kent county school, and their suc- cessors, for and during the term of five years next after the passing of this act, are hereby empowered and made capable to receive con- tributions and subscriptions for the said intended College or Seminary of universal learning, of any person or persons who may be willing to promote so good a design ; and in case any number or denomination of contributors in any county of the Eastern Shore of this State, or of the Peninsula aforesaid, in the neighbouring States, shall subscribe and engage to pay towards the founding and supporting the said intended /O LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1782 College, any sum not less than ^500 current money, payable in Spanish milled dollars, or the value thereof, as the same may be at the times of payment, in good merchantable wheat or tobacco, the said Visitors and their successors, may covenant and agree with such subscribers and contributors, that there shall be one Visitor and Governor of the said College, chosen for ever out of such county, for every ^500 of specie so subscribed and paid, or secured to be paid, towards founding and supporting the said College, and that the first election of every such county Visitor and Governor of the said College, shall be made by the subscribers and contributors in the county, within three months after the sum of ^500, or the value thereof, shall be subscribed and paid, or secured to be paid as aforesaid ; and due notice of the time and place of election shall be given to the subscribers and contributors in every county, in such form and manner as shall be agreed upon by the Visitors of Kent county school, and set forth in the preamble of the subscription papers, which the said Visitors shall send into the several counties for obtaining subscriptions towards founding and a supporting the said College. Secondly. If the Visitors of any county school on the said Eastern Shore, for the more effectual advancement of useful knowledge, and the better promoting the good purposes for which such county schools were originally founded, shall be desirous to engraft and consolidate the funds and estate of such county school, or any part or parts of the same with the funds and estate of the said intended College, the Visitors of Kent county school, for and during the term of five years next after passing this act, (unless the said College is sooner established agreeably to the tenor hereof) and the Visitors and Governors of the College, at any time after the same shall be so established, shall have full power and authority to treat and agree with the Visitors of such county school, and to allow one Visitor and Governor of the College, to be for ever chosen from among the inhabitants of such county, for every ^500 which any such county schools may contribute towards founding and supporting the said College, the first choice to be in the Visitors of such county school ; or in consideration of the said ^500 contribution, or of any sum or estate of greater or less value, that may be thus given by any county school, towards the said College ; any other privileges and advantages, in respect to the education of the youth of such county in the College, may be fixed and agreed upon, as shall be judged reasonable between the Visitors and Governors of the College, and the Visitors of such county school, instead of fixing any Visitor and Gov- ernor to* be for ever chosen from the said county. And all contracts and agreements truly and fairly made for founding and supporting the said College as above set forth, shall be good and effectual in law, according to the plain intent, and the true and legal construction of the 1782] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. J I same ; Provided always, That the whole number of Visitors and Gov- ernors of the said College, shall never be more than twenty-four at one time, nor under seventeen ; and that not less than seven of them shall have their usual residence in Kent county, and within seven miles of the town of Chester, aforesaid. Thirdly. When any of the first Visitors and Governors of the said College chosen as aforesaid on the part of any county, or any of the Visitors and Governors in general, shall die, or remove out of the county for which he was chosen, or absent himself from four succeeding quarterly meetings, without such excuse or plea of necessary absence as shall be deemed reasonable by a legal and just quorum of the said Visitors and Governors, duly assembled at a quarterly visitation of the said College, such quorum so assembled, shall proceed by a new election to fill up the seat and place of such deceased, removed or absenting member; having special regard that in the room of a deceased, removed or absenting Visitor and Governor, from any particular county, another of the same county be always chosen in his room and stead. And be it enacted, That when ten Visitors and Governors of the said intended College shall be chosen as aforesaid, in addition to the seven Visitors of Kent county school for the time being, and when the said seventeen Visitors and Governors shall, by an instrument of writing under their hands, to the General Assembly of this State, directed and duly delivered, declare, that they are willing and desirous to take upon them, and to discharge, the trust of Visitors and Gover- nors of the said intended College, and that an estate, or sum and sums of money, not less than ^5000 current money, or the just value thereof (including the estate of the said Kent county school) is in their hands, or so secured to be paid to them that they will answer for the value thereof, and the application of the same towards founding, endowing, and supporting the said intended College, according to their best judgment, and the tenor of this act ; Provided always, That such instrument of writing be lodged with the General Assembly as afore- said, within five years after the passing of this act ; that then and in such case, the said seventeen Visitors and Governors, and such other person and persons as they shall choose to make up and perpetuate the number of twenty-four, agreeable to the tenor hereof, shall be, and are hereby declared to be, one community, corpo-ration and body politic, to have continuance forever, by the name of "The Visitors and Gov- ernors of Washington College, in the State of Maryland," in honour- able and perpetual memory of his excellency General Washington, the illustrious and virtuous commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States ; and by the same name they shall have perpetual succession ; provided nevertheless, that seventeen of the said Visitors and Gover- nors, shall always be residents on the Eastern Shore of this State, but 72 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l7^>2 that the seven additional Visitors and Governors (to make up and perpetuate the number of twenty-four) may be chosen from this, or any part of the adjacent States, if they are such persons as can reasonably undertake to attend the quarterly visitations, and are thought capable, by their particular learning, weight and character, to advance the interest and reputation of the said Seminary. And be it enacted, That the said Visitors and Governors, and their successors, by the same name, shall be able and capable in law, to pur- chase, have and enjoy to them and their successors in fee, or for any other lesser estate or estates, any lands, tenements, rents, annuities, pensions or other hereditaments, within this State, by the gift, grant, bargain, sale, alienation, enfeoffment, release, confirmation or devise of any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, capable to make the same ; and such lands, tenements, rents, annuities, pensions or other hereditaments, or any lesser estates, rights or interests of or in the same, (excepting the estate of the said Kent county school) at their pleasure to grant, alien, sell and transfer, in such manner and form, as they shall think meet and convenient for the furtherance of the said College ; and also that they may take and receive any sum or sums of money, and any kind, manner or portion of goods and chattels that shall be given, sold or bequeathed to them, by any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, capable ■ to make a gift, sale or bequest thereof, and employ the same towards erecting, setting up and main- taining the said College, in such manner as they shall judge most neces- sary and convenient for the instruction, improvement and education of youth, in the vernacular and learned languages, and generally in any kind of literature, arts and sciences, which they shall think proper to be taught for training up good, useful and accomplished men, for the ser- vice of their country in Church and State; and youth of all religious denominations and persuasions, shall be freely and liberally admitted to equal privileges and advantages of education, and to all the literary honors of the College, according to their merit, and the standing rules of the Seminary, without requiring or enforcing any religious or civil test whatsoever upon any student, scholar or member of the said Col- lege, other than such oath of fidelity to the State as the laws thereof may require of the Visitors, Governors, Masters, Professors and Teach- ers in schools and seminaries of learning in general ; nor shall any preference be given in the choice of any Visitor and Governor of the said College, or of the Principal, Vice-Principal or any Professor or Master, on account of his religious persuasion, but merely on account of his literary and other necessary qualifications to fill the place for which he is chosen. And be it enacted, That the said Visitors and Governors, and their successors, by the name aforesaid, shall be able in law, to sue and be 1782] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 73 sued, plead and be impleaded, in any court or courts, before any judge, judges or justices within this State and elsewhere, in all and all manner of suits, complaints, pleas, causes, matters and demands, of whatsoever kind, nature or form they be ; and all and every other matter and thing therein to do in as full and effectual a manner as any other person or as, bodies politic or corporate within this State, or any of the United States of America, in like cases, may or can do. And be it enacted, That the said Visitors and Governors, and their successors, shall have full power and authority to have, make, and use one common and public seal, and likewise one privy seal, with such devices and inscriptions as they shall think proper, and to ascertain, fix and regulate the uses of both seals by their own laws, and the same seals, or either of them, to change, break, alter, and renew at their pleasure. And be it exacted, That the said Visitors and Governors, and their successors, from time to time, and at all times hereafter forever, shall have full power and authority to constitute and appoint, in such manner as they shall think best and most convenient, a Principal and Vice- Principal of the said College, and Professors, with proper Tutors and Assistants, for instructing the students and scholars of the said Seminary, in all the liberal arts and sciences, and in the ancient and modern tongues and languages ; who shall be severally styled Professors of such arts, sciences, languages, or tongues as they shall be nominated and appointed for, according to each particular nomination and appoint- ment ; and the said Principal, Vice-Principal, and Professors so con- stituted and appointed from time to time, shall be known and distin- guished forever as one learned body or faculty, by the name of "The Principal, Vice-Principal and Professors of Washington College, in the State of Maryland," and by that name shall be capable of exercising such powers and authorities as the Visitors and Governors of the said College, and their successors, shall, by their ordinances, think necessary to delegate to them for the instruction, discipline and government of the said Seminary, and of all the students, scholars, ministers and ser- vants belonging to the same; and the said Principal and Vice-Principal, Professors, students, scholars, and such necessary ministers and servants as give constant attendance upon the business of the College, shall be exempted from all rates and taxes on their salaries, and from all military duties, except in the case of an actual invasion of the State, and when general military law is declared. And be it enacted, That the clear yearly value of the messuages, houses, lands, tenements, rents, annuities or other hereditaments and real estate of the said College and corporation, shall not exceed six thousand pounds current money, to be reckoned in Spanish milled dol- lars, at the present rate and weight ; and all gifts, grants and bequests to the said College and corporation, after the yearly value of their 74 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1782 estates shall amount to six thousand pounds as aforesaid, and all bar- gains and purchases to be made by the said corporation, which may increase the yearly value of said estate, above or beyond the sum aforesaid, shall be absolutely void and of none effect. And be it enacted, That the said Visitors and Governors, and their successors, shall meet at least four times in every year, in stated quar- terly meetings, to be appointed by their own ordinances, and at such other times as by their said ordinances they may direct, in order to examine the progress of the students and scholars in literature, to hear and determine on all complaints and appeals, and upon all matters touching the discipline of the Seminary, and the good and wholesome execution of their ordinances; in all which examinations, meetings and determinations, such number of the said Visitors and Governors, duly met, (provided they be not less than seven) shall be a quorum, as the fundamental ordinances at first, or any time afterwards duly enacted by a majority of the whole Visitors, shall fix and determine. And be it enacted, That a majority of the said Visitors and Gov- ernors for the time being, when duly assembled at any quarterly, or other meeting, upon due notice given to the whole body of Visitors and Governors, shall have full power and authority to make fundamental ordinances for the government of the said College, and the instruction of the youth as aforesaid, and by these ordinances to appoint such a number of their own body not less than seven, as they may think proper to be a quorum for transacting all general and necessary business of the said Seminary, and making temporary rules for the government of the same ; and also by the said fundamental ordinances, to delegate to the Principal, Vice-Principal and Professors, such powers and authorities as they may think best for the standing government of the said Seminary, and the execution of the ordinances and rules of the same ; provided always, that they be not repugnant to the form of government, or any law of this State. And for animating and encouraging the students of the said College to a laudable diligence, industry and progress in useful literature and science, be it enacted, that the said Visitors and Governors, and their successors, shall by a written mandate, under their privy seal, and the hand of some one of the Visitors and Governors to be chosen annually as their President, according to the ordinance to be made for that pur- pose, have full power and authority to direct the Principal, Vice-Princi- pal and Professors, to hold public commencements, either on stated annual days, or occasionally as the future ordinances of the said Semi- nary may direct ; and at such commencements to admit any of the students in the said College, or any other persons meriting the same (whose names shall be severally inserted in the said mandate) to any degree or degrees in any of the faculties, arts and sciences, and liberal IjS2] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 75 professions to which persons are usually admitted in other Colleges or Universities in America or Europe; and it is hereby enacted that the Principal, or in case of his death or absence, the Vice-Principal, and in case of the death or absence of both, the senior Professor who may be present, shall make out and sign with his name, Diplomas or certificates of the admission to such degree or degrees, which shall be sealed with the public or greater seal of the said corporation or College, and deliv- ered to the graduates as honorable and perpetual testimonials of such admission; which diplomas, if thought necessary for doing greater honor to such graduates, shall also be signed with the names of the different Professors, or as many of them as can conveniently sign the same ; provided always, that no student or students within the said Col- lege, shall ever be admitted to any such degree or degrees, nor have their name inserted in any mandate for a degree, until such student or students have been first duly examined and thought worthy of the same, at a public examination of candidates, to be held one whole month pre- vious to the day of commencement in the said College, by and in the preference of the said Visitors and Governors, or of such quorum of them, not less than seven, as the ordinances of the College may authorize for that purpose, and in the presence of any other persons choosing to attend the same; and provided further, that no person or persons, excepting the students belonging to the said Seminary, shall ever be admitted to any honorary or other degree or degrees in the same, unless thirteen of the Visitors and Governors (of whom the Presi- dent shall be one) by a mandate under their privy seal, and signed by the hands of the whole thirteen, to the Principal, Vice-Principal and Professors directed, have signified their approbation and authority for the particular admission of such person to said degree or degrees. And be it enacted, That the Visitors of Kent county school may set aside and appropriate ten acres of the land belonging to the said school, where they shall think most convenient, for erecting necessary buildings for carrying on the said College, and laying out gardens and grounds for the recreation and refreshment of the youth, and other suitable exercises. And the remainder of the grounds belonging to the said Kent county school, may and shall be leased out by the Visitors of the said school for the time being, and by the Visitors and Governors of the said College, after the same shall be established, in leases for lives, or ninety-nine years, or on any other leases that may be judged most beneficial for advancing the cause of learning, and promoting the said College agreeable to the original design for which the said Kent county school was founded, and for which the said school-lands were purchased. And be it enacted, That the ordinances which shall be from time to time made by the Visitors and Governors of the said College, and 76 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l7^>2 their successors, with an account of their other proceedings, and of the management of the estate and monies committed to their trust, shall, when required, be laid before the General Assembly of Maryland, for their inspection and examination ; but in case at any time hereafter, through oversight or otherwise, through misapprehensions and mistaken constructions of the powers, liberties and franchises in this charter or act of incorporation granted or intended to be granted, any ordinances should be made by the said corporation of Visitors and Governors, or. any matters done and transacted by the corporation contrary to the tenor thereof, It is enacted, That although all such ordinances, acts and doings, shall in themselves be null and void; yet they 'shall not, however, in any courts of law, or by the General Assembly, be deemed, taken, interpreted or adjudged into an avoidance or forfeiture of this charter and act of incorporation, but the same shall be, and remain unhurt, inviolate and entire unto the said corporation of Visitors and Governors, in perpetual succession ; and all their acts conformable to the powers, true intent and meaning hereof, shall be, and remain in full force and validity, the nullity and avoidance of such illegal acts to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. And be it enacted and declared, That this charter and act of incorporation, and every part thereof, shall be good and available in all things in the law, according to the true intent and meaning thereof, and shall be construed, reputed and adjudged in all cases most favorably on the behalf, and for the best benefit and behoof of the said Visitors and Governors, and their successors, so as most effectually to answer the valuable ends of this act of incorporation, towards the general advancement and promotion of useful knowledge, science and virtue. And be it enacted, That no person shall act as Visitor and Gov- ernor, or as Principal or Vice-Principal, or as Professor in the said College, before he shall take the oath of fidelity and support to this State required by the constitution, or by the laws of this State. The foregoing Charter or Act of Inc6rporation having duly passed the General Assembly, at their Spring-sessions, 1782, a meeting of the seven Visitors and Governors named in it was held, and the Rev. Dr. Smith, their President, at the request and by the appointment of the Board, undertook to visit the different counties on the Eastern shore, in order to open the subscriptions for founding the Seminary, agreeably to the tenor of the law. On his own horse, he went from country-seat to country-seat, and almost from farm to farm, seeking personally the means of build- ing the new seminary. The following was the preamble to the different subscription-papers : 1/S2} REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 7/ To the Inhabitants of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, &c. GENTLEMEN :— By the foregoing Act for founding a COLLEGE on this Shore, an Opportunity is offered, which good and wise men have long wished for, of making a provision for the future education of your Youth, in the liberal Arts and Sciences, and all the branches of useful and ornamental Knowledge. Colleges and Schools of general learning have, long since, been founded in most of the Sister-States, and the advantages which our Youth have derived from them, have been manifested in all the late and former trials of the wisdom, virtue and magnanimity of America. The Youth of Maryland have been particularly distinguished among the rest; but have been obliged, at a very grievous and unequal expence, to prepare themselves for public life by repairing, for their education, either to Great Britain, or to some of the neighboring American States. The inhabitants of this Shore and Peninsula, for whose benefit this Foundation is more immediately designed, are descended from some of the most ancient families and settlers in America, and would undoubt- edly wish, by good education, to support the rank of their posterity, and to give them their full consequence in this rising Empire, — Further arguments would be needless. The Yisitors of Kent County School wish to discharge the important trust committed to them by the foregoing Act, with zeal and integrity, according to their best abilities. The school and valuable estate under their care, want only a little public assistance and countenance, to place them on a footing with the most respectable Colleges or Universities in America, being little inferior to any of them in the present number of scholars and students. The distance of the town of Chester from alarms in time of war, its healthful situation, and convenience of accommodation for Youth, have, by general agreement, pointed it out as the best place for a Seminary of universal Learning on this Shore. Being persuaded, therefore, that the present opportunity, which hath been so long desired, will be cheerfully embraced, for founding a Col- lege on this Shore, under the auspicious name with which the Legisla- ture have dignified it ; We, the Visitors aforesaid, in execution of the trust and duties committed to us, by the said act, propose the following — Articles to be mutually binding on the Visitors of Kent County School, and the Subscribers and Contributors towards founding and sup- porting "Washington College, in the State of Maryland." I. Every subscription shall be made in specie of gold and silver, and payable (as the Act directs) in Spanish milled Dollars of the usual weight, or the value thereof, as the same may be at the times of payment, in good merchantable Wheat or Tobacco. 78 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/82 II. For the greater ease of the Subscribers, the payments shall be made in three equal parts ; one-third part on the first Monday in Janu- ary, 1783; another third part on the first Monday in January, 1784; and the remaining third on the first Monday in January, 1785 ; which several payments shall be made to the Treasurer of Kent County School, till the College is established according to law, and afterwards to the Treasurer of the College, as nominated by the Visitors and Governors thereof; and the hand-writing of every particular subscriber shall be binding in law on himself, his heirs, executors and administrators, for the sum subscribed, or the value thereof, with legal interest, if not paid when due ; and the receipt of the Treasurer aforesaid shall be a sufficient discharge for all subscriptions and contributions. Within three months after the sum of ^500 ohall be subscribed by any number of contributors or persons in any county, or district of a county, in sums not less than ^9 or £$ per annum for three years, by single subscribers or contributors, and the same shall be notified by any three of the subscribers to the Visitors of Kent County School, accom- panied with an authentic list of the subscribers, the said Visitors, agree- able to the foregoing Act, will fix a convenient time and place for such subscribers and contributors of -£g and upwards, to meet within the county, for electing one person as a Visitor and Governor of the Col- lege for such county, or district of the county ; and will cause written or printed notices of the time and place of election, to be fixed up at the Court-House and different Parish Churches within such county, at least ten days before the day of election, that all persons concerned may duly attend. In less than three months the subscription-papers were filled up by subscriptions in the different counties on the Eastern Shore, and on the 26th of November, 1782, were delivered to the General Assembly, agreeably to the Charter or Incorporating Act of the College. They were thus : Subscriptions, &c. His Excellency George Wash- £■ s. d. ington, Esq., General and Amount brought up 192 17 10 Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States, John Page 25 0 0 as an Earnest of his Good- John Lambert Wilmer 30 0 0 will, Fifty Guineas £8j 10 0 Richard Graves 30 0 0 Robert Buchanan 20 0 0 Kent County. Thomas Smyth 30 0 0 £■ s. d. William Dunn 9 0 0 John Cadwalader 50 0 0 Simon Wickes 9 0 0 William Slubey 55 7 10 10 James Claypoole Amount carried forward 9 0 0 Amount carried forward /"JQ2 17 ^354 17 10 1/32] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 79 £■ S. 7. /:■ s. d. Amount brought over 354 17 10 Amount brought up 1046 14 s Thomas Van Dyke ii 5 0 William Wilmer 9 0 0 Horatio Belt 9 0 0 Arthur Miller 24 0 0 William Houston 9 0 0 William Ringgold, jun. 10 0 0 Thomas Kemp 9 0 0 Joseph Wickes 9 0 0 Robert Blake 9 0 0 Simon Wickes, jun. 12 0 0 John Wickes 9 0 0 Richard Hinson 9 0 0 John Harragan 9 0 0 Morgan Brown 9 0 0 Joseph Forman 3o 0 0 John Sutton 9 0 0 Isaac Perkins 20 0 0 Richard Spencer 15 0 0 William Bordlcy iS 0 0 Charles Tilden 16 0 0 Robert Anderson 15 0 0 Marmaduke Tilden, jun. 9 0 0 John Lorrain iS 0 0 James Frisby 10 0 0 Joseph Williams 9 0 0 John Moore, jun. 9 0 0 rhilip Brooks 9 0 0 James Williamson 9 0 0 Richard G. Smyth 30 0 0 Jere Nichols 15 0 0 Joseph Nicholson 18 0 0 Richard Ricaud 12 0 0 James Anderson 3° 0 0 Richard Miller 9 0 0 William Smith 18 0 0 William Gale 10 0 0 Benjamin Chambers 18 0 0 Arthur Bryan 5 S 0 John Scott 18 0 0 Tames Dunn 15 0 0 James M. Anderson 9 0 0 James Hodges 9 0 0 Barney Corse 9 0 0 John Williamson 15 0 0 Edward Wright 9 0 0 Joseph Brown 9 0 0 Simon Wilmer 15 0 0 Morgan I Iui't 9 0 0 Edward Worrel 9 0 0 Robert Dunn 12 0 0 John S'.urgis 9 0 0 John Carvil Hinson 9 0 0 Peregrine Lcthrbary 9 0 0 Samuel Gott 9 0 0 Josias Ringgold IS 0 0 William Frisby 9 0 0 John Bolton 9 0 0 John Day 9 0 0 James Piper 9 0 0 William Maxwell, jun. 15 0 0 Anne Deane 15 0 0 James Pearce 15 0 0 Anthony Banning 15 0 0 Isaac Freeman 12 0 0 Emory Sudler 18 0 0 Nathaniel Comegys 12 0 0 St. Leger Everett 10 0 0 Isaac Spencer 12 0 0 Charles Groom 9 0 0 John Wall is (Morgan'* Creel 0 10 0 0 William Embleton 10 0 0 John Brooks 9 0 0 John Kenneril 10 0 0 William Hanson 9 0 0 James Smith 9 0 0 Malachi Ambrose 10 0 ;> Martnaduke Medford 11 5 0 Samuel Davis 15 0 0 James M'Clean 25 6 7 James Hinson, jun. 9 0 0 Luke Grirhth 9 0 0 Alexander Baird 15 0 0 Rasin Gale 9 0 0 John Gleaves 10 0 0 Thomas Smith, jun. 18 0 0 William Geddes 3° 0 0 John Blakewr.y 9 0 0 William Wilson 9 0 0 Edward Scanlan 9 0 0 Ebenezer Massy 9 0 0 Daniel Matzler 10 0 0 Thomas Boyer 9 0 0 John Wilson, jun. 15 0 0 George Wilson 15 0 0 Thomas Medford 10 0 0 Robert Roberts 9 0 0 Robert Constable 10 0 0 Nathaniel Kennard, jun 9 0 0 Robert Cruckshank 13 0 0 Marmaduke Tilden IS 0 0 Richard Lloyd 20 0 0 James Lloyd 15 0 0 Total Amount of Kent J County at the Elections, V October, 1782 J ^1599 19 5 Amount carried forward £ IO46 14 5 Note. — The subscriptions, of course, in pounds, shillings and pence are not sterling money, but money of Maryland. 8o LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1782 Amount brought up Queen Anne's County. William Paca Edward Tilghman William Hemsley J. Beale Bordley "Edward Coursey Richard B. Carmichael Alexander Lawson Robert Dawson Richard S. Earle Walter Jackson Joseph Nicholson, jun. C. J. Wederstrandt James Earle William Bruff S. Clayton Thomas Wright Arthur Emory, jun. Thos. Emory of Arthur Edward Downes William Hacket James Clayland William Wright Turbutt Wright Richard Emory Robert Wilson James Seth Clement Sewell Richard Tilghman William Ringgold Thomas Marsh Forman J. W. Clayton William Thompson Charles Troup, a Cert for ^200, valued at John Brown Samuel Ridgeway James Bordley Jacob Ringgold William Smyth Vachel Downes James O' Bryan John Fisher James Hacket Samuel Thompson John Thompson M. Hawkins Griffin Fount Le Roy Robert Walters Joshua Seney Robert Wright James Kent John Dames James Gould Samuel Seney Elijah Bishop Amount carried forward ^990 o o Amount carried forward .£235 £■ s. d. 990 o o £. s. d. 50 0 0 John Foreman 10 0 0 50 0 0 Richard B. Lloyd 5o 0 0 50 50 Q 0 O 0 Total Amount of Queen "\ 32 20 IO O 0 0 Anne's County at the 1 y Election of two Visit- T ** 050 0 0 20 O 0 ors, October, 1782. ) 9 O 0 3° O 0 Talbot County. iS O 0 £■ s. d. 30 O 0 Edward Floyd 60 0 0 9 O 0 Robert Goldsborough, jun. 3° 0 0 15 O 0 Howes Goldsborough 18 0 0 12 O 0 William Frazier 15 0 0 9 0 0 William Marsh Catnip 9 0 0 32 10 0 John Roberts 12 0 0 22 10 0 Richard Grason 9 0 0 10 0 0 Peregrine Tilghman 20 0 0 9 0 0 Richard Tilghman, jun. 20 0 0 9 0 0 Matthew Tilghman 30 0 0 9 0 0 William Hindman 11 5 0 12 10 0 Alexander M'Callum 12 0 0 30 0 0 W. Goldsborough, jun. 12 0 0 9 0 0 William Tilghman 20 0 0 9 0 0 William Bordley 17 10 0 10 0 0 Joseph Bruff 12 0 0 18 0 0 William Goldsborough 35 0 0 18 0 0 Thomas Gordon 10 0 0 9 0 0 James Hindman 15 0 0 18 0 0 John BracL-o 15 0 0 9 0 0 Samuel Lloyd Chamberlaine 27 0 0 10 0 0 William Hayward 21 0 0 ate William Perry 20 0 0 60 0 0 Rev. John Bowie 15 0 0 IS 0 0 Robert Lloyd Nichols 15 0 0 iS 0 0 Rev. John Gordon 9 0 0 15 0 0 John Coates 9 0 0 9 0 0 John Troup 9 0 0 9 0 0 Charles Gardiner 9 0 0 9 0 0 Richard Skinner 9 0 0 15 0 0 John Needles 10 0 0 9 0 0 Isaac Gilpin 0 0 0 9 0 0 Charles Crookshanks 18 0 0 15 0 0 Nicholas Cox 9 0 0 20 0 0 The Visitors of Talbot free 9 0 0 School 400 0 0 18 20 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 Total Amount of Talbot\yQ7I County j £>97 15 0 30 0 0 9 0 0 Dorchester County. 9 0 0 £■ j. d. 9 0 0 Robert Goldsborough 100 0 0 9 0 0 William Ennalls 60 0 0 12 0 0 Henry Ennalls, jun. 75 0 0 I732] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 81 Amount brought over James Murray Rev. Samuel Keene Henry 1 looper John Dickinson Joseph 1 (affin Henry Ennalls John Stevens Wm. Ennalls Hooper Levin Kirk in an Willis Newton James Shaw John Smoot James Sullivan Archibald l'atison Toseph Richardson John Marshal Thomas Bourke Robinson Stevens Henry Murray Henry Maynadier Henry Waggaman Gustavus Scott Bartholomew Ennalls, jun. James Gordon William Wheland Richard Stanford John Hooper William E. Hicks Alexander Smith Levin Travels Bartholomew Ennalls Tho. Ennalls (Blackiuater) George Bonwill John M. Anderson Robert Ewing Thomas Jones Anne Muse Elizabeth Ennalls John Goldsborough John Le Compte Moses Allen Pritchet Willey John Owens Anne Steel Levin Woolford Thomas Lockerman Robert Griffith John Keene Arthur Whiteley Stanley Byus James Steel £ s. J. 235 o o Somerset County. So 30 15 9 3° 9 9 9 15 9 20 20 30 o 40 o 15 o 9 9 is 36 15 12 22 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 12 9 9 30 3= 20 15 1 o o o o o 0 o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o £■ s. d. John Henry 5° 0 0 Francis Jenkins Henry 9 0 0 Levin < Sale 5° 0 0 Henry Jackson 25 0 0 Samuel King 20 0 0 John Denwood 9 0 0 Nehemiah King 37 0 0 Lambert Ilyland 9 0 0 John Dashicll 9 0 0 R. Waters 10 0 0 Ez. Gillis 9 0 0 John Winder 9 0 0 Thomas Sloss 20 0 0 George Dashiell 25 0 0 William Davis Allen >5 0 0 John Done 9 0 0 Thomas Maddux, jun. 9 0 0 John Stewart 25 0 0 Esme Bayly 9 0 0 Henry Handy 9 0 0 William Horsey 9 0 0 William M'Biyde 9 0 0 George Day Scott 20 0 0 William Winder 15 0 0 James Houston 9 0 0 George Handy 9 0 0 Ebenezer Waller 9 0 0 Gilliss Polk 9 0 0 William Adams 25 0 0 Tohn Adams 25 0 0 Henry Lowes 40 0 0 John Waters 15 0 0 1 lamilton Bell, jun. 9 0 0 Wm. Dashiell, sen. 9 0 0 A. Cheney 10 0 0 John Evans (of Nicholas) 9 0 0 Alexander Roberts 9 0 0 Thomas Bruff 9 0 0 Total Amount of Somcr- ") set Countv ^6i5 Total Amount of Dorches- ) r r* > /I02I O O ter County J *» Worcester County.* £■ Joseph Dashiell 25 Peter Chaille ■ 25 Benjamin Burnell (of Matthew) 15 Charles Bennet 9 Solomon Long 18 Philip Quinto.i 10 William Purnell 25 Robert Done 15 s. d. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Amount carried forward £l42 * The original manuscript of this subscription is now in the collection of Wm. Kent Gilbert, M. D. 6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1782 £■ .r. d. £■ s. d. Amount brought over 142 0 O Amount brought up 150 0 0 William Selby 10 0 O Michael Earle 20 0 0 James Quinton 9 O O John Miller 15 O 0 John Martin, jun. 9 0 O Rev. John Lewis 9 0 0 George Fruitt, jun. 15 O 0 Sidney George 20 0 0 Dr. Bishop 15 0 0 John Leach Knight 20 0 0 Thomas Martin 12 0 0 John Carnan 9 0 0 Jethro Bowin 9 0 0 Daniel Charles Heath 60 0 0 John Parramore 10 0 0 Henry Ward Pearce 5° 0 0 William Holland 10 0 0 Joshua George 20 0 0 Levin Davis 10 0 0 Perry Ward 18 0 0 Levin Blake 15 0 0 John Ward Veazey 10 0 0 Levin Hill 9 0 0 fames Louttit 20 0 0 M. Downes 9 0 0 John Ward (Son of Perry) 9 0 0 Henry Ayres 9 0 0 John Cox 20 0 0 John Ayres 9 0 0 John Hall 9 0 0 Joshua Townsend {Indian William Rumsey 15 0 0 Town) 15 0 0 John Rumsey 12 0 0 William Handy 12 0 0 William Ward IO 0 0 John Selby 15 O 0 John Ward 9 0 0 John Warner 12 O 0 Thomas B. Veazey 9 0 0 John Neill 9 O 0 John Dochery Thomson 12 0 0 Moses Chaille 9 0 0 William Matthews 15 0 0 James Martin Isaac Houston 9 9 0 0 0 0 Total Amount of Ccecil ") ^541 Parker Selby (of Parker) 9 0 0 County j 0 0 William Allen 3° O 0 Henry Dennis 5° O 0 Caroline County. Robert Dennis 9 0 0 £■ s. d. Thomas Purnell, sen. 25 0 0 Mathew Driver 3° 0 0 William Morris 15 0 0 Charles Damn 3° 0 0 Zadock Purnell, sen. 45 O 0 William Hopper 35 0 0 Samuel Handy John Pope Mitchell iS 15 0 0 0 0 £95 0 0 Thomas Purnell (W. N.) rorces- 18 0 0 Accomack County. Total Amount of \\ }^626 ter County 0 0 ( Virginia.) £■ s. d. George Corbin 30 0 0 Ccecil County. George Stewart 20 0 0 £■ J. d. Skinner Wallop 10 0 0 The Visitors of the fr'>pi ^^Knni 150 0 0 Virginia Money /60 0 0 Amount carried forward ^150 o o N B. The Subscriptions in Caroline County, and in Accomack and Northampton Counties, in Virginia, as well as the upper Part of Ccecil County, are yet left to be completed, together with the additional Subscriptions proposed to be opened in the other Counties of the Eastern Shore.* * These subscriptions I am not able to give from any memoranda of Dr. Smith's just now accessible to me. They are supposed, however, to have been considerable; although those above given show Dr. Smith's wonderful services in the cause of letters. — H. W. S. 1782] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D . 83 The Instrument of Trust. To the Honorable the General Assembly of Maryland. We, the subscribers, agreeable to our appointment by " the Visitors and Governors of Washington College, in the State of Maryland," and on their behalf, beg leave to present and deliver to the General Assem- bly, the instrument of writing, or declaration of trust, required by law, as the condition upon which the operation of their charter is to commence. The very numerous and liberal subscriptions which have been obtained towards founding and supporting this College, in the different counties to which our applications were directed, are a proof of the zeal of the subscribers for the advancement of knowledge, virtue and public spirit. By that zeal, the Visitors of Kent county school have been enabled to give existence to a Corporation for the advancement of liter- ature, in less than five months, for which they were allowed five years by the indulgence of law. We trust, and are assured, that such exer- tions of individuals, for the public emolument, do not only merit, but will receive the most public approbation, as well as future protection and encouragement of the Legislature. Together with the Declaration of Trust, and list of subscriptions, we beg leave to present to the Gen- eral Assembly, copies of a letter from the Visitors of Kent county school to his Excellency, the illustrious Commander in Chief of our armies, on the subject of this College, and of the answer which they had the honor to receive from him. The exalted and patriotic sentiments which it contains can only be truly conveyed to the public by the letter itself. We would further humbly pray the General Assembly, that the several papers and subscription lists herewith presented may be preserved among their journals and printed with the same ; that the names of the first founders, benefactors and patrons of this seminary may remain on perpetual record. The names of future benefactors will be reported and recorded as occasion may require. William Smith. Pere. Lethbury. November 26, 1782. Declaration of the Visitors and Governors. To the Honorable the General Assembly of Maryland. We, the subscribers, " Visitors and Governors of Washington College, in the State of Maryland," beg leave to declare, that, agreeable to the act, whereby we are incorporated, entitled, "An Act for founding a College at Chester Town," there are ten visitors and governors duly chosen in different counties of this shore, upon subscriptions of ^500 each, in addition to the seven visitors of Kent County School ; and that "we are willing and desirous to take upon us and discharge the 84 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1782 trust of visitors and governors of the said College, and that an estate or sum and sums not less than Five Thousand Pounds current money (including the estate of Kent county school) is so secured to be paid to us, that we will answer for the value thereof, and the application of the same, towards founding, endowing and supporting the said College, according to our best judgment and the tenor of the said act," which is our Charter. And we further declare that a sum of money, exceeding ^5,000, (exclusive of the estate of Kent county school; and amounting to ,£5,992 145-. $d.,* is subscribed towards the said College, as will appear by the subscription lists herewith delivered ; and that we will use our best endeavors, and have no doubt to obtain a due collection of the whole of the said subscriptions, and will faithfully apply the same, as far as obtained, towards founding, endowing, and supporting the said College ; and also all future benefactions, subscriptions, and contribu- tions that may come into our management and power — This we declare this 15th of Oct., 1782, under our hands, having first taken the oaths of fidelity and support to this State, according to the direction of our said charter of incorporation. William Smith, President. Jos. Nicholson, James Anderson, J John Scott, William Bordley, Pere. Lethbury, Benjamin Chambers, John Page, Robert Goldsborough, Wm. Perry, Peter Chaille, James Lloyd, Joshua Seney. Oct. 22d. Thomas Smyth, jun. Nov. 8th. Samuel Keene. Nov. 13th. Wm. Paca. Nov. 19th. Wm. Thomson. The following correspondence makes a proper part of the narrative : Oct. 15th. * This was the Amount at the Time of delivering the List of Subscribers to the General Assembly. But as the List stands above, added to what was produced by the Sale of Leases of Ninety-nine Years for Sixty-three Lots of Ground, hereinafter men- tioned, the whole Capital raised for the founding this Seminary of Learning from the Time of passing the Charter in May, 1782, to the first Commencement in May, 1783, was about/ 10,300. Considerable Benefactions have been since received, and a much larger Number soon expected, which will be laid before the World, in a future Publication. (Original note by Dr. Smith. — II. W. S.) I78-] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. S$ The Visitors of Kent County School, to General Washington. Chester in Kent County, Maryland, July 8, 1782. May it please your Excellency, By order and in behalf of the Visitors of Kent County school, I have the honor to enclose to your Excellency, an act of the General Assem- bly of Maryland, for erecting a College at Chester, for the benefit of the Eastern Shore, or Peninsula between Chesapeak and Delaware Bay; , which they have dignified with the auspicious name of " WASHINGTON College, in the State of Maryland, in honorable and perpetual memory of his Excellency General Washington, the illustrious and virtuous Commander in Chief of the armies of the United States." In every possible way, your country wishes to erect public monuments to you, even while living, and posterity, without doubt, will greatly increase the number; but none, it is believed, can be more acceptable to you, than a seminary of universal learning expressly dedicated to your name, with a view of instructing and animating the youth of manv future generations to admire and to imitate these public virtues and patriot-labours, which have created a private monument for you in the heart of every good citizen. As this College is to be instituted upon the foundation of Kent county school, the Visitors of the said school are by law honored with the great trust of carrying the design into execution. They have already been favoured with very liberal subscriptions, under the auspices of your name ; and have no doubt of speedily receiving such farther subscrip- tions, payable in three equal yearly payments, as wilt amount to the estimate in the law, and enable them, the next spring, to build the necessary school rooms for lectures in the sciences, and to furnish them with books and philosophical apparatus. The Visitors hope to obtain your Excellency's permission to place your name at the head of the seven additional Visitors and Governors of the College, which the law allows to be chosen from any of the neighbouring States, to make up the number twenty-four, as you will observe in the perusal thereof. They further hope, that the time is not very remote, in which this infant seminary may salute you in person, and, like a dutiful child, as one of its first works, present the olive wreath and other emblems of peace to its father, guardian and protector. I have the honor to be, in behalf and by order of the Visitors of Kent county school, your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant, William Smith. General Washington's Answer. Headquarters, Newburgh, 18th August, 1782. I have had the honor to receive your favour of the 8th ult. by Colonel Tilghman, who arrived here about ten days ago, and to whom I have committed the charge of forwarding this answer. S6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1782 To the gentlemen who moved the matter, and to the Assembly for adopting it, I am much indebted for the honor conferred on me, by giving my name to the College at Chester. At the same time that I acknowledge the honor, I feel a grateful sensibility for the manner of bestowing it ; which, as it will remain a monument of their esteem, can- not but make a deep impression on my mind, only to be exceeded by the flattering assurance of the lasting and extensive usefulness of the Seminary. If the trifling sum of Fifty Guineas will be considered as an Earnest of my wishes for the prosperity of this Seminary, I shall be ready to pay that sum to the order of the Visitors, whenever it is their pleasure to call for it — It is too trifling to stand in any other point of view — nor would I wish it to do so. With much pleasure should I consent to have my name enrolled among the worthy Visitors and Governors of this College; but con- vinced as I am that it will never be in my power to give the attendance which by law is required, my name could only be inserted to the exclu- sion of some other, whose abilities and proximity might enable him to become a more useful member. When that period shall arrive when we can hail the blest return of peace, it will add to my pleasure, to see this infant seat of learning rising into consistency and proficiency in the sciences, under the nurturing hands of its founders. I have the honor to be, Reverend Sir, Your most obedient Servant, George Washington. To the Rev. Dr. Smith, at Chester, in Kent County, Maryland. The following proceedings in the House of Delegates, of Mary- land, November 27th, 1782, will conclude our narrative of the establishment by Dr. Smith of Washington College ; a narrative somewhat long we fear, but necessary fully to exhibit the abilities of Dr. Smith and his undisturbed equanimity and courage under trials and adversities, which would have driven most men into despondency or recklessness: The Address in behalf of the Visitors and Governors of Washington College and their Declaration of Trust, with the list cf subscriptions towards founding and supporting the said College, and copies of the letter from the Visitors of Kent County School, to his Excellency General Washington, and his answer, being read. Resolved, That the Visitors of Kent County School have exerted themselves with a laudable diligence and address in the execution of the trust committed to them for founding the said College. Resolved, That the numerous subscribers towards founding this Col- I/S3] XEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. Zj L[:c have given an exemplary proof of their zeal for the honor and interest of their country, by contributing so freely and liberally toward the establishment of a general Seminary, for the advancement of knowledge, virtue and public spirit. Resolved, That the Declaration of Trust by the Visitor.? and Govern- ors of the said College is an acceptable pledge and assurance that they will continue to exert the utmost zeal and abilities to carry on and com- pleting the establishment of a Seminary so successfully begun, and which promises to be of public utility to the present and future generations. Resolved, That their exertions merit the approbation of the Legisla- ture, and (when circumstances will permit) ought to receive their public encouragement and assistance. Resolved, That the exalted and patriotic sentiments contained in the letter of his Excellency General Washington, in answer to the letter of the Visitors of Kent County School, and the polite manner in which he hath been pleased to accept the honorable intentions of the General Assembly, in dignifying the College with his name, are proofs of that goodness and greatness of soul by which he is actuated in all his conduct. Resolved, That the several papers upon which these resolutions are founded be entered on the journals of the Assembly, and be published with the same, in honor of the first founders, benefactors and patrons of this Seminary. CHAPTER XLIV. First Commencement of Washington College, May 14, 1783 — List of Gradu- ates— Corner-Stone Laid — Convention at Chestertown, May 12, 1783 — Petition the Assembly — Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White — Convention at Annapolis, August 13, 1783 — Petitions to the General Assembly of Maryland — Declaration of Rights — Notice of Rev. Thomas Gates— Dr. Smith Chosen for Bishop of Maryland — Clergy of Maryland Give Recommendation of him for Consecration to the Bishop of London — Notices of the Rev. Dr. Gordon and of the Rev. Dr. West — Marriage of Dr. Smith's Eldest Daughter. Ox Wednesday, the 14th of May, 1783, was held the First Com- mencement in Washington College for Degrees in the Arts and Sciences. The scene was new and interesting, not only to the inhabitants of Chestertown, but to those of the State in general. We have the following contemporary account of the event : At ten in the forenoon, a procession was formed from the place where the schools were kept, to the Church, in the following order, viz. : 1st. The body of Scholars and Students, two by two. 2d. The Candidates for Degrees, in the like order. 88 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/33 3d. The Faculty of Professors, with the Rev. William Smith, D. D., President of the Visitors and Governors, who acted, by appointment, as Principal pro Tempore, at their head. 4th. The corporation of Visitors and Governors, his Excellency William Paca, Esq. ; Governor of the State, and one of the said Visitors and Governors, at their head. When the procession arrived at the Church door, the scholars, stu- dents and candidates for degrees filed off to the right and left, forming a lane through which the Faculty and Corporation of Visitors and Gov- ernors marched into the Church, followed by the candidates, and then the students and scholars according to their classes and seniority. The company being seated, the Principal pro Tempore (Dr. Smith) opened the business of the day with a solemn Prayer and Address to the SUPREME BEING; and afterwards a short Latin oration to the learned and collegiate part of the audience, as custom seems to require. The candidates then proceeded with the public exercises as follows, viz. : 1. A Latin Salutatory Oration, by Mr. John Scott. 2. An oration in French, by Mr. James Scott. 3. A Latin Syllogistic Dispute — "JVum sEternitas Panarum contra- dicit divi?iis Attributis ?" Respondent Mr. Charles Smith;* Oppo- nents Messrs. William Barrol and William Bordley. 4. An English Forensic Dispute, — " Whether the state of nature be a state of war?" The speakers were Messrs. John Scott, William Barrol, William Bordley and James Scott. 5. The Degrees were conferred by the Principal as follows: f~ Charles Smith, ^ j James Scott, j Messrs. < Tohn Scott, > Bachelors of Arts. I William Barrol, ^ William Bordley, J Mr. Samuel Kerr, Honorary Bachelor of Arts. Mr. Colin Ferguson, Master of Arts. Mr. Samuel Armor, Master of Arts of the College of Philadelphia, admitted ad eundem.^ 6. An English Valedictory Oration, which concluded with a striking and prophetic copy of verses on the progress of the sciences and the growing glory of America — By Mr. Charles Smith. * This Charles Smith was the third son of Dr. Smith. He was born in Philadel- phia, March 4th, 1765, and baptized in Christ Church in that city by the Rev. Mr. Sturgeon on the 21st of August of the same year, John Moore, Esq., and Charles Smith, his uncles, being sponsors. He was President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Franklin and Cumberland counties, and afterwards, when the District Court of Lancaster was created, he became its first President Judge, and the author of a val- uable annotated edition of the Laws of Pennsylvania. f The last two gentlemen were the senior or chief Professors in the Arts and Sciences, and Mr. Kerr one of the Masters in the Grammar School. 17S3] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 89 7. The Principal then closed the business of the Commencement, with an affectionate and pathetic Charge to the Graduates, respecting their future conduct in life ; and what was to be expected from them, as the first or eldest sons of this rising seminary ! — The different speakers were honored with the justest applause of the audience, for the propriety of their delivery and many masterly strokes of eloquence in the different languages which they spoke, viz. : Latin, French and English. — The Valedictory Oration in particular, from the nature of the subject, as well as beauty of the delivery, had a very striking effect upon all who were present. — In the evening of the same day, Dr. Young's Tragedy of the Bro- thers, notwithstanding the difficulty of the composition, was acted with the greatest applause before a vastly crowded and discerning audi- ence, by the graduates and some others of the students. Messrs. Charles Smith and John Scott, who had before distinguished themselves in Tamerlane and Bajazet, as well as in some principal characters in other performances, during the last years of their education, concluded their scholastic labours in this way, by shining in the characters of the Two Brothers ! The day following (viz.: on Thursday, May 15th) the Visitors and Governors, the Masters, Students and Scholars, accompanied by a great number of gentlemen from the neighboring counties, went in procession to the hill where the new College is to be built ; and after Prayer by the Rev. Dr. Smith, the Foundation Stone was laid, with the proper ceremony, by his Excellency, Governor Paca, who was saluted on the occasion by thirteen discharges of cannon. Orations in French were delivered by Messrs. Thomas Worral and Ebenezer Perkins ; and a Pastoral Dialogue was spoken by three of the younger scholars, in shep- herds' dresses, viz.: Messrs. Richard Smith,* Robert Buchanan and Joseph Nicholson. The performance being too long, perhaps, to insert at large, we give a few lines from the beginning and conclusion — "When Athens flourish'd with the Grecian reign, And Chiefs and Heroes liv'd — a God-like Train ! When by her Arms each neighbouring State was sway'd, And Kings an Homage to her Warriors paid — Ev'n then those Chiefs, who all the World subdu'd, Lower'd their proud Faces to the Learn'd and Good: Nor with less Glory in the Rolls of Fame Shines every Sage's, than each Hero's Name." This happy Day we glory in a Scene, Which Athens Self enraptur'd would have seen ; Science triumphant and a Land refin'd, Where once rude Ignorance sway'd th' untutor'd Mind ; * Dr. Smith's youngest son. 90 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Q1783 The Wise, the Good, the Fathers of the State, Conven'd with Joy to fix the Muse's Seat; To lay a fast Foundation-Stone, which shall Be only mov'd when sinks this Earthly Ball ! Auspicious Day ! no more the Muses mourn, But hail their Parent Peace on her Return — Heav'n gives the Word, and bids Mankind repose, Contending Nations blush that they were Foes; Old Warriors now shall glow with Rage no more, But reap the Fields their Valour sav'd before. Hail Goddess Peace ! in thy celestial Mien Sweet Happiness and ev'ry Grace are seen ; O'er thy smooth Brow no rugged Helmet frowns, An Olive Wreath thy shining Temple crowns. Let now the Muses hasten to explore The tawny Chief on Erie's distant Shore, Or trace his Steps among the Forests wide, That deep imbrown the vast Ontario's Side ; And bid him quick his deadly Bow unbend, For now destructive War is at an End ; Let mighty Mississippi, as he runs, Proclaim aloud to all his swarthy Sons, That to Earth's Ends fair Science shall encrease, And form one Reign of Learning and of Peace ! The rapid and great success of Washington College, not less than his own commanding powers as an orator, writer and execu- tive agent in every department, had by the year 1783 made Dr. Smith a conspicuous and influential person of the Church in Mary- land. And as he abated nothing of his more youthful activity in ecclesiasti ;al affairs, his agency soon began to show itself in that new State of his residence, with obvious results. The effect of the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July, 1776, and of different Acts of the Legislature of the State passed about the same time, left in an uncertain and precarious condition the property of the different parishes of the Church of England in the new commonwealth. Soon after going to Mary- land, therefore, and even during the war, Dr. Smith prepared and caused to be signed by laymen of several parishes and by those few of the clergy who then remained, a petition to the General Assembly of the State seeking to have the matter of church-rights established. The document was thus : I783] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 9 1 To the Honourable the General Assembly of the State of Maryland, the Petition of the Vestry and Church- Wardens of the Parish of , COUNTY, HUMBLY Sheweth, That it is manifest from Reason, as well as the clearer Light of Revelation, that the Worship of the Almighty Creator and Governor of the Universe, is the indispensable duty of his depend- ent Creatures, and the surest means of procuring their temporal as well as eternal Happiness : That, where Religion is left unsupported, neither Laws nor Government can be duly administered ; And, as the expe- rience of ages has shewn the necessity of a provision for supporting the Officers and Ministers of Government, in all civil Societies; so the like experience shews the necessity of providing a support for the Ordinances and Ministers of Religion — because if either Religion or Government were left wholly dependent on the benevolence of individuals, such is the frailty of human nature, and the averseness of many to their best Interests, that the Sordid and Selfish, the Licentious, and Prophane, would avail themselves of such Liberty to shrink from their share of labour and expense, and thereby render that, which would be easy when borne by All, an intolerable burden to the Few, whose conscience and principles of Justice would not permit them in this, or any other case, to swerve from their Duties, Civil or Religious. That our pious ancestors, the worthy and respectable Founders of this State, convinced of the foregoing Truths, and declaring that, "In every well-grounded Commonwealth, matters concerning Religion ought, in the first place, to be taken into consideration, countenanced and encouraged ; as being not only most acceptable to God, but the best Way and Means of obtaining His Mercy, and a Blessing upon a People and Country," (having the Promises of this Life and of the Life to come) did frame and enact sundry Laws for erecting Churches and Places of Public Worship, the maintenance of an orthodox Clergy, the Support and advancement of Religion, and the orderly Administration of its divine and saving Ordinances. That the Delegates of this State, at the great Mxz. of our Independ- ence, in free and full Convention assembled, for the purpose of estab- lishing a new Constitution and Form of Government, upon the author- ity of the People, appearing in their Wisdom to have considered some parts of the said laws as inconsistent with that Religious Liberty and Equality of Assessment, which they intended as the basis of their future Government, did, by the 33d Section of the Declaration of Rights, abrogate all such Laws theretofore passed, as enabled any County Courts, on the Application of Vestrymen and Church-Wardens, to make Assess- ments or Levies for Support of the Religious Establishment; but not with a View of being less attentive than their pious Ancestors had been, to the Interests of Religion, Learning, and Good Morals. On the 92 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE ^1783 contrary, by the very same Section, an express Recommendation and Authority are given to future Legislatures, "At their discretion, to lay a general and equal Tax, for the support of the Christian Religion," agreeably to the said Declaration. That your Petitioners are sensible of the many urgent civil concerns, in which the honorable and worthy Legislatures of this State have been engaged, since the commencement of the present great and trying period ; and how much wisdom and deliberation are at all times neces- sary in framing equal laws for the Support of Religion and Learning, and more especially amidst the horrors and confusions of an expensive, cruel, and unrelenting War. But they are sensible, at the same Time (and persuaded the honorable Assembly are equally sensible), that where Religion is left to mourn and droop her head, while her sacred Ordi- nances are unsupported, and Vice and Immorality gain Ground, even War itself will be but feebly carried on, Patriotism will lose its most animating Principle, Corruption will win its Way from the lowest to the highest Places, Distress will soon pervade every public Measure; our Churches, our Grave-Yards — the Monuments of the Piety of our Ances- tors, running into Ruin, will become the Reproach of their Posterity; nay more, the great and glorious Fabric of public Happiness which we are striving to build up, and cement with an Immensity of Blood and Treasure, might be in Danger of tumbling into the Dust, as wanting the stronger Cement of Virtue and Religion, or perhaps would fall an easy Prey to some haughty Invader! Deeply impressed with these momentous Considerations, and conceiv- ing ourselves fully warranted by our Constituents, in this Application to your honorable Body, having duly advertized our design without any ob- jections yet notified to us — your Petitioners, therefore, most earnestly and humbly pray that an Act may be passed, agreeably to the aforesaid Section of the Declaration of Rights, for the Support of public Religion, by an equal assessment and tax, and also to enable the Vestry and Church- Wardens of this Parish, by rates on the Pews, from time to time, or otherwise, as in your Wisdom you shall think fit, to repair and uphold the Church and Chapel, and the Church-Yards and Burying-Grounds of the same; all which, your Petitioners conceive, may be done, not only for this Parish, but at the same time, if thought best, for every other Parish within this State (which, it is believed, earnestly desires the same) by a single Law, in a manner perfectly agreeable to the Liberty and Wishes of every denomination of Men, who would be deemed good Christians and faithful Citizens of this State. And your Petitioners, as bound, shall ever pray, &c. In the foregoing Petition, as my readers will have observed, no exclusive privilege was prayed for; but only "that a law may be i;33] REV. WILLIAM SMITHy D. D. 9$ passed agreeably to the Bill of Rights, and to the liberty and wishes of every denomination of men, who would be deemed good Christians and faithful citizens of this State." However, some of the vestries that presented the petitions, finding the public difficulties increasing, were apprehensive that injury might be done to the Church by pressing the petition, and soon afterwards signi- fied their desire to the General Assembly that further considera- tion of the matter might be postponed to a time of less distress and danger. On the establishment of peace, Governor Paca, who had been a pupil of Dr. Smith's (a graduate in the year 1759 of the College at Philadelphia), and between whom and the Provost there ever subsisted a warm attachment, with a paternal and pious care for the concerns of religion, as inseparably connected with the interest of the State, was pleased, May 6th, 1783, to revive the business, in an address to the General Assembly. He said, speaking for himself and his council : " It is far from our Intentions to embarrass your deliberations with a variety of objects ; but we cannot pass over Matters of so high Concern- ment as Religion and Learning. The Sufferings of the Ministers of the Gospel of alt Denominations, during the War, have been very con- siderable; and the Perseverance and Firmness of those, who discharged their sacred Functions under many discouraging Circumstances, claim our Acknowledgments and Thanks. The Bill of Rights and Form of Government recognize the principle of public Support for the Ministers of the Gospel, and ascertain the Mode. Anxiously solicitous for the Blessings of Government, and the Welfare and Happiness of our Citizens, and thoroughly convinced of the powerful Influence of Relig- ion, when diffused by its respectable Teachers, we beg leave most seriously and warmly to recommend, among the first Objects of your Attention, on the return of Peace, the making such Provision, as the Constitution, in this case, authorizes and approves." A copy of this address, about a week after it was delivered to the Assembly, came into the hands of Dr. Smith and others of the Episcopal Clergy of Maryland, most of whom were assembled at the commencement in Washington College in May, 1783, of which we have already spoken. Dr. Smith, finding the concerns of religion so strongly recommended by the executive to the legislative part of government, thought it wise that 94 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [ 1 7S3 there should be a council or consultation of clergy held imme- diately for the purpose of considering " What alterations might be necessary in our liturgy and service ; and how our church might be organized and a succession in the ministry kept up, so as to be an object of public notice and support, in common with other Christian churches under the Revolution." A convention accordingly assembled in the hall of Washington College, May 12-15, l7%3> Dr. Smith presided. It was considered by this convention that some legislative interposition or sanction might probably be necessary in the course of this business ; for as our church derived her liturgy from the Church of England, and was formerly dependent on the same church for a succession in her ministry, and had certain property reserved to her by the constitution of Maryland, under the name of the Church of England, it became a question whether, if any alterations should be made in the liturgy, or in the mode of succession in the ministry, she could any longer be considered as the church described in the constitution of this State, or entitled to the perpetual use of the property aforesaid. An incorporating act, or charter, was also deemed necessary to enable the clergy, or some representative body of the church, to raise and manage a fund for certain charitable and pious pur- poses ; such charters having been granted to Christian societies of every denomination in other of the neighboring States, wher- ever they had been prayed for. Dr. Smith, who, with the Rev. Mr. Thomas Gates,* had been appointed a committee, with extensive powers, accordingly now prepared another petition. It was thus : To the Honourable the General Assembly of the State of Maryland, the Memorial and Petition of the Subscribers in Behalf of Them- selves and others, the Clergy of the Episcopal Churches, Sheweth — That the happy termination of War, the establishment of Peace, and the final recognition and acknowledgment of the Sover- eignty and Independence of these United States among the Powers of * Thomas Gates, D. D. — a native of England; brought up in the church. He was ordained in England. In 1 781 he became rector of St. Ann's, Annapolis; in 1785, of St. PeterV, Talbot, a member of the Standing Committee. In 1789 he removed to South Carolina, and there continued till his death in 1832. (Allen's History.) 1783] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 95 the World, yield a favourable occasion (which this State in particular hath long desired) of making some permanent Provision, agreeably to the Constitution, for " the Ministers of Religion," and the advance- ment of useful Knowledge and Literature, through this rising American Empire. That, in respect to the Episcopal Churches in this State (to the Communion of which so large a proportion of the good people of Maryland belongs) the following things are absolutely necessary, viz.: 1st. That some alterations should be made in the Liturgy and Service, in order to adapt the same to the Revolution, and for other purposes of Uniformity, Concord and Subordination to the State. 2d. That a plan for educating, ordaining, and keeping up a succes- sion of able and fit Ministers or Pastors, for the service of said churches agreeably to ancient practice and their professed Principles, as well as that universal Toleration, established by the Constitution, be speedily determined upon and fixed, under the public authority of the State, and with the Advice and Consent of the Clergy of the said Churches, after due Consultation had thereupon. Your Petitioners, therefore, humbly pray — That the said Clergy may have leave to consult, prepare and offer to the General Assembly, the Draft of a Bill, for the good Purposes aforesaid — and your Petitioners, as in Duty bound, shall pray, &c. WILLIAM SMITH. THOMAS GATES. The prayer of the foregoing petition was granted. A convention of the clergy was now accordingly called to be held at Annapolis on the 13th of August, 1783. Prior to this convention being assembled, we have the following interesting letter from Dr. Smith to Dr. White. Chester, August 4th, 1783. Dear Sir : The Clergy in Maryland are to meet (in pursuance of the sanction obtained from the Grand Assembly) on the 13th of this month: but as Mr. Gates and myself were to call this meeting we found upon consulting our nearest brethren that they did not think it proper, nor that we were authorized to call any Clergy to our assistance from the neighboring States; that the Episcopal Clergy of Maryland were in some respects peculiarly circumstanced, and ought in the first instance to have a preparatory convention or conference to consider and frame a Declaration of their own Rights as one of the Churches of a separate and independent State; to agree upon some articles of Government and unity among themselves; to fix some future time of meeting by adjourn- g6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [I/S3 ment; to appoint a committee to bring in a plan of some few altera- tions that may be found necessary in the Liturgy and Service of the Church; and by the authority of this first meeting to open a correspond- ence on the subject with the clergy of the neighboring States, and to have some speedy future and more general meeting with the clergy of these States, or Committees from them, to unite if possible in the altera- tions to be made which many among us think cannot have a full Church Ratification till we have decided on some plan or another; the three orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons to concur in same. What State or civic ratification may be necessary, or whether any, is a question yet to be determined. In Maryland I presume a few words of a Declara- tory Act that a Clergy ordained in such a form, and using a Liturgy with such alterations as may be agreed upon, are to be considered as entitled to the Glebes, Churches and other property declared by the Constitution to belong to the Church of England for ever. I say such a short act as this, or the opinion of the Judges that such act is not necessary, is, I conceive, all that will be wanted. I am, &c, William Smith. To Rev'd Dr. White. One part of the proceedings of this Convention of August 13th, 1783, held at Annapolis, was to nominate a committee " To prepare the draft of an Act or Charter of Incorporation, to enable the Episcopal Church of this State, as a body corporate, to hold goods, lands and chattels, by deed, gift, devise, etc., to the amount of per annum, as a fund for providing small annuities to the widows of clergymen, and for the education of their children, or any poor children in general, who may be found of promising genius and disposition, for a supply of ministers in the said church, and for other pious and charitable uses." We here see Dr. Smith's hand again. This was with him an old scheme introduced nearly fifteen years before into Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, and still beneficially existing in all these States, but in Pennsylvania especially.* He now applied it to Maryland, where, we believe, it still exists with valuable results. Other business of this Convention was to deliberate concerning the mode of obtaining a succession in the ministry, the choice of fit persons for the different orders of the same, and some funda- mental articles for future uniformity, concord, and good govern- * Described by us, Vol. I., page 423. 1783] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 97 mcnt, for which purpose the following were unanimously agreed upon and subscribed, viz. : A Declaration of certain fundamental Rights and Liberties of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Maryland, drawn up and subscribed, viz. Whereas by the Constitution and Form of Government of this State — "All persons professing the Christian Religion are equally entitled to protection in their Religious Liberty, and no person, by any Law, or Otherwise, ought to be molested in his person or estate, on account of his Religious Persuasion or Profession, or for his Religious Practice; unless, under colour of Religion, any man shall disturb the good Order, Peace, or Safety of the State, or shall infringe the Laws of Morality, or injure others in their Natural, Civil, or Religious Rights:" And whereas the Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Independence of the different Religious Denominations, Societies, Congregations, and Churches of Christians in this State, necessarily follows from, or is included in, their Civil Independence. Wherefore we, the Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Maryland (heretofore denominated the Church of England, as by Law established) with all duty to the civil authority of the State, and with all Love and Good-will to our Fellow-Christians of every other Re- ligious denomination, do hereby declare, make known, and claim, the following, as certain of the Fundamental Rights and Liberties inherent in and belonging to the said Episcopal Church, not only of common Right, but agreeably to the express Words, Spirit and Design of the Constitution and Form of Government aforesaid, viz , I. We consider it as the undoubted Right of the said Protestant Episcopal Church, in common with other Christian Churches under the American Revolution, to complete and preserve herself as an entire Church, agreeably to her ancient Usages and Profession, and to have the full enjoyment and free exercise of those purely Spiritual Powers, which are essential to the being of every Church or Congregation of the faithful, and which, being derived only from Christ and his Apostles, are to be maintained independent of every foreign or other Jurisdiction, so far as may be consistent with the civil Rights of Society. II. That ever since the Reformation, it hath been the received Doctrine of the Church whereof we are Members (and which by the Constitution of this State is entitled to the perpetual Enjoyment of certain Property and Rights under the denomination of the Church of England) "That there be these three Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church: Bishops, Priests, and Deacons," and that an Episcopal Ordination and Commission are necessary to the valid Administration of the Sacraments, and the due Exercise of the Ministerial Functions in the said Church. 7 C,S LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1783 III. That, without calling in Question the Rights, Modes, and Forms of any other Christian Churches or Societies, or wishing the least Contest with them on that subject, we consider and declare it to be an essential Right of the said Protestant Episcopal Church to have and enjoy the Continuance of the said three Orders of Ministers forever, so far as concerns Matters purely spiritual ; and that no Persons, in the Character of Ministers, except such as are in the Communion of the said Church, and duly called to the Ministry by regular Episcopal Ordination, can or ought to be admitted into, or enjoy any of the "Churches, Chapels, Glebes, or other Property," formerly belonging to the Church of England in this State, and which, by the Constitution and Form of Government, is secured to the said Church forever, by whatsoever Name, she the said Church, or her superior order of Ministers, may in future be denominated. IV. That as it is the Right, so it will be the Duty, of the said Church, when duly organized, constituted, and represented in a Synod or Convention of the different Orders of her Ministry and People, to revise her Liturgy, Forms of Prayer, and public Worship, in order to adapt the same to the late Revolution and other local Circumstances of America; which it is humbly conceived, may and will be done, with- out any other or farther Departure from the venerable Order and beauti- ful Forms of Worship of the Church from whence we sprung, than may be found expedient in the Change of our Situation from a Daughter to a Sister-Church. August 13th, 1783. William Smith, President, St. Paul's & Chester Parishes, Kent County. John Gordon, Rector of St. Michael's, Talbot. John M'Pherson, Rector of William and Mary Parish, Charles County. Samuel Keene, Rector of Dorchester Parish, Dorchester County. William West, Rector of St. Paul's Parish, Baltimore. William Thomson, Rector of St. Stephen's, Ccecil County. Walter Magowan, Rector of St. James's Parish, Ann-Arundel County. Tohn Stephen, Rector of All-Faith Parish, St. Mary's County. Thomas John Claggett, Rector of St. Paul's Parish, Prince George's County. George Goldie, Rector of King and Queen, St. Mary's County. Joseph Messenger, Rector of St. Andrew's Parish, St. Mary's County. John Bowie, Rector of St. Peter's Parish, Talbot County. Walter Harrison, Rector of Durham Parish, Charles County. William Hanna, Rector of St. Margaret's, Westminster Parish, Ann- Arundel County. 1783] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 99 Signed Thomas Gates, Rector of St. Ann's, Annapolis. John Andrews, Rector of St. Thomas's Parish, Balti- \ more County. Hamilton Bell, Rector of Stephnev Parish, Somerset T 1 June 2?d, County. J A ' Francis Walker, Rector of Shrewsbury Parish, Kent County. The foregoing declaration of rights being made and subscribed, a copy of the same was presented to his Excellency the Governor, with the following address, prepared, undoubtedly, like most or all of the other documents in the case, by Dr. Smith : To his Excellency William Paca, Esq., Governor and Commander-in-Chief, iVc, &c, of the State of Maryland. We the Protestant Episcopal Clergy of the said State, at a Meeting or Convention held at Annapolis this 13th August, 1783 (in pursuance of a Vote of the House of Delegates passed at their last Session), in order to consider, make known and declare those fundamental Christian Rights, to which we conceive ourselves entitled, in common with other Christian Churches ; Do hereby, in the first Place, return your Excel- lency our most sincere and hearty Thanks for your great Concern and Attention manifested for the Christian Church in general and her suffering Clergy of all Denominations. We trust and pray that your Excellency will continue your powerful Intercession till some Law is passed for their future Support and Encouragement, agreeably to the Constitution. We herewith lay before your Excellency an authentic Copy of a Declaration of certain Rights, to which, according to our best knowl- edge of the Laws and Constitution of our Country, we think ourselves entitled, in common with other Churches. Should your Excellency, from your superior knowledge of both, think that the Declaration we have made stands in need of any further Sanction, Legislative or other- Avise, we are well persuaded that a Continuance of the same Zeal and Regard which you have formerly shown, will at Length produce the happy Effect which you so anxiously desire. Praying for a continued Encrease of your Excellency's public Use- fulness, and that you meet the reward thereof in the World to come, We are, &c. [Signed by all the Members, as the above Declaration of Rights was signed.] To this Governor Paca was pleased to return the following answer, viz.; ICO LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [17S3 Gentlemen: — I have attentively considered the paper intitled "A declaration of certain Fundamental Rights and Liberties of the Protest- ant Episcopal Church of Maryland." And as every denomination of Clergy are to be deemed adequate Judges of their own Spiritual Rights, and of the Ministerial commission and authority necessary to the due administration of the Ordinances of Religion among themselves, it would be a very partial and unjust distinction to deny that Right to the respectable and learned Body of the Episcopal Clergy in this State; and it will give me the highest happiness and satisfaction, if, either in my individual capacity, or in the public character which I now have the honour to sustain, I can be instrumental in advancing the interests of Religion in general, alleviating the Sufferings of any of her Ministers, and placing every branch of the Christian Church in this State, upon the most equal and respectable footing. I am, Gentlemen, Your most obd't, humble Servant, William Paca. In due time every concession needed from the State was ob- tained. Some, at first thought needful, were declared by sufficient authority to be unnecessary; and the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland succeeded to every desirable right of the old Church of England in the Province. In all these operations Dr. Smith was not only the main-spring but the machinery and regulator also. It is impossible, I think, to look at. his efforts in re-establishing the church in Maryland, after it had been laid in ruins by the war of the Revolution, without a lively feeling of gratitude to his memory. One of the memorable acts of this convention was the election of Dr. Smith to the office of Bishop of Maryland. He moved into the place by the force of gravitation ;' by the power which moves all inferior men to look up to and respect one of abilities entirely transcending their own. He was directed to proceed to England for consecration, the convention recommending that the various parishes should take up collections for the purpose of pay- ing his expenses. The following is a copy of his testimonial * intended to be given to the Bishop of London, if the Bishop-elect should think fit to ask for consecration : "-• Manuscript in Dr. Smith's papers. T/83] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 101 Annapolis, Maryland, August 16, 1783. My Lord :— Whereas the good people of this State, and in con- nection with the Church of England, have long labored, and do still labor, under great difficulties, through the want of a regular clergy to supply the many poor parishes that have for a considerable time been vacant. To prevent, therefore, and guard against such an unhappy situation for the future, we, the Convention, in meeting of the Clergy of the Church of England, have made choice of, and do recommend, our brother, the Rev. Dr. William Smith, as a fit and proper person, and every way well qualified to be invested with the sacred office of a Bishop, in order to perpetuate a regular succession of clergy among us. We do with great confidence present unto your Lordship this godly and well-learned man to be ordained and consecrated Bishop, being per- fectly satisfied that he will duly execute the office whereunto he is called, to the edifying of the Church and to the glory of God. Your Lordship's well-known zeal for the Church and propagation of the Christian religion induces us to trust that your Lordship will com- passionate the case of a remote and distressed people, and comply with our earnest request in this matter. For without such a remedy, the Church in this country is in imminent danger of becoming extinct. That your Lordship may long continue an ornament to the Church is the hearty prayer of, my Lord, your very dutiful and most obedient servants, *i745- John Gordon, St. Michael's, Talbot county. 1 75 1. John Macpherson, William and Mary Parish, Charles co. 1750. Wm. Thomson, St. Stephen's, N. Sassafras Parish, Cecil. 1760. Samuel Keene,| Dorchester and Great Choptank Parishes, Dorchester. 1 761. William West,! St. Paul's Parish, Baltimore. 1766. George Goldie, King and Queen, St. Mary's. 1770. John Bowie, f St. Peter's, Talbot. 1748. Walter Magowan, St. James' Parish, Ann Arundel county. 1764. John Stephen, All Faith, St. Mary's. 1774. Walter H. Harrison,")" Durham Parish, Charles. 1772. Wm. HANNA,f St. Margaret's Westminster, Ann Arundel co. 1772. Joseph Messenger, St. Andrew's Parish, St. Mary's county. 1767. Thomas John Claggett,! St. Paul's Parish, Prince Geo. co. Thomas Gates, St. Ann's, Annapolis. 1767. John Andrews,! St. Thomas', Baltimore county. 1773. Francis Walker, Kent Island, Queen Anne county. * These are the dates of the respective ordinations of the clergy. f Natives of the States — two natives of Virginia tnd three of New York. 102 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1783 1774. Hamilton Bell,* Stepney Parish, Somerset county. 1763. Leonard Cutting, All Hallows', Worcester county. Will Smith, Stepney Parish, Worcester county. 1774. Ralph Higinbotham, St. Ann's, Ann Arundel county. 1784. Edward Gantt,* Christ Church, Calvert. 1785. Hatch Dent,* Trinity, Charles county. The Convention agreed that until a regular ordination of clergy could be obtained, there should be three clergymen appointed on each Shore, in order to examine such young gentlemen as might offer themselves candidates for Holy Orders in our churches ; such examiners to report their moral character, their knowledge in the learned languages and divinity, and their attachment to the doctrines of the Christian religion as professed and taught in our Church; and to recommend such candidates as upon examination might be thought worthy to serve as readers in any parish that might think proper to employ them, leaving such parishes, as to the administration of the sacraments and other proper functions of the clerical character, to the more immediate direction of such neigh- boring clergymen as might agree to visit them occasionally for the purpose. Dr. Smith, the Rev. Dr. Gordon,f and Dr. Samuel Keene were appointed for the Eastern Shore, and the Rev. Dr. West, % Dr. Thomas John Claggett, and Dr. Thomas Gates, for the Western. On the 15th of May of this year an important event took place in the domestic affairs of Dr. Smith : his eldest daughter, Wil- liamina,§ was married to Charles Goldsborough, Esq., of Horn's * Natives of the States — two natives of Virginia and three of New York. f John Gordon, D. D., a native of Scotland, brought up in the Church, ordained in 1745. On coming to Maryland became the incumbent of St. Ann's, Annapolis; in 1750, of St. Michael's, Talbot; a Whig of the Revolution; after 1776 had a school at his residence ; published three sermons ; died in 1 790, aged upwards of 70. — Allen. J William West, D. D., a native of Virginia, brought up in the Church, ordained in 1 761. Coming from Virginia in 1763, he became the incumbent of Westminster Parish, Ann Arundel county; in 1767 of St. Andrew's, St. Mary's; in 1772 of St. George's, Hartford, and in 1779 Rector of St. Paul's, Baltimore. A Whig of the Revolution; successively Secretary and President of the Maryland Convention, and member of the examining, superintending, and standing committees, and delegate to the General Convention. He died 1791 , set 54. — Allen. \ The portrait of this lady (which accompanies this volume) is taken from a minia- ture in a ring, which tradition says was painted by the unfortunate Major Andre, at the time of the Meschianza, in which she participated. The ring is now the property of Thos. P. Cradock, Esq., of Maryland, to whom I am indebted for its use. — H. W. S. IVILLIAMINA SMITH. mt:-. \t s a. i.k<»k,;k k Co.. Phila: Pa. 1784] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 10- Point, Dorchester county, Maryland. The ceremony war, per- formed in the homestead at Chestertown, by the Rev. Samuel Keene, in the presence of Governor Paca, and a large assembly of the first people of the State, who had been called together by the laying of the comer-stone of Washington College, and the Convention of the Church. Mr. Goldsborough was the son of Robert Goldsborough, Barrister-at-Law ; had been brought up a lawyer; born Nov. 21st, 1761, died June 22d, 1801. CHAPTER XLV. Dr. White, Dr. Blackwell of Pennsylvania and Dr. Beach of New Jersey Desirous of a Continental Convention — Dr. Smith in Maryland Assists the Project— Dr. Smith to Dr. White— A Church Conference is Made at a Meeting of the Clergy to Re-establish the Corporation for the Relief of the Widows and Children of the Clergy, Founded, 1769 — Ecclesiastical Convention of Pennsylvania, May 25TH, 1784 — Declara- tion by it of Principles — Ecclesiastical Convention of Maryland, June 22D, 1784 — Dr. Smith's Sermon at it — Declaration by it of Principles Sufficiently Harmonious with those of the Pennsylvania Convention — Convent-ion of Several States in New York, October 6th, 1784 — Dr. Smith Presides — Fundamental Principles Declared by it, and Proceed- ings End — Dr. Smith Chairman of Committee to Frame an Ecclesias- tical Constitution and to Frame and Propose a Proper Substitute for the State Prayers — Dr. Smith Elected President of the Corporation for the Relief of the Widows, etc. While Dr. Smith was thus actively engaged in the work of education in Maryland and in re-establishing the church in that State, his brethren in Pennsylvania, Dr. White and Dr. Blackwell, were equally active not only in re-establishing the Church in Pennsylvania, but also in the further work of endeavoring to assemble the clergy of all the States in what was called a " Conti- nental Convention." The efforts of the respective parties — orig- inated probably by the Reverend Abraham Beach, D. D., at one time a minister of Trinity Church, New York, but more lately resident in Brunswick, N. J. — were natural to their positions. Dr. Smith had been driven from Pennsylvania by an embittered and prescriptive political faction, and found in the quiet shades of Chestertown a retreat from their gross and exasperating injustice. Maryland, he supposed it probable, might thenceforth become his 104 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE ll 7^4 home ; and there the scene of whatever usefulness, in the order of Providence, it might be allotted to him to be the means of. White, on the other hand, as chaplain of the Congress, and Black- well as chaplain in the main army, for some time close to the Congress, were brought into intimate relations with the represen- tatives of the church from all parts of the countiy, and like most of the men by whom the liberties of the country were achieved on the field, were ever in favor of Union ; of a corporate dignity — both in the State and in the Church. Though now in Pennsylvania, Blackwell's family — an influential one — was of New York, while his first ministerial duties had been in New Jersey, over the whole of which province he had received a license from the Bishop of London in 1 772 to act. These men therefore naturally extended their views over all the States, and were desirous of having a General Convention.* But a General Convention was a hard thing to accomplish. Fears, by some, of what might be resolved on in such a body — the ambitions, probably, of others who, in the church, as was afterwards the case with some in political affairs, knew that their purposes could best be accomplished, and their views best carried out, by the supremacy of State organization — put obstacles in the way. White, Smith, Blackwell, Magaw, Beach, Frazer, Provost, Moore, Wharton, and indeed most of the clergy, so far as I know, of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, while clear upon the necessity of dioceses, of which the States would in that day be the natural limit, were equally desirous of a " Federal Union," as we may call it ; a union by which the church should be made one in organization as it was one in faith. The first efforts at a general convention came from New Jersey, operating upon Pennsylvania and New York ; and a representation from even so many States was brought about, not by any announce- ment that the affairs of the church were to be considered, but by a call upon the clergy and laity who were the trustees of that useful * I ought probably to include with the names of White and Blackwell that of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Magaw, of Philadelphia. But while everything which I ever heard of him is to his honor, we have so little biographical account of him, that I am not able to say with confidence much about him. He was undoubtedly the personal friend of White and of Blackwell, and I believe, generally speaking, a coadjutor with both in most that relates to the church. A biography of him is much needed. I/S4] A'£l~. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 105 and now opulent corporation for the relief of the widows and chil- dren of clergymen — which we have described much at large in our former volume," and which was a corporation, it will be remem- bered, of the three States just named — to assemble at New Bruns- wick, in New Jersey, to consider the best means to save its property, which had been much endangered by different fiscal operations of the Congress and the States, from further peril, and to put the institution again into active and stable operation. This call brought together certain gentlemen of the clergy, to wit : From Pennsylvania, Dr. White, Dr. Magaw and Mr. Black- well. New Jersey, The Rev. Messrs. Beach, Frazer and Ogden. New York, The Rev. Messrs. Bloomer, Benjamin Moore and Thomas Moore. The affairs of the church in the lately British Provinces gener- ally was a natural subject of consideration ; and there happening to be at the time in New Brunswick — though there by public business of a civil kind — some gentlemen of the laity from New York and New Jersey, who were represented by the clergy from those States as taking an interest in the welfare of the church, they were requested to join the meeting of the clergy. These gentle- men of the laity were John Stevens, Richard Stevens, John Dennis, James Parker, Colonel Hoyt and Colonel Furman. And thus was formed, of clergy and laity, the embryo of the General Convention of the church in America. Dr. Smith was not pres- ent at this meeting. The corporation for the relief of the widows, etc., in behalf of which the meeting was called — a Pre-Revolution- ary Corporation — was not a corporation of Maryland, although after going there in 1780, Dr. Smith originated and caused to be there established a similar organization. His name therefore does not appear in any way in this first convention ; if the accidental meeting is to be called " a convention " in any sense in which the word, in connection with the church, is now commonly used. Dr. White presided at this meeting ; and opened it with a sermon. * Tages 423-432. Io6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [I/84 Beyond discussing principles of ecclesiastical union little was done here. But before the clergy parted, it was agreed to procure as general a meeting as might be, of representatives of the clergy and laity of the different States, to be held in the city of New York, on the 6th of October following ; that is to say, the 6th of October, 1784. The gentlemen of New York were to give notice to their brethren eastward, and those »f Philadelphia wer^ to do the same by their brethren southward. Dr. Smith had been apparently in- formed during the session of this meeting of its general purpose; and though as we have already seen* he was desirous not to have the identity or separate existence of Maryland, ecclesiastically obliterated, we find him immediately doing what he could to advance the matter of a general or a " continental convention," and a combined organization of the church throughout the whole country. The following is a letter addressed by him to influential members of Trinity Church, Oxford, Philadelphia — the parish where he had once served while a resident of Pennsylvania, under the appointment of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Dr. Smith to Messrs. Cotman and Johnson. Chestertown, Maryland, May 23d, 1784. To Messrs. Benj. Cotman and Benj. Johnson. I know not what can be done at your meeting of vestries. This, at least, I wish, that a clergyman or two, and about two vestrymen may be appointed a committee to meet committees from the neighboring States at some convenient place, about next October, to fix a general plan for all our Churches, both in respect to Discipline and our Church service. Something fundamental ought also to be agreed upon respecting ordina- tion, &c, similar to what was done in Maryland, a copy of which I gave to Dr. Magaw, declaring that Episcopal ordination is an indispen- sable qualification for every person who may be desirous to hold any living in our Church. Certainly none else can hold any of the Churches heretofore established or built under the Society for the Propagating of the Gospel, nor the Glebes, where any are. There will be committees from several of the Southern States, especially Maryland and Virginia, but they can hardly be got together till toward the end of September. I hope they may be induced to meet as far North as conveniently may be; perhaps at Philadelphia, or Brunswick, or Wilmington, in Delaware State. William Smith. * Supra page 95, LtUer to ihe Rev'd Dr. White. T/84] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. IOJ This letter as appears from an indorsement on the original, yet preserved, was read by Dr. White before the committee at their meeting in Christ Church, Philadelphia, May 25th, 1784. Bishop White, in his Memoirs,* says of this meeting (May 25th, 1784,) at New Brunswick, "that notwithstanding the good humor which prevailed at it, the more Northern clergymen were under apprehensions of there being a disposition on the part of the more Southern to make material deviation from the ecclesiastical system of England in the article of Church government." He adds, for his own part, that "at the same time he wondered that any sensi- ble and well-informed persons should overlook the propriety of accommodating that system, in some respects, to the prevailing sentiments and habits of this country, now become an independent and combined commonwealth." The clergy of Pennsylvania — doubtless in view, alike of quieting the alarms of the Northern churchmen and of guarding against the adoption of some of the very low church principles, or rather, the no church principles, at all, that had a certain prevalence in Virginia and South Carolina — met with lay representatives in convention in Christ Church, Philadelphia, May 24th, 1784, and agreed upon certain matters of the fundamental sort ; which, as "instructions" should bind a standing committee, which the con- vention appointed with power to correspond and confer with re- presentatives from the Episcopal Church in other States, or any of them, to assist in framing an Ecclesiastical Government. The fundamental principles as then declared in Pennsylvania were these : f First. That the Episcopal Church of these States is, and ought to be, independent of all foreign Authority, ecclesiastical or civil. Secondly. That it hath, and ought to have, in common with all other religious societies, full and exclusive Powers to regulate the Concerns of its own Communion. Thirdly. That the Doctrines of the Gospel be maintained as now professed by the Church of England ; and Uniformity of Worship be continued as near as may be to the Liturgy of the said Church. Fourthly. That the Succession of the Ministry be agreeable to the Usage which requireth the three Orders of Bishops, Priests and * Second Edition. New York, 1S36. Page 79. j Wilson's Life of Bishop White, page 100. 108 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE ['784 Deacons; that the Rights and Powers of the same respectively be ascer- tained ; and that they be exercised according tc reasonable Laws, to be duly made. Fifthly. That to make Canons or Laws, there be no other Authority than that of a representative Body of the Clergy and Laity conjointly. SixtJily. That no Powers be delegated to a general ecclesiastical Gov- ernment, except such as cannot conveniently be exercised by the Clergy and Laity in their respective Congregations. Soon after this convention of the clergy and laity of Pennsyl- vania had taken place, Dr. Smith invited a convention of the clergy and laity in Maryland. He was in Philadelphia so late as the 1 8th of June, and probably present, though not as a delegate, at the convention on the 24th of May. It is obvious that between him and Dr. White there was a good understanding, and that the two persons were acting as co-workers to one end. The Convention of Maryland met in that State, at Annapolis, on the 22d of June, 1784, and declared among other things : According to what we conceive to be of true Apostolic Institution, the duty and office of a Bishop differs in nothing from that of other Priests, except in the Power of Ordination and Confirmation, and in the right of precedency in Ecclesiastical meetings or synods. And if any further distinctions and regulations in the different orders of the ministry should afterwards be found necessary for the good government of the Church, the same shall be made and established by the joint voice and authority of a representative body of the Clergy and Laity at future Ecclesiastical Synods and Conventions. Ecclesiastical State Conventions of Synods of this Church shall con- sist of the Clergy and one Lay Delegate or Representative from each Vestry or Parish, or a majority of the same. There was thus a general accord between the churches in the two important States of Pennsylvania and Maryland. And this was an important fact. These two churches made, in terms gen- erally similar, and in moderate but yet firm pretensions, a great and fixed class of principles to which the very low churches south of Mayland, and the quite high ones north and east of Pennsylvania, could perhaps find something on the respective sides to attach themselves to, and so make one and a connected body; though there would be confessedly a considerable difference in the aspect of one extremity of it from the aspect of the oppo- site extremity. 1784] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. IO9 At the Convention of June 22c], 1784, in Maryland, Dr. Smith presided, and preached the opening sermon. The text was those well-known verses from the Second Epistle of Timothy, chapter i., verses 13, 14; chapter iv., verses 3, 4. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus — that good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. For the time will conic when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. The preacher's mode of treating the text shows the heats of which there was danger, in the discussion of those matters which the times demanded should be considered both in State conven- tions and in conventions at large. He opens the discourse in a vein of sarcasm, in which he not unfrequently indulged in political discussion or conversation, and in which he there found a power- ful weapon, but which his high sense, both of dignity and consist- ency, prevented much use of in the pulpit. He was here, however, speaking as he was to the Convention of Maryland, at home and inter suos — more at liberty; and it was perhaps the most effective way to cure some amonsj them affected with stiffness in their cervical vertebra. Thus the Bishop-elect begins : In this very adventurous and inquisitive Day, when men spurning their kindred-earth, 0:1 which they were born to tread, will dare, on airy wing to soar into the regions of the sky; were it the pleasure of our Almighty Creator to purge any of us mortals of our terrestrial dross, and to place us, in good earnest, upon some distant orb, from which with clear and serene view, corporeal as well as intellectual, we could survey this world of ours — what a strange scene would it appear? Itself in the rank of worlds, dwindled into a small mole-hill ; and men, the little emmets upon it, bustling and driving and crossing each other, as if there were no settled walk of life, no common tie, or " Form of sound words to be held fast of all, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus?" In our intellectual view, from this eminence of station, we should behold one set of men, who boast of the all-sufficient and transcendent power of Reason, as their rule and guide; but yet all wandering through different tracts, although in the same pursuits of Happiness and Peace ! Another set of men would be seen who call themselves the Special Favourites of Heaven, and say they are guided by a glorious Inward Light, communicated immediately from the everlasting Foun- IIO LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l7^A tain of all Light ! yet we should not see them walking together in unity, or pursuing any common path or way ; but fiercely contending con- cerning their Inward Light ; some calling their's the good Old-Light, and others calling their's the true New-Light. To whom an old divine of our church, (the venerable Bishop Andrewes,) were he now living, would say — " There is no Light among you — the Devil hath blinded you all." But, Thirdly, we should find another set of men, and those of truly respectable and venerable name, professing themselves guided only by a sure and written Form of Sound Words, revealed and given to them for their Instruction, their Guide, and their Salvation, by their Almighty Creator himself — Yet, alas ! they would be seen, perhaps, almost as irregular and eccentric in all their motions as the rest ! This is a sad view of things — and as the Poet says — " In Pride, in reasoning Pride, the error lies, All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies ! " And would to God, therefore, that, in all Religions and in all Sciences, this accursed root of Bitterness and Contrariety could be wholly plucked out of the Christian world. For until Humanity and divine Charity can have their sway, until our Faith is exercised in Love, and the Truths of God are held in Righteousness of Life, there will never be a total harmony among men ! However strong our Reason, however enlightened our Souls, however ardent our Faith; unless that spirit of Love and Humility be in us, which was in Christ Jesus, all besides will be of little value. With good reason, therefore, does St. Paul admonish his beloved Timothy to let his Faith be exercised in Love, and " to hold fast the Form of sound Words which he had heard of him ; " for even in those early dayc, some had begun to depart from the foundation laid by Christ and his Apostles; following "vain babblings," being like withered leaves, sticking to the tree, only to be blown away by the first wind of doctrine; still desiring to hear some new thing; led by the ear and not by the heart, or as it is strongly expressed in my text, "heap- ing to themselves Teachers, having itching Ears," &c All other marks of our faith, therefore, are vain and delusive, unless we have that Scripture mark of hearts glowing with Love — a transcendent Love, flowing forth in fervent Piety towards God, and universal good- will towards Man ! Faith, therefore, according to my text, cannot be a mere empty assent to truth, but the holding of truth in love. It is love that shews the true nature of faith. By this it must work ; and by this only can God be pleased. For love flowing from faith is the hand-writing of God on the heart. Whatever proceeds from it thus, will bear His 1784] REV, WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. Ill image and superscription. He will know it as His own, and at the last day openly acknowledge it as such before men and angels — This fruit of Love is the mark which our Apostle everywhere gives for the trial of faith and of spirits. The fruits of the spirit are "Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Meekness, Temperance, and the like." He thus speaks of the so-called " evangelical party," whom Whitcfield had raised up to disturb the peace of Zion ; part of which apostatized into Methodists, and part of which, while abandoning the principles of the Church, still remain ostensibly within its pale. Too many, letting go their hold of the form of sound words, and substituting, or mistaking, mere mechanical motions — the fervours of heated imagination — for the true and active signs of Grace, those living impulses of God on the soul, are often carried into the wildest extrava- gances. Fetching the marks of their religion from the notions of visionary or mystical men, instead of looking for them in the life and Gospel of Christ, they set their passions to work, and at length persuade or terrify themselves into all those experiences and feelings, which pass, in their Creed, as the evidences of Salvation. Buoyed up by such strong delusions, they think "they have built their mansions among the Stars, have ascended above the Moon, and left the Sun under their feet;" while they are still but like their Kindred Meteors which, having scarce mounted to the middle regions, are precipitated downwards again by their own gross and earthly particles ! A devotion worked up by fervour, whatever proceeds from the mere force of animal spirits, is of the Earth, earthy; in no manner like to that true Spirit of Regeneration which is of the Lord from Heaven, and begets the divine life in the souls of men. This true celestial warmth will never be extinguished, being of an immortal nature ; and when once vitally seated in the heart, it does not work by fits and starts, but expands itself more and more, regulating, purifying and exalting the whole inward man ! But he deals equally with the mere formal observers of religion. Although it is of great importance, that we adhere to the Form of sound words, as our text directs us ; yet we must not halt at Forms, or fundamental Principles and Doctrines; but we must strive, with all our might and zeal, through the grace given us, " to go on to Perfection." Our Faith must not be a mere empty assent to the truth, but the Hold- ing the Truth in Love. It is Love that shews our Faith to be genuine. By this it must work, and by this only can God be well pleased. For Love flowing from Faith is the Hand-writing of God on the heart. 112 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l7S4 Whatever proceeds from it will bear his Image and Superscription. He will know it as his own, and openly acknowledge it as such, before Men and Angels, at the last day. This Fruit of Love is what St. Paul everywhere holds up for the trial of our Faith and Spirits— "The Fruits of the Spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Long-Suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Meekness, Temperance, and the like." All other marks of the Soundness of our Faith, except these Gospel-marks, namely, the Fruits of the Spirit, are only a danger- ous ministration of fuel for inflammable tempers, or of despair to those of a contrary frame. Come we now to his immediate subject. He continues : Why need I spend more of your time in applying the doctrine of my Text to the present occasion of our meeting? — an occasion (I will only add; on which if you could be indulged to hear the voice of an Apostle or Angel from God, he would preach to you Love and Unity. Consider that you are members of a Church, which is acknowledged by all the Christian World to teach the doctrine of the Gospel, and to hold fast the Form of sound Words, the Faith once delivered to the Saints— a Church which has given to the world a long and illustrious list of eminent Divines, pious Preachers, and even glorious Confessors and Martyrs for the Truth, as it is in Jesus. But in this country at present, such is her state that she calls for the pious assistance and united support of all her true Sons, and of the friends of Christianity in general. Besides a famine of the preached word, her sound Doctrines are deserted by many, who "turn away their ears from the Truth," as taught by her, and heap to themselves Teachers as described in the Text Too many more are spoiled or staggered in their Faith by what is called the Free and Philosophic, but more truly, the loose and libertine principles of the present day.* Many others, from a selfish and niggardly spirit, or from a dissipation of their substance in luxury and intemperance, will not, or cannot, yield the mite which is necessary for supporting the Ordinances of Religion. Thus they become ashamed to appear in the place of God's Worship, leaving the burden of all upon a few, whose conscience and the awful dread of an account t6 be given hereafter, will not suffer them to desert their Master's Gospel, to renounce their Baptism, and trample under foot the Blood of the Covenant wherewith they are sanctified. Hence religion mourns, and the houses and altars of God, erected by the piety of our Forefathers, are deserted and running into ruin. The tempests beat and the winds howl through the shattered roof, and moul- * Even in 1784 the pernicious infidelity of the French Revolution waS beginning to show itself. — II. W. S. 17S4] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 1 3 dering walls of our places of Worship ; while our Burying-grounds and Church-yards, the graves, the monuments, and the bones of our Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters, Children and Friends, are left open and un- protected from the P>easts of the field; as if all our care was only to succeed to the honours, the estates and places of emolument which belonged to our Friends and Ancestors, without any regard to their Memories or venerable Ashes ! In the late times of war, distress and confusion, there might be some plea for this reproach of our Christian name; but now, with the blessed prospects of Peace, Liberty, Safety and future Prosperity before us, I trust this reproach will be speedily done away; to which nothing can so eminently contribute as Love and Union among ourselves, joined to a rational and enlightened Zeal and public Spirit. For, in all our pur- suits, we must rest at plain and practical points at last, which are few in number, and in Religion come to little more than Solomon declared, viz. that "the Fear of God and keeping his Commandments is the whole duty of Man;" or, in all the Sciences, what another wise man declared to be the Sum of all his inquiries — that Temperance is the best Physic, Patience the best Law, Charity the best Divinity ! O Heaven-born Charity ! what excellent things are spoken of thee ! What a transcendent rank was assigned thee, when the Saviour of the World gave thee as the badge of his holy Religion; and his inspired Apostles enthroned thee as the Queen of all Evangelic Graces and Vir- tues ! Could the tongues of men or of angels exalt thee more than this — declaring — "That neither the Martyr's Zeal, the Self-denial of the Saint, nor all Knowledge, nor any Virtue besides, can profit or adorn the Man, who is unadorned with thy sweet celestial Garb! But he who is thus adorned is the most august human spectacle upon earth — whom even Angels behold with delight, as clothed in that peculiar Garb which Christ vouchsafed to wear here below, and which shall not need to be put off above: and therefore, if on every slight occasion, or indeed on any occasion, we cast off this Garb, we are none his true Disciples ! Wherefore then, Brethren, put on this most excellent gift of Charity. Try the Faith that is in you by this great Test — Hold fast the Form of sound Words, the holy Scriptures, the pure Doctrines, the excellent Forms of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving, drawn from Scripture by our Church — Hold them fast in Faith working by Love. Take them for your perfect rule and guide — They will make you wise unto Salva- tion— Whatever is imagined more, or beyond Scripture — all that is beside final Perfection and Salvation, count it vain and superfluous. 114 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1784 Seek not to be wise above what is tvritten, nor establish any vain imagi- nations of your own for the sure Form of sound Words. What you have received, hold fast with a fervent and enlightened, but with a holy and charitable, Zeal. Add nothing, diminish nothing ; but let this Lamp of God shine among >ou till the Day Dawn, till the Morning of the Resurrection; and walk ye in the Light of it, not kindling any Sparkles of your own to mix with its pure and hallowed Lustre. Let not your best State too much elevate, nor your worst too much depress, you. Whereunto you have attained, walk ; yet sit not down with attainments, but forgetting what is behind, press still forward, having perfect Holiness in your eye and purpose. " Remember that Faith without Works is dead. Remember that Gcd commands Works, Grace establishes them, Christ died to confirm them, the Spirit is given to influence them; and that, without a holy, humble and peaceable Life, we annul the Law, abuse the Gospel, tram- ple upon Grace, frustrate the end of Christ's Death, grieve the Spirit, dishonour God, and give the lie to our holy Profession." If one com- ing as an Apostle or as an Angel from Heaven, were to preach to you any other Gospel than you have received, I trust, you would say, let him not be believed. Thus, with the Truth in our Heads and Love in our Hearts; with Zeal and public Spirit; with a concern for Liberty, Civil and Religious ; with Industry and Economy; with a strict care for the Education of Youth, and their nurture and admonition in the Fear of the Lord; this American land shall become a great and glorious Empire! — Hasten, O blessed God, hasten this glorious period of thy Son's Kingdom, which we know shall yet come! And, O ye, who now enjoy the blessed opportunity, be ye the happy means of hastening it. Adorn by your lives the Divine doctrines which you profess with your lips; that the Heathen and Unbeliever, seeing your good Works may be the sooner led to glorify your Father who is in Heaven ! * Bishop White, in a passage of his memoirs, which we quote here, often speaks of the great service done to the church by the last two conventions in Maryland, to which we have referred, and which he rightly says "were chiefly originated and conducted by Dr. Smith." * This sermon was published at the time with the following dedication : To his Excellency | William Paca, Esquire, | Governor and Commander in Chief of the State of | Maryland, &c. | The following Sermon | is inscribed, | in sincere testimony and acknowledgment, | as well of his public zeal and regard | for the | in- terests of Religion aud Learning, | as of | the private friendship and esteem, | with which, I from an early period of his life, | hath subsisted between him, | and his most affectionate, | old preceptor, | and obedient servant, | the Author. | 1/84] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 115 The churches of Maryland and Pennsylvania being now, as we have said, in sufficient accord, and their principles such, in the main, as churchmen could generally admit, the general conven- tion, which the clergy and laymen who had been at New Bruns- wick in May had recommended should take place at New York, on the 6th of October, 1784, now took place. There came to this Convention From Massachusetts and f The Rev_ Samud parkef< Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, The Rev. J. R. Marshall. The Rev. Messrs. Samuel Provoost, Abraham Beach, Benjamin Moore, Joshua Bloomer, Leonard Cutting, I and Thomas Moore, with the Hon. James Duane and Marinus Millet and John Alsop, Esquires. "The Rev. Drs. White and Magaw, the Rev. Mr. Joseph Hutchins, \ with Mathew Clarkson, Richard I Willing, Samuel Powcl and Richard (^Peters, Esquires. ("The Rev. Uzal Ogden, John De < Hart, Esq., John Chetwood, Esq., ( with Mr. Samuel Spragg. ( The Revs. Sydenham Thorn and < Charles Henry Wharton, with Mr. ( Robert Clay. The Rev. Dr. William Smith. The Rev. David Griffith (afterwards Bishop-elect of Virginia) was present by permission, but not as a delegate — the clergy of Virginia, by laws of that State then in force, being restricted from sending delegates. Of this body, Dr. Smith was chosen President ; the Rev. Benja- min Moore, afterwards the excellent and honored Bishop of New York, being the secretary. The body recommended to the clergy and congregations of their communion in the States represented as above, and proposed to those of the other States not represented, that as soon as they should have organized themselves in the States to which they respectively belonged, agreeably to such rules as they should Il6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D784 think proper, they should unite in a General Ecclesiastical Constitution on the following fundamental principles : I. That there shall be a General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. II. That the Episcopal Church in each State send Deputies to the Convention, consisting of Clergy and Laity. III. That associated Congregations in two or more States may send Deputies jointly. IV. That the said church shall maintain the Doctrines of the Gospel as now held by the Church of England, and shall adhere to the Liturgy of the said Church as far as shall be consistent with the American Revolution and the Constitutions of the respective States. V. That every State where there shall be a Bishop duly consecrated and settled, he shall be considered as a member of the Convention, ex-officio. VI. That the Clergy and Laity assembled in Convention, shall delib- erate in one Body, but shall vote separately ; and the concurrence of both shall be necessary to give validity to every measure. VII. That the first meeting of the Convention shall be at Philadel- phia, the Tuesday before the Feast of St. Michael next; to which it is hoped, and earnestly desired, that the Episcopal Churches in their respective States will send their clerical and lay Deputies herein proposed for their Deliberation. A committee was appointed to essay the fundamental principles of a general constitution. The following gentlemen were appointed : The Rev. Dr. Smith, Rev. Dr. White, Rev. Mr. Parker, Rev. Mr. Provoost, Mr. Clarkson, Mr. De Hart, Mr. Clay, Mr. Duane ; and they were likewise desired to frame and propose to the Convention a proper substitute for the State prayers in the liturgy, to be used for the sake of uniformity, till a further review should be undertaken by general authority and consent of the Church — Dr. Smith was chairman of this important Committee. While at this Convention of the Church, in October, 1784, Dr. Smith, with its other trustees, continued the good work, which had been begun in May of the same year, of re-establishing the corporation for the relief of the widows and children of the clergy. The historian of the corporation says:* * John William Wallace, LL. D., in "A Century of Beneficence— 1769-1^ Philadelphia, 1869, pp. 41, 42, 43. I/84] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, £>. D. \\J "The late president, Dr. Peters, having died July 10th, 1776, and it being now proposed to appoint a chairman to open business, Dr. Smith was chosen for that purpose. The Rev. Benjamin Moore, afterwards the venerable Bishop Moore, of New York, acted as the secretary. The first thing was the appointment of a committee of three clerical and three lay members — Drs. Smith, White and Provoost, being appointed from the former, and Messrs. Duane, Peters and Livingston, from the latter — ' to examine into the affairs of this Corporation since the last meeting at Philadelphia, on Tuesday after the feast of St. Michael, in the year 1775, and to report thereon as soon as may be.' Having adjourned to attend divine service at St. Paul's Church, New York, on Wednesday the 6th, where the annual sermon was preached by Dr. Magaw, the Rector of St. Paul's Church, Philadelphia, the Corpora- tion then afterwards proceeded to ballot for twenty-nine new members. Their names appear upon the roll of corporators, under the date of 1784. It is interesting to note the names of General Alexander Ham- ilton, then in his 27th year, and of John Jay, among those from New York, and of both Robert and Gouverneur Morris, among those from Pennsylvania. Officers were also elected ; Dr. Smith, now venerable for his years, and deserving such honor from his long and great service to the Society, was appointed president ; and the Rev. Benjamin Moore, already mentioned, secretary. The treasurers were, for New York, John Alsop ; for New Jersey, Joshua Maddox Wallace ; and for Pennsylvania, Samuel Powel — this last reappointed. Standing com- mittees of correspondence, and for obtaining an alteration and confir- mation of the charter, were also elected — Dr. White and Mr. Peters, for Pennsylvania; Messrs. John Stevens and J. M. Wallace, for New Jersey; and Messrs. Duane, Robert R. Livingston, with the Rev. Mr. Provoost, for New York — the first and second named gentlemen in regard to the charter, and the first and third as a standing committee. " Dr. Smith, after the adjournment of the meeting at New York, remained behind in that city to preach there on the following Sunday, both morning and afternoon, which he did with so good effect as to have added ^112 lgs. lod. to the corporate moneys." Il8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 CHAPTER XLVI. Convention of the Church in Seven States, held a. d. 1785, at Christ Church in Philadelphia — Dr. Smith Chairman of a Committee to make a Review of and Further Alterations, with Additions to the Lit- urgy— The Thirty-nine Articles Presented in a Condensed Form — The Alterations, Additions and Condensation Adopted by the Con- vention— The Whole Ordered to be Printed in a Book — The Proposed Book — Dr. Smith Requested to Preach a Sermon at the Close of the Convention suited to the Solemn Occasion — He does so — Extracts from the Sermon — Dr. White, Dr. Smith and the Rev. Mr. C. H. Wharton, at this time of New Castle, Delaware, but better known afterwards as Dr. Wharton, of Burlington, N. J., appointed a Com- mittee to see the Proposed Book through the Press. As will have been observed by the reader, the fourth funda- mental article adopted by the Convention of 1784* laid down as a principle that the church in America should adhere to the liturgy of the Church of England, so far as should be consistent with the American Revolution and the constitutions of the respective States ; and the power entrusted by the same Convention, to the committee of which Dr. Smith was chairman, was confined, of course, to framing and proposing a proper substitute for the State prayers, to be used for the sake of uniformity till a further review should be undertaken by general authority and consent of the church. Dr. Smith, I think it probable, was the person chiefly desirous of a further considerable review, and the person chiefly active in bringing on a discussion concerning the change, and in suggesting and introducing the particulars of it. The prospect which was held out, in the language by which the committee was constituted, led, no doubt, after the adjournment of the Convention of New York, October 6th and 7th, 1784, to a good deal of consideration and conversation upon the subject by churchmen who were pre- sent and assisted at that convention, before the next convention was held ; that is to say, before the 27th of September, 1785, when this next convention met in Philadelphia. * See supra, p. 107. 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. I 1 9 This Philadelphia Convention of 1785 appointed a committee, of which Dr. Smith was again the chairman, "to considei of and report such alterations in the liturgy as shall render it consistent with the American Revolution and the constitutions of the respec- tive States, and such further alterations in the liturgy as it may be advisable for this Convention to recommend." This committee, which was in part clerical, and in part lay, was thus composed : r M ,, f The Rev. Mr. Provoost and the Hon. For New \ ork, - ,T ^ ' [ Mr. Duane. " New Jersey, The Rev. Mr. Beach and Mr. Dennis. " Pennsylvania, The Rev. Dr. White and Mr. Peters. The Rev. Dr. Wharton and Mr. Sykes. The Rev. Dr. Smith and Dr. Delaware. t.t f ihe Rev. D MAR^LAXD- { Cradock. Virginia, The Rev. Mr. ( c r /The Rev. Dr. I South Carolina, j Mf Read Virginia, The Rev. Mr. Griffith and Mr. Page. The Rev. Dr. Purcell and the Hon. This committee made frequent reports. It having been resolved by this Convention that the 4th of July should be forever ob- served as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the in- estimable blessings of Religious and Civil Liberty vouchsafed to the United States of America, a committee, consisting of the Rev. Dr. Smith, the Rev. Dr. Magaw, the Rev. Dr. Wharton and the Rev. Mr. Campbell, were appointed to prepare the proper form of prayer and thanksgiving. The alterations which, according to a record left us by Bishop White in his Memoirs,* were resolved on, and the alteration pro- posed and recommended by the General Convention of 1785 — General we call it, though no churches from the New England States were represented — were these. They were made after reports from the committee : I. Alterations agreed on and confirmed in Convention, for rendering the Liturgy conformable to the pri?iciples of the American Revolution, and the constitutions of the several States. * Second Edition. New York, 1836, page 363. 120 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF 'J HE [ I 785 1st. That in the suffrages after the Creed, instead of 0 Lord, save the King, be said : O Lord, bless and preserve these United States. 2d. That the prayer for the Royal family, in the morning and evening service, be omitted. 3d. That in the Litany the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th petitions be omitted, and that instead of the 20th and 21st petitions, be substituted the following : That it may please Thee to endue the Congress of these United States, and all others in authority, legislative, executive, and judicial, with grace, wisdom and under- standing, to execute justice and to maintain truth. 4th. That when the Litany is not said, the prayer for the high court of Parliament be thus altered: Most gracious God, we humbly beseech Thee, as for these United States in general, so especially for their delegates in Congress, that thou wouldest be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations to the advancement of thy glory, the good of thy Church, the safety, honour, and welfare of thy people, that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavors upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations, &c, to the end. And the prayer for the king's majesty, altered as follows, viz.: O Lord, our heavenly Father, the high and mighty Ruler of the universe, who dost from thy Throne behold all the Dwellers upon Earth ; we most heartily beseech thee, with thy Favour to behold all in Authority, legislative, executive and judicial in these United States; and so replenish them with the Grace of thy holy Spirit, that they may alway incline to thy will and walk in thy way. Endue them plenteously with heavenly Gifts, grant them in Health and Wealth long to live and, that after this Life, they may attain everlasting Joy and Felicity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 5th. That the 1st Collect for the King in the Communion Service be omitted : and that the second be altered as follows — instead of The hearts of Kings are in thy rule and governance, be said : That the hearts of all Rulers are in thy governance, &c. ; and instead of the words heart of George thy servant, insert, so to direct the Rulers of these States, that in all their thoughts, &c. — ■ changing the singular pronouns to the plural. 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 121 6th. That in the answer in the Catechism to the question, What is thy duty towards thy neighbour? for, to honour and obey the king, be substituted to honour and obey my civil rulers, to submit myself, &c. 7th. That in the Forms of Prayer to be used at Sea, in the Prayer " O eternal God, iSrc," instead of these Words, unto our most gracious Sovereign Lord King George and his Kingdoms, be inserted the Words, to the United States of America ; and that instead of the Word " Island " be inserted the Word " Coun- try ; " and in the collect "O Almighty God, the Sovereign Command- er," be omitted the Words, "the Honour of our Sovereign," and the Words " the Honour of our Country " inserted. 8th. That instead of the observation of the 5th of November, the 30th of January, the 29th of May, and the 25th of October, the follow- ing service be used on the 4th of July, being the Anniversary of Independence. Service for the 4 th of duly. With the Sentences before Morning and Evening Prayer. The Lord hath been mindful of us, and he shall bless us, he shall bless them that fear him, both small and great. O that men would therefore praise the Lord, for his goodness, and declare the wonders that he doeth for the children of men. Hymn instead of the Venite. My song shall be alway of the loving kindness of the Lord : with my mouth will I ever be showing forth his truth from one generation to another. Psal. Ixxxix. I. The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done his marvellous works : that they ought to be had in remembrance. Psal. cxi. 4. Who can express the noble acts of the Lord : or show forth all his praise. Psal. cvi. 2. The works of the Lord are great : sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Psal. cxi. 2. For he will not alway be chicling : neither keepeth he his anger forever. Psal. ciii. 9. He hath not dealt with us after our sins: nor rewarded us according to our wicked- ness. Verse 10. For look how high the heaven is in comparison of the earth ; so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. Verse 11. Yea, like as a father pitieth his own children : even so is the Lord merciful unto them that fear him. Verse 11. 122 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 Thou, O God, hast proved us : thou also hast tried us, like as silver is tried. Psal. lxvi. 9. Thou didst remember us in our low estate, and redeem us from our enemies : for thy mercy endureth forever. Psal. cxxxvi. 23, 24. Proper- Psalms, cxviii. except v. 10, II, 12, 13, 22, 23, and to conclude with v. 24. I. Lesson, Deut. viii. 2. Lesson, Thess. v. verses 12-23 both inclusive. Collect for the Day. Almighty God, who hast in all ages showed forth thy power and mercy in the won- derful preservation of thy church, and in the protection of every nation and people professing thy holy and eternal truth, and putting their sure trust in thee ; we yield thee our unfeigned thanks and praise for all thy public mercies, and more especially for that signal and wonderful manifestation of thy providence which we commemorate this day ; wherefore not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name be ascribed all honour and glory, in all churches of the Saints, from generation to generation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. A Thanksgiving for the Day, to ee said after the General Thanksgiving. O God, whose name is excellent in all the earth, and thy glory above the heavens; who as on this day didst inspire and direct the hearts of our delegates in Congress, to lay the perpetual foundations of peace, liberty, and safety; we bless and adore thy glorious Majesty, for this thy loving kindness and providence. And we humbly pray that the devout sense of this signal mercy may renew and increase in us a spirit of love and thankfulness to thee its only Author, a spirit of peaceable submission to the laws and government of our country, and a spirit of fervent zeal for our holy religion, which thou hast preserved and secured to us and our posterity. May we improve these ines- timable blessings for the advancement of religion, liberty and science throughout this land, till the wilderness and solitary place be made glad through us, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose. This we beg through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.* II. Alterations in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, ac- cording to the use of the Church of England, proposed and recommended to the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. In the Order for Morning and Evening, service Daily throughout the Year. 1st. The following Sentences of Scripture are ordered to be prefixed to the usual Sentences, viz. : The Lord is in his Holy Temple; let all the Earth keep Silence before him. Hab. ii. 20. * The Epistle and the Gospel were added by the Committee, afier the Convention had adjourned, agreeably to an authority which they conceived lobe vested in them, in the appointment made by the Convention of them to see the proposed book through the press. I785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. I2J From the Rising of the Sun even unto the going down of the Same, my Name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every Place Incense shall be offered unto my Name, and a pure Offering : for my Name shall be great among the Heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts. Mai. i. II. Let the words of my Mouth, and the meditation of my Heart, be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer. Psal. xix. 14. 2d. That the Rubric preceding the Absolution be altered thus : A declaration to be made by the Minister alone, standing, concerning the forgive- ness of sins. 3d. That in the Lord's prayer, the word "who" be substituted in lieu of "which;" and that "those who trespass" stand instead of "them that trespass." 4th. That the " Gloria Patri" be omitted after the "O come let us sing, &c," and in every other place, where, by the present Rubric, it is ordered to be inserted, to "the end of the" reading psalms; when shall be said or sung "Gloria Patri, &c," or, "Glory be to God on high, and in earth peace and good will towards men, &c," at the dis- cretion of the Minister. 5th. That in the " Te Deum" instead of honourable it be adorable, true, and only Son, and instead of didst not abhor the Virgin's womb, it be didst humble thyself to be born of a pure Virgin. 6th. That until a proper selection of Psalms be made, each Minister be allowed to use such as he may choose. 7th. That the same liberty be allowed, respecting the lessons. 8th. That the article in the Apostles' creed " He descended into hell" be omitted. 9th. That the Athanasian and the Nicene creeds be entirely omitted. 10th. That after the response "and with thy spirit," all be omitted to the words "O Lord show thy mercy upon us;" which the Minister shall pronounce, still kneeling. nth. That in the suffrage "make thy chosen people joyful," the word "chosen" be omitted; and also the following suffrages, to "O God, make clean our hearts within us." 12th. That the Rubric after these words "and take not thy Holy Spirit from us," be omitted. Then the two collects to be said : in the collect for grace, the words "be ordered," to be omitted; and the word "be" inserted, instead of "to do alway that is." 124 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 13th. In the collect "for the Clergy and People," read — Almighty and everlasting God, send down upon all Bishops and other Pastors, and the Congregations committee, &c, to the end. 14th.* 15th. That the Lord's prayer after the Litany, and the subsequent Rubric be omitted. 16th. That the short Litany be read as follows: Son of God, we beseech thee to hear us. Son of God, we beseech thee to hear us. O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, Grant us thy peace. O Christ, hear us. Lord, have lr.ercy upon us and deal not with us according to our sins, neither reward us according to our iniquities. After which, omit the words — " Let us pray." 17th. That the "Gloria Patri," after "O Lord arise, &c," be omitted ; as also " Let us pray," after " we put our trust in thee." 1 8th. That in the following prayer, instead of righteously have deserved, it be justly have deserved. 19th. That in the 1st warning for the Communion, the word "damna- tion," following these words "increase your, &c," be read "condemna- tion ; " and the two paragraphs after these words "or else come not to that holy table," be omitted ; and the following one be read : and if there be any of you, who by these means, cannot quiet their conscience, &c. The words "learned and discreet," epithets given to the ministers, to be also omitted. 20th. In the exhortation to the communion, let it run thus: For as the benefit is great, &c, to drink his blood, so is the danger great, if we re- ceive the same unworthily. Judge therefore yourselves, &c. 21st. That in the rubric preceding the absolution, instead of pronounce this absolution, it be Then shall the minister stand up, and turning to the people say, &c. 22d. That in the baptism of infants, parents may be admitted as sponsDrs. 23d. That the minister, in speaking to the sponsors, after these words * Here is an erasure from the manuscript : the article being found a repetition of part of the 4th. Vide White's Memoirs, p. 367, where " 13th" is a misprint for " 4th." 1785] ' XEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 25 "vouchsafe to release him," say, ''release him from sin." In the second prayer, instead of remission of his sins, read remission of sin. 24th. That in the questions addressed to the sponsors, and the an- swers, instead of the present Form, it b. as follows: the sinful desires of the flesh. 25 th. Dost thou believe the articles of the Christian faith, as contained in the Apostles' creed, and wilt thou endeavour to have this child instructed accordingly? Answer: I do believe them, and, by God's help, will endeavour so to do. Will thou endeavour to have him brought up in the fear of God, and to obey God's holy will and commandments? Answer: I will, by God's assistance. 26th. That the sign of the cross may be omitted, if particularly de- sired by the Sponsors or Parents, and the prayer to be thus altered (by the direction of a short rubric) : We receive this child into the congregation of Christ's flock ; and pray that here- after he may never be ashamed, &c, to the end. 27th. That the address, "seeing now dearly beloved, £:c," be omitted. 28th. That the prayer after the Lord's prayer be thus changed : We yield thee hearty thanks, &c, to receive this Infant as thine own child by baptism, and to incorporate him, &c. 29th. That in the following exhortation, the words "to renounce the devil and all his works," and in the charge to the sponsors, the words "vulgar tongue" be omitted. 30th. That the forms of private baptism and of confirmation be made conformable to these alterations. 31st. That in the exhortation before matrimony, all between these words "holy matrimony," and "therefore if any man, &:c.," be omitted. 32d. That the words "I plight thee my troth" be omitted in both places ; and also the words " with my body I thee worship ; " and also " pledged their troth either to other." 33d. That all after the blessing be omitted. 34th. In the burial service, instead of the two Psalms, take the fol- lowing verses of both, viz. : Psalm xxxix., verses 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, and Psalm xc, to verse 13. In the rubric, the words " unbaptized or" to be omitted. 126 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 For the Declaration and form of interment, beginning " Forasmuch as, &c," insert the following, viz. : Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, in his wise Providence, to take out of this world the soul of our deceased brother (sister) lying now before us; We therefore commit his (her) body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; (thus at sea — to the deep to be turned into corruption) looking for the general resurrection in the last day, and the life of the world to come, thro' our Lord Jesus Christ; at whose second coming in glorious Majesty, to judge the world, the earth and the sea shall give up their dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like unto his own glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things unto Himself. In the sentence "I heard a voice, &c," insert "who" for "which." The prayer following the Lord's prayer to be omitted. In the next collect, leave out the words "as our hope is, this our brother doth." For "them that," insert "those who." 35th. In the visitation of the sick, instead of the absolution as it now stands, insert the declaration of forgiveness which is appointed for the communion service; or either of the collects, which are taken from the Commination office, and appropriated to Ash Wednesday, maybe used. In the Psalm, omit the 3d, 6th, 8th, 9th, and nth verses. In the Commendatory prayer, for "miserable and naughty," say "vain and miserable." Strike out the word "purged." In the prayer "for persons troubled in mind," omit all that stands between the words "afflicted servant," and "his soul is full, &c," and instead thereof say " afflicted servant, whose soul is full of trouble," and strike out the particle "but," and proceed, "O merciful God, &c." 36th. A form of Prayer and visitation of Prisoners for notorious crimes, and especially persons under sentence of death, being much wanted, the form entitled " Prayers for persons under sentence of death, agreed upon in a Synod of the archbishops and bishops, and the rest of the clergy of Ireland, at Dublin, in the year 1 71 1," as it now stands in the book of Common Prayer of the Church of Ireland, rs agreed upon, and ordered to be adopted, with the following alterations, viz. : For the absolution, take the same declaration of forgiveness, or either of the collects above directed for the visitation of the sick. The short collect "O Saviour of the world, &c," to be left out ; and for the word "frailness," say "frailty." 37th. In the Catechism, besides the alteration respecting the civil Powers, alter as follows, viz. : Q. — What is your name ? A.— N. M. Q. — When did you receive this name? A. I received it in Baptism, whereby I became a member of the Christian church. 1785] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 27 Q. — What was promised for you in Baptism ? A. — That I should be instructed to believe the Christian faith, as contained in the Apostles' Creed, and to obey God's holy will, and keep his commandments. Q. — Dost thou think thou art bound to believe all the articles of the Christian faith, as contained in this creed, and to obey God's holy will and keep his commandments? A. — Yes, verily, &c. Instead of the words "verily, and indeed taken," say — "spiritually taken." Answer to Question "How many sacraments ? " " Two, Baptism and the Lord's Supper." 38th. Instead of a particular Service for the churching of women and psalms, the following special prayer is to be introduced, after the General Thanksgiving, viz. : This to be said, when any woman desires tc return thanks, ccc. O Almighty God, we give thee most humble and hearty thanks, for that thou hast been graciously pleased to preserve this woman, thy servant, through the great pains and perils of childbirth. Incline her, we beseech thee, to show forth her thankfulness, for this thy great mercy, not only with her lips, but by a holy and virtuous life. Be pleased, O God, so to establish her health, that she may lead the remainder of he days to thy honour and glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 39th. The Commination office for Ash Wednesday to be discontinued, and therefore the three collects, the first beginning — " O Lord, we beseech thee," — 2d, " O most mighty God," — 3d, "Turn us, O Good Lord," shall be continued among the occasional prayers; and used after the collect on Ash Wednesday, and on such other occasions as the minister shall think fit. ///. Articles of Religion, 1. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. There is but one living, true, and eternal God, the Father Almighty; without body, parts or passions ; of infinite power, wisdom and good- ness; the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible: and one Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, very and true God ; who came down from heaven, took man's nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin of her substance, and was God and man in one person, whereof is one Christ; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice for the sins of all men ; He rose again from death, ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he shall return to judge the world at the last day: and one Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, of the same divine nature with the Father and the Son. ?.. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation. Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein : nor may be proved thereby, is not to 128 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scriptures we do understand the canonical books of the Old and New Testament. Of the names and members of the canonical Books. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, The 1st Book of Samuel, The 2d Book of Samuel, The 1st Book of Kings, The 2d Book of Kings, The 1st Book of Chronicles, The 2d Book of Chronicles, The 1st Book of Esdras, The 2d Book of Esdras, The Book of Hester, The Book of Job, The Psalms, The Proverbs, Ecclesiastes or Preacher, Cantica or Songs of Solomon, Four Prophets the greater, Twelve Prophets the less. And the other books the Church doth read for example of life, and instruction of manners ; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine; such are these following: The 3d Book of Esdras, The 4th Book of Esdras, The Book of Tobias, The Book of Judith, The rest of the Book cf Hester, The Book of Wis- dom, Jesus the Son of Sirach, Baruch the Prophet, The Song of the three Children, The Story of Susanna, Of Bell and the Dragon, The Prayer of Manasses, The 1st Book of Maccabees, The 2d Book of Maccabees. All the books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive and account them canonical. 3. Of the Old and New Testament. There is a perfect harmony and agreement between the Old Testa- ment and the New; for in both, everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only mediator between God and man ; being both God and man : and altho' the law given by Moses, as to ceremonies and the civil precepts of it, doth not bind Christians : yet all such are obliged to observe the moral commandments which he delivered. 4. Of Creeds. The creed, commonly called the Apostles' creed, ought to be received and believed : because it may be proved by the Holy Scripture. 5. Of Original Sin. By the fall of Adam, the nature of man is become so corrupt, as to be greatly depraved, having departed from its primitive innocence, and that original righteousness in which it was at first created by God. For we are now so naturally inclined to do evil that the flesh is continually striving to act contrary to the Spirit of God, which corrupt inclination still remains even in the regenerate. But tho' there is no man living 1/35] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 129 who sinneth not ; yet we must use our sincere endeavors to keep the whole Law of God, so far as we possibly can. 6. Of Free-Will. The Condition of man after the fall of Adam, is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God : Wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasing and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ giving us a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will. 7. Of the Justification of Man. We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works, or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort. 8. Of Good Works. Albeit that good works, which are the fruits of Faith and follow after Justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment ; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known, as a Tree discerned by the Fruit. 9. Of Christ alone without Sin. Christ, by taking human nature on him, was made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted. He was a lamb without spot, and by the sacrifice of himself once offered, made atonement and propitiation for the sins of the world ; and sin was not in him. But all mankind besides, tho' baptized and born again in Christ, do offend in many things. For if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 10. Of Sin after Baptism. They who fall into sin after baptism may be renewed by repentance : for tho' after we have received God's grace, we may depart from it by falling into sin ; yet thro' the assistance of his Holy Spirit, we may by repentance and the amendment of our lives, be restored again to his favour. God will not deny repentance of sins to those who truly repent, and do that which is lawful and right ; but all such thro' his mercy in Christ Jesus, shall save their souls alive. 11. Of Predestination. Predestination to Life, with respect to every man's salvation, is the everlasting purpose of God, secret to us: and the right knowledge of what is revealed concerning it, is full of comfort to such truly religious Christians, as feel in themselves the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the 9 130 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 works of their flesh, and their earthly affections, and raising their minds to heavenly things. But we must receive God's promises as they be generally declared in Holy Scripture, and do his will, as therein i; expressly directed; for without Holiness of Life no man shall be saved. 12. Of Obtaining Eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ. They are to be accounted presumptuous, who say, that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that law, and the light of nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved. 13. Of the Church and its Authority. The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, wherein the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments are duly administered, according to Christ's ordinance in all things necessary and requisite : And every Church hath power to ordain, change and abolish rites and ceremonies, for the more decent order and good gov- ernment thereof, so that all things be done to edifying. But it is not lawful for the Church to ordain anything contrary to God's word ; nor so to expound the Scripture, as to make one part seem repugnant to another ; nor to decree or enforce anything to be believed as necessary to salvation, that is contrary to God's holy word. General Councils and Churches are liable to err, and have erred, even in matters of Faith and Doctrine, as well as in their ceremonies. 14. Of Ministering in the Congregation. It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the Sacraments in the Congregation, before he be lawfully called, and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, who are chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the congregation, to call and send Ministers into the Lord's vineyard. 15. Of the Sacraments. Sacraments ordained of Christ, be not only badges or tokens of Christian men's profession : but rather they be certain sure witnesses, and effectual signs of Grace, and God's good will towards us, by the which he doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but also strengthen and confirm our Faith in him. There are Two Sacraments ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. I785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, I). D. 131 16. Of Baptism. Baptism is not only a Sign of profession and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not Christened; but it is also a sign of regeneration or new Birth, whereby as by an In- strument, they that receive Baptism rightly, are grafted into the Church; the promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our Adoption to be the Sons of God, by the Holy Ghost, are visibly sign'd and sealed ; Faith is confirm'd, and Grace increas'd by virtue of prayer unto God. The Baptism of young Children is in any wise to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with the Institution of Christ. 17. Of the Lord's Supper. The Supper of the Lord is not only a Sign of the Love that Chris- tians ought to have among themselves one to another ; but rather is a Sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death : Insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily and with faith receive the same, the Bread which we break, is a partaking of the Body of Christ : and likewise the Cup of Blessing, is a partaking of the Blood of Christ. Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy Writ ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. The Body of Christ is given, taken and eaten in the Supper of the Lord only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith. 18. Of the one Oblation of Christ upon the Cross. The offering of Christ once made, is that perfect redemption, pro- pitiation and satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual; and there is none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone. 19. Of Bishops and Ministers. The Book of Consecration of Bishops and Ordering of Priests and Deacons; excepting such part as requires any oaths or subscriptions in- consistent with the American Revolution, is to be adopted as containing all things necessary to such consecration and ordering. 20. Of a Christian Man's Oath. The Christian Religion doth not prohibit any man from taking an oath, when required by the Magistrate in testimony of Truth ; But all vain and rash swearing is forbidden by the Holy Scriptures.* * These articles, though now superceded by the original thirty-nine articles of the Church of England, adopted by us in 1789, may still, perhaps, I rather take it, be re- ferred to as explaining these last when not clear. — H. W. S. 132 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE LI78S IV. The Table of Holy Days. The following Days are to be kept Holy by this Church, viz. : All the Sundays in the year in the Order enumerated in the Table of Proper Lessons with their respective Services. Christmas. Circumcision. Epiphany. Easter Day, Monday and Tuesday. Ascension Day. Whit-Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The following Days are to be observed as Days of Fasting, viz. : Good Friday and Ash Wednesday. The following Days are to be observed as Days of Thanksgiving, viz. : The 4th of July, in commemoration of American Independence. The First Thursday in November as a Day of General Thanksgiving. After the alterations, abridgments, additions and modifications in the Liturgy which we have spoken of above, under our Head II, had been agreed to by the Convention, they were proposed and recommended to the Church in those States from which there were deputies to the Convention ; and the Articles of Religion as pre- sented in their new form were recommended to the Church to be by them adopted in the next General Convention. Nothing as yet was in print ; but the new Liturgy being transcribed and having' been read, Divine Service according' to it was held in Christ Church, Dr. White saying the prayers and the Rev. Dr. Smith preaching a sermon, as he had been requested by the Convention to do, " suited to the solemn occasion of the Conven- tion." This proceeding took place October 7th, 1785. The text is from St. Luke, chap, xiv., ver. 23 : And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. The earlier part of the discourse probably had not been written for this special occasion, and may have been used merely as a suitable introduction for more particular matter. The preacher begins : In the parable, of which the words of my text are a part, the unspeak- able happiness of the kingdom of God, as begun in the hearts of believers in this world, and to be consummated in the world to come, is represented under the figure of a great Feast, or Supper, to which 1785] REV, WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 33 multitudes were bidden ; and the excuses, which they offer for not coming, strongly describe the various obstructions which the Gospel would meet with in its reception among men ; from the time of its first promulgation, to that blessed period when the dispersed among the highways and hedges of remotest nations shall hear its Divine call, and "all the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ! " After speaking of certain methods of bringing men to the Heavenly Feast, which the Gospel will not justify — such as external compulsion, or what was as unscriptural, the dressing out the pure religion of the Gospel i:i away that offers salvation with- out obedience to its moral precepts, and strives to persuade men that they may become Christians on easier terms than Christ hath appointed, the preacher, coming to the more joyous branch of his subject, says: "The consideration of those methods which the Scriptures not onhy justifies but commands; whereby all, both clergy and laity, may be instrumental, through the help of God, in compelling others to the profession of the Gospel, and the prac- tice of its Divine precepts." " This," he says, " we may do — " 1st. By special instruction and exhortation; " 2dly. By living example ; and " 3dly. By the decency, devotion, fervency and solemnity of our forms of public worship, and by embracing every opportunity of their further improvement." Having treated, in a forcible way, the first two modes above mentioned, he comes to the one which prompted the discourse. He says : This brings me to my third and chief head on this great occasion ; which was to show that another powerful method of compelling men to come in, is by the decency, devotion, fervency and solemnity of our forms of Public Worship ; using every endeavour in our power for their further improvement. For this good purpose, the representative body of our Church, from a number of these United States, are now assembled or convened. Arduous was the work that lay before us. When we took up our Liturgy with a view to certain necessary alterations, we were struck with the utmost diffidence. We contemplated our Church service as an august and beautiful fabric — venerable for its antiquity — venerable from the memory of those glorious, and now glorified, Luminaries, Saints and Martyrs, who laid the foundations of our Church on the rock of ages. We stood arrested, as it were, at an awful distance — It appeared 134 LIFE AXD CORRESPOXDENCE OF THE [1785 almost sacrilege to approach the porch, or lift a hand to touch a single part, to polish a single corner, or to clear it from its rust of years. When, on the one hand, we looked back to the days of the first refor- mation in Religion, the progressive steps by which those pious worthies broke down the enormous pile of rubbish and error, which for ages had been built up to obscure the ancient foundations laid by Christ and his Apostles ; when we considered the difficulties which they had to encounter — the powers of this world combined against them — the strength of ancient habits and prejudices — the ignorance of the age (learning and philosophy being then at a low ebb, and chiefly engrossed by those whose interest it was to support the former error;) when we considered these things, we were rather astonished that they had gone so far than that they went no farther — but, we were encouraged to pro- ceed, by considering, on the other hand, that we had none of those difficulties to deter us. Blessed be God, we live in a liberal and enlightened age, when Re- ligion, if not so generally practised as it ought, is never' 'eless generally better understood ; and when nothing can be considered as deserving the name of Religion, which is not rational, solid, serious, charitable, and worthy of the nature and perfections of God to receive, and of free and reasonable creatures to perform — Nor had we to contend against, nor suffer from, the rulers of this world. Blessed be God again, they yield us that best protection and assistance which Religion can receive from earthly powers — perfect and equal liberty to worship God accord- ing to that sense of holy Scripture which our reason and conscience approve ; and to make such alterations and improvements in points of decency, order, government and edification, as the general body of the Church, from time to time, may judge most expedient. Favourable to our wishes, therefore, was the present sera. Through the wise ordering of Providence, we had just become a sovereign and separate people among the nations of the earth ; independent of all foreign jurisdiction, in matters ecclesiastical as well as civil. With vast labour and application our forms and constitutions of civil government had been built up and established upon the purest principles of political wisdom and liberty; in consequence of which, certain changes in our ecclesiastical constitutions became necessary, as well as in our forms of Prayer for the "powers that be;" considering them "as ordained of God." These alterations being once made, an occasion was offered (such as few Churches before us have ever enjoyed) of taking up our Liturgy or public Service, for a Review, where our former venerable reformers had been obliged to leave it ; and of proposing to the Church at large, such further alterations and improvements, as the length of time, the progress in manners and civilization, the increase and diffusion of 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, £>. D. 1 35 charity and toleration among all Christian denominations, and other circumstances (some of them peculiar to our situation among the high- ways and hedges of this new world) seem to have rendered absolutely necessary. Anient, and of long continuance, have been the wishes of many of the greatest, wisest and best Divines of our Church, for some alterations and improvements of this kind. Among these we have a Whitby,* * The judgment and wishes of some of those great Divines, which could not so con- veniently be delivered in a Sermon, I have collected into the following notes, for the further information of the reader: " If our rulers (says Dr. Whitby 1 would be pleased to change the present Liturgy as much from what it is, as it is altered from what it was, in the days of Edward the Vlth, I verily believe that alteration would render it acceptable to many, who do now rcfi:sc submission to it. The Church of Christ hath judged it fit to alter many things which were first instituted by the blessed Apostles themselves, or by the primitive age of the Church [namely the kiss of charity and some other usages;] yet I hope this tempteth no man to suspect the wisdom of the Apostles of our Lord, or of the primitive profes- sors of Christianity. Why, therefore, should a like practice tempt any to suspect the wisdom of our first reformers? We have already altered many things, which were allowed and done by them. They at first retained chrism, prayer for the dead, bap- tism by women; and many other things of a like nature. And if these things might be reformed, without reflection on their wisdom, why may not other things be so? " "The serious and speedy review of the Liturgy," says Bishop Gauden (in the year 1661), " much desired by some, and not much opposed by others, may be of good use for explaining some words and phrases which are now much antiquated, obscure and out of vulgar understanding; which is no news after an hundred years, in which, lan- guage, as well as all things under heaven change. This work, once well and wisely done, may, by God's blessing, much tend to the satisfaction of all sober Christians; — for as one d y teacheth another, so there may be (as in all outward forms of Divine Worship) both harmless additions, and innocent variations ; vea, and sometimes in- offensive defalcations of some redundancies, according as men and times, and words and manners and customs, vary." Bishop Sanderson (in a visitation Sermon, 1641), speaking of our reformation, al- though he says " he hail a great esteem for the moderation of it, and a great veneration for the instruments employed by God in it, and a great love of that wholesome way of doctrine, life, devotion and government ; yet he was not such a formalist, but that he wished for alterations, though he judged that all alterations, in such grand and estab- lished concerns as Religion, should be done by the public spirit, counsel and consent of the Prophets, Prince and People." "Nothing," Says Bishop Beveridge, "was anciently more usual with the Churches of God, than when times and necessity required it, to change the laws made by them- selves; to abrogate old ones, and substitute others and perhaps different ones, in their stead." "And," says Bishop Kennet, " let us hope and pray that whatever addition can be made to our happiness, God in his time will add those things unto us. In the Churches of Corinth and Crete, planted by an Apostle, there were some things want- ing, to be afterward set in order." Bishop Burnet " wishes some things may be taken away, and others softened and explained. Many things were retained at the reformation, to draw the people the more entirely into it; which was at that time a lawful consideration, but is now at an end," &c. 136 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 Tillotson, Saunderson, Stillingfleet, Burnet, Beveridge, Wake, Tennison, Hales, and innumerable others of venerable name among the Clergy; and among the Laity a multitude more, at the head of whom may be placed the great Lord Bacon, the father of almost all reformation and improvement in modern philosophy and science. Eight different times, from the days of Edward the sixth, when our Liturgy was first framed, to the year 1661, has it been revised and altered by public authority. And, says Archbishop Tennison, some who have well considered all the alterations and amendments which were then made (viz. in 1661), and which amount to the number of six hundred, are sufficiently convinced that if there was reason for those changes at that time, there is equal, if not greater reason, for some fur- ther improvements now. Our Church, in the preface to our common prayer, allows the ex- pediency and necessity of such alterations from time to time. Even our language itself is fluctuating, and receiving frequent improvements; and in what concerns Religion, and its various forms, rites and cere- monies, no Church on earth can claim perfection. This belongs only to the Church of the first born in Heaven : But the greatest and most important alterations and amendments were proposed at the Revolution, that great tera of liberty, when in 1689,* commissioners were appointed, among whom were many of the great divines already mentioned ; of whom, and of those who were nomi- nated for the like great work before the revolution, Archbishop Wake says — " They were a set of men, than whom this church was never, at * The preamble to the commission in 16S9, was as follows, strongly setting forth the need of alterations from time to time, viz.: " Whereas the particular forms of divine worship, and the rites and ceremonies ap- pointed to be used therein, are things in their own nature indifferent and alterable and so acknowledged; it is but reasonable that, upon weighty and important considerations, according to the various exigencies of times and occasions, such changes and altera- tions should be made therein as to those that are in place and authority should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient." Archbishop Wake, lamenting the miscarriage of the great and good design of this commission, declares it to have been as follows, and makes some other strong remarks upon the whole proceedings, with which I shall close these notes. "The design," says he, "was in short to improve, and, if possible, to enforce our discipline, to review and enlarge our liturgy, by correcting of some things, by adding of others, by leaving some few ceremonies, confessed to be indifferent in their nature, as indifferent in their usage. No alterations were intended, but in things declared alterable by the church itself. And if things alterable, be altered upon the grounds of prudence and charity; and things defective be supplied; and things abused be re- stored to their proper use; and things of a more ordinary composition be revised and improved, while the doctrine, government and worship of the church, remain entire in all the substantial parts of them ; we have all reason to believe that this will be so far from injuring the church, that on the contrary, it shall receive a very great benefit thereby." — Speech on Sacheverell's Trial. I7S5] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 37 any one time, blessed with either wiser or better, since it was a church." They set earnestly about the great work committed to them : making many important and necessary alterations in the morning and evening service ; revising the various collects throughout the year, and render- ing them more suitable to the epistles and gospels; striking out un- necessary repetitions in the service, and also such psalms and lessons of the Old Testament, as appeared less suitable to the worship of a Chris- tian church; altering and amending the offices of baptism, confirma- tion, matrimony, visitation of the sick, and burial of the dead, in all things justly exceptionable ; so that the whole service might thus become more connected, solemn and affecting. This great reformation was, however, lost through the heats and divisions which immediately followed, both in church and state, under King William ; and such hath been the situation of things that it hath never since been resumed in the mother church, by any public authority. But singularly to be admired and adored are the ways of Provi- dence ! At the commencement of a new aera in the civil and religious condition of mankind in this new world, and upon another great Revolution about an hundred years after the former, all those proposed alterations and amendments were in our hands; and we had it in our power to adopt and even to improve them, as might best suit our circumstances in that part of our church, which the Lord hath planted and permitted to flourish among the highways and hedges of this im- mense continent ! To embrace such an occasion, we are certain that multitudes in the mother church would rejoice ! And for us, not to have embraced it, would have been ungrateful to our God, unjust to ourselves and our holy religion, and unpardonable by our posterity. It hath been embraced ! — And, in such a manner, we trust, as will carry our Church through all the shoals of controversy, and conduct her into a safe and quiet harbour ! What glories will shine upon the heads of our Clergy whom God hath made instrumental in this good work ! How much shall our laity be venerated for the candor, liberality, and abilities, which they have manifested on this great occasion. Looking back upon the wonderful things which God hath of late done for them, and forward upon the long tract of glory which is opening before them as a people ; they could not but consider that, after all their illustrious toils for the civil happiness of their country, they had done but little for their posterity if the great concerns of Religion were neglected ; knowing that right- eousness only exalteth a nation, and that empires and kingdoms can rise and flourish upon no other foundation, than Religion and Virtue. What now remains, lies with the body of our Church at large; I38 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Q1/S5 namely, to receive, with the like temper of liberality, gravity and seriousness, as in the sight of Almighty God, what is now offered to their acceptance and use by their Church representatives or deputies. One part of the service you have just heard, and have devoutly joined in it. Here the alterations are but few, and those, it is hoped, such as tend to render it more solemn, beautiful and affecting ! The chief alterations and amendments are proposed in the various offices, viz. : of Baptism, &c, as hath been observed to you before, with the addition of some new services or offices ; namely, for the 4th day of July, com- memorative of the blessings of Civil and Religious Liberty ; the first Thursday of November as a Thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth ; and an office for the visitation of persons under the sentence of death ; of all which you can only form a true judgment, when they shall be published and proposed to you in the new prayer book. Brethren ! I am not a stranger to you in this pulpit ! But some years have elapsed since I have addressed you from hence ; and a few years more will close my lips forever ! This may possibly be my last Sermon to you ; and, therefore, I would exhort you again to receive, and examine, with a meek, candid, teachable and charitable temper of mind, what is proposed to you on this solemn occasion ; as a work intended holy for the advancement of Religion and the maintenance of Peace and Unity in our Church to latest posterity. Let all prejudices and prepossessions be laid aside. Consider seriously what Christianity is ! What the truths of the Gospel are ! And how much it is our duty to have them set forth and promulgated to the Christian world, and also the Heathen world around us, in the clearest, plainest, most affecting and majestic manner ! Let them never be obscured by dark and mysterious sentences and definitions ; nor refined away by cunningly devised fables, or the visionary glosses of men, thinking themselves wise above what is written. Were our blessed Saviour now upon earth, he would not narrow the terms of communion, by such ways as these ; and it is our duty, as it hath been our great endeavour in all the alterations pro- posed, to makj the consciences of those easy who believe in the true principles of Christianity in general, and who, could they be made easy in certain points no way essential to Christianity itself, would rather become worshippers as well as labourers, in that part of Christ's vine- yard, in which we profess to worship and to labour, than in any other. And what good man or Christian, either of the Clergy or Laity, can object to this ? If we are Christians, indeed ; if the love of truth and of one another, the true signs of the peace of Christ, prevail in our hearts; there will be no disputing or gainsaying, in matters of this kind. In all things, fundamental and necessary to salvation, we ' shall speedily find a decision in the word of God ; ' and as to things speculative and unnecessary, 'not finding them written there,' we will I785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 139 seek for their decision, by suffering them to glide smoothly down the stream of mutual forbearance, till at length they be discharged into the unbounded ocean of Christian love, and be there swallowed up and lost forever ! Let us not, therefore, repeat former errors; nor let the advantages now in our hands slip from us. If we become slack or indifferent in the concerns of Religion ; if we discourage every endeavour for refor- mation,* "not only departing from the Law but corrupting the covenant of Levi, so as to make men stumble at the Law; the Lord our God hath said that he will make us base and contemptible among the people, and all our flock shall be scattered." God will be provoked to remove his candle from us, that glorious light which he hath revealed to us ; and we shall fall back again into the former grossness and superstition ! If, Brethren, in the present work any thing be offered or done, with less clearness, precision, purity, or elevation of thought and expression, let it be considered calmly, judged of by Christian methods, and pro- posed for future amendment with singleness of heart ; imitating the meekness and love of our master Jesus ! Thus shall we approve our- selves his disciples ; and be justified in our endeavours for the purity of our Religion, not only in the sight of men and angels, but of Him especially, who will be our sovereign Judge, and sits enthroned above all the choirs of angels. Thus also shall men be compelled to join in our worship, and our Sabbaths become more and more sanctified. Our very hearts and flesh will long for the courts of God's house — for the return of every Sab- bath, as a blessed remainder, yet left us, of our original bliss in para- dise, and a happy foretaste of our future bliss in the paradise that is above — a day of grace whereon our heavenly King lays open the courts of his palace, and invites us to a more immediate communion with himself! .... Wherefore, then, Brethren, let our Sabbaths be remembered, and more and more sanctified. The Scriptures encourage us to look for a time when there shall be an universal diffusion of the gospel throughout this land ; when they who dwell in the Wilderness shall bow down be- fore the Lord, when among the highways an'd hedges to the remotest part of the Continent decent places of worship shall be erected — vil- lages, towns and great cities arise — and the service and worship of our church as we have introduced it, be not only adopted, but through the blessings of God, become happily instrumental in compelling the fulness of the Gentile world to come in. O Time, may thy wheels move quickly round, until the approach of the blessed aera, till there be a fulness of spiritual food through every part of this new world ; and all nations, kindreds and tongues have * Mai. Ch. II. ver. 8, 9. I40 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 access with us unto one CxOD, and be sealed with us unto the day of Redemption, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, Amen. As we have already said, nothing was yet in print. Certain of the alterations — those not rendered necessary by the Revolution — had been agreed on, proposed, and recommended, but all the alterations alike — as well those resolved on as those proposed and recommended — were yet on the journal and in manuscript, and without much shape or finish. Dr. White, the President of the Convention, Dr. Smith and Dr. Wharton were now appointed " to publish a Book of Common Prayer, with the alterations, as well those now ratified in order to render the Liturgy consistent with the American revolution and the constitutions of the respective States, as the alterations and new offices recommended to this Church," and it was resolved "that the book be accompanied with a proper Preface or Address, setting forth the reason and expediency of the alterations ; and that the Committee have the liberty to make verbal and grammatical corrections ; but in such a manner as that nothing in form or substance be altered." It was also resolved that the same Committee be authorized to publish, with the Book of Common Prayer, such of the reading and singing Psalms, and such a calendar of proper lessons for the different Sundays and holidays throughout the year, as they might think proper. It was further ordered that the said Committee be authorized to dispose of the copies of the Common Prayer when printed ; and that after defraying all expenses incurred therein, they remit the neat profits to the treasurers of the several corporations and societies for the relief of the widows and children of deceased clergymen in the States represented in this Convention — the profits to be equally divided among the said societies and corpo- rations. It was agreed by the Committee that the " Proposed Book," as it was now called, should be printed at Philadelphia ; and by Hall and Sellers. Dr. White was to see the proofs, and to send them to Dr. Smith, who would communicate with Dr. Wharton, who was residing in Delaware, the rector of Emanuel Church, Newcastle. This led to a good deal of correspondence between Dr. White and Dr. Smith, with occasional letters to and from Dr. Wharton. We 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 141 give the most of this correspondence. It will be seen that the Com- mittee construed liberally the leave given them to make verbal and grammatical alterations — more liberally than Dr. White himself quite approved.* CHAPTER XLVII. Correspondence between Dr. Smith and Dr. White, with a Letter from Dr. Wharton to the latter while the Copy of the " Proposed Book " WAS GOING THROUGH THE PRESS, INCLUDING Dr. WHITE'S " IilNTS FOR A Preface," and Dr. Smith's Preface — Dr. Smith to the Rev. Samuel Parker. We proceed to give the correspondence referred to in our last chapter relating to the publication of the Proposed Book. For the preservation of it, we are indebted, in former years, to Bishop White and Dr. Smith, in later ones to the excellent archaeologist of our church, Dr. Perry, now Bishop of Iowa, who first gave it to the public. f The Rev. Dr. White to the Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, October 19, 1785. Dear Sir : The first proof-sheet will accompany this and I expect to send you another by Saturday's post to Baltimore. I think we have fallen into an error, which Mr. Hall says we can easily correct, and our brethren here join with me in wishing it corrected. It is the making the Litany a necessary part of the Morning Service. The way I would propose to correct it is thus : In the rubric let it be " The Litany, etc., to be used on Sundays and other holidays, appointed to be observed by this Church." After the prayer, " We humbly beseech thee, O Father, etc.," let there be this rubric, "But when the Litany is not used, the three following prayers shall be said instead thereof;" then insert the * Bishop White, in his Memoirs (Second edition, p. 109), referring to the fact that the Committee had been authorized to make verbal alterations, but were restrained from departing in either form or substance from what had been agreed on by the Convention, says that " the imperfections evidently remaining on some points by reason of ha^te [in the Convention], and which could have been remedied had they been attended to, and, added to this, the importunities of some of the clergy who pressed the Committee to extend their powers pretty far, in full confidence that the liberty would be acceptable to all, were such that, in the end, they were drawn on to take a greater latitude than ought to be allowed in such a work." f In presenting it, in print, in this volume, I have avoided the contractions in or- thography, which Bishop White, following a custom of his youth, continued through his life. I42 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Q1785 prayers "for the Congress." "for other civil rulers," and "for all conditions;" then let there follow the General Thanksgiving, St. Chry- sostom's Prayer and the Benediction. To prevent repetition in the Evening Service, insert after the prayer against the dangers of the night, the following rubric : Then shall be said the prayer for the Congress and the other prayers which follow it in the Morning Service to the end thereof. There will be occasion for a rubric at the head of the Collects, Gos- pels and Epistles, directing the use of the Collects for each Sunday and holiday until the next Sunday or holiday; after the suffrages, at morning prayer when the communion service is not said; and always at evening prayer. Quaere. — Will it not be best to place the two invitations to the com- munion at the end of that service? At present they make an awkward break. Please to mention these matters to Dr. Wharton, to whom I desire my affectionate remembrances. I am, your affectionate humble servant, Wm. White. Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. October, 17S5. Dear Sir: I am favored with yours of the 19th, enclosing the first sheet of the Prayer Book, and shall expect a second sheet at Baltimore on Tuesday On Wednesday last Dr. Wharton came to my house in Chester. Thursday being a storm, we sat down in the morning, and devoted the whole day to those parts of the Prayer Book, yet left to be prepared for the press. 1st. As to the office of Thanksgiving for the Fruits of the Earth, we wish to change one of the lessons, and also to make some additions to the Thanksgiving prayer, which will give it a little more animation ; by taking something from prayers on the same subject, which Dr. Wharton thinks are to be found as well in the Roman Missal, as in the works of Bishop Wilson, of Sodor and Man — both which he will consult on his return to New Castle, in sufficient time for the press. But our great business on Thursday was to read over the Psalms, tak- ing, as we went along, your very judicious selection or rather rejection of particular Psalms and parts of Psalms. We propose rejecting some parts more, which may have escaped your notice, and retaining some k\v passages which you have proposed to reject ; for by taking the Bible translation some of these passages are truly beautiful ; and therefore in going over the work, we constantly compared the Bible translation with that of the Prayer Book, and find that out of both, sometimes using I785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 143 the one and sometimes the other, sometimes in whole Psalms, and some- times in particular verses, we shall greatly improve the reading Psalms in general ; but by our plan there will not so many be retained upon the whole, as you have left standing. On my return from Baltimore, I shall send you, or more probably bring to Philadelphia this part of the work ; and then by counting up the whole number of verses retained and dividing them by thirty, we can average the number of verses (a few over or under as the sense may require) which we shall have for daily service. Out of the reading Psalms to be retained in our book, it will be easy to make a selection of the best metre translations, of the best Psalms, to which there may be an addition of some of Watts' best Psalms, and hymns for the festivals and other occasions, which may be got from sundry authors — I hope some may be offered by members of our own Church in America, who are distinguished for their poetical talents, and not ashamed to exert them on the lofty themes of religion. But I am wandering and have no time to write what I wish on this par- ticular topic. Dr. Wharton left me on Friday, crossed over to Annapolis, and by the good offices of Governor Paca and Mr. Chase, settled all his private concerns with the intendant, and returned time enough to preach for me in Chester this afternoon. He leaves me to-morrow, but I expect a day from him on his return from Talbot, when we shall take up the calendar, in which I believe you have not left us much to do. I now proceed to answer your letter, respecting the first proof-sheet. I do not think it an error, that the Litany is made a part of the Morning Service. I think that service would be very incomplete in the essential parts of prayer, and would lose much of its beauty if left without the Litany. Although it is directed to be used every morning, yet the use of it is not made so necessary, but that, where a clergyman is weak in body, the weather severe, or for any other good reason, it may not be omitted. But I submit to your consideration, whether as you propose to alter the rubric, viz., "The Litany to be used on Sundays and other holi- days"— Wednesdays and Fridays will be considered as holidays. And surely in large towns and cities (of which America will have many in a hundred years more) the good old custom of week-day prayers will not be laid aside. But, without the Litany, Wednesday and Friday prayers (there being no sermon), would not draw many to church. Let not our abridgments be too great, at least till we see how what hath been done will be received. I think, then, there will be no harm in leaving the rubric before the Litany, as it now is; only striking out the word "every"— and after the prayer, "We humbly beseech thee, etc.," you may add the rubric which you propose, viz : "Bui when the Litany is not used, the three following prayers shall he said instead thereof" — 144 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l7"0 which (as the latter rubric may be supposed to explain the former) will at least imply a discretionary power in the minister to omit the Litany even in Morning Service, when in his discretion he thinks it necessary. If the place of the two exhortations to the communion is to be altered, Dr. Wharton and myself are of opinion that they should not be placed at the end of the Communion Service (for it would appear very awkward to have an exhortation to an act of worship, standing after the act itself) but at the beginning, viz., before the prayer, "Al- mighty God unto whom all hearts be open" etc., with a rubric separating them from the Communion Service, and directing that they be read when the notice is given, viz., on the Sunday or some holiday before the communion. The proof-sheet is returned. You will see the corrections proposed by Dr. Wharton and myself on the margin ; and the reasons will be obvious. Thus in the Litany — "In all time of our tribulation:" a semi- colon— yet it is connected with "Good Lord deliver us" — but at the end of the sentence, after the words "Day of Judgment" there is only a comma, and so in all the preceding sentences, each of which should have a semi-colon at the end of the sentence, as well as in the previous division of the different members of the sentence. After a proof-sheet or two more, I would not wish to give you the trouble of sending the remainder to me, unless you have any alteration to propose ; in which we must be very delicate, in consideration of the great trust committed to us. Dr. Wharton's best compliments. He sits by me while I subscribe myself, Yours, etc., Wm. Smith. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, October 21, 1785. Dear Sir : I expect to send you by this opportunity the two first proof-sheets. Lest you may have left Chester before the return of Wednesday post, I must repeat the substance of my former letter. We are all here of opinion that the Litany ought not to be a neces- sary part of the Morning Prayer. The alteration, if you approve of it, may be made as follows : let the rubric before the Litany say, " to be used on Sundays and other holidays appointed by this Church." After the Litany with its attendant Prayers, insert this rubric — "And when the Litany is not said, the three following Prayers shall be used instead thereof," setting down the prayers for the Congress, for the other rulers, and for all conditions. Then set down the General Thanksgiv- ing, etc. In the Evening Service, after the Prayer for Protection I785] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. H5 during the Night, let there be a reference to the Morning Prayer for the residue. There is wanting a rubric at the head of the Collects, Epistles and Gospels, enjoining the use of the proper Collect in the Morning Prayer when used separate from the Communion Service, and always in the Evening Praver. Qurere. Will not the two Exhortations in the Communion Service stand belter either in the beginning or the end ? At present they make an awkward break. Quaere, the propriety of introducing a rubric before the Prayer for our Rulers, in the Communion Service, specifying that the same is to be said, when that service is not used with the Morning Prayer. The clergy here wish for it ; and many of our hearers wish that we had been as tender of repetition here, as in the case of the Lord's Prayer. I hope to hear from you by return of the post, and am Yours, etc., Wm. White. P. S. — I observe that the second proof-sheet has a rubric, expressing that the Prayer for Congress, etc., shall be said in the evening and at other times when the Litany is not said ; this removes my objection in part, but the two rubrics are contradictory. I think you will prefer the arrangement I have proposed. I hope you have attended to the Psalms and Lessons. I recollect in the case of the Venite, we agreed to strike out the Latin ; accordingly I have done it in the proof-sheet to the other Latin introductions. For the same reason (/. e., its being agreed on in the case of the Venite) I have erased the unnecessary provisions against repetition. Mr. Hall keeps the second proof-sheet so long on its second coming from the press, that I have no time to review it ; and indeed I have reviewed the other but imperfectly. I hope your accuracy will render another reading unnecessary. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, October 23, 1785. Dear Sir : Similar proof-sheets to the enclosed were to have been sent by Saturday's post ; but owing to the press, they were a few min- utes too late, and are now in the office with my letter. I determined to take the chance of the stage, but knowing the uncertainty as to the delivery of letters, shall let mine remain with the sheets in the post- office. Yours, etc., Wm. White. P. S. — I have altered the arrangement in this proof-sheet according to the plan proposed in my letter — merely for your inspection. 10 146 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, October 25, 1785. Dear Sir : Owing to the press, I was a few minutes too late for the last post, i sent proof-sheets by the wagon, which I consider as an uncertain mode of conveyance. In the letter which encloses the proof-sheets by this opportunity, instead of three prayers read four ; I wrote from memory and forgot that for the clergy. I enclose you extracts from the constitution ; to prevent errors of the transcriber you will compare it with the originals; I would do it now, but am in great haste. Please to express at the head of the letter to the Bishops, that the original goes by the " Harmony," Captain Willet, from Philadelphia. I wish my affectionate respects to such of our brethren at the Conven- tion as I have the pleasure of being acquainted with. I am Yours, etc., W.m. White. Rev. Dr. Smith. Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Baltimore, October 28, 1785. Dear Sir : I gave you my thoughts so fully in my letter from Chester last post concerning the alteration of rubric before the Litany, that I need not add anything further on that head. As the number of country congregations in America exceed those in towns, I may say fifty to one, and cannot have the Litany but as part of the Morning Service (and which, with the abridgments now proposed, would appear very short and incomplete without the Litany), and as for these reasons the Convention agreed that the Litany should be printed hi, and as a part of, the Morning Service, it would not be proper for us to make so mate- rial an alteration as to put four prayers just after the Litany, as a sub- stitute for the same, and which will be considered as an invitation to indolent or lukewarm readers of prayers to cut the people generally out of their general supplication. Of these sentiments are the Convention here, whom I consulted on this point, but without intimating to them that any such change was proposed by us of the Committee, but that it had been mentioned by some as a matter worthy of consideration at some future general convention. The four prayers stand very properly where they now stand as an essential part of the Evening Service at all times, and would not stand so properly in the Morning Service, where they are only proposed as a conditional part ; that is when the Litany is not used, and when that condition takes place it is very easy to turn forward one leaf to read 1/85] &EV> WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 147 them. Besides this the Evening Service would appear quite naked without them. But I need not have written half so much to you on this subject, only from a desire that we should by a candid exchange of sentiments go through the great work committed to us, with the same prefect agreement with which it hath hitherto been conducted ; and I know you will make no change from what was done in Convention ; unless in the exercise of the discretionary power given us, we can all as a Committee, agree upon the expediency of such change. As 1 said in my former letter, then, let the word " every" be struck out of the rubric before the Litany, and let the rest of the rubric stand as it is printed in the enclosed proof; and let the four prayers, and indeed the whole Evening Service, stand also just as they are in the same enclosed proof; with their several rubrics as they are, and there will be sufficient latitude for any minister when necessary to omit the Litany, and supply its place from the Evening Service; which last Service will look much better in this form. You will be pleased to attend to such corrections as I have made, and particularly in the prayer for "all sorts and conditions of men." The words "good estate of the Catholic Church " have been objected to by our Convention here, 1st, because "good estate" maybe considered in a worldly sense, and if taken in any other is but an awkward or antiquated expression ; and 2dly, the word "Catholic" although intelligible enough to many, yet it is not approved of by many others, on account of the vulgar application of it to one particular Church. Now as this prayer for "all sorts and conditions" is a general prayer, never to be used when the Litany is used, why may not the Church be prayed for in the same words here as in the Litany, viz.: "thy holy Church universal?" And then the prayer will be, "more especially we pray for thy holy Church universal, that it may be guided," etc. Or if you think it will run better — "more especially we pray that thy holy Church universal may be so guided," etc. One or the other of these corrections is desired by our Convention, and I have given you their reasons, and if you will agree to the altera- tion, I heartily concur with you, and think it will be approved by all our body. I expect to hear from you by next week's post. Direct to me at Chester by the Eastern Shore post. I have a great many people talking round me, and write in haste. Yours, Wm. Smith. Rev. Dr. White. P. S. — Your two packets by post have just come to my hand. What you propose as a rubric for the use of the Collects is proper. The other parts of your letters are either answered in this and my former letter, I48 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 or shall be on my return to Chester, for which place I am just setting off, via Annapolis. I say no more about the Litany. Dr. West, etc., and some more clergy, Mr. Cutting in particular, who have come here since our Convention adjourned, and who are now with me, all concur in this letter, and that no alterations be made respecting the use of the Litany, which they all say must continue a necessary part of the Morning Service, unless dispensed with by any minister in his discretion, for want of health, shortness of time, such as riding ten or twelve miles to read prayers and preach twice in the same day. A future Convention may consider further upon the whole, in the mean time we do our duty in letting it remain as agreed upon by the body from which we derive our power as a committee. Dr. West and a few more are about raising the money from this State for the book, but wish to have at least one thousand copies for Maryland alone, so that Mr. Hall, if not too late, should be told that four thou- sand copies will be too few. He may venture on five or six thousand, if he has paper enough ready. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, October 29, 1785. Dear Sir : I expected to have sent you the third half sheet by this post, but it will be not quite ready. Mr. Hall intends to proceed quicker hereafter. We expect the paper this evening ; on receiving the proof-sheets from you (which I suppose will be on Monday), we shall have one sheet ready for the last impression. I say the less as I consider it uncertain whether this will reach you in Baltimore. Yours, etc., Wm. White Rev. Dr. Smith. Dr. Smith to Dr. White. Chester, October 30, 17S5. I have just got back to Chester from Baltimore by the way of Annap- olis, which last place I left yesterday afternoon. By the date you will perceive that I write on Sunday, a rainy morning, service put off till the afternoon. As soon as service is over, I must go to Dorset, to attend the baptism of my grandson, and bring Mrs. Smith home, who has been waiting for me more than a week past. My present letter will therefore be short ; nor is there occasion for a long one. Mr. Bryson writes me that he delivered to you my letter from Chester by last week's post. To both your letters which I received at Baltimore, I left an answer to go by yesterday's post, which I hope you will receive to-mor- row, containing the general sentiments of the clergy of our late Con- I785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. [49 vention, agreeing with what I wrote you from Chester and have repeated from Baltimore, concerning the Litany, etc. By your last letter you seem to have attended to the rubric before the prayer for Congress, which in my first letter (not received by you at the time of writing) I wished you to notice, as it would remove your objec- tions, etc. You say it has removed them in part, but leaves a contra- diction between the two rubrics. This too you will find removed by striking out the word "every" before the word "morning" in the rubric prefixed to the Litany, so that comparing the two rubrics to- gether, sufficient latitude will be left, without either disbanding the Litany, or putting a rubric and substitution of prayers after it, which would stand as an invitation to the lukewarm or lazy, always to pass over the Litany, which in the idea of all the clergy I have seen was considered by the Convention as a part of the Morning Service, in- dispensable except for some good reasons, and it hurts their feelings to think the use of the Litany should be thought a burden, or that our service could be complete without this excellent part. Of all this I have written fully, candidly and more than enough, and only repeat lest my Baltimore packet miscarry. All things will stand well, at least in this first edition of our book, and till next Convention, in the order in which we fixed them at Philadelphia, and as they are in the proof-sheets you have sent me, only striking out the single word "every" in the rubric before the Litany. I have no time to read critically the proofs, farther than I did in a few minutes at Baltimore. They will be very safe in your hands, with one or two readings. Let them be worked off as fast as possible, and a thousand copies or two more than we thought of at first (which I think was four thousand) if paper can be got. The book will be in great.* Baltimore alone a subscription is on foot, and Dr. West will speedily remit a large part of the $100, if not more than the whole, to which I shall add considerably from this shore, as soon as I return from Dorset, which I hope will be in three or four days at farthest. If my letter from Baltimore is not come to your hand, you will attend to the following corrections which I made in the proofs of the second sheet enclosed therein. At the end of morning and evening prayer, viz., "Here endeth the order of morning [evening] prayer" — Dele words "order of" — lest it should be implied that something might yet be prayed which is dis- orderly— prayer for clergy, instead of "all bishops and other ministers, and all congregations" insert "the congregations," to avoid a repeti- tion of the word all so near the first all. But I think the whole sen- tence might be better altered thus — -"send down upon the bishops and ministers of thy church and all congregations," etc. * Manuscript imperfect. 150 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [I/85 In the end of the rubric entitled "Prayers and Thanksgivings upon several occasions" — to avoid the words "prayers" and "prayer," occurring in the space of one line, let the word "service" be put for the word "prayer" and read "two final prayers of morning and even- ing service." In the prayer for "all sorts and conditions" please to make the cor- rection proposed by the Baltimore Convention, as in my said letter from thence, and read thus: "More especially we pray for thy holy church universal, that it may be so guided," etc. Or, "We pray that thy holy church universal maybe so guided." This will agree with the prayer for the church as in the Litany, instead of which this is to be used, and rids us of the exceptionable word too many, viz., "Catholic," and also the awkward words "good estate of the church," by which some will say we mean good Glebes and salaries or estate merely temporal. These little alterations are in our power, and not improper when desired by any respectable number of our brethren. Our Convention read over with general approbation the proposed improvements and alterations; but stormy weather and that bay which often renders business precarious, made our meeting thin, and we adjourned to meet at Annapolis in April, or sooner if called by me as President. Next week my copy of the Address to the Archbishops, etc., will go by a ship from Baltimore or Annapolis. I wish the sentence, " That these States should become //w, sovereign," etc., had been expressed "separate Empires, States or Governments." It seems to insult, or at least to renew old complaints that we were not free before. Can an alteration be made in the other copies? I could yet have it made in mine by a letter to London per packet New York. I beg another copy of said Address, for I was obliged to send mine, on an hour's notice, without taking a copy. Governor Paca and our other friends in Annapolis, except as above, approve the address, and it will be easy to get a certificate from the Executive of the State that granting the prayer of it can give no offence, but is perfectly consonant to the Con- stitution. I shall be at Philadelphia time enough for the Psalms, Les- sons, Calendar, Preface, etc., to save this voluminous writing, for I find I cannot make my letters short. In two or three weeks, perhaps sooner if the bank will assist us, I shall see you. Yours, W. Smith. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, November 2, 1785. Dear Sir : I have received yours of the 28th, which I have sent to the press in the manner you approve of, having first reviewed and com- 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 151 pared the pointing of it with an Oxford edition of the Prayer Book printed in 1775, an<3 adjusted it accordingly. This I think you cannot bul approve of, as the said edition appears to have been made on great deliberation in that seat of letters. I observed that wherever you had altered the pointing in the proof-sheet, you had done it conformably to the same book. I intend to bestow the same pains on all I shall send to the press. I expect to send by this opportunity a proof-sheet, containing the greater part of the Communion Service, which will come to me the second time from the press ; another is also in hand. I mentioned to you in a letter which I sent with the Sermons by Thursday's stage (and which do not appear to have come to hand when you were setting out for Annapolis) that some of our brethren, supported by remarks of the people, thought the prayer for the civil rulers an unnecessary repetition in the Communion Service ; and that the evil might be avoided by a rubric dispensing with it, provided the Morning Service had been used immediately before. I told them I doubted of our right to alter it, and therefore merely mention it to you as information. Mr. Provost has enclosed to me a copy of a letter from the President of Congress to the Minister at the Court of Great Britain. After stat- ing our late proceedings and the political hindrances on a former occa- sion, he says, that if our application to the bishops should come before the King and Ministry, it is the wish of "the Church of England Mem- bers of Congress," that Mr. Adams may assure them of our right to take the said step and that the granting our petition would not be an intermeddling in the affairs of these States. You give me leave to go on with the press alone, after the first sheet or two. But it is a liberty I shall never use, unless the press should be like to stop without it ; which is not a probable case. At any rate, I shall not venture on any alterations without consent. I am, Yours, etc., W. White. Rev. Dr. Smith. I shall direct three thousand copies. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, November 2, 1785. Dear Sir : I have received yours from Chester, and indeed all which you mention to have written hitherto. I shall attend to the alterations you propose; all which I approve, except the word Ministers for Pastors in the prayer for the clergy, which you only seem to throw out for consideration. 152 LIFE AXD CORRESPOXDEKCE OF THE ^1785 The latter word is used in all the other places and was that approved of by the Convention. I am sorry I made it necessary for you to write so much about the Litany; it is fixed to your mind and I am satisfied. I shall do all you desire in respect to advertising, etc., except that it cannot be in this day's paper, which came to my house before your letter. What you propose respecting the letter to the bishops is too late ; or I should not object to the alteration. The original is gone by Willet, and I suppose the other copy goes to-day from New York by the packet, and will probably (as the packets sail fast) be delivered before any subsequent letter can reach England. I will send you another copy, but cannot transcribe it for this day's post. I am, in haste, Yours, etc., W. White. Communion Service. Quaere, the insertion in the rubric before the exhortation, the words " or so much thereof as he may think convenient." I have taken the liberty but can easily expunge. Quaere, the leaving out these words in the rubric before the collect "so that the ordinary, etc." Probably it will be thought the ordinary need have nothing to do, without complaint from the person forbidden. In the sentences, quaere the propriety of inserting those which relate to the support of the ministers of the gospel, it is expressly said the money shall be given to the poor. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, November 16, 1785. Dear Sir : After you left me, I thought it best to continue the consideration of the subject which had been before us. Accord- ingly I corrected, in the way of private memorandum, to the end of the Psalms. Afterwards, finding that the Psalms contained 2,498 verses, and that they would be reduced about one-third by our review, I made my division ; in which I have taken care to make the portions as equal as the analogy of the subjects, and sometimes the extraordinary length of single Psalms permitted. In some places I have omitted a few verses of what we had retained, as not suiting the preceding and following. I send you the fruit of my labor, hoping you Avill review it and send me such alterations as may occur to you ; which you may easily do (as I have with me a copy) by merely alluding to my subdivisions. I will then fairly fix the book, pasting from an old Bible such verses as we prefer of that translation. 1 785 J REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 53 The press began on Monday, and Mr. Hall assures me it shall work constantly ; and that when the assembly shall rise, he will set two presses agoing. I am, yours, etc., W. White. Dr. Smith. I suppose it will be best in the Ash Wednesday Service to omit the Commination Psalm, which may be read on that occasion in the proper place; and to introduce the prayer immediately after the collect, with a rubric, directing the reading of them after the Litany and imme- diately before the General Thanksgiving. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, November 23, 1785. Dear Sir: No letter came to hand from you to-day, which I suppose is owing to your visit to Annapolis ; and that on your return you will carefully revise the Psalms and examine the division I have proposed. On looking over the offices as they stand prepared in the Prayer Book, I determined to propose the following matters to your considera- tion : 1. In the Baptismal Service, will it not be best to omit the command to kneel at the latter part of it, this being often inconvenient, espe- cially in private houses? As we have shortened the printing of the private baptism, by referring to the public for all that follows the declaration, "We receive this child," etc., may it not be further shortened by reference as follows? viz. : after the address, "I certify you," etc., insert this rubric — Then shall follow the gospel from St. Mark x. 13, with the exhortation and prayer following the same, as in the form of Public Baptism. 2. In the beginning of the Marriage Service, we have changed the word congregation into the word company. Quaere, is not either word improper, as there used, if it be in a private room, and will it not be better to speak only of our being in the sight of God? 3dly. In the Burial Service, this verse was struck out, "Lord, let me know my end," etc. But as it stands in the Burial Service is it not unexceptionable, and will it not be the best introduction of the Psalm? 4thly. In the Forms at Sea, there are two Thanksgiving Psalms. I think one (viz. : the last) will be sufficient. I was in hopes of having for you the fifth form from the press, but am disappointed. The two enclosed forms will be finally struck off this week. I am, yours, etc., W. White. Rev. Dr. Smith. 154 LIFE AN I CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D785 Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, November 30, 1705. Dear Sir : I suppose you have not returned from the Western shore, from my not hearing by this day's post. . . . The fifth form was sent to me on Saturday, and is now working. The sixth is not ready. I regret, however, your not seeing them in proof ; the less however as it is plain sailing and there can be no errors, unless typographical, which I shall endeavour to prevent. I am, yours, etc., Wm. White. Rev. Dr. Smith. Rev. Dr. Wharton to Rev. Dr. White. New Castle, November 29, 1785. — At night. Dear Sir: .... I have looked over the lessons which you have retained or adopted — can see no objection to any of them, unless you shoul.l deem it more proper to adopt some of the exhortations to repentance from the Prophets, instead of the lessons from Genesis for the Lent Sundays. Perhaps the prophecy of Daniel would be no improper lesson or lessons as preparatory to the completion of the Christian sacrifice. Your idea of suiting the lessons to the several sea- sons of the Ecclesiastical year agrees perfectly with mine. The selec- tion which you have made, I think, meets this idea. I observe but one lesson from Daniel, nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, cap. three. Now I conceive the seventh, eighth and ninth chapters, containing the prophetic history of the four great Empires and of the coming of Christ, to be very interesting. As I observed before, they would suit well the season of Lent, at least the ninth chapter. As to the general calendar, I apprehend the committee has power to alter it, as the Convention judged proper to omit the Saints' days. I would be for retaining, however, the names of a few such as Lady-day, Michaelmas, All Saints', with the Ap isttes' days — St. Stephen and Innocents. These last three, being Scripture festivals, should not be omitted — I mean a commemo- ration of Scriptural persons and martyrs. All Saints' days of more modern date should be expunged. No mention, I suppose, will be made of fast or abstinence days. Yours entirely, C. H. Wharton. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, December 6, 1785. Dear Sir : My last three letters, lately written to you and which you had not seen when we parted, contain so much matter for your considera- tion that I ought not perhaps to burden you with more until those points I785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 55 are settled. But thinking you may possibly wish to have the Table of Lessons before you at the same time, 1 herewith send it, together with a proposed rubric for the Psalms. I wish you to attend particu- larly to the note written lengthwise of the paper on the Table of Lessons and containing a new arrangement which I have proposed in conse- quence of an observation of Dr. Wharton's after examining the said table here enclosed ; which he says he approves of after an attentive consideration. I am, yours, etc., Wm. White. Rev. Dr. Smith. P. S. — Since writing the above, it came into my head to draw up a few hints towards a preface. If you think they will be not useful towards that purpose, throw them into the fire. Hints Towards a Preface. This Church, following the example of the Church of England in times past, as is set forth in the preface to the Book of Common Prayer, hath upon weighty considerations made such alterations in the form of divine worship, as seem at this time either necessary or expedient. The alterations, to which her attention was in the first place drawn, were such as had become necessary in the prayers for our civil rulers. These have been accommodated to the Revolution, which, in the course of divine Providence, has taken place in the United States; and the principal care herein has been to make them conformable to the proper end of all such addresses, " That we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty." And whereas it has been the practice of the Church of England to set apart certain days for the rendering of thanks to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for signal mercies vouchsafed to that Church and Kingdom, it has in like manner been now thought to tend to godliness, that there should be two annual solemn days of prayer and thanksgiving to Almighty God for the dis- tinguished blessings of the land in which we live ; in order that we may be thus moved to gratitude for these mercies of his good Providence, which might otherwise be the occasions of licentiousness. The alterations of the Morning and Evening Prayer are chiefly, either for the avoiding of repetition, or for the disuse of such words as have varied from their former meaning, or for the arranging of the prayers in a method more easy for the worshipper. In the Apostles' Creed, one clause of uncertain meaning, which was introduced into the Church by the Council of Aquileia about 400 years after Christ, is omitted. As the Psalms are a considerable part of the Morning and Evening Prayer, it may be proper to mention in this place the reason of their being so considerably shortened. "All Scripture is given for doctrine I56 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1/85 and instruction in righteousness." Yet it is supposed that all parts thereof were not indited for Christian worship ; and that the Church hath a latitude to select such parts as she shall judge best suited thereto. Therefore such portions only of the Psalms are retained as were thought the most beautiful and affecting. In order to add to the propriety and sublimity of the psalter, the translation in the Bible has been pre- ferred, where it was thought to have a stronger tendency than the other to raise devotion. A new division became necessary in consequence of the preceding changes; and it was supposed that the excellence of this part of the service would be still more increased, by the permission to combine it with that ancient doxology somewhat shortened — the Gloria in Excelsis. In regard to the reading of the Holy Scripture at Morning and Evening Prayer, the same reasons which occasioned a select Table of First Lessons for Sundays and other holy-days seemed to extend in favor of the making a table of Second Lessons also ; which is accordingly done. Those for the morning are intended to suit the several seasons ; and yet without a repetition of the portions of the Gospel included in the Communion Service ; and those for the evening are selected in the order of the sacred Books. Besides this, the Table of First Lessons has been reviewed ; a few new chapters are introduced from the supposition of their being more edifying than the old ; and transpositions have been made where they seemed to suit the lessons more to the season of the year. It has been thought that a calendar is unnecessary ; and that the managing the lessons for the ordinary days agreeably to the civil year is not so expedient as the making them correspond, like the others, with the ecclesiastical year. Accordingly the minister is left to his dis- cretion in the choice of lessons for the intermediate days, with the expectation that such will be taken as the most nearly suit those selected for the Sundays and other holy-days. The Offices for Baptism have undergone some change. The requiring other godfathers and godmothers than the parents is dispensed with, if the same be desired ; and thus regard is still maintained for an ancient and useful institution ; and yet the complaint avoided, that in some cases, especially among the poor, it is difficult to provide sponsors, unless such as will most probably neglect the duties of that relation, to the great hazard of their own souls. The sponsors, instead of answer- ing in the name and person of the infant, now answer for their own discharge of the obligation they have come under. The sign of the cross is retained, from a conviction of its having been used in the earliest ages of the Church as expressive of the being devoted to the service of Christ, who for our sake, " endured the cross, despising the shame." Nevertheless in tenderness to those who may entertain con- scientious scruples concerning the use of this venerable rite, the minister is to dispense with it, when desired, by the sponsors. I/85] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1$/ The alterations made in the Catechism and the Service for Confirma- tion are such as became necessary to make those offices correspond with the Forms for Baptism; except the change of a few words of the service which was thought to be not sufficiently clear, in that part of the Cate- chism which relates to the Holy Communion. It was thought that the Office for Matrimony could bear considerable shortening; which is accordingly done. The Visitation of the Sick is nearly as in the old service. But a few verses in the Psalm have been omitted, as not appearing altogether applicable to the occasion ; and the absolution has given way to what was conceived to be the more scriptural form used in the Communion Service. In the Burial Service it was thought proper to omit some inapplicable verses in the Psalms ; such expressions as seem to pronounce too posi- tively concerning the state of the deceased ; and the thanking of God for an event in which resignation only is required. None of the Form for "the Churching of AVomen " is retained, except the Thanksgiving Prayer, which is placed among the other occa- sional Thanksgivings : it being supposed' that many parts of the daily service are equally applicable to that occasion with what is omitted. Such parts of the Commination Service, as were thought calculated to produce Christian penitence, are inserted after the Collect for Ash- Wednesday; except the Psalm, which is appointed to be read for the day. The Forms to be used at Sea have undergone very little change, other than what arose from adapting it to the Revolution. The case of such unhappy persons as have forfeited their lives to the laws of their country claimed the consideration of this Church : which has therefore adopted into her Liturgy the Form for Visitation of Prison- ers under Sentence of Death — passed by the Convocation and Parlia- ment of Ireland. The Articles of Religion have been reduced in number. Yet it is humbly conceived, that the doctrines of the Church of England are preserved in their full extent ; as being thought agreeable to the Gospel. It is therefore foreign to the intention of this Church to alter anything which appeared to be essential to the true sense and meaning of the Thirty-nine Articles; nevertheless, some variation has been made in the expression ; and such parts omitted as were evidently adapted either to the time when the Articles were composed, or to the political constitu- tion of England. From the Psalms translated in metre by N. Brady amd N. Tate, there have been selected only such a number as were thought to make a sufficient variety for divine worship, and the parts selected are arranged under heads, agreeing with the subjects of them respectively: which it 158 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [I/85 was thought would tend to the judicious use of them both in public and in private. This Church, therefore, having gone through the important work of accommodating her Service to her new situation ; it is hoped that the divine blessing will attend the same to the promoting of Piety in her children, and to the influencing them to live in peace and love with all Mankind. The above "hints" are endorsed in the handwriting of the Rev. Dr. Smith, as follows : Proposed by Dr. White. N. B. — The Preface has been composed upon another plan by W. S., who has made use of some of the within " hints." Dr. Smith's Preface as finally made, after a few suggestions as to small matters from Dr. White,* came forth in the following form. Dr. White, it is agreeable to know, liked this Preface both in plan and execution. He could hardly do otherwise. It is undoubtedly a grand document, in point, alike, of strong common sense, of argumentative force, of the presentation of authorities, and of literary elegance and effect : The Preface. It is a most invaluable part of that blessed " liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" — that, in his worship, different forms and usages may without offence be allowed, provided the substance of the faith be kept entire; and that, in every church, what cannot be clearly deter- mined to belong to doctrine must be referred to discipiitie; and, there- fore, by common consent and authority may be altered, abridged, en- larged, amended, or otherwise disposed of, as may seem most con- venient for the edification of the people, "according to the various exigencies of times and occasions." The Church of England, to which the Protestant Episcopal Church in these States is indebted, under God, for her first foundation and a long continuance of nursing care and protection, hath in the preface of her book of common prayer laid it down as a rule, that — " The par- ticular forms of divine worship, and the rites and ceremonies appointed to be used therein, being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable, and so acknowledged, it is but reasonable that, upon weighty and important considerations, according to the various exigencies of times and occasions, such changes and alterations should be made there- in, as to those who are in place of authority should, from time to time, seem either necessary or expedient." *See infra, page 179 and 181. I/85] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 59 This is not only the doctrine of the Church of England, and other Protestant Churches, but likewise of the Church of Rome; which hath declared, by the Council of Trent* — "That the Church always had a power of making such constitutions and alterations in the dispensation of the Sacraments, provided their substance be preserved entire, as, with regard to the variety of circumstances and places, she should judge to be most expedient for the salvation of the receivers, or the veneration of the Sacraments themselves." The Church of England has, not only in her preface, but likewise in her articlesf and homilies, \ declared the necessity and expediency of occasional alterations and amendments in her forms of public worship ; and we find accordingly, that seeking to " keep the happy mean between too much stiffness in refusing and too much easiness in admitting varia- tions in things once advisedly established, she hath, in the reign of several § princes, since the first compiling of her liturgy in the time of Edward the Vlth, upon just and weighty considerations her thereunto moving, yielded to make such alterations in some particulars, as in their respective times were thought convenient : yet so as the main body and essential parts of the same (as well in the chiefest materials, as in the frame and order thereof) have still been continued firm and unshaken." " Her general aim in these different reviews and alterations hath been (as she further declares in her said preface) to do that which, according to her best understanding, might most tend to the preservation of peace and unity in the Church ; the procuring of reverence, and the exciting of piety and devotion in the worship of God ; and (finally) the cutting * Declarat (sancta synodus) hanc potestatem perpetuo in ecclesia fuisse; ut in sacra- mentorum dispensatione, salva illorum substantia, ea statueret vel mutaret qux suscip- ientium saluti, seu ipsorum sacramentorum venerationi, pro reruni, temporum et loco- rum varietate, magis expedire judicaverit. — Sess. 21, cap. 2, Concil. Trident. And agreeably to this, their Breviary and Missal have been frequently reviewed; the Breviary heretofore three times in the short space of sixteen years only. ■f " It is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies be in all places one, or utterly alike, for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times and manners; so that nothing be ordained against God's word; [And therefore] every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, change and abolish ceremonies or rites of the Church, ordained only by man's author- ity ; so that all things be done to edifying." — Art. 34. \ " God's Church ought not, neither can it be so tied to any orders now made, or hereafter to be made and devised, by the authority of man, but that it may, for just causes, alter, change or mitigate — yea recede wholly from, and also break them," etc. And again — "The Church is not bound to observe any order, law or decree made by man to prescribe a form of religion ; but hath full power and authority from God to change and alter the same, when need shall require." — Homily on Fasting, Part I. $ The liturgy, in sundry particulars, hath been reviewed, altered and amended about eight different times, from its first publication, according to act of parliament in 1594; and its last review was in 1661, as it now stands, according to the Act of Uniformity. l6o LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 off occasion, from them that seek occasion, of cavil or quarrel against her liturgy." And the necessity and expediency of the several variations made from time to time (whether by alteration, addition, or otherwise) she states chiefly under the following heads, viz. : 1st. For the better direction of them that are to officiate in any part of divine service ; which is chiefly done in the Calendars and Rubrics. 2d. For the more proper expressing of some words or phrases of an- cient usage in terms more suitable to the language of the present times; and the clearer explanation of some other words and phrases that were of a doubtful signification, or otherwise liable to misconstruction ; or 3d. For a more perfect rendering (or translation) of such portions of holy Scripture as are inserted into the liturgy (and made a part of the daily service) ; with the addition of some Offices, Prayers and Thanks- givings, fitted to special occasions. If, therefore, from the reasons above set forth (namely the change of times and circumstances, and the fluctuation of our language itself), so many different reviews, alterations and amendments, were found necessary in the first hundred and twelve years after the Reforma- tion ; it could not be expected, but (the same causes and reasons still operating) some subsequent reviews, alterations and amendments would not only be found necessary, but be earnestly desired by many true members of the Church, in the course of at least one hundred and twenty years more. And we accordingly find that in less than thirty years after the last review in 1661 (viz., on the 13th of September, 1689), a commission for a further review of the liturgy and canons, etc., was issued out to a number of bishops and other divines; "than whom (it hath been truly acknowledged) the Church of England was never, at any one time, blessed with either wiser or better, since it was a Church." The chief matters proposed for a review at that time, and which have been since repeatedly proposed and stated under the decent and modest form of queries, are included under the following heads : 1st. Whether the public service on Sunday mornings be not of too great length, and tends rather to diminish than increase devotion, especially among the lukewarm and negligent ? 2d. Whether it might not be conveniently contracted, by omitting all unnecessary repetitions of the same prayers or subject-matter; and whether a better adjustment of the necessary parts of the three different services, usually read every Sunday morning in the Church, would not render the whole frame of the service more uniform, animated and complete ? 3d. Whether the old and new translations of the Psalms ought not to be compared, in order to render both more agreeable to each other and to their divine original ; so as to have but one translation, and that as complete as possible? 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. l6l 4th. Whether all the Psalms of David are applicable to the state and condition of Christian societies, and ought to be read promiscuously as they now are ; and whether some other method of reading them might not be appointed, including a choice of psalms and hymns, as well for ordinary use, as for the festivals and fasts, and other special occasions of public worship? 5th. Whether the subject-matter of our psalmody or singing psalms should not be extended beyond those of David, which include but a few heads of Christian worship, and whether much excellent matter might not be taken from the New Testament, as well as some parts of the Old Testament, especially the Prophets ; so as to introduce a greater variety of anthems and hymns, suited to the different festivals and other occa- sions of daily worship, private as well as public? 6th. Whether, in particular, a psalm or anthem should not be adapted to, and sung at, the celebration of the Eucharist, as was the primitive practice, and that recommended in our first Liturgy? 7th. Whether all the lessons which are appointed to be read in the ordinary course are well chosen ; and whether many of them may not be subject to one or more of the following objections, viz.: 1. Either inexpedient to be read in mixt assemblies : or, 2. Containing genealo- gies and passages either obscure, or of little benefit to be read in our congregations ; or, 3. Improperly divided ; sometimes abrupt and unconnected in their beginning, as having respect to something that hath gone before ; and sometimes either too short or too long, and apocryphal lessons included among the number ? 8th. Whether our epistles and gospels are all of them well selected ; and whether after so many other portions of Scripture they are neces- sary, especially unless the first design of inserting them, viz. : as intro- ductory to the Communion, should be more regarded, and the Com- munion be again made a daily part of the service of the Church? 9th. Whether our collects, which in the main are excellent, are always suited to the epistles and gospels ; and whether too many of them are not of one sort, consisting of the same kind of substance? And whether there is any occasion of using the collect for the day twice in the same service? 10th. Whether the Athanasian creed may not, consistently with piety, faith and charity, be either wholly omitted, or left indifferent in itself? nth. Whether our catechism may not require illustration in some points and enlargement in others ; so that it may not only be rendered fit for children, but a help to those who become candidates for confir- mation? And whether all the other offices, viz. : the litany, the com- munion office, the offices of confirmation, matrimony, visitation of the sick, churching of women, and more especially those of baptism,, burial, 11 1 62 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l7^ and communion, do not call for a review and amendment in sundry particulars? 1 2th. Whether the calendars and rubrics do not demand a review and better adjustment ; and whether any words and phrases in our common prayer, which are now less intelligible or common, or any way changed in their present acceptation from their original sense, should be retained? And whether others should not be substituted which are more modern, intelligible, and less liable to any misapprehension or misconstruction ? 13th. Whether the Articles of Religion may not deserve a review; and the subscription to them and the common prayer be contrived after some other manner, less exceptionable than at present ? These are the principal matters which have been long held up for public consideration, as still requiring a review in the book of common prayer; and although in the judgment of the Church, there be nothing in it "contrary to the word of God, or to sound doctrine, or which a godly man may not submit unto, or which is not fairly defensible, if allowed such just and favorable construction as in common equity ought to be allowed to all human compositions;" yet, upon the principles already laid down, (namely, "the promoting of peace and unity in the church, the exciting of piety and devoti n, and the removing, as far as possible, of all occasion of cavil or quarrel against the liturgy,") the pious and excellent divines who were commissioned in 1689, proceeded to the execution of the great work assigned them. They had before them ail the exceptions which had, since the act of uniformity, been at any time made against any parts of the church service, which are chiefly set forth in the foregoing queries. They had likewise many propositions and advices, which had been offered at several times by some of the most eminent bishops and divines upon the different heads in question. Matters were well considered, freely and calmly debated ; and all was digested into one entire* correction of everything that seemed liable to * It will, without doubt, be agreeable to the members of our Church, and those who esteem our liturgy and public service, to have at least a general account of the altera- tions and amendments which were desired and designed by such great and good men as Archbishop Tillotson and others, whose names are in the following account taken from Bishop Burnet, who was also in the commission, and from Dr. Nichols : "They began with reviewing the liturgy; and first they examined the calendar; in which, in the room of the apocryphal lessons, they ordered certain chapters of canon- ical Scripture to be read, that were more for the people's edification. The Athanasian creed being disliked by many persons on account of the damnatory clause, it was left at the minister's choice to use or change it for the Apostles' creed. New collects were drawn up more agreeable to the epistles and gospels, for the whole course of the year, and with a force and beauty of expression capable of affecting and raising the mind in the strongest manner. The first draught was by Dr. Patrick, who was esteemed to have a peculiar talent for composing prayers. Dr. Burnet added to them yet further force and spirit. Dr. Stillingfleet then examined every word in them with the exact- 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 163 any just objection. But this great and gocd work miscarried at that time, and the civil authority in Great Britain hath not bince thought it proper to revive it by any new commission. But when, in the course of divine providence, these American States became independent with respect to civil government, their ecclesiastical independence was necessarily included; and the different religious de- nominations of Christians in these States were left at full and equal liberty to model and organize their respective churches and forms of worship and discipline, in such manner as they might judge most con- venient for their future prosperity, consistently with the constitution and laws of their country. The attention of this Church was, in the first place, drawn to those alterations in the liturgy which became necessary in the prayers for our civil rulers, in consequence of the revolution ; and the principal care herein was to make them conformable to what ought to be the proper end of all such prayers, namely, that "rulers may have grace, wisdom and understanding to execute justice and to maintain truth; and that the people may lead quiet and peaceable lives, in all godliness and honesty." But while these alterations were in review before the late Convention, they could not but, with gratitude to God, embrace the happy occasion which was offered to them (uninfluenced and unrestrained by any worldly authority whatsoever) to take a further review of the public ser- vice, and to propose to the Church at large such other alterations and amendments therein as might be deemed expedient ; whether consisting of those which have been heretofore so long desired by many, or those which the late change of our circumstances might require, in our re- ligious as well as civil capacity. By comparing the following book, as now offered to the Church, with est judgment. Dr. Tillotson gave them the last hand, by the free and masterly touches of his flowing eloquence. Dr. Kidder, who was well versed in the oriental languages, made a new translation of the Psalms, more conformable to the original. Dr. Tenni- son, having collected the words and expressions throughout the liturgy, which had been excepted against, proposed others in their room, which were more clear and plain. Other things were likewise proposed, as that the cross in baptism might be either used or omitted at the choice of the parents; and it is further added from other certain ac- counts, " that if any refused or scrupled to receive the Lord's Supper kneeling, it may be administered to them in their pews; that a rubric be made, declaring the intention of the Lent fasts to consist only in extraordinary acts of devotion, not in distinction of meats; that the absolution may be read by a deacon; the word priest to be changed into minister ; the Gloria Patri not to be repeated at the end of every psalm, but of all appointed for morning and evening; that the words in the Te Deum, Thine honorable, true and only Son, be changed into Thine only begotten Son; that the Benedicite be changed into the 128th Psalm, and other psalms appointed for the Benedictus and Nunc Dimitlis ; that if any desire to have godfathers and godmothers omitted, their children may be presented in their own names," etc. I64 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [iJ^S this preface and the notes annexed, it will appear that most of the amendments or alterations, which had the sanction of the great divines of 1689, have been adopted, with such others as are thought reasonable and expedient. The service is arranged so as to stand as nearly as possible in the order in which it is to be read. A selection is made both of the reading and singing psalms, commonly so called. Wherever the Bible-transla- tion of the former appeared preferable to the old translation, it hath been adopted ; and in consequence of the new selection, a new division and considerable abridgment of the daily portions to be' read became necessary; and as the " Glory be to the Father," etc., is one said or sung before the reading of the psalms in Morning and Evening prayer, it was conceived that, in order to avoid repetition, the solemnity would be increased by allowing the minister to conclude the portion of the psalms which is at any time read, with that excellent doxology somewhat shortened, " Glory to God on high," etc., especially when it can be properly sung. With respect to the psalmody or singing psalms, for the greater ease of choosing such as are suited to particular subjects aid occasions, they are disposed under the several metres and the few general heads to which they can be referred ; and a collection of hymns are added, upon those evangelical subjects and other heads of Christian worship, to which the Psalms of David are less adapted, or do not generally extend. It seems unnecessary to enumerate particularly all the different alter- ations and amendments which are proposed. They will readily appear, and it is hoped the reason of them also, upon a comparison of this with the former book. The calendar and rubrics have been altered where it appeared necessary, and the same reasons, which occasioned a table of first lessons for Sundays and other holy-days, seemed to require the making of a table of second lessons also, which is accordingly done. Those for the morning are intended to suit the several seasons, without any material repetition of the epistles and gospels for the same seasons ; and those for the evening are selected in the order of the sacred Books. Besides this, the table of first lessons has been reviewed ; and some new chapters are introduced on the supposition of their being more edifying; and some transpositions of lessons have been made, the better to suit the seasons. And whereas it hath been the practice of the Church of England to set apart certain days of thanksgiving to Almighty God for signal mer- cies vouchsafed to that Church and nation, it hath here also been con- sidered as conducive to godliness that there should be two annual solemn days of prayer and thanksgiving to Almighty God set apart, viz. : the fourth day of July, commemorative of the blessings of civil and religious liberty in the land wherein we live ; and the first Thurs- 1/86] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. lr»5 day of November for the fruits of the earth : in order that we may be thereby stirred up to a more particular remembrance of the signal mer- cies of God towards us ; the neglect of which might otherwise be the occasion of licentiousness, civil miseries and punishments. The case of such unhappy persons as may be imprisoned for debt or crimes claimed the attention of this Church ; which hath accordingly adopted into her liturgy the form for the visitation of prisoners in use in the Church of Ireland. In the creed commonly called the Apostles' creed, one clause* is omitted, as being of uncertain meaning ; and the Articles of Religion have been reduced in number ; yet it is humbly conceived that the doctrines of the Church of England are preserved entire, as being judged perfectly agreeable to the gospel. It is far from the intention of this Church to depart from the Church of England any farther than local circumstances require, or to deviate in any thing essential to the true meaning of the Thirty-nine Articles; although the number of them be abridged by some variations in the mode of expression, and the omission of such articles as were more evidently adapted to the times when they were first framed and to the political constitution of England. And now, this important work being brought to a conclusion, it is hoped the whole will be received and examined, by every true member of our Church and every sincere Christian, with a meek, candid and charitable frame of mind, without prejudice or prepossessions ; seriously considering what Christianity is, and what the truths of the Gospel are; and earnestly beseeching Almighty God to accompany with his blessing every endeavor for promulgating them to mankind- in the clearest, plainest, most affecting and majestic manner, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour. We now resume the correspondence. The Rev. Dr. White to the Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, January 4, 17S6. Dear Sir : I send you the sheets as far as finished, and have corret ted the proofs as far as to the beginning of the Burial Service. I have just now delivered to Mr. Hall the offices of the Fourth of July and for November; as they will be gone on with to-morrow. I kept * The clause meant is "Christ's descent into hell," which, as Bishop Burnett, Bishop Pearson, and other writers inform us, is found in no creed, nor mentioned by any writer, until about the beginning of the fifth century; and in the first creeds that have this clause or article, that of Christ's burial not being mentioned in them, it fol- lows that they understood the descent into hell only of his burial or descent into the grave, as the word is otherwise translated in the Bible. The Nicene creed hath only the burial, and the Athanasian only-ahe descent into hell. 1 66 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 them to the last with the hope of hearing from you, but there was no post this week. In preparing said offices for the press, it occurred to me that their wanting gospels and epistles made them not harmonize with the rest of our service. Our brethren here were unanimous in advising me to add them ; and I was the more encouraged by Dr. Magaw's saying that it was not thought of in the committee. The passages chosen are Philippians iv. 4-8, with St. John viii. 31-37 ; and St. James i. 16, with St. Matthew v. 43. The lessons, taken by the same advice for the first Thursday in November, are Deuteronomy xxviii. to verse 15, and St. Matthew vii. 7. I am sorry that I have been obliged to do these things without wait- ing for your approbation ; but I hope they will still merit it. The post is just going, so that I can only write myself, Yours, etc., W. White. Dr. Smith. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, January 17, 17S6. Dear Sir : I have lost no time in making provision for inserting a few tunes in the prayer book. We have selected some which I send you the names of on an enclosed paper. Mr. Hopkinson* is beginning to copy them for the engraver, and I expect they will be done with sufficient speed. It was natural for me, when on this subject with a gentleman of Mr. Hopkinson's taste, to communicate to him our arrangement respect- ing the psalms. He objected, as indeed has almost every one to whom I have mentioned it, to the running the psalms into one another. The issue of the conference with Mr. Hopkinson was his suggesting a plan of which I give you a sketch on an enclosed paper, and which I think on the whole will be the simplest and most elegant. Unless you disap- prove, I will execute it on this plan, although I shall have lost some labor of transcribing; in doing of which, however, I became more and more dissatisfied with the running of psalms into one another; and indeed in this way, I find that many fine passages must be lost, or else such a repetition made as in the same psalm would be improper and disgusting. I expect your draft of a preface by next post and am Yours, etc., Wm. White. Rev. Dr. Smith. P. S. — On Mr. Hopkinson's plan, the insertion of the term chapter will be unnecessary. * The Hon. Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independ- ence, judge of the Admiralty Court of Pennsylvania, and appointed by Washington judge of the District Court of the United States for Pennsylvania and New Jersey. See the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. II., page 314. 1 786] rev. will jam smith, d. d. 167 Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Sunday night or Monday morning, January 23, 17S6. I received your last letter of 17th of January, and observe what you say concerning the objections which have occurred as to running our collection or selection of singing psalms into one another. You know this arrangement was proposed for the convenience of clerks and of the people for finding any proposed sum. We could not then think of any better mode. I have no attachment to any particular arrangement that appears best. But I could see no impropriety, nor can yet see any in making one chapter or psalm of all those different parts of different psalms which are selected on the same subject and in the psalm metre ; for except in metre 1st, and in psalms of praise, etc., none of them would be very long in this way ; and I know not how you can make your breaks in the same metre, so as to close the service without running many of them into one another. For of some psalms only a verse or two are taken, and surely so small a portion cannot stand by itself. All the reading psalms for a morning or evening service, although not arranged under different heads as the singing psalms, are nevertheless run into one another, without inconvenience. On the contrary it appears a beauty. The same has been done in choosing psalms for particular services even by our Mother Church. But I have no objection to the method now proposed. As far as I can understand it from your short scrip, it was what we first proposed, although some difficulties then occurred. Mr. Hopkinson's judgment will always have great weight with me, especially on a subject of elegance and taste. I am happy that he has agreed to devote a few hours to the psalmodv. Under his hand it will become a most acceptable addition to the Prayer Book, and with the hymns to be annexed will recommend the purchase of it to many, and I hope greatly increase their love both of public and private devotion. With the assistance of our organist Mr. Limburner, our clerk, and some other gentlemen of this town, I have examined the tunes which are to be engraved and we generally approve of them ; except Canter- bury, which is too flat and inanimate. St. Anne's, though good, is too difficult for singers in general. These two might be exchanged for some more popular tunes, which you have omitted, such as Brunswick and • Stroud tunes. We also wish to have in the collection the tune .... and St. Peters is adapted to that noble hymn .... published among the collection of hymns — When all thy mercies, O my God, etc. In addition to the tunes which are proposed in your list, we would offer the six which are enclosed, or such of them as you think may vary most from those of the same metre which you retain. I should wish to 1 68 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 see the first proof-sheet of the singing psalms before it is worked off. I hope Mr. Hall is now upon it, and I wish not to delay him. I enclose you a collection of hymns to follow the psalms, and which I have every reason to believe will be a great recommendation of our Prayer Book to multitudes of our most serious and religious members. The Methodists captivate many by their attention to Church music, and by their hymns and doxologies, which, when rationally and devoutly introduced, are sublime pans of public and private worship. I have arranged the hymns under proper heads, have chosen the best I could possibly find, and have spent several whole nights this last week in copying them for the press, abridging them where it could be done, and correcting some of them in a few places. I shall be happy if they meet with your approbation and save you some trouble in this part, as you have had far more than your share in other parts, which it was not in my power to ease you from, on account of my many late calls from home. The number of hymns is more than I expected when I sat down to collect them ; but I see none that I could wish to leave out. On the great festivals of the Church, there should be some variety, at lear,t three or four, and of different metres, to complete the psalmody of the day. There are about eight hymns yet wanting, which I hope to send you next post, viz. : Hymns or Psalms for a Public Fast, Meditational Hymns on Death, Funeral Hymns, a Hymn on the Last Judgment, and a Hymn on Immortality, exhibiting a Glimpse of the Kingdom of Glory. But on these last two awful and exalted subjects, I know not where to choose. They far transcend the power of our common class of poets, and those of the greatest genius have left them unsung, at least in that kind of verse which is proper for psalmody singing psalms, that those portions of them of hymns, are adapted to particular occasions of service, thanksgiving, etc., as July 4th, the first Thursday in November, etc., are not to be printed in their place with the other psalms, which are selected for common use. Should any of them be chosen on any other occasion than those to which they are adapted among the hymns, the clerk and congregation can turn to them where they stand. The hymns and psalmody both together will not be near so long as the former psalmody by this plan, unless your new arrangement should lengthen them somewhat. The hymns will not require two half sheets, but were it more, they will pay for themselves in the sale of the book and in the satisfaction which Christians in general will derive. Few will grudge a dollar if, with the addition of hymns and tunes, etc., we think that should be the price. You will not forget to take Addison's 23d Ps. from Spectator No. 441— his nineteenth from No. 465, to be inserted among the psalms under their proper metres. iyS6] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 69 You will also take his hymn, on Gratitude, from No. 453 to be inserted among the hymns where I left a blank in copying, for want of time. As 1 do not know in what order you have arranged the metres in publishing the singing psalms, I must beg you to fill up the blanks I have left for the metres of the Gloria Patri, so as to answer to our select psalms, for it will not do to say as formerly — such a metre as Ps. 25, Ps. 123, Ps. 148, etc., as our psalms and metres will not now answer to those numbers, but to metre first, second, third, etc., as you may place. I believe I said before (but have not time to look back) that 1 beg to see the first proof-sheet of the singing psalms before it goes to the press, I hope by next post — I will try by that time to send you the preface or address nearly upon the plan you have sketched. You speak in some former letter of collecting for the feasts and fasts some passages of psalms to supply the place of the Venite on different festi- vals. Will not this take too much from the reading psalms of those days? Might of Scripture in the Old and New Testament Easter Day the substitute for the Venite is wholly so . . . such a choice as this may interfere with the lessons, and the epistles and gospels of the day. There are difficulties both ways, I leave to your own judgment. And where anything we had before (as the old Venite a little altered) will do, I would not introduce, for the present at least, any very great alterations. All the hymns, etc., except a {ew from Watts and Addison, have long been in use in the Church in the supplement to Tate and Brady's Psalms and other collections, printed with different prayer books, by religious societies, etc. The hymns, therefore, are only a more copious collection, arranged more properly, of such as have been long in use, for even some of Watts's are not new in our Church, and you know Dr. Johnson gives them a high name in his " Lives of the Poets." I wish I could have found more than about six or eight of Watts's to introduce, or that I could glean from him what is yet wanted on the last Judgment and the Kingdom of Glory. I know not where else to look. If you know of any on those subjects, I wish you to point them out. I have got two or three funeral hymns to be copied out in my next, and also hymns proper for the service of the Church at Sea and after Storms, etc., etc. It is now four o'clock in the morning. I am drowsy and half-blind — cannot stay to read what I have written — believe I have forgot nothing material. I shall be ruined if the packet does not come safe to your hand. I have no copy, nor even a list or table of the hymns which I intend should be added at the end, after we know the pages to which we must refer. This may be done by the printer. You will therefore not fail to acknowledge the receipt of them by the return of post. If I have no letter, I shall conclude you have not received them, and be very unhappy till I hear that you have. Yours, with great regard, W.\i. Smith. 170 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [17S6 The hymns must be printed in a smaller letter, as many of the metres are long. Attend well to the note at bottom of page 38. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, January 25th, 1786. Dear Sir : I have received your letter with the enclosed hymns ; of which the time admits my saying no more at present, but that I make no doubt of their being unexceptionable. If I have any remarks to make, you shall have them in my next. As you have no objections to the method last proposed respecting the psalms, I shall do whatever on a re-examination appears to -our friends here the best. I am afraid your proposals, concerning the tunes, are too late to be accomplished without either spoiling what has been done or making an addition in this article; which, by-the-by, will be much more expen- sive than you imagined. However I shall accommodate it to your ideas, as much as I should think you would yourself, were you on the spot. I expect we shall finish the reading psalms this week, and that we shall have the first sheet of the singing psalms ready for next post. The waiting for it can be no injury in regard to the composing part, but for the press work (which Mr. Hall considers as the principal), it may put us back a little. In regard to the selections, instead of' the Venite, I believe they had better stand as they are. You know the design is to introduce such portions respecting the Messiah as could not be agreeably retained in their old places; now the including some Scriptural sentences must either supersede some of said portions or make this part of the service too long ; at least this would be the case on Good Friday and Christmas day. Willi regard to the reading psalms of those days I mentioned to you, and requested you to look at them, that I had in a rubric at the end referred to one portion of the Psalter to be read on all these festi- vals at morning prayer, another at evening prayer, another for the morning of the fast days, and another for the evening of the same. I have been considering the daily calendar ; and do not find that we have any power given us on this head. Nevertheless the reading the Apocrypha has been so old an objection to our Church, that I believe it would be taken well if we were to substitute others. My plan for this is to divide so many of the longer chapters as will make up for the number to be expunged, which I find on examination may easily be done. Perhaps, too, it might be well to divide as many chapters of the Gospels and Acts as may be suited to the reading them over twice in- stead of thrice in the year. Those from the Epistles may very well stand as they are. I must request your opinion on this head: 1/86] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. I/I On another review of my plan of proper lessons I am fully satisfied with it. 1 know of no suitable hymns on the subjects you have named. I do not think it will be necessary to print the hymns in a smaller type than the rest, and if not necessary, you will agree with me that it will not look so well. 1 am, yours respectfully and affectionately, Wm. White. Rev. Dr. W. Smith. P. S. — I hope to send you per next post the Psalter complete. Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. January 30th, 17S6. I enclose the remaining hymns. The Psalms of David, unless where tortured by versifiers, have but few evangelical subjects, and stood much in need of a supplement, which our Church has allowed from time to time and we have full power to offer, as neither the psalms which we have selected nor this supplement of hymns are more than an exercise of our best discretion in the work committed to us, and not an essential part of our reformed liturgy. You will find the hymns all upon evangelical subjects and practical Christianity, viz. : On the Nativity, on the Passion, Resurrection, As- cension, Gift of the Holy Ghost, The Holy Communion, Time, Life, Death, Hymns at Sea and various Occasions of Life, in Sickness, in Time of Public Calamity, Thanksgivings for Mercies received, On State Days, as July 4th, November 1st, Thursday, etc., concluding with Christ's commission to preach the Gospel, two hymns which, when we have ordination of ministers at home, may be properly sung in time of public worship. The subjects you see are numerous, and not more than two or three hymns at most on any subject. The hymns are generally short, too. Should you think that any of them might be left out, I could wish to know which of them. There is the greatest number for the Nativity and for Funerals, but here we ought not to be too sparing. In the enclosed collection, Hymns 36, 39, 40-43 are particularly and beautifully applicable to their subjects. In short, I have taken great pains to collect and adapt them, giving nothing of my own, and I think the number, as they are generally short (although amounting to fifty), is not too great, as the Psalms of David are greatly abridged, and many of them taken out of the places where they stood promiscuously with other psalms, and placed as hymns under the heads to which they belong, so that you will take care not to print these particular passages of the psalms with the singing psalms. Let me hear particularly from you next post on this whole subject. I am more and more pleased with the arrangement of the singing psalms under the different heads to which they will apply, which are but four or five, and finding hymns I72 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 founded on other Scriptures, as we ... . worship. Clergy and laity here are greatly .... to purchase books. You will please to put the proper numbers to the pages of the enclosed hymns, as I have forgot at what my last week's copy closed, and there- fore have marked or paged them A, B, C, etc., which you will expunge when you put the numbers. Please to put Hymn 25 on Recovery from Sichicss in the former copy next after Hymn 40 of this enclosed copy, being on the same subject ; and alter the numbers of the hymns accordingly from No. 25 to No. 40, inclusive. Next post shall answer all the unanswered parts of your former letters, send you the preface, and conclude this business, with great thankful- ness to God who hath enabled us to carry it forward, with so great har- mony and satisfaction to ourselves, and I trust it will be to the full satisfaction of our constituents and the public. Write me fully this week, as I am to cross the bay next Sunday evening. Yours, W.m. Smith. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, February 1st, 1786. Dear Sir : I have received yours by this day's post ; and, agreeably to your desire, sit down to write to you particularly on the subjects of it. I send you (with the Psalter) the first proof-sheet of the psalms. You will see that I have divided them. You objected to this in your former letter that it will become necessary to leave out parts of psalms for want of enough to make one division. I answer that it will not happen if we allow that to be enough which may suffice for one time of the clerk's singing. You also took notice that the other plan was adopted in respect to the reading psalms. I answer that the same reason does not hold in the singing psalms, viz. : their being used together. Our brethren here are clear for dividing them and authorize me to say so, and Mr. Hopkinson thinks the other plan very exceptionable. I beg you to weigh the matter once more ; and if after all you should continue in your present mind I will execute it accordingly, provided you will take your pen and set down precisely what psalms shall follow one another, so as to be a guide to the printer. In doing this you will probably (like myself) be tired of the idea of running them into one another: if not, I will perform my promise. You will observe that I have put the rubric mark. I thought this proper to make it harmonize with the other parts of the liturgy, and to show with what view the psalms are introduced. In the old book they were no part of the com- mon prayer, but were only used by the royal permission. With us, as I conceive, they are to be part of the liturgy. 1/86] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 73 In regard to the form of the hymns I have to remark that I think they should be introduced like the psalms, with the rubric mark before them, with a similar direction in regard to the discretion of the minis- ter, leaving out the word ''Supplement," because they will be nearly, if not quite, as large as the collection of psalms. I would change the Latin Gloria Patri to English and call it Hymn i. In the collection sent up last week (I do not think the other admits the same criticism) there are some lines which I wish for your consent to alter, under the condition of Mr. Hopkinson's joint approbation. ■\Yell may the sun as hell be black. I wish for a substitute for this. See streaming from th' accursed tree, may be thus altered, Behold, fast streaming from the tree, etc., etc. Mr. Hopkinson thinks, with me, that it is altogether improper to transfer psalms to the head of hymns, merely to change their names; and we think that they may very well stand in their proper places to be applied discretionately, except where some considerable changes in the composition to accommodate it to the occasion may apologize for the transposition ; or else a collection be made from different psalms. The psalms applied to the Ascension must be taken in so strained a sense as not to consist with the liberty allowable in composing a hymn. The two hymns which conclude your second collection, and which refer to Christ's command to preach the Gospel, would suit admirably well for this festival. I enclose you a little essay of Mr. Hopkinson for the Fourth of July and the first Thursday in November. He desires me to mention that he is conscious of having left out in the latter some fine portions of the second psalm from which it is taken ; but it was to make it a reason- able portion for singing at one time. He thinks one for each occasion sufficient, and that for the other time of singing, a portion might be taken at discretion from the psalms. But if you choose two for each occasion, you have got one for November against which there can be no objection unless that the sentiments are the same with those of Psalm 65. As to the very fine parts of Psalm 68, I foresee many objec- tions to the making it a stated part of our service for the day. Besides the delicacy of our situation, as well as on account of the prejudice of our brethren at our present application to England, it may well be questioned whether the use of such expressions be not inconsistent with the sentiments which should take place with peace, however proper "flagranti Bel'o." Even the line, Their proud oppressors' righteous doom, 174 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 in (perhaps) the best verse of the psalm is rather too strong. I would prefer something from Psalms 89 and 18, of which I shall send you a sketch on a piece of paper. I forgot to mention when writing of the psalms, the order in which I had arranged them. You know the four general heads we fixed on were, Psalms of Praise, etc. ; Psalms of Prayer, etc. ; Psalms of Thanksgiving, etc. ; and Psalms of Instruction, etc. I found all would range under these heads except a few, which I have thought best to put at the end under these two heads : Prophetical Psalms, applied in the New Testament to the character of the Messiah — and psalms composed during the want of an opportunity of the public worship of God. If you propose any alteration of this order, you will be pleased to set down minutely, the psalms that suit any new heads you may propose. Notwithstanding the impatience of the public (and I may add my own desire of having this business out of hand) I very willingly stop the press this week, to com- ply with your desire of seeing the first sheet of the psalms, before it be worked off. Mr. Hall says it will be to no purpose to go on composing, as the preparing a sheet will not take him half the time of working it off". The week, however, will not be wholly lost ; as to prevent it, I have giver? him the tables for finding the holy days; which take up just a form. The Table for Easter I have adjusted to two Cycles of the moon, adding the Epacts, Golden Numbers and Dominical Letters; the present year begins a Cycle and the second ends at 1823. This space makes a convenient page with our letter. I have omitted in this table all the holy days besides Easter; because that being known, the next table shows the others. In all other respects I shall print the said tables, agreeably to Dr. Franklin's book,* which has them in the neat- est way of any I have seen. This form will be our week's work. * The title of the book is as follows: "Abridgment of the Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacra- ments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England, together with the Psalter or Psalms of David. Pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches. London, Printed in the Year MDCCLXXIII." Dr. Franklin, in replying to Mr. Granville Sharp, who had written to him making some inquiry as to the character of this book, thus writes : Passy, July 5, 1785. " DfAR Sir: .... The liturgy you mention was an abridgment of the prayers, made hy a noble lord of my acquaintance, who requested me to assist him by taking the rest of the book, viz., the Catechism and the reading and singing psalms. Those I abridged, by retaining of the Catechism only the two questions, What is your duty to God ? What is your duty to your neighbor ? with their answers. The psalms were much contracted, by leaving out the repetitions (of which I found more than I could have imagined), and the imprecations, which appeared not to suit well the Christian doctrine of forgiveness of injuries, and doing good to enemies. The book was printed for Wilkie, in Paul's Churchyard, but never much noticed. Some were given away, very few sold, and I suppose the bulk became waste paper. In the prayers so much 17 86] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. I/$ I have the table of proper lessons ready ; and have taken more pains with this than with any part of the book. As to the Calendar with the table of common lessons, I believe all we can do with it is so to divide the long lessons as to afford the ex- punging of the Apocrypha. I have minuted the lessons which may be so divided ; omitting in my way a very few lessons, the public reading of which appears indecent : and more than a few we cannot dispense with, without spoiling the design of having the Bible read through in the course of the year. I rejoice with you on our having so nearly finished the business with so much harmony, and am Yours, affectionately, Wm. White. Pray do not cross the Bay without writing to me particularly. I have written you a very disorderly and I suppose incorrect letter; but I write in haste and yet wish to be full. Respecting the tunes. I have contrived to substitute Brunswick for St. Ann's. The hymn tune and those you sent up would take up very consider- able room and therefore I mention what follows. Mr. Hopkinson had so fitted his tunes as to occupy an half sheet on both sides; besides which, he is desirous of inserting a page of chants ; and if I comply with this, it will be to gratify him, as he has taken so much trouble in the matter. Now the half sheet only will be a very expensive matter. The ruling press alone (if Mr. Leacok's proposals are reasonable, and he says he has made them lower than he would for any but a charitable purpose — however I shall consult judges) will be a demand on us for ^62 ioi\ When the book comes out it will be some time before remittances of cash are made from the other States, and in the mean time I shall have to settle with the printer, bank, etc. Mat- ters being thus circumstanced, I wish to add no more to the music. You know tunes may be sung besides those printed. For my part, I am convinced, that no one circumstance impedes singing in our churches so much as great diversity of tunes. N. B. — Mr. Hopkinson thinks the tunes sent up very bad and desti- tute of melody. was retrenched, that approbation could hardly be expected ; but I think with you, a moderate abridgment might not only be useful, but generally acceptable. " I am, dear Sir, etc., etc., "B. Franklin." I76 LIFE Ai\TD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Chester, February 6, 1786. I hope, as you have ordered matters, there will be no great delay at the press. I received by your sending me these proofs, the psalmody. It was only that I might have a specimen with me across the Bay as far as the book is printed. If you have attended fully to what I wrote in my former letter, I think I left you at liberty to follow the arrangement you have made of the psalms, provided enough could be had from every one psalm, for a short portion to sing, which from memory I did not apprehend would be the case, as from some of the reading psalms but one or two verses were retained ; and these I thought must either be rejected in the singing psalms or joined with some other psalms. After all I see no difference in this mode, for all that comes under the first metre, on praise and adoration, stands exactly in the same order it would have done in the other mode, and would have made but thirty- five verses as one chapter or psalm. But I am very well satisfied as it is: only as in the rubric prefixed, all of them are said to be "selected from the Psalms of David" — the name of David need stand at the head of each particular new psalm or selection. Might it not be Psalm 1 [from 8th,] and yet it seems as well as you have it — so I have no more to say on this head. I think the substitutes for O come let us sing, etc., on Christmas, Ash Wednesday, etc., Good Friday, etc., as well as the old one for Easter, in all future editions, had better be inserted with their proper titles in the place where they are to be read, that is just after the daily Venite or O come, etc., to save the trouble of turning the book and to be consistent with the rest of our arrangements. There is a precedent for this in the Communion Service, where all the Prefaces for these particular days are collected into the place where they are to be said or sung. If you approve this, it is easy to alter the rubric prefixed to these new Venites accordingly. That for Ascension Day might have concluded with the eighth verse. The following verses, especially from Psalm 2, might have better been for Whit-Sunday with some other verses which are now set apart for it. But I do not now wish to alter the press, except in the rubric aforesaid, if you approve the transposition of all the substitutes into one place with the daily Venite in future editions. The line "See streaming from th' accursed tree" — is by taking it from the original author, Watts. 'Tis altered thus in the Magdalen Collection from which you recommended in your note : See, streaming from "Cm fatal tree — And the other line — Thou sun as deepest night be black. I can see no more impropriety in transferring the sirging psalms into I786] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1/7 hymns under the heads to which the)- apply, than in the method we have taken to transfer them under the three proper heads of praise, etc., as now to be published. The few passages that relate to the Cruci- fixion, to the Ascension, etc., can stand no where so well as among the hymns under those heads. They would psalms, or under any of the few heads which the taken by Tate and Brady in versi- fying the psalms and the composition of some other parts of Scripture. I pay great regard to the judgment of Mr. Hopkinson and my other respected friends, the clergy of your city ; but we have clergy of some judgment here whom I consult also, and in this arrangement and col- lection of hymns, something of which kind has been long wished. I have some dependence on my own judgment also, and should be happy if you and the other gentlemen could agree to have the specimen of hymns offered to the public with as itw deviations as possible from the plan which upon great deliberation I have submitted to you, and Dr. Wharton, if he can be consulted. I cannot conceive for what reason you say the psalms applied as hymns for the Ascension must be taken in strained sense to apply to that occasion. Are they not the 24th and 47th, the very same which you have applied instead of the Vcnite for that day? The two hymns in the conclusion do not apply better to the Ascension than to Whitsun- day, or some other days. Christ's commission was delivered to his Apostles while on earth, and the gifts which he sent from on high to enable them to go forth in his name were not on the Day of Ascension. They seem to stand very well where they are either to be used on the occasion as suggested, or any other to which they will apply. I think less than two hymns for any one festival or occasion would not do. You have forgot to enclose Mr. Hopkinson's psalm or hymn for July 4th. What you propose may, if you will, be added to July 4th, but the few verses I have taken of Psalm 68, I think might stand. The words proud ''oppressor you may alter, and the five lines which I hinted at in my note and which are in the following part of the psalm, you know I never intended to be made part of our stated service for the present at least. Please to finish the calendar as you propose. You have taken so much pains with it that unless I could find time to take equal pains in the examination it would be wrong to interfere. I think your plan good, only do not make any of the lessons unreasonably long, and contrive the introductions and breaks suitably. Enclosed you have my essay of a preface ; the post is just setting off. The preface or address which was a matter particularly entrusted to the committee I have ever considered as a matter of great importance, as the first impressions on the introduction of the book may be of serious concern. Of this the Church was sensible in Charles 2d's time, on the 178 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Q1786 last review, when they wrote their several prefaces, giving a full account of the reasons of all the alterations, the abolition of Ceremonies, etc. I have therefore interwovenmuch of that preface, and rather than to set forth what we have done ourselves, which indeed is but little, have o-iven an account of what the wisest and best members of the Church of England have long wished to have done, in order to show that we are not pretending to be leaders in reformation, but follow them and remain connected with them. This will state our work quite in a light, wherein few consider it, and give a historical information with which the people in general of our communion will be pleased, and be made able to give an answer to gainsayers. I have also interwoven the chief part of your preface; but found it unnecessary to give the reason of every particular alteration, but rather following the example of the old preface, to pay the necessary mark of complaisance to the reader by observing that a comparison of the old book with the new would sufficiently [show] both the alterations and the reason of them. The preface should be set in a small and hand- some letter. It will not altogether be so long as the old preface to our common prayer, the treatise and ceremonies and other notifications which were found necessary to preface to that book ; and our reasons for being particular are at least as strong as the Church of England in 1662. Many will strive to make the people believe we are wholly de- parting from the Church of England — nay treating her as a corrupt and erroneous church, by setting up a reformation of our own. But I hope this preface will obviate and confute these and all such like misrepresen- tations, especially, when it has undergone your judicious and sober revisal. You must not, i. e., I hope you will not, regard a few pages or sentences more or less in the length of this important part, nor the little additional expense of the psalms. The book will sell as readily at ~s. 6d. as at 5J. You apprehended some haste and incoherence in your last to me. You have all that in this letter, the last part of which has been written in the office while the mail was closing, having been very late this morning before I got the preface concluded. I hope now we have nearly done, and so without more pre/aces or conclusions, I remain, etc., Yours affectionately, Wm. Smith. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, February 10, 1786. Dear Sir: I received yours of the 6th with the preface. As you seem not fully satisfied as to the propriety of leaving out the words "of David" I have left them stand. Your criticism respecting part of the 1/86] KEi: WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. \jg 2d Psalm was so evidently just, that I have given Mr. Hall the trouble of transposing the verses from the end of Ascension Day to the begin- ning of Whitsunday. The transposing of the substitutes for the Venite to the Morning Prayer seems to me not quite so proper, as the placing them as we have done in the case of the 4th of July, etc., and the collects for Ash Wednesday, to services appropriate to the respective days; besides which, it would make a break in the Morning Prayer, which at present stands just as it is to be read. The prefaces in the communion being continuations and part' of the sentence of what pre- cedes them, could not have been otherwise placed without confusing the officiating minister. You do not lay stress on this, and it stands as before. I give up my sentiment respecting the hymnifying the psalms; and shall only observe, that in mentioning the opinion of our brethren of this city, my intention was not to undervalue yours, or that of our brethren whom you have an opportunity of consulting; but only to be a counterpoise to that deference I entertain for your judgment which might otherwise have made me sacrifice my sense of the matter rather more easily than my duty in the present business would warrant. I enclose you Mr. Hopkinson's hymns of which I request your opinion. I intend executing this matter agreeably to your desires. You seem to have left a little liberty with regard to verbal alterations: If I am wrong you will correct me. I wish you could get rid of "the Spoil of Armies once their dread," as applied to Ascension Day. I shall be attentive to the Calendar. It is not within our appoint- ment ; and yet I believe we shall be thanked for so dividing the lessons as to serve the triple purpose of shortening the service, expunging the Apocryphal chapters, and getting rid of some the public reading of which may seem immodest. I fear we must let the New Testament lessons stand as at present : and yet the Gospels and Acts might be very well worded so as to be read twice instead of thrice in the year. As to the table of proper lessons, I have taken great pains with it and hope it will meet your approbation. I like your preface both in plan and in execution. The particularities in mine are rendered unnecessary by the articles you have inserted as proposed at the Revolution. A few observations that occurred to me in the reading I have noted in a separate paper and will enclose. You seem to have applied what I said on the article of expense to the printer's business instead of the psalmody. I approved highly of your proposal in this respect; but should begrudge the money, if much were to be inserted. You seem to have been as little versed as myself in the costs of this business. You speak of $1 for the book. I thought of the same; but find some are of opinion, that it will be considered as forcing money for our funds. It is an objection that should have no weight, but for. our read- l8o LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE ^1786 ing psalms, which will make the purchasing of new books indispensably necessary to the joining in our service : and we might have some regard to those of middling condition who would wish a Prayer Book to be in the hands of every member of their families. On the other hand, it is natural for us to wish to see our labors in this business productive of some fruit to the widows and the orphans. I only throw out the above for your consideration, and am Your affectionate humble servant, W. White. P. S. — I request you to consider whether it will not be best to bring in Addison's Translations '■'The Lord my pasture shall prepare,'" and " The spacious firmament, etc.," among the hymns. They are not strict translations. The latter at least can come in no other way as it is in the same -metre with Tate and Brady's Translations of the 19th Psalm. It will not be too late to decipher this by return of post. P. S. — The December packet informs of Willet's arrival : by whom went the original letter to the bishops. Some Queries on the Preface to the Common Prayer. (Dr. AYhite.*) Page 2d. Quaere the propriety of saying anything about the Church of Rome. Page 10. Protestant Episcopal Churches. Would it not be better in the singular number — at least it should be so when we speak of the acts of the late Convention, in order to harmonise with the phraseology of the Constitution. Page 12. The apology for not reviewing the collects, etc., appears to me exceptionable. 1st, because the pleading the want of time seems an improper excuse in business of this magnitude and holds out the ex- pediency of another review; 2dly, because we do not know that the Convention would not have given the necessary powers to the com- mittee as is insinuated, and 3dly, because there are other alterations alluded to which we have not adopted. I wish the expression to be more general; thus — "it will appear that almost every amendment, etc." Ibid. It is said, that the service is so arranged as that we need not turn backwards and forwards. This being not exactly true, I wish the explanation modified. * The Qiasries of Dr. White are, of course, upon the preface by Dr. Smith, as orig- inally written. Dr Smith adopted some of the suggestions and not others. The force of Dr. White's suggestions, of course, do not so clearly appear in the case of those adopted; since, in the prelace as given supra, (pp. 158-165), the original language of Dr. Smith disappears in the new words adopted. — H. W S. lor Dr. Smith's views upon Dr. White's Quaries, see infra, pp. 188-190. 1/86] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. l8l Page 13. "For the greater ease of the clerks, etc." This rubric says they are to be sung at the discretion of the minister. It may be corrected by putting the words "of choosing" instead of "of the clerks." Page 14, in the note. I have here two remarks to make. 1. It seems hardly worth while to quote Bishop Burnet for what is to be found in so many writers. 2dly. The explanation will militate against the whim- sical ideas of some persons grounded as they conceive on holy writ. We should avoid touching of principle as much as possible; and the footing on which (I think) we should rest the omission of the clause with the persons alluded to, is that even supposing their opinion true, yet, being grounded on a few controverted passages, it ought not to be made part of so very concise and general a confession of our faith. Page 15. "Son of the Church" — say "Member," lest we may seem to deny the right of female judgment. Quaere. Ought not some reason to be given for omitting the creeds? The reason might be that we did not judge the Athanasian to tend to edification, and that the Nicene was a repetition. And ought not a reason to be briefly given for "the Visitation of Prisoners?" if it were only to make an honest acknowledgment of our debt to the Church of Ireland. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, February 6. 17S6. Dear Sir : I had written you a long letter, to send by the Western Shore post: but missed the opportunity from not knowing that the office had changed the days. Another post goes to-morrow morning. but as you may have left Annapolis, I have thought it best to reserve it for the Eastern Shore on Wednesday. If, however, I should have a line from you at Ann's informing of your stay there this week, I will repeat the substance of what I have written, although there is nothing requir- ing an immediate answer. So I shall say no more at present, except to acknowledge the receipt of the preface, and to express my approbation of it, and that I am, yours affectionately, W. White. Rev. Dr. Smith. Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Baltimore, February 25, 1 786. Dear Sir: As Mr. Green, by his newspaper, knew the different places where I was to be every day during my late tour for holding the election of Visitors and Governors of St. John's College, he forwarded your short letter of February 12th to Upper Marlboro' where it met me 1 82 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/36 the 22d instant on my way to this town; and gave me the great satis- faction of hearing that you had received the preface, and that it hath met with your approbation. By our appointment, among other things, we were directed to "accompany the Prayer Book with a proper Preface or Address, setting forth the reason and expediency of the alterations, etc." This, therefore, was a very important part of the great trust committed to us, and I was exceedingly anxious that it should be dis- charged in the fullest and yet least ostentatious manner possible, hold- ing forth this leading idea through the whole, that we were not attempt- ing any novel reformations or the least departure from what has been the general sense of the greatest and best men in our Church for a century past. If our address has the effect intended, it will procure a ready acceptance of the book, and that not upon the mere authority of the Convention, but upon principles carrying conviction to every rational mind, and enabling them as I hinted in my last to give a reason, etc., to all who may call in question any part of the alterations or improvements, which are offered. In this view, the preface is a neces- sary and essential part of our work, and I hope will not be thought too long as I cannot see in what part it could well be abridged without injury. I speak this from my own wish to have had it shorter: for you do not seem to make any objection to its length, or to anything else in it, which as I said before gives me great satisfaction. I think I men- tioned in my last letter that if printed in a smaller letter it will not take more room than the different prefaces before the old Prayer Book, which are three or four (exclusive of the Act of Uniformity), viz. : ist. The General Preface; 2d. Concerning the Service of the Church; 3d. Of Ceremonies, etc. ; 4th. How the Psalter and Scripture are to be read. I beg your attention to the punctuation, both of the hymns and preface, as I never read them over with a view to punctuation, and you have only such stops or points as fell from my pen in a hasty transcrip- tion. Please to direct the bookbinder to prepare half a dozen copies of the best and first binding in his power for my use, as I have engaged them to some persons of distinction, friends and patrons of our great under- taking. Our Convention meets the 4th of April. I hope we shall not be dis- appointed in our five hundred books; some of which ought to be dis- tributed in the different parishes before that time. You will give all dispatch possible. Dr. West gives you his best compliments. He is just elected by Baltimore Town, a Visitor and Governor of St. John's College. We meet for the first time, as a body corporate at Annapolis on Tuesday next; and on Wednesday, March ist, I hope to cross the Bay to Chester and to receive your several letters which may wait for me there Have you yet heard anything from England? Yours, etc., Wm. Smith. 1786] A'El\ WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1S3 Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. March 17th, 17S6. Dear Sir: Yours of the 15th does not require a long answer. I have hastily, since my last, run over the metre psalms; but except some cor- rections in the punctuation, which I think might be made to advantage in sundry passages, I see little that needs alteration; and even these are too insignificant, to require a table of Errata. A candid reader will easily see they are but little oversights, and I have seen no impression of the psalms or indeed of the Prayer Book in general, more free from typographical errors, for which we are indebted to your indefatigable attention to the sheets, joined I am persuaded to some considerable care and attention in Messrs. Hall and Sellers. In the hymns enclosed to me in your last are a few lines I could have wished to amend, but hope they are now printed off, and so they must stand as they are at present. You objected in your letter of February 1st upon receiving the copies of the hymns, to a line in the 4th hymn (viz., for Good Friday), "Well may flic sun as hell be black," also in your letter of February 16th you objected to the expression, "Spoil of armies once their dread" in the 2d Hymn for the Ascension, being Hymn X. I thought both your objections well grounded, and readily proposed substitutes; the last of which on Ascension Day (as I wrote you) I considered as a great improvement; but as I had not kept copies of the original hymns which I transmitted to you, I made the altera- tions or substitutions, from what my memory retained of them and in both cases changed the person, viz., putting the second person for the third ; instead of " Thou sun as darkest night be black," It should be "The sun, etc.," and perhaps "deepest night" for "darkest night. ' ' Again in Hymn X, the second for the Ascension, in stanzas 5 and 6, the second person should be everywhere changed into the third person, not only on account of the rhyme in the 5th stanza, as " Thou" does not rhyme to "captivity," but also on account of the sense and beauty of connection, which, as I said before, I could not so well perceive in offering the amendment from memory. The hymn is in double rhymes, and the two stanzas, viz., 5th and 6th, should run thus: 5 Ascending high, in triumph, He Hath gifts receiv'd for sinful men; And captive led captivity, That God may dwell on earth again. 6 Ev'n Rebels shall partake His grace And humble proselytes repair, To worship at His dwelling-place, And all the world pay homage there. 184 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 And in Hymn IX (the first for the Ascension) which I consider as one of the most beautiful and animated in the whole collection — nay, even sublime — the first and second verses taken from Psalm xxiv, and connected with verses that follow, which follow in double rhymes, should for uniformity, had it been attended to in due season, have been changed into double rhymes also, which might easily have been done as follows, viz., for the words " eternal gates," in the first line, putting '■'eternal domes," and for the words " his foes" in the third line of verse second putting "his foe" which would have been much stronger in the singu- lar number than the plural, in making it applicable to the one great foe, whom Christ came to subdue. As the hymns are of different metres, they might have been marked as such; but being all I think of the first and second metre, the clerks cannot well mistake them. I would ob- serve too that in singing or metre psalms, instead of putting the num- bers of the psalms, as the running title at the top of each page, the top of the page, or running title, had perhaps better have been the subjects or heads under which they are classed, as "Psalms of Praise and Ador- ation" "Psalms of Prayer" etc. Thus at every opening of the book, the clerks or ministers would know the subject, without turning back to the title or heads at the beginning of each class or set of psalms; and these titles would have stood in as little room at the top of each page as " Psalms II. III. — Psalms V. VI," which are of little use on the top, as a glance of the eye shows the number, in the body of the pages. But all these little amendments (the last of which is an afterthought) are too late for the present, even if they should be deemed amendments. In that part of the preface which speaks of the failure of the great work of the review at the Revolution in 1689, I would have wished to have said a little more concerning the reasons of that unhappy failure; and that in the words of Dr. Warner, from the preface to his commen- tary on the Common Prayer, a very excellent and judicious work to which I had not attended when I drew up the preface to our bock. It might yet be added in a note upon the word "miscarried" in the fol- lowing paragraph of the preface, which you can easily find. In my rough copy it runs thus, which is all that is said, viz. : But this great and good work miscarried at that time; and the civil authority of Great Britain hath not since thought proper to revive it by any new commission. The note on the foregoing is as follows, or it might have been inter- woven with the text, or stood altogether instead of the paragraph just quoted, viz. : After giving an account of the alterations intended at the Revolution, much as I have stated them from the same authors, as he had to follow, he concludes thus : But while this important affair was carrying on, the party which was now at work for the abdicated King, took hold on this occasion to inflame men's minds. It was I/S6] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 185 pretended that the Church was to be demolished, and Presbytery set tip. The trumpet of sedition was sounded as usual from the pulpits. The Universities took fire, and began to declare against the commission and against all who promoted it, as men who intended to undermine the Church. So that it was very visible that the temper of men was not cool or calm enough to encourage the further prosecution of this great and good design, which would have been so much to the improvement of our public wor- ship, to the interest of the Protestant religion, and to the honor of the Church of Eng- land : and thus it was defeated by the turbulency and restless spirit of ignorant and factious and evil-minded men. Why it has not been resumed in the days of more know ledge, more candor and Christian charity, is a question which many good men have often asked with seriousness and zeal, but which no great men, upon which it lies to do it, I believe, have ever answered. I say that if I had adverted to this paragraph in time, I should prob- ably have inserted it at large instead of the few general lines which I have quoted in the two last lines of the foregoing page, and the first line of this; or have thrown it in a note at the bottom as now proposed. Had it stood in the body of the preface, it would come in very well; for after Dr. Warner's words, "which no great men, upon whom it lies to do it, I believe, have ever answered," the next paragraph of our preface beginning, "But when in course of his divine Providence, etc.," would just as well have followed, as it does the few words I have said on the subject. But I submit wholly to you, whether it may be proper now to insert it by way of note, or in the body, or to leave the preface just as it is without entering more particularly into the reasons of the miscarriage at the Revolution in England, I would not wish to draw any opposition to what has been done in our Church; and yet I fear the quotation above from Dr. Warner will yet be necessary (though it may be left out for the present,) to show, if any opposition arises among tis, it will be from the same principles as that in England, a dislike to our American Revolution. I would not ascribe the opposition or rather disapprobation which I find in some of my friends to this principle, because I believe they are well satisfied with what Providence has per- mitted to take place respecting American independency; but they object strongly to setting the State so much above the Church, for which you bear much of the blame on account of your old pamphlet,* and * " The Case of the Episcopal Churches in the United States considered, etc.," a tract misunderstood at the time and very unjustifiably used by certain low Churchmen since. Dr. White took pains in a note to his charge of 1807, to put himself right by showing that at the time he wrote the tract the Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania — so far as the events of the Revolutionary War could be anticipated — was in danger of annihila- tion, if we had to wait for consecration by the English Bishops. The moment that there came a prospect of peace he called in and destroyed all copies of the tract that he could easily procure. lie also left a manuscript produced, in fac simile quite lately, by his great-grandson, Mr. T. H. Montgomery — a gentleman, I may add, to whom our Church is much indebted for illustrations of its history — in which he again vindicates Jiimself against the ideas which some low churchman, by reprinting his tract, sought 1 86 LIFE AXD CORRESPOA'DEXCE OF THE [l/S6 strenuous efforts at our last general Convention to bring that clause forward respecting the control of the laity over the appointment of bishops, and which may be made a handle of to prejudice many against other parts of our proceedings. My learned but zealous high church little friend and relation (as he says), Mr. Smith, of Somerset, writes me as follows — which perhaps he did not yet wish me to communicate to you, although I believe he cares not who sees what he writes, yet you will keep it to yourself till I can see him, which will be in two weeks — but I lose the thread of my dis- course— I say Mr. Smith, who says he has just received a long letter from Bishop Seabury on the same subject, with an account of their Connecticut Constitution, writes thus : I have been looking all this while for a sight of the Prayer Book altered, and by a letter from Dr. White I understand it is hurrying on. A passage in that letter I did not and do not now perceive the propriety of — it is this — " I suppose you have heard of our application to the English Bishops, the Convention was far from wishing to show any disrespect to the Scots Episcopacy, etc." And so he gives me a long extract of your letter, and then writes as follows : These modes of proceeding may be consentaneous with the wisdom of this world, bat ill accords with that wisdom, who hath said — My kingdom is not of this world — Ye are not of the world, etc. To the account the Dr. (White) gives of Bishop Sea- bury's failure (as he is pleased to call it) I shall only say thus much. That the case of the Church in all the States, or in any individual one at present, is perfectly as a single diocese without a centre of unity, the presbyters of which have an unquestion- able right to nominate a bishop, without the interference of any diocese having a bishop or not having one. Bishop Seabury's failure then, on ecclesiastical principles, is not owing to his being sent by presbyters acting in their private capacity — Certificates from the ruling powers is without a precedent in any Christian Church in the universe. This is fixing the Church under the power of the State for ever and ever with a wit- ness. It is making Jesus Christ make obeisance to Ccesar ! ! ! Reigning powers grant- ing certificates! Tell it not in Gath ! publish it not to the world lest we publish our own infamy. The Church in America to derive her power, nay her existence from temporal auth ,.,/v — perish the idea! Her charter from the hands of the eternal runs thus: "As my Father hath sent me, etc." "All power is given to me in E7caven." Let us render unto C«sar, etc. The Church and the State are by God constituted separate, and let no man join what he hath separated. The sword of the Cherubim and Cxsar's are of different metals, the one pointing to the victim which should prevent the effu- sion of human blood by his own, the other occasioning multitudes of garments rolled in blood and the infinite number of the slain. " May the Church rest always on its own true foundation Jesus Christ, and the throne of Empire on its proper basis — Mercy. Adieu. May God direct you and those who sit in Moses' seat, etc." to put upon him. His plan acknowledged the necessity of Episcopal ordination in every case where it could be obtained; but until it could be, proposed to follow its form, awaiting the consummation of the substance. Dr. Smith, it is certain, held to the same ideas that Dr. White did on the subject of ordination. See my former volume, page 402. And it is equally certain that those views can be justified by some of the most authoritative writers of the Church of England. See Appendix, No. IV. — II. W. S. 1 7 36] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 87 You will meditate on all this and do with the proposed addition in the preface as you think bust, only do not delay it for sending me proofs In the paragraph of the preface beginning "When in the course of divine Providence, it pleased Almighty God that these American States, etc.," a few lines afterwards you have the words "these States" a second time, dele the repetition of "these States." You will supply all the omissions of words, etc., in this letter, for as usual I put off sitting down to write you till within an hour of the post Yours, etc., Wm. Smith. Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Chester, March, 17S6. With respect to our friend Mr. Hopkinson's hymns, that for first Thursday in November is only another arrangement of some of the verses of the same psalms which stand in my collection for the same day, and whether for the better or worse, you only can tell, as I have no copy of those I sent you before, and to which you have given your general approbation. If this hymn of Mr. Hopkinson's collection is all he intends for first Thursday of November, it is very defective, or at least, as there will be psalmody twice if not oftener on that day, we should have more than one hymn ; and I leave the matter wholly with you, if the business is not already finished, being persuaded that you will not break in upon the arrangement I had (with great application) made without some good purpose in view. As to the Fourth of July. The hymn offered by Mr. Hopkinson is in many parts far too flat for the great occasion, and no way equal to what I have taken from Psalms 81 and 68. Thus — War darkening all the land — God brings nations to decay — Willing mercy flew — How good the Lord has been — and also in the hymn for November — "Grass for our cattle to devour'" — although taken from Tate and Brady, does not read clever : it represents the poor animals as ravenous and dying of hunger, so as to devour zHS. before them, instead of feeding happily and contented/y upon plenty. The lines from Psalm 81 (for July 4th), which are in the collection I sent you, ending thus — Your Ancestors with wrongs oppressed, To me for aid did call, With pity I their Sufferings saw — And set them free from all — have far more in them than all that is proposed in their room (if it is to be in their room) or if to be added, would be superfluity. There can be no objection to the words " with wrongs oppressed" — for it is stronger 188 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/86 still in Mr. Hopkinson's, viz. : " to rescue from oppressive rage" — and in the former, the beautiful reference to "Ancestors" will ages hence continue to be used with a noble propriety. However, if these hymns can come in without tearing the whole texture of the others, and if it be Mr. Hopkinson's wish to have them, I am satisfied, for unless I had the whole before me, as proposed to be altered, I cannot take upon me to judge properly, and must leave that to you. Only I wish you to save an exact copy, or the whole originals of the hymns as I sent them to you. As we have kept the collects, epistles and gospels, for about twenty- two holy days, beginning with St. Andrew, and ending with All Saints', it will be necessary to mark in the calendar, as heretofore, the days of the month, on which these holy days fall, and to retain the table of lessons for those clays, as the churches which think it proper will still be as ready to observe those days, or some of them, as occasion may require. I know you have taken great pains with the table of lessons, and I am persuaded I shall have much reason to approve of what you have done ; which will be best considered when the whole is taken together ; and it would be wrong to judge by piece-meal, of anything which the necessity of the case has made the work of one alone, and on which his particular attention hath been bestowed, taking the whole in one large and consistent view. The same is the case with respect to the preface, on which, as a most material part of our trust and commission, I had determined from the beginning to bestow every convenient and possible attention, and it gives me the highest satisfaction that you " like it both in the plan and execution." I have no exact copy of it, only notes and sketches of the principal parts, so that I can make no use of your reference to pages in your remarks; but still can answer them in substance, so as to enable you to correct it, if not too late for the press. In my last from Balti- more I wished you to attend to punctuation, etc., both in the hymns and preface, as I had not read either of them over with a view either to the niceties of language, grammar or stops. I proceed to your remarks.* 1. I think the little quotation from the Council of Trent, exceeding proper to show that all churches agree with the Church of England in the doctrine of her prefaces, respecting the necessity of alterations, according to times and exigencies. In Maryland we have many Roman Catholics, who are even already questioning some of our weak members, and charging us with novelties, and still further departures from the Catholic faith. The answer is ready in the quotation from a Council of their own Church, especially that of Trent. * See these, supra, pp. 180-181. 1786] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 189 2d. Protestant Episcopal Churches should be in the singular num- ber; and yet if all our New England brethren should not join us, they may say we take too much on us to call seven or eight States the whole Protestant Episcopal Church of America. I do not remem- ber the connection of the paragraph; but if it be churches, in the plural, some such idea must have been in my head; or it is a mistake of the pen. Make this and other like things consistent according to your best judgment; for I know you will not Aitkenise* anything, being too judicious to put a patch that would not consort with the gar- ment at large. 3d. Page 12. The apology for not revising the Collects may be omitted in this preface. Yet not for fear of hinting the probability of further reviews, but because there were other things besides the Collects which the Church of England at and before the Revolution had in con- templation to review, and which we have not yet touched upon; and therefore every reader may be left to his own conclusion, as to the necessity of future reviews, by a comparison of our book on the whole, with the intended alterations at the Revolution, and I think the credit of our work will rise on the comparison. Ibid — You may say "The service is arranged so as to stand as nearly as possible in the order wherein it is appointed to be read, without the necessity of turning backwards and forwards, etc." Page 13. Say "for the greater facility of choosing Psalms adapted to particular subjects and occasions of divine worship;" or some such amendment. Page 14 — in the note — Bishop Burnet, being a great name, and the expositor of the articles, seems to me very proper to be mentioned, and I should think, it being only a note, there is no need of leaving it out. There is no alteration made in the whole book, which is like to create so much difficulty as the omission of the descent into hell; and yet wher- ever I have had occasion to explain the matter as in the note alluded to, it seems to have given content. I would not give any reasons for omitting the two other creeds. The Athanasian seems freely to be parted with on all hands, and as to the Nicene I would say nothing concerning it in this edition of the Prayer Book; because I believe some whole States will agree with the three New England States, in having it inserted at their next Convention, and left optional either to be used, or to use the Apostles' Creed, although not both in the same Morning or Evening Ser- vice; while others (I fear much from Virginia) will be for no creeds at all, and also for striking out the Trinitarian introduction to the Litany. Yet, I hope, calmness and sound argument, through the blessing of God, may reconcile all, and preserve the unity of the faith in the bond of peace. * A reference, doubtless, to Robert Aitken, a Philadelphia printer of some note at that time. I90 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l7^ Page 15. "Son" of the Church maybe made "member," and I had no more idea of excluding the "daughters" of the Church, than I have every Sunday, when I say "Dearly beloved brethren." Something may be added, in a few words, in acknowledgment to the Church of Ireland, for the office adopted from her. You will know where to insert it. I hope, now, my good Sir, we have wholly done; and it will ever give me pleasure to testify the great satisfaction I have had in the pro- gress of this laborious work, and how much it hath been made easy to me (amidst the avocations I have had, and my distance from the press) by the candor and judgment which you have shown, the punctuality of your correspondence, and the great pains you have taken in digesting, transcribing, examining, correcting the press, etc., etc. I wish to know whether Mr. Hall's calculation of the price of his work and paper was not on twenty sheets, and whether there will be any addition to the price on his account ? Or on the bookbinder's? If none the only additional price will be the engraving and printing the tunes. You know it is part of our appointment to fix the price of the book, direct the distribution thereof, take care that it be sold only for money and the profits applied to the widows and fatherless. I cannot think a dollar will be too much. Had we suffered any printer here to do it on his own account, he would have asked a much greater price. You know what they charged for small imported Prayer Books, and the very smallest School Books. Yet for the reasons you suggest, I wish it to be as cheap as possible, so as to have some savings; for you may be assured that there will be money lost, or with great difficulty col- lected out of the hands of some to whom the books may be sent for distribution or sale. I had almost forgotten your objection to — "The spoil of armies once their dread," as applied to the Ascension. You know it is Tate and Brady's, and hath long stood among our psalms, but is easily altered thus, which I think will bring it nearer to the evangelical sense as well as sublimity of the original, which is Psalm 68, v. 18 : In triumph, Thou, ascending high, Hast gifts received for sinful men, Ani captive led captivity, That God may dwell on earth again ! This I think will be very proper for the Ascension. I have preserved and endorsed all your letters, and wish you to do the same with mine. They ma}' refresh our memories at some future 1/86] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. IQI day, or show our children after us what honest and conscientious labor we bestowed on the work committed to us. Yours, Wm. Smith. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, March 8, 17S6. DtarSir: .... I send you the sheets finished; besides which there is another form prepared for press containing the residue of the psalms and the first Nativity Hymn: besides which other hymns are prepared in a detached way, but cannot be put in form for want of quadrats re- maining in the preceding forms; as these latter cannot be broken until the receipt of some paper hourly expected from mill. We have not yet suffered for want of it. I lament our delays but cannot help them. I will review the hymns to which your remarks or Mr. Hopkinson's relate and endeavor to settle them to your satisfaction. The only liberty (,so far as I recollect) that I have taken with the others is the leaving out some verses in one of the hymns at sea respecting the blas- pheming after a storm which appeared to me too much like the language — "/ am not as this Publican." If you dislike this omission, I can still retain the verses. I have also put the Glory be to the Father, etc., immediately after the psalms before the notification that the hymns begin: as it is meant to be a part of a psalm to convert it into a Chris- tian hymn, but not itself commonly known under the term hymn. The paper I have prepared for the press relative to the holy days has the extra holidays just as you desire. You have omitted answering me on a very important question respecting the calendar lessons. On the one hand I find that by our taking it in hand, these three important points may be gained: the shortening of the daily service, the getting rid of the Apocrypha, and the omitting two or three lessons very offen- sive (in public reading) to modest ears. On the other hand it is not within the letter of our appointment, so that I should not like to accom- plish what I think best on this subject without your concurrence. I shall continue the preface to your satisfaction. As to the punctua- tion of this and the hymns, I had presumed from a general glance over the points that you had attended to them; but if any appear improper in the proof-sheets I will correct them. It gives me great pleasure that you are satisfied with the execution of my part of the trust on this occasion; especially as I can with great sincerity make a similar acknowledgment ; and as I shall alway allow you more credit on the score of judgment than you ought to allow me, so also there is nothing you can say on that of candor and temper which I shall not as freely and fully say of you. You are right as to Mr. Hall's estimate of sheets, and as to the price of binding nothing more has past. Mr. Woodhouse has half the num- ber prepared for the covers and is impatient to begin. 192 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 If you are clear as to the proposed price I have no objection. It now becomes a matter of serious consideration, whether we shall avail ourselves of the copyright, for which (as I am told by a gentleman interested on these subjects) there are laws lately passed in other States, making ten States in all. I think the mode of doing it should be for Messrs. Hall and Sellers to enter it in their names, first executing to us an acknowledgment of trust, and so leaving the matter to the next Con- vention, which may order a conveyance of the right to the several cor- porations for widows, etc. I will send you by the next post my opinion of the manner in which we should proceed in regard to the sale of the books; and shall only at present say on that head, that as the Maryland Convention is the first, all the copies that can be got ready for their use shall be devoted to them in preference to any demands on the spot. I am, yours, etc., Wm. White. Rev. Dr. Smith. P. S. — I shall carefully and with pleasure observe your desire respect- ing preserving your letters; but had I foreseen you would have be- stowed the same attention on mine, I should not have sent you such hasty scrawls. Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Dear Sir : I am happy to find that yours of the 8th instant leaves me nothing to write by this post, except to repeat my solicitations that the printers may be pressed to use all the dispatch possible with the re- mainder of the book; otherwise it will come too late for our Maryland Convention; and it is of considerable consequence that it should have a ready reception, with the sanction of the Church at large in this State upon its first appearance. Send me by this post as many of the remain- ing sheets and proofs, as you can get from the press. I imagined that in my last I had given what you would consider as a sufficient answer to your "important questions" concerning the calen- dar, on which subject you had also written in some former letters. The arranging the calendar in the manner you mention, and which I had approved of when I saw you last in Philadelphia, is a work of great labor, requiring the reading over almost the whole Bible, and many collations and comparisons of different portions thereof. You had taken that labor upon you and I am assured have bestowed much atten- tion and judgment upon it, while I have been either engaged in some other parts of the work, or called from home, as I have been for the greatest part of the past winter. Unless, therefore, I could have time to read all the proposed portions of Scripture, with the same attention which you have bestowed (for which time is not left, even if I had an I786] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D 1 93 exact copy of the calendar as proposed) it would be wrong for the rea- sons given in my last letter to interpose, lest by judging of that by parts, which you had under review in the whole, I should injure the texture, etc. 'These sentiments I wished you to consider as an answer to your question concerning the calendar; being sensible also that you must have been possessed of the same way of judging and giving your approbation to some parts which fell to my share in carrying on our work. By just hinting to you not to forget the place of the Apostles', etc., or extra holy days, I imagined that you would conclude that I could depend fully on your execution of part, viz., the of lessons, as you have bestowed so much attention upon them. Yet, still I apprehend that I have not with sufficient clearness, expressed what I wished about inserting in the calendar the days to which I referred in my last. I did not mean that they should stand in a separate table or paper, but in the monthly calendar, as they now stand. Thus in January, the Circumcision is 1st day, Epiphany 6th, Conversion of St. Paul the 25th. These are all which should stand for that month. The rest, as Lucian P., Hilary Bishop, Prisca V., and other legendaries, Fabian, Agnes, Vincent, and even King Charles Martyr, all expunged, and thirty of the rest, of the other months, in order that when the minister casts his eye on the monthly calendars, he may be reminded when any of those days happen on Sunday, or on Prayer Days, that he may take the Collects and Lessons, with the Epis- tles and Gospels accordingly; if he thinks it proper ox desired by his hearers, especially the female part, on Wednesdays and Fridays. I think we must not make our service too naked, nor will these days, viz., St. Paul, the Johns, Andrew, etc., be parted with all at once nor does it seem necessary. A proper use of those days tends to edification, and gives some further knowledge of the History of the Bible. On casting my eye on the singing psalms, I perceive some typo- graphical errors. Psalm 28, v. 2. When thou to seek thy glorious face Thou kindly, etc. The first "thou" is "us " in the original, and would be better "me." As it now stands, the first thou makes nonsense. Again, Psalm 38, v. 1st, line third wants afoot, viz., the word "the" before cherubs. Plow many little errors typographical of this kind may be, I have not ex- amined ; but will spend a few hours in looking over the whole book, that if the errors be of any consideration, we may put a little table of corrections at the end. Psalm 21 does not seem to stand under any metre at all. I see some parts of the psalms appropriated for particular days as hymns, as 104 — also some verses applicable only to the cruci- fixion, are in the general collection — which will make some repetitions; but as they are but a few verses I would not have anything omitted in 194 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 the hymn on this account. I will this week if possible, look further at the calendar, but do not delay anything on that account. I know I shall •approve what you have done, as will the not exactly within the letter of our authority. N. B. — The first lesson for the first Sunday in Lent, on reading it, appeared to hurt me in some parts the Sunday before last. It is an in- structive lesson on the whole, if we could leave out part of a chapter, or pass over verses, viz., where Lot offers his virgin daughters to the men to do with them as they pleased. If the calendar is in proof, pray send it, but still I beg no stop on my account. I must conclude hastily and am as ever, Yours, Wm. Smith. P. S. — My letters have been as much scrawled in haste as yours; but both of us may review and correct any hasty escapes of the pen, etc. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, March 15th, 1786. To the best of my recollection the inclosed are the proper continua- tion of the sheets: if not, and there be a chasm, you will inform me and I will supply it by next post. Besides these, I have corrected two proof-sheets for the press, so that I expect we shall have the hymns fully composed some time to-morrow. Then going backwards from the Morning Prayer, we have a form composed containing the tables for finding the holy days. Two more forms will be taken up with the Tables of Feasts and Fasts, of proper lessons, and of the lessons according to the calendar. The preface will occupy another form, besides part of it being thrown forward to be on the same form or part of form with the Title Page. In short, by this day week, I hope to have the whole composed : which being done, they may finish at their leisure the press work of these few remaining forms, only striking off some for the bookbinder to begin. There is nothing you mention as you wish (in yours of this day) con- cerning the calendar, but what is prepared agreeably to it. I should not have troubled you further on this subject, but that I understood what you had before written, as applying to the proper lessons only. But the chapter you mention, I have thought best to omit wholly. I am sorry for the typographical errors and hope you will perform your promise of going over the whole book. Such slips will easier attract your eye than mine, which has already run over these sheets, both in the preparation and in the execution. I am yours, etc., Wm. White. Dr. Smith. I786] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 19$ P. S. — I have not yet heard a word from England, but hope that the January packet will bring some information. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, April 1, 1786. Dear Sir : Mr. Woodhouse will send you by this opportunity six setts of the Proposed Book including (as I expect) all except the re- viewed forms. The preface will not be in its proper form; but as I intend sending by the next post the sheets necessary to complete the book, you will please to leave directions at Annapolis concerning them, if you should leave it before their arrival. I beg my affectionate compliments to such of our brethren at the Convention as I have the pleasure of knowing, and am Yours, affectionately, Wj\i. White. Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Chester, Maryland, April 3, 1786. Dear Sir: .... On the other sheet you have some corrections, which I wish in the preface and which I think will appear to you for the better, if you can make out to read them. Send me title page, calen- dar, preface, etc., by this post. The printers need only work a few of the titles and prefaces, till you hear from me next week. A few will keep the bookbinder at work. I am yours, etc., Wm. Smith. Corrections. . . . Preface. Paragraph 1st. For the words "whatever cannot be clearly detcr- mined," say " what cannot, etc." Paragraph 2d. For "laid down as a rule" say "laid it down, etc." Paragraph 4th. After the words "too much stiffness in refusing," in- sert, "and" so as to read, "too much stiffness in refusing and too much easiness in admitting, etc." In the paragraph beginning "3d. For a more perfect rendering, " after the word "/iturgy" and before the word "made" in the parenthesis insert "and," so as to read "are inserted into the liturgy (and made a part of the daily service)." In the 6th quaere. Beginning "Whether in particular a psalm or anthem should not be adapted and sung, etc.," insert the word "to" after adapted, and read "adapted to, and sung at the celebration, etc." In the 8th quaere. Relating to the Epistles and Gospels, after the word "especially" strike out the word "as" and insert "unless," and it will read "especially unless the first design of inserting this, viz.., as I96 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 introductory to the communion, etc.," putting a comma after the word communion. In the nth quaere. The word "Baptism" should not be distinguished by italics from the other offices which are printed in Roman. There are several other things of this kind, which neither the printer nor we perhaps have now time to notice. In the paragraph beginning "But while these alterations, etc.," alter the whole so as to read thus : But while these alterations were in review before the late Convention, they could not but with gratitude to God, embrace the happy occasion which was offered to them (uninfluenced and unrestrained by any worldly authority whatsoever) to take a further review of the public service, and to propose to the Church at large such other altera- tions and amendments therein as might be deemed expedient, whether consisting, etc. (as it now stands). In the next paragraph — in the last line — strike out the words "at that time ' ' and read ' ' thought reasonable and expedient. ' ' In the follow- ing paragraph, "speaking of the 'Glory to God on high'" after the "etc." insert "which may he said, unless" before the words "when it can be properly sung," the whole to read thus, "Glory to God on high, etc., which may be said, unless when it can be properly sung." In the paragraph which speaks of July 4th, for "Blessing" insert "Blessings of civil and religious liberty." In the last paragraph, strike out so as to make it read "be received and examined, etc.," as it now stands, to the end. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, April 5, 1786. Dear Sir : Several of the corrections which you propose in the preface, I had previously made ! The rest shall also be made. I hope you will not think of altering the title page, after some are binding. It will be attended with the following inconveniences : 1st. Mr. Smith must give two certificates different from each other, for the act requires the title to appear in the certificate.* 2d. Several will have gone (before the change) into quarters, where you will not wish such inconsistency to appear — to Boston for instance where the Con- vention of Massachusetts and Rhode Island meet on the 27th instant — and wish to have the whole before them. 3d. The persons who shall purchase the first copies will think themselves defrauded. And after all, there is nothing that can be so easily amended in future editions, the very nature of the present making a peculiarity necessary in the title. I expect to have this evening the second page, with Mr. Smith's * Dr. White here refers to the certificate of copyright by J. B. Smith, prefixed to the Proposed Book. 1 7 86] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 9/ certificate and the table of contents, and to-morrow morning the re- viewed forms. The intervention of the newspaper has delayed them. I am yours, etc. Wm. White. Rev. Dr. Smith. Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Chester, April g, 17S6. Dear Sir: We had a considerable majority of all our clergy (not many of the laity) at our Convention, and have agreed to receive and recommend to public use the new book, as far as the power of our State Church may be supposed to extend in our present unorgan- ized State. A few alterations are proposed to be offered to the next Convention. The Nicene Creed to follow the Apostles', with an "or this.'" A little alteration, or rather discretionary power in the admin- istration of baptism, where the minister may have great numbers to baptize together, and an addition to the consecration prayer at the holy sacrament, for a blessing on the elements, which being only a few words, and those extremely proper, and agreeable to the practice of all other Protestant Churches, as well as what was in the first liturgy of Edward VI. hath perfectly reconciled Mr. Smith* to our service and will prevent any further division between us and the numbers of clergy coming among us from Bishop Seabury and the Scots' Church. In the Scots' and Edward VI's liturgy the prayer was exceptionable and leaning much to transubstantiation in these words: "Vouchsafe to bless and sanctify these thy creatures of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood, etc." The Scots' still stronger, viz., "that they may become unto us the body and blood." The alteration as we propose it is thus, beginning at the words in the consecration prayer, "Hear us, O merciful Father, we most humbly beseech Thee, and vouchsafe so to bless and sanctify these thy creatures of bread and wine, that we receiving them according to thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance, etc.," as it now stands. This reads as well as before, pleases all sides, and is certainly an improvement, as there was before no invocation of a blessing on the sacred elements. When you send the book to Mr. Parker, of Boston, before their ensuing Convention, send him as from me, with the compliments of the Mary- land Convention, the foregoing proposed addition in the consecration prayer, and also notify our agreement with our New England brethren in the restitution of the Nicene Creed. I beg by post at least one complete book. I have none at present. The title I have not seen, and do not wish to alter, but it should cor- * The Rev. William Smith, of Stepney Parish, Somerset county, alluded to, supra, page 186. See a sketch of him, by an able hand, infra, page 274. I98 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 respond also with the title in the eleventh page of the journal of Con- vention. When shall we have books ? Our clergy and laity complained much that they should have been obliged to judge of the book on a hasty reading, during the sitting of a Convention. Yours, Wm. Smith. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, April 12, 1786. Dear Sir: I think the proposed alterations of your Con- vention will render our service more complete. With this I shall send you the sheets that were wanting when you went down. Mr. W will furnish a parcel this week. As there is a vessel soon to sail for Charlestown, you will approve sending to the most dis- tant States first. Be assured, you shall have a parcel, before a single book is sold here. I am yours, etc., Wm. White. Dr. Smith. Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Chester, April 17, 1786. Dear Sir : In the preface at the bottom of page 4, there is an error, viz., ''construction" for "misconstruction." It is the last word of the page, and is a capital mistake indeed ! I think it could not have been in the copy. In the last page of the preface, second paragraph, "Visitation of prisons," should be " \p7-isoners." I believe there is little else to be observed in the preface, although I cannot say I have read it critically, yet it seems to read sufficiently correct for the present. I shall before June next take the whole book, and make every correction which I think may be necessary in future editions, and lay them before the Convention.* I hope you and perhaps others of our brethren will do the same. I wish you had taken my advice respecting David's 114th Psalm, which stood before as our 21st, and only have made a note at the end of the book that the psalm was misplaced, and ought in future editions to come in under its proper metre, as Psalm 16, and that the metres of 148 and 149 should be exchanged if such correction be necessary; for it is merely arbitrary which we call 5th and which the 6th metres, if the Gloria Patri's be arranged accordingly. As you have taken our 24th Psalm or David's 149th from the sheet Gg and placed it Ff, the mere reprinting that one sheet Ff (which you * Dr. Smith's own copy of the Proposed Book, with the manuscript corrections re- ferred to in this letter, is now in the library of the Right Rev. William Bacon Stevens, D. D., of Philadelphia, to whom it was given by the present writer. — H. W. S. I7§5] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 1 99 have sent me), will not complete the book. You will have the first leaf of the sheet Gg to reprint, or else the whole sheet, if the book- binder does not choose the trouble to cut out a leaf in every sheet and paste it in the book which is immense trouble, and will occasion much delay. For you will observe, that after the sheet Ff (which is reprinted) the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, etc., verses of David's 148th Psalm must come in the sheet Gg, where his 149th now stands, and the beginning of his 96th or our 25th. This, as I said, will be great trouble and delay, which I am sorry for, as the people are become exceedingly impatient for copies of the book, and the more so as they have more experience of its use. My congregations were exceedingly pleased with the two Good Friday hymns, which, as they had not books, were first read and then sung, and also the two Easter hymns, No. VII and No. VIII, but what above all seemed to make the greatest impression was the two Communion hymns, viz., No. XVII, beginning "My God, and is thy tabic spread" sung after sermon as an invitation to the Sacrament, and No. XVIII, beginning "And are we now drought near to God, etc.,'" sung after the communion. It adds a solemnity which they confessed they had not experienced before. The hymns are indeed beautiful and every line of them applicable to the blessed occasion. Have you yet introduced them in this way? When you do you will find it of use to read them for the first time yourself, from the place where you are, the desk or communion table. Every communicant will, before another day, have them by heart as I believe was the case here, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, as the book was sent for and sundry copies taken in writing, I mean of Hymns 17 and 18. I beg I may have at least one complete book this post. I gave all away at Annapolis, except the loose sheets which I had from time to time as proofs. You will take care to have receipts from the stage masters, skippers, etc., to whom you deliver books for distant places making them accountable for the number, and make the clergy to whom you address them accountable for the price — one dollar. W. S. Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Chester, Md., April 24, 1786. Dear Sir: I am favored with your short note by last post, in which you just mention the receipt of mine by last post; but as it appears had not time to notice its contents. The two corrections in the preface, and a proper adjustment respecting the sheets in the singing psalms- which you have thought necessary to reprint, have not, I trust, escaped your notice, as it will be a conclusion of the great attention and labor which the press has cost you. The post rider, I imagine, called on you to have some prayer books for his own disposal, on commission from sundry of his subscribers. But unless he gets them from booksellers in 200 LIFE AXD CORRESPOXDEXCE OF THE [1786 Philadelphia who may be some time hence intrusted with the sale of copies, it will occur to you that neither he nor any other person from the neighboring States can have any copies at present. The proportion for each State must be sent, agreeably to our plan, to some one or more of the clergy in each State, who are to be responsible for the money arising from the copies, as well as an equal distribution of the books in the proportions agreed upon in their several Conventions. In Mary- land we have fixed on three copies out of every five for the Western Shore; and two copies for the Eastern, the former to Dr. West's care, the latter to mine. And you will yet have the trouble to take receipts for the books of the post or stage carriers, or skippers, etc., obliging themselves to deliver parcels or boxes as directed. The expense of package, and carriage, etc., to be paid out of the profits of the sale, to make the price equal in all places, for Philadelphia should have no superior advantage in the price, by lying near the press. The book should be $i to a purchaser in Philadelphia as well as in Charlestown, Carolina; and the stages, where they go by stage, will not take them without the pay advanced, though if they could be got to take them and be paid on the delivery at New York, Baltimore, Alexandria, etc., giving their receipt to you, it would perhaps insure their care of the parcels the better, not to have the money till the service was done. Your local situation will still throw all this care and trouble upon you, but I know you will not decline it, any more than you have heretofore in the prosecution of this work. The bookbinder should get all the help he can. I hope Mr. Marshal,* of Boston, has a few complete copies including the preface, calendar, etc. If he had them not in a bound book they should be sent in sheets, that they may have the whole before them, and especially the preface giving them what I hope will be a satisfactory account of the reasons, and expediency, etc., of all the proposed alterations. Of the first five hundred copies for Maryland, let Mr. West have three hundred, which may go twice, viz. : one hundred and fifty in a box not to risk all at once, and to make it more convenient, for the binder. I should be glad of about twenty copies this week by our post, and if I cannot agree with him for a reasonable price for the re- mainder, I will order them by water to Duck Creek, and send for them from thence. I am affectionately yours, Wm. Smith. * Doubtless a clerical error for " Parker," the Rector of Trinity Church, Boston. The Rev. John R. Marshall, A. M., of Connecticut, attended the primary meeting in New York in 1784, but his name is not found in connection with any subsequent proceedings. I/S6] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 201 Rev. Dr. Smith to Rev. Dr. White. Chester, April 29, 1786. Dear Sir: I have received twenty-two copies (two in morocco) of the Prayer Book. I had to pay at the rate of five shillings per dozen carriage to the post, which will not do in future. There is a stage now set up from Philadelphia to this town, an acquaintance of mine of New- castle, a Colonel Derby, at the head of it. I expect him here by next Wednesday's stage, which will be the second trip, and shall agree with him to bring the books and to do other business for me, as he has also a stage boat to Newcastle from Philadelphia and he will have a sufficient authority from me to produce to you when he calls for the remainder of our Eastern Shore complement of books, which I hope may be ready next week, as the few we have has only increased the demand of many, while some old persons do not show much desire to exchange the old for the new book. But all I hope in good time, and without much uneasi- ness, especially if there be no appearance of authority Or compulsion in the case. I wish there could be a little note of the principal errata pasted on the blank leaf at the end. They are not many; but "construction" for " ////^-construction " is one of some consequence, and yet a candid reader need hardly be told of it. I am yours, Wm. Smith. Rev. Dr. White to Rev. Dr. Smith. Philadelphia, May 6, 1786. Dear Sir : I received your note directing the books by the Newcastle stage : in consequence of which I now send you fifty, two of which are morocco; and these are the most that can be spared at present, consistently with our duty to the other States, none of which (I am sure) you would choose to have neglected. The Eastern Shore proportion of the whole is (as I understand) eight in the hundred ; and you may rely on that proportion being always ready. Perhaps on consideration you will not think it proper to print a table of errata at present, for these two reasons: 1st, because so many of the books are already out; and 2dly, because it is probable more errata may appear, which will seem intended, because not included in the table. The errors you allude to are so evidently typographical, that they cannot be otherwise taken. I am yours, etc., Wm. White. Rev. Dr. Smith. 202 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/86 This ends the correspondence between Dr. White and Dr. Smith on the subject of giving the alterations, etc., in the old Prayer Book, ordered by the Convention of 1785, such form in print as should best carry out the general purpose of that body. A single letter additional of Dr. Smith to a gentleman who, as Bishop of Massachusetts, subsequently became eminent, though he died within three months after his consecration, shall conclude what I have of my ancestor's correspondence on the Proposed Book, while it was yet going through the press.* Dr. Smith to the Rev. Samuel Parker. Chester, Kent County, Maryland, April 17, 1786. Dear Sir: Dr. White having a more ready communication with you than I could have, he has at the desire of our committee for the press, sent you the sheets of our revised Prayer Book, and I hope you will have the whole complete by the meeting of your Convention, which Dr. White writes me is to be about the end of this month. I trust that after a serious and candid consideration of what we have done, it will have the approbation of the worthy body, clergy as well as laity, who are to meet you in convention ; or that if there be some things, which you may judge could have been done otherwise, or better, we can in future editions come to an easy agreement on this head, as would cer- tainly have been the case had we been so happy as to have had your advice and assistance as we expected at the last Convention. I think there are few alterations which you did not wish. As chairman of the grand committee for revising, etc., I had the alterations which you had proposed in your last meeting, put into my hands the first day of our sitting, and you will see that I paid a full attention to them, and that we have agreed with you almost in every matter, except only respecting the Nicene Creed, and our Convention in Maryland which met last week have recommended the restoring that creed also, so that either it or the Apostles' may be read at discretion, provided both be not used in one service. The Maryland Convention have proposed also an addi- tion in the consecration prayer in the holy communion, something analogous to that of the liturgy of Edward Vlth and the Scots' liturgy, invoking a blessing on the elements of bread and wine, which was left out at the first review of the English liturgy, it is said, at the instance of Bucer, and otherwise because the invocation favored the doctrine of transubstantiation and it does now in the Scots' liturgy praying to bless and sanctify the elements that they may become the body and blood, etc. * The Rev. Samuel Parker, consecrated Bishop (for Massachusetts) September 14th, 1804, died December 6th, 1804. 1786] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 203 We have proposed to retain the prayer and yet avoid the exceptionable part, and it will run thus : Hear us, 0 Merciful Father, we most humbly beseech thee, and with thy word and Holy Spirit vouchsafe so to bless and sanctify these thy creatures of bread and wine, that we receiving the same, according to thy Son our Saviour, Jesus Christ's holy in- stitution, etc. This I think will be a proper amendment, and it perfectly satisfies such of our clergy and people as were attached to the Scots' and other ancient liturgies, all of which have an invocation of a blessing on the elements, as is indeed most reasonable and proper. I am anxious to write you by this post to have a chance of your re- ceiving this before the meeting of your Convention. I have therefore no time to be more particular. Where we have gone further than was hinted in the alterations you formerly sent us, viz., in the arrangement of the reading and singing psalms, the calendars and rubrics, the col- lection of hymns on evangelical subjects as a supplement to the de- ficiencies of David's Psalms and other matters, which we have set forth in the preface, I say in all this I know you will exercise a candid and liberal judgment, and let me hear from you. We can only in the different States receive the book for temporary use, till our churches are organ- ized, and the book comes again under review of conventions having their bishops, etc., as the primitive rules of Episcopacy require. Excuse this hasty scrawl from Your affectionate brother, etc., Wm. Smith. P. S. — I shall write to Bishop Seabury next post. CHAPTER XLVIII. The " Proposed Book " — Absurd Pretensions of the so-called " Reformed Episcopal Church," that the Schism of their Sect found Support in it — History of the Formation of the Book — Dr. Smith chiefly en- titled to the Credit of it — Some Description of the Respective ECCLESIOLOGICAL CHARACTERS AND TASTES OF Dr. SMITH, Dr. WHITE AND Dr. Wharton, as applied to this Subject — Dr. Smith's Services in Procuring the Episcopal Succession — Adjourned General Convention of 1786 at Wilmington — A Partial Compliance with the Suggestions of the English Archbishops— Dr. White, Dr. Provost and Dr. Griffith Recommended to the English Bishops for Consecration — Maryland Convention of 1786 — Attestation by his Parish Officers in Maryland of Dr. Smith's Fitness for Consecration. The correspondence in the last chapter runs through two years (1785-86) ; therefore this chapter does the same. 204 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 I have already observed * that a religious consociation, calling itself the Reformed Episcopal Churchy upon its first departure from the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, adopted temporarily as its liturgy the Proposed Book of 1785. It made omissions from it ; which, if not made, would have struck a fatal blow to some of the new sect's grounds of schism, and it made at once an announcement of its purpose to subject the book to revision in its portions left ; a revision to be made in accordance with certain principles which the "General Council" of the sece- ders set forth, and which, in fact, were at variance not only with the spirit of the Proposed Book, but with some of its letter also.f This schismatical party soon found that the Proposed Book — which indeed itself declared in terms, that it was "far" from the inten- tion of the Church which promulged it to depart from the Church of England any further than local circumstances required — could not be managed by them at all ; and sailing on the broad and un- charted sea of their own ignorance, audacity and error, before long threw the Proposed Book bodily overboard. Disregarding, however, the fact that no point of doctrine in the Church of Eng- land was denied by the new book, they have sought, by praising it, to convey the idea that the book justified their schism ; and during the time that their conventicles did use it, they spoke of it — as they have also done since — by way of giving to it a weight which they could not give to it themselves, as "Bishop Wliilc's Prayer Book; "J a mode of speaking of it which I have already * Supra. f See the edition of the Proposed Book reprinted in 1873, under the authority of George David Cummins. The Order for the Visitation of the Sick which is found in the original Proposed Book is wholly omitted from the reprint; and if the ideas of the so-called Reformed Church were well based were omitted with reason, since that order retains the English rubric directing that the sick person shall be " moved," i. e., shall be recommended, urged or prevailed on, " to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubles him with any weighty matter," after which confession a declaration of absolution is to be made to him. J Bishop Nicholson, in his " Reasons why I became a Reformed Episcopalian," says, in speaking (p. 26) of the service book of the new sect : " It is in most things essentially the same as that known as Bishop White's Prayer Book, in the making of which were associated with the Bishop such men as Wharton, and Smith, and Provost, and Washington, and Jay." Was ignorance ever more audacious than this ? As will sufficiently appear hereafter, Dr. White never cordially liked the new book. Washington had nothing under heaven to do with it, and Mr. Jay no more. Jay was not a member of the Convention of Sept. 1785, which made the book, any more than was Washington. 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 20$ called "audacious" and which undoubtedly, so far as it conveyed an assertion of exclusive authorship or compilation by that emi- nent person, had no foundation in fact. It is not easy for me at this late day clearly to show to whom, in its particular composition, we principally owe the Proposed Book ; a volume having some deficiencies no doubt, having some excellent points too, and entitled, under any circumstances, to the admiration of the people of America, as the basis on which was in part constructed the Book of Common Prayer set forth and ratified in 1789; a work nearly perfect, and one which, in view of the difficulties under which the Church in America — after our severance of obligation to the King of England, as the temporal head of the Church; to the Bishop of London as diocesan of our colonies, and to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as the source of support to many country churches — was placed by the independency, in law, of every parish of every other, and of ever}- common superior, must be contemplated with gratitude and praise. The journal of the Convention of 1785 shows nothing particular of importance on the subject of the respective authors or makers of the book. Bishop Perry * rightly says that " a more guarded and incommunicative record could hardly be found," and we can learn from it neither the reasons for the changes proposed by the committee nor the reception that they met with from the members of the Convention. I think, however, that to Dr. Smith more than to any one else the formation of the book is due. It is sometimes popularly supposed from the fact that Dr. White, Dr. Smith and Dr. Wharton were the persons by whom the copy for the Proposed Book was fitted for the press and pub- lished— that those three gentlemen were the persons who com- posed or framed it. This is a great mistake. What we find in Another of these Reformed gentlemen — the Rev. Benjamin Johnson (Correspond- ence with the Rt Rev. Dr. Beckwith, Bishop of Georgia, p. 21) — asks with similar ignorance : " Would Bishop White, whose recovered Prayer Book so clearly exposes, etc." The Rev. Mason Gallagher, in like style in " The Book of Common Prayer, Re- vision a Duty and Necessity," p. 54, says: "The revision of Bishop White was in use but four years." The book referred to was not the revision of Bishop White, and it was never in any general use at all. * " Half Century of Legislation," Vol. III., page 100. 206 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Q1785 the Proposed Book was made, in its substance, and in its main form also, in and by tne Convention of 1785; and the service as set forth in the book had been actually used at the conclusion of that Convention before the book was itself in print at all. It had been all brought into the Convention by a committee, the names of whose members we have already given ; * men who, both as re- spects the clerical and the lay part of it, were men who, in general, thought and acted for themselves, though a spirit of conciliation towards each other, no doubt, on this occasion, largely prevailed among them. It is impossible, therefore, to say that the book was the work of any one man or of any three men. All that the committee, consisting of Dr. White, Dr. Smith and Mr. Wharton, did — so far as we know with certainty — was to carry out, with a liberal interpretation of their powers, the business of fitting the work for the press. Nevertheless, I do, as I have said, suppose that to my ancestor, Dr. Smith, as chairman of the committee in- trusted with the work of the alterations, and as the person who reported them to the Convention, is due much of the frame-work of that book. Dr. White was President of the Convention and took no part in debate there upon the book except on a single occasion ; which was to oppose the introduction of one feature — a service of thanksgiving for the 4th of July.f The work of the large committee appointed by the Convention was done in a sub- committee, of which Dr. White was not a member. The work of the sub-committee was not debated in the full committee, nor much in the Convention. % From the first coming of Dr. Smith to this continent he had a profound conviction of its great destinies; and he expressed, early and often, these convictions both in poetry and prose. At a later day, 1790, embodying some of them, he writes: In my expanded view these United States rise in all their ripened glory before me. I look through and beyond every yet peopled region of the New World, and behold period still brightening upon period. Where one continuous depth of gloomy wilderness now shuts out even the beams of day, I see new States and Empires, new seats of wisdom and knowledge, new religious domes spreading around in places now * Supra, page 1 19. f " White's Memoirs." Second Edition, pp. 104-105. X Id., 103. I7S5] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 207 untrod by any but savage beasts or man as savage as they. I hear the voice of happy labor and behold towery cities growing into the skies. How remarkable, too, is that passage in a letter of his, written A. d. 1785, nearly a century ago: Surely in large towns and cities (of which America will have many in a hundred years more) the good old custom of week-day prayers will not be laid aside. Did he foresee Chicago ? Was De Kovcn, the Rector of Racine, revealed to him? Thank God, the day which he waited for — though he died without the sight — has arrived ; and from churches everywhere in our land, and most of all from the very- church which he dedicated,* and that elder one in which he oftener preached, f the voice of confession, and prayer, and thanks- giving, and praise now ascend every morning and evening daily throughout the year. So soon, therefore, as the Church in America became indepen- dent of the Church in England, which — since and so long as that latter Church was a part of the State and under the control more or less of a British Parliament and British statutes — deprived of its independence — its wings clipped and its limbs manacled — our said Church in America necessarily did become — Dr. Smith con- templated it "in all its ripened glory" before him! He saw the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America spread over the whole continent ; half of Mexico already annexed, and all of Canada soon to be. What were the English bishops — lords of parliament though they were — to that consecrated host which assembles in oar upper ecclesiastical house? What the English laymen — in no office whatever, ecclesiastically speaking — to our body of lay representatives in General Convention with clergy triennially assembled ? Dr. Smith had no idea of subjecting the Church in this New World to a liturgy, to orders of service, or to articles which had been made in England only under the greatest difficulties ; which were a temporary compromise between extreme parties on opposite sides; which had never proved satis- * St. Peter's, Philadelphia, in which, by the efforts of the then youthful Odenheimer (now with God), the daily service and frequent communions were established. f Christ Church, Philadelphia. Indeed through the zealous work of the present Rector, Dr. Foggo, that church is now open all through the day for either public or private prayer. 208 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 factory to all of either the Church's clergy or its laity in England, and which would have been long before reformed and altered in England itself but for political heats and for the accidents of the day. He meant, therefore, to have the Church in America have its own Book of Common Prayer; one founded on Scriptural usage and compiled from primitive liturgies, so much as might be ; leaving the Church in the little and vanquished isles of Great Britain to imitate and adopt it when she saw fit. Notwithstanding that the United States declared themselves in- dependent of Great Britain in 1776, and were acknowledged by her in 1783 to be so, it was a long while before, in many respects, we ceased to be colonies and to be really independent. We are so indeed only since the suppression, by the Federal arms, of the late Rebellion, and the complete success of our Great Exhibition of 1876. The leaders of the Federal party — men like Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Marshall, and some others — would at once have made us truly a nation of the earth, but some of the men of New England, and even those further south, were not able, for years, wholly to emancipate themselves ; while the Democratic party, under the lead of Jefferson, Monroe, Gerry, and others, went at once into a state of absolute vassalage to France ; a vassalage which continued pretty steadily to the time of Napoleon the bas- tard, sometimes called Napoleon III.; when we saw in him the Iago of the plot of our late rebellion, and were disenchanted. Dr. Smith, so soon as our political independence was acknowledged — indeed so soon as he saw that it was achieved — comprehended the whole situation. He saw at once, and with the glance of intui- tion, what many men did not see for about a century — indeed hardly see now, some of them — and he meant to make independence, at once, a fact, instead of a dream. Even in 1785, as we have seen,* on the first motion of a review of the Prayer Book, he hopes that hymns for the festivals and other occasions " may be offered by members of our own Church in America, who are distinguished for their poetical talents." He anticipated by half a century a hymnal which includes the strains of Muhlenburgh, of Henry Ustick Onderdonk, and of the elder Doane. With what zeal he entered upon the subject of the alterations * Supra, p. 143. I785J REV. WILLIAM SMLTIL, D. D. 2CX) in the liturgy, and to what extent they were agreeable to Mm, may be inferred, not only from the already quoted sermon before the Convention of 1785, but from the ably written Preface to the Proposed Book which contains the alterations, and in which, as in notes to the sermon, he shows how necessary some alterations really were ; how long they had been considered necessary in England by many of its soundest divines, and how especially desirable it was that any changes in the liturgy of the Church in America should be made noiv when — uninfluenced and unre- strained by any worldly authority whatsoever — they could so be made as to promulgate to mankind Christianity and the truths of the Gospel in the clearest, plainest, most affecting and majestic manner. Dr. Smith, it must be remembered, was a Scotsman, not an Englishman. He was not a parochial minister who had been reading daily all his life the morning and evening prayers of the English Church, but was the head of a college where all the rest of the faculty were dissenters, and several of them dissenting clergymen, and where probably he was continually urged and sometimes compelled to use forms not to be found in the book of common prayer. He was, moreover, frequently called upon as a preacher for public occasions and ceremonies where religious ser- vices were used, but where neither the order for daily morning prayer, nor the order for daily evening prayer, of the book of common prayer could be used without modifications. Neither his education nor profession, therefore, gave him blind preposses- sions or prejudices in favor of the liturgy of the Church of Eng- land, as adopted in 1660 ; only one of five forms which that Church had been using in the short term of about one century. Inde- pendently of all this, his mind was rich and imaginative. His conceptions of what best produced effect were somewhat the- atrical. His own style of oratory was high and orotund ; oc- casionally perhaps a little turgid, but oftener grand and sometimes even majestic. Detesting, as matter of taste and of divinity also, we may believe, " the way of Romaine," and all the sweetened mud of the Methodist preachers of his day* — corresponding largely to * See Vol. I., page 423. 14 2IO LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE (^1785 " the low church " of a later and of ours — he yet wanted a body of hymns introduced into our prayer book ; writing to Dr. White that " the Methodists captivate many by their attention to church music and by their hymns and doxologies," which, as he says, " when rationally and devoutly introduced, are sublime parts of public and private worship," and again writing, The Psalms of David, unless where tortured by versifiers, have but few evangelical subjects. And writing again when Dr. White desired to leave the Litany a part of the service separable from the order for daily morning prayer : Let not our abridgments be too great. Without the Litany, Wednes- day and Friday prayers would not draw many to church. And again as to certain prayers : The service would appear quite naked without them.* A hymn, suggested by Dr. White, composed by Francis Hop- kinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Smith finds "too flat for the great occasion." We can readily conceive that the simplicity in the style of parts of the English liturgy — its pure and little sonorous Saxon, and its merely self-abasing terms with which its liturgy opens — did not quite come up to the grandeur of thought, and the sonorite of utterance, and the impressivencss of spectacle, which the mind and eye and ear of Dr. Smith affected and indeed required. To illustrate what I mean : The Church of England begins her service with sentences purely penitential, and inviting to confession of sin, and the Ex- hortation which adverts to these " sundry places " thus put before the people in which the Scripture moveth them to confess their manifold sins and wickedness and assures them of the forgiveness of the same, if those sins and wickednesses are rightly confessed, we shall, by God's infinite goodness and mercy, obtain. But there was no asceticism nor any vast humility in Dr. Smith's com- position ; while there was always an awful sense of God's presence and greatness. To Dr. Smith, therefore, have been generally *See supra, pp. 143, 147, l68, CI. I7S5] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 211 ascribed and I presume rightly those two grand verses first found in the Proposed Book. The Lord is in his holy temple : let all the earth keep silence before him. — Hab. ii. 20. From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering : for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts. — Mai. i. 11. And this third one — meant to have been put there, though from accident apparently omitted — very appropriate to a person coming into God's house, but not a penitential sentence : Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be alway acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.* — Psalm xix. 14, 15. I suppose too that to Dr. Smith's liking of an enriched ritual, and to the fact that he habitually used the communion service as one separate from the morning prayer, we owe that fine introduc- tion from the communion into the daily service, as an anthem, of the Gloria in Excelsis Deo, instead of the Gloria Patri ; and some other changes of a like kind. In addition to this rich and decorated style of taste which char- acterized the subject of our memoir, we may observe that there was nothing archaic in his literary tastes. Paying to them great respect, and sometimes quoting them, he was never enamored of the old divines of the Church of England, nor of any antique ex- pressions in them. Indeed, he mentions what we can well under- stand, that " in his situation " his reading had only been a dipping into books as occasion required and time would permit, " and that he did not remember" his ever having read any regularly through without skipping from place to place, except, perhaps, Robinson * These sentences are so grand and impressive that they are retained in our present Book of Common Prayer, notwithstanding the penitential character of all those that succeed, and with the reference to them only, in the exhortation of the minister, which follows. If Dr. Smith could have given perfection to his idea, I rather apprehend that he would have considered his three verses as something apart from and preceding the order of daily morning service, and in the way in which the metre psalms and hymns are now allowed to be sung in (not by) all congregations before morning and evening prayer. What a grand Processional the three verses would make ! What a rtapaaxtvr,, or preparation for confession of sins and absolution of them in the holy temple of the Lord ! The Prayer Book of the " Reformed Church of England " does, indeed, somewhat thus use the first of these three verses. 212 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [I/85 Crusoe, Thomson's Seasons, and Young's Night Thoughts, at a time, as they appeared."* It is, therefore, under Dr. Smith's sug- gestion that those old words, " the good estate of the Catholic Church," which, in these days when old furniture has been hauled out of garrets to decorate the parlors, enchant our ecclesiologists, disappear. The churchmen in Maryland, he feared, would see in them the likeness of " glebes," and of a three-fold crown. f From this same wish to make the book acceptable to the people, Dr. Smith made and was energetic in introducing the form of thanks- giving for the 4th of July ; a service which as the people of the United States valued their independence of Great Britain, and if they did really value it, he felt no doubt was not only proper for them but obligatory on them to use ; however little it might be appropriate to such of the clergy and to such of the congrega- tions committed to their charge as had been loyal in act or feeling to Great Britain ; a class of persons, he well knew, not numerous in 1785, daily growing smaller and in a few years certain to dis- appear altogether. To Dr. Smith and to his distastes for all un- necessary polemical and conjectural divinity — that light bread which satisfieth not — we apparently owe the Articles of Religion as given, supra, pages 1 27-1 31, and the omission of such meta- physical dogmas as are contained in them as found in the old Prayer Book of the Church of England, and as have been re- instated in our own of 1789. They were not, however, in their new form, Dr. Smith's own work, but were taken for the most part from a book of an anonymous English Church Reformer. It is quite certain that the articles in their present form, like some parts of the English liturgy, are put in with such " cunning" language as to mean things almost directly opposite, according as you read them with a point or without a point, or as the hearer or reader may choose to listen to them or fancy that they are read. They are the "Ibis Pcribis non Rcdibis," given as answer by the old oracles, to the inquirer, who sought to know if he might safely go to the wars ; an answer which, if the pause was made after the second word, meant that he should be slain ; but, if after the third, meant the opposite, and that he should return in safety. These passages of the old Prayer Book are " the dark and mys- * Dr. Smith's Works. Maxwell's Edition. Vol. II., page 487— note. ■f See supra, page 150. I7S5] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 21 3 terious sentences," which Dr. Smith in the sermon that we have already referred to, preached before the Convention of 1785, hopes that " the truths of the Gospel may never be obscured by." The purpose of this cunning device of the Church of England was no doubt good. It was to keep within that Church those who were nearly Puritans and those who were nearly Papists ; but were not wholly either. The Reformed Episcopal Church — a body of schismatics existing now both in England and America — and the defection to Rome of such men as Wilberforce, Manning and Newman — with the unscceded body of so-called " Ritualists " — a mild form, in their more advanced developments, of Romanists — show that complete success has not attended the well-meant effort. And what food have not such expressions with the very subtle distinctions of some of the Church of England articles, not min- istered for most learned and most curious disputations ; dividing the Church into parties to-day, and never thought of when the day had gone. Where are now the two volumes, engendered in the Church by the 17th article, of "Comparative Views of the Con troversy between the Calvinists and the Arminians,by William White, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Common- wealth of Pennsylvania" published so late as 1817; one of the most laborious and learned, one of the strongest and most acute, one of the most logical and dispassionate controversial works ever written, and till lately a text-book in the general Theological Seminary of the Church ? Gone — gone — almost as much as the years beyond the flood. Where will be in less than half the time that has elapsed since 1 8 17 the fiery feuds in England and Amer- ica, and the heated proceedings of some of our late Church Con- ventions, on the subject of the Eucharistic and Sacerdotal party that we have just spoken of and called (improperly enough) the Ritualists ? Gone — gone — to follow them. Both I am ready to concede likely to come back in the encyclicity of those parties, whom our articles and liturgy in their present shape will ever keep alive, but which Dr. Smith, by the Proposed Book, sought to send away for ever from the Church. And by the rejection of a stum- bling-block in the ministration of baptism — a word which though explained by a general Convention, was still a terror to those once thoroughly affrighted — he would, perhaps, have saved from apostacy a portion of the Church which can argue with some plausibility — 214 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Ql/85 though not at all with truth — that it carried away in its schism, that high portion of its orders which the Wesleys and Coke had never been able to detach. He explains his purposes and hopes when he says, in the sermon of 1785 already quoted: Were our blessed Saviour now upon earth, he would not narrow the terms of communion, by such ways as these ; and it is our duty, as it hath been our great endeavor in all the alterations proposed, to make the consciences of those easy who believe in the true principles of Chris- tianity in general, and who, could they be made easy in certain points no way essential to Christianity itself, would rather become worshippers as well as laborers, in that part of Christ's vineyard, in which we pro- fess to worship and to labor, than in any other. Dr. Smith had already declared " that ever since the Reforma- tion it had been a received doctrine of the Church," of which he was a member, " that there be these three orders of ministers in Christ's Church — Bishops, Priests and Deacons — and that an Episcopal Ordination and Commission are necessary to the valid administration of the Sacraments and the due exercise of minis- terial functions in the said Church." * This, we may infer, he would have regarded as among "the true principles of Christianity in general," and not in any way or ever to be surrendered. These are different ideas from those of the apostate " Reformed Episcopal Church," and indeed from what we now call " low churchmen;" men still in the Church. Such, I say, were Dr. Smith's ideas and purposes. A clear and deep conception of what the Church was, lay, no doubt, at the base of all his plans and all his work. But ar- tificial, complicated and metaphysical formularies, articles or rites, however venerable or however wonderful, he looked upon as essen- tially of human elaboration and structure, and the more perfectly they were worked out in theological operation and detail, the more plainly did he see man's work and man's character stamped upon them. His mind, in its natural structure, rejoiced in "that elder, wider and wiser view which contemplates Revelation only, as the fullness of and assurance of a grace previously developed in natural religion — a view which shuts not out, but rather gathers in the glory of the open universe;" though, of course, he considered too, that without the Church's interpretation, the refining beauty of * See supra, page 97. I785] AEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 21 5 this beneficent nature could never be unsphered to us ; and through that Church's mighty and long enduring ministration he sought, therefore, to reveal the iris-lustre inherent in the common day, but there invisible.* That the purposes of Dr. Smith in his Proposed Book were good is undeniable. That the book itself — unlike the book of the so-called " Reformed Episcopal Church " — did not carry the re- view of the English Book of Common Prayer " into essential points of doctrine," has been uniformly admitted both by the Eng- lish and the American bishops and other clergy. How far the plan of the Proposed Book would have secured the purpose which it had in view — since the book was never adopted as the liturgy of the Church in America — no man in this day can do more than conjecture. To Dr. Smith, too, aided considerably by Dr. Wharton, we owe the system adopted in the Proposed Book, of leaving out psalms now in the Psalter, or verses of particular psalms that are inappropriate for public service ; and of joining parts or verses of one psalm to those of another so as to make a uniformity of thought and feel- ing, and then of dividing the whole into parts of suitable length. f Both of these gentlemen — Dr. Smith being, doubtless, the more operative agent — could not but see the inappropriateness of people reading in the public worship psalms and verses, some of which — unless before they came to church they had read an Exposition of the Psalter — were wholly unintelligible ; and others of which, even if they did understand them, were entirely inappropriate ; expressing sometimes high states of exultation, and at others deep despondency — feelings, which — as common to them all, and whether one or the other — could hardly exist in any congregation of worshippers whatsoever. The plan — though executed in the Proposed Book with great skill and great good taste — was subject, no doubt, to objections of more sorts than one. And the "Selection of Psalms," as made in our present book and than which no arrangement or use of the * See "Art and Scenery in Europe," by the late Horace Binney Wallace, of Phila- delphia; Second Edition, page 78; some of whose language I here quote. f This plan has been adopted in his "Family and Private Prayer" — a beautifrd manual of family worship — by the late Rev. William Berrian, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church, New York. 2\6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Q1785 Psalter can be more beautiful or appropriate, is, in my own opinion, the better plan ; if our clergy would oiily use the selections. But unless they purpose to deliver a longer sermon than usual, or happen to be pressed for time, when they sometimes give us the Sixth Selection — a very short one — they rarely do use the selec- tions ; and we are left by the present book exactly where we were by the Church of England, whose use of the whole Psalter, we meant to decline as, in parts, inappropriate for public worship. To Dr. Smith, exclusively or nearly so, I assume, that we owe the hymns in the Proposed Book, fifty-one in number, which are the basis of the great variety of hymns now in use ; and he proposed to add more. In fact, as will be seen by his letter to Dr. White, he had anticipated the Hymnal of the Christian year and of our modern service, and adds that : On the great festivals of the Church there should be some variety ; at least three or four and of different metres, to complete the Psalmody of the day.* He sought, it is evident, through the hymns, to make the Church a Holy Catholic Church — a holy Church universal — and to make its liturgy a book of prayer for all people, as its temples were houses of prayer for them also. He writes to Dr. White in April, 1786: My congregations were exceedingly pleased with the two Good Fri- day Hymns, and also the two Easter Hymns, but what above all seemed to make the greatest impression was the two Communion Hymns, No. XVII beginning, My God, and is thy table spread ? sung after the sermon as an invitation to the Sacrament, and No. XVIII beginning, And are we now brought near to God ? as sung after the Communion. It adds a solemnity which they confessed they had not experienced before. The hymns are indeed beautiful, and every line of them applicable to the blessed occasion. Have j#» yet introduced them in this way?f .... Every communicant will, before another day, have them by heart. * Supra, page 168. ■f Of course the Proposed Book did not contain a rubric, such as is found in the Book of Common Prayer, which introduces a hymn, or a part of a hymn as a portion of the Eucharistic service. And as a matter of taste I think that the hymns had better have been left as the Proposed Book left them. 17S5] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 2\J Dr. White was a person quite different in most respects from Dr. Smith. Indeed, between the two men we may say that there was an absolute contrast. Dr. White had been bred by pious parents in childhood in the Church ; and every recollection of his earliest life must have been associated with the very words of all its liturgy.* We have no reason to think that if he could himself have controlled the thing he would have had the Convention of 1785 make any considerable departures from the old service books of the mother Church, but those required by the Revolution, and by that moderate review in some of its offices suggested by an obvious propriety. As to any further review, he desired it, so far as he desired it at all, in order to satisfy weak brethren, who, he thought, might otherwise at some future day triumph in numbers and make alter- ations dangerous or heterodox. He foresaw even at that day what two different parties in the Church are now doing : both remain- ing in the fold, but both in different ways misrepresenting its doc- trines, violating its rubrics, and departing from or corrupting its practices ; one, in a disregard of services appointed for her saints, and holy days ; in a substitution for hers of irregular prayers ; in the constant violation, year after year, of a plain and positive rubric, which makes it the duty of the minister of every parish diligently, upon Sundays, holy days, or other convenient occa- sions, openly in the Church, to catechise children sent to him in the Church's catechism ; in the low views of her great Eucharistic service ; in the obliteration in all discourses from the pulpit of the Church's distinctive character and high office — and in other mat- * The Bishop alludes to this affectingly in an address at the Consecration on the 25th of October, 1827, in Christ Church, of Bishop H. U. Onderdonk : " He feels the full weight of an occasion, reminding him of his near approach to the end of the ministry in which he has been so long a laborer; and when during the transaction in which we have been engaged, he occasionally permitted his eye to rest on the spot [his paternal pew, now his own] and within the distance of a few feet, where, in the days of his boyhood, he joined in religious services within these walls; when from that spot his attention was transferred to the pulpit at his elbow, from which, though not unfavored by domestic instruction and encouragement, there sunk into his youthful mind the truths of the ever-blessed Gospel, and from which, for the space of fifty -five years, he has been proclaiming the same truths — with what effect will not be known until the day which shall try every man's work of what sort it is, but certainly with effect far short of his wishes and of his prayers — there results from these recollec- tions and from others, a most weighty sense of the responsibility on which he has been so long acting." 2l8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 ters also reducing that Church to a Methodist level ; and the other by a disregard of the rubrics just as blameworthy as that prac- tised by the Methodistical party in our Church, and by constrained and unjustifiable interpretations of our present prayer book, or by a professed adherence to the usages of the Church of England, as set forth in some of her earlier service books,* betraying her chil- dren by every insidious way into the hands of that " Bishop of Rome," whose unscriptural observances our Church departed from at the Reformation, and from whose "tyranny," and whose " detest- able enormities," the litanies of those same earlier service books prayed that the good Lord would deliver us. Speaking of the Convention of 1785, Bishop White says:f When the members of the Convention first came together very few, or rather it is believed none of them, entertained thoughts of altering the liturgy any further than to accommodate it to the Revolution. \ And Bishop White assigned a reason, which, with his nice sense of honor, would have been potential why none should be made, a reason which applied to delegates from all the States except Virginia. It is thus expressed by him : * The books of King Edward VI. f Memoirs, page 102. % Dr. Stevens Perry, after quoting not quite fully the passage from Bishop White's Memoirs, to which I refer, and after giving some proofs which he thinks sufficient, has concluded that this idea of the Bishop was unfounded. I have the greatest respect for the judgments, as also for the historical learning of the present Bishop of Iowa. Nevertheless, I must think that Bishop White was likely to know from their own mouths and from other testimonies, what thoughts the members of the Convention of 1785 entertained about altering the old liturgy; more likely even than Dr. Stevens Perry or any man whatever now living is upon the same topics. Are not Dr. Perry's evidences after all but letters addressed chiefly to Bishop White himself, and letters from persons in States not represented in the Convention of 1785 at all ? At any rate Bishop White knew what thoughts he himself entertained on the matter, and when he says that it is believed that "none" of the members "entertained thoughts of altering the liturgy any further than to accommodate it to the Revolution," it would seem certain that he did not. I am quite aware that at a later date, as is shown by the journals of the Con- ventions of 1826, and by his own memoirs, Bishop White, yielding, perhaps, to the views of Bishop Hobart, did desire that the Morning Service might be shortened by making the use of the Litany optional except in seasons or on days specially peniten- tial. But even here, I am not certain that so far as his own particular views were con- cerned he would have so had it. (See " Bishop White's Memoirs," pages 52, 53, 251, 259.) It is absolutely certain that he never varied from the observance of what was prescribed by rubrics ; those, with his honorable integrity, he would have observed, however little he might have either liked or approved what they enjoined. 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 219 There being no express authority to the purpose,* the contrary was implied in the sending of Deputies on the ground of the recommenda- tion from New York, which presumed that the book, with the above exception, should remain entire. f He proceeds, a little further on : Every one, so far as is here known, wished for alterations in the differ- ent offices. But it was thought at New York, in the preceding year, that such an enterprise could not be undertaken until the Church should be consolidated and organized. Perhaps it would have been better if the same opinion had been continued and acted on. The Bishop afterwards goes on showing how little hand he him- self had in making the book in its substance. He says : The alterations were prepared by another sub-division of the General Committee than that to which the author belonged. When brought into the committee they were not reconsidered, because the ground would have been to go over again in the Convention. Accordingly he cannot give an account of any arguments arising in the preparatory state of the business. Even in the Convention there were but few points can- vassed with any material difference of principle. The Bishop notices these few points. The only ones where a change in the old book was made, and the only ones important therefore to be here noticed, are these : One about a form of Thanksgiving for the 4th of July, the introduction of which was displeasing to him, the Bishop tells us ; and to oppose which he availed himself of a privilege which he had reserved on his acceptance of the Presidency of the Conven- tion, to deliver his opinion. A second, the alteration of the old 17th Article, about Pre- destination. The Bishop says about this : Some wished to get rid of the new article introduced concerning Pre- destination without stating anything in its place. This, it is probable, would have been better than the proposed article which professes to say something on the subject, yet, in reality, says nothing Although no one professed scruples against what is there affirmed, yet there seemed a difficulty in discovering for what purpose it was introduced. The author never met with any who were satisfied with it. * Given by the different State Conventions to the Delegates, I suppose the Bishop to mean. f See the recommendation referred to by the Bishop, supra, page 116. 220 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/85 He continues: Less prominent debates on the articles are not here noticed. What- ever is novel in them was taken from a book in the possession of the Rev. Dr. Smith. The book was anonymous, and was one of the pub- lications which have abounded in England, projecting changes in the established articles. It might, too, on other grounds, be set down almost for certain that Dr. White did not like some of the alterations themselves. He was, no doubt, as I have already intimated, a theologian dis- tinguished by acuteness as much as by solidity of mind. But he was nothing of a rhetorician. His style, though perfectly accu- rate, and often in the expression of feeling deeply affecting, is to the general reader, frequently, at first reading, obscure, and some- times, until thoroughly comprehended, rather ineffective. As for what we call elegance, or richness of thought or diction, he had little of either; and so far as effects marly decorative constitute a part of worship, he had but a slight perception of them, if indeed he had any at all. He rather abhorred them as not fit agencies of the sanctuary. I am not meaning to say that he was not deeply imbued, in religious worship, with a sense of the true, the appro- priate and the becoming. Undoubtedly he was deeply imbued with them all. But his conceptions and his expressions tended to plain and simple forms, rather than to rich and decorated ones. The same thing, I think, was true in regard to that part of public worship which engaged Dr. Smith's feelings so largely; the part so much assisted by music. We have, in historical collections of music, some compositions which we know that Dr. White liked. But my impression is that scientific musicians have not admired them highly. As for " captivating people by the art of Psalm- singing," Dr. White would have, I doubt not, resiled, with some- thing like horror, from the idea. He never himself gave out more than two, or at most three, verses of a metrical psalm. And as for hymns — except perhaps at Christmas — one might defy the oldest parishioner of the United Churches to cite an occasion where he ever gave out one, unless where, as in communion, the rubric obliged him to do so.* Could he have regulated absolutely the subject of singing the metrical psalms, he would have affixed * See " White's Memoirs," 2d edition, p. 256. — Note N. N I/S5] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 221 a tune to each psalm ; the same tune always to be sung to that psalm ; and not more than from twelve to twenty tunes to be ever heard in the Church.* Undoubtedly he was extremely averse to changes in the church music or to any exhibitions from the organ loft. He had two of the finest musicians, Raynor Taylor and Benjamin Carr, both Englishmen, bred in the cathedral style, that ever graced the musical science of Philadelphia, in one of his own churches, St. Peter's ; but he kept its music, as he did that of Christ Church, and of St. James' after it was built and became one of the United Churches, down to a plain, old-fashioned Church of England standard ; and even had a book prepared whose tendency was to limit the chants and tunes for the metrical psalm or hymn to the comparatively small number already stated, and these of a simple kind — Mear, Wells, Philadelphia^ Old Hundred, St. Martin's, St. Michael's, and other ancient English airs. Pergolesi, Palestrina, and the Italian school generally, found no favor in his ears. Little of this was after the ideas of Dr. Smith, whose taste in music was high and artificial. I ought, perhaps, to add, while I say what I do, that I make no doubt that such com- positions as Bishop White did deem appropriate, he would * See his " Thoughts on the Singing of Psalms and Anthems," printed A. D. 1808. One of the ministers of the United Churches, Dr. Abercrombie, was fond of hymns, particularly of the hymn, not then in our collection, "yesu, Saviour of my sou//' And on ending a sermon on one occasion began with that line, letting the choir — under a prearrangement, of course — take it from his mouth and proceed with the rest of the hymn. This was rather effective, and would probably have been after Dr. Smith's taste. Bishop White, the Rector, desired that such a thing might not be repeated, and it never was in his presence. The doctor, who was not easily controlled, defended his action and the necessity of hymns, and the beauty of this hymn. "As for me," said the Bishop, " whatever thoughts or feelings I want to express, whether of praise, of gratitude, of penitence, or of joy, I can find them all in the Psalms of David." Dr. Abercrombie answered that the new dispensation rendered necessary something more than the Psalms of David would give us. " What, sir," replied Bishop White, "do you make of the inspiration and the prophetic character of David? And as for the hymn which you specially admire, I must say, Dr. Abercrombie, that its expressions of devotion are not expressions of that sort of devotion which our Church approves." It is noteworthy that in the correspondence, already given in the body of this book, when Dr. Smith asks Dr. White if he knows of any suitable hymns on the Last Judgment and the Kingdom of Glory, Dr. White replies that he knows of none (supra, p. 171.) I am quite aware of course of what Bishop Doane, of New Jersey, states of the Bishop's last hours, and of the two hymns then read to him. ■j- A tune, by his friend, Mr. Hopkinson. 222 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Q1785 have had richly performed. I never heard of his objecting to music as he heard it in the cathedrals, chapels-royal and collegi- ate churches of England. On the contrary, he tells us himself that at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was invited to go to hear the music — which appears to have been especially fine at that college — " the music was as delightful as can be imagined." No doubt he would have had music just like it if he could have had it in our own larger churches ; and would have said : " There let the pealing organ blow To the full-voiced quire below, In service high and anthems clear As may with sweetness through mine ear Dissolve me into ecstasies And bring all Heaven before mine eyes." What he abhorred were the attempts so common in our churches to perform, with means wholly incompetent to produce them, great concerted pieces that only made the organ-loft sometimes ridicu- lous, sometimes disgusting, and sometimes distressing, and which tended almost of necessity to such indecent and irreverent per- formance as profaned the service of the sanctuary. Indeed, while, no doubt, Dr. White ardently desired the ex- tension of the Church, his means of extending it were never of any very popular sort. The Church, though it grew surely and fairly well, did not grow rapidly in his day. I think that he con- sidered "that what made our Church so slow of growth was in its favor, and that what accommodates so many in the Roman, Metho- dist and other dissenting churches, was not in favor of theirs." No greater mistake has been made by the low churchmen of this day than to suppose that because his temper was sweet and his manners and character lovely, and because in matters of mere taste or feeling he was always ready to give way, rather than to create a disturbance, therefore he was a man of accommodating tempers in the larger and more important concerns of the Church. Like the great Chatham, in all that concerned great principles, either of religion, or morals, or public polity, he was as ////accom- modating as he was original, and we might add that the features of his mind had "the hardihood of antiquity." The character of Dr. White has been described by the late Dr. 17S5] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 223 Rufus Wilmot Griswold in his "Republican Court; or, American Society in the Days of Washington." The description, in my opinion, is, in the main, so just that, though in part it has slight relation to our immediate subject, I here present it entire. He is speaking now of Philadelphia, and says: At the head of the clergy stood Dr. White, as he was commonly called, the well-known first Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Penn- sylvania. His ecclesiastical character has, in recent times, been greatly mistaken by both the extreme High and the extreme Low divisions of his own denomination. He was what in England would be called a historical low-churchman as distinguished from the ultra school of Laud and Philpotts, but was very far removed from what have been called low-churchmen in this country. Even in his day, when the Episcopal Church was extremely feeble, and concessions and compromises with other denominations were matters to which the temptations were ex- treme, Bishop White defined what he regarded as the just limits of both with a distinctness and precision which have made them their safest limits since. To him and to his moderate views and conciliatory temper we must ascribe the fact that, while the ecclesiastical establish- ment of England and the very name of Bishop had become odious in this country, the Protestant Episcopal Church departed so very little in form, while not departing at all in doctrine, from the Established Church of England. As a preacher he was earnest and persuasive, but he seldom fulminated threats or judgments, and had very decided views of the limits of clerical responsibility. He shrank from no proper responsibility, but he had too high a sense of courtesy and too just a regard for even the most delicate of rights to invade with freedom the atmosphere which every gentleman feels and acknowledges as a proper circle for himself and others. He was the man of his time for his position. His prudence saved what the zeal of others might have lost ; and in the midst of political and ecclesiastical difficulties of the most discouraging kind, he founded that establishment which has grown to be one of the most majestic structures of the religion of the republic. His character will grow larger as the perspective becomes more truly fixed by time, and if it were separated from religious parties, posterity would probably place his name after the names of Washington, Mar- shall and Hamilton alone. He belonged to the same order of men, differing but in the sphere of his action from either. It might be inferred from the correspondence between Dr. White and Dr. Smith, already given, that Dr. White in all respects ap- proved of the book. I understand only that, being placed by the convention of 1785 upon the committee to put the book into form 224 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1785 for the press and to publish it, he gave his hearty effort to this object, rendering an almost exclusive work in what was done in the alterations in Calendar and some assistance also in the adapta- tion of the Psalter, in the way preferred by Dr. Smith and Dr. Wharton, to popular reading in the churches, by rejecting psalms or parts of psalms incomprehensible to any reader, clerical or lay, except after he had sought information of the circumstances under which the psalm was written — and dividing them so as to shorten that part of the service. But he did not, as we know from his "Memoirs," himself approve of this plan. His poaposal was to take the whole psalms, select such as fall in with the general subjects of divine worship, and leave the officiating minister his choice among those which should be selected. The plan finally adopted by the majority of the committee, and in executing which Dr. White, after it was fixed against his view, co-operated cordially, will hereafter appear. Dr. White's liking of all parts of the book, or of it in the main, is not to be inferred from his endeavors to make it throughout as effective as possible. He disliked, and strongly disliked, the service for the 4th of July. Yet by select- ing appropriate lessons, etc., he made it more effective than the convention and Dr. Smith had left it.* It was enough for him that the convention liked the book, and he carried out, with abso- lute honesty, the purpose which the convention had in appointing him, with Drs. Smith and Wharton, a committee to get it impres- sively before the churches for adoption, if they liked it. With his perfect candor and perfect integrity of nature, he could not have done otherwise. But it is quite plain that he desired the book to be considered at first only as a proposed book ; and that if it ever should become the Liturgy of the Church in the United States, it should become so only upon full consent of all the churches de- liberately and authentically expressed. The key to what I suppose were Dr. White's feelings and action about the alterations, so far as they were now made, are to be found in his desire to make what — adopting terms from our political system — we may call a Federal Church as distinguished from a variety of Slate churches. He writes to the Rev. Mr. Parker, August 6th, 1787 :f * See supra, page 166. f Perry's "Half Century of Legislation." Vol. I., pp. 35, 36. 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 225 I am most sincerely desirous of seeing our Church throughout these States united in one Ecclesiastical Legislature, and I think that any difficulties which have hitherto seemed in the way might be removed by mutual forbearance. If there are any further difficulties than those I allude to, of difference in opinion, they do not exist with me: and I shall be always ready to do what lies in my power to bring all to an agreement. In the great opportunities for observation which his chaplaincy to the Congress had given him, he had seen the immense injury which the nation suffered prior to 1789 from the want of an effec- tive general government, and he had seen, too, the immense diffi- culties, arising from local aims and jealousies, of effecting such a government. He saw the same exact two things in the Church, and therefore, in his mind, the first thing to be accomplished, and this even before the consecration of any bishop, was an Union of all the churches. He has explained the matter himself* "Certainly," says he, " the different Episcopalian congregations knew of no union before the Revolution except what was the result of the connection which they had in common with the Bishop of London," and he adds : The authority of that Bishop being withdrawn, what right had the Episcopalians in any State, or in any part of it, to choose a Bishop for those in any other? And till an union was effected, what is there in Christianity generally, or in the principles of this Church in particular, to hinder them from taking different courses in different places as to all things not necessary to salvation ? which might have produced different liturgies, different articles, episcopacy from different sources, and, in short, very many churches, instead of one extending over the United States ; and this without any ground for schism, or of the invasion of one another's rights. When Dr. White looked at South Carolina, he saw a church called Episcopal with what he rightly calls "an opposition to the very principle of episcopacy," and which made it a condition of coming into the church convention of 1785 that no Bishop should be settled in that State. f When he looked at Virginia, he saw a commonwealth whose House of Burgesses, most of whose mem- bers professed to be churchmen, not long before the Revolution thanking different writers who sought to prevent the consecration * Memoirs, page 98, 2d edition. f White's Memoirs, pp. 95, 96. '5 226 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Q1785 of a Bishop for any part of America — " for the wise and well-timed opposition they had made to the pernicious project for introducing an American Bishop." * In Maryland was my ancestor, Dr. Smith, a man of strong individual views, a man who could hardly be ex- pected to submit his great powers and large experience to one twenty years his junior, whom he remembered as his pupil at the age of seven years and till his adolescence, and who, in his recent tract of the " Episcopal Churches Considered," had himself, from accidental circumstances, been much misunderstood, and was sup- posed by some to be endangering that Episcopal government, which we well know that it was one of the greatest desires of his life to save and perpetuate. In New Jersey was the Rev. Uzal Ogden, an ambitious, troublesome man; never a churchman but in profession, and who at last, ceasing even a profession, became a Presbyterian outright; while close beside him, in the same State, the Rev. Thomas Bradbury Chandler, who had declined a Bishop- ric from Great Britain, a churchman as high as Laud, and with quite as much zeal and far more abilities than that diminutive Archbishop of Canterbury ever possessed. Finally, in Connecti- cut was " Samuel," soon to be " Samuel, Bishop of Connecticut," with his mitre and all the accessories of an English prelate — a glorious specimen, indeed, of a churchman — but no doubt, as Mr. Burke said of Admiral Keppel, " though never shewn in insult to any human being, somctliing high" with ideas that the whole South would scout at and rebel against. How was the sober sense and faithful allegiance to his views of Benjamin Moore, in New York, and Abraham Beach and William Frazer, in New Jersey, and of Robert Blackwell and Samuel Magaw, in Pennsylvania, to solve and make mingle these elements apparently so immiscible ? Dr. White, therefore, was ready to give up any mere forms, how- ever much he liked them, to any one, if thereby union among all the churches could be attained. He was ready to retain any forms possible to be retained, if thereby that same result could be se- cured. It was with White and the Church as it was with Lincoln and the Union. The martyr President would continue slavery if it kept us one nation. He would declare emancipation if that secured the blessed end.f Hence when " Samuel, Bishop of Con- * See Vol. I., page 388. f. The -same heavenly temper was exhibited by the Bishop in 1836 on another I785 j REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 22J nccticut" writes to Bishop White, in 1787, "proposing a personal interview with him and Bishop Provoost previously to any decided steps being taken respecting the Liturgy and Government of the Church, and mentioning the old Liturgy as the most likely bond of union," Bishop White, May 21st, 1787, with a foresight that in his day seems prophetic, replies : There is nothing I have more at heart than to see the members of our communion, throughout the United States, connected in one system of Ecclesiastical government ; and if my meeting of you, in concurrence with Bishop Provoost, can do anything towards the accomplishment of this great object, my very numerous engagements shall not hinder me from taking a journey for the purpose If it should be thought advisable by the general body of our Church to adhere to the English Book of Common Prayer (the political parts excepted) I shall be one of the first, after the appearance of such a dis- position, to comply with it most punctually. Further than this, if it should seem the most probable way of main- taining an agreement among ourselves, 7" shall use my best endeavors to effect it. At the same time, I must candidly express my opinion, that the review of the liturgy would tend very much to the satisfaction of most of the members of our communion, and to its future success and prosperity. The worst evil which I apprehend from a refusal to review is this, that it will give a great advantage to those who wish to carry occasion. A young man, the Rev. John Walter James — burning with apostolic zeal — had lately been invited to become Assistant Minister in Christ Church. The church was an ancient church, with high, old-fashioned square pews, and the congregation was composed of the aristocracy of Philadelphia. Mr. James had never ministered in any large city. In Christ Church, Meadville, where lie had been before, was a young, very active, enthusiastic congregation. Mr. James was rather disappointed not to find exactly the same sort of spirit in the venerable cote of which he was now to take charge. He attributed what he thought a lack of zeal in part to the great high, old- fashioned pews of which we speak. At any rate, he thought them unsuited to modern necessities, and was earnestly desirous to change them to those common in the present day. A considerable portion of the congregation were of his inclination. He pro- posed to remodel the interior of the church. We can well conceive, after reading the passage which we have quoted {supra, page 217 — note), describing his early connec- tions with the pews and pulpit of this church, how such a proposition must have affected the venerable Bishop. But he made no opposition to the change. If it was thought by those around him to promote the spiritual interests of the congregation, he was ready to make it, however painful to his own feelings. The alterations were begun in the summer of 1S36, but during their progress both Bishop White and Mr. James died. Neither ever saw the completion of them. As it turned out, the alter- ations did nothing to change the condition of the parish. Under such a man as Mr. James any parish, sooner or later, would have prospered, irrespectively of whether the parishioners sat in pews with high backs or pews with low ones. 228 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Q1785 the alteration into essential points of doctrine.* Reviewed it will un- questionably be in some places, and the only way to prevent its being done by men of the above description is the taking it up as a general business. f I have been informed that you, sir, and our brethren in Connecticut think a review expedient, although you wish not to be in haste in the matter. Our brethren in Massachusetts have already done it. The Churches in the States southward of you have sufficiently de- clared their sentiments; for even those which have delayed permitting * This sort of alteration is exactly the sort which the authors of the so-called " Re- formed Episcopal Church" who vouch Bishop White as authority for their liturgy, have made in their service-book as last adopted. Of what pertinence to their case, then, would it lie — were it true, which it is not — that the Proposed Book was the work of Bishop White solely or chiefly ; that book, by universal concession, never hav- ing carried the alterations into any such points; and, on that account, having been abandoned by the so-called " Reformed Episcopal Church." What Bishop While would have thought of the Episcopate of the said "Church" may be inferred from a passage in that great charge of his, " On the Sustaining of the Unity of the Church, in Contrariety to Disorder, Disunion and Division," page 13. It was delivered in 1 83 1, in his sunset of life, when mystical lore enabled him fully to see those coming events which, even then, cast their shadows before. He says: " There is sometimes, in conversation, proposed the question whether in the event of a consecration performed by one bishop only, the act would be valid ? That with us, such a bishop would do what is contrary to the obligations under which he has placed himself in a solemn appeal to God for his sincerity and in a pledge given for the same publicly to the Church, and that the recipient of what is supposed to be of the character conveyed is a partaker of the crime, is obvious. "Still there may be thought to remain the question of validity, and may be antici- pated with apprehension as what, at some future time, may be found an easy expedient for the introducing of division into the Church. " Although the enormity has not been practised by any bishop of this Church, yet there cannot be denied the possibility that it may occur hereafter, either with the avowed abandonment of religious and moral principle or by the operation of that sort of professed piety whick, in pursuance of what is supposed to be a righteous end, con- siders it as superseding the claims of integrity and truth. What would be the effect, then, of the form of consecration? In answer, the opinion is confidently expressed that it would be A NULLITY. . ..." In certain supposable circumstances, the act of consecration by a single bishop, disengaged from provisions not in themselves essential, is valid. But if a bishop of our Church, which requires the concurrence of two of his brethren, should set the requisition at defiance, in violation of his promise, pledged with an invocation of the notice of the all-seeing eye of God, there is no hesitation in expressing the opinion that the only effect would be THE GUILT attached to it." I Exactly the same views were expressed by the Bishop forty-five years later. (See his charge of 1831, "On the Sustaining of the Unity of the Church in Contrariety to Disorder, Disunion and Division," p. 18.) " It is also probable that extreme tenaciousness and reluctance to moderate alteration will give vigor to the opposite extreme of ill-digested projects for reform without measure and without end. We may foresee that if such a spirit should be dominant in our Church it will be promotive of confusion and of every evil work. It should, I785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 22. D. 249 Dr. Smith to Dr. West. My Dear and Rev. Sir: Mr. Bowly will shew you the Baltimore Subscription Paper, begun here for the college. Yourself, the Rev. Mr. Sewell and Daniel Bowly, Thomas Yates, Thomas Russell, Luther Mar- tin and David McMechin, Esqs., are nominated to take subscriptions and depute others in your town and county, in conjunction with Dr. Allison and Mr. Sterret, who are two of the agents, and have a right to open subscriptions themselves and to add any other persons they may think proper to those already named. The form of deputation Dr. Al- lison will see at the end of the subscription paper already began, and signed by Richard Ridgely, Daniel Bowly, Luther Martin, Thomas Yates. Mr. McMechin has subscribed the paper which was signed in the Senate and House of Delegates. Near two thousand pounds are subscribed in this town in twenty-four hours. Baltimore, no doubt, will far exceed any other place, nay, perhaps half this shore. Considerable alterations were made in the plan first settled by Mr. Carroll, Dr. Allison and myself, respecting the nice provisos amongst different denominations in proportion to their subscriptions. The paper was printed off before I came over. But I was told by Carroll of Car- rollton, Mr. Sprigg, etc., that the alterations were made in concert with Dr. Allison. I am satisfied, as I hope all our society will be, with the plan as it now is, and as I would have agreed it should originally have been, as I know that a few grains of mutual confidence and benevolence among different denominations of Christians will be better than splitting and torturing a design of this kind with all the provisos possible. Christian good will is not to be weighed out by drams and scruples. It should be unconfined and universal. Please to deliver two of the blank subscriptions to Dr. Allison, and as Mr. Bowly is setting off, give the Doctor the perusal of this letter, as I cannot find time to write to him myself. Give the Rev. Mr. Sewell a subscription paper. Tell him that Mr. Digges will write to him, I be- lieve, by Mr. Sprigg to-morrow, as I shall to Rev. Mr. Andrews. Car- roll of Carrollton, Mr. Digges, etc., have subscribed liberally, as it is expected the rest of that society will do. I am, in haste, Your affectionate brother, William Smith. Rev. Dr. Wm. West. On May 5th, 1785, Dr. Smith mentions in his diary his having attended the funeral of his old friend, Christian Frederick Post, at Germantown ; returning to the city with Dr. White in his chair.* * This reverend man, the most adventurous of Moravian missionaries employed among the North American Indians, was born at Conitz, Polish Prussia, in 1710. He emigrated to this country in June, 1742. Between 1743 and 1749 he was a mission- 250 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Ql/85 We have now a letter from an old friend remaining in Penn- sylvania : Dr. Muhlenberg to Dr. Smith, New Providence, Penna., May 7th, 1785. Viro Maxime Reverendo, Doctori Smidio, Fautori Suo Honoratissimo, S. PI. D. H. M. P. T. Candidatus Mortis. To my comfort, your worthy son, Juris Consultus, isque nobilissimus, condescended to see me at my journey's end, being no more fit to con- verse with learned gentlemen, because I have almost lost the organa sensoria and spiritus vitalis. I am glad to understand that your noble son intends to reside here in our neighborhood, since it may, as often I shall see him, revive my memory with gratitude to remember the benevolence of his honorable parents towards me in times past. In the month of October last I received a letter from the Rev. Dr. Wrangel, dated at Sahle in Sweden, in which he demandeth of me as follows : If the Rev. Dr. Smith livetli, present my best compliments to him. I have wrote to him several times. I translated his sermon into Swedish on the beginning of the war, and presented it to His Majesty the King, who read it with much pleasure and called it a masterpiece, nicely handled.* ary to the Moravian Indians in New York and Connecticut. He first married Rachel, an Indian of the Wampanoag tribe, and after her death, Agnes, a Delaware. Having become a widower a second time, he in 1751 returned to Europe. Hence he sailed for Labrador in 1752, engaging in an unsuccessful attempt to bring the Gospel to the Esquimaux. Having returned to Bethlehem in 1754, he was sent to Wyoming, where he preached to the Indians until in November of 1755. In the summer of 1758 Post undertook an embassy in behalf of Government to the Delawares and Shawanese of the Ohio country, which resulted in the evacuation of Fort Du Quesne by the French, and the restoration of peace. In September of 1761 he engaged in an independent mission to the Indians of that distant region, and built him a hut on the Tuscarawas, near Bolivar, in Stark county, Ohio. John Heckewelder joined him in the spring of 1762. But the Pontiac war drove the missionaries back to the settlements, and the project was abandoned. Impelled by his ruling passion, Post now sought a new field of activity in the southern part of the Continent, and in January of 1764 sailed from Charleston, via Jamaica, for the Mosquito coast. Here he preached to the natives for upwards of two years. He visited Bethlehem in July of 1767, returned to Mosquito, and was in Bethlehem, for the last time, in 1 784. At this date he was residing with his third wife, who was an Episcopalian, in Germantown. Here he died May 1st, 1785. On the 5th of May his remains were interred in the Lower Graveyard of that place, Rev. William White, D. D., of Christ Church, saying the funeral service. The following inscription is upon his tombstone: " In Memory of | the Rev. Christian Frederick Post, | Missionary for Propagating | the Gospel among the Indians | in the Western Country, on the Ohio, | at Labrador and the Mosquito | Shore in North America. | After laboring in the Gospel forty-five years | with distinguished Zeal, Prudence and Fidelity, | He departed this Life | on the first day of May, 1785, | Aged 75 years." * Dr. Muhlenberg here refers to the sermon of 1775 on "The Present Situation of American Affairs," of which we have given a full account on pages 507-523 of Vol. I. 1785] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 25 1 So you see, dear sir, on one side you are beloved and praised, and on the other side hated and envied, in order to keep and preserve your head and heart straight and upright — Veritas odium parit. In mine an- swer to Dr. Wrangel I enclosed all your printed proceedings in Mary- land, etc., which I had collected, especially the Apostolic-spirited sermon, etc., and did send them along with due respects and esteem to your whole honorable house. I remain, Reverend Sir, your most humble servant, Muhlenberg. To the Rev. Dr. William Smith, in the State of Delaware. On the 14th of November, 1784, the Rev. Samuel Seabury was consecrated Bishop for the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, the first bishop in America since the Declaration of Independence.* On the 3d of August, 1785, having returned to America, he was received by the clergy of Connecticut in convocation, and held the first ordination of the Protestant Episcopal Church on this Continent; the candidate — who was a son of Mr. Colin Ferguson, Vice-President of Dr. Smith's new college — having been a student of Dr. Smith's and prepared for Holy Orders under the direction of that gentleman and by him recommended for them. In a letter to Dr. Smith from Bishop Seabury, soon after the ordination, the Bishop says : I cannot omit to mention the particular satisfaction Mr. Ferguson gave, not only to me but to all our clergy. I can find no evidence of any Convention of the Episcopal Church of Maryland being held in the spring of 1785, and there may have been none ; but Dr. Smith leaves a note of being at the 2d Annual Convention of the Church in Maryland on the 25th of October, 1785, and of there being present the following persons : Dr. Thomas Cradock, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Bond, Nicholas Merryman, Richard Wilmott, and Francis Holland, Esqs. On the 28th of November, 1785, Dr. Smith preached at the * As the Rev. George Morgan Hills, D. D., Rector of St. Mary's Church, Burling- ton, N. J., has made an interesting argument to show, ihere was at least one Bishop in America before Bishop Seabury, namely, John Talbot, Rector of St. Mary's Church, Burlington, N. J., a saintly man, consecrated by a non-juring Bishop, in or about the year 1722. A monument, with a fac simile of his Episcopal seal, is erected to his memory in old St. Mary's Church, Burlington. See "The Pennsylvania Magazine of Biography and History," Vol. III., page 32. 252 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1786 funeral of his brother-in-law, Dr. Charles Ridgely,* who had died on the 25th instant. He was buried at Dover, Delaware. On the 5th of December of this same year Dr. Smith's diary says : Received a letter from John M. Langguth at Bethlehem, in regard to the establishment of a school for the education of the German youth, such a plan having originated years ago by Dr. Muhlenberg and my- self. I sent him all the plans as proposed at that time.f * The fullowing account of Dr. Ridgely is taken from an old Bible belonging to the family : "Charles Greenberry Ridgely was born near Salem, N. J., January 26th, 1738. He was baptized by Mr. John Peirson; godfathers, Dr. Philip Chetwood and William Frazer, Esq. At his becoming of age he omitted the Greenberry, and wrote his name Charles Ridgely. He was an eminent physician. He acquired his classical and medical edu- cation at Philadelphia, practised his profession in Dover, Delaware, with great success and reputation, and deservedly obtained the esteem and confidence of his countrymen. He was many years a member of the Legislature, before the Revolution, and during the whole period of the contest, and a short time after its termination he was a member of the Convention of the State of Delaware which framed the Constitution of 1776. He departed this life Friday, November 25th, 1785, aged 47 years. He was buried on the 28th of the same month, in the Church burying-ground at Dover. His funeral sermon was preached by his brolher-in-law, the Rev. Dr. William Smith." -j- This interesting man was the son of a Lutheran clergyman settled at Walschleben, and born there in October of 1 7 18. While at Jena he acted as tutor to young Zinzen- dorf. In 1739 he united h'mself to the Brethren at Herrnhaag. In 1745 he was adopted by Frederic, Baron of Watteville, a friend of Zinzendorf, into his family, and soon after received Imperial letters patent of nobility. Among the Brethren he was known as " Brother Johannes." In 1746 he married Benigna von Zinzendorf. Prior to his visitation of the Brethren's settlements and missions in North America, he was, in June of 1747, ordained a Bishop. He arrived at Bethlehem in September of 1748; thence he visited the Indian missions in Pennsylvania, New York and Connecticut. In April of 1749 he sailed for St. Thomas. Soon after his return to the Provinces, in July of that year, he repaired to Philadelphia to hold an interview with heads and deputies of the Six Nations, on which occasion he .renewed a covenant of amity, which his father-in-law had ratified with that confederation, in August of 1742. He sailed for Europe in October, 1749. During this visitation, Bishop de Watteville pre- sided at three Synods of the Church, baptized a number of Indians, laid the corner- stone of a church at Gnadenhiitten on the Mahoning (Lehighton, Carbon county, Pa.), and reorganized a number of Moravian congregations. After Zinzendorf's decease, in May of 1760, his son-in-law for a time directed the affairs of the Church. In 1764 de Watteville was elected to the Directory, and in 1769 to the Unity's Elder's Conference. While a member of this body he visited North America a second time, inspecting the Brethren's settlements and churches, both North and South, in the interval between June of 1784 and June of 1787. By authority of the above-mentioned board, he sanctioned the transforming of Nazareth Hall into a Boarding School for boys and the erection of a Boarding School for girls at Bethlehem in October of 1785. Bishop de Watteville died at Gnadenfrey, Prussia, in October, 1788. I786] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 253. On February ilth General John Cadwalader died at his seat in Kent county, Maryland, in the 44th year of his age. He was sincerely valued by Dr. Smith, to whose splendid abilities he in turn looked up with admiration. Dr. Smith followed his remains to the old Parish Church at Shrewsbury, at which place he was buried; and here the Doctor preached a funeral discourse upon him. It is a matter which I much regret that the manuscript has not come down to my hands. The following inscription is upon General Cadwalader's tomb : In Memory of GENERAL JOHN CADWALADER, Who departed this life the nth of February, 1786, aged 44 Years, 1 month and 1 day. The following character was given him by Thomas Paine, who, during his life-time, had been his violent political enemy: " His early affectionate patriotism will endear His memory to all the true friends of the American Revolution. It may with the strictest justice be Said of him that he possessed a heart incapable Of deceiving. His manners were formed on the • Nicest sense of honor, and the whole tenor of his Life was governed by this principle — the companions Of his youth were the companions of his manhood. He never lost a friend by insincerity nor made One by deception. His domestic virtues were truly Exemplary, and while they serve to endear the Remembrance, they embitter the loss of him to all His numerous friends and connections." This stone is placed by his affectionate children to mark The spot where his remains are deposited. We are rendering our volume perhaps too much of a family diary by the insertion of facts and letters relating chiefly to domestic events. But such letters bring us into the best portion of a great man's life, and the letter which follows, from the wife of Dr. Smith to their son, may, I trust, be inserted without more apology, referring as it does to the two distinguished persons whose deaths I have so recently chronicled. 254 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE ll7^7 Mrs. Smith to her son Charles. Chest ertown, Ma, March 12, 1786. My Dear Son : I have had a melancholy time since last I saw you. Our dear Mrs. Cadwalader, since July last, has buried two sons; but had that been all, a surviving son and daughter, as lovely children as ever were born, would have enabled her to bear the loss with patient resignation. A much severer blow was to be submitted to — her worthy husband departed this life the 10th of last month. At all these scenes I was a sorrowing witness. Your poor Aunt Ridgely too has lost a most tender and indulgent husba'd. But in his children she is blessed. Nicholas practices the law at Dover and pays her every attention; and Charles lives with her. Your dear Aunt Bond is really a woman of sorrow. This last stroke must be almost too much for her to bear. My heart bleeds for her. Do, my dear son, if anything is in your power, relating to her affairs, do for her as I am sure you would do for me; and depend upon it a blessing will attend your righteous endeavor. Cruel fate has separated her from the only son.* She was ever a mother to him ; and such a son, oh my dear child, when I think of him I offer up my ardent prayers to the throne of mercy, and as one of the greatest blessings ask that you may prove, what I ever thought him. Say for me to your dear wife, to her sweet little ones, and to your ever worthy uncle (Judge Thomas Smith) that while I have life they will be remembered with affection by their ever most tender and anxious friend, Your mother, Rebecca Smith. To Charles Smith, Student at Law, Carlisle. On the 27th of May, 1787, another Convention of the Church in Maryland was held at Chestertown, Dr. Smith being chosen to preside. Seven of the clergy and five laymen assisted. Beyond the appointment of Dr. Smith as a clerical deputy to attend the next General Convention — the one held at Philadelphia in 1789 — I know of nothing worthy of special record. Two months after- wards his diary contains this record : July — . My dear wife's kinsman, Richard Channing Moore, was this day ordained by Bishop Provoost, of New York. This gentleman was the person afterwards well known as Bishop Moore, of Virginia. I find no very various evidences of Dr. Smith's activity during * Phineas Bond, afterwards British Consul at Philadelphia. 1788] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 255 the year 1788. The violent party by which the charter of the old College of Philadelphia had been taken away, had itself now, after a life not long, come to a sudden and complete and rather igno- minious end; and Dr. Smith devoted no small portion of his time and labor to having a repeal of the unjust enactments by which the chartered rights of the institution which he had founded and built, were so unjustly taken away by it in 1789; "a repeal," says Bishop White, in speaking of Dr. Smith, " which but for his labors and perseverance would probably never have been effected, not- withstanding the justice of the case." * Much of Dr. Smith's time therefore was spent in Philadelphia ; and he published in that city in 1788, by the respectable firm of Robert Aitken & Son, " An Address to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, in the Case of the Violated Charter of the College, etc., of Philadelphia;" a powerful document, which I regret that my space prevents my here inserting. But his Masonic friends at home were not forgotten. On the 29th of August, it being the feast of St. John the Baptist, he preached in the hall of Washington College, at the desire cf the Grand Communication of the Maryland lodges. The following letter has reference to the rights of St. John's College and of the Maryland churches. I am not able to explain it particularly from other sources, and therefore leave it to explain itself: Rev. Dr. Smith to the Rev. Dr. West Annapolis, December 11, 1788. Dear Sir: I should have been much pleased if you had pursued your journey to Annapolis, as Mr. Hanson and the other gentlemen visitors of St. John's College are exceedingly desirous of a meeting, or a conference at least of as many of their Board as possible, but neither Clagget, Baines or Thomas have yet appeared, and Mr. Chase and my- self are left to act by ourselves in behalf of our Church also, but we shall be sufficient, as we have drawn up a clause, preserving all our former rights, and under the vestry laws, and entitling our vestries, on the footing of equal liberty, to the like extension of their property, viz., 4000 bushels of wheat per annum, and to take by deed, gift, devise, etc., as other vestries, with a new clause also, viz. : that if by neglect or failure of an election on any Easter Monday, a vestry has * "Wilson's Life of While," page 19. 256 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1/89 heretofore, or shall hereafter expire, or be in danger thereof, the min- ister may call a meeting on the first Monday of any month follow [sic], ar, 1 hold a new election to revive and continue the vestry and the minister to be a member as heretofore. Dr. Carroll and Dr. Allison went with me into the Senate and delivered the clause, declaring that on the insertion thereof, we were all agreed to the bill. I have done the best with Mr. Chase's usual good offices and the bill will be taken care of in its passage through the House of Delegates by Chase, W. Tilghman, and other members of our Church, but I cannot return the minutes of our Convention by the bearer, as they are neces- sary to Mr. Chase and myself to show our authority. I shall take care of them till next Convention, and am in haste, Yours, William Smith. P. S. — To-morrow I shall hope to return to Chester and would wish to hear from you as often as convenient. The bill thus spoken of passed the Senate and was reported to the House, but there it failed to be acted upon and for the time the matter dropped. CHAPTER L. The Proposed Book not so well received as might have been reasonably expected — The cause of this thus explained — Proposed by a Conven- tion before the Church was properly Organized by the presence of the Episcopal Order — The New England Clergy alarmed by a wrong impression of the Turbose of Dr. White's "Case of the Episcopal Churches in the United States Considered" — The Alterations not Agreeable to all — Bishop Seabury's statement of some of the grounds of dislike— State Pride and Jealousy as much a cause for the Non- reception as any better reasons — The work too hastily done — Let- ter to Dr. West. Although, as we have said, the "Proposed Book" was univer- sally admitted to contain no doctrines not those of the Church of England, and to promulge in form more or less explicit all that were clearly expressed in the old book as undeniably hers, and in several respects to make valuable improvements upon this old book, the volume did not give general satisfaction. The New England Churches — under the guidance of the able, upright and fearless Seabury — had some notions of churchmanship that were perhaps rather too tightly drawn to be universally ac- knowledged as the only view allowed by the Church of England. 1789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 257 Those churches were disinclined to have the laity have any vote in the councils of the Church; and as for any conventions in which the Episcopal order was not represented, undertaking to remodel and to settle anew its liturgy — in many cases the exponents of its doctrines — even though at the time the Episcopal order did not exist among us, and it was uncertain how soon exactly we would get it — the idea struck them as only short of impious. They con- sidered that in attempting to organize the Church before a head had been obtained, the Convention of 1784 had begun and those of 1785 and 1786 had been working at the wrong end; that with- out a Bishop the churches resembled the scattered limbs of a body without any common centre of union or principle to animate the whole. An Episcopate according to their idea was necessary to direct their motions and by a delegated authority to claim their assent. They held to the constant application and under every circumstance, of the maxim — true no doubt in the abstract and the general — Sine Episcopo, nulla est Ecclesia. However unexceptional in itself, then, the Proposed Book might have been regarded by them, they resiled from it as coming from a wrong source; just as they would from the Prayer Book made by a heretic or an infidel. An eccentric English nobleman, assisted by Dr. Franklin, had in fact made a Prayer Book — which in some respects the Proposed Book followed, and which some persons professed to like exceedingly. But would the Church accept a liturgy from such a source? Assuredly not. There were laymen in the Conventions of 1784, 1785 and 1786, whose faith in particular parts of the Church's teaching was as question- able as was Dr. Franklin's in those points and in many more of it. The Church was then to be governed only as it was governed in ancient times; by its clergy, the Episcopi being in the highest seats, and where they could overlook the whole. And this view — which had great force in it — was not the view of the New Eng- land clergy alone. It had advocates, in the Middle States, and nowhere a more sincere and powerful advocate than in New Jersey, where Thomas Bradbury Chandler, D. D., who, long before the Revolution, had been endeavoring to have an Episcopate in America, and had been battling in opposition to the great Pres- byterian, Dr. Chauncy, was acting only in consistency with his long maintained view. No doubt, too, the pamphlet of Dr. 17 258 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [[1789 White, the President of the Convention of 1785, which had framed the Proposed Book, did greatly alarm even those who could be called no more than conservative churchmen.* Our means of intercourse in that day were few, and information traveled slowly. As the true history of the publication became known, the fears, so far as they arose from any views of Bishop White — than whom the land never had any truer churchman, if we may take Hooker as an exponent of what a churchman is — departed. The Proposed Book was, however, open to some objections in their nature intrinsical. While no heterodoxy was alleged against the book it is perhaps the fact that some true doctrines were left rather unguarded, and that some of the offices were so far lowered as that, in a measure, they would lose their influence. The omis- sions of particular psalms or parts of psalms as undesirable to be read was regarded by some as treating the Scriptures irreverently; and the uniting of different psalms into one portion for each daily * " The Case of the Episcopal Churches in the United States Considered." Dr. Stevens Perry — to whose labors in advance of me, in the department of our Church history, I have already, as I must here again, express my acknowledgments for much that constitutes the value of my book, and to whose gracious and real aid many authors besides myself, as I know, acknowledge their obligations — has reprinted this pam- phlet in the third volume of his truly useful " Half Century of the Legislation of the American Church." Having made in that work many explanations of things in the volume by reprinting large passages from Bishop White's writings, he has made, in my opinion, an omission (unavoidable, perhaps, from the size and cost of his book) and done injustice (unintentional, I am sure, if it does do injustice) to Bishop White, in not reprinting after or before " The Case of the Episcopal Churches," etc., the Bishop's history of the circumstances under which that pamphlet was issued, a history to which we have already alluded (see sitpra, pages 185, 186) as twice — we might have said thrice — made by the Bishop, with an emphasis — brought about by the misrepresenta- tions of low churchmen in regard to his opinions — which disarms it of harm as any expression of opinion on Church polity; a harm which Dr. Perry's publication in an unexplained form perhaps tends and will assist to perpetuate. I assume, of course, that so learned a writer upon the history of the American Church and who seems to have been in close intimacy with the present diocesan of Pennsylvania, was not igno- rant of the Appendix to Bishop White's charge of 1S07 to the clergy of Pennsylvania; though in this I may be mistaken. Bishop WThite — who was the most modest of men, and as little as any man who ever lived, thought of his own fame either during life or posthumously — took no pains to preserve for consultation, by either his contemporaries or those who should come after him, his own sermons and fugitive pieces. The Phila- delphia Library Company — where most Philadelphians deposit their own writings, at least — has scarce any of these pieces. The charge of 1807 is what Bibliophiles call " rare," and possibly may be absent from even the large and, as I suppose, generally complete collections of Dr. Perry. See Appendix No. IV. 1 789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 259 service, was objected to as calculated to break their connection, especially of such as were prophetical. Some thought the verbal alterations too numerous ; and there were not a few, to whom nearly every word in the book was endeared by so many affecting associations that they desired no change whatever, but what the Revolution made imperative, and what in regard to a very few passages a change in modes of speaking seemed to make decorous. This part of the matter is set forth with so much force in a let- ter of Bishop Seabury to Bishop White, written in June, 1789, that I cannot forbear to quote it at large:* Was it not that it would run this letter to an unreasonable length, I would take the liberty to mention at large the objections that have been here made to the Prayer Book published at Philadelphia. I will con- fine myself to a few, and even these I should not mention but from a hope they will be obviated by your Convention. The mutilating the psalms is supposed to be an unwarrantable liberty, and such as was never before taken with Holy Scriptures by any Church. It destroys that beautiful chain of prophecy that runs through them, and turns their application from Messiah and the Church to the temporal state and concerns of individuals. By discarding the word Absolution, and making no mention of Re- generation in Baptism, you appear to give up those points, and to open the door to error and delusion. The excluding of the Nicene and Athanasian Creed has alarmed the steady friends of our Church, lest the doctrine of Christ's divinitv should go out with them. If the doctrine of those creeds be offensive, we are sorry for it, and shall hold ourselves so much the more bound to retain them. If what are called the damnatory clauses in the latter be the objection, cannot these clauses be supported by Scripture? Whether they can or cannot, why not discard those clauses, and retain the doc- trinal part of the creed? The leaving out the descent into Hell from the Apostles' Creed seems to be of dangerous consequence. Have we a right to alter the analogy of faith handed down to us by the Holy Catholic Church? And if we do alter it, how will it appear that we are the same Church which sub- sisted in primitive times? The article of the descent, I suppose, was put into the Creed to ascertain Christ's perfect humanity, that he has a human soul, in opposition to those heretics who denied it, and affirmed that his body was actuated by the divinity. For if when he died, and his body was laid in the grave his soul went to the receptacle of de- parted spirits, then he had a human soul as well as body, and was very and perfect man. * See Perry's " Half Century of Legislation," Vol. III., page 386. 260 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1/89 The Apostles' Creed seems to have been the Creed of the Western Church', the Nicene of the Eastern; and the Athanasian, to be de- signed to ascertain the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, against all op- posers. And it always appeared to me, that the design of the Church of England, in retaining the three Creeds, was to show that she did retain the analogy of the Catholic faith, in common with the Eastern and Western Church, and in opposition to those who denied the Trinity of persons in the Unity of the Divine Essence. Why any departure should be made from this good and pious example I am yet to seek. There seems in your book a dissonance between the offices of Bap- tism and Confirmation. In the latter there is a renewal of a vow, which in the former does not appear to have been explicitly made. Something of the same discordance appears in the Catechism. Our regard for primitive practice makes us exceedingly grieved that you have not absolutely retained the sign of the cross in Baptism. When I consider the practice of the ancient Church, before Popery had a being, I cannot think the Church of England justifiable in giving up the sign of the cross, where it was retained by the first Prayer Book of Edward the VI. Her motive may have been good ; but good motives will not justify wrong actions. The concessions she has made in giving up several primitive, and I suppose apostolical usages, to gratify the humors of fault-finding men, shows the inefficacy of such conduct. She has learned wisdom from her experiences. Why should not we also take a lesson in her school ? If the humor be pursued of giving up points on every demand, in fifty years we shall scarce have the name of Christianity left. For God's sake, my dear sir, let us remember that it is the particular business of the Bishops of Christ's Church to preserve it pure and undefiled, in faith and practice, according to the model left by apostolic practice. And may God give you grace and courage to act accordingly ! In your burial office, the hope of a future resurrection to eternal life is too faintly expressed, and the acknowledgment of an intermediate state, between death and the resurrection, seems to be entirely thrown out ; though, that this was a Catholic, primitive and apostolical doc- trine, will be denied by none who attend to this point. The Articles seem to be altered to little purpose. The doctrines are neither more clearly expres^d nor better guarded; nor are the objec- tions to the old articles obviated. And, indeed, this seems to have been the case with several other alterations ; they appear to have been made for alteration's sake, and at least have not mended the matter the)' aimed at. That the most exceptionable part of the English Jbook is the Commun- ion office may be proved by a number of very respectable names among her clergy. The grand fault in that office is the deficiency of a more formal oblation of the elements, and of the invocation of the Holy I/S9] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 26l Ghost to sanctify and bless them. The Consecration is made to consist merely in the priest's laying his hands on the elements and pronouncing, '•This is my body " etc., which words are not consecration at all, nor were they addressed by Christ to the Father, but were declarative to the Apostles. This is so exactly symbolizing with the Church of Rome in an error; an error, too, on which the absurdity of transubstantiation is built, that nothing but having fallen into the same error themselves, could have prevented the enemies of the Church from casting it in her teeth. The efficacy of Baptism, of Confirmation, of Orders, is ascribed to the Holy Ghost, and His energy is implored for that purpose; and why He should not be invoked in the consecration of the Eucharist, especially as all the old liturgies are full to the point, I cannot conceive. It is much easier to account for the alterations of the first liturgy of Edward the VI., than to justify them; and as I have been told there is a vote on the minutes of your Convention*, anno. 1786, I believe, for the revision of this matter, I hope it will be taken up, and that God will raise up some able and worthy advocate for this primitive practice, and make you and the Convention the instruments of restoring it to His Church in America. It would do you more honor in the world, and contribute more to the union of the Churches than any other alter- ations you can make, and would restore the Holy Eucharist to its an- cient dignity and efficacy. In addition, one of the "fundamental principles " set forth in the Convention of 1784, inviting a General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, was: IV. That the said Church shall maintain the doctrines of the Gospel as now held by the Church of England, and shall adhere to the Liturgy of the said Church as far as shall be consistent until the American Revolu- tion and the Constitutions of the respective States. It could therefore fairly be argued that the alterations suggested in the Proposed Book were an implied violation of the call by which the Convention of 1785 which suggested them was assembled ; and as made ultra vires of the Body making them, were absolutely of no authority. But with all this, the opposition with some was more perhaps of a personal kind than from considerations better entitled to weight. In the Church as in the Congress and country the fault and cor- ruption of the nature of every State engendered of its supposed original independence — an independence which never existed in fact — by the extremes of the doctrine of " State Rights " — a doc- trine wholesome within proper limits — was of its nature inclined to 262 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l7&9 evil; so that the infection remained, yea, even when the regenera- tion of a Union was sought for; personal interest lusting always contrary to the general good, and not subject any more than origi- nal sin either to the law of common sense or to the law of God. The State Conventions were jealous of the authority of a General Convention. A mere proposition to them — a simple recommenda- tion— they would tolerate; and would probably adopt. Anything that had the semblance of going beyond alarmed them, and set them at once into a state of militancy. The matter is set forth with perfect intelligibility by Bishop White in his Memoirs. He says : :; The Convention (of 1785) seems to have fallen into two capital errors, independently on the merits of the Book. The first error was the ordering of the printing of a large edition of the Book, which did not well consist with the principle of a mere pro- posal. Perhaps much of the opposition to it arose from this very thing, which seemed a stretch of power designed to effect the introduction of the book to actual use in order to prevent a discussion of its merits. The other error was the ordering of the use of it in Christ Church, Philadelphia, on the occasion of Dr. Smith's sermon at the conclusion of the session of the Convention. This helped to confirm the opinion of its being introduced with a high hand. The Bishop tells us further that the Book was used by the Philadelphia clergy on assurances given to them by gentlemen from other places that they would begin it in their respective churches immediately on their return; a thing which the greater number of them never did; some being prevented because some influential members of their congregations were dissatisfied with some one of the alterations ; " a fact," says the Bishop, " which shows very strongly how much weight of character is necessary to such changes as maybe thought questionable." The Bishop, it is plain, had he been left to his own course would not have had the book printed for any general use at all, until the alterations had been received and approved in the different States. But in the nature of things how could a work done in a public assembly, so hastily and with comparatively small consideration, fail to require further consideration? The Convention of 1785 met on Tuesday, the 27th of September, and adjourned on Friday, the * Memoirs, 2d edition, page 107. 1789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. l6j 7th of October, ten working days; and it had other important subjects to attend to besides this work of revising the Liturgy. No such review could give satisfaction to all, nor, perhaps, on re- flection, entirely to any one. It was not expected that it would; nor was more expected than that which Dr. Smith expressed when he expressed in behalf of the Convention the hope that it would be "received and examined by every true member of our Church and every sincere Christian with a meek, candid and charitable frame of mind; without prejudice or prepossessions; seriously con- sidering what Christianity is and what the truths of the Gospel are." In the nature of things, the subject would come further before the Church in the next Convention — that of 1789 ; a General Con- vention for all the States where the Church existed, as it proved to be, and competent therefore to speak with a wiser and more impressive authority. Indeed, it is remarkable — considering how much Dr. Smith had had to do with the making as I suppose of the Proposed Book, how much time he bestowed upon fitting it for the press, and how desirous apparently he was of seeing it introduced into general use, that so soon as he perceived that it was not universally ac- ceptable, he went right to work, without the least amour propre d'atttcur, or the least tenacity to preconceived wishes, to make such a work as would be acceptable to all. He thus writes to Dr. West, one of the clergy of his own State, who obviously had net been well satisfied with the Book. It tends to disprove the allegation which in his lifetime was sometimes made against him that he was unreasonable and dictatorial, and impatient of any opposition to his views or wishes. It is quite true that he did not " suffer fools gladly" even though he himself was wise. But where he was dealing with men of sense no one was more patient or more open to conviction. The following is the letter to Dr. West : Dr. Smith to Dr. West. Chester, Kent County, June 16, 1789. Dear Sir: I beg that you may not forget to give me your whole and unreserved sentiments and advice respecting our Church affairs, and every alteration, amendment or reservation respecting our Prayer Book, which you judge will tend most towards peace and uniformity, and a general acquiescence — nay, a cordial and pious acceptance and use of the book. Yours, etc., William Smith. The Rev. Dr. WEST. 264 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 CHAPTER LI. The Convention of 1789, a great Ecclesiastical Council — Dr. Smith is called on unexpectedly to Preach on its Opening, and soon afterwards on the sudden Death of Dr Griffith, Bishop-elect of Virginia — A Memoir of Dr. Griffith — The Convention delicately situated in re- gard to Bishop S: abury — Bishop Provoost's somewhat eccentric course in r;:.;ard to this eminent and pious prelate — Dignified course of Bishop Seabury — Dr. Smith, along with Bishop White, accommodate matters between blshop seabury and the convention — the validity of Bishop Seabury's Episcopal Orders, on motion of Dr. Smith, fully Recognized by the Convention — The Convention temporarily Adjourns in order to give time for further consultation — correspondence be- TWEEN Dr. Smith and Bishop Seabury — The latter, with Representa- tives from New Hampshire and Maine, comes into the Adjourned Convention — A General Union effected a. d. 1789, in Philadelphia, in the same room in the state house where independence was declared in i776, and the constitution of the united states signed in 1 787 — Happy Conclusion of much labor and of many solicitudes. The year 1789 makes an epoch in the history of the American nation. It was the year in which an United Church was consti- tuted out of separated and somewhat discordant ecclesiastical bodies; as well as the year in which "the United States of America" gave to us from differing States that unity of govern- ment which constitutes us one people. Nor was there much less difficulty in effecting an unity in the Church than there was in effecting an unity in the nation. We shall speak of these matters further on. Since the Convention of 1786, Dr. White and Dr. Provoost had been consecrated Bishops. But Dr. Provoost was indisposed, and did not come to this Convention of 1789. Bishop Seabury had not, as yet, in any way united himself to his Southern brethren. The Convention met — all orders of the clergy and the laity — as one body; Bishop White presiding. At the opening of the Con- vention, Dr. Smith was called upon by it, in a way which put to proof his ready powers and his amiable disposition; and which manifested equally the reliance which was had by the members of the body upon both. I/89] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 265 On the adjournment of the Convention of 17S6, Dr. Provoost had been requested to preach before the Convention of 1789. It assembled July 26th of that year. But Bishop Provoost was not there. Dr. Smith, upon one day's notice, was requested to preach instead. He did so. He had hardly delivered this sermon before he was called on for another. The Rev. David Griffith, who had been elected Bishop of Virginia and was now attending the Con- vention, died suddenly at the house of Bishop White, on Monday, the 3d of August. Dr. Smith was at the same short notice of a single day requested to preach a funeral sermon. Both sermons are good productions; the former, — which, for some reason not known to me, was not included in the edition of Dr. Smith's Works, begun by Maxwell of Philadelphia, A. D. 1803 — was one, I should say, of the best of his sermons which we have. It was published however at the time at the request of the Convention, and from it I make a single extract. The topic of the sermon is Christian Perfection ; the opening passage of the text, — which embraces the first twelve verses from the 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews — " Therefore, leaving the principles of the doc- trine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection." Having developed this fine theme in the true spirit of the Gospel, the preacher concludes : Above all, my brethren, in the great work now before us, where the honor of our Church, the purity of our worship, true vital religion, and the consequent happiness and salvation of millions, perhaps yet unborn, are the awful and important subjects of deliberation — let us proceed with candour and care, keeping the venerable sanction of antiquity and the infallible word of God abvavs in our view; not lightly given to change, nor too rigidly stiff in matters unessential to the true substance of the "faith once delivered unto the saints." In all our proceedings, however much we may desire the wisdom of the serpent, let us also in a special manner seek the harmlessness of the dove also; — adorning every other acquisition with the clothing of humility and that excellent gift of charity. But I will detain you no longer. Having put on that most excel- lent gift; trying the faith that is in us by tests and marks already laid down and laboring daily after greater attainments in holiness, we shall at length arrive to that state of spiritual health and perfection which is the end of all the outward and visible ordinances of Religion ; even that "love of God which fulfilleth all things in us through Christ Jesus, giving us to eat of spiritual meat and drink of the waters of health and life everlasting freely." 266 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 Feed as then, O blessed God, we pray; feed us and nourish us more and more, with this heavenly meat and drink daily! and bring us at last to feed and live upon it eternally ! And now, etc. Better counsel, more necessary prayer, could no man offer, at the opening of this the greatest council that the American Church has held ! Dr. Griffith, on whom the other sermon was preached, was a native of New York and born a. d. 1742. He was educated chiefly in England and graduated in London as a student of med- icine; a profession which, returning to America, he practised for some time in the province of New York. In 1770 he entered the ministry, being ordained by Bishop Terrick, then Bishop of Lon- don. After a short residence in Gloucester, New Jersey, as Missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel — where he succeeded the gifted young Nathaniel Evans, of whom we have spoken so much in our former volume — he went to Vir- ginia; and being highly recommended by the Governor of that State, took charge of Shelburne Parish, Loudon county, Virginia. Here he continued till May, 1776, when he entered the army as Chaplain to the Third Virginia Regiment, and was at the battle of Monmouth and I suppose at other battles. He remained in the army till 1779. In 1780 he entered into the rectorship of Christ Church, Alexandria, a church which is known as the one in which Washington worshipped. This illustrious man was his parishioner. In May, 1786, he was elected by the Convention of Virginia to be Bishop of the Church of that State, and his testi- monials h iving been signed by the General Convention at Wil- mington, Delaware, of the same year, it was expected both by the English Bishops, and by Doctors White and Provoost that he would proceed to England and be there consecrated ; so that there should be three bishops in America deriving consecration through the Anglican line. This, however, he was unable to do, and, soon after, he resigned to the Virginia Convention the honor proffered to him. He was a man of sincere piety, and of much usefulness in the Church, and was in the General Conventions (as we may call them to distinguish them from those of Virginia) of 1784, 1785, and 1786. He received his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in the last-named year. He died, as we have already said, in Philadelphia while attending the Convention of I789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 267 1789. His funeral proceeded from the house of Bishop White to Christ Church; the clergy of all denominations in Philadelphia being invited to attend it. The senior clerg men of the deputa- tion of each State attended as pall-bearers; Bishop White and Mr. Robert Andrews, lay deputy from Virginia, walking as chief mourners and the other members of the Convention as mourners. The sermon was from those well-known verses of the 5th chap- ter of the 2d Epistle of Corinthians : 1. For we know, that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. 3. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened ; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Dr. Smith thus opens his discourse: Brethren: Upon this sad and solemn occasion, which hath assem- bled us at this place and time ; gloomy indeed would be oui reflections, and inconsolable our condition, were it not for the joyful assurance which our text holds up for the renovation and support of our sickly faith. Behold, in full view before us, that yawning grave! On its brink, is deposited the breathless clay, the earthly house, of a venerable brother, a servant and minister of Christ ! It is for a moment deposited, to give us pause for reflection, and vent for the tribute due to the memory of virtue and worth. That pause ended, the steadfast grave will do its part; and embracing, in firm hold, what we commit to its keeping, would leave the awakened tear to flow forever, sorrowing over our mortality, did not St. Paul come to our aid ; teaching us to wipe that tear away, and to console ourselves with the joyful assurance, that the earthly deposit before us, from a tabernacle of clay, shall yet rise up a building of God, a house not made with hands, capacious of immortal glory, honor and immortality ! Unprepared and disinclined, on the present sudden and interesting occasion, to enter upon a critical explication of this difficult, yet com- fortable, text (in whatsoever sense considered), I shall not detain you to enquire from it. Whether the body or earthly house of our present mortal tabernacle shall, upon its divorce from the soul by death, be immediately clothed upon with some other more celestial and incor- ruptible body; or whether it shall continue naked and unclothed upon, till the morning of the resurrection. It was the doctrine of the illustrious Plato, who (without the external and revealed light of Christianity) reasoned so well concerning immor- 268 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 tality and a world to come, that the soul, or heavenly spark within us, could not subsist of itself, nor act without some kind of body or vehicle ; and therefore the followers of his doctrine contend for an intermediate state between death and the resurrection, and think that the body, upon its dissolution by death, is immediately clothed upon, or changed into some other fit vehicle for the soul. St. Paul, however, gives no countenance to this doctrine, in the text. The celestial clothing, which he speaks of, is something peculiar to the saints who shall be with the Lord ; and not to be looked for till after the redemption of the body, and that blessed period of the resurrection, "when this mortality shall be swallowed up of life; — when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, and this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." Most comfortable to us, when we go to the house of mourning, is either of those doctrines; but we are to understand St. Paul in the latter sense, and then by the due use of reason, enlightened by the blessed considerations and doctrines of our text, after the example of the apostles and saints, and pure professors of Christianity in every age; death might be disarmed of his sting and spoiled of his victories. For, however terrible death may appear to the sinner with all his engines of destruction about him ; yet to those who have sought and found an in- terest in Christ Jesus, death hath lost his mighty terrors : and although the grave itself, which (considered as the door of another world, the en- trance into eternity) appears so gloomy and awful to mere flesh and blood ; yet to the just, — to those who live by faith, earnestly longing and groaning to be clothed upon with their heavenly house, the grave appears more beautiful than the gates of paradise itself; for at the gates of paradise, upon the banishment of our guilty first parents, the angry cherubim, with his flaming sword, was placed to forbid all future en- trance to any of mortal race ; but angels of peace and love stand round the graves of the just, to shield them from harm and conduct them to glory. . . . We are now assembled to pay the last funeral honors to a minister of the altar, who has for many years been conspicuous in his station, both in public and in private life; and much might be said as applicable to the sudden and melancholy occasion of his death. And though the sus- picion of flattery too often accompanies the funeral characters of the present day, yet it is for the interest of virtue and mankind that they should not be brought wholly into disuse. The tribute of our praise and thankfulness to God is due for those who have, in some degree, been of benefit to the world, either in a civil or religious capacity, and who may be truly said not to have "lived to themselves but for their country — her rights, her laws, and her liberties, religious and civil ; and, there- fore, at whatever stage of life they have died, they have died unto the Lord." They have died for us also, so far as we may improve their I789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 269 death to the great public and pious purposes, for which such holy solemnities, as the present, were first appointed by the wisest nations. For — 1st. They were appointed for the express purpose of commemorating the public virtues of the dead, nay even their crimes ; for if they have been injurious to mankind, they may be held up to censure, with the great intent of leading mankind to imitate the former, and to abhor and shun the latter. adlv. Such solemnities are intended to bring us into a proper famil- iarity with ourselves and our mortal condition ; that we may be prepar- ing for death, and enabled, through the grace offered us, to overcome his terrors ! Upon each of these heads, I shall beg leave seriously to address you on the present occasion. After having expressed himself fully on the first head, the orator coming to the second, proceeds : I come now more particularly to speak of commemorating the virtues of the dead, for the example and benefit of the living. This is an ad- vantage, as I said before, which in these days is seldom improved. The ancient Christian:, besides the solemnity of their funerals, were wont to meet at the graves of their martyrs and saints and holy men, to recite the history of their sufferings and triumphs, and to bless God for their holy lives and happy deaths, offering up also their prayers for grace to follow their good example. And for this they seem to have had St. Paul's express authority, and especially respecting the preachers and teachers of the word of God. For he exhorts the Hebrews to •• remember them who had spoken unto them the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation." In this important light, we must long remember our worthy and venerable brother, who hath been called suddenly (but, we have every ground to believe, not wholly unprepared) to exchange his pulpit for a coffin, his eloquence for silence, and his eminent abilities in doing good for darkness and the grave. In the service of his country, during our late contest for Liberty and Independence, he was near and dear to our illustrious commander-in- chief — he was also his neighbor, and honored and cherished by him as a pastor and friend.* When, on the conclusion of the war, he returned to his -pastoral charge, and our church in these States, in the course of divine Providence, were called to organize themselves, as independent of all foreign authority, civil and ecclesiastical, he was from the begin- ning elected the chief clerical member to represent the numerous * At Alexandria in Virginia. 2/0 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 churches of Virginia in our General Conventions; and highly estimable he was amongst us. He was a sound and able divine, a true son, and afterwards a father, as a bishop-elect, of our church ; with his voice always, with his pen occasionally, supporting and maintaining her just rights, and yielding his constant and zealous aid in carrying on the great work for which we are assembled at this time. Full of a devout desire for the final accomplishment of this work at the present time, he came to this city; but it hath pleased the sovereign goodness otherwise to dispose of him, and to call him, as we trust, to become a member of the church triumphant in Heaven. With Christian patience and fortitude, though at a distance from his family and his nearest relatives and friends, he sustained his short but severe illness. Friends, nevertheless, closed his eyes. Friends and brethren now accompany him to the grave, mournful as to the flesh, but joyful and thankful to God in soul and spirit for his past usefulness and example. . . . Let us not question the dispensations of Providence, nor murmuring, ask, Whether it were not to be desired, that men endued with eminent talents to serve their country and families, should be long preserved in health of body and vigor of mind ; and that the hour of their death should be protracted to the latest period of old age ? Say we not so. For the commander of an army best knows when to call the sentinel from his post. Ever)- man in this world hath his office and station assigned by Heaven, and continueth therein so long as it pleaseth the supreme Ruler ; and he that performeth his part best and liveth well, may be said to live longest. Seeing, then, my brethren, that, by the faithful discharge of our civil and religious duties, we may overcome death, be prepared for eternity, and leave our names sweet to the world behind us ; let us take for our cxample the virtue and goodness of our departed friends, and be pur- suaded that there is no honor, no happiness to be acquired here on earth, equal to that which we derive from acting our part with dignity; steadfast in the practice, as well as profession, of our holy religion ; zealous for the happiness of our country and mankind, and always delighting in acts of love and goodness. The regard which is paid to such characters as these, will grow with their growing years; and when they come at last to take leave of this world, whether at an earlier or later period of years, as they have lived the life of the righteous, their latter end will be like his. . . . It is a grand description which is given of the angel in the book of Revelation, who came down from Heaven to proclaim destruction to time. "He had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth : and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their I789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 2~J\ voices, I was about to write ; and I heard a voire from Heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered and write them not. And the angel, which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to Heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever and ever, who created Heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer" But far greater is the true Christian in the act of death. He sets one foot in the grave, and the other in the very porch of Heaven ; being enabled, through Christ, to proclaim destruction to death and the grave. "Oh, death, 1 will be thy plagues: oh, grave, I will be thy destruction. Oh, death, where is now thy sting! Oh, grave, where is now thy victory!" Then, too, can he add, without fear, "Farewell, my body, my mortal part! Why shouldst thou, my soul, be loth to part with thine old com- panion, to leave thy clay cottage, and to be without a body? Behold, thy Maker, and the spiritual and heavenly inhabitants, have no gross bodies such as thine ! Hast thou ever seen a prisoner, when his jail doors were broke open, and himself manumitted and set loose at liberty? — and have you then heard him complain to take leave of his prison-house, and refuse to forego his fetters? Or, hast thou seen a wave-worn mariner, who has long been tossed and troubled on his stormy voyage, when arrived in sight of his native port, refuse to strike sail and enter in; choosing rather to launch back again into the perilous main ? Why then, my soul, shouldst thou be thus fear-stricken and discomforted, at parting from this mortal bride, thy body? It is but for a time, and such a time as the body shall feel no need of thee, nor thou of her; and thou shalt again receive her back more goodly and beautiful, purified and perfected by absence, like unto that crystal which after the revolution of some ages, is said to be turned into the purest diamond ; now, unto him who by his apostle, hath assured us after " our earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved" and moulder into dust, we have a build- ing of God, an house not made with hands, "eternal in the heavens," — unto Him be glory and dominion and praise forever! Amen. In the Convention it was Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention be given to the Rev. Dr. Smith for his sermon preached at the funeral of the Rev. Dr. Griffith, and that he be requested to furnish the Convention with a copy for publication. We have said that one United Church was first constituted out of the separated ecclesiastical bodies in the States in 1789: and that to effect this happy state of unity was a work of difficulty. The Proposed Book, Dr. White's tract, " The State of the Epis- 272 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l7&9 copal Churches in the United States Considered," the presence of the laity voting in councils of the Church, and especially the introducing them into trials of an ecclesiastic — which it was wrongly supposed by some that it was the purpose of Bishop White and Dr. Smith to do — with some things done in the Con- ventions of 1784, 1785 and 1786, had caused dissatisfaction and anxiety with the northern clergy, and some estrangement. But there was another matter of importance. Bishop Seabury had been consecrated by Bishops of the Church in Scotland ; the English Bishops having declined to consecrate him from reasons of political prudence only. His personal fitness — indeed his emi- nent personal fitness — even for the high and sacred office of a Bishop, no one that I have heard of, ever disputed. He stands forth and will always stand forth as one of the great, the heroic characters of the Church in America. No man was more able to appreciate the value of this great churchman and bishop than Dr. Smith ; none more able to vindi- cate his right to the high orders which he claimed. As a Scots- man, too, and a churchman alike, he felt a pride in doing so. Accordingly, immediately after the arrival in America of Bishop Seabury, with whom he had long maintained an intercourse of a free and friendly character, he wrote to him informing him of what had been doing in Maryland in his absence, etc., and receiving from him the following interesting and authoritative statement of the reasons why he had accepted Scottish orders rather than English. Bishop Seabury, writing to him on the 15th of August, 1785, says as follows: The grand difficulty that defeated my application for consecration in England appeared to me to be the want of an application from the Sta/c of Connecticut. Other objections were made, viz. : that there was no precise diocese marked out by the civil authority, nor a stated revenue appointed for the Bishop's support. But those were removed. The other remained — for the civil authority in Connecticut is Presby- terian, and therefore could not be supposed would petition for a bishop. And had this been removed, I am not sure another would not have started up : for this happened to me several times. I waited, and pro- cured a copy of an Act of the Legislature of Connecticut, which puts all denominations of Christians on a footing of equality (except the Roman Catholics, and to them it gives a free toleration), certified by the Secretary of State ; for to Connecticut all my negotiations were I/oQ] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D, 273 confined. The Archbishop of Canterbury wished it had been fuller, but thought it afforded ground on which to proceed. Yet he afterwards said it would not do; and that the Minister, without a formal requisition from the State, would not suffer the Hill, enabling the Bishop of London to ordain foreign candidates without their taking the oaths, to pass the Commons, if it contained a clause for consecrating American Bishops. And as his Grace did not choose to proceed without parliamentary authority — though if I understood him right, a majority of the Judges and Crown Lawyers were of opinion he might safely do it — I turned my attention to the remains of the old Scots Episcopal Church, whose consecrations I knew were derived from England, and their authority in an ecclesiastical sense, fully equal to the English Bishops. But the succession through the English line was preferred by most churchmen in America; and in the establishment of the Church on this great continent all the clergy of the Middle and Southern States were desirous to have it if it could be had. When Dr. White and Dr. Provoost sailed for England to receive conse- cration it was expected, as we have already said, that Dr. Griffith, of Virginia, would accompany them, so that we should then have three Bishops; the number required by a rule of the Church of England — and thought wise by ourselves — -to perform any new act of Episcopal consecration; and all three coming through the Church just named. But as we have also said circumstances pre- vented Dr. Griffith going to England, and he then or afterwards finally resigned his honors to the Convention of Virginia. When, however, Bishops White and Provoost received their consecrations it was understood, though never in terms, that I know of, agreed on, by the English Bishops and by the two per- sons then consecrated, that before any acts of consecration should be performed by these two, Dr. Griffith or some other third person would come from America and be consecrated in England by the English Bishops ; .,0 that any new Bishop consecrated in America should have as consecrators three Bishops deriving their Episcopal orders through the Anglican line. Indeed in the Convention of 1786 the body was barely organized when Dr. Robert Smith, of South Carolina, moved : That die clergy present produce their letters of orders or declare by whom they were ordained. This motion was aimed at the Rev. Joseph Pilmore, a native of. is 274 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 Scotland (long the venerable Rector of St. Paul's Church, Phila- delphia), who had received orders from Bishop Seabury', and at the Rev. William Smith, of Stepney Parish, Somerset county, Maryland, who had been ordained in Scotland,* by a Bishop of the Church from whence Seabury had obtained consecration. The application of the previous question moved by my ancestor, Dr. Smith, and seconded by Dr. White, precluded the discussion which it was anticipated would grow out of this motion, and the resolution itself was lost. Dr. Provoost, not satisfied with this expression of the will of the Convention, then moved directly: That this Convention will resolve to do no act that shall imply the validity of ordinations made by Dr. Seabury. Again the previous question cut off discussion and the main question was determined in the negative; New York, New Jersey and South Carolina alone supporting it. But Bishop Provoost would not let the matter drop. In a Convention of New York, held November 5th, 1/88, and in view of the General Convention of 1789 now at hand, it was resolved: * The Rev. Thomas F. Davies, originally of the State of Connecticut, hut long and now the honored Rector of St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, well known in that city, not only as one of its ablest theologians, but also as among its most learned ecclesias- tical historians, responding to my solicitations has been kind enough to give me, in a friendly note, the following sketch of this eminent divine, already referred to by me, supra, pages 1 86, 197 : " The younger Ur. William Smith was a fellow-countryman and townsman of your distinguished ancestor, and was born at Aberdeen in 1754. He came to this country in 1785, after his admission to Holy Orders, and was for two years minister of Stepney Parish, Maryland. Most of his ministerial life, however, was passed in New England, where he was successively Rector of St. Paul's, Narragansett ; of Trinity Church, Newport, R. I., and of St. Paul's, Norwalk, Connecticut. He was subsequently ap- pointed Principal of the Episcopal Academy, Cheshire. He is remembered i" the Church as the compiler of the Institution Office, which was approved by the General Convention in 1804, and was again set forth with some slight modifications in 1808, and also as the author of a work which attracted much attention in its day, on Church Music, Chanting and Metrical Psalmo.lv. " He preached the sermon at the consecration of Bishop Jarvis in 1797, a copy of which is preserved in the library of St. Peter's Church. " He was a man of eminent and versatile talents, of extensive learning, of soundness in the faith, and of most exemplary life. Had his knowledge of mankind been in any way equal to his scholastic attainments, Ms usefulness had been greater and his fame more lasting. He parsed the evermg of his days in reti.cment at Norwalk, and died in New York in 1S21, in the 69th year of his age." 1789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 275 That it is highly necessary in the opinion of this Convention that measures should be pursued to preserve the Episcopal succession in the English line. That the union of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America is of great importance and much to be desired, and that the delegates of this State, in the next General Convention, be in- structed to promote that union by every prudent measure, consistent with the constitution of the Church and the continuance of the Epis- copal succession in the English line. These resolutions it appears were worded at the particular request of Bishop Provoost. Though a man of true Christian character, Bishop Seabury was one also of high spirit and could not but feel such resentments as were allowable to a Christian and a gentle- man. He held himself off from any organization in which Bishop Provoost was to be a leader or very potential person ; if any such organization there was to be. He writes, June 20th, 1789, to Bishop White, who had written to him to urge his coming to the Convention: For my own part gladly would I contribute to the uniformity of all our Churches; but while Bishop Provoost disputes the validity of my consecration, I can take no steps towards the accomplishment of so great and desirable an object. The point, I take it, is now in such a state that it must be settled either by your Convention or by an appeal to the Christian world. But as this is a subject in which I am per- sonally concerned, I shall refrain from any remarks upon it; hoping that the candor and good sense of the Convention will render the further mention altogether unnecessary. The matter was the more important since as Bishop Seabury went so would go not only Connecticut but other, perhaps, of the New England States. The case required both vigor and circum- spection. To counteract this dangerous conduct and motions of Bishop Provoost, Dr. Smith wrote to Bishop Seabury just before the Convention assembled urging him, as Bishop White had done, to come to the Convention ; Dr. Smith offering to him the hospi- tality of his house. Bishop Seabury replies to Dr. Smith. New London, July 23, 1789. .... The wish of my heart, and the wish of the clergy and of the Church people of this State, would certainly have carried me, and some 276 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [ 1 789 of the clergy, to your General Convention, had we conceived we could have done it with propriety. The ground on which Bishop Provoost dispi'tes the validity of the Scotch Episcopal succession can best be ex- plained by himself: I know not what it is. And the ground on which the letters of orders were called for from every clergyman, in a former Convention at Philadelphia — if I have been rightly informed — i» order to make a distinction between English and Scotch ordinations, they can best explain who were concerned in it. As I know not precisely how this matter ended, I shall say no more about it. But while this matter stands as it does, and there is a resolve on the minutes of the New York Convention strongly reflecting on Bishop Seabury's Episcopal character — while by your own constitution no representation of clergymen can bi admitted without lay delegates, and no church can be taken into your union without adopting your whole plan, I leave you to say whether it would be right for me, or for my clergy, to offer ourselves at a Convention where we could be admitted only in courtesy? Should we feel ourselves at home? or, as being on an equal footing with the other ministers? The necessity of a union of all the Churches, and the disadvantages of the present disunion, we feel and lament equally with you: and I agree with you, that there may be a strong and efficacious union between Churches where the usages are different. I see not why it may not be so in this case, as soon as you have removed those obstructions which, while they remain, must prevent all possibility of uniting. My joining with Bishops White and Provoost in consecrating a lourth Bishop was some time ago proposed to Bishop White, and by him de- clined. His noncompliance has had a bad effect here. It has raised a jealousy of attempting an undue superiority over the Church of Con- necticut, which, as it at present consists of nineteen clergymen, in full orders, and more than twenty thousand people, thev suppose as respect- able as the Church in any State in the Union. Before I wrote to Bishop White I took the most deliberate pains to obtain the sentiments of both clergy and laity; and I should not now think myself at liberty to act contrary to their sentiments, even did not my own coincide with theirs. I have, however, the strongest hope that all difficulties will be removed by your Convention — that the Connect- icut Episcopacy will be explicitly acknowledged, and that Church enabled to join in union with you, without giving up her own inde- pendency. A great deal, my dear sir, will depend on the part you now act. The dread of alterations in the liturgy here arises from the observation, that every review of the liturgy has set the offices of the Church lower, and departed further from primitive practice and simplicity. The book you published was a remarkable instance of depreciating the offices, and we hope to see it remedied. To enter into particular after what I have l/'8g] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 2JJ written to Bishop White will be useless. But if a uniformity of worship be aimed at. I know of no other method besides the one I mentioned to Bishop W nite — to leave the matter to the bishops and the clergy. It is their business; and if your !aity will not consent to it, they interfere out of their sphere * Dr. Smith, now in the Convention, on the application which had been made by the clergy of Massachusetts and New Hampshire for the consecration of the Rev. Mr. Bass, as their Bishop, offered to the Convention, which had then resolved itself into a Commit- tee of the Whole the following resolves: ist. That a complete order of Bishops, derived as well unoer the English as the Scots line of Episcopacy, doth now subsist within the United States of America, in the persons of the Right Rev. William White, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsylvania, the Right Rev. Samuel Provoost, D. D., Bishop of the said Church in the State of New York, and the Right Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., Bishop of the said Church in the State of Connecticut. 2d. That the said three Bishops are fully competent to every proper act and duty of the Episcopal office and character in these United States, as well in respect to the consecration of other Bishops, and tne ordering of priests and deacons, as for the government of the Church, according to such rules, canons and institutions, as now are, or hereafter may be duly made and ordained by the Church in that case. 3d. That in Christian charity, as well as of duty, necessity and ex- pediency, the churches represented in this Convention oaght to con- tribute, in every manner in their power, towards supplying the wants, and granting every just and reasonable request of their sister churches in these States; and, therefore, 4th. That the Right Rev. Dr. White and the Right Rev. Dr. Pro- voost be, and they hereby are, requested to join with the Right Rev. Dr. Seabury, in complying with the prayer of the clergy of the States of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, for the consecration of the Rev. Edward Bass, Bishop-elect of the churches in the said States; but that, before the said Bishops comply with the request aforesaid, it be pro- posed to the churches in the New England States to meet the churches of these States, with the said three Bishops, in an adjourned Convention, to settle certain articles of union and discipline among all the churches, previous to such consecration. 5th. That if any difficulty or delicacy, in respect to the Archbishops * From the original MS. preserved among the Bishop White papers. As this letter is mutilated more or less on every page, omissions have been supplied from the first draft contained in Bishop Seabury's Letter Book. 2/8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 and Bishops of England, shall remain with the Right Rev. Drs. White and Provoost, or either of them, concerning their compliance with the above request, this Convention will address the Archbishops and Bish- ops, and hope thereby to remove the difficulty.* These resolves were unanimously agreed to, as the report of the Committee. The Committee, having finished the business committed to them, rose and reported to the Convention the above resolves. On motion of Dr. Smith, seconded by Mr. Andrews, this report was unanimously agreed to. Soon after this the Convention was adjourned till the 29th of September, in order to allow an opportunity to Bishop Seabury to assist in effecting a complete union. Dr. Smith now immediately wrote to Bishop Seabury; sending at the same time a letter drafted by him (Dr. Smith), and signed by a most respectable committee. We give both from original drafts in Dr. Smith's handwriting : Rev. Dr. Smith to Bishop Seabury. August 16, 17S9. Right Reverend and Dear- Sir: I was happy to receive your letter of 23d July, in answer to mine of the 13th, from New York, which came to hand at a very critical moment, viz. : the first day of our Con- vention, and enabled me to be more effectually instrumental in project- ing and prosecuting, I trust, to a nobler issue, the plan of an union of all our churches, than your letter of a prior date to Bishop White, gave us room to hope. The healing and charitable idea of "an efficacious union and communion in all essentials of doctrine, as well as discipline, notwithstanding some differences in the usages of churches," in which your letter as well as mine agreed, and which was at the same time strongly held up in the address of the Churches of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and also in Dr. Parker's letter, gave an opening at last, as well by a new clause, viz., the second in our ecclesiastical con- stitution, as by five resolves unanimously passed, to lay the foundation of an union, whereon a superstructure may be raised, against which even the gates of Hell shall never prevail. The fourth of those resolves, inviting you through the door so widely opened, to meet us in the Convention at Philadelphia, adjourned for * This resolution had reference to the fact already mentioned in the text, that when Dr. White and Dr. Provoost were consecrated at Lambeth, the English Bishops were told that Dr. Griffith would follow them, and the English Bishops, as well as our own then consecrated, expected that he would, and so that there would be three Bishops in America under the Anglican title. I789] KEl'- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 2JQ that end to September 29th, is the preliminary article of this union; and I scarce entertain a doubt but that the great Head of the Church will by His blessed Spirit, so replenish our hearts with love, and so bless our joint councils, that we shall attain a perfect uniformity in all our churches: or, what is, perhaps, alike lovely in the sight of God, a perfect harmony and brotherly agreement wherever, through local cir- cumstances and use, smaller differences may prevail. You will see from our printed journal herein enclosed, that, in a com- mittee of the whole, the business of the Eastern Churches engaged our attention for the first five days of our sitting, and though a desire of union was everywhere evident among the members, yet much difficulty and variety of sentiment and apprehension prevailed as to the means, in so far that there appeared more than a probability of coming to no conclusion. In this stage of the business, I requested a postponement for one night, on the promise of proposing something against next morning which might meet the apprehensions of all; as we all had but one great object of union in view: and I shall ever rejoice in it as the happiest incident of my life, and the best service I have ever been able to render to our Church, that the resolves which were offered the next morning were unanimously and almost instantly adopted, as reconciling everv sentiment, and removing every difficulty which had before ap- peared to obstruct a general union. Bishop White, whom I consulted in framing the resolves, and Dr. Moore, of New York, and Mr. (now Dr.) Smith, of South Carolina, were particularly zealous in whatever tended to promote this good work ; and I am well assured that you are in some mistake respecting Bishop White's having declined a "proposal" for your joining with him and Bishop Provoost in consecrating a fourth Bishop. He has assured me and also declared in Convention, that no such proposal was ever made to him; and I believe he has written, or will write to you on this sub- ject. His whole conduct, wherever your name and Episcopate have been mentioned, does him honor, and is perfectly agreeable to his well- known excellent temper, and zeal for the peace and unity of the Church. It was Dr. White who seconded, on a former occasion, my motion for not suffering any cmestion in Convention, which might imply even a doubt of the validity of your consecration, and that at a time when admitting a doubt of that kind was considered by some as a good means of forwarding his own and Dr. Provoost's consecration. Now, I cannot have the least doubt of your attending the adjourned Convention, according to the truly respectable invitation given you. I must again repeat the invitation, that you will make my house your home, or place of residence, during your stay in Philadelphia. The Rev. Dr. Moore, of New York, will be my other and only guest, in the chamber adjoining yours, and he will accompany you from New York or Elizabeth to my house in Philadelphia, as you may agree: and I 28o LIFE A. YD COREESPOXD EXCE OF THE [1/89 trust you will be with us a day or two before the 29th of September, rather than a day after, as we shall be pressed in respect of time. . . . The College of Philadelphia have, on Dr. White's recommendation and mine, granted the degree of D. D. to the Rev. Mr. Bass and Mr. Parker, which we thought a proper compliment to the New England Churches. We are sorry we forgot to pay the same compliment to the venerable old Mr. Learning, of the Connecticut Church. I hope he will accompany you to Philadelphia and receive that compliment from us in person, if he has nowhere else received it before. I remain, Right Reverend and Dear Sir, Yours, etc., William Smith. The Committee to Bishop Seabury. Philadelphia, August 16, 1789. Right Reverend Sir: Your letter to the Right Rev. Bishop White, and also yours of a posterior date to the Rev. Dr. Smith, were laid before the General Convention of our Churches, and read with that deference and regard which are due to the communications of the Bishop and Pastor of a respectable sister Church. As we "feel equally with you the necessity of a general union of all our Churches in the United States, and lament whatever may occur as tending towards the continuance of disunion." those parts of your letters which had any reference to this important point became the immediate subject of the most affectionate, candid and serious discus- sion; leaving every other part, either to future joint deliberations or to be noticed in the answers of the gentlemen to whom your letters were, in part, personally addressed. As a committee appointed for that purpose, we herewith transmit to vou the printed proceedings of our Convention, and also a copy of our Address to the Archbishops and Bishops of England. By those docu- ments you will readily perceive, that nothing hath been left unattempted on our part, which we conceived to be conducive, either towards the basis or superstructure of an union, so seemly and needful in itself, and so ardently desired by all. By the second Article of our printed Constitution fas now amended) you will observe that your first and chief difficulty respecting lay rep- resentation is wholly removed, upon the good and wise principles admitted by you as well as by us, viz.: "That there may be a strong and efficacious union between churches, where the usages are in some respects different." It was long so in the different dioceses of England. By the Article of our Constitution above mentioned, the admission of yours and the other Eastern Churches is provided for upon your 070/1 1789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 28 1 principles of representation ; while our Churches are not required to make any sacrifice of theirs; it being declared That the Church in each State shall be entitled to a representation either of clergy, or laity, or of both. And in case the Convention [or Church] of any Slate should neglect or decline to appoint their deputies of either order, or if it should be their rule to appoint only out of one order; or if any of those appointed should neglect to at- tend, or be prevented by sickness, or any other accident, the Church in such State [district or diocese] shall, nevertheless, be considered as duly represented by such deputy or deputies as may attend, of either order. Here, then, every case is intended to be provided for, and experience will either demonstrate that an efficacious union may be had upon these principles; or mutual good will, and a further reciprocation of senti- ments will eventually lead to a more perfect uniformity of discipline as well as of doctrine. The representation in those States where the Church appoints clerical deputies only, or chooses to be wholly represented by its Bishop, will be considered as complete ; and as it cannot be supposed that the clergy will ever neglect to avail themselves of their voice and negative, in every ecclesiastical decision, so neither can the laity complain in those States where they claim no representation, and still less where they are declared to have a voice, and claim a representation, but neglect to avail themselves of their claim ; which latter is too likely to be the case in some of the States within our present union, where it is difficult to procure any lay representation, although earnestly solicited by some of the clergy, who are fully sensible of the advantages derived to our for- mer Conventions, from the wise and temperate counsels, and the re- spectable countenance and assistance of our lay members. As to the second point, respecting your own consecration and the Scots Episcopacy, we are persuaded that you have fallen into some misappre- hension concerning an entry made in the Journal of a former Conven- tion, or have been misinformed of the circumstances attending it. Nothing was ever agitated in that Convention concerning the Scots Episcopacy, but the contrary. You may perceive by the Journal, that the Convention refused to come to any resolution which would imply even a doubt of the validity of your consecration ; and the proceedings of the present Convention upon that subject, we are persuaded, will be more than sufficient to remove every obstacle of our future union, which might have been apprehended on that score. As the last and greatest proof which we could give of respect for our sister Churches, and our desire of their assistance in the completion of our ecclesiastical system, we have postponed everything except what was intended immediately to open the door of union: and have adjourned our Convention till the 29th day of September, in the full confidence of then meeting a representation from all the Churches of the Eastern 282 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \.l7^9 States, for the purpose of devising and executing such measures as, through the blessing of God, may concentre all our future labors in the promotion of truth and righteousness, and for preserving our Church in the unity of the Spirit, and the bond of peace. We hope that the time to which the Convention had adjourned may be found convenient to you and to your Churches. An early day was necessary, as the members from some of the Southern States could neither be detained long from home, nor return to their respective charges, with any prospect of attending at any more remote day, dur- ing the present year. The day to which the adjournment was made, viz., Tuesday, Septem- ber 29th, falls one week before the annual meeting of the Corporation for the Relief of the Widows and Children of the Clergy, for the States of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, of which you are a mem- ber; and the very existence of that pious and charitable institution de- pends upon our obtaining a full board for the explaining and amending some of the fundamental laws. It was, therefore, proper to make the adjournment of the Convention a week earlier than the meeting of the Corporation, that the business of both might be better transacted with- out interference: and the City of Philadelphia is the place where, ac- cording to Charier, the Corporation is to meet this present year, and, exclusive of this consideration, Philadelphia was considered as more central and convenient, as well as less expensive, perhaps, to the mem- bers, than New York during the sessions of Congress, and the present concourse of strangers to that city. We have now only to request your acknowledgment of the receipt of this Address as soon as convenient after it comes to your hand, with which we doubt not to have the agreeable assurance of meeting you (and such representation of your Church as your own rules may provide) in our adjourned Convention at Philadelphia, on the said 29th of Sep- tember next. We are, with all respect, Your affectionate brethren and humble servants, William White, William Smith, Samuel Magaw, Francis Hopkinson, Tench Coxe. Letters so evincive of a Christian spirit found a ready response in the noble Seabury's heart. He writes, at once: I will, God permitting, most willingly join you at your adjourned Convention on the 29th of September next. The adjourned meeting of the Convention assembled in Christ Church September 30th, 1789. The minutes say: I789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 283 The Right Rev. Dr. Samuel Seabury, Bishop of the Protestant Epis- copal Church in Connecticut, attended, to confer with the Convention, agreeable to the invitation given him, in consequence of a resolve passed at their late session ; and the Rev. Dr. Samuel Parker, Deputy from the Churches in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the Rev. Mr. Bela Hubbard and the Rev. Mr. Abraham Jarvis, Deputies from the Church in Connecticut, produced testimonials of their appointment to confer with the Convention, in consequence of a similar invitation. On the next day a Committee, of which Dr. Smith was the Chairman, was appointed to confer with the Deputies from the Eastern Churches on the subject of a proposed union with those Churches. The reader will remember that one principal ground of opposi- tion by Bishop Seabury and his friends to a union was the pro- vision in the General Ecclesiastical Constitution made by the Con- vention of 1785, which made the Convention consist of but a sin- gle House or Chamber, and made a Bishop but a member of a Deputation sent from his State. Bishop Seabury and his friends desired that the Bishops should form an independent House with power completely to negative the action of the laity, if laymen were to vote in the councils of the Church at all, as the churches in Pennsylvania and elsewhere South absolutely insisted that they should do. The negotiation required great self-control, firmness and insinua- tion, with dispositions to conciliate, and readiness to yield in all mat- ters where concessions could be safely made. Dr. Smith, if old John Adams' account of him, already quoted by us, be correct, was eminently suited for the diplomatist of the Convention.* He met the Right Reverend and the Reverend gentlemen of the North, and things were made harmonious. On Friday, October 2d, 1789, he reported as follows : That they have had a full, free and friendly conference with the deputies of the said Churches, who, on behalf of the Church in their several States, and by virtue of sufficient authority from them, have signified that they do not object to the Constitution which was approved at the former session of this Convention, if the third article of that Constitu- tion may be so modified as to declare explicitly the right of the Bishops, * See our Vol. I., p. 334. Adams characterizes him as "soft, polite, insinuating, adulating, sensible, learned, industrious, indefatigable." 284 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE ^1789 when sitting in a separate House, to originate and propose acts for the concurrence of the other House of Convention, and to negative such acts proposed by the other House as they may disapprove. Your Committee conceiving this alteration to be desirable in itself, as having a tendency to give greater stability to the Constitution, without diminishing any security that is now possessed by the clergy or laity; and being sincerely impressed with the importance of an union to the future prosperity of the Church, do therefore recommend to the Con- vention a compliance with the wishes of their brethren, and that the third article of the Constitution may be altered accordingly. Upon such alteration being made, it is declared by the Deputies from the churches in the Eastern States that they will subscribe the Constitution, and become members of this General Convention. This report was accepted by the Convention with a single modi- fication to the effect that though the Bishops, when there should be three or more, should form a separate House with a right to originate and propose acts for the concurrence of the House of Deputies composed of clergy or laity, and that when any proposed act should have passed the House of Deputies, the same should be transmitted to the House of Bishops, the House of Deputies should have a negative thereupon, provided that the proposed act should not be negatived by the Bishops if adhered to by foiw-ffths of the other House. As the States which had been in the Convention up to this time were but seven,* and as those that now desired an absolute right in the House of Bishops to negative any proceedings were three.f it was practically impossible to have four-fiftlis of the House of the Deputies carry any measure without the concurrence of these three. The qualification made in the amendment of the Report presented by Dr. Smith was probably made to "let down" in as easy a manner as possible some of the very low churchmen of the South, and it was disarmed of the last remnants of danger to the views of Bishop Seabury and his friends, — which in reality were the views also of Bishop White and Dr. Smith — by a resolution in these words : That it be made known to the several State Conventions that it is pro- posed to consider and determine in the next General Convention on * New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina. -j- Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 285 the propriety of investing the House of Bishops with a full negative upon the proceedings of the other House.* The minutes of the Convention go on to tell us that the General Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church, as now altered and amended, was laid before Bishop Seabury and the Deputies from the Churches in the Eastern States for their approbation and consent, and that after a short time they delivered the following testimony of their assent to the same: October 2, 1 789. We do hereby agree to the Constitution of the Church, as modified this day in Convention. Samuel Seabury, D. D., Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. Abraham Jarvis, A. M., Rector of Christ Church, Middletown. Bela Hubbard, A. M., Rector of Trinity Church, New Haven. State of Connecticut. Samuel Parker, D. D., Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, and Clerical Deputy for Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The minutes add : After subscribing as above, the Right Rev. Bishop Seabury, and the Clerical Deputies aforesaid, took their seats as members of the Conven- tion. Thus was the Union of the Church in America, through the good efforts of Bishop White and Dr. Smith, achieved ! For this inestimable service, even more than for their other great services to her, their names should ever be honored by the children of the Church. It is a remarkable fact that this great act of what we may call national ecclesiastical independence, and of a more perfect ecclesi- astical union was achieved in that very Hall where, on the Fourth of July, 1776, — John Hancock placing his bold signature in the front, — was made our national political independence ; that same Hall where, on the 17th day of September, 1787, — "George Wash- * With this full negative the House of Bishops was invested by the Convention of 1808. 286 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \j-7%9 ington, President and Deputy of Virginia," leading the illustrious band, — was signed the Constitution of the United States of America. Inviolable remain forever and separated from all common uses the spot thus politically and ecclesiastically consecrated ! * The Convention of 1789, as I have mentioned in the text, first met in Christ Church, and sat there during the whole of the origi- nal session, and our General Conventions have usually sat in a church as do almost always our Diocesan Conventions. But in the case of the Convention of 1789, on the 1st of October, the day before the union was effected, the minutes say : The meeting in Christ Church being found inconvenient to the members in several respects, it was resolved that the Rev. Dr. William Smith and the Hon. Mr. Secretary Hopkinson be appointed to wait upon his Excellency Thomas Mifflin, Esquire, the President of the State, and request leave for the Convention to hold their meeting in some convenient apartment in the State House. At a later hour of the same day the entry is : The Rev. Dr. William Smith and Hon. Mr. Hopkinson reported that the President of the State had very politely given permission to the Convention to hold their meet- ings at the State House in the apartments of the General Assembly uniil they shall be wanted for the public service. Adjourned to meet at the State House to-morrow morning. * I am quite aware that the Carpenters' Company have, lately, pretended — for it is only within a few years that any such pretension has been made — that the Federal Con- vention of 1787 sat in their Hall. The pretension is the result of ignorance and as- sumption. The Official Journal of the Federal Convention, Chief Justice Yates's pri- vate minutes, contemporary newspapers, the motion of Dr. Franklin for prayers, June 28th, 17S7, and his remarks at the close of the Convention about the rising and the set- ting sun on the Lack of the Speaker's chair, all show that the Federal Convention was held in the State House, just as a tablet in that edifice records; and the remarks of Dr. Franklin, on his motion for prayers, when read in the light of contemporary historical facts, show also (as indeed probably do his remarks about the rising and the setting sun on the back of the Speaker's chair) the very room ; to wit, the Hall of Independence. Equally unfounded is the legend on one of the walls of the Hall that the eloquence of Adams, Hancock and Henry there inspired the patriots of the Revolution. The only Congress that sat in Carpenters' Hall was that of 1774, and Hancock was not in it. And both these pretensions are as void of truth as the one put forth by the orator of the Hall (Mr. Retts) to the Governors of the nine States, assembled there October 18th, 1879, on their way to Yorktown, that the Supreme Court of the United States sat there during the time that Philadelphia was the seat of the Federal Government. The min- ute-books of that Court, all preserved at Washington, show that the Court sat in the still-existing handsome south room (obviously made for a court-room) in the second story of the City Hall, at the southwest corner of Chestnut and Fifth streets, with one or two exceptions, when it sat in the State House or in the Council Chamber. 1789] HZ*'. WILLIAM SMITH, 1). D. 287 CHAPTER LI I. The Convention now becomes Bi-Cameral— Both Houses sit in the State House; the Clerical and Lay Deputies, over whom Dr. Smith is elected to preside, in the chamber of independence — strange vicissi- TUDES in Dr. Smith's Liee — The History of the Formation of the Book of Common Prayer of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States oe America— The House of Bishops consists of Bishop Seabury and Bishop White, Bishop Provoost absent — The Selection of Psalms— Some Comparison of the Proposed Book with the new Book of Common Prayer— Prospects oe the Church — Alterations of the Prayer Book deprecated unless in conjunction with the Church of England, and unless the Books of the two Churches are made nearly or quite alike — Dr. Smith writes an Address ordered by the Conven- tion to President Washington and one to the English Archbishops. On the union of the Churches in the New England States with those in the Middle and Southern by which the Bishops thus far consecrated for America (Seabury, White and Provoost) were made members of the Convention, the Convention divided itself into two chambers : that of the House of Bishops and that of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies. The Bishops, we are told in the Journals, "withdrew." They retired, I presume, to the room in the upper part of the State House, which was long used by the Governor and Council ; while the Clerical and Lay Depu- ties remained on the ground floor, in that chamber, on the east side of the edifice, formerly known as the Assembly Room of the Province, and since as the Chamber of Independence. Immediately on the retirement of the Bishops, Dr. Smith was elected President of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, and was conducted, no doubt, to that same historic chair occupied, for some years before the Revolution, by the Speakers of the Colo- nial Assembly, in 1776 by John Hancock, and in 1787 by George Washington. Dr. Smith was not a vain-glorious, nor a self-elating man ; but I should suppose that in such a moment — called on as he now was, to preside over an ecclesiastical assembly which might fairly be called august — seated in that chair which the Speakers of the old Quaker Legislature had once so self-complaccntly filled, he 288 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l7&9 could not have done other than recall the scene in that identical room some thirty years before, when, summoned before the Legis- lature of Friends — then the dominant power of Pennsylvania — for what they called a libel on the Government, he was insulted by these Broadbrims, and with contempt for his ecclesiastical orders and his academic distinctions alike, was convicted without evi- dence ; and by a sentence unwarranted by the charge made against him, sent to the cells of the gaol at Walnut and Fifth streets. We have mentioned elsewhere, that Smith's life seems filled with dramatic incidents. This, perhaps, is one of them. So does the whirligig of time bring about its revenges. Well does it behoove every man in power to remember the poet's precept: ^quam memento in rebus arduis Servare mentem, non secus in bonis Ab insolenti temperatam Laetitia,. moriture Delli ! But Dr. Smith had not much time just now for meditation and moralizing. He had to go to work at once with important busi- ness. The Proposed Book had not been adopted ; and a review of "The Book of Common Prayer and administrations of the Sacra- ments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, according to the use of the Church of England," was now, of course, in order. Instead of appointing one large committee to do the work of review and alteration for the whole book — the plan adopted in the Convention of 1785 for the Proposed Book — the work of altera- tion and review in the Convention of 1789 was parcelled out among several committees — some of the committees being ap- pointed in the House of Bishops and some in the House of Cler- ical and Lay Deputies. Those appointed in the latter House, and, as I suppose, by the President, Dr. Smith, were these: one to which was given the preparation of a morning and evening service; a second, to which was given the preparation of the Litany, with occasional prayers and thanksgivings; a third, to which was given the preparation of a Calendar and Table of Lessons for Morning and Evening Prayer throughout the year; a fourth, to which was given the preparation of an order for the administration of the Holy Com- munion; a fifth, to which was given the duty of reporting in what I/89] REV. WILLIAM SMI 7 II, D. D. 289 manner the Psalms should be used. Other parts of the Prayer Book were taken in hand in the House of Bishops — we can hardly say were placed in charge of committees, since the House con- sisted of but two persons, one of whom, Bishop Seabury, presided, and the other, Bishop White, constituted the bod}', where motions were made, seconded and carried; he being the "be-all" and "end-all" of everything outside of the Bishop presiding.* Bishop Provoost kept himself away from the Convention. He had been "indisposed" — indisposed, perhaps, to come to it — at the original Convention. He became more and more "indisposed" with the prospects of " Dr. Cebra's" presidency and powers, and almost threatened a secession, which, however, he never executed prior to 1 801, when he sought to resign his Episcopate, a resignation which was not deemed admissible nor accepted. f The Bishops in their " House" renewed, if I remember, the ser- vice for the Public Baptism of Infants; made alterations in the English form of the solemnization of Matrimony, in the Order for the Visitation of the Sick, in the Order for the Communion of the Sick, in the form for the Visitation of Prisoners, in the Order for the Burial of the Dead, alterations in the Catechism and in the * While the Convention sat in Christ Church, the " House of Bishops" sat in its ■ " Vestry Room," a small place on the north of the pulpit, and about seven feet wide by twelve long. The " House" was a very small one, no doubt, but still large enough for the two persons who composed it, and their Secretary, the Rev. Mr. Clarkson. f The feeling between Bishop Seabury and Bishop Provoost threatened at one time serious results. Bishop Provoost did not even call upon his Right Reverend Brother while the latter was in New York. He openly denied the validity of the Bishop of Connecticut's Episcopal orders, and in private letters wrote of him as " Bishop Cedra," an inexcusable impropriety if meant for an indignity, though lessened by the fact that there was a family on Long Island where Bishop Seabury had once been that thus wrote their name. The fact was that Bishop Seabury had been an avowed Tory — a Chaplain, during the war, in a British regiment, and after the war a recipient of half- pay. Bishop Provoost had been a strong Whig from the beginning, and is said, on the occasion of a sudden attack by the British, to have himself taken up arms. Dr. Smith, seeing the dangerous consequences which such a state of relations between two Bish- ops— from whatever cause arising — threatened to the infant Church, sought at the earliest date to bring the two gentlemen into harmonious intercourse. He spoke on the subject to Bishop White, who responded to all his anxieties and wishes. Other common friends were brought into council, and Dr. Smith suggested that Bishop Sea- bury should make a visit to Bishop Provoost, the latter agreeing to be at home to re- ceive it. Bishop Seabury agreed to make the visit. Bishop Provoost received the visit cordially, and asked Bishop Seabury to dine with him on the same day, inviting Bishop White, Dr. Smith and others to meet him. The invitation was accepted, and from that time relations of harmony were restored. His efforts to bring about this happy reconciliation Dr. Smith considered among the good acts of his life. 19 29O LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Vl7^9 Order of Confirmation. This House, too, prepared a Form of Family Prayer, the form and the maimer of setting forth the Psalms in metre, a Ratification of the Thirty-nine Articles, with the exception of the 36th and 37th, and put other parts of the Book into shape. The Prayer Book, as now used in the American Church, was thus very completely the joint work of the two Houses, each House doing its full share; each acting freely upon the work of the other, but each with perfect respect, good-will and good man- ners toward that other, although we know that the House of Bishops did not fully approve all that was finally agreed on; it agreeing to all, however, as in nothing essentially wrong. Dr. Smith's preface to the old Proposed Book, shortened and slightly altered — but with its essential thoughts and much of its exact language retained — made the preface to the new volume. I ought not here perhaps to omit a little anecdote, illustrative of what I state just above, and which comes to me in a private letter from that well-known and much-honored divine of our Church, the Rev. Thomas W. Coit, D. D., derived by him from the lips of the late Dr. Samuel Farmar Jarvis, and given to Dr. Coit as Dr. Coit himself says, with that gentleman's characteristic interest when relating anything of vital consequence pertaining to the history of our American Prayer Book. "I presume," says Dr. Coit, " that Dr. Jarvis had it from his father, who may have been on the spot at the time of its occurrence." Dr. Coit continues: Bishops Seabury and White constituted the House of Bishops when our present Communion Office was about to be proposed to the House of Deputies for their adoption. The two Bishops preferred the Scotch Communion Service to the English, and after they had sent it to the House of Deputies felt anxious and timid about the result; and well they might, when the Athanasian Creed had been ignored, the Nicene treated with ominous neglect, and even the simple Creed of the Apostles submitted to tinkering — a blemish inflicted on it which, even to this late day, our Church has not had the courage to erase! The Bishops sent for Dr. Smith, then President of the House of Deputies, for a private conference. They frankly admitted that they had gone to the Scotch Communion Office for a material portion of their labors. But as Dr. Smith was a born Scotchman, this was a com- pliment to his country, which subdued his prejudices, if he had any. He agreed to introduce the new office to the House of Deputies and I789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 29I recommend it for adoption. The next day he informed the House of the document entrusted to him, and of its variations from the better known office of the Church of England. A storm began to brew, and hoarse whispers about popery reached his ears. He rose in his place, and, exclaiming, "Hear — [pronouncing it Heyre\ — before ye judge," began to read. Dr. Smith was a superb reader and withal had just enough of a Scotch brogue to make his tones more musical and his em- phasis more thrilling. He soon caught attention, and read his paper through without a single interruption, his hearers becoming more and more absorbed and charmed. When he had finished, the new office was accepted with acclamations. Wherefore, if there is anything in our Communion Office which Churchmen of the present day delight in, not to say glory in, they should hold the memory of Dr. William Smith in cherished admiration. If he had not read the office into the accept- ance of the House over which he presided, a cold, hard vote might have consigned it, with the Athanasian symbol, into what the Orientals used to call "The Castle of Oblivion."" The whole book was finally ratified by both Houses; and a committee, consisting of Dr. Smith, Dr. Magaw, Dr. Blackwell of the clergy, with Francis Hopkinson and Tench Coxe of the laity (Bishop White, of the House of Bishops, consenting to ad- vise with the committee), were appointed to superintend the print- ing of the new book, either in octavo or in folio, or in both, and also to have an edition published "to contain only the parts in general use and the Collects of the day with references to the Epistles and Gospels." The preparation of a Selection of Psalms, to be used instead of the Psalms for the day, at the discretion of the minister, origi- nated in the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies; and, I presume, was suggested by Dr. Smith, who, knowing that the Psalter as arranged in the Proposed Book was not acceptable to Bishop Seabury, Dr. Chandler and some other persons — and adhering to his own opinion that the Psalms for the day as fixed in the Psalter were confessedly not always appropriate for a mixed assembly — *This anecdote, in substantial form if not in circumstantial variety, receives con- firmation— if, indeed, coming to me from the source which it does, it needs any con- firmation— in what Bishop White tells us. He states that "the great change made in restoring to the consecration prayer the oblatory words and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, left out in King Edward's reign ; " met, in the House of Clerical and Lay Depu- ties, with the disposition, in a few gentlemen, to oppose it, " which was counteracted by some pertinent remarks of the President." (Memoirs, 2d edition, page 154.) 292 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 fell on this happy idea, a happy one I must myself call it ; al- though I am aware that in so far as it makes selections of verses from Psalms instead of selections of Psalms from the Psalter — which it does in the case of about one-third of the Psalms selected — it is open, to a certain, though far inferior degree, to the objec- tions made to the Psalter as given in the Proposed Book. No doubt some beautiful Psalms are not in the selections. But the Psalms of the regular Psalter for many days are free from objec- tion. So the omission of certain verses in certain Psalms — except that brevity was sought for — may be called, as it has been called, capricious; the verses omitted being in themselves as appropriate nearly or quite as others left. But brevity was one object of the Selections. The seventh and eighth Selections were suggested by Bishop White. Certainly — with all that may be suggested against them — the Selections are distinguished by great beauty. The choice and the arrangement are indicative alike of a knowl- edge of the Psalter and of rich and exquisite taste. I have al- ready expressed my great surprise that the clergy so seldom use these selections — which if they object to any omission of any verse in any Psalm they can still do, for some of the selections are of Psalms in their entirety; but on the contrary, with a dull for- mality, worthy of the compilers of an almanac, stick doggedly to "days of the month," and force upon their parishioners as " Psalms of David" compositions some of which are not David's Psalms at all ; and others of which, whether so or not, are certainly incom- prehensible to the common readers, even when understood — which they are not always — by the minister. I find no fault with the clergy; but only with their forcing upon mixed congregations certain Psalms which they should never make a mixed congrega- tion read anywhere but in their own closets, and with the com- mentaries of Bishop Home and the more ponderous and partner- ship volumes of Drs. Neale and Littledale as expositions. I am not disposed to institute any comparisons between the Proposed Book and the Book of Common Prayer as now in use in the United States. In some particular respects I prefer, and I think that churchmen in this day generally would prefer, what we find in the former book. In its abbreviation of the beautiful, tender and sublime conclusion of the Bcncdictus (St. Luke ii. 68) I think the Convention of 1789 made a great mistake. What can I789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 293 be more beautiful than the eight verses in the Proposed Book in sequence to the four in our present book from which they are cut off? What more beautiful especially than these concluding ones: And thou, Child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people: for the remission of their sins. Through the tender mercy of our God : whereby the Day-spring from on high hath visited us; To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: and to guide our feet into the way of peace. I think that the Convention of 1789 made as bad mistakes or worse in supplying the Magnificat and the Nunc Demittis of the early Church and retained in the Proposed Book, by anything whatsoever: I think that the same Convention made an equal mistake in making as part of the Litany or penitential supplication, a general Thanksgiving with the prayer of St. Chrysostom and the minor Benediction, accompanied by a right to the minister officiating to introduce one, two, or any number of special prayers and special Thanksgivings, and leaving it discretionary with him to omit some of the grandest and most affecting parts of the true and real Litany; down, I mean, to the prayer, "We humbly beseech thee" I think that in taking away the exhortations to the Communion from the place where, acting by Dr. Smith's sugges- tion, the committee in charge of the Proposed Book put them — that is to say, at the very beginning of "The Communion" — and restoring them to the place where they now are, after the prayer for Christ Church militant — and so dividing the service (one ser- vice rightly viewed) into the "ante-Communion" and " the Com- munion,"— the term "ante-Communion," a term not found, I think, in the Prayer Book — thus cnconragitig the departure of the parish- ioners from the great service of the Church — they have lowered that office to such a degree that in a measure it loses its proper influence.* * Led on by this error — I spealc it reverently — of the Convention of 1789, some of our low-Church clergy — after having got, from those who do not communicate, their money, which, if there is a communion, the Church contemplates should be the offer- ing of those who do — that is to say of all adults present — persons whom the Church supposes are baptized and confirmed — pronounce, with no authority whatsoever, the minor Benediction in the midst of the Communion ; so, in fact, dismissing the whole 294 LIFE AXD CORRESPOXDEXCE OF THE [I/89 And I do not know that on the whole, in and by and for itself, the Prayer Book, as set forth by the Convention of 1789, has given more satisfaction than would have been given by the Pro- posed Book. YVe know, at least, that at all times, many of the low-church clergy have taken pretty much what liberties — in one direction — they liked with it ; violating its express rubrics, omitting of it what they disliked, inserting, of their own, what they liked better, and sometimes exhibiting a manifest disrelish for the whole Prayer- Book by meetings, morning and .evening, for prayer, where the orders for morning and evening prayer, daily throughout the year, were completely set aside. We know, too, that animated and encouraged by the example set by this low-church party, and congregation; first, however, some of these clergy at least, interpositing in a way the most unauthorized, an address of their own, telling the people whom they are about to dismiss, with the grace of the Lord, that "our Church invites everybody who loves the blessed Saviour — of whatever Christian denomination — to draw nigh and unite in the Holy Communion : " an invitation which is unwarranted by any rubric in the service, which is directly in the face of that one appended to the order of Confirma- tion declaring that "there shall be none admitted to the Holy Communion " until such time as he be confirmed or be ready and desirous to be confirmed ; which is discoun- tenanced by\he first rubric in the ministration of baptism of those of riper years, and which proceeds, I presume, on a misconception of what the Church means in the priest's address to those who come to receive the Holy Communion. Do the clergy who inter- polate the Holy Office with such addresses of their own, regard it as any part of " God's commandments " that people should be baptized, or be certified by the laying on of hands, of God's favor and gracious goodness towards them ? Suppose some respectable person, educated in the Society of Friends — a Friend still in reality, though not attending " Meeting " much, nor liking the total disregard of forms which the sect imposes on its members, but still undoubtedly as he or she be- lieves "loving the blessed Saviour" and looking upon a participation in the Commun- ion as an affecting ceremony — a very proper way of testifying publicly that love — but looking on it in no other way and not at all as a means of grace — were to come to the Communion habitually, in a church where such a speech as I have mentioned is habit- ually made. The minister would, in due lime, I suppose, call on the person, inquire if he or she had been confirmed, or was ready and desirous to be so. The answer would be, " Xo, I do not believe in Confirmation. Besides, I have never been baptized in thy way. I do not believe in water-baptism. I never mean to be baptized with water. With the Spirit I trust I have been baptized." The clergyman, if he did his duty, would reply: " Sir, or Madame, or Miss, if such are your views and such your pur- poses, I am bound to let you know that a rubric of the Church declares that you shall not be admitted to the Communion." The replication would be, "Ah, indeed, that's new to me ! I thought that thou saidst at thy Chancel, that thy Church cordially in- vited all who loved the blessed Saviour — of whatever name or sect — to come." What would be the rejoinder of this priest? The Church, assuredly, never disparaged its sacrament of Baptism and its holy rite of Confirmation, as these of its clergy, by their unauthorized interpolations into its most solemn office, make her do. I789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 295 "bettering the example," — so far as making a worse result is con- sistent with the meaning of the phrase — an opposite class in the Church have committed pretty much the same violence on the Book; fraudulently embellishing their proceedings with various sorts of Romish ceremonial and infusing through the whole so considerable a quantity of Romish doctrine and discipline, that if Rip Van Winkle was a Churchman, and, after his long sleep, happened to go into some of the Protestant Episcopal Churches of New York called " Ritualistic," he certainly would never believe in what sort of a Church he was. He would look amazed, in- deed, when he was told that this was the exact Church of Samuel Provoost, and Benjamin Moore, and John Henry Hobart, and Benjamin Tredwcll Onderdonk, and Jonathan Mayhew YVainright; and be very apt to doubt when he was really yet awake and in his right senses at all. Then to come to people very different indeed from the two parties, one of whom would carry the Church to the Methodists and the other to Rome, did not the House of Bishops itself, in the General Convention of 1826, almost, if not altogether, unanimously agree to reform the Book in a most sweeping way — to leave out on all days, but on those especially appointed for humiliation, the whole Litany; to allow two alterations in the office for Confirma- tion; to allow alteration, at the minister's discretion, upon what are called "prayer days" in the lessons; to give to the minister on all days a permission, both in the morning and evening ser- vices, to exercise discretion as to the number of Psalms and to the portions of lessons; provided only in regard to each lesson that there be at least fifteen verses. This was bringing things back again in some respects to the Proposed Book ; and if we may credit, as I rather think we may, the statement made in that en- tertaining and instructive " Life of the First Bishop of Vermont" (at the time that I am speaking Rector of Trinity Church, Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania), by his son, the Rev. John Henry Hopkins, it was only through the read)' powers of debate of that remark- able first-named person — in whom legal knowledge, powers of argument and the resources of sarcasm were united in a high degree as in a rare conjunction — that the thing was defeated by the negative of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies. Still, I am not insensible to the great value of the Prayer Book 296 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 of 1789; nor, taken as a whole, do I deny its superiority to the "Proposed Book." The length of the Morning Service and some few matters quas incuriafiid.il* are the greatest objections that I think of to it. I am certainly ready to admit that in so far as in its weight and body, the new liturgy comes nearer to the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, than did the Pro- posed Book, a great point for the future is gained. The Church in America and the Church in Great Britain and Ireland, and over the vast colonial possessions of the latter nation are made by it really one. United in doctrine it is most desirable that they be united in that which largely with most people, and with many, entirely, both explains and preserves doctrine. The present "Common Prayers" of the Church of England and of our Church — each having the same articles of religion — do, in the main, unite the two churches. Perhaps each would do well never to seek to make an union more complete. The subject assuredly ought never to be thrown open to motions and debate in any large bodies, nor to be agitated by newspaper or other form of popular and prolonged discussions, nor in any form calculated to be a dangerous one. The remarks of a well-known representative in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, f A. d. 1834, when it was pro- posed to review the then very good Constitution of the State, apply with force to the subject which we are now considering. The right of the people to alter their government in such a manner as they may think proper, is a right not to be questioned. But it is a right which a people having a government under which they enjoy great happiness and great prosperity, ought to call into exercise with extreme caution. No system of government will be satisfactory to all ; and * I need not refer to that almost shocking one in the administration of the Lord's Supper, by which, through the interposition of a word or two in the part of our " In- vocation," imported from the " Prayer of Consecration," used by the Church of Scot- land— the latter of which reads, " beseeching thee that whosoever shall be partakers of this Holy Communion," while ours is, " beseeching thee that we and all others who shail be partakers of this Holy Communion " — makes us, by adhering literally to the rest of the prayer of the Church of Scotland, exclude the parties ofkring the prayer from the benefits meant to be invoked ! The omission in the Prayer Book of 1789 of the directions contained in the rubric of the English Book, how, in the Morning Service, the First Lesson is to be read, — " distinctly, with an audible voice ; he that read- eth so standing and turning himself as best to be heard by all present " — makes sense- less the rubric in our book, that the Second Lesson is to be read "in like manner." f The late John Bradford Wallace, Esq., of Philadelphia, representing at the time the county of Crawford, in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania. I789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 297 when we begin to change it who shall say where the changes shall end? Sound wisdom has therefore adopted it as a maxim that it is better to endure some small detects in a good system, than to endanger the sys- tem by throwing it open to change. If it could be practically required that every point upon which a change was desired should be acknowl- edged by a majority of the people to be an evil, and a concurrence of the same majority in establishing a remedy, there would be no great danger in attempting the alteration. But the danger is this: One man is dissatisfied with a particular provision in the constitution. A second is content with that, but dislikes another. A third person approves both those provisions, but thinks some other very objectionable, and so on to a great extent. Each prefers the constitution to stand as it is, with the exception of only the particular part which he objects to. Passions are excited, prejudices are strengthened: and eventually all make common cause, and each to obtain his own alteration, unites with the others to obtain theirs: And thus a majority is obtained for many alterations, when the judgment of the same majority is opposed to the adoption of any one, and, of course, of every one of them. Still, the eye of hopeful anticipation cannot but sometimes fancy that it sees a pleasing sight in future days. The Church of Great Britain and the Church in America have come of late years into an intercourse both close and frequent. Our Bishops will soon out- number the English Bishops. Perhaps they do so now. In the writings of such men as Seabury, White, Dehon, Hobart, H. U. Onderdonk, Ravenscroft, Hopkins, Doane, DeLancey, Whitting- ham and Odenheimer among the Bishops, and of Dr. Chandler, Dr. Smith, Dr. S. F. Jarvis, Dr. S. H. Turner, Dr. Coit, Dr. Bow- den, Dr. Chapman, Dr. Dorr, and many others, probably, not known to me, in the lower orders of the ministry, we have made contributions to a common theology which recall the days of Sher- lock and Horseley and Seeker and Porteus. Our Bishops are con- stantly visiting England and deriving new inspirations from what they see in that ancient land. The mitred lords of England are coming often here, and, seated in honor in our Conventions, are gaining for themselves and their Church hardly less than we have got from England. I look forward to the day when the Church in England shall be disestablished and relieved from that onerous tribute which she now pays to the State. When that occurs — and each church is an ecclesiastical body alone — we shall surely come more closely together. Even as things are, we could perhaps dp so ; and pos- 300 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 a numerous and extended Church, we most thankfully rejoice in the elec- tion of a civil ruler, deservedly beloved, and eminently distinguished among the friends of genuine religion — who has happily united a tender regard for other churches with an inviolable attachment to his own. With unfeigned satisfaction we congratulate you on the establishment of the new Constitution of government of the United States, the mild yet efficient operations of which, we confidently trust, will remove every remaining apprehension of those with whose opinions it may not entirely coincide, and will confirm the hopes of its numerous friends. Nor do these expectations appear too sanguine, when the moderation, patriotism and wisdom of the honorable members of the Federal legislature are duly considered. From a body thus eminently qualified, harmoniously co- operating with the Executive authority in constitutional concert, we con- fidently hope for the restoration of order and of our ancient virtues, — the extension of genuine religion, — and the consequent advancement of our respectability abroad, and of our substantial happiness at home. We devoutly implore the Supreme Ruler of the Universe to preserve you long in health and prosperity, — an animating example of all public and private virtues, — the friend and guardian of a free, enlightened, and grateful people,— and that you may finally receive the reward which will be given to those whose lives have been spent in promoting the happiness of mankind. The President's Answer. To the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Jlfary- land, Virginia, and South Carolina, in General Convention assembled. Gentlemen : I sincerely thank you for your affectionate congratula- tion on my election to the chief magistracy of the United States. After having received from my fellow-citizens in general the most lib- eral treatment — after having found them disposed to contemplate, in the most flattering point of view, the performance of my military services, and the manner of my retirement at the close of the war — I feel that I have a right to console myself, in my present arduous undertaking, with a hope that they will still be inclined to put the most favorable construc- tion on the motives which may influence me in my future public trans- actions. The satisfaction arising from the indulgent opinion entertained by the American people, of my conduct, will, I trust, be some security for pre- venting me from doing anything, which might justly incur the forfeiture of that opinion. And the consideration that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected, will always continue to prompt me to promote the progress of the former, by inculcating the practice of the latter. 1789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 3OI On this occasion it would ill become me to conceal the joy I have felt in perceiving the fraternal affection which appears to increase everyday among the friends of genuine religion. It affords edifying prospects in- deed, to see Christians of different denominations dwell together in more charity, and conduct themselves, in respect to each other, with a more Christian-like spirit than ever they have done in any former age, or in any other nation. I receive, with the greatest satisfaction, your congratulations on the establishment of the New Constitution of Government; because I be- lieve its mild, yet efficient, operations will tend to remove every remain- ing apprehension of those, with whose opinions it may not entirely coin- cide, as well as to confirm the hopes of its numerous friends ; and be- cause the moderation, patriotism, and wisdom of the present Federal Legislature seem to promise the restoration of order and our ancient vir- tues— the extension of genuine religion — and the consequent advance- ment of our respectability abroad, and of our substantial happiness at home. I request, Most Reverend and respectable Gentlemen, that you will accept my cordial thanks for your devout supplications, to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe in behalf of me. May you, and the people whom you represent, be the happy subjects of Divine Benediction both here and hereafter ! George Washington. August 19, 17S9. Address No. II. An Address to the Most Reverend the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. Most Venerable and Illustrious Fathers and Prelates: We. the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, impressed with every sentiment of love and veneration, beg leave to embrace this earliest occasion, in General Convention, to offer our warmest, most sincere, and grateful acknowledgments to you, and (by your means) to all the venerable Bishops of the Church over which you preside, for the manifold instances of your former condescension to us, and solicitude for our spiritual welfare. But we are more especially called to express our thankfulness for that particular act of your fatherly goodness, whereby we derive, under you, a pure Episcopacy and succession of the ancient Or- der of Bishops, and are now assembled, through the blessing of God, as a Church duly constituted and organized, with the happy prospect before us of a future full and undisturbed exercise of our holy religion, and its extension to the utmost bounds of this continent, under an ecclesiastical 302 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \}7%9 constitution, and a form of worship, which we believe to be truly apos- tolical. The growing prospect of this happy diffusion of Christianity, and the assurance we can give you, that our churches are spreading and flourish- ing throughout these United States, we know, will yield you more solid joy, and be considered as a more ample reward of your goodness to us, than all the praises and expressions of gratitude which the tongues of men can bestow. It gives us pleasure to assure you, that, during the present sitting of our Convention, the utmost harmony has prevailed through all our de- liberations ; that we continue, as heretofore, most sincerely attached to the faith and doctrine of the Church of England, and that not a wish appears to prevail, either among our Clergy or Laity, of ever departing from that Church in any essential article. The business of most material consequence which hath come before us, at our present meeting, hath been, an application from our sister churches in the Eastern States, expressing their earnest desire of a gen- eral union of the whole Episcopal Church in the United States, both in doctrine and discipline ; and, as a primary means of such union, pray- ing the assistance of our Bishops in the consecration of a Bishop elect for the States of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. We therefore judge it necessary to accompany this address with the papers which have come before us on that very interesting subject, and of the proceedings we have had thereupon, by which you will be enabled to judge concern- ing the particular delicacy of our situation, and, probably, to relieve us from any difficulties which may be found therein. The application from the Church in the States of Massachusetts and New Hampshire is in the following words, viz. : The good providence of Almighty God, the fountain of all goodness, having lately blessed the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, by supply- ing it with a complete and entire ministry, and affording to many of her communion the benefit of the labors, advice and government of the successors of the Apostles: We, Presbyters of said Church in the States of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, deeply impressed with the most iively gratitude to the Supreme Governor of the uni- verse, for his goodness in this respect, and with the most ardent love to his Church, and concern for the interest of her sons, that they may enjoy all the means that Christ, the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, has instituted for leading his followers into the ways of truth and holiness, and preserving his Church in the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace, to the end that the people committed to our respective charges may enjoy the benefit and advantage of those offices, the administration of which be- longs to the highest order of the ministry, and to encourage and promote, as far as in us lies, a union of the whole Episcopal Church in these States, and to perfect and compact this mystical body of Christ, do hereby nominate, elect and appoint, the Rev. Edward Bass, a Presbyter of the said Church, and Rector of St. Paul's in Newbury- port, to be our Bishop ; and we do promise and engage to receive him as such when canonically consecrated, and invested with the apostolic office and powers by the Right Reverend the Bishops hereafter named, and to render him all that canonical 1/39] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 303 obedience ami submission which, by the laws of Christ, and the Constitution of our Church, is due to so important an office. And we now address the Right Reverend the Bishops in the States of Connecticut New York and Pennsylvania, praying their united assistance in consecrating our said brother, and canonically investing him with the apostolic office and powers, This re- quest we are induced to make from a long acquaintance with him, and from a perfect knowledge of his being possessed of that love to God and benevolence to men, that piety, learning, and good morals, that prudence and discretion, requisite to so exalted a station, as well as that personal respect and attachment to the communion at large in these States, which will make him a valuable acquisition to the Order, and, we trust, a rich blessing to the Church. Done at a meeting of the Presbyters whose names are underwritten, held at Salem, in the County of Essex, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the fourth day of June, Anno Salutis, 17S9. SAMUEL Parker, Rector of Trinity Church, Boston. T. FlTCH OLIVER, Rector of St. Michael's Church, Marblehead. John Cousens Ogden, Rector of Queen's Chapel, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. WILLIAM MONTAGUE, Minister of Christ Church, Boston. Tili.otson Brl'NSON, Assistant Minister of Christ Church, Boston. A true copy. Attest: Samuel Parker. At the meeting aforesaid, Voted, — That the Rev. Samuel Parker be authorized and empowered to transmit copies of the foregoing Act, to be by him attested, to the Right Reverend the Bishops in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania; and that he be appointed our agent, to appear at any Convocation to be holden at Pennsylvania or New York, and to treat upon any measures that may tend to promote an union of the Episcopal Church throughout the United States of America, or that may prove advantageous to the interests of the said Church. Edward Bass, Chairman. A true copy. Attest: Sami'el Parker. This was accompanied with a letter from the Rev. Samuel Parker, the worthy Rector of Trinity Church, Boston, to the Right Rev. Bishop White, dated June 21st, 1789, of which the following is an extract : The Clergy here have appointed me their agent, to appear at any Convocation to lie held at New York or Pennsylvania ; but I fear the situation of my family and parish will not admit of my being absent so long as a journey to Philadelphia would take. When I gave you encouragement that I should attend, I was in expectation of having my parish supplied by some gentlemen from Nova Scotia, but I am now informed they will not be here till some time in August. Having, therefore, no prospect of attend- ing in person at your General Convention next month, I am requested to transmit you an attested copy of an act of the Clergy of this and the State of New Hampshire, elect- ing the Rev. Edward Bass our Bishop, and requesting the united assistance of the Right Reverend Bishops of Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut, to invest him with apostolic powers. This act I have now the honor of enclosing, and hope it will reach you before the meeting of your General Convention in July. The clergy of this State are very desirous of seeing an union of the whole Episco- pal Church in the United States take place ; and it will remain with our brethren at the southward to say, whether this shall be the case or not — whether we shall be an united or divided church. Some little difference in government may exist in different States, without affecting the essential points of union and communion. 304 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1789 In like spirit, the Right Rev. Dr. Seabury, Bishop of the Church in Connecticut, in his letter to the Rev. Dr. Smith, dated July 23d, writes on the subject of union, etc., as followeth : The wish of my heart, and the wish of the Clergy and of the Church people of this State, would certainly have carried me and some of the Clergy to your General Con- vention, had we conceived we could have attended with propriety. The necessity of an union of all the Churches, and the disadvantages of our present dis-union, we feel and lament equally with you; and I agree with you, that there may be a strong and efficacious union between churches, where the usages are different. 1 see not why it may not be so in the present case, as soon as you have removed those obstructions which, while they remain, must prevent all possibility of uniting. The Church of Con- necticut consists, at present, of nineteen clergymen in full orders, and more than twenty thousand people they suppose, as respectable as the Church in any State in the union. After the most serious deliberation upon this important business, and cordially joining with our brethren of the eastern or New England Churches in the desire of union, the following resolves were unanimously adopted in Convention, viz. : Resolved, — 1st. That a complete Order of Bishops, derived as well under the English as the Scots line of succession, doth now subsist within the United States of America, in the persons of the Right Rev. William White, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant Epis- copal Church in the State of Pennsylvania; the Right Rev. Samuel Provoost, D. D., Bishop of the said Church in the State of New York; and the Right Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., Bishop of the said Church in the State of Connecticut. 2d. That the said three Bishops are fully competent to every proper act and duty of the Episcopal office and character in these United States ; as well in respect to the con- secration of other bishops, and the ordering of Priests and Deacons, as for the govern- ment of the Church, according to such Canons, Rules, and institutions as now are, or hereafter may be, duly made and ordained by the Church in that case. 3d. That in Christian charity as well as of duty, necessity, and expediency, the Churches represented in this Convention ought to contribute, in every manner in their power, towards supplying the wants, and granting every just and reasonable request of their sister churches in these States; and therefore resolved, — 4th. That the Right Rev. Dr. White and the Right Rev. Dr. Provoost be, and they hereby are requested to join with the Right Rev. Dr. Seabury in complying with the prayer of the Clergy of the States of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, for the con- secration of the Rev. Edward Bass, Bishop elect of the churches in the said States; but that, before ihe said Bishops comply with the request aforesaid, it be proposed to the churches in the New England States to meet the Churches of these States, with the said three Bishops, in an adjourned Convention, to settle certain articles of union and discipline among all the churches, previous to such consecration. 5th. That if any difficulty or delicacy, in respect to the Archbishops and Bishops of England, shall remain with the Right Rev. Drs. White and Provoost, or either of them, concerning their compliance with the above request, this Convention will address the Archbishops and Bishops, and hope thereby to remove the difficulty. We have now, most venerable Fathers, submitted to your considera- tion whatever relates to this important business of union among all our I/89] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 305 churches in these United States. It was our original and sincere inten- tion to have obtained three bishops, at least, immediately consecrated by the Bishops of England, for the seven States comprehended within our present union. But that intention being frustrated through unforeseen circumstances, we could not wish to deny any present assistance, which may be found in our power to give to any of our sister churches, in that way which may be most acceptable to them, and in itself legal and expedient. We ardently pray for the continuance of your favor and blessing, and that, as soon as the urgency of other weighty concerns of the Church will allow, we may be favored with that fatherly advice and direction, which to you may appear most for the glory of God and the prosperity of our Churches, upon the consideration of the foregoing documents and papers. Done in Convention this eighth day of August, 1789, and directed to be signed by all the members as the act of their body, and by the Presi- dent officially. CHAPTER LIII. Restoration by the State of Pennsylvania of the Charter of the Col- lege of Philadelphia, Unjustly taken away in 1779 — An Anecdote Illustrative of Dr. Smith's ready humor — He takes leave of the Convention in Maryland — Bishop White's Trirute to his Services to the Church and Otherwise in that State — Dr. Wroth's Account of Washington College — Dr. Smith's return to Philadelphia, July ist, 17S9 — Proposed Inscription upon his College — Proceedings in the different branches of the Reconstruction — First Commencements, Medical, and in the Departments of Arts, since the Restoration — ■ Union of the College of Philadelphia with the University of the State of Pennsylvania under the name of the University of Penn- sylvania— The Rev. John Ewing elected Provost — The new institu- tion LANGUISHED AND CONTINUED TO LANGUISH FOR MANY YEARS, AND UNTIL the Provostship of Dr. Stille — Dr. Smith preaches before the Cin- cinnati, July 4TH, 1790 — Engagement and Marriage of his son Charles with Miss Veates — Death of his daughter, Mrs. Goldsborough — Beautiful Inscription on her Tomb — Letters in connection with her Death. The last chapter ends Dr. Smith's ecclesiastical history for the year 1789. But for the year he had in addition one which was collegiate and personal. He had labored so perseveringly and with so much ability to have the old College of Philadelphia re- stored to its rights that in the end he succeeded ; and on the 6th of March, 1789, the Assembly of Pennsylvania, declaring the Act 306 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \j7%9 of 1779 repugnant to justice and in violation to the Constitution of the State, restored the ancient charter, with all its privileges. His position as Provost, if he chose to occupy again the place, which for the mere vindication of his honor it was supposed that he would, was at his command. In connection with his efforts to procure the passage of the re- pealing act we may mention a piece of the Provost's ready wit. On the morning of passing this Act, while the members were col- lecting themselves, and before the Speaker took the chair, Dr. H , a good-natured man, but a great politician and of abdomi- nal dimensions more than aldermanic, came into the Committee Room, and offered to a member a paper by way of a Rider to the engrossed Bill, requesting him to present the same to the House. The member handed it to Dr. Smith, who happened to be near. Dr. Smith hastily looked over it, and finding its purport was to in- demnify what was called the University from any particular ac- count of their expenditure of the College stock and property during their usurpation of eight years and upwards, returned it to the member, who went into the House, and Dr. H after him. Dr. Smith got a piece of paper and wrote extempore as follows : The Rider. 1. "On mischief bent, by Evving sent,* With Rider in his hands, Comes Doctor Guts, with mighty struts, And thus of Smith demands : 2. " ' This Rider, sir, to save all stir, By Master Ewing's will, I bring in haste, pray get some pa;tc, And tack it to your Bill.' 3- " Smith lifts his eyes — ' Hoot ! mon,' he cries, ' Take back your stupid stuff, Our answer's brief, the crafty thief Has ridden lang enuff.' " * Dr. Ewing, the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania who had supplanted Dr. Smith, was a Presbyterian. 1789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 2>°7 This being privately thrown on the table of the Speaker, who was a man of humor, it was soon handed to some of the nearest members, and spread through the House with a laugh which did more to smother the poor Rider IN CUNABULIS than many long speeches could have done. On the 2d of June the Sixth Annual Convention of the Episco- pal Church of Maryland was held in Baltimore. Dr. Smith was elected President. Before it finally adjourned he made known to it that he was about to retire from the State and return to Pennsylvania. The Convention was deeply affected by the intelligence, and directed its Secretary to assure him that " their minds were strongly im- pressed with a grateful sense of the services he had rendered to learning and religion by his attention to those important concerns and to return to him their sincere thanks." We need not specify the great services which Dr. Smith did to both the Church and to literature in Maryland during his resi- dence there. Bishop White, after speaking of the perils to which the Church in th'at State had been exposed by the Legislature, which, though consisting of men of various denominations, " took up," he says, " the subject of organizing the Church, and particu- larly of appointing ordainers to the ministry," — and of the two Church Conventions of August, 1783, and June, 1784, by which they were counteracted, says :* The proceedings of these conventions, with measures taken at other times and in other matters by the clergy of that State, were chiefly ori- ginated by the Rev. Dr. Smith, who in his residence there, during the seizure of the charter-rights of the College of Philadelphia, exerted his excellent talents in these and in other public works. In every state of life to which God was pleased to call him, he learned not only to be content, but at once was highly useful. We may say, indeed, with some confidence, that but for the ac- tivity and executive powers of Dr. Smith, it would have been im- possible to have got the Church in the Southern States into a right condition for the great work of union, which through his, Bishop White's and Bishop Seabury's united efforts — and in the face of * White's Memoirs, p. 92. Second Edition. 308 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l7§2 some inexplicable conduct of Bishop Provoost's, took place in 1789.* It was with feelings of a touching kind that Dr. Smith took leave of his affectionate parish and devoted College at Chester- town. He left the former in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Robinson, of Virginia, as Rector, and the latter in that of the Rev. Colin Ferguson as President. Both parish and college were left in good hands, but neither in hands like those which now sur- rendered the possession. I may here perhaps insert a letter giving some facts in regard to Washington College before I finally take leave of the subject. It is from the venerable Peregrine Wroth, M. D., a well-known physician of Maryland : Easton, Talbot Co., October 23d, 1872. Horace Wemyss Smith, Esq. Dear Sir : .... I send you a view of the old College, the one burnt down in 1827. It was rebuilt in 1846 in three separate buildings — all of which are not equal in size to the old College. I should not forget to add that to the back of the common hall was built (to the old College) a chapel sixty feet square, joined to the com- mon hall and to the two wings — the whole building in front about one hundred and twenty feet from end to end, and sixty feet wide. The endowment was ^1,250 annually. And it was thus — about 1798-99 — the State Legislature took away ^750 of the fund, and in 1800 or 1801 the whole balance, leaving us to the tuition money of the students as our only support. We at once were obliged to dismiss all our Professors but one, and when the College was burnt we rented a house in town and kept up the school there in name, but greatly fallen off. When the fund was first lessened by our State Legislature, Mr. Daniel McCurtin, Pro- fessor of the Dead Languages, one day gave my class-, then the head class in his department, a history of the endowment of the College. Before the Revolution, when Lord Baltimore was Lord Proprietor, he * Bishop Seabury, with whom Dr. Smith's relations, as we have already said, were then friendly, thought, indeed, that in defining the office and duties of a Bishop (see supra, p. 108) as St. Jerom defined them, my venerable ancestor had rather too much lowered them. But Dr. Smith knew the churchmen of Maryland better than did Dr. Seabury. He raised them to as high a point as it was at that time possible to raise them, and had he attempted to force Dr. Seabury's high views upon them, there would have been an utter collapse and break down in his beneficent efforts. He laid a foun- dation strong enough for the best superstructure; one which has sustained a church in which Claggct and Kemp and Stone and Whittingham have filled the highest office. I789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 309 gave the Legislature ,£40,000 on condition that they would pay ,£3,000 annually to two Colleges — should such be built — one at Annapolis, the metropolis of the State, and the other at Chestertown, on the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay — ^£1.750 to that on the western shore and ^1,250 to that at Chestertown, on the eastern shore. During the war (of the Revolution) the money was. used by the State, and when, by the great exertions of the Rev. William Smith, who travelled through the whole eastern shore on horseback for that purpose, the necessary fund for building the College was raised, the Legislature imposed a tax on " Hawkers and Pedlars and Marriage Licenses," and paid to Washing- ton College ,£1,250, founded in 1782, and to St. John's College, at Annapolis, built about 1783 or 17S4, the annual sum of ,£1,750. It was made by Act of Legislature a perpetual endowment ! How they could have a right to take it away afterwards is a question. The above statement, spoken of afterwards so often by my class and others, was indelibly impressed on my mind, and, I believe, every word of it. But I confess that though I made many efforts years ago to verify it. I have not succeeded. Before the College was founded, Dr. Smith, as you are probably aware, was principal of a large and fine school in Chestertown, and Rector of the parish of I. U., built in 1767 in Kent county. The church in Chestertown, built in 1772, was then a chapel of ease. He was Rector of both when the College was built. He was elected Prin- cipal, and continued so until he returned to Philadelphia, about 1790. Personally, of course, I was unacquainted with him, being born in 1 786 ; but I have always heard him spoken of as eminent both as a scholar and as a minister of the Church. The life-size portrait, which I had taken from a small engraving, is hanging in the Library at Washington College, and when painted was pronounced by two aged and intelligent ladies who remembered and admired him, as a good likeness. Of course I can know nothing personally of your renowned ancestor. I may have seen him, for he baptized me in 1786, when I was but a few days old. I was not entered at Washington College (of which I am an Alumnus) until 1794, after your ancestor had been called to Philadelphia, and I left college in 1803, the year of his death. Please excuse this note. It would not have been written to trouble you, but I feel personally interested in the success of your researches ; having been educated at the College he founded, since that a visitor of it and Professor of Chemistry in that institution, and feeling it is my duty to render any assistance I am able. I remain very respectfully yours, P. Wroth.* * See Appendix, No. V. 3IO LIFE AXD CORRESPOXDEiXCE OF THE [1789 On the 1st of July, 1789, Dr. Smith, with his wife and children, returned to Philadelphia, and went to reside upon his family-seat at the Falls of Schuylkill. And now — singular incident — as the village clock chimes the hour of twelve to usher in the morn of July 1st, 1879, I, his great-grandson, am preparing upon the same estate this record for the printer; ninety years from the time he returned to it. As I write, my mind reverts to the closing para- graph of his preface to the works of Nathaniel Evans, which he had collected and published as a labor of love. He there says : The task he left to be performed was a mournful one ; but it has been executed with that fidelity, which the writer of this would wish might be extended to any performance of his own, that may be thought worthy of the public eye, by that true friend Into whose hands it may fall, when he himself shall be no more ! * In anticipation of the formal surrender of the College of Phila- delphia— "My College " as he rightly called it — to him, he pro- posed that the following inscription, which is the same which was set in Queen's College, Oxford, on the Restoration, should be engraved upon the front of the edifice : " DIVINA OPE MISERICORDIA ET PROVIDENTIA COLLEGIUM HOC A CAPTIVITATE QUADAM BABYLONICA EREPTUM INTEGRIS ET LEGITIMIS SUIS MEMBRIS CONSTITUITUR." The first meeting of the Trustees of the College was held at the house of Dr. Franklin, now an aged man, upon notice given by Dr. Smith. There were fourteen Trustees surviving, all of whom were present: Benjamin Franklin, LL. D., Dr. John Redman, Benjamin Chew, ~| John Laurence, ~| Edward Shippen, VEsqs. « Thomas Mifflin, > Esqs. Thomas Willing, J Samuel Powel, J * See Vol. I., page 481. 1789] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 311 Rt. Rev. Wm. White, D. D., George Clvmek, ^ Robert Morris, \ F James Wilson, VEsqs. Francis Hopkinson, J q ' Alex. Wilcocks, j The only surviving members of the Faculty of Arts were Dr. Smith, the Provost, and Mr. James Davidson, Professor of Humanity and Latin and Greek Languages. At a subsequent meeting, held April 28th, 1789, the Treasurer, Mr. Bingham, and Col. Miles were appointed a committee to read and report concerning the condition of the Norristown estate and mills on the Schuylkill, of which we have already spoken. The vacancies, ten in number, of Trustees were supplied by the choice of the following gentlemen: Thomas Fitzsimons, William Lewis, Henry Hill, John Nixon, Rev. Robert Blackwell, D. D., Robert Hare, Samuel Miles, Caspar Wistar, William Bingham, Richard Peters. The committee made the inspection, and on the 28th of May reported. They had viewed the estate, but so unfavorable was their statement of its condition that it was the opinion of the Trustees that it would be to the interest of the institution to sell it as soon as possible, and to invest the proceeds thereof in ground- rents or some other real estate productive of a certain undimin- ished revenue for the support of the institution. The committee was continued, in order to advertise the estate for sale, and to report some plan for selling it in such manner as would be agree- able to justice as well respecting the then tenant, as the engage- ments of the Trustees to Dr. Smith, at the time of the purchase of the estate from him in the autumn of 1776. Under date of the 18th of August, 1789 (Dr. Smith having offered to take so troublesome a burden from the College), the minutes of the Trustees continue : At a meeting held this day it was Resolved, that ,£4,300 be the sum demanded for the Norriton estate, exclusive of the town; £1,200 to be paid on or before the 1st day of April and before the signing of the deed, and that the pre-emption at that price be now offered to Dr. Smith. An offer was made to Dr. Smith at the Board, agreeably to the above resolve, and the Doctor accepted of the same ; and the security to be given for the remainder of the payments, to be as may be concluded 312 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l7§9 on by the Committee, viz. : the Treasurer, Col. Miles, and Mr. Bing- ham, formerly appointed for the advertising the estate for sale. When the restitution of its rights to the College was made, the Professors in the medical schools came again to tiieir places. These Professors were Dr. William Shippen, Jr., Professor of Anatomy and Surgery; Adam Kuhn, Professor of Botany and Materia Medica; and Benjamin Rush, Professor of Chemistry. Being waited upon by a committee of the Trustees, they severally expressed their satisfaction upon the renewal of their connection with the Trustees of the College, and their restoration to their Professorships under them in discharging their duties, of which, as heretofore, it was their wish and intention to continue :* It was determined to confer no longer the degree of Bachelor of Medicine. The reason for this course was "that it would not be for the honor of the College or the advancement of sound litera- ture to continue the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, lest young and inexperienced men under the sanction of that degree and of their collegiate education, assuming the name of Doctor, might be tempted to impose upon the public, by a too early practice. It has, therefore, been determined that the degree of Doctor in Medicine shall be the only medical degree conferred in this seminary." On the 17th of November, 1789, the following rules, of which the original manuscript is in Dr. Smith's handwriting, respecting a medical education, having been passed by the Trustees, were published: 1. No person shall be received as a candidate for the degree of Doc- tor in Medicine until he has arrived to the age of twenty-one years, and has applied himself to the study of Medicine in the College for at least two years. Those students and candidates who reside in the city of Philadelphia, or within five miles thereof must have been the pupils of some respectable physician for the space of three years, and those who may come from the country and from any greater distance than five miles, must have studied with some reputable physician thereof at least two years. 2. Every candidate shall have regularly attended the lectures of the following Professors, viz. : of Anatomy and Surgery; of Chemistry and * Dr. John Morgan, Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic, was not at the time within the State. The Trustees considered him reinstated and entitled to continue in his office until his return. 1790] REV. WILLIAM SMITH% D. D. 3 1 3 the Institutes of Medicine; of Materia Medica and Pharmacy; of the Theory and Practice of Medicine; the Botanical Lectures of the Pro- fessor of Natural History and Botany; and a course of Lectures in Natural and Experimental Philosophy. 3. Each candidate shall signify his intention of graduating to the Dean of the Medical Faculty at least two months before the time of graduation; after which he shall be examined privately by the Profes- sors of the different branches of Medicine. If remitted to his studies, the Professors shall hold themselves bound not to divulge the same ; but if he is judged to be properly qualified, a medical question and case shall then be proposed to him ; the answer and treatment of which he shall submit to the Medical Professors. If these performances are ap- proved, the candidate shall then be admitted to a public examination, before the Trustees, the Provost, Vice-Provost, Professors and students of the College. After which he shall offer to the inspection of each of the Medical Professors a Thesis written in the Latin or English lan- guages (at his own option) on any medical subject. This Thesis, if ap- proved of, is to be printed at the expense of the candidate, and defended from such objections as may be made to it by the Medical Professors, at a commencement, to be held for the purpose of conferring degrees in Medicine on the first Wednesday in June every year. Bachelors in Medicine who wish to be admitted to the degree of Doc- tor in Medicine, shall publish and defend a Thesis agreeably to the rules above mentioned. The different Medical Lectures shall commence annually on the first Monday in November, the lectures in Natural and Experimental Philoso- phy about the same time, and the lectures on Botany on the first Monday in April. Benjamin Franklin, President of the Board of Trustees. William Smith, Provost of the College and Secretary of Board of Trustees. On the 8th of June, 1790, the Commencement in the Medical Department of the College took place. Dr. Smith, not forgetting the recent act of restoration, sent the following polite invitation to His Excellency the President and the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania: College of Philadelphia, June 7, 1790. His Excellency the President and Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are requested to honor the College with their company at the Medical Commencement, to be held in the College Hall to-morrow, at 10 o'clock a. m. William Smith, Provost of the College. 314 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_x79° On the 17th of July the Public Commencement in the Depart- ment of Arts took place, and Dr. Smith sent the following : College of Pennsylvania lo Ihe Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. College of Philadelphia, July 15, 1790. The Trustees and Faculty of the College of Philadelphia request to be honored with the company of his Excellency the President and Su- preme Executive Council, at a Commencement to be held in the College Hall on Saturday morning next, at 9 o'clock. William Smith, Provost, etc. The graduates in the Department of Arts were Robert Andrews, Gerardus M. Clarkson, James Coxe, of Sunbury, Henry Hutchins, William T. Meredith, William Wilson, and Benjamin Wood. But while in one sense the triumph of Dr. Smith was complete with the restoration ot the college charter, in all others, that is to say, in a practical and pecuniary sense, the victory was a barren one.* By the long cessation of its name and proper functions, * I do not mean to say that Dr. Smith himself considered his triumph a " barren one." On the contrary, he looked upon the day of his victory as the proudest day of his life. He tells the following curious story, which he found in " Percy's Anecdotes," to illustrate the fate of political persecutors, and applies it to his own case. " Lord Carnarvon in Charles Second's time is said to have never spoken in the House of Lords, but being heated by wine in the company of the Duke of Buckingham, and excited by him not to remain always a dumb Lord, he was provoked to declare before he went up to the House, that he would speak on any subject that should offer. The subject happened to be the prosecution of the Lord High Treasurer Danby. Accord- ingly, Lord Carnarvon stood up and delivered himself thus — ' My Lords ! 1 understand but little of Latin, but a good deal of English, and not a little of English history, from which I have learned the mischiefs of such kinds of prosecutions as this, and the ill fate of the prosecutors. I could bring many instances, and those very ancient, but I will go no farther hack than the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. At that time the Earl of Essex was run down by Sir Walter Raleigh, and your Lordships know very well what became of Sir Walter Raleigh. My Lord Bacon, he run down Sir Walter Raleigh, and your Lordships know what became of my Lord Bacon. The Duke of Buckingham, he run down my Lord Bacon, and your Lordships know what happened to the Duke of Buckingham. Sir Thomas Wentworth, afterwards Earl of Strafford, he run down the Duke of Buckingham, and you all know what became of him. Sir Harry Vane, he run down the Earl of Strafford, and your Lordships know what be- came of Sir Harry Vane. Chancellor Hyde, he run down Sir Harry Vane, and your Lordships know what became of the Chancellor. Sir Thomas Osbourn, now Earl of Danby, run down Chancellor Hyde, but what will become of the Earl of Danby your Lordships best can tell. But let me see the man that dare run down the Earl of Danby, and we shall soon see what will become of him.' " This speech, being pronounced in an extraordinary tone and manner, the Duke of Buckingham, both surprised and disappointed, cried out: 'The man is inspired, and Claret has done the business ! ' " 1790] KEi: WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 315 the college had been injured past power of any Restoring or Re- pealing Act to remedy'. The University of the State of Pennsyl- vania was still in existence; a concurrent, indeed, a rival institu- tion. Both could not survive — that much was plain. It was doubtful if even one could live. An union was agreed on. A new Board of Trustees — one-half from the Board of each institu- tion; and so in 1791 the union was effected, Dr. Smith drawing with his own hand the charter by which they were to be consoli- dated. The Trustees were these : FROM THE COLLEGE. The Rt. Rev. Wm. White, D. D., The Rev. R. Blackwell, D. D., Edward Shippen, William Lewis, Robert Hare, Samuel Powell, David H. Conyngham, William Bingham, Thomas Fitzsimons, George Clymer, Edward Burd, Samuel Miles. FROM THE UNIVERSITY. Thomas McKean, Charles Pettit, James Spraat, Frederick Kuhl, John Bleakly, John Carson, Jonathan Bayard Smith, David Rittcnhouse, Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, David Jackson, James Irwin, Jared Ingersoll. The new institution was called the University of Pennsylvania. I do not know that Dr. Smith desired the Provostship of it. The new institution bore plainly within it the seeds of weakness and long-continuing inefficiency. With every effort to make homo- geneity in the Board there was none; as any one acquainted with the history of families and men in old Philadelphia will see as he compares the columns above given. In the column from the Col- lege he sees the old aristocracy of the province and the old Church of England, in the other Presbyterianism and the Revolu- tion— with some exceptions, the Democratic side of both. More than all, a long and bitter conflict had been endured, and " Never could true reconcilement grow Where wounds of deadly hate had pierced so deep." Whether Dr. Smith would have accepted the Provostship or not, Dr. Ewing was elected to it. The connection of the former with 3l6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Ll79° the principal seat of learning in Pennsylvania thus ceased; it having continued for nearly thirty-seven years. The Provost Stille remarks, in speaking of the University: '•'What he made it I have endeavored to show; to what reputation and influence it might have reached had he heen permitted to remain in charge of it, it is of course impossible to say. My own conviction is that the University is suffering to //lis day from ihe ill effects of his un- timely removal. And certainly no one can doubt that had we now at its head a man with something of his broad and generous culture, of his wonderful capacity for organization, of his indomitable energy, of his large public spirit, of his perfect faith in the future of his College, and of his zealous devotion in advancing its interests — the University would soon become what its prototype was before the Revolution — inter ignes Luna minores. " That he made some mistakes and many enemies in the methods he adopted for doing his share in this great work, there can be no doubt. In all his schemes he was thoroughly in earnest, and believed that he always saw clearly the end from the beginning. Hence he became, as all earnest men are apt to become, self-willed and impatient of opposi- tion. Such men are not conciliatory, and, therefore, are often unpopu- lar ; but we must remember that the real work of the world is after all mostly done by them. Dr. Smith's prodigious energy and his large and liberal spirit secured the confidence of the best men of his time, and made him their natural leader. No better proof can be given of this than the uniform support and sympathy he received from the Trustees of the College through all the stormy scenes of his career. They felt, no doubt, that they had to do with a live man, who, whatever might be his errors, had his whole heart in the work before him, and hence their trust in him never wavered." Again the Provost says: "Towards his enemies, Dr. Smith was unsparing, but as far as I can see, never vindictive. He assailed those who stood in his way, not to secure a mere personal triumph, or to gratify a desire for revenge, but because he saw in them a malignant force striving to ruin some great public interest, the success of which he had at heart. When fully roused he was a most dangerous adversary. He forgot himself in the cause with which he was identified, and he never hesitated to forsake his best friends if he found them engaged on what he considered the wrong side. He was a man of singularly frank and open temper, with- out any disguise as to his opinions, and too fearless to think of the per- sonal consequences of any line of conduct which he thought it his duty to follow. It is easy to discover the failings of such men, but it is not I790] REV< WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 317 so easy to find the grand qualities which were associated with them, and which in any fair estimate of his character should make us forget them." It gave Dr. Smith no pleasure to observe, nor docs it give me any to record, that the union of the two institutions produced under Dr. Smith's successor no good effect. The University lan- guished. Its graduates in different years are numbered thus: In 1794 —5 " 1797 3 " 1801 5 " 1802 5 In 1803 6 " 1826 8 " 1830 7 In 1830, therefore, the University had one single graduate more than the old College under Dr. Smith had at its first Commence- ment in 1757; while in 1794, 1797, 1800, 1802 and 1803 it never had as many; and in 1797, and at a date when Philadelphia was the national metropolis, but half as many. And what sort of men sent it forth at its first Commencement in 1757? Here are their names : Jacob Duche, Samuel Magaw, Francis Hopkinson, John Morgan, M. D., James Latta, Hugh Williamson, Paul Jackson. Of these seven graduates there was not a single one who did not become eminent either in the State, in the Church, in science, or in letters. The Provost Stille rightly says in the paragraphs above quoted the University was suffering from the loss of Dr. Smith's services to it up to the time at which he himself was writing; that is to say up to the year 1875 — yet it always had for Provosts men of ability. Dr. Ewing himself was this. Dr. John McDowell was the same. In Dr. Frederick Beasly, the institution had an acute thinker and a finished scholar and a writer much above the common. In Bishop DeLancey one of the most able, elegant, dignified, thought- ful and accomplished gentlemen that our country, and I may say that any country, ever has produced. And the praises of the re- spected Ludlow are yet in the mouths of many. The rest of the Faculty has been worthy of their Provosts; an assertion which is proved enough to all when I say that among this rest have been 3*8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE Vl79° James Davidson, Robert Patterson, Robert Walsh, Charles Willing Hare, Thomas Say, Robert Adrain, Samuel B. Wylie, the Rev. Edward Rutledge, the Rev. Christian Cruse, Henry D. Rogers, Henry Vethake, the Rev. Roswell Park, Alexander Dallas Bache, Henry Reed, and many others of hardly less if of any less abilities at all. The Board of Trustees has ever comprised men of the first im- portance in this great city. Yet till the day of the Provost Stille himself the College has ever languished. It is only in his day, by the curing efforts of that great physician Time, and by Dr. Stille's own ever-active, well-directed, and most efficient labors — the devo- tion, the consecration I might even say — for he has made it a high and religious work — the consecration of all his best years to it — that the College is now, in 1880, beginning to be worthy of what it was when Dr. William Smith left it. William Smith was the Fundator, Charles J. Stille is the Restitutor. Each as much as the other has been a Conditor. The institution with such a Provost and with a Faculty like that now there, thank God, exalts its towery head.* Notwithstanding that Philadelphia was now the Capital of the nation and that its Congress and pulpits were filled with eloquent men from every State in the new Union, Dr. Smith was still the favorite orator of the time, especially in the eloquence of the pul- pit. The 4th of July, 1790 — the second "Fourth" since the opera- tion of the Constitution — fell on Sunday. Accordingly, at a meeting of the standing committee of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati, held at the house of General Walter Stewart, June 28th, 1790, it was Resolved, That as the Fourth of July would be on Sunday next, a ser- mon be delivered in celebration of American Independence in lieu of an oration ; and that the Rev. Dr. William Smith, Trovost of the College of Philadelphia, be requested to prepare and deliver one before the Society on said day. *It is with sincere regret and with great anxiety for the future welfare of the Col- lege that just after writing these lines, I learn that there is a probability that Dr. Stille — worn down, as it is stated, by his unintermitted and great labors, and wishing to re- fresh himself with European travel — desires to be relieved from his Provostship. The loss of such a man will not, at this moment, be easily supplied. I790] ^ET. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 319 General Stewart* and Colonel Francis Johnston were appointed to wait on Dr. Smith for this purpose. Though the notice was a little short, Dr. Smith, who was nuii- quam non paratus, and ever ready to oblige, preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, before the Society agreeably to their request. The subject of his discourse was " Temporal and Spiritual Salva- tion," from the text from Isaiah iii. 12. The thanks of the Society were afterwards given to him, through Governor McKcan, General Walter Stewart and the Rev. Dr. Rogers, who obtained from him his manuscript of the sermon, in order to have it printed. This sermon (published in Maxwell's edition of Dr. Smith's Works) is a fine sample of his abilities. Parts of it have fre- quently attracted attention. I do not recall the name of any man who seems to me to have beheld in truer vision, though the vision then, of prophecy — the expansion over this continent of the glories of civilization, religion and learning. What a remarkable passage, for example, to have been written a. d. 1790, two years or less after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, is this! We have quoted it once already, in another place. It will bear a repe- tition in this for a different purpose : Transported at the thought, I am borne forward to days of distant re- nown ! In my expanded view these United States rise, in all their ripened glory, before me. I look through, and beyond, every yet peo- pled region of the New World, and behold period still brightening upon period. Where one continuous depth of gloomy wilderness now shuts * General Walter Stewart died in 1796. He was a native of Ireland, and was born in Londonderry. He came to America while young, and was earnest in the American cause. He was appointed a captain in one of the four battalions of Pennsylvania troops for the Continental service, January 5th, 1776. He became colonel of the Thir- teenth Pennsylvania Battalion, and served during the greater part of the war. The Thirteenth was afterward consolidated with the Second, and Colonel Stewart remained in command of the organization under the latter title. After the Revolution he resided in Philadelphia, and lived in ease on the north side of High street, between Fifth and Sixth streets — nearly opposite the house occupied during the time that the Government was in Philadelphia by President Washington. He married Deborah, the daughter of Blair McClenachan — a beautiful woman, and a leader of society. He succeeded Major General James Irvine as Major-General of the First Division at Philadelphia in 1794, and had command in the city and county during the absence of Governor Mifflin witli the regular troops during the Whiskey war. General Stewart was reputed to be one of the handsomest men of his day. He enjoyed the friendship of General Washington in a marked decree. 320 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l79Q out even the beams of day, I see new States and empires, new seats of wisdom and knowledge, new religious domes spreading around. In places now untrod by any but savage beasts, or men as savage as they, I hear the voice of happy labor, and behold towery cities growing into the skies ! The general sentiments in this address Dr. Smith tells us in a note to the address, had been published by him in a poem near fifty years before, and had been occasionally introduced into former public addresses by him, but had not before been published at large or in the present form. After the passage above quoted, Dr. Smith concludes his sermon as follows: Lo ! in this happy picture, I behold the native Indian exulting in the works of peace and civilization ! His bloody hatchet he buries deep under ground, and his murderous knife he turns into a pruning hook, to lop the tender vine and teach the luxuriant shoot to grow. No more does he form to himself a heaven after death (according to the poet) in company with his faithful dog, behind the cloud-topped hill, to enjoy solitary quiet, far from the haunts of faithless men ; but, better instructed by Christianity, he views his everlasting inheritance, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Instead of recounting to his offspring, round the blazing fire, the bloody exploits of their ancestors, and wars of savage death, showing barbarous exultation over every deed of woe ; methinks I hear him pour- ing forth his eulogies of praise to the memory of those who were the instruments of heaven in raising his tribes from darkness to light ; in giving them freedom and civilization, and converting them from violence and blood to meekness and love ! Amongst those who shall be celebrated as the instruments of this great work, I hear the names of every good citizen and Christian who is a friend to mankind, and to the gospel of Jesus Christ ; and especially, methinks, I hear your names, ye illustrious patriots ! who, having asserted your own and your country's rights, cheerfully join in every laudable endeavor for conveying those rights to posterity, and bringing "the utmost ends of the earth to see the salvation of our God." Hasten, O Almighty Father, hasten this blessed period of thy Son's kingdom, which we believe shall come; and the praise and glory shall be to thy name, forever and ever ! Amen. We come now to a highly interesting event in Dr. Smith's domestic history: the engagement of marriage between his son Charles with Mary, the daughter of the Hon. Jasper Yeates, a lady of education, intelligence and amiable disposition. The letter I/90] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 32 I which follows is a pleasing illustration of Dr. Smith's courtly manners, and is a tribute to his son Charles' good conduct, of which that son may have well been proud : Dr. Smith to Jasper Yeates. Philadelphia, September 3, 1790. My Dear Sir : On my return from Lancaster to Philadelphia my son Charles informed his mother and me that, having been successful in his addresses to your amiable daughter, and farther happy in obtaining yours and Mrs. Yeates's consent to their being united in wedlock at some convenient time, which he hoped might not be very remote, it was his wish that his mother and myself might assure you of our appro- bation, as we now readily do, and also of our desire to contribute all in our power to render the young couple permanently happy. I wish that Charles could have so far overcome his bashfulness as to have communi- cated himself to me on the Saturday evening after I was in company with you. I should certainly, in that case, have waited on you according to your invitation to breakfast on Sunday morning, when a i'vw moments conversation on this business would have been better between us than any- thing by way of letter ; and it may seem disrespectful to your family that on a supposition of my being acquainted with the matter, I should leave Lancaster without waiting upon you to express the sense I have, not only of your former partiality to my son, and the advice and protection with which you favored him from his first appearance at the Bar, but espe- cially this last instance of your favor to him ; a greater than which you have it not in your power to give. And I trust that such is his sensi- bility, and such will be his gratitude and returns of duty to you as well as of tender affection for your daughter, that you will never have cause to re- pent of your good offices and predilection forjiim. As for myself, I can only add that he is justly a favorite son, and has never in his life, by any part of his conduct, given me cause of pain, but always of much pleasure, and in no part of it more than on the present occasion of his attachment to a young lady of such amiable manners and good educa- tion, who is willing and happily qualified to accommodate herself to his situation either in a village or a city, a farm-house or a mansion, as future circumstances may require. I have done what my present situa- tion will allow to add to his independence. If nothing adverse happens, he will have something further to expect upon the death of his mother and myself. I have enclosed the Cincinnati sermon which you wished to see, and as a token of my affection, have inscribed it with your daughter's name. I am with great regard and esteem, Your most obedient humble servant, William Smith. To Jaspiir Yeates, Esq., Lancaster. 21 322 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [_l79l But these domestic events were not always events of joy. Dark clouds follow bright sunshine. On the 19th of December in this same year Dr. Smith was called on to mourn the loss of his eldest and much loved daughter Williamina, wife of Charles Goldsbor- ough, Esq. The following inscription — upon a handsomely carved tombstone in the church-yard at Cambridge, Md. — is no doubt from the pen of Dr. Smith himself: In Memory of Mrs. Williamina Goldsborough, Wife of Charles Goldsborough, Esq., Of Dorset County, Maryland, Daughter of Dr. William Smith of Philadelphia, and Rebecca, his wife. She died December 19th, 1790, Aged 28 years. Call'd from this mortal scene in bloom of life, Here lies a much lov'd daughter, mother, wife, To whom each grace and excellence were given, A saint on earth, an angel now in heaven. Bereaved parents come to speak their woe ; To grave it deep on monumental stone, And with a husband's sorrows mix their own — But ah ! no further trace this tablet bears, Line after line is blotted with their tears. Her mournful parents inscribe this tablet. The poet Pope has given us many poetical epitaphs, some of which have been long* admired of scholars. I recall none more graceful and pathetic than this which an aged father puts upon his daughter's tomb. The two letters which follow are in proper sequence to the sad events which we have been commemorating : Dr. Smith to Charles Goldsborough. Philadelphia, January 17, 1791. My Dear Distressed Sir : How shall I take my pen in hand to write to you ? For many days past, although urged by every tie of affection, and solicited by your mother at every interval of her deep affliction to write to you, yet I attempted it in vain. Inconsolable myself, un- manned, and I fear almost unchristianed, with the mother, sister and brothers of the angel we have lost, all in the like condition around me, what consolation could I impart to you ? Yet still there is consolation, I791] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 323 not only in Christianity, but in the reason and nature of things. She who was laving to all, and by all beloved, is now a saint in the bosom of everlasting love ! She whose delight was to make others happy, is gone where universal happiness prevails ! Let her precious memory be your consolation, and let it be preserved in those clear pledges — those sweet infant images of herself, whom she hath left behind ! While you behold them, you never can forget her; and, I trust, will even exert yourself to supply, as far as in your power, the irreparable loss which their education will sustain by the loss of her. Your endeavors will be assisted by your mother and myself during the short remainder of your lives, and therefore we wish to see and consult with you in Philadelphia as soon as your health and the situation of your family will admit. In the meantime we are persuaded that your good Aunt Ennalls will not be wanting in her best advice to you, and kind offices to the children, and especially the dear orphan last born. The many kindnesses of Mrs. Ennalls to our dear departed child, will never be forgotten by us. We acknowledge them with the sincerest gratitude, and those of Mrs. Caroline Goldsborough. In token thereof, please communicate them this letter, and particularly to your aunt, to whom I hope to write a few lines by your brother Richard. Your mother is now able to sit up for part of the day, but I fear will never recover from the severe visitation she has sustained, but will go " mourning all the days of her life," even if longer than we can in any degree hope. I am sincerely and affectionately yours, etc. William Smith. Mr. Charles Goldsborough, Honies Point, Dorset County, Maryland. Dr. Smith to Henry Ennalls, Esq. Philadelphia, November 14th, 1791. Dear Sir : The bearer, Mr. Davidson, I have engaged to go to Cam- bridge as a tutor to my two grandsons, children of Mr. Charles Golds- borough. I beg your notice of him so far as to put him in the way of getting across the Bay to Cambridge as soon and with as little expense as possible. The Cambridge packet, if in the way, will be his best con- veyance. Your kind services to him will oblige Mr. Goldsborough and Your most obedient servant, William Smith. On the 3d of March, 1 79 1, Dr. Smith's son Charles, of whose engagement of marriage with Miss Mary Yeates, daughter of the Hon. Jasper Yeates, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, we have spoken, was married. The ceremony was performed at the house of the lady's father by the Rev. Henry Muhlenberg. The following ex- 324 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [179O tract from the Yeates family Bible may not be without interest in connection with this event : Jasper Yeates, son of John and Elizabeth Yeates, born April, 1745; died March 14th, 1817. Sarah Burd, daughter of James and Sarah Burd, born January 1st, 1749; died October 25th, 1829. The above were married December 30th, 1767. Issue: Alary Yeates, born at Lancaster, March 13th, 1771: died August 27th, 1836. John Yeates, born June 29th, 1772; died January 7th, 1844. Elizabeth Yeates, born April 4th, 1778; died August 3d, 1S67. Margaret Yeates, born April 24th, 1780; died February 1st, 1855. Catharine Yeates, born December 1st, 1783; died June 7th, 1866. CHAPTER LIV. Death of Franklin — Impromptu thereon at a Dinner Party by Dr. Smith — Capped by Mr. Thomas Willing — Franklin's Funeral — Dr. Smith to Dr. West — The Same to the Same — Dr. Smith's Eulogy on Franklin — Uni; Anecdote de Famille — Dr. Odel's Verses on the Franklin Stove — Franklin a Natural Philosopher and not a Statesman. Ox Saturday, April 17th, 1790, died, in the 88th year of his age, the philosopher, Benjamin Franklin. On the evening of his death a company of gentlemen were seated at the dinner table of Governor Mifflin, at the Falls of Schuylkill. It con- sisted of Thomas McKean, Henry Hill (a private gentleman of rank in old Philadelphia), the Hon. Thomas Willing,* David Rit- tenhouse, and Dr. Smith. During the dinner a great thunder- storm arose, and Primus, a favorite negro bodv-servant of Dr. Smith brought to Governor Mifflin's house the news just received from the city at Dr. Smith's of the event. Dr. Smith, under the impulse of the moment, wrote the following lines without leaving the table : Cease ! cease, ye clouds, your elemental strife, Why rage ye thus, as if to threaten life? Seek, seek no more to shake our souls with dread, What busy mortal told you " Franklin's dead?" What, though he yields at Jove's imperious nod, With Rittenhouse he left his magic rod. *For some notice of this eminent citizen of Philadelphia, see Appendix No, VI. 1 790] A'£J'. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 325 Mr. Willing, not to be outdone by Dr. Smith, immediately wrote the following : What means that flash, the thunder's awful roar — The blazing sky — unseen, unheard before ? Sage Smith replies, "Our Franklin is no more." The clouds, long subject to his magic chain, Exulting now their liberty regain. On Wednesday, the 21st of April, Dr. Franklin's remains were interred in Christ Church burying-ground, at the corner of Arch and Fifth streets. The funeral procession was large, and the streets through which it passed were crowded with a concourse of spectators, the number of whom were computed at twenty thou- sand. The mourners were preceded by all the clergy of the city, including the readers of the Hebrew congregation. The corpse was carried by citizens. The pall was borne by Governor Thomas Mifflin, Chief-Justice McKean, Thomas Willing, president of the Bank of North America, Samuel Powell, the mayor of the city, William Bingham and David Rittenhouse. Bells were tolled and minute guns were fired during the time that the procession was passing. In the line of the procession were the Supreme Execu- tive Council, the General Assembly of the State, the Judges of the Supreme Court, members of the bar, the corporation of the city, the printers of the city, with their journeymen and appren- tices, the Philosophical Society, the College of Physicians, the Faculty and students of the College of Philadelphia, and various other societies, besides a numerous and respectable body of citizens.* *The following bills for the funeral charges of Franklin's burial, which have been preserved by his family, may interest the reader. Dolby was the sexton of " the United Churches" — Christ Church and St. Peter's. April 21st, 1790. The estate of Mr. Benjamin Franklin to Jos. Dolby, for his burial : To ground £0 15 o To pall I o o To minister's attendance O 6 o To clerk's ditto O 4 O To muffling the bells 4 10 o To invitations 3 7 6 To grave o 10 o £\Q 12 6 326 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \j-79& The American Philosophical Society determined that one of their members should prepare and pronounce an oration com- memorative of the character and virtues of their late worthy president. Dr. Smith was appointed to this office. We now give two letters indicative of Dr. Smith's still continu- ing active discharge of the details of business, notwithstanding that years were beginning to come heavily on him. Dr. Smith to Dr. West. Philadelphia, April 5, 1790. Dear Sir : By Mr. Levering, who takes this letter to you, you will receive the fifty copies of the Journal of Convention for the Western Shore, which you will distribute among the clergy and vestries at nine- pence each Journal. I shall be at Chester at the Commencement of Washington College, the third Tuesday in May. I am fearful that I shall not be able to stay in Maryland till the fourth Tuesday, to meet you at Talbot Court House. Yours, etc., William Smith. Rilv. Dr. West, Baltimore, Md. Dr. Smith to Dr. West. May 21, 1790. Dear Sir: I have been informed, but have not seen the advertise- ment, that the Visitors and Governors of St. John's College have de- clared their intention of filling up the office of principal of that College at the May meeting (viz. : next Tuesday) if any person of eminent abili- ties shall offer, and that it hath been notified that a preference would be given to a stranger or some gentleman of great character from Europe. Character in literature is often found to be deceitful, and a mere literary character, without experience in teaching and governing, will not be suf- ficient ; nor will it be easy, even among those who have both great literature and experience abroad, to choose such as may truly suit the genius of America. But, I doubt not, the worthy and respectable Visitors and Governors Philadelphia, July 10th, 1791. Mr. Richard Bache. Bought of David Chambers. A marble tombstone for the grave of his Excellency, Benjamin Franklin, Esq ;£i8 o o To engraving thirty letters at two pence per letter o 5 o Porterage o I 10 £\% 6 10 T79°] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 327 of St. John's will duly consider every circumstance in their choice. I have the interest of that Seminary and its future success much at heart. I hope you will attend the meeting and inform me early on whom the choice shall fall, if a choice should now be made. It would have been well if the Assembly had restored the funds previously to an election. But, I trust, there will be no danger of their not being restored next November sessions. I am happy to hear that the number of students in the College increases, and I am persuaded that if a proper choice of a head be made, and the Legislature continue their nursing hand, the Maryland College will be an ornament to the State. The College of Philadelphia flourishes greatly, but we received back our funds in such a deranged state that I have almost repented my removing back to Phila- delphia, and were I not too far advanced in years I am not certain whether I might not have offered my services once more as the head of one of the Maryland seminaries. But my family is attached to Penn- svlvania, and, by a renewal of my former exertions, I hope yet to get the funds of the College of Philadelphia restored to their former foot- ing. We have an application before the Legislature for the purpose. My sentiments respecting the choice of a Principal for St. John's, you may hint to Dr. Clagget and Mr. Sprigg, but not as expressing any doubt of the prudence and zeal of any of the worthy Visitors and Governors, nor as if I had any further wish to interfere than barely to express my hasty thoughts to you in our familiar way. I write these lines hastily at Wilmington, where I heard from Mr. Condon, for the first time, that the election was to be on Tuesday next. Dr. Andrews has some wish, had he known in time, to offer himself for some place in one of your colleges, where his salary might be better than what we can yet give at Philadelphia. I am yours affectionately, William Smith. To the Rev. Dr. Wm. West, Rector of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore. The union of the University with the College, and Dr. Smith's retirement from the Provostship, left him without stated employ- ment, as also without any salary except the .£200 allowed him by the Trustees of the old College. And being now arrived to ad- vanced years, his pecuniary condition was in some danger of being straitened; for although he had a large amount of real property in several parts of Pennsylvania, and his wife was also in possession of some landed estate, a large portion of their joint estate was unproductive, and was held in this condition in the well-founded hope of advancement in price with the improvement of the countiy. It was probably with a knowledge of the convenience which 328 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [_l79l stated employment with a money compensation would give to him, that the General Assembly of Pennsylvania having, on the 13th day of April, 1 79 1 , passed an act relating to the opening and im- proving of certain roads, rivers, and navigable waters in Pennsyl- vania, and there being requisite to the accomplishment of the work a Commission of Inquiry, that Governor Mifflin, on the 10th of the following May, appointed Dr. Smith, David Rittenhouse and William Findley joint "agents of information" relating to the work. It seems strange that a clergyman, the late head of two colleges, the president of all the ecclesiastical councils of his church, should be put upon such a Commission, and especially that he should be made chairman of it. But to no one could the office have been more properly entrusted. As owner of large quantities of land in Huntingdon county — long the Ultima Tlutlc of our civilization — and by his natural tastes as well, k\v men of the day were better acquainted with the geography, hydrography and geology of Pennsylvania. His great physical strength, which had not yet failed him, his large acquaintance with the leading men in every part of the Commonwealth, his winning manners — when he had no cause to make them the reverse of winning — and his fine powers of business of every kind, rendered him eminently fit to be the head even of a Commission which would have been so little congenial to the disposition or capacities of most of the clergy. In the course of his official duty Dr. Smith had many opportu- nities of seeing lands in different parts of the State which he was certain would rise in value. Some of these, at a later date, he ac- quired, and this without the least breach of official trust, for the acquisition of bodies of land for the State or for any body in it, was no part whatever of the purposes of his appointment. We have already mentioned that on the death of Dr. Franklin, who was President of the American Philosophical Society — an institution of which Dr. Smith was a founder at its institution in 1769, and the secretary of which he had been from that date — the Society requested Dr. Smith to pronounce a commemorative dis- course upon their honored chief officer. If any man could have had a right to refuse the office, Dr. Smith could have done so. For, united with Thomas Willing, William Allen, the Tilghmans and others of the very best men in Pennsylvania, he had been for many years in political opposition to Dr. Franklin, and Dr. Frank- I/9l] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 32$ lin had suffered his political opposition to pass into personal ma- lignancy. But such things made little impression on Dr. Smith. If sometimes angry, as no doubt he justly was, in his anger he sinned not. The sun never went down on his wrath. Malice, hatred, or even the lighter kinds of uncharitableness, if we can judge by his conduct, never rested in his heart. With the utmost readiness he complied with the Society's request, and his eulogy on Franklin may be taken to be one of the most skilful efforts of his oratory. It is at this day one of the most agreeable short biographies that we have of Franklin, and though published long before Dr. Franklin's autobiography, in some sort anticipates it. The eulogy was delivered on the 1st of March, 1791, in that grand edifice of old Philadelphia, the German Lutheran Church,* on Fourth street above Arch. Great efforts were taken by the Philo- sophical Society to make the scene impressive. The ceremonies were attended by the President and Mrs. Washington, the Vice- President and Mrs. Adams, by the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the United States, by the Governor and Legislature of Pennsylvania, and by a large number of distinguished citizens. The American Philosophical Society was there in corporate dig- nit)', and a special place was given to the brotherhood of printers. The orator having ascended the pulpit, opens in a grand melo- dramatic fugue, worthy — had the performance been a musical one — of Sebastian Bach himself; a fit exordium to the memory of the man who tore lightning from heaven, and a sceptre from tyrants : Citizens of Pennsylvania ! Luminaries of science ! Assembled fathers of America ! Heard you not that solemn interrogatory? Who is he that now recedes from his labors among you ? What citizen, super-eminent in council, do you now deplore? What luminary, what splendid sun of science, from the hallowed walks of philosophy, now withdraws his beams? What father of his country, what hero, what statesman, what law- giver, is now extinguished from your political hemisphere, and invites the mournful obsequies? Is it he — your Franklin? It cannot be ! Long since, full of years, *This fine historic building was pulled down in 1875. 33© LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l7e appendages of the tables com- monly called RclisJics, whether of fish or flesh. To avoid lassitude and 368 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [J793 fatigue, as much as may be; and to dine moderately, on fresh animal and vegetable food, about one o'clock in the day; drinking beer, cider, or good brandy, respectively diluted with water, as the wholesomest bever- age at meals. In the evening, tea or coffee may be drank, with simple bread and butter, as in the morning; but suppers are to be avoided. Dram-drinking (which some persons practise in the morning, and in- deed at other times of the day,) is at all times an evil and destructive habit; but at present, is doubly pernicious in its effects. To the Citizens. — A supply of old shirts, shifts and linen, of any kind, is much wanted at the hospital for the sick. Those who have any to spare, are requested to send them to the State House, where a person is appointed to receive them. Matthew Clarkson, Mayor. Sept. 13, 1793. The Printers are requested to publish this advertisement for a few days. Generous Wages will be given to persons capable and willing to perform the services of Nurses at the Hospital at Bushhill, as the end desired by establishing the hospital at Bushhill much depends on good nursing and attendance. The citizens of Philadelphia will render es- sential service to the sick, by aiding in procuring suitable persons for this employment. Those who are willing to engage will please to apply to Israel Israel, Thomas Wistar, or Caleb Lownes. Edward Movston begs leave to inform his friends and the public, that he will shut up his Coffee-House to-morrow, the fever now preva- lent being in its vicinity; as well as on account of none of the mer- chants having frequented the same for some days past — most of them having retired to the country. Sept. 13, 1793. d4t- JB^ At this particular crisis, in which so many of the merchants and others are absent from the city, the indisposition of two of the letter- carriers renders it necessary to request all those who dwell south of and in Chcsnut-street, and in Front and Water, north of Market-street, to call or send for their letters for a few days. Sept. 13. dtf- A Call for a Meeting. — At a meeting of a number of citizens, held at the Court House, this evening, Sept. 13th, in consequence of a verbal appointment of the Mayor and others convened at the City Hall, to take into consideration the present calamitous state of the city and its environs, having, in company with the overseers of the poor, made in- quiry into the situation of the poor and afflicted, are of the opinion that, as it is not in the power of the overseers to afford the necessary 1793] KEV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 369 aid that the cases of the sick require, that the citizens be again con- vened, that some effectual means may be adopted to mitigate and, if possible, to afford relief to the afflicted. Upon motion, Resolved, That the secretary be directed to publish the foregoing minute, and to request the citizens to attend a meeting at the City Hall on the 14th instant, at 12 o'clock; and that, in the mean- time, Israel Israel, Thomas Wistar and Caleb Lownes be requested to confer with the physicians appointed to the care of the sick, at Bush- Hill, obtain information of their situation, and furnish the necessary aid and relief in their power to afford. Caleb Lownes. In pursuance to this call, another meeting was held. On this occasion it was reported that the hospital was without order or supervision, that several superintendents and nurses were needed there, that a sum of money ought instantly to be procured to aid in obtaining necessaries for the sick, and that a large committee ought to be appointed from the city, Northern Liberties and Southwark, to aid the sick and distressed. Fifteen hundred dol- lars were ordered to be borrowed, if possible, from the Bank of North America, and a committee was appointee, to transact the whole of the business relative to succoring the sick, providing physicians, nurses, etc. Our honored city of Philadelphia, then the metropolis of the nation, and where the President and Congress were so lately assembled in power, became suddenly a terror and a by-word to the people. Its sister cities were taking every precaution to pre- vent the entrance within their limits of any one from Philadelphia, and to eject such an one if in any way he came within them. The following proclamation from the then mayor of New York will illustrate the state of things : Bv the Mayor of the City of New York. To the Practising Physicians of the said City : New York, Sept. 11, 1793. Gentlemen : Great apprehensions are entertained by many of our fellow-citizens that, notwithstanding every prudent and legal precaution, the contagion of that distressing infectious disorder which now carries off many of the citizens of Philadelphia, may be brought into this city, by means of the open intercourse between the two cities, which cannot lawfully be interrupted by any power in this State. You are therefore hereby notified that the corporation of this city have taken measures to 24 370 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [j793 provide a proper place as a hospital for such persons as may unhappily become subjects of that afflicting disease in this city. And I do also hereby request each of you to report to me, in writing, to be left at my office in King street, the names of all such persons as have arrived or shall arrive from Philadelphia, or any other place, by land or water, and now are sick, or may be taken sick, and be under your care respectively, together with the number and street of their respective residence, and the nature of the sickness, that such as may be deemed to be subjects of infectious disease may be removed out of the city. Richard Varick, Mayor. We have some interesting notes on the subject of this pestilence in the Diary of Dr. Smith. They are written at different times, after August 28th, 1793: September 10, 1793. Nathaniel Blodget, Esq.,* was buried at Christ Church. The plague, or so-called "Yellow Fever," has taken possession of the town. My friend Thomas Miller has been buried some days. The physicians have warned the people to care and cleanliness, to prevent the spread of the contagion; and to mark the houses in which it has appeared. We still stay in our town-house, as I consider it my duty as a clergyman to re- main where I can be of some consolation and use. I advise my dear wife to go to our son's, at Norristown, or to let my boy drive her to our son Richard's, at Huntingdon, in the chair; but she is not willing to leave my side. We daily burn gunpowder about the house,' and Primus^ makes smoke in the cellar. The Mayor has requested the churches to cease the tolling of bells at funerals. Dr. Rush calls on us every day, and for some days gave us gentle doses of salts; but he now advises the use of barks, or of calomel and jalap. In fact, he knows not what to give. September 13. Francis Xavier Dupont, Consul of the French Republic, at Philadel- phia, died last night at his seat at Bensalem, Bucks county. He was a firm patriot and an honest man. Seplember 14. Alexander Murray, my old friend from Aberdeen, died at this date. He was buried in the evening. \ October 13. No service in Christ Church and St. Peter's, on account of the illness of the clerk and sexton of Christ Church and the sexton of St. Peter's. * Nathaniel Blodget here mentioned was brother-in-law of Mrs. Samuel Blodget, the Doctor's daughter. He was in the navy, and had just returned from a voyage. f The name of a favorite negro man whom the Doctor had brought with him from Maryland. % For an account of this gentleman, see Appendix, No. III. 1/93] KEV, WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 37 1 October 18. The Rev. James Sproat died.* 19th. The churches still closed. I wrote to the Right Rev. Bishop White, to prevail upon him to leave the city. He informs me that he has never slept out of the city during this whole calamity. With others, I tell him that we consider it as a great and needless risk. October 20. Dr. Blackwellf was taken with the fever to-day, and was removed across the river, over to Gloucester, in the Jerseys. I pray God to restore him to his life of usefulness. Dr. George De BennevilleJ died at Branchtown. * This was a respected clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. An inscription upon a monument to his memory says of him : Whatever is guiltless, Candid and benevolent In the human character, YY.is conspicuous in him. Amiable in domestic life, Fervent in piety, Mighty in the Scriptures, riain, practical and evangelical In preaching, Eminent in tenderness and charity for others, Humble in his views of himself, He was beloved and respected as a man, Useful and venerable as a minister of Christ. f Dr. Blackwell had a plantation in or among the pines of New Jersey, and to th ■> pure and invigorating influence of the air prevalent in these woods he perhaps owed his recovery. For a memoir of this estimable gentleman, a much respected friend of Dr. Smith, see Appendix, No. I. J De Benneville's father was a Huguenot, who fled to England as a refugee from persecution, and he was employed at court by King William. His mother was of the Granville family, and died soon after he was born, in 1703. The orphan was taken charge of by Queen Anne, was placed on board of a ship-of-war, being destined for the navy at twelve years of age, and received his first religious impressions on the coast of Barbary by beholding the exceeding kindness of the Moors to a companion wounded by a fall. For fifteen months he was in a state bordering on despair, by reason of in- ward doubting of his own salvation, and at the end of that period of suffering he was brought into the marvellous light of universal restitution. Feeling it his duty to preach this great truth in France, he opened his testimony in the market-house of Calais about the seventeenth year of his age. He was taken before a magistrate and sentenced to eight days' imprisonment for the offence. Notwithstanding the warning that a repe- tition would endanger his life, he persisted for the space of two years in preaching in France, mostly in the woods and mountains. In these labors Dr. Benneville had equally zealous preachers in co-operation — a Mr. Durant being of the number, a man of twenty-four years of age. At Dieppe these two ministers were seized, tried, and condemned to death. Durant was hanged, and while preparations were being made to behead De Benneville a reprieve arrived from Louis XV. He wis imprisoned for a 372 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [j793 But the pestilence was walking in darkness, and in a moment was at the side of Dr. Smith himself. He was spared, but one dearer to him than himself was stricken down in the destruction of the noonday. The following letter to Dr. Rush gives us some interesting particulars of the sad event. It would seem that Dr. Rush, the family physician of Dr. Smith, had himself been taken ill suddenly with the fever, and was therefore unable to attend Mrs. Smith, though prior to her being taken ill he had been con- stantly visiting Dr. Smith's house and prescribing for his family: Dr. Smith to Dr. Rush. Philadelphia, October 23d, 1793. My Dear Friend: Indeed my only friend, whose own distress has permitted him to mingle his cordials of consolation in my bitter cup of affliction. How shall I thank you for your many sympathies — worthy of a physician, and (what is above all) worthy of a Christian? The severest dispensation of Providence is now past with me, and blessed be God who has enabled me to sustain it. That dispensation which shall lay me by the side of my dear departed inestimable treasure in this life, will be but little felt, as I trust through the mercies of my God and Saviour, it will call me to share with her, her treasure in an- other and better life, where, as you so well express it, according to the sacred oracles, Death and the grave, and hell itself shall be "swallowed up in victory;" the genuine friendships of this life shall be revived, and love and life and light and truth reign forever and ever. But, oh ! busy recollections and memory asleep and awake, and the many tender charities and offices due to my bereaved family and chil- dren, who nearly adored the heavenly woman I have lost; the sight of the numerous remembrances of her in the lonesome house; the letters and written charges which she has left me, with the delivery of her keys to me by the faithful little black girl after her funeral, judge, my dear sir, nay feel — for your feelings are tenderly alive — how these circum- stances thrill my nerves, which were never strong, and how they keep my heart and limbs and whole body in such a palpitation and trembling long time in Paris, and was finally liberated by the intercession of the queen. He afterwards went to Germany, in which country lie spent about eighteen years, preach- ing extensively, devoting himself in the meanwhile to scientific studies. In the thirty- eighth year of his age he emigrated to America, and was taken from the ship by Christo- pher Saner. On recovering from his illness, De Benneville established himself in Oley, Bucks county, as a physician, and also temporarily as a teacher. He also preached and travelled much as a medical botanist among the Indian tribes in norihern Penn- sylvania. He intermarried with the Bartolet family, of Oley, and about 1 757 removed to Milestown, where he died in 1793, aged ninety years. 1 793] KEV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 3/3 that I fear the consequences. The scene of her funeral and some pre- ceding circumstances can never depart from my mind. On my return, with my wife, from a visit to ourdaughter — whom we had been striving to console on the death of Mrs. Keppele — long familiar and dear to both of us — my dear loving wife passing the gates of Christ Church Burying-ground, which stood daily open, led me through it to the graves of the two children, and calling the old grave-digger, marked out a spot for herself as close as possible to her children and the grave of Dr. Phineas Bond, whose memory she adored. By the side of the spot we found room and chose also one for me, as it was not permitted during the sickness to open a grave once closed for the burial of another. We therefore directed the grave-digger that this should be the order of our interment, and pledged ourselves to each other that this order should be observed by the survivor. But let me not be tedious to you. It gives me some ease as my children are all absent, and cannot come near me in town, to pour these circumstances into the bosom of a friend. In melancholy mood we returned to our house. Night approached. I hoped my dear wife had gone to rest, as she had chosen since her re- turn from nursing her daughter through the fever to sleep in a chamber by herself through fear of infection to her grandchild and me. But it seems she closed not her eyes, sitting with them fixed through her chamber window,* on Mrs. Keppele's house (who had died that day), until about midnight, she saw her hearse and followed it with tearful eves as far as it would be seen. Two days afterwards, Mrs. Rogers, her next and only surviving intimate friend, was carried past her window, and by no persuasion could we draw her from thence, nor stop her sympathetic foreboding tears, so long as her eyes could follow the funeral, which was down Arch street, two squares from Fourth street, to Second street, where, turning the corner to the Baptist Church, the hearse disappeared. She threw herself on her bed and requested me, who had stood by her side during the time of the funeral procession, to leave her to her own reflections for a few minutes, and she would soon be with me in my study, where I was writing letters to my friends and family on business to the westward. She took her pen and assisted me in copying some of them. It was Saturday; and we had persuaded our daughter to set out for Norristown next day. My wife, though she in- formed me on Saturday evening, that she was indisposed — and I am persuaded was sure of the nature of her case — yet she charged me not to inform her daughter, and sent me to hasten her out of town on Sun- day morning, with an apology that she could not see her before she sat out, finding it necessary to take a little physic for a slight indisposition, * Dr. Smith's house, to which he refers, was that fine old-fashioned one still stand- ing at the southwest corner of Fourth and Arch, about one hundred feet helow the east side of the grave-yard of Christ Church, Philadelphia. 374 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE D793 and that if she would send the carriage back in two or three days, we hoped to follow her to Norristown. While I was getting my daughter ready and seeing her a few miles out of town, which was not until two o'clock, on Sunday, my dear wife with her own hand, had written the note which you must have in your possession, the contents of which, or her apprehensions expressed in it, I can only guess. You know the rest. My situation through the week following the Sunday evening, at six o'clock, when in much agony by a sudden and unexpected turn, after I had fondly written to all my distant family, and to my dear brother that I believed her out of danger, she breathed her last, com- posed and patient; her countenance appearing to brighten, as her pangs and groans ceased, into the countenance of an angel. Decently as the time would permit, my mournful family assisted only by a worthy and pious black, Richard Allen,* she was laid in her coffin. I approached with my dear grandchild in my arms, as near as the black man would allow, to take my last view. Silent, but more awful and instructive than all the funeral pomps in the world, and short the dis- tance we had to go, I followed her, accompanied only by the coffin- maker, and by Richard Allen, and my own weeping and faithful black boy, to the spot she had chosen, about eight o'clock in the evening to deposit all of her that was mortal. Severe was the task that it remained for me, yesterday, to write to my daughter and other children, and to good Mrs. Cadwalader, who loved her aunt as her own parent. When these letters were finished, and an express dispatched to my son, William, to take all prudent measures possible to support his sister in her affliction. My messenger having taken his course up the street, my anxious dutiful son came to my door while I was visiting the grave to see if it had been properly covered in the night. My black boy met my son at the door of my house, and was obliged to answer his inquiry concerning his mother; that she was *This was an excellent and well-known negro in his day in Philadelphia. He was born A. D. 1760, and was originally a slave of Chief Justice Chew, as afterwards of a Mr. Stokely, in Delaware. He cut wood, and was a laborer in brickyards. During the war of the Revolution he was an army teamster. By habits of economy and thrift he accumulated some money with which he purchased his freedom. lie then learned the trade of shoemaking, and for many years carried on business on the south side of Spruce street below Fifth. He had several journeymen and apprentices constantly in his employ. He owned and managed at the same time a small farm in the Neck, below the city, and accumulated a considerable amount of property by various occupations. With all these he exercised the office of a preacher, preaching among the Methodist negroes. Though education had not lent her hand in his behalf, he had a capacity that few of his color exhibit, and had unbounded influence over the people of his de- nomination. He was eminently a humane man. In common with Absalom Jones, another colored person, he rendered invaluable services to the citizens during the prev- alence of the yellow fever, in 1793. Jones was long a servant of Dr. Blackwell, and was afterwards ordained by Bishop White a minister of the Episcopal Church. 1/93] KEV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 375 no more. I soon came from the ground and saw my dear son leaning against the wall, for he would not enter the house, nor amidst the dis- tressing scene could we exchange a word, but such as expressed my desire, and his ready obedience that he would fly to his sister and over- take the messenger. This he did at eight miles distance from town. I have heard no more, and I dread to hear from a daughter who loved and knew the value of such a mother. But much remains for me yet — my son Charles and his wife, my brother and his wife, my son Richard at Huntingdon, in whose bosoms she was equally precious. I can find no conveyance, and hard will be my task to write if my spirits and health can be supported so long. For that reason only, and a few more family matters not yet arranged — especially a codicil which my dear wife's death makes neces- sary to my will — if it will please God, I would pray for a few days con- tinuance of health. Then as to worldly matters I shall be prepared, and through the goodness of God I trust I am preparing, though we can never, never be fully prepared (except in his mercy) in our spiritual matters. If God continues me longer, my worldly concerns will be in a small compass. His goodness having given me time to distribute a sufficient inheritance to my children, acquired, I trust, honestly and industriously without injury to any man, and I hope and believe from the goodness of all my children, in whom I consider myself blest, they will use it accordingly. For the rest of my days, and they cannot be many, I would willingly devote them to discharge some public engagements by assorting and leaving to the world some sermons and other writings. But if they cannot have my last hand, my executors, to be named in my proposed codicil, must suppress all, except what I have already published and avowed. My friend, Mrs. Cadwalader, and Mrs. Bond, press me with your advise to take calomel and jalap, etc. — I know nothing of preventatives — and then to move out of town, but I wish not to remove to a distance from you for some days yet, nor until you advise. I trust you will soon be so restored that you may have a personal interview. If moving for a few days to my daughter's will change the scene a little, perhaps it may be of use. Thus, my good friend, I have poured into your bosom, confidenti- ally, what may be of use to my family, for to none of them have I had leisure, nor would it be yet proper to say so much. The name and mem- ory of my dear wife I must commit to your friendly hand, who knew her virtues so well, to say to the public what may be necessary ; but of this nothing yet, as I would not have her name announced among the dead, until I find means first to notify it to my distant family. Alas! how shall I live without her? I never had a joy which became a joy to me until she shared it. I never had a sorrow which she did not alle- viate and participate. I never did an action which I would consider as truly good, until she confirmed my opinion. 376 LIFE AXD CORRESPONDEXCE OF THE [l/93 For my many failings and infirmities she had a friendly veil. Her conversation was enlightened, and that with her correspondence by letter during my many absences, have been my joy for thirty-five years and more. My tears now stop my hand, and will relieve you from reading more. From your obliged and affectionate William Smith. To Dr. Rush. Excuse inaccuracies, omissions of words, etc., for I cannot read over or correct what has flowed from my heart and pen. On the 1 8th of November, Dr. Smith prepared an address and exhortation by the clergy of the city of Philadelphia to the citizens of the same, urging them to set apart a day not only as a day for Thanksgiving, but also one of confession, humiliation and prayer. Though drafted so early as November, it was not published, as its date shows, till December the 11th. It having been the wish of Dr. Smith and Bishop White that it should be signed by some of the clergy then absent from the city, but whose presence was then daily expected. It appeared in the Federal Gazette, at the date just above mentioned. To the Citizens of Pennsylvania : The clergy of different denominations, in the city of Philadelphia, having had under deep meditation the late awful calamity, with which it hath pleased Almighty God, in his infinite wisdom, to visit and afflict this city ; and devoutly considering the improvement which, as a Christian people, it becomes us to make of the dispensations of his Providence, "who doth according to his holy will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth," have, with one heart and voice, agreed and concluded it to be their indispensable and sacred duty to recommend and request: — That a day be set apart, and kept holy unto the Lord, not merely as a Day of Thanksgiving for that, in all appearance, it hath pleased him, of his infinite mercy, to stay the rage of the late malignant disorder (when we had well nigh said, hath God forgot to be gracious! ) but also as a day of solemn humiliation, and prayer, joined with the con- fession of our manifold sins, and of our neglect and abuse of his former mercies; together with sincere resolutions of future amendment and obedience to his holy will and laws; without which, our prayers, praises and thanksgivings will be vain. In this solemn review of our past lives, and of the dealings of the Lord with us and our forefathers, let us be serious with ourselves, and search our wounds and sores to the bottom. For, although 1793~\ REV- William smith, d. d. 377 the Almighty may manifest himself to a people, in judgment as well as mercy, by means of natural causes and with the same breath that he bids the pestilence rage, he can bid its ragings cease ; yet his purposes in both are to be our chief consideration, and he hath told us, '•that when his judgments are in the land, the inhabitants should learn righteousness." On this great and humiliating occasion, the clergy consider it as needless for them to remind the inhabitants of this land of what God hath done for us, and the many instances of his divine favor and inter- position, in the establishment of our civil liberties and independence, together with the enjoyment of the pure doctrines of the Gospel of Christ and the exercise of his holy religion, according to the rights of conscience, under a government of laws, and wise civil institutions of our own free and peaceable choice, there being "none to make us afraid." But the clergy must consider it as a special and most weighty part of their bounden duty to warn, to exhort, and to press the most earned inquiry — whether we have made a due improvement of those innumerable blessings which the Almighty hath, in his goodness, even heaped upon us? Have we at all times made use of our civil liberty itself, as not seeking to abuse it? But, more especially, have we sought in good earnest, and in the fear and love of God, to improve our precious Gospel privileges, by striving to make the fruits of the same conspicuous in our lives, and "in all holy conversation and godliness?" Or whether, on the contrary, the worship of the true and living God, and the sacred ordinances of the Gospel, have not been too much slighted, or neglected, for the false pleasures of this world, its dissipations, its follies, or perhaps the too eager pursuit of its goods and enjoyments? — evils which, having their origin too generally among the gay, the rich, and those in higher stations, have, by fatal example, spread themselves downwards among all classes of our people, to the dishonor of God and the unspeakable injury of their moral and religious character, as well as the waste and ruin of their temporal substance and the distress and poverty of their families ! Together with this retrospective view of our own conduct, and of the calamity from which it hath pleased God to deliver us, who, through his mercy, survive, let us not forget to mourn with those that mourn, to sympathize with them in their distress, and to administer to their comfort and relief. This will be a fruitful subject of devout medita- tion; and, through divine grace, will awaken and make us feelingly alive to all holy and religious impressions: while we recall to our memory those melancholy days and nights when corps after corps of beloved husbands and wives, dutiful sons and daughters, useful citizens, vener- able pastors, in quick and almost uninterrupted succession, were borne along our streets in the solitary hearse, with scarce a friend or relative to follow them to the grave ! Oh ! let us now consecrate their dust 578 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1793 with our tears ; and, hoping that they have departed in the Lord, thus supply the solemn rites of Christian interment which the hard necessity of the times then forbade. Thus, prepared and humbled by deep meditation, by confession and repentance of our sins, and prayers for forgiveness and amendment — then our praises and thanksgivings to God, for our late deliverance and for stirring up the hearts of so many of our pious and benevolent brethren throughout the United States to intercede for us in their prayers, and to administer so liberally to the relief of our afflicted and suffering poor, will ascend as a sweet incense to heaven, and be a holy and acceptable sacrifice before the throne of grace, through the merits and intercession of our blessed Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ. Subscribed at Philadelphia, November 18, 1793. Wm. White, Wm. Smith, John Andrews, Ashbel Green, Robert Annan, Henry Helmuth, Samuel Magaw, Joseph Pilmore, Wm. Rogers, Friedrick Schmidt, John B. Smith, John Dickins, Joseph Turner, Joseph Hutchins, Robert Blackwell, Christ. V. Keating, Thomas Ustick, Nicholas Collin, Mathew Mage. In the meantime the Governor of the State, General Mifflin, re- quested Dr. Smith to furnish a draft for a proclamation of Thanks to Almighty God for having put an end to the grievous calamity that had recently afflicted the city of Philadelphia. The following is an abstract of the proclamation prepared by Dr. Smith and issued by the Governor on this great occasion : Whereas, it hath pleased Almighty God to put an end to the grievous calamity that recently afflicted the city of Philadelphia; and it is the duty of all, who are truly sensible of the Divine Justice and Mercy, to employ the earliest moments of returning health in devout expressions of penitence, submission and gratitude ; I have therefore deemed it proper to appoint Thursday, the Twelfth day of December, to be holden throughout this commonwealth as a day of general Humiliation, Thanks- giving and Prayer ; earnestly exhorting and entreating my fellow-citizens to abstain on that day from all their worldly avocations, and to unite in confessing, with contrite hearts, our manifold sins and transgressions, and in acknowledging, with thankful adoration, the mercy and goodness of the Supreme Ruler and Preserver of the universe, more especially 1/93] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 379 manifested in our late deliverance ; praying, with solemn zeal, that the same Mighty Power would be graciously pleased to instil into our minds the just principles of our duty to Him and to our fellow-creatures ; to regulate and guide all our actions by his Holy Spirit; to avert from all mankind the evils of war, pestilence and famine; and to bless and pro- tect us in the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, etc. We come now to make mention of certain discourses found in Maxwell's edition of his works, which were preached by Dr. Smith in Christ Church in the last month of 1793 and the earlier part of the following year — sermons suggested by the terrible pestilence from which the city was at last, by God's mercy, de- livered. The first of these sermons was preached on the day appointed for the general humiliation, thanksgiving and prayer, by the proclamation of which some abstract has just been given. Dr. Smith, however, has himself given so interesting an account of the origin of the sermons and of some particulars connected with them, especially of President Washington's reverential at- tendance and deportment in connection with their delivery, that I offer to my readers an account all in his own language : During the chief rage of the first great epidemic called the yellow fever, in Philadelphia, in the year 1793 — v'z- : from the latter end of September till towards the end of November — the churches had been generally shut up, except Christ Church and St. Peter's, which had been kept open by Bishop White and Dr. Blackwell, unless on the 13th and 20th of October, when the illness of the clerk and sexton of Christ Church and sexton of St. Peter's prevented their being opened. Bishop White was preserved in tolerable health, and never slept out of the city during the whole calamity, which some of his friends, myself among others, told him they considered as a great and needless risk. Dr. Blackwell was taken ill with the fever on the 27th of October, and re- moved across the river, into the Jerseys, near Gloucester. After about a month's severe illness he begun (almost beyond expectation) to appear on the recovery, although with but little hopes of being able soon to resume his pastoral duties in the churches. Those duties, therefore, were like to fall heavy, at least for some time, on good Bishop White, whose kind visits to myself and his other friends in the city were con- tinued during the whole time of the affliction. But the goodness of God now giving a prospect of a near termination of the disorder, the Bishop paid me a short visit a few days before the 1st of December, and told me that on that day the churches under his care, after the short interruption of a week or two, as mentioned above, would be on the usual footing of public service twice a day in each 380 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [ 1 793 church; and with great delicacy and' tenderness to me, in my mournful situation, he hinted a wish for some temporary assistance from me, if I was able, and that in preaching only : at the same time offering me my choice of the turn of duty. I told him that, so far as I was able, it always gave me happiness to co-operate with him in any duty, but that he must give me the choice of my subjects as well as of the turns of duty; that none but melancholy subjects — themes of distress, notes of woe — could accord with my feelings and then gloomy frame of mind. His reply was with his usual look of complacency, intimating ap- probation. Nine Sermons from 1st Thessalonians, chap, iv., verses 13-18 — on Death, a Resurrection from the Dead, a Future Judgment, and an Eternal World to Come, were the fruits of that period of melancholy and deep reflection. The first was preached on Sunday, December 1st, 1793, and the last on March 9th, 1794, in Christ Church, all in the forenoon. This was understood to be according to the wish of the President and his good lady. It is certain that they were present at the delivery of all of them, and generally of every sermon preached in Christ Church, in the forenoon, during the session of Congress. General Washington, exemplary in all his conduct, and anxious to know when it might be safe for the citizens to resume their business and stations in town, had officially consulted the physicians. Under- standing by their answers to him, as well as to some of the clergy who had consulted them also, that sundry of the churches, and particularly Christ Church, where he and his lady always attended divine service, would be opened on Sunday, the first of December, that day, or the day before, he came from Germantown, and presented himself early before God in the church on Sunday. His example was followed by multitudes; and the church was more than usually crowded, before I got into it. The scene was sadly solemn: all eyes were apparently cast down in afflictive meditation. The deepest attention and silence pre- vailed, during the morning service ; and at the delivery of the sermon, not a cheek appeared dry ; for scarcely a man or woman was present, who had not to mourn the loss of a dear friend or relative. The preacher's duty was interesting. He was a fellow-sufferer and co- mourner. He does not remember that ever he lifted his eyes from his notes, which were drenched in tears. He was then, if ever, in the situ- ation described by Luther, and impressed with the feelings of every preacher, who, like Luther, is truly interested in his subject, and, so to speak, weighed down with its truth and importance. 1795] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 381 CHAPTER LVII. The Eight Sermons on the great Visitation of Pestilence remarked on — Distinguished, even above the Author's other Pulpit Discourses, by Seriousness and Solemnity— Extracts from several of them. The visitation of pestilence, 1793, was an event in Philadel- phia, at this time the metropolis of the United States, so awful ; its effects, by death, upon our then society so considerable, and the terror which it continued to inspire, for some years so wide- spread, that I may venture to refer somewhat fully to the sermons of Dr. Smith upon the calamity. We note primarily that, solemn and serious as most of Dr. Smith's pulpit discourses are, these are characterized by solemnity and seriousness beyond the common degree. He was now sixty- seven years old. "Uncertain," he says, "of the number of days, or months, or years remaining to me, but certain that they cannot be many, and those attended with the decay of mental as well as of bodily faculties," he naturally, after a life marked by such vicis- situdes and such calamities as his had been, sought at the present moment to lead his hearers into paths of righteousness, with no thought whatever of the impression which he himself would make on any one. In sermons upon occasions of ceremonious worship, such as in the sermon before the Grand Master and Grand Officers of the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Ac- cepted Masons of the State of Pennsylvania, celebrated on the anniversary of St. John the Evangelist, we see bold and lofty rhetoric. What exordium, for example, can be finer than the one in his Masonic sermon of 1778?* Bishop Atterbury's celebrated one upon the text from St. Matthew and St. Luke, "Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me," where the Bishop at once breaks out, "And can any one, blessed Lord, be offended in thee?" is not more bold. It has no pretensions to rhetoric. Dr. Smith, in his discourse before the Masons, is preaching from the text of 1 Peter * Works, Vol. II., p. 43. 382 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE ['793 ii. 16, "As Free, and not using your Liberty for a cloak of licentious- ness" He thus opens. With his figure, his voice, his natural dramatic power, the experiment was safe, as probably it was in the case of the Bishop of Rochester, but it would be perilous indeed to the common preacher: Liberty, evangelical and social ! Jewel of inestimable price ! Thou blessing, of all blessings the first! Wooed and courted by many; won and wedded by few! Ever near us, yet often at a distance fancied. Through all the modes of faith, by the saint pursued; and in every frame of government by the patriot sought. Oh, thou celestial Good, or, rather, Thou who art the Author of all good, terrestrial and celestial — Supreme Architect of the universe; who, by our great and Spiritual Master, thy Son, hast taught us the true Way of Liberty — the way of being free and accepted through Him! May I now be enlightened and enlivened by a ray from Thee ! But now, in the sermons upon the late awful epidemic, there is nothing like this. He was "no actor here," though his style, naturally casting itself into rhetorical forms, still preserves its habitual characteristics. His text is from a series of verses, that is to say, from the 13th to the 1 8th inclusive, of the 4th chapter of the First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Thessalonians. Every one remembers them: But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and re- main unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Dr. Smith thus proceeds, solemnly and grand: Yes, brethren and sisters! ye bereaved mourners for parents, hus- bands, wives, children and dearest relatives, say a solemn Amen, and "comfort one another with these words." For if there be consolation in this world, amidst this suffering scene of man, here it is complete, and revealed to us by a divinely illuminated apostle of Christ ; leading our meditations forward through all the future changes and periods of our existence and condition, as mortals and immortals, "to death, a 1793] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 383 resurrection from the dead, a future judgment, and an eternal world to come." . . . The impressions of the dreadful calamity, from which we, who are alive, remain monuments of God's mercy in the midst of his righteous judgments, must have awakened and alarmed the most secure and thought- less among us, and have made us feelingly alive to every sober reflec- tion that concerns our future state and condition, viz. : death, a resur- rection from the dead, a future judgment, and the opening the heavenly paradise — the everlasting kingdom of glory to the redeemed of God — " to those who sleep in the faith of Jesus." For, amidst the shafts of Providence, which have flown so thick around us and amongst us, where is the man or the woman in this assembly whose bosom is not deeply pierced, or whose tears do not this moment flow, for the loss of some of those who were lately nearest and dearest to him or to her — a hus- band, a wife, a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a son, a daughter? For me — ah! my throbbing breast — deep, deep have the arrows* pierced; yet be still, in just resignation to his unerring will, who gives and takes away, by whom we live, move, and have our being — be still, while we proceed in the further review of this mournful group of de- parted friends and acquaintance ! Who is there among us who does not recall to memory many younger and stronger than themselves, be- tween whose summons from this life and their commitment to that long home, the grave, few were the days or hours that intervened, while we yet remain, with time and opportunity offered, to examine the past and to think of the future. To assist your meditations in this respect, and to mingle comfort in our bitter cup of affliction, I have chosen the words of St. Paul, which have been just read as our text ; a choice which I have the rather made, as the whole volumes of inspiration contain no words more evangelically comfortable or suitable to our present situation ; and, as I trust, the same words and the reflections thereon arising, which, through God's grace, I have found experimentally efficacious to pour balm into my own wounds, while yet fresh and bleeding, will, through the same grace, be acceptable and effectual among you, in the like circumstances ! The text naturally divides itself into the following heads, each of which will afford subject-matter for at least one discourse : 1st. Considerations on death ; the nature and cause of his awful terrors ; and how, through Divine assistance, to combat and conquer them ; to allay our sorrows for our departed friends, and prepare for our own departure. 2d. The certainty of a resurrection of the body from the grave; showing that death is but a temporary evil, and that our sorrow should * The author lost a beloved wife, one of the most accomplished among women ; whose memory remains dear to all who knew her. She died October 23, 1793. 384 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l79l not be without hope, as others who have no belief in the resurrection of the dead. 3d. The certainty of a future judgment, and the award of an eternity of happiness to those who sleep in the Lord, or in the faith of the Gospel — " For them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him, and so we shall be forever with the Lord ! " 4th. That, from all these considerations, the devout Christian may not only overcome the fear of death in himself, but derive an abundant source of consolation for the death of others, according to our apostle, who, in the sweetest accents of evangelical sympathy and love, in the last verse of our text calls us to "comfort one another with the hopes, after death and a resurrection, of being forever with the Lord ! " I proceed now to the first head of discourse as pointed out in the text, namely: "Considerations on death, and how, through divine assistance, to subdue and overcome his mighty terrors." And oh, Thou almighty fountain of all wisdom and grace and heavenly fortitude, aid me with thy divine spirit, that the great and awful subjects which I am to handle may not suffer through my feeble endeavors ; but give me, for the sake of Jesus and his Gospel, to follow, with clear and unembar- rassed view, the steps and arguments of thy divinely enlightened apostle, who is everywhere superlatively instructive and sublime, but especially when he opens to us the prospects of a future world. Lo ! he stands, though with his feet on earth, his eye steadfast on heaven, considering death, not as a tyrant sent to disturb our peace, but as a messenger of God, employed to "dissolve our earthly house of this tabernacle that we may be clothed upon with our house, which is from Heaven." "For we know," says he in another place,* "that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this (earthly) house we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven." Brethren, when I read this passage from our blessed apostle, in con- junction with our text, as well as many others expressive of the true spirit of primitive Christianity, I am doubtful (as saith an old commen- tator) whether most to admire the exalted temper of the apostles and first followers of Christ, or to deplore the low and desponding spirit of the modern professors of Christianity — so heavenly and magnanimous were the former, so earthly and abject the latter ! The former were always raising their affections to things above — to their "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ; " the latter too often immur- ing themselves deeper and still deeper within the walls of their "earthly house of this tabernacle ! " * 2 Cor. v. 1, 2. 1793] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 385 And whence comes this difference between the truly primitive and modern spirit of professing Christians? Whence, brethren, but from what the apostle suggests? The former considered the present life only as a pilgrimage, and this whole world as but an inn, or short refreshing place, in their way to the regions of immortality and glory ! They looked upon their passage thither as a scene of perils — a passage through a valley of sorrow and tears — and that, for the trial of their faith and exercise of their hope, they were called to a constant warfare with ene- mies both within and without them. The soul they considered as their truly better and immortal part, worthy of all their care ; the body but as of an inferior nature — a tabernacle, a tent, a cottage, an earthen ves- sel, a mere temporary abode, or rather the prison-house of the soul ; in itself more brittle than glass, decaying and constantly mouldering away, subject to diseases, pain and every vicissitude of the surrounding ele- ments. And thus, daily considering the vanity and the emptiness of earthly things, their affections were more and more weaned from this ■world. They became impatient of the dross of body; their souls pene- trated by faith through the clouds of this mortality; and they obtained some foretaste of the immense good things laid up for them in a world to come. They acquired some just and ravishing conceptions of that building of God, that house not made with hands, that celestial body, with which the soul was to be united (for the nourishment of their hope and the exercise of their charity) in the mansions of glory; and, there- fore, far from being awed or terrified at the separation of the soul from the body, or apprehensions from the dissolution of their earthly taber- nacle, and of its dust mixing again with its kindred dust, they groaned earnestly within themselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the re- demption of the body, that they might be clothed upon with their heavenly house, "and so be forever with the Lord." But can we say, brethren, that this is the general temper of those who call themselves Christians in the present day? Can we say that we are always looking forward to our future end? Or rather, do we not keep ourselves blind to the future, ignorant of our destiny, or without any guesses concerning another world? We rather wish to consider the present as our only world, and death as an everlasting sleep — a total annihilation of, perhaps, soul and body! Wherefore, if we think of an approaching dissolution, we sorrow, as men having no hope beyond the narrow precincts of the grave. If any dark glimmerings of another world intrude upon our quiet, we strive to stifle the divine sparklings in the soul, and hate to converse with the God within us, or think of any future state. And thus, far from rejoicing at the notices nature gives of an approaching dissolution of our mortal part ; far from groaning earnestly to be clothed upon with our immortal house, and meeting death in the full hope of glory, I may appeal to yourselves, whether the very name cf death be not as a thunder-stroke to us ! We startle, we 25 386 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE ['793 turn pale, we tremble before him as the king of terrors, and at his ap- proach we cling faster and still faster to this evanescent speck of earth, loth to let go our hold. Few, too few, consider death in the right view, as a welcome messenger sent from God to summon the soul (if, peradventure, prepared) to heaven and glory. Few consider that, al- though his marks are sure, he shoots not an arrow but what is directed by the wisdom of our adorable Creator. In this view we consider him not ; but, on the other hand, we consider him as a cruel tyrant, come to disturb our repose, to rob us of our joys and to separate us from all that we hold dear. We look upon him as the merciless ravisher of parents from children, and children from parents; wives from husbands, and husbands from wives. We view him as the despoiler of our fortune, breaking in upon all our busy projects and best prospects; tearing us from our dearest friends and relatives, levelling our fame and proudest honors with the dust, turning our beauty into deformity, our strength into rottenness and our very names into oblivion. We behold him dealing with others as with ourselves, neither sparing the young nor the old, the feeble nor the strong, the rich nor the poor, the beggar in his rags, nor the proudest ruler in his purple. We find him neither to be regardful of our pride, nor to be soothed by our flattery, tamed by our entreaties, bribed by our benefits, softened by our lamentations, nor diverted by accident or length of time. His weapons of destruction are numerous, and we are unable to draw one of them from his grip. A thousand ministers of vengeance attend his call — sword, pestilence, famine and fell disease; the air, the earth, the sea, the fire, and the beasts of the field, are the executioners of his will against man; and, more dreadful to tell, man himself — monstrous, depraved man — becomes the minister of death against his fellow-man ! With scorns and with wrongs, with imprisonments, with torments, with poisons and deadly engines of destruction, man preys upon man, at thy call, O Death, and heaps up thy vast triumphs ! Hence it is that thou art so terrible, and that we startle at thy name, and tremble at thy approach. Yet still, by the due use of reason, enlightened by the blessed considerations and doctrines of our text, after the example of the apostles and saints and pure professors of Christianity in every age, death might be disarmed of his sting and spoiled of his victory! If to die were only the lot of a few, we might repine and startle at the partial decree. But since no age that is past hath been exempted from his strokes, nor shall any age that is to come, why should we, with unavailing sorrow and unprofitable stubbornness, think to oppose the universal decree, "Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return?" Let us think what millions have trod the path of death before us, and what millions are yet to follow! Let us think of the instability of all things, temporary and sublunary! Even kingdoms and mighty empires have submitted to their fatal periods ! Great cities lie buried in the 1795] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 3S7 dust ! Proud towers and pyramids, the wonders of the world and the pride of ages, are overthrown and trampled under foot ! Holy temples and altars, and those also who have ministered before them, have shared the general doom ! And this great fabric of the world itself, the sun, the moon and the stars, shall submit to death, or a change similar to death; yet, like the body of man, peradventure, to be renewed again, and kindled up into fresh and everlasting lustre ! Since, then, the most solid and sumptuous works of man, and even this glorious creation, the work of God himself, are doomed to changes, to decay and to death, what are we, poor earthlings and creatures of a day, to hope for an everlasting continuance amidst this transient and perishable scene ? Or why should we be afraid when our change draws near ? The true reason is, "Our want of faith in God and union with Christ Jesus, through the grace of his divine spirit." We do not imitate those blessed saints and first followers of Christ, who are described in our text, by striving to disentangle our souls and thoughts from this world, and to send them forward in earnest longings after heaven and immor- tality. We do not seat ourselves by faith in the company of angels and archangels; nor seek to anticipate the joys of the life to come. Our conversation is not in heaven, nor are we looking to our Redeemer from thence ; nor do our souls thirst nor our flesh long after the living God. But, on the contrary, like unweaned babes, we hang upon the breasts of this earth. We suck poison out of it to our very souls; we cleave to it — we walk — nay, we grovel upon our bellies here, as unclean beasts, instead of lifting our eyes to heaven with the holy pride and ambition of angels ! Hence, then, comes our fear of death, because we seek to have our portion in this world, and not in the world to come, never considering what comfortable words Christ tells us, that " if any man keep his say- ings he shall never see death;" for Christ hath slain death, and ' brought life and immortality to light by the gospel." The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the grave; but our union with Christ gives us the victory. If we die in the faith of Jesus, death is only a sleep in his bosom, and the grave is only the vestry-room, where we enter (as we said before) to put off the old rags of our mortality, to be clothed upon anew, and to come forth, fresh and refulgent, in the rich dress and embroidery of heaven. It shall be my endeavor (ye mournful brethren and sisters), in my subsequent occasional discourses before you, from this luminous text; to examine and weigh, in the scales of Religion, Reason and Philosophy, those good things, commonly so-called, by which too many are drawn (as already expressed) to " hang upon the breasts of this world, and to suck poison from them to their very souls. " I shall further strive to 388 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [ 1 793 offer such considerations as, under divine grace, may disentangle our thoughts, and wean our souls from too great an attachment to the things of this world and send them forward to another world in earnest longings after immortality; anticipating the joys above, and seating ourselves by faith in the company of angels and archangels ; having our conversation in heaven, looking for the coming of our Lord, and pant- ing to be with him forever ! The next discourse seems to have been attended, in a more par- ticular way, by the younger class of people. It is from the same texts as the former one, and on the same general subject — " How, through divine assistance, we may subdue the fear of death." Passing over — as we must do for want of space — the earlier parts of the discourse, we come to a special address to the young. Its style recalls the full dress and form, with the gentility, unhappily, with both too much departed, of days just remembered by our- selves. Oh, ye youth of these rising, and yet happy, American States ! for whose admonition, instruction, and illumination the past and best part of my life has been devoted, through a long term of years; receive, or rather bear, the repetition of a lesson, perhaps the last, of old age ! Boast not, therefore, of your youth or strength or beauty, but in the hopes you entertain, and the resolution you have formed of preparing yourselves, to live a life of future usefulness, and to animate you in this resolution, look forward to the glorious scenes in which you will be called to act your part; and look back also "to the rock from whence you were hewed, and the hole of the pit from whence you were digged."* Think of the steps by which your virtuous and frugal ancestors rose into consideration, and say whether you can find one of their number that attained to any eminence but by virtue and industry in some settled calling or profession. Spurn from you, betimes, the syren's sloth and idleness, and seek to come forth on the theatre assigned to you, all energy and action, in the sight of mortal and im- mortal powers, striving to fill your post with diligence and dignity — abiding therein, but abiding with God ! Spurn from you also the love of false pleasure, and seek to make a just estimate of that pleasure, which God in his goodness has ordained as the true alloy of our cares, and the reward of a virtuous course of action ! If vou seek pleasure, let it be the pleasure of your whole nature and existence, considered with respect both to time and eternity! And in this view, the pleasure of a rational being, made in the image of his * Isaiah li. I. 1793] SEV. WILLIAM SMITH. D. D. 389 Creator, ordained to bear his head on high, and to hold sacred inter- course with the Father of all — is not to stifle the sigh for happiness im- planted in his bosom, nor bury the vital principle of action, in the in- ordinate pursuit of animal gratifications, which serve for little else but to enervate the soul and depress its native aspirations after the divine life. It is not to drink the deadly draught of poison, although served up to us in a golden cup. It is not to dance the giddy round of noisy revel, thoughtless whence we came, or whither we are going ! It is not to riot in broad day, in practices which our sober fathers would have blushed to witness in secret. It is not to pursue phantom after phan- tom, like airy bubbles, bursting in the grasp. Nor is it to torture inven- tion after invention, in contriving expedients to keep animal joy alive, till the palled sense recoils, and refuses the hated load ! No, says the wise Solomon, who spoke from experience, and had sought pleasure and happiness through every avenue of life — no, says he — "Thou mayest re- joice, O young man, and thy heart may cheer thee in the days of thy youth, whilst thou walkest in the ways of thy heart; but for all these things, know that God will bring thee into judgment" * — yea, certainly judgment in another world, and probably judgment in this — for if we take a step among the sons and daughters of worldly pleasure, though all seems so gay and joyous without, yet how different if we could look within ! What distraction, weakness and dissipation of thought ? What fretfulness, jealousies and heart-burnings of disappointed pride, dim- ming the fair eye of fairest beauty? What incumbrances of fortune, what embarrassments of business, what shame, remorse and painful re- flections for neglected duties and deserted families ; only to be avoided by suppressing or drowning the voice of reason, conscience and religion by a speedy return to the round of giddy revel, till at last health and fame and the fair paternal inheritance are shipwrecked at their feet. I tremble to speak the rest. What can we behold, then, but wretchedness complete? "Ancestors disgraced, posterity ruined; behind, nothing but guilt and shame, and before, nothing but inextricable misery! . . ." The true pleasures, the sacred, substantial never-fading bliss of all who are born into this world — high and low, old and young, is to exert the first efforts of their reason, guided by religion and revelation, to con- sider for what end they were sent into it, and to discharge their part in this life faithfully, seeking to prepare, and not afraid to take their de- parture for a better, always bearing in mind that the short and transient now bears on its fleeting wing an eternity of bliss or woe. Let no age or condition of life thrust these serious truths from the heart. Trust not to your youth or strength, ye whom I now more im- mediately address. Look but a few months back, and consider how * Eccl. xi. 9. 390 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l793 many of your age have in that short period been called to an eternal world, and what a mournful cry would have been heard, what earnest calls to repentance and sorrow for time misspent would have resounded through this city, had it pleased God then to withdraw the veil, and permit them to behold their sudden destiny. Ye sons of pleasure, ye who glory in your health and strength, who laugh at sobriety, temperance and chastity, who count many days to come, and set death not only at a distance, but even at defiance — if any such can indeed remain among us after the late awful warnings — ■ think of these truths and suppose it possible, nay probable, that on some day, not far distant, you may be caded upon with all your unre- pented sins about you, laid gasping in the burning heat of a mortal fever, and make your shameful exit, a martyr to false pleasure, under the dreadful curse which heaven has entailed upon intemperance. With the impression of these truths, leaving the devotees of pleasure and worldly joys among the young and gay for the present, I shall pro- ceed in my next discourse to estimate the bliss of those of higher ranks and ages, hoping the young also, if they hope for rank and age, will continue among the number of patient hearers. Amen ! The next sermon was preached December 12th, 1793, on the day which we have already spoken of as that for which Dr. Smith drew a Proclamation at the request of Governor Mifflin, appoint- ing it a day of general humiliation, thanksgiving and prayer for the public deliverance from the rage of the late calamity. The text, which the preacher remarks is changed for the day's solemnity, while the subject is not changed, is from Psalm lxxviii. verse 34, passim to verse 50 : When He slew them, then they sought Him ; and they returned, and inquired early after God : and they remembered that God was their Rock, and the High God their Redeemer. Nevertheless, they did but flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues : For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they steadfast in His covenant. They turned back and tempted God — they remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy. Wherefore He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath and indignation and trouble, by send- ing evil angels among them. He made a way to his anger, and spared not their souls from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence. "That there is a particular as well as a general providence," the preacher remarks in this discourse, "over the affairs of individual men, as well as whole nations; and that the Almighty holds their fate subject to his own controlling power, and weighs it in the tremendous balance of his unerring wisdom and justice, is a truth 1/93] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 39I which will not be denied by any man who professes to believe in the existence of God." "In vain," he continues, "arc we assembled on this solemn day, if it might be considered by any that the civil ordinance which convokes us is only a political engine or device to awe and con- trol the vulgar mind, and not a certain unequivocal proof 'that, as a people, we acknowledge a God over all ; supreme, almighty, and enjoying all perfections.' It may be hoped, then," he proceeds, " that the threshold of this holy place has not been profaned this day by the unhallowed step of a man or a woman who doth not believe in the heart, as well as approach to confess with the lips, 'that there is a God who governs the affairs of his creatures in this world, and that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- ment were graciously given, by his divine inspiration and authority, to guide us in the right way through the intricate path of life and the mazes of a mysterious Providence.' "The dealings of the Almighty, therefore," he adds, "with a people who acknowledge (as we do) the sovereign and uncon- trollable power of God's special as well as general providence, in ordering the affairs of men, will be a fit subject of our present meditations; and the more to be chosen, as we shall have for our guide a history authenticated on the records of Holy Scripture." The preacher then traces the history of the Jews, upon which his text, as he remarks, yields a prominent and irrefragable com- mentary, as well as a striking similitude to our own history in many great and leading circumstances. He notes that the Jews had for many years been without a gov- ernment of their own, and sojourned in a foreign land, reduced to a condition no better than that of the worst and most degraded slaves; until, at last, the Almighty had compassion on their mis- eries, and by the hand of Moses delivered them from the rod of Pharaoh, and conducted them through the waves of the Red Sea, and a perilous wilderness, to the land promised to their forefather Abraham and his seed forever.* Like the Jews, our fathers were conducted by the hand of God through a perilous ocean, and penetrated into a wilderness to hew out for themselves settlements and improve them into a Canaan for the benefit of their posterity. "-Sec Gen. xiii. 14, and xxvi. 4., 5. 392 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [^793 By the arm of the Almighty, while they were yet a small people, they were protected from surrounding dangers — the savages of the wilderness became their friends, and they grew up and multiplied into a great and prosperous people. How far we had followed the example of the Jews, in our backslidings and forgetfulness of the mercies of God, after we became a nation, would appear from a brief statement of their conduct, after they became a nation, in the promised land. This history the preacher then traces. "The Chronicles of their kings, rulers and judges were a stand- ing testimony," says the preacher, "of their ingratitude and for- getfulness of God, their inattention to his providence and neglect of amendment; continuing hardened in their iniquity amidst his various judgments and visitations, intended in mercy and long- suffering to lead them to reformation. The prophecies of their prophets — were they not all to the like purpose ? Either filled with denunciations of judgments upon their apostasy from God, promises of forgiveness upon their repentance and amendment, or threatening of total ruin and destruction, unless they turned from the evil of their ways, to do that which is lawful and right! "Many and various," he adds, "were the judgments inflicted on this people by the hand of Providence, for the punishment of their transgressions; but the four sorest, in extreme cases, when they became wholly hardened in their iniquity, were 'the Sword and the Famine, and the noisome Beast (to infest a desolate land), and the Pestilence, to cut off from it (by one dreadful visitation) both man and beast.' * " The first mentioned of those four sore judgments, the sword, hath been sent," he observes, " upon us not only by the great nation from which our fathers and many of ourselves originated, but many a time likewise by the savage of the wilderness around us." And giving way to an expression of Federal politics, and to ancient dislike of France, now under Jacobin rule, more dan- gerous than in the days of any Louis, he adds : Nor is it foreign to our purpose, on this solemn day, to contemplate the possibility, and even probability, of a sword against us from another great nation, once gratefully caressed, and never ungratefully offended, by us as a people. * Ezek. xiv. 21. 1793] RKV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 393 Whether the great nation last mentioned hath in truth meditated any measures inimical to our liberty and independence, it would be wrong to pronounce absolutely in this sacred place. But we are justified in declaring our apprehensions and fears on this head ; encouraged and invited, as that nation hath been, to the attempt, by the wild principles and restless conduct of their partisans here, impatient of all rule and authority, always seeking innovations, and never content long with any frame of government. From the second and third of the sore evils by which the Jews were sometimes punished, namely : the Famine and the noisome Beast, and blast on the herbage and fruits of the earth, promotive of famine, the Almighty had been graciously pleased hitherto to spare us. The fourth and last sore evil, the Pestilence, had indeed been permitted, or ordained, by Providence to visit our metropolis, and some others of the great towns and cities of the United States ; but, in the present year, with a degree of severity and extensive calamity never experienced before. " Blessed be God," he says, " its rage is now graciously stayed, leaving us, indeed, in copious tears, to the memory of departed friends and relatives." "And, oh ! " he adds, " let not those tears be too soon dried up, without deep meditation and serious improvement of the warnings given us." After a reference in several particulars to the history of the Jews, the preacher says : What history, ancient or modern, can exhibit a narration so concise and dignified, so marked with authentic testimony of the special inter- position of Goi, in his wise providence, to punish whole nations, rulers as well as people, even in this world, for the chastisement of their sins, and for their reformation and amendment? What has been already stated gives the fullest sanction to this day's solemnity, and leads us directly to our main business and duty upon the great occasion, namely: the most serious consideration and meditation upon our own ways and works, and the improvement which, as a Chris- tian people, it becomes us to make, of our deliverance from the late awful calamity with which it pleased Almighty God, in his sovereign wisdom, to afflict this city and its vicinity. The means of improvement pointed out and recommended by public authority,* and sanctioned by the voice and word of God, are : * See an abstract of the Proclamation, p. 378. 394 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE |J793 The acknowledgment of his divine power and goodness, in the deepest humiliation and abasement of soul ; the sincerest confession of our manifold sins and transgressions of our duty; contrition and sorrow for the neglect and forgetfulness of God's former mercies; earnest repentance and supplications for forgiveness, joined to sincere pur- poses and steadfast resolutions of future amendment and obedience to his holy will and laws. Thus humbled, prepared and melted into love and gratitude, by a due sense of "God's mercies and long-sufferings to us ward (He not being willing that any should perish, but that all should come to re- pentance*)," our prayers, praises and thanksgivings this day, we trust, will ascend as a sweet incense and sacrifice, holy and acceptable before the throne of his grace. But, without this preparation of the heart, if we could pray and praise and give thanks with the tongue and voice of angels, it would all be vain and empty — nothing more than as sounding brass, or the tinkling cymbal. f In this preparatory part of our work, therefore, let us in good earnest enter into our own hearts, examine their plagues, as in the presence of the Almighty, and not deceive ourselves, or think we can deceive him dike the people in our text) by "flattering him with our mouth, and lying unto him with our tongues, while our hearts are not right with him, and we are not steadfast in his covenant," made with our fathers, nor in our purpose of future obedience to his holy laws and commandments. But, more especially, this becomes the duty of those who appear as the preachers of righteousness — the ministers and messengers of God (of every degree and denomination ) — to stand forth, awfully impressed with the weight of their subject, and not to be afraid of the faces of men, but to speak boldly, even to authorities and dignities and powers; not to deal treacherously, or seek "to heal the hurt of the daughter of God's people slightly, with the enticing words of man's eloquence, 'saying, Peace, Peace, when there is no peace; 'J but to probe the wounds to the bottom, by means of ' the word of God, which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.' " But although it falls to our lot, in preaching repentance, on this great occasion, more immediately to the inhabitants of the city of Philadel- phia, who were among the primary and chief sufferers under the late awful visitation of the Almighty ; and although great and manifold are the sins for which, in his righteous judgments, He might have inflicted this calamity upon us ; yet it ought not to be considered that it was for our reproof and sins only, but those of United America, that the Lord chose us as among the first to speak to in his fierce anger. The appli- *2 Peter iii. 9. f I Cor. xiii. 1. J Jer. vi. 14. || Ileb. iv. 12, 1793] REV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 395 cation of our Saviour's doctrine, preaching repentance, upon the pun- ishment of the Galileans and others,* may be allowed here. "'Suppose ye,' says our Lord, 'that those Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices, were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen upon whom the Tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? I tell you, Nay ; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Thus warranted by the preaching and doctrine of the great Author of our salvation, to consider particular punishments as general warnings, the remainder of my discourse will be addressed to the whole body of citizens, rulers as well as people, in these United States. And to this I consider myself as more especially called, being honored with an audience so numerous and respectable, among whom I behold the Father of these United States, and many other characters of the first impression, whose exemplary virtue and piety must strike deep into the future prosperity and glory of our rising American empire — an empire which, under the protection and favor of divine Providence, has laid the foundation of all that can adorn and dignify man in the present world, and guide him forward in preparations for the acquisition and enjoy- ment of glory, honor and immortality in a world to come ! The preacher now applies the teachings which the Scriptural history of the Jewish nation gives as to our own country. And, heaven knows, if my ancestor's remarks were applicable to the United States in the apostolic days of Washington, one thousand times more applicable are they in these licentious and degraded times ! Keeping in view, therefore, the history of the people of Israel, and taking up the parallel between God's providence and dealing with re- spect to them and ourselves, I may be allowed to recall to your mind those times when our ancestors were but a small people in this land ; how the Almighty smoothed their passage to it through the dangers of the stormy ocean ; how he planted and supported them in a wilderness, and made the savage beasts, and men more savage than they, who were able in a moment to destroy them, to become their friends ; command- ing the solitary places to be glad around them, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. I might describe to you the progress of their civilization and happi- ness, and show, that having brought the pure Word of God in their hand, the legacy of the Gospel of Christ as their chief riches, they were * Luke xiii. 1-5. 396 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [ 1 793 not ashamed of its doctrines, nor to acknowledge the goodness of the Almighty, by promoting the ordinances of his religion; by making and executing laws for its support, and for the orderly administration of jus- tice, constantly striving, by the purity of their lives, the simplicity of their manners, their love of truth and of one another, to give an ex- ample to their children of their obedience to the divine laws and their zeal for the prosperity of their country. And when thus, for more than a hundred years, they had been pro- ceeding from strength to strength, and flourishing under this simplicity of manners and regard to true religion, I might lead your attention to what the Lord did for us, their posterity, when we were called to struggle through blood and to contend for our dearest and most sacred rights. How numerous were the instances of his divine favor and in- terposition, in the establishment of our civil liberties and independence, assuring to us and our posterity every civil blessing, together with the free exercise of our holy religion, according to the rights of conscience, under a government of laws and a constitution of our own happy choice, there being none to make us afraid. But what has been our sense or improvement of those numerous and invaluable blessings which the Almighty, with so liberal a hand, hath even heaped upon us? Let us not be alarmed at the question, nor shrink from the answer. May it not be asked, then, of what avail is it that we boast of our frames of government, and that we are blessed with civil liberty, accord- ing to our highest conceptions of the name, if we know not how to respect the laws, and to distinguish liberty from licentiousness? If there remain those among us who, from pride, self-interest and the lust of power, cannot rest contented with a wise and efficacious system of joint government; but still pursuing something new, and adapted to their own phantasies, seek rather no government at all, or a government of such variant and discordant particles as to produce a Babel of confu- sion, rather than a Jerusalem, or city of God, happy and united within itself! What avails it that God hath given us peace with all foreign states and powers, if with difficulty we are to be restrained from rushing vol- untarily into the horrid scenes of blood and devastation in the old world from which God hath graciously set us at a distance; and where our feeble strength would scarcely weigh a grain in either balance, but might inevitably involve us in self-destruction? What avails it that we are delivered from one late and great calamity, if we are not delivered from sin, which is the greatest calamity of all? What avails it that God hath blessed us with a fruitful country, a happy climate and bountiful seasons, if, instead of industry, moderation of mind, thankfulness to heaven and a due improvement of His bles- sings, we are sapping the foundations of all our future happiness as a 1793] X£F. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 2)97 people, by luxury, pride, idleness, dissipation and the eager pursuit of false pleasure, with its never-failing attendants: infidelity and the scan- dalous neglect of religion, and profanation of the Lord's day! This was one of the crying sins of the Jews, for which the severest judgments were denounced against them: "I saw, in those days, in Judah," says Nehemiah, "some treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And there dwelt also men of Tyre therein, who brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath, to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and pro- fane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? Yet you bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath."* But, notwithstanding all these judgments, this evil continued among that people until our Saviour's days, who testified his indignation against it by entering the temple, and, having made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their tables, f But what is all this to what we now behold ? — the mere selling the necessaries of life and the exchanging of money, which although re- stricted by our laws, evils of a more aggravated nature are tolerated, or at least not restrained or corrected ? The Sabbath by many is turned into their chief day of idleness, recreation, parties of pleasure, sinful sports and diversion, gaming, feasting, rioting and all manner of diver- sion ! Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a people as this? Oh, ye rulers and judges of the land ! ye masters and heads of fam- ilies, among whom, blessed be God, we have yet illustrious examples of those who honor God's holy name and the places of his worship ! I know you will bear with the expostulations, which the faithful discharge of my duty requires on this solemn day ! If the Jews, when under the government of God himself, and es- pecially instructed by his inspired messengers and prophets, came to humble themselves under his judgments, and to implore his mercy and renew their covenant of obedience with Him ; I say, if then they thought it their duty to testify their sincerity with an oath, and to swear with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets, "That whosoever would not seek the Lord God of their fathers, whether small or great, man or woman, should be put to death" — and if this punishment was inflicted on those who continued in idolatry, which was in some sort the acknowledgment of a god, or gods, although false * Neh. xiii. 15-18. f Jchn ii. 14, 15. 398 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [ 1 793 ones, what punishment can be due to those who not only discountenance and refuse the worship of the true God, but openly profane, blaspheme, or deny His holy name? I know, my brethren, the nature of persecution, and, I trust, the nature also of that civil and religious liberty which our happy constitution in- sures to all. But the abuse of privileges, and that licentiousness, civil or religious, which dissolves the bands of society and tends to the de- struction both of soul and body, are certainly not the objects of tolera- tion under any government. If it were possible for men of the most abundant estate, or in the higher stations of life, and who claim the un- restrained right of doing what they please with their own; I say, if it were possible for them to indulge every luxury, folly, vanity and vice, which the corrupt heart and understanding could devise (taking their chance of another world) ; I say again, if this were possible, without poisoning society by their fatal example in the present world, there might be some plea for their liberty of doing with their own fortune, and with their souls and bodies, according to the lusts of their own will. But would this consist with the dignity of a man, or the exercise of his rational faculties, even if he could believe that there was no world but the present; and that, after the longest life spent in the vanities here on earth, he was to lie down in the dust, like the beasts that perish, and that the trump of God would never rouse his sleeping ashes to a future judgment ? No ! and I am well persuaded that I do not at present address a man of this belief. On the contrary, I rather trust, that there is not a person who now hears me that does not believe he was sent into this world for nobler purposes than merely to vegetate, to rot, and to die. Wherefore, then, let us all strive to fill the sphere assigned us with dignity and diligence. If the supreme Wisdom has called us to the inferior stations of bodily labor, we are therewith to be content. It is honorable and subservient to virtue; for not the meanest calling but hath a blessing promised of God, and not the most exalted but hath its cares, its toils and temptations. Again, if, by the indulgence of heaven, we are released from the necessity of bodily labor, yet not less is the sphere of duty, nor less the joy attending the faithful discharge of it. There are liberal and ingenuous employments suited to the highest parts and estate — Go, order your affairs aright. Train up your children in the fear of God. Be an example of righteousness to your household and to society. Husband your time and your fortune for the public good. Minister out of your abundance to the necessities of others. Be hospitable; be kind ; be solicitous for the advancement of justice and virtue, in all which you may be serious without gloom, cheerful without levity, and active without dissipation. For our religion enjoins no duty but what is for our own welfare, and denies no indulgence but what would cross us in our way heavenwards. True it is, that by the precepts of this religion men blest with fortune 1793] KEV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 399 and abilities to serve their country in its highest offices are forbidden to waste their prime of life and talents in scenes of dissipation and folly; they are exhorted to spurn from their bosom and their company the profane talker, the debauchee, the gamester, the sharper ! But what is all this, except to lead persons, born for worthy actions, to the noblest twofold saving — a saving of time from degrading and unworthy conver- sation (which might be better employed in the improvement of their own faculties, and in planning for the public weal ; ; and a saving of expense (which might redeem a virtuous family from distress, and make the widow's heart sing for joy). To stimulate us, therefore, in such fair and noble pursuits, let us always keep in view the great objects that lie before us — the career of glory to which we are called as a people. Let us remember that it was not by idle hands, nor by reclining in the lap of indolence, nor by the pursuit of false pleasure, or vanities unsuited to their condition, that our honorable ancestors subdued a wilderness, and left this goodly heritage to their posterity ! nor is it by means like these that we can transmit it safe and nourishing to our children and children's children. It is always too soon when a people, even arrived at the meridian of their glory, forget those virtues by which they were raised into im- portance; but for us, who have not yet half-way reached our noon; for us, whose sun of glory has but just raised his head above the cloudy mountains; for us, I say, to relax one jot of our industry and virtue, or to loiter in the morning of our day — what sluggards might we be deemed ! Above all, let us do away the evil thing, and check that growing indifference to religion which is spreading, by fatal example, even from many of our high places to the lowest ranks of our people, and brings us under the reproach of Solomon, when he cries out: " Wherefore is there a price set in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it? "* " If Christ had not come and spoken to us, we had not known sin ; but now we have no cloak for sin."f '•And better had it been for us never to have known the way of right- eousness, than, after we have known it, to turn from the holy command- ment delivered unto us. "J Forbid it, gracious God, that we should ever thus turn ourselves back from the truths made known to us in Christ Jesus! Our sins and ingratitude to thee, our great Creator, having been in many respects like those of the Jews, let us follow their best example, and not only resolve, but swear, as they did in the days of good king Asa, that we will henceforth support the honor of our Christian calling, nor suffer among us those who deny the being of their Creator, who are enemies to the religion of their country, and trample under foot its holy ordinances. Let us swear to amend our lives, to walk for the future in true holiness before God ; to venerate and obey * Prov. xvii. 16. f John xv. 22. 400 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \}79o his laws, and the laws of our country; to support its constitution, and defend our religious and civil liberties ; to seek for health and wealth in honest labor and virtue; to attend to the right education of our chil- dren; to encourage and promote those arts and sciences which tend to rear up good men and good citizens; to disseminate human happiness, and to distinguish the civilized man from the barbarous savage, firmly resolving to adorn our station, in all the relations of life, whether as good magistrates, good fathers, good husbands, good brothers, faithful friends, and, in a word, as honest men and useful citizens. Are you ready to swear to this? Yea, I trust, you have sworn already, and that we may now lift up our voice in songs of gratitude to God for our full deliverance from the late calamity, and that our prayers, praises and thanksgivings will be as a sweet incense, holy and acceptable before Him! " Wherefore, O Lord God, who hath thus wounded us for our trans- gressions, by thy late heavy visitation, but now in the midst of judgment, remembering mercy, hast redeemed our souls from the jaws of death, we offer unto thy fatherly goodness ourselves, our souls and bodies, which thou hast thus delivered, to be a living sacrifice unto Thee; always praising and magnifying Thy mercies in the midst of the church, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Amen. One of the finest of the series of discourses of which we are now speaking is one upon the final destruction of the world. Our author goes over the whole of the sacred Scriptures, showing from the Old Testament, as from the New, that fire, a universal con- flagration, is to be the terrible agency of the great Jehovah in this awful consummation of all things. We have said elsewhere that Dr. Smith was not learned in the dogmatic or polemical writings of the Church of England. Indeed he was not so in that class of writings of any church. His tastes, whether natural or cultivated, did not incline to them ; and his office of Provost did not call upon him to make an enforced acquisition of any special sort of lore, in oppugnancy to his natural and cultivated tastes. He was not a teacher of theology. But if he lacked anything of fulness here, he more than supplied it by a thorough knowledge of every part of the Holy Scriptures ; the result, it must have been, of early, long and continuous reading of them. The sermon of which we now speak, and which we commend to the reading of any one who possesses Maxwell's edition of Dr. Smith's works, is an illus- tration as full as any other of Dr. Smith's discourses of what wc say. It is a discourse from which we cannot well make extracts. IJ93] RKV- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 4OI Though having fine outbreaks of eloquence and descriptive power, it is as a whole that it is most remarkable, and remarkable chiefly for the evidence which it gives of its author's wide and close read- ing of the Scriptures, of his capacity to arrange his Biblical lore with strength and effect, to bear upon his general proposition. YVe pass, therefore, in conclusion, to a sermon upon the joys of heaven; not that it is his greatest sermon, but because it is one from which we can most easily make extracts. After some words of preface he begins : These joys are now to be our ravishing theme. But although we may- feel the consolations to be derived from the prospects and hopes of in- heriting them, yet how shall we paint or describe that which "Eye* hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him; but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit ; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." Some description of them may, however, be given from the experience of what gives gen- uine pleasure or pain to us in this world, and especially from some pas- sages of the inspired writers in sacred Scripture who were favored with certain visions or short glimpses of the beatific bliss and glory. The Apostle f has said many things generally concerning the happi- ness of heaven, as far as human language can go, as, for example, he describes it, in comparison with all we have seen, or can see in this world, as " a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." " For our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; for the things which are seen are temporal ; but the things which are not seen are eternal." Here, then, is the great distinction. If the things which men deem most valuable in this world were to be held forever, they would be content to enjoy them here forever; but when they know that they are perishable and temporal here, and that in heaven they will be lasting and eternal, wise men must soon be determined in their choice. Howsoever far any description of the joys of heaven may fall short of the truth, it is hoped the souls of men may be animated by the pros- pect of enjoying them, and be thereby persuaded to cast off every evil habit that would render them unfit for that holy place, or stop them in their glorious progress thither ; for these joys are too spiritual and sub- lime— too full of glory and goodness to be ever tasted by a man who carries with him a heart wedded to this world and polluted with its wickedness. It was the punishment inflicted upon Adam's first trans- * I Cor. ii. 9, 10. Isa. iv. 4. f 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. 26 402 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \_l79Z gression, that " the* very ground was cursed for his sake; that in sor- row he and his posterity should eat of it all the days of their lives; that it should bring forth thorns and thistles; that in sorrow and in the sweat of the face they should eat bread all the days of their lives until their return to the ground, from whence they were taken ; for dust we are and unto dust we must return." "All things here," says Solomon, f "are full of labor; man cannot utter it." "Man is born unto trou- ble," saith Job,! "as the sparks fly upward." But in Christ's kingdom, where sin cannot enter and divine righteousness must forever prevail, there shall be a glorious and eternal rest from labor, both of body and soul. There shall be no more anxieties nor cares concerning the future, nor strifes, nor frauds, nor violence concerning the present ; but, instead thereof, there shall be perpetual tranquillity of enjoyment ; attentive to the voice of God, the harmony of the spirits of just men made perfect and of the church triumphant in heaven. And now, first, with respect to those who labor and are heavy-laden in this world, and who may be ready to sink under their burden, heaven is described as a rest from their labor. St. John, in the Revelation, saith, " Blessed are the dead, who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labors ;"§ "and there remaineth (saith St. Paul) a rest for the people of God. Let us therefore strive to enter into that rest ; for it is a glorious rest, saith the prophet Isaiah." 2. The happiness of heaven is also figured to us by the metaphor of peace. " Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace. "j| " The righteous are taken from the evil to come, that they may enter into peace." This peace, to men who are born at enmity with God and all good- ness, must be unspeakably desirous. To have our consciences quieted against future apprehensions of sin, disobedience and punishment; to have our souls purified from all the fell passions and inclinations of de- generate nature, from malice, anger, wrath, clamor, evil speaking ; to have our hearts opened to the divine impressions and inexpressible sweets of love and friendship, which unite the spirits of the just and call them, with the accordant voice of joy and happiness, to pour forth before the throne of God their unwearied anthems of adoration and praise. This is happiness, indeed, to all who love peace and seek for relief from discord, strife and care. . 3. Again, the Scriptures, addressing the devotees of worldly riches and wealth, represent the joys of heaven as a treasure — a treasure which cannot be consumed, but shall ever abound and flourish — "a treasure which neither moth nor rust can corrupt ; which thieves cannot break through, nor steal ; which cannot take wings and fly away in our need, * Gen. iii. 17, 18, 19. f F.ccles. i. 8. % Job v. 7. \ Rev. xiv. 13. |[ Ps. xxxvii. 37. 1793] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 4°3 and which shall remain our portion and inheritance forever." For, in the " new Jerusalem we shall drink and be satisfied out of the rivers that flow by the throne of God, whose waters are pure as crystal, and shall cat the fruit of the tree of life, whose leaves heal the nations."* Some there are, likewise, whose whole lives are devoted to the pursuit of what they call pleasure. Now, to draw their attention, the happiness of heaven is called "pleasures for evermore," nay, rivers of pleasure, which do not cloy the taste, enfeeble the body, unnerve the very soul, and generally terminate in poverty, shame, disease and death ; but the pleasures of heaven, when we shall have put on immortality, instead of weakening and wearying the powers of the soul, more and more inspire it with renewed vigor, exalting it to the strength of angels, and a taste for happiness as boundless and sublime as are the employments in which we shall be engaged and the objects with which we shall be forever sur- rounded, f 4. There are others again who, in this life, consider power and do- minion and worldly grandeur as the supreme happiness. To them, also, the bliss of heaven is represented as glory, honor, power and dominion eternal. " The upright shall have dominion over the wicked in the morning of the resurrection — in that everlasting king- dom which Christ shall establish, wherein they only who are rich in faith shall be the joyous heirs." No outward enemy shall ever be able to rob or despoil the righteous of this honor and dominion, to which they shall be exalted with the angels on high, in subordination to the King of kings, to execute his high commands and to be his ministers of love through the infinite bounds of his creation. We shall then have true glory and dominion, eclipsing beyond comparison all the little pageantry of what we call glory here. For we shall receive from Christ himself a crown of life and diadem of glory. The veil of our present weakness and ignorance shall be taken away; we shall behold with open face, and in beatific vision, the glory of the living God; and not only behold, but be changed into the image of him, and advanced from glory to glory, through endless duration. But we must proceed a little farther in considering the circumstances of this heavenly glory, to which we are called to aspire. And it con- sists not only in the perfection to which we ourselves shall be advanced, but in the place, the company and the employ to which we shall be admitted — even unto Mount Zion, the city of the living God — the heavenly Jerusalem — the company of the innumerable hosts of angels ; the delightful employment of rising and mixing and joining in their songs of praise, in the instruction to be derived from their conversation, whose faculties are enlarged beyond our present comprehension ; who * Rev. xxii. I, 2. f See a fine passage in Cudworth's " Intellectual System," which led to this thought. 404 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [j793 are filled with the knowledge of great and wonderful things, each of them happy in himself and rejoicing in the happiness of each other. If, therefore, love and friendship complete; if rest and peace undis- turbed ; if treasure and riches which cannot decay ; if power and do- minion secure from every foe — if these can constitute a happy society, with the everlasting God, and Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and the blessed Spirit of grace ruling at the head of all, and supplying and diffusing new irradiations of love and goodness, and perfection without measure, to all eternity — if this be happiness. But I am lost in the contemplation and description of its immensity — in the joy to be derived from the vision of God, the displays of his love, the fellowship of spirits so highly exalted, the raptures of converse and union, with intelligences so perfect and enlarged, so full of all that is great and good and heavenly, having the whole works of God, and all the ways and wonders of his Providence, which we now so little understand, as the everlasting objects of their investigation and praise. " The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. How manifold are his works — in wisdom hath he made them all." "This is the language of good men, even in this world." But how small a portion of his ways and works do we now understand ! In the blessed world above it will not be so. Here, in- deed, we may examine a little corner of this little speck of earth ; we may strive hardly to analyze a plant, a flower, an animated substance, and think to explain the laws of vegetable and animal motion. We may assist our dim sight to view some planets and stars, which we call distant and that traverse a small portion of universal space ; but all that fills tha immeasurable tracts beyond lies hid from our keenest search. Yet, still, if that little, which is subjected to our limited view, appears so great, so beautiful, and wonderfully grand and harmonious to an in- quisitive mind, with what rapture shall we be filled when, with faculties more enlarged, we shall be enabled to survey all the works of God, to have for our instructors and associates the angels that have surrounded his throne from the morning of the creation ; to teach us on what the foundations of the earth were laid ; from whence are the springs of the sea, and the treasures of snow and hail ; what kindles the lightning's blaze, and gives the thunder its loud and solemn voice ; to count all the stars and all the suns and planets that fill infinite space ; to understand the laws by which they are balanced and suspended and guided in their unerring revolutions; and, when understanding this, to sing with those morning angels of joy, as they did at the first creation, as we behold world after world filled with happiness; to take the harp, in company with those that have overcome, and join in the song of Moses, the ser- vant of God, and song of the Lamb — "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty ! Just and tru^ are thy ways, thou King of kings." *793] REV- WILLIAM SMI TIL D. D. 405 My Christian brethren ! — candidates for eternity ! — leave me not yet. Stretch your imaginations still forward to greater objects and a more ample field. If such be the joy in contemplating God's works as in a glass, by reflected vision, what must it be to contemplate and draw near to himself, when we shall be permitted and enabled to look on his re- splendent countenance, to behold him as he is, and to see even as we are seen? What will it be to rise from the contemplation of created and material worlds to the world of spirits, the history of their achievements, and all the changes, revolutions and improvements of their condition ? But on this subject I dare not venture a further sentiment that might draw us from the contemplation of that final happiness, purchased for us through the blood of our Redeemer — the consummation of which happiness will consist in the pure vision and enjoyment of God himself, who, if he is so good "to those whose hearts are perfect towards him on this earth that his eyes run to and fro, to make himself strong for them; if he withholds no good thing from those that love him in this world ; if he openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every thing that liveth," even where sin is mixed with our best services ; how great will be the happiness to see and feel his goodness when we are exalted into his presence ; to taste of his love flowing freely, when there is no sin to come between our souls and his gracious countenance; "when we are brought fully to understand and taste the depth of the riches, both of his wisdom and knowledge, and also of his goodness and long suffering ; who brought us out of the mire and clay of our sins ; who set our feet upon the rock of his promises, and ordered our goings, and comforted us on our way, until he brought us into his own holy presence?" Let me, then, exhort you to dwell often in the meditations of those joys which I have endeavored to describe ; and whilst our eyes are thus lifted towards heaven and glory, all that would fetter and bind us down to the vain enjoyment of this world will disappear. Let us bear our view constantly forward to that time when, washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb, we shall stand before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple; when our happiness shall be complete and without end; " when we shall neither hunger nor thirst any more ; neither shall the sun light on us nor any heat ; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed us, and shall conduct us to living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe all tears from our eyes." In treating of the awful mysteries, through which our text has led us, and especially what relates to future events, and the changes and revo- lutions in the destiny of man, which are yet to come, we may have erred in part ; and we can never be secure against error, in attempting the explanation of those mysteries which Providence has been pleased to open to us, as yet only in part ; and which will never be fully under- stood, till unveiled to us by the light, to which we shall be admitted in the world to come. 4-06 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1793 "In the meantime, let u.5 faithfully, and with good conscience, ac- cording to our best understanding, strive to retain the form of sound words and doctrine, concerning the immortality of the soul ; the resur- rection of the dead, a judgment to come, the rewards and punishments of a future life, over which Christ's throne will be established in right- eousness, and his kingdom and dominion be forever." The Christian religion has no fruits more precious than those which sweeten our cup of affliction in life, exhilarate us to combat death, and assure our hopes of a better world. Natural religion, and all the other religions which have been professed among men, could go but a short way even in teaching them how to live ; but in teaching them how to die, there remained a dismal and dreadful blank. Before the Christian revelation, death was only a leap into the dark, a wrench from the pre- cincts of day, at which the astonished soul shuddered and recoiled. But now the gospel lifts our eye to immortal scenes. It unlocks eter- nity before us. It shows us a reconciled God, and Jesus the Mediator seated on his right hand. It teaches, that through his merits, the just shall live forever, passing from one degree of glory to another, and entering still more deeply into the beatific vision and enjoyment of God the Father, as their faculties are more and more enlarged and ex- panded And now, O blessed God ! Father, Son and Holy Ghost, guide and assist us in our preparations for this celestial bliss ; and be our rock and salvation through all the scenes we have to pass towards its attainment. Amen ! These nine sermons are among the best of Dr. Smith's dis- courses. They added to his fame already great. They exhibit an intimate acquaintance with all parts of the Holy Scriptures: and give evidence that his mental powers, with advancing years, had in nowise decayed, but, as usually happens, where those powers were originally good and where the moral principles and conduct had been sound, only ripened and grew more worthy of admiration and respect. All these sermons, it is an agreeable fact for me to mention, were preached by Dr. Smith not only gratuitously, but also with the certainty that no pecuniary compensation would be received. The desolation of the city, even after the plague had been stayed, was, for a long time, great, and involved all pecuniary interests, including those of the churches. Some of the principal parish- ioners of the United Churches had died during the pestilence. Universal leniency towards debtors was necessary, while the de- 1794] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 407 mands upon the church funds for the persons reduced to want by the death of fathers, brothers and friendly protectors, was greatly increased. Dr. Smith, before preaching them, had been informed that it was not in the power of the vestry to offer any expectation of a reward : and he declared at once that he had no expectation of any emolument ; and would cheerfully perform without pecu- niary compensation his part of the duties required at the two churches as should be agreed upon between him, the rector and Dr. Blackwell. CHAPTER LVIII. Dr. Smith Devotes Himself to Internal Improvement through the Union Canal Scheme — 1 1 is Half-brother, Thomas Smith, Appointed to the Bench of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania— Death of John Penn — Dr. Smith Preaches on the Subject of Itinerant Missions -Also at Funeral of Col. Joseph Rudulph — Also before the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania — General Convention of 1795 — Consecration to the Episcopate of South Carolina of Dr. Robert Smith — Dr. William Smith Preaches the Consecration Sermon, also that of Edward Bass — Occupied with the Proceedings of the Illinois and Ouachita Land Companies, and with Introducing Supplies of Drinking Water in 10 Philadelphia— Presents a Hell to the County of Huntingdon for its CoURT-HoU^E— BlRTH OF RICHARD PENN SMITH. We have nothing of a striking or of a public character to record for some time now in the life of Dr. Smith, and are compelled, therefore, to give to the reader such small or fragmentary matters as we can gather from Dr. Smith's memoranda. Just before the breaking out of the Yellow Fever, he had been devoting his attention to matters connected with the Union Canal Scheme, in which he had largely interested himself, visiting the several springs and waters, tributary to the canal, at their sources and heights. He now sought, by working them out to their re- sults, to give effect to his various studies and labors in this im- portant public work. His diary records, under date of January 31st, 1794, the ap- pointment of his half-brother, the Hon. Thomas Smith,* to a seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the State, an appointment * For an account of Judge Smith, see Appendix, No. VIII. 408 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l795 by which Dr. Smith seems to have been much gratified ; as he may well have been by the credit with which this brother filled, as he long continued to fill, this responsible and then, at least when the tenure was for life, dignified position. On the 9th of February he notes the death of his friend, the Hon. John Penn,* at Pennsbury, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, aged sixty-seven. Mr. Penn was buried in Christ Church, Phila- delphia. Among the persons present at the funeral was the Prince de Talleyrand ; at that time an exile in our country from France. On the 6th of April, in the year 1795, Dr. Smith preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, a sermon from St. Mark, vi. 34, as an introduction to a plan for the encouragement of itinerant preachers or missionaries on the frontier settlements of the United States, as agreed upon at a convention held in New York, in September, 1792. On the 7th of April he preached at the funeral of Colonel Joseph Rudulph, at the Swedish church at Kingsessing. This Joseph Rudulph was the father of Mrs. Ann Smith, wife of William Moore Smith, Esq. He entered the army at the out- break of the Revolution, took an active part in the South with Lee, spent the winter of 1778 at Valley Forge, reached the rank of colonel, and resigned his commission at the end of the war. The account of the Rudulph family, in the note below, is taken from an old Bible belonging to the family, f *This was not the Hon. John Penn, who had taken such an interest in Dr. Smith and the college, in the years 1762-4. He was the eldest son of the Hon. Richard Penn, and was born in England in 172S. He visited America in 1753 and also in 1773, and was the last proprietary governor. He married Ann Allen, daughter of the Hon. William Allen, Chief-Justice of the Province. After the Revolution he retired 10 his seat at Pennsbury. His remains were subsequently transferred for interment to- England. — Ed. ■fjohn Rudulph, born August 25th, 1719; died December 101I1, 1768. Mary Rudulph, born August 13th, 17 19 ; died March 1 6th, 1795. The above were married January 20th, 1740, and had the following issue: Joseph Rudulph (afterwards Colonel), born December 23d, 1741 ; died April 4th, 1795- Jacob Rudulph, born May 28th, 1744; died March 14th, 1795. Ann Rudulph, born November 1 2th, 1 746. John Rudulph, born June 3d, 1749; died September 3d, 1789. Hannah Rudulph, born June 6th, 1752. Benjamin Rudulph, born May nth, 1762; died September 23d, 1762. Colonel Joseph Rudulph married a Swedish lady by the name Yocuni, and had issue : Joseph. 1 795] Kl:v- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 4O9 On St. John's day, the 24th of June, 1795, Dr. Smith preached in St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, before the Grand Lodge of Communication. This was the last Masonic Sermon preached by him. He seems to have given satisfaction to the fraternity, since the minutes of the day record that after the discourse it was Resolved, That the Committee of Arrangements be requested to wait on our Reverend Brother, Dr. Smith, with the thanks of this Lodge, for the discourse by him delivered on this day, and request the favor of a copy of the same for publication, and that one thousand copies thereof be printed at the expense of the Grand Lodge. On the 8th of September, in this same year of 1795, the Gen- eral Convention of the F^piscopal Church met in Christ Church, Philadelphia. Dr. Smith was unanimously chosen President. Bishop Provoost preached the occasional sermon. At this con- vention the Rev. Dr. Robert Smith, who had been elected by the church in South Carolina as their Bishop, was consecrated on Sunday, September 13th. Dr. Smith (as he was requested to do) preached the consecration sermon. On the next day it was in convention Resolved, unanimously. That the thanks of this House be presented to the Rev. Dr. Smith for his sermon delivered at the consecration of the Right Rev. Dr. Robert Smith, and that he be desired to furnish a copy of the same to be printed. The convention continued its sessions until the 18th of Sep- tember, when it was Resolved, That the thanks of this house be given to the President, Dr. Smith, for his able and impartial management in his place. Before the rising of the convention a standing committee was appointed consisting of representatives from every State. Dr. Smith was appointed to be its chairman, with power to call them together. During the year 1796 I find but little of interest in regard to the subject of our biography. On Sunday, May 7th, he preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, upon the occasion of the conse- Ann, born 1762; married William Moore Smith, and died 1846. Elizabeth; married Mr. Franks, of Reading, Pa. Jncob, Lydia, always lived with her sister, Mrs. Smith; died, unmarried, 1844. 4-IQ LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [j799 cration of the Right Rev. Edward Bass, D.D., as Bishop of Massa- chusetts and New Hampshire. The reader will notice that this was the third consecration of a Bishop in America, and Dr. Smith preached on each occasion. The latter part of the year found the hitherto healthy and vig- orous subject of our memoir considerably broken in health. I discover in it none of his correspondence and little of his manu- script. He bemoans the loss of his friend Rittenhouse, who had died the 26th of June; records the birth of a grandson (Samuel Wemyss Smith, son of William Moore Smith), on the 1st of Sep- tember ; mentions the fact of his son William being elected Grand Master of the Masons ; and that the roof was burnt off the old academy on Fourth street below Arch, on the night of Decem- ber 30th. I here, to some extent, lose sight of him for three years, during which time he remained chiefly at the Falls of Schuylkill ; en- gaged, I presume, in putting into order the title papers and maps of his extensive landed estates in different parts of the Common- wealth, and in making clear and intelligible accounts of what was due him on the sales of them. During the year 1790 he gave to the public a work in 8vo., entitled, "An account of the Proceedings of the Illinois and Ouabache Land Companies, in pursuance of their purchases made of the Independent Natives, July 5th, 1773, and October 18th, 1775, with map of New Jersey." This volume was printed in Philadelphia. He was also much occupied with the subject of introducing water of the Schuylkill river into Philadelphia, and in January, 1799, by request of the Council of Philadelphia, he prepared and published a pamphlet on this subject, entitled, "Remarks on a Second Publication of B. Henry Latrobe, Engineer." This was for distribution among the members of the Legislature. In the same month of January, 1799, he presented a bell to the borough of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, for the court-house. It was one of some size, weighing two hundred and fifty-four pounds, and had inscribed upon it : Cast by Samuel Parker, Philadelphia, 1798. William Smith, D.D., to the borough of Huntingdon, Juniata. iSoo] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 4' I After being used on the court-house until May, 1848, it was placed upon the public school-house, and remained in use there until December 12th, 1 861, on the morning of which day, a very cold and frosty one, on ringing it for school, it was suddenly cracked. I now find in Dr. Smith's diary the following entry : March 13th, 1799. The wife of my son, William Moore Smith', gave birth to a son, whom they call Richard Pom, after his honor, Richard Penn, Esq. Of this grandson of Dr. Smith, so long a well-known citizen of Philadelphia, my readers will, I trust, excuse a son's affection, if I give, in the conclusion of this volume, some little sketch of his life and literary labors.* On June nth, 1799, the General Convention met again in Christ Church, Philadelphia. Dr. Smith was again elected Presi- dent. At this convention, however, he was too feeble to take an active part. He was placed, nevertheless, upon a Committee to draft a Course of Study, for candidates for holy orders. I find no account of the committee having made a report. It is probable — indeed it would seem almost certain — that the Course proposed by Bishop White at a subsequent convention, that of 1804, had from his old friend and preceptor at least a general approval. CHAPTER LIX. Dr. Smith III at Lancaster— Letter to his son, William Moore Smith — Death of Governor Mifflin — Dr. Smith preaches a Guarded Funeral Sermon upon him — Gilbert Stuart makes a Portrait of Dr. Smith — Several copies and engravings made of it — Bust made by Storke — Gen- eral Convention of 1801 — Dr. Smith present at it, but too feeble to take much part in it — builds and inscribes a mausoleum — death of his Sister and his man Primus — His last Will. The early part of this year (1800) found Dr. Smith ill at the house of his son, Charles, in the city of Lancaster. He makes mention of this sickness in his will. We have a letter to one of his sons at *See Appendix No. IX. 412 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [ I SOC Philadelphia, written at this time, and curiously indicative of his sense of local order and of the care which he gave his papers. I infer from the letter that the Doctor contemplated having some alterations made in his study, or to have it papered or painted, and was solicitous about keeping his "great chest" and "small red trunk" together. Dr. Smith to William Moore Smith.* Lancaster, January 21st, 1800. My Dear Son: I wish you to ride out now and then to Schuylkill, to see how my people there are going on ; and the first time you go out get Bell (the Doctor's sister) to open rny room, and in the open closet by the window you will see a small red trunk containing MSS., sermons and other papers; also some books on the shelves. I wish them all to be lifted out and laid on or by the great chest or trunk of papers, lest they should be forgot. If any occasion should be (which I hope will not be) to remove the large chest — or without your moving the little red trunk and books out of the closet — they may stand, and it may be sufficient if you put Bell in mind to move them if necessary to move anything else. If you have any windows opened in the room, you will see that they are again shut as I left them. Write to me, directing to Chambersburg, where I shall remain with the judges till the mail arrives. Your affectionate father, William Smith. While at Lancaster, Thomas Mifflin, long the Governor of Penn- sylvania, died on the 25th of January. Resolutions were passed by the Legislature expressive of his Excellency's merits and his services as a soldier and a statesman, and providing for his inter- ment at the public expense and for the erection of a monument to his memory. Dr. Smith was requested by the new Governor, the Senate and House of Representatives, to deliver a commemorative sermon. This sermon was never published, and there was little in it not of a general nature. While Dr. Smith, of course, could not decline a public request to preach at least a " Regulation " sermon on the death of a Governor of Pennsylvania, and especially of one long his near neighbor and personal acquaintance, and while he would have been very ready to admit the considerable place that Governor Mifflin will always hold among the governors of Pennsylvania — in early days the representatives of the Demo- * In the fine collection of autographs of F. J. Dreer, Esq. l8oo] A'/;/', WILLIAM SMITH, D. Z>. 413 cratic party, a party to which Dr. Smith did not belong — he was too well aware of the undeniably very large part that General Mifflin had in the "Conway cabal," of his hostility to the Com- mander-in-Chief, and of that commander's opinion of him* to go into much eulogy either of Governor Mifflin's integrity or his valor. Dr. Smith asks many questions, but answers none; he states many general truths, but leaves the hearer to apply them if he pleases. He is indeed amusingly cautious, saying very little more about the subject of his discourse than this: If we were called to power, rule and government over our fellow- men, then shall it be known whether we bartered our favors away for vile gain ! Whether we were open to the allurements of vi-ce, the blan- dishments of flattery, and the snares or seductions of party ! Or whether we made use of our influence and authority to support justice, to pro- tect innocence, to encourage virtue and to reward merit. I add no more. To this test of the use of power and exercise of gov- ernment, I may leave the character of the deceased. The honor done to his name by this public funeral, and the vote of a monument by the Legislature, to perpetuate his memory, will rescue his public virtue from public censure. Private frailties he had, as a man; but if they were in- jurious, it was only to himself — never to his friends or country ! Haste we, then, to commit his mortal part, with its mortal frailties, to its destined place — that yawning grave, where they will at last find rest — a safe asylum from worldly distress, the shafts of malice, and the persecutions of party. " His worth we seek no farther to disclose, Nor draw his frailties from that dread abode — Where they alike, in trembling hope, repose — The bosom of his Father and his God." — Gray. After the funeral Dr. Smith was removed to the Falls of Schuyl- kill, where he remained, more or less incommoded by indisposi- tion, during the year. It was at this time that Gilbert Stuart painted his celebrated picture of him. This picture is now (1880) in the possession of Dr. John Hill Brinton, of Philadelphia. It has been copied a number of times on canvas. In 1820 two copies were made in Lancaster, by an artist named Icholtz, for Richard Smith, Esq., of Huntingdon. A copy was also made by order of Dr. Perigrine Wroth, for Washington College, Chester- * See Sparks's Writings of Washington, Vol. V., pp. 483-518; 37J. 414 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l800 town, Md. In 1857 it was copied by Thomas Sully, for St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, and in 1872 by E. D. Marchand, by order of John Blodget Britton, Esq., for the University of Pennsylvania.* I have been informed that there is also a copy at Stoke, England, the residence of the Penn family. It has been engraved both on metal and on wood, etc. The best engraving on metal is that made by the great engraver, David Edwin, in 1803, for Maxwell's edition of Dr. Smith's works ;f but a creditable one was made lately by a young artist, George Herbert White, of Philadelphia. I have also had a plaster bust modelled by a young Florentine artist of rising fame named Carl Stork, which I have presented to the University. We have thus far seen Dr. Smith both an active and a principal person in nearly all our early church conventions. But this ac- tivity and this distinction was now soon to cease. The convention *The following resolutions were adopted by the Board of Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, March 5, 1872, at a meeting before which was laid Mr. Britton's note communicating his wish to offer the copy to the University: Resolved, That the gift of a portrait of Dr. William Smith, the first Provost of the College of Philadelphia — since the University of Pennsylvania — which J. Blodget Britton, Esq., proposes to make to the institution, by his letter of the 10th ultimo, be and the same is hereby gratefully accepted by the trustees. Resolved, That the eminent services rendered by Dr. Smith, in the founding of the institution, his extraordinary labors and success in procuring for it what in those early days was a magnificent endowment, and the deep, affectionate, and abiding interest which he continually manifested for its welfare and success, are deeply engraven in the history of the University and in the heart of all who have been honored with ad- ministration of its affairs. Resolved, That the Provost of the University be requested to receive the portrait of Dr. Smith, on behalf of the trustees, whenever it shall be ready for delivery, and place the same in the chapel of the University. Resolved, That a copy of the foregoing resolutions be transmitted to Mr. Britton by the Secretary of the Board, and that they also be published. Cadwalader Biddle, Secretary. f David Edwin, an Englishman, born at Bath, in December, 1776, was the son of John Edwin, a comedian. Young Edwin was apprenticed in his boyhood to Jossi, a Dutch engraver, who at this time was working in England, and who is said to have been a very complete artist and draughtsman. Jossi returned to Holland in 1796, and took David Edwin with him. The latter was a short time at Amsterdam, but left the country in the year 1797 in a ship bound to Philadelphia, via Havre, which took five months on the passage; and this conveyance Edwin obtained upon the vessel by work- ing before the mast. Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, in December, 1797, he sought employment, and the first work which he obtained was the engraving of music — work given him by T. B. Freeman. Edwin became famous in after time as an engraver of portraits, and he obtained the best work. He engraved many of Stuart's pictures, and many portraits of public men. He died in Philadelphia, Feb. 22, 1841, aged 63. iSOl] V. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 415 of 1 801 met in St. Michael's Church, Trenton, on Tuesday, Sep- tember 8th. Dr. Smith was at first disinclined to go to it; but Dr. Blackwell, his kind friend of ancient date, offering to take him in his own carriage, he accompanied this excellent gentleman. He was, however, in a feeble condition, and declined to act as president. The Rev. Abraham Beach, D. D., of New Brunswick, in New Jersey, was accordingly elected in his stead. While oh- serving them intelligently, Dr. Smith took but little active part in the proceedings, and his last act, in this the last convention in which he ever assisted, was to propose a canon making an addition to the first canon of 1795, on the subject of Episcopal Visitations. The addition was read and adopted, and sent to the House of Bishops, who immediately concurred in it. He was brought back to Philadelphia by Dr. Blackwell, assisted by a Maryland friend, the Rev. John Coleman,* at that time rector of St. Thomas Church, Baltimore. During the latter part of this year Dr. Smith prepared a mauso- leum on his estate, at the Falls of Schuylkill, with the following inscription over the door: Anno Christi 1801 Gulielmus Smith, S. T. P. Tunc astat. 75. Hoc Parvulum Mausoleum Ixstituit M. S. Sui et conjugis cars Rebeccae. Sobolisque Eorum. Ouotquot hie jaccnt, Quotquot alibi Cognoscere Velles Intra disccs Lector. Among Dr. Smith's papers I find the following inscription in his handwriting directed to Mr. Latrobe, the architect, which I suppose he had intended to use: "John Coleman, a native of Virginia — ordained by Bishop White in 17S7. He became rector of St. John's, Baltimore and Harford counties; in 1799 of St. Thomas, Baltimore county; in 1806 of St. James, Baltimore county, and of Christ Church, Har- ford, also, which he erected. He was convention preacher in 1795, member of the Standing Committee seventeen times, and five times delegate to the General Conven- tion. He published the autobiography and letters of Devereaux Jarratt. Died 1S16, aged 53. 4l6 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l8oi M. S. Gulielmi Smith, S. T. P. Conjugis quoque ejus dilectae Rebeccae, Scbolisque eorum quotquot hie inhumabuntur Nomina intus discas. Hanc domum Sept., 1800. Ego G. S. tunc vivus aetat. 74 mihi et meis paravi In qua mortui, spe Resurrectionis in Christo quiescamus Ossibus nostris quisquis es Viator Obsecro. The new structure was not long without an occupant. On the 1st of February, 1801, Isabella Smith, the much-loved sister of the Doctor, died at the Falls, and on the following evening her body was deposited in the mausoleum. The Falls soon had another visitation from "the grisly mon- arch." On the 10th of May, 1801, Primus, the faithful body-ser- vant of Dr. Smith, died. He was buried outside the mausoleum. Dr. Smith had a great regard for Primus, whom he had bought as a child in Maryland, in 1783, and who had been constantly by his side for nearly twenty years. When he died, the Doctor remarked that he had been so long Primus in this world that he was not likely to be Sccundus, he thought, in the world to come. These various deaths, which in different ways were so near to him, were calculated to bring forcibly before the venerable subject of our biography a likelihood that the great change would soon overtake himself. To one so deeply reflective, however, no such warnings were necessary. His mind was always and fully awake to the necessity both of spiritual and temporal preparation for the "inevitable hour." He now made his will, a document which is so interesting, and which reveals so rrjuch of his character, that I venture to transcribe it entire: The last will and testament of William Smith, D. D., of the North- ern Liberties of the city of Philadelphia, and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In the name of God. — Amen. I, William Smith, D. D., formerly and for many years Provost of the College Academy and charitable schools of the city of Philadelphia, now resident on my farm at the Falls of Schuylkill, in the Northern Liberties of said city, and Com- monwealth of Pennsylvania, being devoutly thankful to Almighty God, 1802] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. \\J my great and gracious Creator, that amidst the many visitations of sickness and mortality which I have been called to witness in the place of my late residence, the city of Philadelphia, and the bereavements in my own family during those visitations, He hath been pleased to spare me to a very advanced age, and to raise me up and restore me so far from a late dangerous sickness, in the borough of Lancaster, during the months of January and February, 1S00, and also a late severe sickness in February, 1802, that I am now able (in respect to strength of body and soundness of mind, the last of which he hath at all times graciously preserved to me both in sickness and in health during the whole period of my life) to set my household in order and to stand prepared through his grace for my grea'; change. Therefore, I do make, publish and de- clare this as my last will and testament. In the first place, I recommend and bequeath my soul to Almighty God, who gave it, trusting in him for the forgiveness of my sins and salvation, through the merits and intercession of his blessed Son, Jesus Christ, grounded on a firm belief of the truths of Divine Revelation as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament (and as I have endeavored to teach and preach them through the grace given me) with all zeal and fidelity, during a long period of near fifty years ; striv- ing for the propagation of heavenly knowledge and wisdom amongst all the nations of the earth, and especially amongst those who yet sit in darkness and the shadow of death through this American continent to its remotest western bounds. As to my body, whensoever God shall be pleased to call it from the light of this world, and to close my eyes in death, I will it to a plain Christian interment in the place and in the manner hereinafter directed. Concerning my worldly estate and goods with which it hath pleased God to bless my lawful, and I trust honest, industry (being conscious of no wrong done or intended to any man in the acquisition of the same), I will and dispose of it as follows — that is to say: First. My funeral expenses being first paid, I will and ordain that my just debts (which are at present but few and small, the debt to my dear brother Thomas excepted) be n#ext, and as soon as possible fully and fairly paid and discharged out of my personal estate, so far as it will reach, and then, if need be, out of any part of my real estate, which I empower them to sell and convey in fee for this purpose. Respecting which, having always considered it to be the duty of a parent, after a good and virtuous education of his children, according to his station in life, as far as his abilities and a due measure of prudence will allow ; and having upon those principles given or conveyed to my children respec- tively, with an equal and impartial hand, a considerable part of my property, as they came of age (or as their settlement and advancement in life seemed to require), and having confirmed the same by separate 27 41 8 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [_l802 deeds or grants to each of them, with such limitations and reversions, etc., respecting some parts of my estate as I thought proper, this my present last will and testament needs therefore only to regard my residuary estate as it may be at the time of my death ; which I will and ordain to be divided into five parts or shares as nearly of equal value (quantity and quality considered) as can be estimated. One share or fifth part of the same to my son William. One other share or fifth among the children or legal representatives of my dear deceased daughter Wiiliamina, share and share alike. One other share or fifth part to my son Charles in fee. One other share or fifth part to my son Richard in fee. And the remaining fifth part or share to the Hon. Thomas Smith, Esq., of the city of Philadelphia, the Right Rev. Bishop White, of the said city, and the Hon. Jasper Yeates, Esq., of the borough of Lancaster, and to the survivors and survivor and the heirs of such survivor, in trust for the use of my daughter Rebecca and her children, or legal representatives, at the time of her decease, as set forth more at large in my Deed of Trust to them. And if such division cannot be made amicably by the devisees afore- said, the same shall be made according to law on the application of any one or more of them. It having now pleased God to enable me to bring this my last will towards a conclusion, although hastily, yet with a pure and sincere in- tention to do equal justice to all my children and family, I recommend them to the blessing of the Almighty, charging them that, from regard to my memory, the education I have bestowed on them, my anxiety to provide for and assist them in gaining comfortable settlements in life, they will always preserve a mutual affection one to another; and as I have endeavored to express my intention clearly in this will, with equal affection to all of them, I trust the said intention will be their guide and Pole star in the interpretation of the same, and that no want of legal form in the meaning or matter will ever be made a cause by any of them to contravene that intention. Item. I do hereby direct that my funeral may be plain and decent, and that my body, wheresoever my death may happen, may be conveyed (if it can be done with any possible .safety and convenience) and de- posited in the middle grave prepared by me in the small mausoleum and cenotaph, which I have erected in my garden, near my present dwelling house, at the Falls of Schuylkill, and that the ashes of my dear wife and my two infant children, Phineas and Elizabeth (buried by her side in Christ Church burying-ground), be taken up and enclosed in an urn and deposited in the same grave with me during the next winter, if I should not live to execute that mournful but sacred duty myself, in pur- suance of the promise which my good friend Bishop White hath given me of obtaining leave to open the ground for that purpose when I may think it convenient. l802] REl\ WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 4'9 I do further direct that the figure of the angel coming down from heaven, having in one hand a little book, open, and setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the earth, with the other hand lifted up to heaven, in the act of swearing or proclaiming, etc. (as in Rev. x.), proposed for the top of the mausoleum, be not forgot, and that Mr. Rush, the carver, be expedited to finish and put up the same ac- cording to his promise; that the words " Time shall be no more " be cut on the small marble, above the large marble containing the inscrip- tion over the door on the outside; that the letters of the said inscription be painted black, or some other color to make them easily legible from the ground. Item. I will and devise that a decent tombstone may be soon erected over the grave of my dear deceased son, Thomas Duncan Smith, ex- pressive of that parental affection which he enjoyed and deserved during his life; and the singular estimation in which he was held as a physician and the first magistrate elected by the inhabitants of the county of Huntingdon after its erection, conducting himself with such benevo- lence, assiduities, abilities and disinterestedness in both characters that his memory continues and is likely to continue long precious to the citizens of that county, and especially among the poor, whose civil differences he generally reconciled without the rigor of legal process, and to whose bodily ails and family affliction he administered comfort and relief to the last moment of his short life, without charging, and seldom ever accepting, a fee or emolument of office. Let all this be expressed in simple and modest terms, for monuments of the dead are too often like life itself — a short and transient vanity, unless they are sanctioned by the public voice. Item. I here ordain and direct that fourteen mourning rings, of the value of twenty dollars each, be prepared and given by my executors; that is, one ring as a token of my love to each of the following persons: my beloved relations or friends; that is to say, my dear sisters-in-law, Mrs. Williamina Bond, Mrs. Ann Ridgely and Mrs. Letitia Smith; Mrs. Ennals, of Shoal Creek, Dorset county, Maryland; my daughter- in-law, Mrs. Mary Smith, of Lancaster; my daughter Rebecca; my grand-daughter, Sarah Yerbury Goldsborough ; my three sons, William Moore Smith, Charles Smith and Richard Smith, viz., one ring each; my dear brother, the Hon. Thomas Smith, Esq. ; my dear friends, the Hon. Jasper Yeates, Esq., the Right Rev. William White, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsylvania, and Benjamin R. Morgan, Esq., counsellor at law in the city of Philadelphia, one ring each. Lastly, I do hereby constitute and appoint my dear brother, the Hon. Thomas Smith, Esq., of the city of Philadelphia, my worthy friends, the Hon. Jasper Yeates, Esq., of the borough of Lancaster, the Right Rev. William White, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsylvania, and Benjamin R. Morgan, Esq., counsel- 420 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l8o2 lor at law, of the city of Philadelphia, and the survivors and survivor of them to be executors of this my last will and testament written in eight pages. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this four- teenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and two — hereby revoking all former wills, codicils, etc. William Smith, D. D. Signed, declared and published as and for the last will and testament of William Smith, D. D., in the presence of us who have subscribed our names as witnesses in the testator's presence and at his request. James Riddle, Eliza Smith, Wm. Rudolph Smith. Codicil to the last will and testament of William Smith, D. D. : Whereas, Since the execution of my said last will and testament, bearing date July the fourteenth, one thousand eight hundred and two, I have thought it proper, at the request of my executors therein named, to relieve them from the trouble of executorship; wherefore I do hereby revoke all that part of my said last will which constitutes and appoints my dear brother, the Hon. Thomas Smith, Esq., of the city of Phila- delphia, and my worthy friends, the Hon. Jasper Yeates, Esq., of the borough of Lancaster, and the Right Rev. William White, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsylvania, and the sur- vivors or survivor of them, to be executors of my said last will and testament. And in their room and stead I do hereby constitute and appoint my dear sons, William Moore Smith, Esq., Charles Smith, Esq., and Richard Smith, Esq., together with Benjamin R. Morgan, Esq., counsellor at law, of the city of Philadelphia, and the survivors or sur- vivor of them, to be executors of my last will and testament, before written in eight pages. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this third day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and three, hereby revoking all former codicils, etc. William Smith, D. D. {".} Signed, declared and published as and for the codicil to the last will and testament of William Smith, D. D., in the presence of us who have subscribed our names as witnesses in the testator's presence and at his request. Robert Kennedy, Martin Whittem, Wm. Rudolph Smith. This will is entered in the usual form in the Register's office in Philadelphia, in Will Book No. I., page 109. I80O] £EV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. I). 42* CHAPTER LX. Dr. Smith begins to execute a purpose formed in 17S9 and ArrRovF.n by the General Convention of thai year, kut by a variety ok causes delayed, to publish, in a collected form, his works— only l\vo volumes puulished out of five, which he contemplated publishing— these two printed by Maxwell, a publisher of Philadelphia during Dr. Smith's lifetime, but not ruullshed until after his death. So far back as the year 1789, on his return from Maryland, Dr. Smith announced his intention to publish, in a collection, his sermons upon the most important branches of practical Chris- tianity. This was made in the form of a communication to the General Convention of the church in that year, which we now give in this place. Philadelphia, August 5, 1789. To the Right Reverend and Reverend the Clergy, and the Worthy and Honorable Lay Members of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina, now assembled in Gen- eral Convention. My Worthy Friends and Brethren : The sermons and discourses, whereof the texts and titles follow, are the result of the author's labors as a preacher of the blessed Gospel for near forty years past. Sundry of them, which were composed and de- livered on special public occasions, have been already printed, and have passed through several editions, in Europe as well as America; but the main body of them was composed and delivered at different times, in the character of a parish minister, viz. : in the years 1764 and 1765 at Christ Church and St. Peter's, in the city of Philadelphia; from thence- forward to the year 1780 in the churches of the Oxford Mission, in the county of Philadelphia; and from the latter part of the year 1780 to July 1st, 1789, in Chester parish, Kent county, Maryland. During the foregoing long period of ministerial service the author hath frequently been solicited to print or to give manuscript copies of sundry of the sermons, and hath, as his leisure would allow, so often indulged some of his too partial friends and hearers in the latter way that copies have been multiplied in manuscript and circulated in a con- dition not only very incorrect, but wholly without those last improve- 422 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l800 ments and touches which the best of them stand much in need of, and which the author had always designed to bestow upon a few of them, and bequeath them as a legacy to his surviving friends and hearers, if health and opportunity should permit; and if that should net be the case, he had directed those few, together with the whole remainder in the following list, to be suppressed from public view, as hasty and un- finished compositions. But the late change in the author's situation, the resignation of his parochial as well as collegiate charge in the State of Maryland, and his return to his former station in the College of Philadelphia (added fo the consideration of his advanced age) rendering it probable that he can never again engage in any stated parochial duty ; the applications of some of his former friends and hearers have been renewed for the pub- lication of sundry of those sermons which had long since been delivered before them, and of which some of them had been supplied with copies as aforesaid. In some late conversations with judicious and worthy persons, both of the clergy and laity, respecting the present state of our churches and people in America, it hath been further suggested that the cause of re- ligion and truth might be much promoted by the publication of a suf- ficient number of sermons or discourses, digested, as nearly as possible, into a system or body of divinity; comprehending the most useful and important articles of the Christian doctrine; treated of in a Scriptural and evangelical way; in an easy, affectionate and correct style; suited to the minds and apprehensions of the young and those of inferior capacity, as well as edifying to those of riper years and more improved understanding; not running out into learned niceties or debates, to disturb common readers or hearers; but avoiding all speculative and controversial'subjects, or touching upon them only to improve them, as far as possible, towards the purposes of practical godliness and vital Christianity. Although the author hath not the vanity to imagine that the following sermons are wholly sufficient to this good design, yet they may lay the foundation of a more perfect work ; and he finds, upon an arrangement of them under proper heads, that in order to form a tolerably complete system, only a few sermons would be wanting, and those chiefly upon such speculative and controversial points as the author hath ever avoided in the pulpit, but which (if thought necessary in a work of this kind) might be selected from some of the ablest and most orthodox divines of our Church. Indeed, it may be said that a complete body of sermons and divinity might be wholly selected or compiled in this way, and attempts of that kind have been made with good effect. But, as every age and country is best pleased with its own forms, compositions and phrases of speech, the author flatters himself that if it should please God to enable him to l8oo] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 42$ finish those sermons in the way he proposes, they will be at least ac- ceptable to those who have desired the publication of any of them. He further trusts that if his design should meet with that approbation and countenance which he affectionately solicits from the members of the convention, they will be of use to all well-disposed Christians, and es- pecially to those of the following descriptions, viz. : i. To heads of families who may think it their duty to devote the evenings of the Lord's Day to the instruction of their own households. 2. To pious and weli-disposed persons (remote from places of public worship, or unprovided with ministers or pastors) who may wish to collect their neighbors and friends to spend some parts of a Sunday in public worship, and in reading sermons and books of devotion. 3. To young clergymen and preachers, who, being ill-supplied with books, or a variety of sermons on proper subjects, may be assisted in their earlier compositions by the present work, which it is proposed to comprise in four or five octavo volumes, in the same sized paper and letter as this address; two volumes to be published yearly, at the rate of one dollar per volume on the delivery of the same, in boards, to the subscribers. William Smith. This communication was followed by a unanimous resolution of the body, made on motion of Mr. J. Cox, a principal lay deputy from New Jersey. Resolved, unanimously, That the members of this Convention, being fully persuaded that the interests of religion and practical godliness may be greatly promoted by the publication of a body of sermons, upon the plan proposed above, and being well satisfied of the author's soundness in the faith, and eminent abilities for such a work, do testify their approbation of the same, and their desire to encourage it by annex- ing their names thereto as subscribers. William White, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and President of the Convention. Benjamin Moore, D. D., Assistant Minister of Trinity Church, in the city of New York; now Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in that State. Abraham Beach, D. D., now Senior Minister of Trinity Church, in the city of New York. Moses Rogers, Lay Deputy from the State of New York. William Frazer, A. M., Rector of St. Michael's Church, in Trenton, New Jersey. Uzal Ogden, Rector of Trinity Church, in Newark. Henry Waddel, Rector of the churches of Shrewsbury and Middle- town, now of Trenton, New Jersey. 424 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [180O George H. Spierin, A. M., Rector of St. Peter's Church, Perth Amboy. John Cox, Robert Strettell Jones, Samuel Ogden, Lay Deputies from New Jersey. Samuel Magaw, D. D., Rector of St. Paul's Church, and Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania; Robert Blackwell, D. D., Senior Minister in Christ Church, and St. Peter's, Philadelphia; Joseph Pil- more, Joseph G. J. Bend,* Clerical Deputies from Pennsylvania. Francis Hopkinson, Samuel Powell, Tench Coxe, Gerardus Clark- son, Lay Deputies from Pennsylvania. Joseph Coudon, A. M., Stephen Sykes, A. M., Clerical Deputies from Delaware. James Sykes, Lay Deputy of Delaware. Thomas J. Claggett, D. D., Colin Ferguson, D. D.,f John Bissett, A. M.,J Clerical Deputies from Maryland. Richard B. Carmichael, Wm. Frisby, Lay Deputies from Maryland. Robert Andrews, Lay Deputy from Virginia. Robert Smith, D. D., Rector of St. Philip's Church, Principal of Charlestown College, Clerical Deputy from South Carolina. W. W. Burrows, Wm. Brisbane, Lay Deputies from South Carolina. The following named clergy of the city of Philadelphia of nearly every denomination testified their approbation by annexing their names as subscribers, viz.: Francis Beeston, Rector of the Catholic Church of St. Mary. Nicholas Collin, D. D.( Rector of the Swedish Church. Henry Helmuth, D. D., Minister of Zion's and Michaelis churches. * Joseph Grove John Bend, D. D., a native of New York, ordained by Bishop Pro- voost in 1787. He went to Pennsylvania, and was Assistant Minister of Christ Church in 1789. He afterward removed to Baltimore, and in 1791 became Rector of St. Paul's Parish, Baltimore county. He was preacher to the convention in 1808, and was always Secretary to the Maryland Convention, member of the Standing Committee, and dele- gate to the General Convention. He published three occasional sermons, and edited a number of works for distribution. He died in 1812, aged 53. f Colin Ferguson, D. D., a native of Kent county, Md., brought up a Presbyterian, ordained in 1785 by Bishop Seabury, of Connecticut, and became Rector of St. Paul's, Kent, which he resigned in 1799 ; was President of Washington College, Chestertown, from 1789 to 1805. Died in 1806, aged 55. — Allen. % John Bissett, A. M., a native of Scotland, brought up in the church, ordained in 1786 by Bishop Seabury, and in 1787 became Rector of South Sassafras, Kent county, Md. ; in 1790 of North Sassafras, Cecil. He was Secretary to the convention, four times member of the Standing Committee, and delegate to the General Convention. Published two sermons. In 1793 removed to New York. Died in 1S10, aged 48.— Allen. l8oo] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 425 Casperus Weiberg, D. D., Minister of the German Reformed Church. George Duffield, D.D., Pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church. Samuel Jones, D. D., Pastor of the Baptist Church in Lower Dublin. William Marshall, A. M., Minister of the Gospel to the Scots Presbyterian Church. John Meder, Minister*of the United Brethren's Church. John Andrews, D. D., Professor of Philosophy and Belles Lettres in the College and Academy of Philadelphia, and Rector of St. James's Church, Bristol. James Davidson, A. M., Professor of Humanity in the College and Academy of Philadelphia. William Rogers, A. M., Professor of English and Oratory, and of Practical Mathematics, in the College and Academy of Philadelphia. The Hon. Robert Morris, Esq., acting no doubt at the sugges- tion of his brother-in-law, Bishop White — though he was quite competent himself to estimate rightly the literary and ecclesiasti- cal merits of Dr. Smith — opened and received subscriptions in Congress. His subscription paper began thus: George Washington, John Adams, William Grayson, Ph. Schuyler, William Patterson, Robert Morris, William Samuel Johnson, Ralph Izard, George Read. Subscribers came in from every part of the country, indicating how widely spread was Dr. Smith's fame as a pulpit orator. The list from Maryland, in procuring which Mr. Justice Goldsborough took much interest, was especially large, and with the names of many persons in humble station, comprised the name of nearly every gentleman of rank or education in the State. We give those sent by Judge Goldsborough : Hon. Robert Hanson Harrison, Esq., Chief Justice, etc. Hon. Alexander Contee Hanson, Esq., Chancellor. Hon. Robert Goldsborough, one of the Judges. Benjamin Fred. Aug. Caes. Dashiell, Esq., Worcester county. 426 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1800 Hon. Nicholas Hammond, Esq., Dorset county. James Tilghman, Esq., Queen Anne county. James Earle, Esq., Talbot county. William Cooke, Esq., Annapolis county. Gustavus Scott, Esq., Dorset county. William Heyward, Esq., Talbot county. William Barroll, Esq., Elkton, Cecil county. David Kerr, Esq., Easton, Talbot county. Mr. Jos. Haskins, Easton, Talbot county. Edward Coursey, Esq., Queen Anne county. Charles Blair, Esq., Dorset county. William Hindman, Esq., Talbot county. Edward Lloyd, Esq., Talbot county. Pollard Edmiston, Esq., Talbot county. Matthew Driver, Esq., Caroline county. Robert Goldsborough, Jr., Esq., Dorset county. Horatio Ridout, Esq., Annapolis county. Dr. Charles Troup, Easton, Talbot county. John Gordon, D. D., Rector of St. Michael's, Talbot county. Dr. John Lodman Elbert, Talbot county. Henry Dickenson, Esq., Caroline county. Richard Spriggs, Esq., Annapolis county. The Rev. John Bowie, D. D., Dorchester county. The following were subscribers in Albany, etc. : Rev. Thomas Ellison, A. M., Rector of St. Peter's. Rev. J. Basset, A. M., Jr., Minister of the Reformed Dutch Church. Rev. Samu.l Smith, Minister of the Reformed Dutch Church in Saratoga. Mr. Dudley Walsh. Mr. Goldsborough Banyar, Jr. Mr. P. S. Van Rensselaer. Hon. Leonard Gansevoort, Esq. Stephen Van Rensselaer, Esq., of Rensselaerwick. Daniel Hale, Esq. Barent Roorback, Esq., of Ballton. Mr. Charles Martin, Schenectady. John Tayler, Esq. Mr. Daniel J. Hewson. l8oo] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 427 Dirck Ten Broeck, Esq. John Bradstreet Schuyler, Esq., of Saratoga. Mr. William Fryer. Mr. William Shepherd. I am not aware of the reasons why the publication was delayed. The large operations in land, in which it is known that Dr. Smith was engaged — although from my want of familiarity with their particulars, I have not gone into any full statement of them — in part absorbed his attention. But the Yellow Fever of 1793, and a return of the pestilence, or something much like it, in 1795, and again in 1797 — though in these two years, especially in the for- mer, in forms less terrible than in the first-named year — was well calculated, attended as it was in the case of Dr. Smith with losses so near to him and so desolating, to arrest all enterprise in the way of publication. He himself thus refers to the case: The distresses that followed in my family — first, the loss of a favorite son, blessed with every literary accomplishment, especially in his medi- cal profession, and the delight of his acquaintance;* soon afterwards the loss of an amiable daughter, in goodness approaching that of an angel as nearly as a mortal condition would allow ;f and, more than all this, the loss of a dear wife — a woman of whom the world was scarce worthy, much less he whose many bereavements of this kind have brought his gray hairs down with sorrow to the very brink of the grave — I say these sad losses damped the preparation of the work for the public. Little anxious to devote the melancholy moments that succeeded those losses — especially the death of a beloved wife — to the review of old writings and the superintending a press, my mind was carried forward to more solemn subjects : the consummation of earthly, and the final establishment of heavenly things; and my reading confined to such books as I had at hand on those subjects. However, in the year 1800 Dr. Smith began to arrange all his writings for publication. Had he lived to see through the press all that he thus arranged, we should have had five, if not six, 8vo. volumes with his name. As it is, we have but two — those two from which we have made in our biography such copious ex- tracts. We give the table of their contents. * Thomas Duncan Smith, M. D. \ Mrs. Williamina Elizabeth Goldsborough. 428 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l8O0 FIRST VOLUME. PART I. SERMONS ON DEATH, A RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD, A FUTURE JUDG- MENT, AND AN ETERNAL WORLD TO COME. SERMON PAGE I. On the death of a beloved pupil, preached in Christ Church, September 1, 1754, with copies of verses to his memory, by sundry of his fellow-students - - - - - - 1 II. At the funeral of the Rev. Robert Jenney, LL. D., Rector of Christ Church, and St. Peter's; preached in Christ Church, Jan- uary 10, 1758 - - - - - - -22 III. At the funeral of David Griffith, D. D., Bishop elect of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Virginia; delivered in Christ Church, Philadelphia, on Monday, August 8, 1789 - - 38 IV. Death conquering and conquered ; the first of the sermons from 1 Thess. iv. 13-18; preached the first Sunday in December of 1793, being the first of eight sermons on the great visitation by the epidemical sickness, commonly called the Yellow Fever - 53 V. Preached December 8, 1793, on the same subject and text - 65 VI. Preached December 12, 1793, on Ps- bcviii. 34, etc., being the day set apart for a general thanksgiving for our deliverance from the rage of the grievous calamity, commonly called the Yellow Fever - - - - - - - - 76 VII., VIII., IX., X., XI. A continuation of the sermons from 1 Thess. iv. 13-18 - - - 105, 118, 140, 153, 178 XII. Funeral sermon on the death of Dr. Thomas Graeme - 195 XIII. Funeral sermon on the death of Col. Joseph Nicholson - 210 PART II. I. An oration in memory of General Montgomery, and of the offi- cers and soldiers who fell with him, December 31, 1775, before Quebec; delivered February 19, 1776, in the great Calvinist Church, Philadelphia, by the appointment and at the desire of the honorable Continental Congress - - - - 1 II. An eulogium on Benjamin Franklin, LL. D. ; delivered March 1, 1 79 1, in the great Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, before, and by appointment of, the American Philosophical Society - 42 III. "The Hermit," in eight numbers; first published at Phila- delphia, in the American Magazine, from October, 1757, to October, 1758, inclusive - - - - - 95 IV. A philosophical meditation and religious address to the Supreme Being ------- 153 ISOO] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 429 SERMON PACK V. A general idea of the College of Mirania, with an account of the College and Academy of Philadelphia ; first published in 1753 l65 SECOND VOLUME. TWO PREFATORY LETTERS. PACK Letter I. On the Office and Duty of Protestant Ministers, and the Right of exercising Pulpit liberty in the handling of Civil as well as Religious subjects, especially in times of public danger and calamity - - - - - - - 1 Letter II. An earnest Address to the Colonies at the opening of the Campaign, 1758. Drawn up and published at the request of Brigadier-General Forbes - - - - - 17 THREE MASONIC SERMONS. Sermon I. On Brotherly Love, etc. ; preached on the anniversary of St. John the Baptist, June 24, 1755 - - - - 27 Sermon II. Preached on Monday, December 28, 1778, celebrated as the anniversary of St. John the Evangelist. With an appen- dix on the Character of Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus - "43 Sermon III. Preached before the Grand Lodge of Communication, on St. John the Baptist's day, June 24, 1795 - - - 73 THREE FAST SERMONS. Sermon IV. Preached May 21, 1756, on the Public Fast, appointed by the government of Pennsylvania - - - - 90 Sermon V. Preached July 20, 1755, being on the first American Fast, recommended by Congress - - - - 112 Sermon VI. Preached May 3, 17S1, on the recommendation of Congress . - - - - - - -I27 A THANKSGIVING SERMON. Sermon VII. Preached December 13, 1781, being a day set apart by Congress for a General Thanksgiving - - - 141 SEVEN MILITARY SERMONS. Sermon VIII. Preached April 5, 1757, at the request of Brigadier- General Stanwix, to the soldiers under his command, previous to their march, after Braddock's defeat, to suppress the ravages of the French and Indians on our frontier settlements - - 155 Sermon IX. Preached in the great Hall of the College of Philadel- 43° LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [iSoO phia, April 10, 1768, as Chaplain pro tempore, appointed by Colonel Wilkins, to the Eighteenth or Royal Regiment of Ire- land, on the Christian Soldier's Military Duty - - - 179 Sermon X. Preached May 1, 1768, on the same occasion and in the same place - - - - - - -190 Sermon XI. Preached May 8, 1768, in the same place to said regi- ment; to which was added the celebrated speech of a Creek Indian against the immoderate use of spirituous liquors - - 201 Sermon XII. The Christian Soldier's Spiritual Duty, June, 1768 - 225 Sermon XIII. On the same subject, being the last, or farewell, to the said regiment — then under marching orders - - - 235 Sermon XIV. Preached June 23, 1775, on the then alarming situ- ation of American affairs, at the request of Colonel Cadwalader and the officers of the Third Battalion of Volunteer Militia of the city of Philadelphia - - - - - ~ 251 CINCINNATI SERMON. Sermon XV. On Temporal and Spiritual Salvation. Preached July 4, 1 790, before, and at the request of, the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati ..... 287 TWO SERMONS ON THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY AND THE SCIENCES AMONG THE HEATHEN AMERICANS. Sermon XVI. Concerning the Conversion of the Heathen Ameri- cans, and final propagation of Christianity and the Sciences to the ends of the Earth. Preached May 2, 1760, before a volun- tary convention of the Episcopal clergy of Pennsylvania, and places adjacent, and published at their joint request - - 308 Sermon XVII. On the same subject, preached before the Trustees, Masters and Scholars of the College and Academy of Philadel- phia, at the Anniversary Commencement, May, 1 761 - - 337 A DEDICATION SERMON. Sermon XVIII. On the Dedication and first opening of St. Peter's Church for public worship. Preached in the said church, Phila- delphia, September 4, 1761 ..... -551 TWO INTRODUCTORY SERMONS, BEFORE RELIGIOUS CORPORATIONS FOR THE INSTITUTION OF PUBLIC CHARITIES. Sermon XIX. Preached October 10, 1769, in Christ Church, Phil- ISOO] KEV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 43 1 PAGE adelphia, at the first meeting of the Corporation for the Relief of the Widows and Children of Clergymen in the Communion of the Church of England in America; particularly in the provinces (now States) of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania - 385 Sermon XX. Preached April 6, 1795, as an introduction to a plan for the Establishment and Encouragement of Itinerant Preachers, or Missionaries, on the Frontier Settlements of the United States; with a Supplement or Second Part, stating and warning against the abominable tenets of the Illuminati, and the doc- trines of the New Philosophy ----- 444 TWO GENERAL CONVENTION SERMONS. Sermon XXI. Preached June 23, 1784, at Annapolis, Maryland, at the first General Convention of the Episcopal Clergy in that State, assisted by Lay Representatives - 483 Sermon XXII. Preached October 7, 1785, at the request of, and before, the General Convention of the Bishops, Clergy and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church ; on occasion of the first in- troduction of the Liturgy and public service of said Church, as altered and recommended for future use in the United States of America - - - - - - - - 524 A CONSECRATION SERMON. Sermon XXIII. First preached September 17, 1792, in Trinity Church, New York, before the General Convention of the Bishops, Clergy and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church, at the Consecration of Thomas John Clagget, D. D., as Bishop Elect for the said Church in the State of Maryland. Preached, in substance also, at the two following consecrations, viz. : of Robert Smith, D. D., for South Carolina, September 13, 1795; Edward Bass, D. D., for Massachusetts and New Hampshire, May, 1787. Both in Christ Church, Philadelphia - - 548 Dr. Smith also left this list of ninety-eight sermons, which, as he arranged them — and throwing out certain ones marked with an asterisk ( * ), which are printed in Maxwell's two volumes or else- where— would have made four more volumes of sermons alone, independent of his other works. A table of the subjects or prin- cipal heads, and of the texts of the sermons, in the proposed order of publication, was part of the document. 432 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE l800 PART I. Sermons I., II. On the Being and Attributes of God. Ex. iii. 13, 14. — And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you ; and they shall say to me, What is his name ? what shall I say unto them ? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, Thus shall thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. Sermon III. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the true Word of God, and a Complete Revelation of his Divine Will to Man. Heb. i. 1, 2. — God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed the Heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Sermon IV. The Folly of Infidelity. Psalm xiv. 1. — The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Sermon V. The Wisdom and Reasonableness of Faith in God. Heb. xi. 6. — Without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Sermon VI. Of the Creation and Nature of Man, and the Immortality of the Soul. Psalm viii. 5, 6; Heb. ii. 7. — Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. Sermon VII. Of the Old and New Covenant, the Law and the Gospel. Heb. vii. 19. — For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing of a better hope did ; by the which we draw nigh unto God. Sermon VIII. Of the Difference between Legal and Evangelical Right- eousness, or the Righteousness of Faith. Rom. ix. 31-33. — But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law ; for they stumbled at that stumbling- stone, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Sermon IX. The Honor and Dignity of the Christian Ministry and Profession. Rom. i. 16. — I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Sermon X. The Grace and Holiness of the Christian Calling. 2 Tim. i. 9. — God hath saved us and called us with an holy calling; not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began. ISOO] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 433 Sermon XL The Purity of the same. Prov. xxx. 5, 6. — Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Sermon XII. On Hearing the Word of God. John viii. 47. — He that is of God heareth God's Word. Sermon XIII. On Doing the Word of God. ]ames i. 22. — Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Sermon XIV. Of Steadfastness in the Faith. [Preached at Annapolis, Tune 23, 1784, before a convention of the Protestant Epis- copal Church in Maryland.] 2 Tim. i. 13. — Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Sermon XV. The Victory of Faith. I T"hn v. I, 4. — Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that over- cometh, even our faith. PART II. Sermon XVI. Christ the True and Promised Messiah. [In two Parts.] [Preached on Christmas day.] Luke ii. 10-14. — And the angel said unto them, Fear not ; for behold T bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you : ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men. Sermons XVII., XVIII. Christ the True Shepherd. [Preached on Lhe fourth Sunday in Advent, and on Christmas day.] Isa. xl. 1, 2, 10, II. — Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold his reward is with him and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd : he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. Sermons XIX., XX. Christ's other glorious Titles. [Preached on Christmas day, and the Sunday following.] La. ix. 6. — For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Sermon XXI. Of the Universality and Extent of Christ's Kingdom. [Preached on the Epiphany.] Isa. ix. 7. — Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end. 2% 434 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [180O Sermon XXII. Concerning the Conversion of the Heathen Americans, and the final Propagation of Christianity and the Sciences to the Ends of the Earth. [In two Parts.] [Part I. Preached before a convention of Episcopal clergy in Christ Church, Phila- delphia, May 2, 1760.] [Part II. Preached before the Trustees, Masters and Scholars, at the fir-t Anniver- sary Commencement, in the college there, to which is added a Charge to ihe first Graduates.] Psalm ii. 8. — Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Sermon XXIII. On the same subject. [Preached on the dedicaticn of Washington College, in the State of Maryland, June 23, 1789.] Malachi i. 11. — From the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure oftering ; for my name shall be great among the heathen sailh the Lord of hosts. Sermon XXIV. On Christ's Fasting and Temptation. [Preached in Lent.] Matt. iv. 1-3. — Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Sermon XXV. On the Institution of the Holy Sacrament. [Preached on the Sunday before Easter.] Luke xxii. 15, etc. — And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, etc. Sermon XXVI. On the Sufferings and Death of Christ. From the same text. [Preached on Good Friday.] Sermon XXVII. On the same subject. [Preached on Good Friday.] Lam. i. 12. — Is it nothing unto you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see, if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me, in the day of his fierce anger. Sermon XXVIII. On the Certainty of the Resurrection of Christ. [Preached on Easter day.] Job xix. 25, 26. — I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth ; and thou.gh after my skin worms destroy this body, yet ill my flesh shall I see God. Sermon XXIX. On the Power of the Resurrection of Christ. [Preached on Easter day.] Phil. iii. 8, 10. — Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do, count them ibut dung — that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection. l8oo] REV. WILLIAM SMITH D. D. 435 Sermon XXX. The Resurrection of Christ, the Pledge and Proof of Man's Immortality, and a full Evidence of the Truth of Christianity. Col. iii. 4. — When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear vvitli him in glory. I Cor. xv. 12-14. — If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead ? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen ; and if Christ be not risen, then is our preach- ing vain, and your faith is also vain. Sermon XXXI. On the Ascension of Christ. Psalm xxiv. 7. — Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting- doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Sermon XXXII. On the Gift of the Holy Ghost. [Preached on Whitsunday.] John xiv. 16. — And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comfortei, that he may abide with you for ever. Sermon XXXIII. Of the Receiving of the Holy Ghost. Acts xix. 2, 3. — He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since yt believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? Sermon XXXIV. On the Spirit of Adoption. [Preached on Whitsunday.] Rom. viii. 14, 15. — For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God ; for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have re- ceived the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. FOUR SERMONS ON THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT. Sermon XXXV. 1. Prayer. Rom. viii. 15 (latter part of the foregoing text). — Whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Sermon XXXVI. 2. Praise and Thanksgiving. [Preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, upon the introduction of the organ.] Psalms xlvii. 7, and cl. 4. — Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praise unto our God upon the harp. Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Sermon XXXVII. 3. Faith, Hope and Charity. I Cor. xiii. 3. — And now abideth faith, hope and charity, these three; but the great- est of these is charity. Sermon XXXVIII. 4. Love, Joy, etc. Goodness, Righteousness and Truth. Gal. v. 22, 23. — But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle- ness, goodness, truth. Epn v. 9. — The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. 43*5 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1800 Sermon XXXIX. The Danger and Sin of Resisting the Spirit, and falling away from Grace. Heb. x. 28, 29. — He that despised Moses's law, died without mercy, under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace. Sermons XL., XLI. The Safety and Happiness of Walking after the Spirit and Loving God's Law. Rom. viii. 1. — There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. P>alm cxix. — Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them. PART III. Sermon XLII. The Call or Invitations under the Law and the Prophets. Isa. xlv. 22, 23. — Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself; the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Sermon XLIII. The Call or Invitations under the Gospel. Matt. xi. 28-30. — Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Sermon XLIV. The Duty of Hearing the Call and drawing near to God. Psalm lxxiii. 28. — It is good for me to draw near to God. Sermon XLV. Of the Fear of God, under the Law. Job xxv. 2, 4. — Dominion and fear are with him. How can man be justified with God ? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman ? Sermon XLVI. Of the Fear of God, under the Gospel. 2 Tim. i. 7. — For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 1 John iv. 18. — There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment in it. Me that feareth is not made perfect in love. Sermons XLVII., XLVIII. Of Fear and Obedience, as the whole Duty of Man under the Law. Eccl. xii. 13, 14. — Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and keep his commandments ; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be bad. Sermons XLIX., L. Of Love and Vital Religion, as the whole Duty of Man, under the Gospel. ISOO] REV. WILLIAM SMI III, D. D. 437 I John .ii. 23, 24. — This is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son [esus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment; and he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the Spirit which he hath given us. Sermon LI. Christ's Kingdom is not of this World. John xviii. 36. — Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. Sermon LII. The Christian's Conversation is in Heaven. Phil. iii. 20. — For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for 'he Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Sermon LI II. Fellowship with God and the Works of Darkness irreconcilable. I John i. 5-7. — God is Light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth : but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. PART IV. Sermon LIV. Of Sin and the Duty of Confession. I John i. 8, 9. — If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Sermon LV. The same subject, from the parable of the Prodigal Son, viz. : Luke xv. 18. — I will arise and go to my father, etc. Sermon LVI. Of Repentance and Salvation. Ezek. xviii. 27. — When the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Sermon LVII. An Exhortation to Repentance and Good Works. Isa. i. 16, 17. — Wash ye, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease 10 do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the op- pressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Sermon LVIII. Want of Consideration. Isa. i. 3. — The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Sermon LIX. Against Presumption. I Cor. x. 12. — Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Sermon LX. On Redeeming the Time. Rom. xiii. 12. — The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Sermon LXI. On Submission to the Will of God. I Sam. iii. 18. — And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. 438 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [180O Sermon LXII. Of St. Peter's Want of Faith. Matt. xiv. 30, 31. — But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and be- ginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Sermon LXIII. St. Peter's Tears and Repentance. Luke xxii. 60-62. — While he yet spake, the cock crew; and the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly. Sermon LXIV. An Exhortation to Prayer. Luke xxii. 46. — Why sleep ye ? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Sermon LXV. Encouragement to Prayer and Seeking God. Jer. viii. 22. — Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered ? Sermon LXVI. Of the new Creature. Gal. vi. 15. — For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor un- circumcision, but a new creature. Sermon LXVII. The Knowledge of God, the Christian's true Glory. Jer. ix. 23, 24. — Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Sermon LXVIII. The Lord our Righteousness. [An Advent Sermon.] Jer. xxiii. 6. — In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely; aria this is his name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness. Sermon LXIX. An Advent Sermon. Matt. xi. 5. — The poor have the gospel preached. THREE SERMONS ; OF RELATIVE DUTIES, VIZ. : Sermon LXX. 1. Of Husbands and Wives. Col. iii. iS, 19. — Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit unto the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. Sermon LXXI. — Part I. 2. Of Parents and Children. Col. iii. 20, 21. — Children, obey your parents in all things; for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Part II. On the Education of Children. Prov. xxii. 6. — Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. i8oo] fiEi: WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. A19 Sermon LXXII. 3. Of" Masters and Servants. Col. iii. 22, and iv. I. — Servants, obey in all things your masters, according to the flesh; not with eye-service as mcn-pleascrs, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven. Sermon LXXIII. On Destroying the Works of the Devil. I John iii. S.- — For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Sermon LXXIV. Of Diligence in our Calling, both Temporal and Spiritual. I Cor. vii. 24. — Brethren, let every man wherein he is called, therein abide with God. Sermons LXXV., LXXVI. Of Sanctification and Redemption. I Cor. i. 30, 31. — But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom ami righteousness ami sanctification and redemption; That according as it is written, lie that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Sermon LXXVII. Of Keeping the Sabbath Day. Ex. xx. S. — Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Luke vi. 7-9. — And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up and stand forth in the midst. And he rose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing, Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil ? to save life, or to destroy it? And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so, and his hand was restored whole as the other. Sermon LXXVIII. The great Duty of Public Worship, and of Erecting and Dedicating Proper Houses for that Purpose. [Preached in St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, September 4, 1761, being the day appointed for the first opening and dedication of the said church; with an account of the service used on that occasion.] 1 Kings viii. 13, 27, 57, 60. — I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee ; how much less this house that I have builded ! The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers ; let him not leave us nor forsake us ; that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else. Sermon LXXIX. Of Love and Unity. Being a Farewell Sermon. [Preached at All Saints Church, Philadelphia county, on occasion of the shutting up the churches in the Oxford Mission, on the approach of the British army towards the city of Philadelphia.] 2 Cor. xiii. 11. — Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. 44° LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [iSoO Sermon LXXX. Of Joy Succeeding to Sorrow. [Preached in July, 1 778, in the three churches of the Oxford Mission, on the open- ing of the said churches after the evacuation of the city of Philadelphia by the British army.] Psalm cxxvi. 3, 4, 5. — The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. THREE SERMONS AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. Sermon LXXXI. 1. On Self-examination. I Cor. xi. 28. — But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. Sermon LXXXII. 2. The Promise of Eternal Life to Worthy Partakers of the Lord's Supper. John vi. 54. — Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. Sermon LXXXIII. 3 and 4. An Exhortation to Frequent Communion, with an Answer to all Excuses, etc. Luke xiv. 16, etc. — A certain man made a great supper, and bade many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Ccme, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said, etc. Sermon LXXXIV. Of the Progress of our Time, and the Instability of Life. [A New Year's sermon, first preached January 1, 1781.] James iv. 13—15. — Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain ; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that you ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live to do this or that. Jer. xxviii. 16. — This year thou shalt die; because thou hast taught rebellion against the Lord. FUNERAL SERMONS. Sermon LXXXV. Personal Affliction and Frequent Reflection upon Human Life, of great Use to lead Man to the Remembrance of God. [Preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, September I, 1754, on the death of a beloved pupil.] Psalm xlii. 6. — O my God! my soul is cast down within me, therefore will I re- member thee. Sermon LXXXVI. The Steward's Summons. [Preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, January 10, 1762, at the funeral of the Rev. Robert Jenney, LL. D., Rector of that church.] Luke xvi. 2. — Give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. ISOO] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 44 1 Sermon LXXXVII. The Peaceful End of the Righteous. [Preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, September 6, 1772, at the funeral of Thomas Grseme, Esq., M. D.] Gen. xv. 15. — And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Sermon LXXXVIII. Old Age a Crown of Glory to the Righteous. Prov. xvi. 31. — The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness. Sermon LXXXIX. Longing after Immortality. [As it was preached before the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, on Tuesday, August 4, 1789, at the funeral of the Rev. David Griffith, D. D., a member of convention for the church in Virginia, and formerly a bishop elect in that church.] * 2 Cor. v. 1, 2. — For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis- solved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. Sermon XC. The Improvement of Time. [Preached on sundry funeral occasions.] 1 Cor. vii. 29-31. — But this 1 say, brethren, The time is short. It remaineth that both they that have wives, be as though they had none ; and they that weep, as though they weeped not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away. Sermon XCI. Mourning better than Mirth. [Preached on sundry funeral occasions.] Eccl. vii. 2. — It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. Sermon XCII. The Immortal Fruits of Affliction. [Preached at the funeral of Colonel William Bordley, M. D., of Kent county, Md. 2 Cor. iv. 17. — For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Sermon XCIII. The Christian's Warfare and Crown. [Preached in Chester Church, Maryland, February 9, 17S1, at the funeral of Mrs. Rachael Coudon, wife of the Rev. Joseph Coudon, A. M.] 2 Tim. iv. 6-8. — The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. END OF THE FUNERAL SERMONS. *This sermon, as it was at first composed, was preached January 23, 1782, at the funeral of the Rev. Hugh Neill, A. M., Rector of Chester Parish, Queen Anne's county, Maryland. 442 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [180O Sermon XCIV. Of the Trembling of Felix, and the Witness of Conscience. Acts xxiv. 25. — And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time, when I have more convenient season I will call for thee. Sermon XCV. The Certainty of the last Judgment, and of a Future State of Rewards and Punishments. 2 Cor. v. io, II. — We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Sermon XCVI. Of ver his ablest and most finished work. 1803] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 457 anywhere on the particular class of topics which now disturbs us ; not novelties, any of them, except in the degree to which they are carried. The same class of topics, indeed, agitated the Church of England in different degrees during the reigns of Elizabeth, Ed- ward VI., James I., and Charles I. So they did in the days of Charles II., William III., and Anne. We may even say that they were questions which embarrassed the Reformers themselves. They are, some of them, questions of essential difficulty, and about which those who think most, talk little, and dogmatize not at all. But in the days of the first and second and third Georges, the agi- tation had ceased. The first two were stolid Germans, and the third, though a good man and a far better king than those who believe in Byron think — not a schoolman or casuist. The theo- logical writings of the day were of another complexion. The old questions have now in the periodicity of things of course come back. We have had the anabasis. We are now at the acme. The decline will begin to-mcrrow. But still I am asked by one, "Was not Dr. Smith a high-church- man? " and by another, " Was not Dr. Smith a low-churchman? " A^-pov ! I am tempted to exclaim in response to one inquirer as to the other. Tell me, first, what is " a low-churchman ? " What is " a high-churchman ? " In the days succeeding the English Revolution of 1688 the matter was half a political question If a man adhered to the Stuarts, he was a high-churchman. If to the House of Orange, a low-churchman. At a later day, with us, Dr. Scabury was opposed to having the laity take any part in the government of the church, had a mitre, wrote himself " Samuel Connecticut," "Samuel, Bishop of Con- necticut," and in every form, I believe, but that one which the churches in the Southern and Middle States recommended bishops to write themselves, in which the minutes of conventions in which he sat described him, and in which he described the only bishop, if I remember, that he assisted to consecrate. In popular idea this made him a very high-churchman. Bishop White and Bishop Provoost insisted on the admission of the laity, wrote their own names more humbly, did not use mitres. This made them in popular idea /W-churchmen ; not that between Bishop Seabury and both the other bishops, so far as I know the views of Bishop 4-58 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE C1^ Provoost, distinctions of view better making the titles did not exist. Bishop Hobart was called a high-churchman and denounced through all his life as such, not because he held to any view of the Eucharist or of the ministry, or performed any services or offices of the church in a way largely different from many of his brethren, but because he enforced upon his clergy strongly, and often with fervor and with eloquence, that the church founded by the Saviour, and which he (the bishop) considered best represented in this day by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, subsisted under certain distinctive principles of doctrine, ministry and worship, and not under all the shapes into which fanaticism, ambition, ignorance, or interest might choose to mould it. With no considerable difference of opinion from him on this point, although his mode of teaching it was less fervid, Bishop White was called a low one. In 1826-27 we nad in Pennsylvania a body of clergy whose views and practices were unlike those of Bishop White. He then took a strong distinction, showing in his mind great differences between low-churchmen and low-churchmen. There were the men known in history of England as low-churchmen, Tillot- son, Burnet, and some others a little higher, perhaps, though not any, lower than they, which class expressed, with more or less precision, the Bishop's views. But those known at the date we speak of as low-churchmen in Pennsylvania — with whose theological opinions, though, happily, it may be reasonably hoped, net with their tempers and practices, a part of the clergy, I presume, remain in line — he repelled and renounced in memorable language his affiliation with. One of them, in a convention of the church, where the degrees of altitude were strongly marked, alluded to the Bishop himself as being a low-churchman — one of their party. " The gentle old man," says a narrator of the scene, "showed that, like flint, if struck hard enough, he could flash fire. He rose at once, apologizing for such an unusual thing on his part as interrupting a debate, but the per- sonal allusion to himself must be his excuse. As the word was used in England and a hundred years ago, perhaps it might not be altogether incorrect to call him a low-churchman. ' But,' con- tinued he, with an emphasis rare indeed as coming from his lips, 1803] REV. WILLTAM SMITH, D. D. 459 'as the word is understood in this country, you might as well call me a Turk or a Jew.' "* Some men are " high " on some points — " low " on others. We have spoken in a note of Bishop Hopkins. From his first entrance into the church he was a devoted reader, lover and ex- positor of the fathers. Those called the apostolic ones I think he could have said by heart. There was not a line of the Origincs Sacra which he could not point to. Never did lie find " ancient authors" — by whom are meant the early fathers — to contradict the Bible, whether in its parts new or old; but, on the contrary, found in them the Bible's strong supports. In all the "wrought gold" which decorates the clothing of the daughter of Zion he delighted. The ornaments of the chancel, the dress of the priest- hood, the fragrance of myrrh, aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces — all these things found interest in his beautiful tastes just as much as did those higher things, in his deeper heart, which make the church "all glorious within." These first arc the mat- ters which, in the estimation of many, make the alto, as in their estimation do dislikes of them the basso. But Bishop Hopkins's ecclesiastical views — his views of doctrine, discipline and worship alike — were in many respects very high; and they were got from the early fathers, as from the Epistles and Gospels. It is not diffi- cult to understand his views, many of which I admire. But it is dif- ficult to assign him to any class of thinkers on the Episcopal bench. Yet a party which was composed of the lowest churchmen that ever were in Pennsylvania, were desirous to make him bishop of its vast diocese, rather than to have Dr. Bird Wilson, the last of men to carry anything but holiness of life into lofty pitch, or than Henry Ustick Onderdonk, the greatest original thinker and logician of the American church, but who, if his tract on Regen- eration expressed his best judgments, which I hardly think it did, was more like themselves than like any high expositor in the Church of England. * Life of Bishop Hopkins, by one of his sons, second edition, page 101. I know from a person of indubitable authority yet living, and who was present in the conven- tion where Bishop White's declaration is said to have been made, that this statement of Bishop Hopkins's son is strictly accurate; and I have heard it also from another of no less accuracy, who was present, but is now dead. I may add that from my own recollections of what 1 heard from many persons, witnesses of the scenes, the account ol all the proceedings of 1826 and 1827, as given in the Life of Bishop Hopkins, is strictly true. But not the idea that Bishop White voted in 1786 for his own election. 460 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1803 In this day, accepting, as tests, the standards of ordinary conversation, I am unable to say what high-churchmen and what low-churchmen are. Indeed, if I had not certain old- fashioned, but, as I think, very good charts, on which the "main channel " and all important soundings are marked, I should be unable to tell where, ecclesiastically, I am sailing — indeed, whether to quicksands or the port. It is a good while, in the political world, since I have found any body of men, large enough to be called a party, in which I am willing to class myself. I begin of late to fear that I shall be in the same condition in mat- ters far more important. Until, therefore, my inquiring friends define for me their terms a little better than they do, they must excuse my not answering very categorically their inquiries. On certain subjects, which some persons consider as distin- guishing the degrees of ecclesiastical altitude, and which, if they do not distinguish them in essence, are often more or less identified with them, we need not attempt to "locate " Dr. Smith ; for he has sufficiently " located " himself. That he abhorred all irregularities in the performance of divine service, the use of ex- tempore prayers there — declaiming against any of the church's doctrines, as Regeneration (in the sense in which the church uses the term) — that there was not in him the least tincture of Metho- dism or Calvinism ; all this can be inferred from the way in which he speaks of the Rev. Mr. Macclanechan, the founder of St. Paul's Church, Philadelphia. He is describing this reverend gentleman to the Archbishop of Canterbury: With a huge stature and voice more than stentorian, he started up before his sermon ; and, instead of using any of the excellent forms pro- vided in our Liturgy, or a form in the nature and substance of that enjoined by the 55th Canon, he addressed the Majesty of Heaven with a long catalogue of epithets, such as "sin-pardoning, all-seeing, heart- searching, rein-trying God. ' ' We thank thee that we are all here to-day, and not in hell. Such an unusual manner in our church sufficiently fixed my attention, which was exercised by a strange extempore rhapsody of more than twenty minutes, and afterwards a sermon of about sixty- eight minutes more. I have heard him again and again, and still we have the same wild, incoherent rhapsodies of which I can give no ac- count other than that they consist of a continual ringing of the changes upon the words "Regeneration," "Instantaneous conversion," "Im- 1S03] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 4&l puted righteousness," "The new birth," etc. But I find no practical use made of these terms, nor does he offer anything to explain them, or to tell us what he would be at. What sort of respect Dr. Smith had for Episcopal authority and for the "Induction," or, as we in our American church call it, the "Institution" of ministers, may be inferred from his further ac- count of the reverend gentleman just named: Mr. Macclanechan spoke much of his popularity; the call he had from the people to be their minister, which he pretends, gives the only right title. The Bishop1 s authority he spoke of very disrespectfully, and said it could never bind the people. I replied that ... it was certainly binding on him and me, who were of the clergy.* In regard to the ministry Dr. Smith declares that the three orders of bishops, priests and deacons are necessary to the proper establishment of the church, and shows everywhere his high appreciation of the threefold order, f And if, referring to what had been enacted both by the Church and Parliament of England, he suggested it to the Bishop of London to consider whether anything could be done to bring into our church, without other ordination than what they had, the German Lutheran clergy of Pennsylvania, it must be remembered that he does not express any opinion on the subject himself; but treats it as one which it does not become Mm "any further to meddle with than just to mention the facts and the great accession it might bring to our church."* He considered possibly that as there was no bishop in America who could have ordained these persons when they en- tered on their work, and was none now, the case fell within an except;on recognized by many learned and pious men in the Church of England who were considered sound churchmen, and which, tliough imder very different circumstances of fact, Dr. White recognized as temporarily dispensing with regular ordination in our own ministers. He knew that the Church of England recognizes the validity of the Moravian, Swedish, and perhaps the Danish orders. We havj noted the high respect paid in Phila- delphia to the Lutheran body; Dr. Peters, the rector of Christ Church, saying, in 1764, when preaching from one of its pulpits, * See this work, Vol. I., p. 225. f Supra, p. 97. \ Vol. I., p. 404. 4^2 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1803 that he had "a very sensible pleasure in being able publicly to de- clare that between your church, the Swedish, and our own Epis- copal Church there has always been, from the very first, a kind and loving participation of divine service and brotherly love." At a much later day, 1794, when the German Lutheran Church was burned down, the corporation of Christ Church put their own sacred edifice at the command, for one part of the day, Sundays and week-days, of these brethren.* My ancestor may perhaps have considered the German Lutheran body as standing in a favored position. My ecclesiastical learning will not bear me out in de- ciding how this may have been. Neither would it leave his integrity in any way "off color," if we were to suppose that his action in this respect — a mere suggestion to the Bishop of London for him to consider the matter — was done through policy, at the desire of Dr. Muhlenberg, or some other Lutheran clergyman, whom he was willing to conciliate, and without expectation that the Bishop of London would receive them. Dr. Smith hoped to see in our large cities the churches daily open, and morning and evening prayer said daily throughout the year.f He did not wish to see the services made too "naked,"! an<^ we may be sure, from what he had provided on several occasions of religious solemnity,! that he would have enjoyed the choral ser- vice— that form of service which, ever since the Reformation, the Church of England has in her cathedrals, her chapels-royal and collegiate churches, in her Temple church, and in the churches of her Inns of Court — everywhere, in short, throughout her beautiful land — would have enjoyed it, I say, to the very depths of his soul. In regard to the holy communion, he assisted Bishop Seabury in making that which was a fuller consecration of the elements than the ceremony which — yielding to the demands of Puritanism — the Church of England of his day made and now makes: and was, in fact, the person who carried through the lower House of the convention of 1789 the views called high-church, of the great churchman and Bishop of Connecticut.|| He made, too, of that service an imposing celebration.^ He enforced upon his parish- * Dorr's History of Christ Church, p. 218. f Supra, p. 207. % Supra, p. 210. \ See Vol. I., p. 544; also Dr. Smith's Writings, Maxwell's ed., Vol. II., pp. 49, 67. || Supra, p. 290. \ Supra, p. 199. 1803] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 463 ioncrs the necessity of frequent communion; and, if we may argue from his Preface to the Proposed Book, wished to have the daily administration of it* Even in his Proposed Book — made in part, but in concession to prejudices — he left that ancient rubric of the Church of England which declares that a sick person, when visited by the minister of the parish, shall "be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter; " and while he did not leave the specific personal absolution of the English book, he put a form which can hardly be called, and is nowhere in our Prayer Book called, but "a declaration of absolu- tion." The Church of England calls it an "absolution." Our own church abstains from saying, in terms, exactly what " Or this" is. *But Dr. Smith nowhere ever proposed to introduce this sort of thing as a common practice in the church, or to make the ex- treme medicine of a burthened dying soul the common daily food of him that was in no near sight of death, and every morning and every evening of his life, if the clergy did their duty and had the churches open, could confess his sins publicly with the rest of God's penitent people, in his holy temple, and receive full comfort in the priestly declaration or act which follows. Neither do we anywhere perceive, in that part of his writings which are connected with the establishment of the church in America, any such dangerous view as one which has been more than adumbrated among us, that the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America is, in any essential respect of doctrine, discipline or worship, a church different from that great bulwark of Protestantism, the Church of England, and further re- moved than it from Popish practices, whether complete, incomplete, or inchoate, whether symbolized only or substantial, f Both in the Preface, which was his entirely, to the Proposed Book — the book of 1785 — and in the Preface to our Book of Common Prayer of 1789, which, if not his entirely, was based largely on what was his, such a doctrine is repelled — repelled every way; by the whole course of the argument, which shows the propriety of occasional alterations "in forms and usages," provided "the substance of the faith is kept entire," and repelled by specific words which say, that with all the alterations and amendments which have been *See supra, pp. 440, 161. f See Appendix, No. XVII. 464 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1803 made "this Church is far from intending to depart from the Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship ; or further than local circumstances may require." Dr. Smith would not, in their hour of common peril, and when beleagured by a common enemy, have turned his back upon his " mother, the Church of England " — the church of Cranmer, and Ridley, and Latimer, and of the whole glorious host of sons who have fought for and maintained that faith for which they died — in this way. He was far too wary, if he had not been too sound-headed, ever to have made such a concession to the enemy; one which surrenders the whole case to both our present enemies, though each is more opposed to each other, than either is to us. If the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England au- thorizes, though but in latency, the practices of Rome, or, even in their smouldering ashes, still preserves Rome's living doctrines; and if they who made our prayer book did not intend — were far from intending — to depart from that church in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship, or further than local circum- stances require, how can we defend ourselves from the " Low Papists " — sometimes called Ritualists — who are disturbing its peace and misapplying, in a disingenuous, dangerous and unwar- ranted way, its doctrines? And how, again, are we to answer the authors of the so-called Reformed Episcopal Church ? They assert exactly what this view admits, adding only to it what the declarations of the Preface to our prayer solemnly affirm. And both these parties, the semi-papists and radicals, enter our citadel together! Our whole case is given up by such a position. Noil tali auxilio, nee defensoribus istis, would Dr. Smith have dealt with the parties who are taking us, one-half of them to the gates of Rome, and the other to the shores of Geneva. He would have said to them, and his position would have been true: "Our church, by the changes which it has made in the English book, coupled with the solemn assurances which it has given in the new Preface, that it does not intend to depart from the Church of England in any essential point of doctrine, discipline, or worship, or further than local circumstances require ; tells you that you misinterpret the rubrics, prayers, and other things in the book of the Church of England ; that you wrest them from their proper sense; and that rightly interpreted — interpreted by her articles, 1803] REV. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 465 her homilies, her practice for generation after generation, and by an intelligent consideration of those circumstances and difficulties in her history under which all were made — circumstances which presuppose both knowledge and moral and intellectual faculties on the part of him who is to consider them, and which are not of the class of things to be measured on a two-foot rule, or counted on ten fingers — that thus interpreted the Church of England is just as far from the doctrines and the practices of Rome as is her daughter, the church in America. , And is not this argument from a change of rubric two-edged? The English book directs that the reader of the lessons turn him- self and read so as best to be heard of all. This direction is left out of our rubric. Are Popish mumblings, with face averted, au- thorized for us? Again, that book declares that though the elements in the Lord's Supper are to be received kneeling, no adoration is intended to them, or to any corporal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood. Our book suppresses this declara- tion, and makes a higher " consecration." May we adore the elements and the corporal presence ? I advert with more interest to other things. All will agree with me, I think, that the life of Dr. Smith was a well-spent life, actively devoted to useful and beneficent objects. Look at the number of young men whom he trained in the early provincial days to re- ligion, literature, the arts and statesmanship. We cannot begin to tell them; but the names of William White, Jacob Duche, John Andrews, Thomas Coombe, Thomas Hopkinson, Samuel Magaw, James Abercrombie, among the clergy, come to our minds, as do those of Francis Hopkinson, William Paca, Richard Peters, Alex- ander Wilcocks, James Tilghman, William Bingham, Benjamin Chew, and many others among our men of State, our lawyers and our men of worth. Look at his early patronage of Benjamin West, imbuing his mind with classical taste and assisting him to the means of developing his extraordinary genius. Look, too, at his disinterested and kind labor in bringing the works of young Godfrey before the world and those of Nathaniel Evans, all the profits of which he gives to the widows and children of the clergy. Look at that most beneficent institution, the corporation for the relief of these widows and children of his brethren — the long, laborious work chiefly of his hands — still subsisting in wealth and 3° 466 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE. [*803 diffusing blessings the extent of which it is hard to exaggerate. Look at his labors in the pulpit for fifty years, and that great series of sermons — making a cycle of Christian duty — which we give in our preceding pages.* What a body of texts; what a field cf thought to traverse ! See him ever ready to devote his splendid powers to any cause in which he could subserve the interests of humanity. He was the founder of the American Philosophical Society, though Franklin, who was not in the country then, nor for years afterwards, got the credit of it. An astronomer, a clas- sical scholar, a statesman, an orator. How various his powers ! how high his accomplishments ! Of his labors in the councils of the church how can we speak too highly? During much of the Provincial epoch he was its one great character. To him more than to any other person, nay, more than to all other persons in the Province, Pennsylvania owes its deserved reputation for the sound, learned and pious clergy which, unlike Virginia and some other States, it had before the Revolution. And after the peace of 1783 no man but William White — he the fruit of Dr. Smith's training from his seventh year till his seventeenth — stands before or, in point of splendid accom- plishments, near him. In the work of internal improvements in Pennsylvania he was a pioneer. This State owes to his memory a debt, with large arrears of interest, which she has never thought of and will never discharge. Of the University of Pennsylvania, now becoming a seat of learning which may rank with the colleges of "Oxford" and of Washington College, Maryland, to whose history "Ipswich" would afford an unjust similitude, what shall I say ? How naturally the poet's words flow from my pen : Ever witness for him Those twins of learning that he raised in you ! One of which fell with him, Unwilling to outlive the good that did it; The other, though unfinished, yet so famous, So excellent in art, and still so rising That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue. * Pages 432-442- APPENDIX. No. I. — Page 6i. The Rev. Robert Blackwell, D. D. The Rev. Robert Blackwell, D. D., as we learn from the "Annals of Newtown, Long Island," a historical work by James Riker, Esq.,* was descended from English ancestors of his own name. The ancient importance in England of the family of Blackwell, itself, is indicated, says Mr. Riker, by the fact that no less than six towns in that kingdom bear the name. An engraving in Mr. Riker's book, from an ancient seal, would indicate that .the branch of this family from which the subject of our notice came was that one long settled in the county of Norfolk. The great- grand father of the Rev. Dr. Blackwell was named, like Dr. Blackwell himself, Robert. We find him established, a. d. 1676, more than two centuries ago, at Newtown, L. I., where he became owner of valuable estates upon the East river, and with them of the island in that water immediately opposite to New York, now and for two hundred years past known as Blackwell's island. He married, a. d. 1676, Mary Manningham, and died in or about the year 171 7. The son of this Robert was Jacob Blackwell, born August 4, 1692. He succeeded to his paternal estates, upon which he is supposed to have erected the fine mansion which he long occupied, yet, or lately, standing — directly opposite to Blackwell's island — and hereinafter mentioned. f He married, 10th of May, 1711, Mary, daughter of Cap- tain William Hallet and Sarah, his wife, daughter of George Woolsey, of Jamaica, L. I. Captain Hallet, by grants dated December 1, 1652, and August, 1654, acquired large possessions at Hell-Gate and upon that portion of the island which now bears the name of Hallet's Cove. * Page 354. f Its position is indicated on Mr. Riker's map of Newtown as " The Old Blackwell House, now Rev. J. L. Thomson's." (467) 468 APPENDIX. The father of Dr. Blackwell was Colonel Jacob Blackwell, born November 20, 171 7, a son of the Jacob Blackwell just mentioned. Colonel Blackwell succeeded to the family estates on Long Island and on the East river, on the death of his father, December 1, 1744. He was a man of parts, and of liberal dispositions. In March, 1740, he assisted to erect and liberally endow a church edifice for the main- tenance of the services of the Church of England. A petition made by him, and the other founders, to the royal authorities, for a charter, sets forth : That the petitioners have, at a very great expense, erected a decent church, and dedicated the same to the worship of Almighty God, according to the rites and cere- monies of the Church of England, as by law established, by the name of St. James's Church, and have obtained about a quarter of an acre of land adjoining, for the use of a cemetery, and were determined to make a suitable provision for the support of a minister or pastor, that religious duties, for the time to come, may be duly and regu- larly celebrated therein. But that they cannot carry on this good design to advantage except they be incorporated.* The petition was granted, and the church incorporated by letters patent dated the 9th of September, 1761. The Rev. Samuel Seabury — afterwards the honored Bishop of Connecticut — was the first rector of the church. f As early, too, it would seem, as 1759, along with his family connec- tions of the name of Hallet, Colonel Blackwell was instrumental in establishing at Hallet's Cove, near their common residence, a school, where Greek and Roman literature should form a part of the ordinary course of education. It was placed under the charge of an Englishman named Rudge, from the city of Gloucester, in England, and who, Colonel Blackwell and his relatives certify, in a public advertisement of the school, had proved himself "a man of close application and so- briety, and to be capable of his office. "J Prior to the French and Indian war of 1756-63 this member of the family of Blackwell had been appointed to a captaincy in the Newtown militia. He was afterwards promoted to the grade of colonel. He was early prominent in remonstrating against those measures of the British Crown, the attempt to enforce which caused to Great Britain the loss of her western empire. His landed interests, and his known attach- ment alike to the principles of government and freedom, caused him to be called, 29th of December, 1774. to preside at a convention of the Freeholders of Queen's county, which expressed in a series of resolu- tions, not surpassed as a declaration of true colonial po'ncy, the con- * Riker's Annals, 249-251 ; 354, 358. f Ibid., 16. J Ibid., 167. APPENDIX. 469 viction entertained in America of the impolitic and unjust character of the ministerial measures. He was subsequently elected to represent the important county just above named in the Provincial Convention of New York, a body which exercised great influence at this crisis and afterwards. While attending to his public duties in New York, his estates on Long Island were seized by the commander of the British forces, which had recently proved victorious in that region, and con- fiscated. "At the venerable stone house in Ravenswood," says the annalist of Newtown, Mr. Riker, writing a. d. 1852, "may still be seen the mark of the broad arrow (*T) branded upon the front door by the British, denoting that it was the property of a rebel, and as such confis- cated to the Crown. Colonel Blackwell, however, recovered his estates a short time before his death ; an event which occurred October 23, 1780, and which," says Mr. Riker, "the privations and pecuniary losses he suffered from the enemy are believed to have hastened."* Colonel Blackwell married Frances, daughter of Joseph Sackett, Esq., of Queen's county, one of the Justices under the Crown for the Court of Common Pleas, and Hannah, his wife, daughter of Richard Alsop. By this marriage he had issue, the immediate subject of our notice. The Rev. Robert Blackwell, D. D., was born May 6, 1748. We have no certain knowledge where he received his primary education ; probably in part at the English and classical school, which we have just mentioned that his father was instrumental in establishing. From the work of the Rev. Samuel Davies Alexander, entitled "Princeton Col- lege during the Eighteenth Century," we learn that he was graduated in the venerable college just named, with a bachelor's degree, a. d. 1768. King's College conferred on him, a. d. 1770, the same degree, and Princeton again the Master's, a. d. 1782. He seems to have been im- bued with serious impressions from early years. His first studies, how- ever, were apparently towards physic. There was no theological school of the Church of England in the colonies. It is probable that Mr. Blackwell may have read divinity under the care of Dr. Samuel Auchmuty, Rector of Trinity Church, New York, or possibly under that of Mr. Seabury. While reading divinity he appears to have passed about two years as a tutor in the family of Colonel Frederick Philipse, a man of pre-eminent social im- portance in the colony of New York, partly in virtue of merits all his own, and partly from the vast wealth and political importance of his father, long a representative in the General Assembly of the colony, and proprietor by hereditary title of the Yonkers plantation, the whole * Annals, 354-358 ; 175-181 ; 194. 47° APPENDIX. manor of Philipsburg, in Westchester county, with the Upper Highland patent of Philipstown, in Putnam county.* During his studies of divinity young Blackwell apparently kept up some of those studies in medicine and surgery which he began, as we have supposed, at an earlier date. It is plain, from several evidences, that Mr. Blackwell had considerable taste for the natural sciences. We know, by what we remember of him, that he was fond of horticulture, both the elegant branches of it and those merely useful, as he was also of the culture of the finer varieties of fruit-trees. His garden, attached to his city residence, was one of the largest in Philadelphia; even in its earlier days, and up to the very close of his long life, it afforded to him, in the rich collection both of plants and of fruits with which he had stocked it, an unfailing source of interest. His library, too, which came to his grandchildren undispersed, has its very good collection of theo- logical and classical books, largely varied by books of the physical sciences, and especially by books on materia medica, therapeutics and surgery. It is obvious, too, that their owner read them. The first mention which I have found of Mr. Blackwell in connection with the sacred ministry is in a letter from Dr. Auchmuty to the vener- able Richard Peters, D. D., at this time Rector of the United Churches in Philadelphia. We give an extract: New York, Sept. the 2d, 1771. Rev. and Dear Sir : The purpose of this letter is to introduce to your friendship and countenance the bearer of it, Mr. Blackwell, a serious, good young man. He has been reading divinity for some time, and I think I may venture to say that though he is not very showy, yet he will make a solid and good parish minister. If you Philadelphians are zealous in supplying Gloucester, I know of no one who would suit for that mission so well.f He is a single man, and at his first setting off a small income will suffice him. He intends a jaunt beyond Philadelphia, to explore the country and see if there are any vacancies. He is solicitous to be employed, and we have no employment here for him. He will * A large part of the estates of which we have spoken came to the Colonel Philipse in whose family Mr. Blackwell was domesticated. But, on account of his loyalty to the Crown during the war for independence, these and all his other estates were con- fiscated by the Legislature of New York, and upon the withdrawal of the British troops from that State, in 1783, Colonel Philipse went to England, where he died in the city of Chester, A. D. 1785. f The mission at Gloucester, established by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, a. d. 1766, had recently (a. d. 1767) become vacant by the death of the Rev. Nathaniel Evans, who had been appointed missionary there as far back as 1765. In 1769 the mission seems to have been offered to " Mr. Lyon, of Taun- ton." I am not aware that he performed any duty. In 1770, or early in 1 77 r , Mr. David Griffith — the same person who was elected, in May, 1786, Bishop of Virginia, but relinquished the appointment — filled it for a short time, but was never fixed there. APPENDIX. 47 1 be recommended by the clergy here and Colonel Philipse; and the recommendation will be no more than he deserves. 1 can easily procure him a letter from Governor Tryon to Governor Martin, but would choose, as North Carolina is a bad climate, that he should be more happily situated, as he is a good young man and deserves any good offices that the clergy can do for him.* I think it would be worth while once more to try to establish the mission at Gloucester (as it is so contiguous to your city), if there is the least prospect of success; and I know of no young man that in my opinion will do more to gain the love and esteem of any people than the bearer, lie is a lump of good nature, and very diligent when he has anything to do. I am, dear sir, Your affectionate brother, S. AUCHMUTY. Attached to the mission at Gloucester, as would seem, was the very ancient Parish of St. Mary's, Colestown, in old Gloucester county, ten miles north of the town of Gloucester. And apparently on Dr. Auch- muty's suggestion, Dr. Peters (with whom perhaps was Dr. Smith) set measures on foot for the re-establishment of the mission. The mission, as denned by the society and left by Mr. Evans, covered a territory of about sixty miles long by thirty wide, and a population of six thousand persons, of whom more than half were Quakers, the residue being people of the churches of England and Sweden, Luther- ans and Presbyterians, all in about equal numbers. There was a church, St. Mary's, at Colestown (founded, it is said, about the year 1740 — very ancient, certainly — still standing), and in 1766 the two congrega- tions took a house with twelve acres of land for a parsonage, on a lease of five years. The mission was now agreed to be re-established ; the people at Cole's church promising verbally to pay to the support of the minister a portion of the expenses. Up to this date Mr. Blackwell had not been ordained even as a deacon. Before going to England for holy orders, he was desirous of seeing where he could fix himself with cer- tainty on his return, as a parish minister. In addition to which the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, into whose service as a mis- sionary he proposed to enter, usually required, before establishing a mission, that the people where it was to be established should agree to contribute a certain sum towards sustaining it. The merely verbal agreement — probably undefined both as to persons and amounts — led to the letter which follows, from Mr. Blackwell to the clergy at Phila- delphia who were desirous to re-establish the mission. It is singularly * His Excellency, William Tryon, was at this time " Captain-General and Governor of New York and the Territories depending thereon in America, Chancellor and Vice- Admiral of the same." 47 2 APPENDIX. characteristic of its author, as subsequently known during a long life and in transactions of much larger scope; direct, candid and kind; but decided in tone and full of integrity in matters of money. It is ad- dressed to the Rev. Dr. Richard Peters, but was obviously intended for him and some other person; probably Dr. Smith. Thus it reads: Newtown, L. I., April 20, 1772. Reverend Gentlemen : I have received your letter in answer to what Mr. Griffith wrote to Dr. Peters at my request concerning the mission at Cole's church, though the answer is not so plain and full as I could wish it. You, gentlemen, are very sensible that the provision made in that parish for the sup- port of a minister is, at best, but very small, and unless he could get the whole of what the people promise to give, I am sure, though I am a single man, I should be unable to stay among them. It never was my design to make money by the gospel. I always had, as I hope, far better views. Yet it is my opinion that any one who is worthy of that honorable and sacred character is also worthy of a comfortable maintenance from the people he serves. I shall accept the invitation you have given me, but I have one thing to request of you, which will be very easily performed by gentlemen of your in- fluence; that is, that you will settle matters in such a manner with the people of Cole's church that when I come among them (if it be God's will that I return in safety) we may have no dispute about the payment of the salary. If they design to pay me, I cannot conceive why they are so fearful of giving bonds ; for that is the usual way of settling among us, and is found very advantageous in its effects. It leaves no room for uneasiness on either side; each know what they have to depend upon, and each are contented with what they have agreed to. Gentlemen, I know that you will do whatever lies in your power for the good of the church. I rest in the assurance of your kind endeavors. I return you my sincere thanks for your kind wishes towards me in a prosperous voyage and quick return. I expect to sail in about a fortnight in the ship called the " Duchess of Gordon," Captain Winn, commander. I should have gone sooner, but our spring vessels have just returned. Captain Miller has sailed for London some lime since; but I had only three days' notice, so that I was unable to get ready to go with him. Reverend gentlemen, I remain your most obedient and humble servant, Robert Blackwell. Eighteen days previous to the date of this letter, Dr. Auchmuty had written to Dr. Peters : Blackwell has received your letters and is now preparing for his voyage. I hope he will be despatched in a short time. We shall give him ample testimonials. He is a good lad, and will be useful. On Thursday, the eleventh day of June, 1772 — that day being the Feast of St. Barnabas — he was in England, at the little suburb of London called Fulham; and at a "special ordination," then and there held, was, by the then Bishop of London, the excellent Richard Ter- rick, "holding a special ordination, in the chapel of his palace at the APPENDIX. 473 said Fulham, admitted into the Holy Order of Deacons, according to the manner and form prescribed and used by the Church of England." On the same day the newly ordained deacon, by a written document, declared that he would "conform to the Liturgy of the Church of Eng- land, as it is now by law established. " He then received the Bishop of London's license and authority to perform the office of "a minister in Gloucester county or elsewhere within the Province of New Jersey in North America." On the 14th following he was ordained a Priest. The reports of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in For- eign Parts now came to our aid. An abstract of the report for the year 1774 says: Mr. Robert Blackwell, missionary at Gloucester and Waterford, acquaints the society that he performs duty not only at Gloucester and Waterford (which latter goes by the name of Cole's Church) but also at Greenwich, about eighteen miles from Waterford, where there is a new church; not built purposely for the Church of England (the people at that time having no hopes of a missionary), but where the ministers thereof are to have the preference, and which Mr. Blackwell hopes will very shortly be an established church.* The families belonging to each of these churches were about forty in number, many of whom, Mr. Blackwell notes, "were very ignorant, particularly in respect to the sacraments as living in the midst of Quakers, and destitute of the means of instruction. Appearances were, however, now more favorable, and Mr. Blackwell hopes, by God's blessing, to be an instrument of great good." The grounds for the hope expressed by Mr. Blackwell that this new * The " new church," to which Mr. Blackwell refers, was St. Peter's Church, Berkeley, founded and endowed A. D. 1770, by Thomas Clark. It was not incorpo- rated until April 28, 1835, when it received the charter-title of " The Rector, Church Wardens and Vestrymen of St. Peter's Church in Berkeley." We find it in former days sometimes called " the church at Sand-town; " sometimes the church at Green- wich; and of later days "the church at Clarksborough." In the course of generations " the new church " of Dr. Blackwell's day became a very old one. It was resolved to build a new edifice; and the village of Clarksborough, which had grown up a little to the east of the church, though on ground originally of Thomas Clark, the founder of the edifice, being the residence of most of the worshippers, the new edifice was built there; a half of a mile, perhaps, west of the old situation, on the same street and same side of it with the old one, and directly opposite to the parsonage. On Monday morning, December 7, 1846, the venerable structure of Dr. Blackwell's day was reverently torn down, and on the 17th of the same month the new one was consecrated by Bishop Doane, under the charter name of " St. Peter's Church, Berkeley," in Clarksborough. It is agreeable to know that under the faithful and judicious pastoral care of the Rev. Jesse V. Burk it is at this time one of the best ordered, flourishing and useful parishes in the State of New Jersey. 474 APPENDIX. church, "not built purposely far the Church of England," would very shortly become an established church are interestingly disclosed in an ancient manuscript book, placed, through the courtesy of the rector of the church, in my hands by Mr. William Morris Cooper, of New Jersey. It seems that there being, prior to Dr. Blackwell's taking charge of it, no prospect of any clergyman of the church entering upon the cure, the church edifice, though built chiefly by contributions from members of the Church of England, had not been built by them exclusively; but that "Methodists" — hardly yet fully separated from the church — had assisted to build it, with an understanding that their ministers might preach in it, and that they themselves might use it for their meetings. This was not agreeable to Dr. Blackwell, who, "though he highly re- spected the character and motives of persons that composed other religious denominations, honored their piety and zeal, had the utmost affection for their persons, and was ever active in reciprocating the endearing charities of social life, thought it best, for the good not less of other religious bodies than of his own, that their religious operations should be kept distinct." The church at Greenwich was not incorporated, but by its deed of foundation, dated November 29, 1770, was placed under the control of certain managers. They were now, by Dr. Blackwell's influence, assembled, and at a "regular meeting, held by appointment, June 30, 1774," this preamble and these regulations were agreed to: 1st. Whereas, It appears to the managers of this church, from sundry good reasons, that it would be for the advancement of religion and piety, as well as productive of the most salutary consequences, that the said church should be the property of some one particular denomination or sect of Christians : And as it appears from the subscription- paper that by far the greatest part of the monies laid out on said building was given by persons who professed themselves members of the Church of England, and still desire that this may be an Established church : We do therefore agree that it shall be so ; and from the date hereof this House be an Established Church, according to the Establishment of that part of Great Britain called England, and further that it may bi included in a charier with the church at Waterford and that which is to be built at Gloucester. 2d. That if any person be dissatisfied with the above order of the managers, he, she or they, by applying personally to Thomas Clark, Esq., any time in the month of Oc- tober next, and only then, and letting him know they did not subscribe for an Established church, neither are they willing that their money should remain for that use, may have their subscriptions refunded. 3d. We further agree that no person whatsoever preach in this house except the clergy of the Church of England ; unless he first obtain leave under the hand of Dr. Bodo Otto, Jr., whom we appoint, during our pleasure, to inspect into the morals and abilities of such persons as shall desire to preach in said church, and to approve or disapprove of them as he thinks fit. APPENDIX. 475 4th. We do appoint Mr. Gabriel D. Veber to keep the key of said church; and it is our desire that he open the church to no other preachers but such as have been agreed upon. 5th. That there be no private meetings for Divine service in said church, but that the doors be open for persons of every denomination who behave themselves with decency and good order, and desire to hear our preaching. 6lh. That when there be an appointment by a minister of our clergy, there be no other on that day but such as he shall please to make. 7th. Ordered that these resolutions be published in said church immediately after Divine service; that they may be known to the people: and that they be entered in the Greenwich Church-book. Robert Blackwell, one of the Managers, and Clerk to the said meeting. Present — Timothy Clark, Isaac Inskeep, Thomas Thomson, Samuel Tonkin, Jon- athan Chew, Gabriel D. Veber, Bodo Otto, Jr. Greenwich, July 31, 1774. This day the above resolves were published, according to the order of the Managers, by me. Robert Blackwell. Greenwich, Sept. 13, 1774. At an appointed meeting of the Managers of Greenwich Church, with Mr. Rankins, Superintendent of the Methodists in these parts, and several of the heads of them, living in Greenwich, it was agreed that the Regulations made by the Managers on June 30, 1774, shall be observed by each party. Robert Blackwell. In 1775 Mr. Blackwell writes to the English society in whose em- ployment he was, that the congregation at each of his churches is somewhat increased, though he lost one of his best families by emigra- tion. At Easter his communicants at Waterford were six, and at Greenwich twenty-five. In 1776 he writes of the great difficulty he has in settling a mission in the general disturbance, and gives no very promising account of his congregation. An abstract of the society's report for the next year (1777) says of the Gloucester mission, that "all is in confusion." It is not surprising to find that a mission whose chief seat was Gloucester, in New Jersey, should be all in confusion a. d. 1777, that year memorable there and in all the country round about as the year of the assault by Count Donop on Fort Mercer, at Red Bank, and of the terrific siege of Fort Mifflin; of the marching and countermarching under the Earl of Cornwallis, and General Varnum, and Sir Henry Clinton, and General Maxwell, of hostile armies; and of constant naval engagements in the Delaware, one of the severest having been just below Gloucester, October 23, 1777, when the "Augusta" and the 4?6 APPENDIX. "Merlin" — British ships of war — encountering our navy, exploded in the midst of the engagement. What part in the rupture of the British Empire Mr. Blackwell took, may be surmised from the part which we have already said was taken by his father, Col. Jacob Blackwell, in New York, and from the indig- nities and injury suffered by him from the British invaders on Long Island. The mission at Gloucester was of course at an end. The Church of England in America had been laid prostrate by the war. Not to be useless in his sacred office, Mr. Blackwell joined the Ameri- can army as a Chaplain. He had preached before it, however, anterior to his official connection with it. The venerable annalist of Phila- delphia, John Fanning Watson, in a letter before me, dated June 23, 1854, says: Dr. Robert Blackwell was once settled as a minister at an Episcopal church between Haddonfield and Mount Holly,* and while there preached a sermon to the American troops at Haddonfield, as was once told me by an elderly lady, one of his parishioners, who said it was much approved. Mr. Blackwell followed the fortunes of our war through the gloomy winter of 1777-78, exercising the double office of both Chaplain and Surgeon to the suffering troops at the Valley Forge. An original cer- tificate in the handwriting of Brigadier-General Anthony Wayne thus testifies to the fact, and shows that the surgical attainments of his youth came — though, probably, in a way little anticipated by him when acquiring them — to excellent and most Christian results. It thus reads: I do certify that Dr. Robert Blackwell was Chaplain to the First Pennsylvania Brigade, and Surgeon to one of the regiments in the year 1778, and that he took and subscribed the oath as directed by Congress before me at the Valley Forge, in common with other officers of the Line. Given at Philadelphia, this 10th October, 1783. Anthony Wayne, B. G. [Endorsed in Dr. Blackwell's handwriting.] General Wayne's Certificate that R. B. hath taken the oath of allegiance. We have no record testimony how long Dr. Blackwell's connection with the army continued. As he was with it both as Chaplain and Surgeon — "an officer of the Line" — in the year 1778, and at the Valley Forge, we may assume, almost with certainty, that he followed it on its sudden departure from Pennsylvania to overtake the flying British, and was with it at Monmouth, and afterwards. Indeed, in the absence of anything whatever to show that he left it before, the presumption * Cole's Church answers this description. APPENDIX. 477 would be that he stayed with it until the beginning of 1780, on the 17th of January, in which year he was married. On the 23d of October, 1780, his father, Colonel Jacob Blackwell, died, and on the 26th of March, 1781, he was residing "near Philadelphia," and then for the first time, so far as we see, since the breaking up of his mission and his joining the army, ready to enter into ordinary parochial work. By the demise of his father, at the date above mentioned — October 23, 1780 — Dr. Blackwell succeeded to the possession of considerable real estate in the East river and on Long Island, just opposite to New York. An immense increase in its value, in connection with property which passed to him in marriage, assisted to make him what for forty years and more before his death he was; not only the richest of the Episcopal clergy in the United States, but one of the richest men of his day in Philadelphia. Dr. Blackwell remained without a parochial cure, so far as we know — though no doubt preaching frequently where an opportunity for being useful offered itself — until the year 1781. In the spring of that year began that connection with the United Churches which associates his name inseparably with their history ; a connection long and honorable to him, and beneficent to them.* It remained of an official sort till 181 1, and constant and ecclesiastical, though not official, till 1831 — a term of half a century; Bishop White during the whole time being Rector of the two churches. The situation of the United Churches as respected political matters, when Dr. Blackwell was called to them, in 1781, was delicate. It re- quired great discretion on the part of their clergy, and conduct that should be at once conciliatory and controlling, to keep the congrega- tions in anything like ancient steadiness and place. The Church of England had never been strong in Pennsylvania. Outside of Philadel- phia its settled clergy had not been more than six. During the war of the Revolution some had returned to England, | and some had died. In 1 781 they numbered only three: Mr. White, Mr. Magaw, Rector of St. Paul's, and Mr. Blackwell. The body of worshippers in the United Churches — that is to say, the worshippers most influential in point of education, wealth, social standing and moral worth, had not been inclined to the Revolution, and had reluctantly acquiesced in it. * His engagement, which, at the first, was "to assist Mr. White on Sundays," began on Easter Day, April 14, 1781. At a meeting of the Vestry, held September 19, 1781, for the purpose of choosing "an Assistant Minister of Christ Church and St. Peter's," he was unanimously elected to be such. ■j- Dr. Duche, Mr. Coombe, Dr. Alexander Murray, Mr. Thomas Barton, and I sup- pose others, returned to England. 478 APPENDIX. Some of these were disposed to give but slender support to churches which acknowledged a new allegiance, and bo.h whose officiating min- isters had been officially in the service of either the Congress or the army. But the class called "the hot Whigs" were more difficult yet to manage. They were intolerant and bitter ; and they were glad to see excluded and departing from the churches every one who had not been violent in the cause of the Revolution, and who was not as vindic- tive as themselves. No men but men like Dr. White and Dr. Blackwell, both of them gentlemen by birth — both of unquestioned devotion to the cause of independence, and whose conduct was marked by decision, candor, toleration, discretion and suavity of manner — could have kept such elements of discord from breaking forth into political animosities which, in the then state of the United Churches, would have been fatal to the prosperity, and indeed perhaps to the existence of the parishes. But the men were suited to the time as completely as they harmonized with each other. The parishes remained united in fact as in name — united to each other and united in themselves. The churches, largely depopulated for some time after the occupation of the city by the Brit- ish army, thus reacquired by degrees their ancient numbers. Dr. Blackwell was ever faithful in the discharge of the various and, as before long they became, onerous duties which they imposed upon him. For thirty years he performed steadily or assisted to perform divine service and to preach, not only twice a day on Sundays, but to perform service also on Wednesdays and Fridays, and upon the festivals and fasts recognized more particularly in the church ; upon all of which days both Christ Church and St. Peter's, in accordance with what is contemplated in the Book of Common Prayer, were opened, as they also daily were in the holy season of Lent, for divine service. Regard- ing the "Catechism" as an admirable compend of the Church's doctrine and teachings, and looking at the Church's teachings as ever better than his own, he was never neglectful of the rubric which makes it the duty of the minister of every parish diligently upon Sundays and Holy Days, or on some other convenient occasion, openly, in the church, to instruct or examine so many children of his parish sent unto him as he should think convenient, in some part of that excellent compend. And there yet survive those who recall with animated feelings his venerable figure and his air of sweet and paternal dignity as he would move before the lines of little people arranged on both sides of the middle aisle of Christ Church or St. Peter's; his Prayer Book, with his gold spectacles, in one hand, while the other, left free, he would put, with affectionate commendation, upon the head of some little innocent who seemed to need encouragement or to deserve commendation. His private Registry APPENDIX. 479 of Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, in the archives of the Historical Society of our State, and carefully treasured by it as among its more precious possessions, exhibits a large amount of duties faithfully per- formed for every class, including the poorest and most ignorant. And they were all as faithfully recorded. In parishes having a circuit so wide as had those of the United Churches in Dr. Blackwell's day, and with parishioners so numerous, the discharge of such external duties as make part of every clergyman's office, imposed upon both their ministers constant labor and many duties requiring the best qualities of a pastor's character. All these, in Dr. Blackwell's case, were called into special requisition during those visitations of contagious pestilence which desolated Philadelphia on more than one occasion during his ministry, and one of which came near, by his fidelity to his parochial duties, to involve his own life. Dreadful as have been the visitations of the Yellow Fever of late times in the southern parts of the United States, they do not appear to have been more dreadful than those visitations of it under which Philadelphia came in 1793 and 1797. The visitation of 1793 was perhaps the most alarming. A letter before us from an eminent physician of Philadelphia to a friend thus speaks of it : Though every one is not confined, yet from the general diffusion of the contagion through every street in the city, nobody is perfectly well. One complains of giddi- ness; one of headache; another of chills; others of pains in the back, or stomach; and all have more or less quickness of pulse and redness or yellowness in the eyes. No words can describe the distress which pervades all ranks of people, from the combined operations of fear, grief, poverty, despair and death. . . . Never can 1 forget the awful sight of mothers wringing their hands, fathers dumb for awhile with fear and appre- hension, and children weeping aloud before me; all calling upon me to hasten to the relief of their sick relations. This is but a faint picture of the distress of our city. It is computed that one hundred persons, on an average, have been buried every day for the last eight or ten days. The sick suffer, not only from the want of physicians, bleeders, nurses and friends, but from want of the common necessaries of life. Five physicians, four students of medicine, and three bleeders have died of the disorder. But the mortality falls chiefly on the poor, who, by working in the sun, excite the con- tagion into activity. Whole families of these have been swept away by it. . . . The former sources of charity in money are dried up or carried into the country. There is little credit now given for anything. Every service to the sick is purchased at a most ex- orbitant rate. The price of bleeding is seven shillings and sixpence, and nurses' wages are three dollars and three dollars and a half per day. Families who lived by the daily labor of journeymen or day laborers suffer greatly from the death of persons by whom alone their daily wants were supplied. My heart has been rent a thousand times, in witnessing distress from that cause as well as from sickness. I have, in vain, endeavored to relieve it. The resources of a prince would not have relieved one-half of it. . . . Some of the wealthy are at last affected. Mr. Van Berkle, Mr. Powel, Mrs. Blodget and Mrs. Clymer are at present confined by it. Mr. Van Berkle is in danger. Continue, my dear friend, to pray for our distressed and desolated city. 48O APPENDIX. It was in the midst of scenes like these that Dr. Blackwell, with his fearless rector and associate, Bishop White, was most active. Advising their parishioners everywhere to flee to places of safety, neither was willing himself to leave Philadelphia for a day. Dr. Blackwell was not unfamiliar with spectacles of terror. For a long and dreadful winter he had made his daily and nightly rounds through the hospitals of the Valley Forge, ministering to the souls and bodies alike of the six thou- sand sick and wounded soldiers who were there, without blankets or clothes, freezing and dying in the wards. He saw, in the new scenes of plague and pestilence, only new work which his Divine Master put now before him. Clergy, not the Church's, might leave the city. The Church, by solemn rubric, forbade any minister of Hers to do so; and though, "for fear of the infection," the whole residue of the parish should flee, and no neighbor be near, he was to remain, and, "upon special request of the diseased, alone to communicate with him." In his combined character of physician, priest and man, rich in this world's goods, the entry of his house was filled night and day with ap- plicants for aid ; and, so long as he remained unattacked himself, few went away without some benefit from their application. On the 20th of October, 1793, having endured the rage of the pestilence unharmed, at a moment when it seemed to exhibit some signs of approaching de- cline, he was, in the midst of his active efforts to relieve others, himself suddenly stricken down. Fortunately, he was taken at once to a country residence, near Gloucester, and his restoration, for some time despaired of, ultimately took place; though his constitution never re- covered perfectly from the shock of this attack. Dr. Blackwell's sermons were characterized by solid sense, abundant scholarship, pious feeling, and a pervading tone of purity and sweet- ness. On occasions and in passages they rose to high solemnity. He uttered nothing crude, questionable or jejune. In conversa- tion with the writer of this sketch, the late Horace Binney, who had known him from childhood, and was for many years one of his parish- ioners, spoke of them " as to him never uninteresting ; " a higher tribute than which, to the solidity of their merits, no sermons could receive. Their structure had little of the arts of rhetoric. His voice was agree- able and well modulated, but neither in it nor in his gestures was there much elocutionary display. He addressed himself to the understand- ings, the consciences and the hearts of his hearers; and the effects which he produced were effects which endured, and to this day bring forth good fruit. Dr. Rufus Wilmot Griswold, in his "Republican Court," refers to him more than once as a conspicuous person of society in the days of APPENDIX. 48 1 Washington. After speaking of him as "a man of large fortune, fine appearance and singularly pleasant temper and manner," he says: He was " a scholarly and sensible preacher of the English University cast. His sermons, of the homiletical kind, were, like those of the higher classes of the English clergy in the last century, calculated for educated hearers more than to arouse an in- different or slumbering congregation." Dr. Griswold adds: Being withal a man of unquestioned piety and great propriety of life, he maintained a dignified position, and was extensively deferred to by an opulent And worldly class, who would probably have deferred to no one else less blessed with adventitious influence. At the distance of near a century since Dr. Blackwell was called to minister in them, and of more than fifty years since he has been lying in the grave beside St. Peter's, it is interesting to look at the condition of the United Churches. It is a condition which testifies in part of his work, and of what sort it was. While almost all the Protestant churches which existed in his time in the eastern part of Philadelphia have been demolished, or delivered over to secular and sometimes to impious uses, the old United Churches re- main in strength and usefulness, and are likely to remain. Their ancient worshippers have disappeared; but worshippers in lines of straight suc- cession still crowd their sacred aisles. The congregations of these old churches at this day are as active as were those of earlier days in works of charity and usefulness; and as active in such works as any anywhere, or of the newest. Nor did this venerable gentleman confine his labors to offices sacer- dotal or clerical only. In every department of religion — indeed in every sphere of humanity or science where he moved — he verified, un- consciously, the prediction which, a. d. 1770, in his early life Dr. Auchmuty made of him, that he would be "useful." He was among the first persons who set themselves at work to re- establish the Episcopal Church after it had been prostrated by the war of the Revolution; one of those ten clergymen who, with six laymen, met May n, 1784, at New Brunswick, N. J. — he having been the per- son to propose that time and to approve that place,* by whom were set a-going measures for the purpose of forming a "Continental Represen- * In a letter I received from Mr. Blackwell some time ago, he proposed Tuesday, Ilth May, as a proper time for the meeting, and acquiesced with my proposal of Brunswick for the place. — [Letter of the Rev. Abraham Beach to the Rev. Dr. White of March 22d, 1 784, in Bishop IV. S. Perry's "Half Century of Legislation of the American Church" Vol. III., p. 9.) 31 4§2 APPENDIX. tation " of the church, and for "the better management" of its con- cerns. With his fellow-workers — Mr. White, Mr. Beach, Mr. Magaw, Dr. Smith and others — he did faithful labor in this behalf: so faithful and with such success that in one year afterwards, 1785, a convention of seven out of ten of the States where the church was, was held,* the first in the series of those great conventions which still continue to represent triennially the church in her corporate dignity, and which, all may pray, may continue to represent her in the future with as much good result to the end of time. Of the first convention Dr. Blackwell was a member, as he was of the convention of 1786, one which like that composed representatives from seven States; of that of 1789, the first of our General Conventions, in the sense which included any States of New England ; and of those, its successors, of 1795, of 1799, of 1801, of 1804 and 1808, after which date, retiring from parochial charge, he was no longer eligible to any. In all these conventions he was called upon for active service, and placed in positions showing reliance on his learning, his intelligence and practical wisdom. In the General Convention of 1789 he is ap- pointed on various important committees ; on one to take into con- sideration the proposed Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and to recommend such alterations, additions and amendments as the committee should think necessary and proper; on another to prepare a Morning and Evening Service for the use of the church ; on a third to report what further measures were then necessary to perpetuate the succession of Bishops in America; on a fourth to superintend the printing of the Book of Common Prayer as then adopted and still ex- isting; and finally, on the adjournment of the body, on a Standing Committee to act during the recess of the convention. f In the General Convention of 1792 he is again appointed a member of the Standing Committee ;f appointed also on the Committee for Carrying into Effect an act or plan which the convention had previously passed for Supporting Missions. J In the convention of 1795 we find him presiding in Committee of the Whole, to take into consideration the General State of the Church ; appointed also at the same convention on a joint committee of the two Houses, "to arrange the Canons and principal papers belonging to the Church ; causing them to be fairly transcribed in a properly bound book, *This convention had representatives from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina. f See Minutes of July 30, October 3, October 15, October 16, 1 789. \ See Minutes of 19th September, 179? APPENDIX. 483 in order that they may be faithfully preserved for the perpetual use of the House of the General Convention of this Church, to recur to as occasion may require;'' appointed again on the Standing Committee.* In the convention of 1804 he is a member of a committee "to pre- pare an office of Induction in the Rectorship of Parishes; " Chairman of a committee to settle "a very unhappy difference," subsisting be- tween the Rev. Uzal Ogden, D. D., and the then congregation of Trinity Church, Newark, which appeared to threaten the existence of that church, and which its vestry brought before the convention, asking it "to devise some means for their relief;" Chairman "to manage, on the part of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, a Conference with the House of Bishops on certain points where differences of opinion prevailed," but where perfect harmony was arrived at by patience and learning of the committees of the respective bodies. f He was Treasurer both of General conventions and of State conven- tions; his plentiful fortune and his liberal disposition making him a very acceptable officer in situations like these then were, and still are, where funds were limited and demands upon them large. For fifty-nine years he was an active and valuable member of that beneficent corporation, now so opulent, but long very feeble, and for some years after its organization scarce existent, "for the Relief of the Widows and Clergymen in the Communion of the Protestant Episcopal Church; " becoming a member of it a. d. 1773, and ending his services to it only with his life. From the year 1803 until 1814 he was its Treasurer, for Pennsylvania. As late as 1828 Bishop White, in an address to the convention of the clergy and laity of his State, speaks of the assistance which that "reverend brother, then present," had rendered to him "after the shock received by the fund from the cur- rency at the Revolutionary war," not only in reorganizing the society, but also in rescuing the remnant of the fund from the further danger into which it had fallen. He was a Trustee from its origin, a. d. 181 2, of that useful institution of the church in Pennsylvania, the Society for the Advancement of Christianity, and a constant contributor to its funds. He was a Manager of " The Philadelphia Dispensary," a beneficent institution established a. d. 1786, and still beneficently existing for the relief of the indigent sick, and early and long a contributor to its funds; a "Visitor" — personally interesting himself — of the incorporated *See Minutes of September 12, September 17, September 18, 1795. f See Minutes of September 13, September 15 and September 18, 1804. 4§4 APPENDIX. "Young Ladies' Academy of Philadelphia,"* one of the best schools for young ladies which ever existed in Philadelphia ; a Trustee of the Episcopal Academy of Philadelphia ; a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania; a member of the American Philosophical Society; and one of the Counsellors ;\ a member of the Society for Political Inquiries, a society established a. d. 1787, and composed of the first men of the nation, and of such alone, or chiefly. \ He was an earnest promoter of that important institution of the church, The General Theological of New York, and by his testamentary dispositions gave to it $2,500 to establish in it a scholarship^ In 1 810, the city growing, even then, rapidly toward the west, St. James's Church, in Seventh street above Market, was built and a !ded to the ancient parishes as one of the United Churches. Dr. Blackwell now availed himself of the claims of advancing years, and of health not longer robust, to retire from official connection with the corporation, whose enlarged form and wide circuit seemed likely to place upon him duties that were more suited to youthful strength. We have in the records of the United Churches|| a tribute to his services and worth both from the vestry of the two churches and from the venerable rector of them, the first Bishop of this diocese, than whom no one living had so good opportunities of knowing Dr. Blackwell's usefulness and virtue. The Minutes of the Corporation record that on the 18th of September, 1810, "the Right Rev. Dr. White read a letter which he had written to the Rev. Dr. Blackwell, and Dr. Blackwell's answer thereto." The Resolution mentioned in Bishop White's letter had been passed by the Vestry on the 6th of August, 1810. The letter and answer are thus : August 7, 1 8 10. Reverend and Dear Sir : Last evening, ngreeable to your desire, I informed the Vestry of your intended re- signation, which produced the request expressed in the Minutes following: * See " The Rise and Progress of the Young Ladies' Academy, at Philadelphia." Philadelphia, 1794. l2mo., pp. I, 15, 1 1 7. f January 19, 1 788. J This society was established February 9, 1787, and was limited to fifty members. Dr. Franklin, Major William Jackson, Francis Hopkinson, Samuel Powel, James Wil- son, William Bradford, Jr., John Nixon, George Clymer, Jared Ingersoll, Thomas Fitzsimons, Robert Morris, Edward Shippen, Edward Tilghman, Gouverneur Morris, William Bingham, and a few other persons were members. It met, except in the summer months, and in deference to his age and eminence, at the house generally of Dr. Franklin, who was its President. $ The Blackwell Scholarship; in the gift of the Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. || S-e the Rev. Dr. Dorr's History of Christ Church, py>. 2,2,1-223. APPENDIX. 485 Augusts. The Right Rev. Dr. White informed the Vestry that ihe Rev. Dr. Black- well had expressed his determination to decline his place a^ Assistant Minister in the United Churches, whenever a suitable person can be obtained in his room. It was further expressed that the cause of his resignation was occasional indisposition ; but that he was willing to continue to officiate to allow sufficient time to choose another minisier. Whereupon, Resolved, That the Right Rev. Dr. White be requested to express to Dr. Blackwell the regret with which the Vestry have received the foregoing intimation; and more particularly for the cause which has induced it ; and that he at the same lime commu- nicate to Dr. Blackwell the sense of the Vestry of the services rendered by him in the discharge of the duties of his office, and acquaint him of the resolution of the Vestry to take early measures for releasing him from his station by the election of a successor. In performing the duty thus laid on me by the Vestry, I participate in the respectful and affectionate sentiments >vhich they have expressed; and I further take the oppor- tunity of mentioning that during whatever may remain to me of life, I shall reflect with satisfaction on the harmony which has subsisted between us, and the friendly inter- course in which we have trod, through so long a space of time, and that of our united parochial ministry. With my best wishes and my prayers for your happiness, I remain, Reverend and dear sir, Your humble servant, Wm. White. To the Rev. Robert Blackwell, D. D. [DR. BLACKWELL'S ANSWER.] Right Reverend and Dear Sir : When I look back on the long and happy connection that has for so manv years sub- sisted between us us ministers of the United Churches, the many kind attentions you have shown me, and the affectionate behavior I have always experienced from you, you may be assured that I am very sensibly affected at the dissolution of a connection so happily begun, and continued so long with such uninterrupted harmony and good will. I am fully persuaded that nothing will interrupt the friendly understanding that now subsists between us ; but that, as we pass down the vale of years, our brotherly affection will know no change, but in its increase; and that, as we draw nearer the close of life, our hopes of happiness will become brighter and brighter. My dear sir, you will please to express to the Vestry the satisfaction I feel at the kind and friendly notice they have taken of my past services; and assure them that they were always performed with a willing heart, a sincere mind, and an ardent desire "hat they might be useful and acceptable to the congregation. It is my earnest prayer that their labors in promoting the interest and welfare of the United Churches may be crowned with full success. My best wishes shall ever attend them. Right reverend and dear sir, with the highest esteem and veneration for your many amiable and Christian virtues, and with the sincerest wishes for your long life, health and happiness, I am your affectionate friend and brother, 8th August, 1810. Robert Blackwell. The Right Rev. William White, D. D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsylvania. 486 APPENDIX. On the 14th of May, 181 1, the Rev. Jackson Kemper (afterwards the first Missionary Bishop of the West) was elected an Assistant in the place of Dr. Blackwell; and we fix the termination of Dr. Blackwell's official relation to the United Churches from that day. On the same day the Vestry makes this request : The Vestry request that the Church Warden present their thanks to the Rev. Dr. Blackwell for his past service, and at the same time express their hope that, notwith- standing his resignation, he will occasionally favor them with his sermons when the Rector or either of the Assistant Ministers may request. In the year 1788 Dr. Blackwell received from the University of Penn- sylvania the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Blackwell was twice married : First, January 17, 1780, by the Rev. William White, to Rebecca Harrison, daughter of Joseph and Ann Harrison, of Gloucester county, New Jersey. This lady died February 25, 1782, aged 25 years. Family affection has preserved an old manuscript which contains an account of her death and some graceful elegiac lines to her memory. I am unable to state with certainty the author of them. They have been attributed, not without some probability, to the accomplished first Provost of the College of Philadelphia. If he was not the author of them, it is difficult to say to whom in Philadelphia at that time we can assign them. Second, November 2, 1783, to Hannah Benezet, relict of John Benezet, Esq., and daughter of William and Mary Bingham. This lady died December 16, 1815. No issue by the latter marriage survived. By the former, Dr. Black- well left one child, a daughter, Rebecca Harrison, who became, No- vember 26, 1800, the wife of George Willing, of Philadelphia. Dr. Blackwell's dwelling-house in Philadelphia was on the south side of Pine street below Third, and within a hundred yards of the church in which he most frequently ministered. At the distance of more than a century from the time of its erection it still stands, shorn, indeed, of its spacious and well-kept grounds, but, as respects the house itself, ab- solutely unimpaired, we may say, in solidity or even in appearance ; a conclusive evidence of the superiority of its materials and modes of structure. The house, its occupant, the surrounding houses, and the occupants of these, made in their day so considerable a feature of the city that the local historian of Philadelphia, Mr. Thompson Westcott, in a chapter devoted to "Notable Mansions in the City built between 1750 and 1776," gives us quite an extended mention of them. He says : * * History of Philadelphia, chapter ccxix. APPENDIX. 487 In the year 1761 the Proprietaries, Thomas and Richard Fcnn, granted the whole front on Tine street, from Second to Third, being four hundred and t,ixty feet in width by one hundred and two feet in depth, to John Stamper, in consideration of ^1100 sterling and a yearly quit-rent of five shillings. Stamper was an Englishman who had been a successful merchant. He was a member of the Common Council and an alder- man, and in 1759 was mayor of the city. After the purchase from the Penns he bought forty feet of ground south of the original grant, which made his lot one hun- dred and forty-two feet deep, to an alley, which was called, after him, Stamper's alley. At this time Mr. Stamper lived in Second street, at the southwest corner of Stamper's alley. Upon this large lot on Tine street Mr. Stamper built, some time before the Revolution, a fine three-story brick house, which was formerly No. 50, and which is now known as No. 224. It will be readily distinguished by its red and blue glazed brick, its ancient columnar doorway, and its low steps. The cornice and dormer win- dows are fine specimens of old-fashioned woodwork. The interior of the house was finished, according to the taste of the ante-Revolutionary times, with elaborate panel- ing, wainscoting, surbases, heavy doors, etc., which still remain. The stable and coach-house in Stamper's alley are also still standing. Stamper had two daughters. One of these — Mary Stamper — married William Bingham the elder, and was the mother of the Hon. William Bingham, afterwards Senator of the United States, whose properly finally went, through the marriage of one of his daughters, to the English family of the Barings. Hannah, the other daughter, married, in second marriage, the Rev. Robert Blackwell, D. U., and, upon the division of her grandfather's (Stamper's) estate, this fine house, running to within about thirty feet of Third street, passed into the possession of Dr. Blackwell, who was one of the ministers of Christ Church and St. Peter's. Dr. Blackwell lived in this until his death, which occurred in the year 1831 — nearly half a century. It is yet one of the best specimens of stately city archi- tecture which now remains in Philadelphia. On the west end of this lot Dr. Blackwell, before the marriage of his only daughter, Rebecca Harrison Blackwell, with George Willing, built on the Pine street front of the lot the fine house formerly No. 64, now No. 23S, in which Mr. Willing long lived, and which is stiil standing. It is now inhabited by the Hon. J. R. Burden. It was one of the best houses of the modern style, with chimneys against the sides, and with folding-doors in the middle of the parlors. The garden attached to Dr. Blackwell's house was filled with flowers, shrubbery and fruit trees, and was common to the Blackwell and the Willing families. At the southeast corner of Pine and Third streets Mr. Stamper built, before the Revolution, a fine house for his son, Joseph Stamper, on the occasion of his marriage with Miss Sarah Maddox, the granddaughter of Joshua Maddox, Esq., one of the Justices of the Province. Mrs. Stamper, who survived her husband for many years, remained in this old house until her death, which occurred about the year 1826. The property was then bought by Dr. Philip Syng Physic, who pulled down the old house and erected on the lot a row of houses facing upon Third street, which are still stand- ing. They extended from Pine street to Stamper's alley. At the southwest corner of Pine and Second streets another house, which is still standing, was built about the year 1773, and was long owned by Dr. Blackwell. In this house, at the time of the Revolution, there dwelt a Mr. Franklin, and here boarded, during this period, Elias Boudinot, LL. D., at one time President of the Continental Congress, Commissary General of prisoners during the Revolutionary war, subsequently member of the Congress of the United States, and finally Director of the 488 APPENDIX. Mint under President Washington. His memory is specially maintained in our local annals by the bequest of lands bordering on the Susquehanna river, which he made to the city of Philadelphia in trust for the purpose of supplying poor housekeepers with fuel. No. II.— Page 64. William Moore, of Moore Hall, and his Origin. As to the origin of the Moore family, of America, the first of whom I have any information is Sir John Moore, who had for his family seat Fawley, in Berkshire, England. This gentleman was passed to the order of Knighthood by Charles I., King of England, on the 21st day of May, 1627; probably as a reward for some important services ren- dered to the country and to the crown. The motto on his coat of arms was: "Nihil utile quod non honestum." He was, beyond a doubt, a monarchist in politics and a churchman in religion, as he lost both his fortune and his life in those revolutionary excitements— produced more by a blind and ignorant religious bigotry than a love of rational liberty— which deprived the unfortunate monarch of his crown, and brought him to an ignominious end upon the scaffold. It was a sacrifice professedly made to establish the rights of his subjects, and the freedom of conscience in religion. But the light which suc- ceeding events have thrown upon the character of the agents, and of the sufferers in that tragedy, has led many to contemplate it as a case of martyrdom in the cause of God and his church. Sir John Moore was succeeded by his son, Sir Francis Moore, who was the father of John and James Moore, who came to America and settled in South Carolina about 1680, where James remained and became Governor from the year 1700 until 1703, when he was deposed. "Drake" informs us that in 1719 he undertook an expedition against Florida, which was a failure. This expedition- caused the first issue of paper money in America, under the name of Bills of Credit. John Moore, it appears, came with his wife and family to Philadel- phia some time prior to 1700, and became the king's collector at that port; this we know from his commission, which is before me, dated 1703, signed by Evelyn, etc. He had several children when he came to Philadelphia, and as we are informed by his will, bearing date No- vember 16, 1 73 1, had seven at his death. APPEXD/X. 489 Upon his coming to Philadelphia it appears he bought a large tract of land on "ye 2ml street," north of High or Market street, and built his family residence at the corner of a small street running from Second to the river, then known as Gardener's alley, now Coombe's. He was a prominent member of Christ Church, being one of the vestrymen up to the time of his death. I shall now give such an account of his chil- dren as I have been able to obtain. His wife's name was Rebecca. His eldest son, John Moore, was born in Carolina, in 1686; and at an early age was sent to England to receive his education, and upon his return to America settled in the city of New York, and became an eminent merchant of that city in colonial times. He was an alderman, for many years a member of the Legislature, and at the time of his death, colonel of one of the New York regiments, and a member of the King's council for the province. He died in 1749, at 63 years of age. He was the first person buried in Trinity churchyard, and the title of the family vault is still in the name of the family. Mr. John Moore married Frances Lambert, and was blest through her with eighteen children, among whom were three pairs of twins. The descendants of Mr. Moore married into the Bayard, Livingston, Hoffman, Onderdonk, Bailey, Tredwell and Rogers families, which are among the most respectable families of the North. Stephen, the seventeenth child, owned West Point, which he sold to the United States, and removed to North Carolina. Upon the invasion of the Southern States by the British, in 1779, 'ie commanded a regi- ment of North Carolina militia. He was afterwards taken prisoner at the first battle of Camden. Being exchanged, he returned to his beau- tiful seat, Mount Tirza, in North Carolina, where he died, leaving in that State a highly respectable family. The seventh of the thirteen sons of John Moore was Lambert, who married Elizabeth Channing. He was born in 1722 — was sent to Eng- land for education, and was bred a scholar in Westminster school. At twenty-one years of age he returned to his native country, and settled in that part of the State of New York which was called the neutral ground. Here he lost all his property amidst the devastation and plun- der which desolated that part of the country. His house at West Point, where he resided during the early part of the Revolutionary war, was plundered by the Hessians, when the British took the posts of the Highlands, and his family was turned out of doors in a destitute con- dition. He removed thence to the city of New York, where he obtained an appointment in the Customs, and lived in comfort until the conclu- sion of the war. After this event he removed to his brother John's, in Norwich, Connecticut, where he died of a pulmonary disease, on the 490 APPENDIX. 19th of June, 1784, in the communion of the church. In the spring of 1785 his remains were removed to New York, and deposited in the family vault in Trinity churchyard, by his son, Richard Channing Moore, the late Bishop of Virginia, who then resided in that city. The mother of Bishop Moore was descended of a highly respectable family. Being left an orphan at two years of age, she was brought up in the family of her uncle, John Pintard, Esq., one of the aldermen of New York. She was an accomplished lady, having received the best education which New York afforded, and was highly esteemed in the best society of her native city. She was polished in her manners, of the most amiable disposition and exemplary piety, and was remarkable for sound judgment and strong good sense. To the early religious in- structions, the prayers, and lovely and pious example of this exemplary Christian mother, Bishop Moore often delighted to revert, with tears of gratitude in his eyes, and a bosom swelling with filial affection and reverence. To her early nurture and admonition in the Lord, he ascribed, under God, all his happiness and usefulness in this world, and his hopes of a blessed immortality in the next. She entered upon her eternal rest at his house, on Staten Island, on the 7th of December, 1805, in the 78th year of her age. Of the eleven brothers and sisters of Bishop Moore, our limits will allow us only to say that they were all honorably connected in mar- riage, were respectable, virtuous and useful. Richard Channing Moore, the late Bishop of Virginia, was born in the city of New York, on the 21st of August, 1762. He received a liberal education, and was bred a physician; but after practising medi- cine for several years, in 1787 he resolved to devote himself to the ministry of the Gospel of Christ, and was ordained by Bishop Provoost in New York. The first two years of his ministry were spent at Rye, in the county of West Chester, most acceptably to the congregation among whom l.J labored, and usefully for the church at whose altar he ministered. Thence he was called to a wider field of labor by the con- gregation of St. Andrew's Church, at Richmond, on Staten Island. Here Dr. Moore labored for twenty-one years with eminent success. His faithfulness in all the departments of ministerial duty, his zeal in the advancement of true religion, his love of his Divine Master and of his work, his unaffected love of all men, his amenity of manners and entire freedom from spiritual pride and all moroseness in his theological views, gave him not only an unbounded popularity among his people, but won for him their warm admiration and sincere attachment. In 1809 Dr. Moore was called by God's providence to a still more important sphere of usefulness in St. Stephen's Church, in the city APPENDIX. 491 of New York. Here he continued five years. His labors were very great : but neither the strength of his fine constitution nor the ardor of his zeal failed, and he was again, as on Staten Island, richly rewarded for all his toils by the abundant bestowment of God's blessing on the work of his ministry. He found a small congregation, and only about thirty communicants. After a short ministry of five years he left a crowded church and between four and five hundred communicants. There is, I believe, to this day, in St. Stephen's Church, an honorable monument to the zeal and efficiency of his ministry while there. When the whole church had become crowded, every pew, not only in the bodv of the church, but also in the galleries being occupied, a gentle- man called on the rector and applied for a pew. " There is none," was the reply. "Will you permit me to build one?" was the answer. "Where?" said the doctor. "There, over the gallery, against the wall," said the persevering applicant. "But how will you obtain ac- cess to it?" said the doctor. "By cutting a small door in the wall, and building a private stairway outside of the church," said the zealous man; and there, I understand, high up against the wall, is that pew to this day, a lasting memorial of pastoral zeal, fidelity and eloquence, such as few ministers of Christ are cheered by. The next important change which occurred in the life of Dr. Moore was his call to the Rectorship of the Monumental Church, at Richmond, and to the Episcopate of Virginia. These events occurred in the spring of 181 4. The peculiar history of the church of which he now became Rector is too well known to require more than the remark, that it was built upon the site of the old theatre — the burning of which had caused the death of more than a hundred persons, and involved Richmond in the deepest distress. Dr. Moore enjoyed all the real blessings of life to the last ; with un- usual physical strength, and mental faculties but little impaired, except his memory, he continued his duties even to the end. Two days only before the last visitation on which he died, he officiated and preached at a funeral. His address was ex tempore, and such was his energy, animation and fervor, and such the influence of his exhortation, that an old Christian of another Christian society said, "Surely this must be his last, last message to Richmond." It was so; two days after he obeyed the call of duty, and commenced, in his 80th year, a journey of one hundred and fifty miles, to Lynchburg, to perform Episcopal functions. He arrived in Lynchburg on Thursday, the 5th of Novem- ber. On Friday he attended Divine service in the forenoon ; in the afternoon he met at the Rector's house the candidates for confirmation, and made them a very admirable address on the qualifications for that 492 APPENDIX. holy rite; in the evening he attended service again, and after a sermon by one of his presbyters he made an address, which is represented to have been characterized by pathos, animation and energy in the highest degree. Eyes that seldom wept were suffused with tears; and some of the most hardened in impenitency were softened when the old and venerable servant of God, in tenderest accents, and with outstretched and trembling hands, and fervent love, heralded for the last time the good tidings of the Gospel, and entreated them for Christ's sake to be reconciled to God. That night, after a day spent so usefully in his sacred office, and only about three hours after his voice had proclaimed, in the temple of God, the gracious invitations of his beloved Saviour, the fatal shaft which no skill could extract pierced him. Feeling unwell a little after midnight, he arose to call for help ; but his strength failing him, he fell on the floor, and lay there helpless for some time before his returning strength enabled him to make himself heard. When raised and placed on his bed, he was found to be laboring under a violent attack of pneumonia. He lived for five days, suffering but very little pain, and during most of the time none. Generally he was in a profound stupor, but occasionally he roused up, and his eyes and coun- tenance would for a little while resume their usual intelligent and benevolent expression. When thus himself, he was resigned, calm, full of peace and hope, and free from all fear. When asked whether there was anything to be done in reference to his temporal affairs, he said no, that everything had been attended to — that nothing remained but to bid the Rev. Mr. Atkinson to bear his love to his dear children. When told (by Mr. Atkinson, at whose house he died, and who, with his wife, were son and daughter to him in the absence of his own children) that death was at hand, he said, " It is well; I trust I am prepared either for this world or the next." On Thursday, November 10, 1842, at about half past one a. m., after hours of entire freedom from pain, and in the gentlest and most peaceful manner, without a struggle or a groan, this good man died. The second child of John and Rebecca Moore was Thomas, born in Carolina, 1689; he was likewise sent to England for his education. He graduated at Oxford, and took orders and became the Chaplain to Dr. Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, one of the most eminent scholars and celebrated preachers of his age. The well-known sermons of this admired prelate were edited and published under the direction of Dr. Moore. He died in Little Britain, in London, leaving a highly respect- able family, among whom was Thomas Moore, D. D., rector of North Bray, in Kent. Daniel, sixth child of John Moore, of Philadelphia, was also sent to APPENDIX. 493 England, and received his education at Oxford, and became an eminent lawyer; made a large estate, and was a member of Parliament for many years. His daughter, Frances Moore, married the celebrated Lord Chancellor of England, Erskine. "Burke" gives the following ac- count of this union: LINEAGE. The Hon. Thomas Erskine, born January 21, 1750, third son of Henry David, fifth Earl of Buchan (see lhat dignity I, having served both in the army and navy, de- voted at length his talents to the bar, to which he was called in 1778. Gifted with the most powerful eloquence, Mr. Erskine attained at once the summit of his profession as an advocate, in which capacity he continued until the year 1806, when lie was ap- pointed Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, and elevated to the peerage, April 8th, in the same year, as Baron Erskine, of Restormel Castle. His lordship married, first, May 29, 1770, Frances, daughter of Daniel Moore, Esq., M. P., by whom (who died December 22, 1805) he had issue: T. David Montagu, present peer. II. Henry David, in holy orders, Rector of Kirby Underdale, York county; mar- ried May 4, 1813, Mary Harriet, third daughter of John, first Earl of Portarlington, by whom (who died December 16, 1S27) he has issue: I. Henry; 2. George; 3. Har- riet; 4. Louisa-Lucy, married, May 21, 1845, to tne Rev. Thomas Frederick Rudston Read; 5. Caroline; 6. Fanny-Louisa, married, September 16, 1847, to Henry Linwood Strong, ENq., barrister-at-law ; 7. Agnes; and 8. Julia-Henrietta, married, February 17, 1846, to Captain Broadley Harrison, Tenth Hussars. III. Thomas (the Right Hon.), late one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas, born March 12, 17SS ; married, December 10, 1814, Henrietta-Eliza, only daughter of the late Henry Trail, Esq., and has surviving issue : I. Henry Trail, born December 25, 1 81 5 ; 2. Thomas, born November 12, 1828; 3. Anne; 4. Julia. IV. Esme-Stewart, Lieutenant-Colonel in the army, born in 1789, married, in 1809, Eliza Bland, daughter of the late Lieutenant-Colonel Smith, and by her (who married, secondly, James Norton, Esq., and died in 1S33) had issue: I. Thomas, born March 29, 1S10; 2. Esme-Stewart, born September 8, 1S11, died in 1S33; 3. Harry, born August II, 1S14. Colonel Erskine was Deputy Adjutant-General in the battle of Waterloo, where he lost an arm. He died August 26, 1817. V. Frances, married, in 1 802, to the Rev. Dr. Holland, prebendary and precentor of Chichester. VI. Elizabeth, married, in 1798,10 Sir David Erskine, Knt., and died August 2, 1 800. VII. Margaret. VIII. Mary, married, in 1S05, to David Morris, Esq., who died in 1815. Lord Erskine married, secondly, Miss Sarah Buck, by whom he also left issue. The success of this eminent lawyer is, probably, the most remarkable upon record as to promptitude; for almost immediately after he was called to the bar he was fortunate enough to find an opportunity for the display of his extraordinary powers. Captain Bailhe, who had been removed from the superintendence of Greenwich Hospital, by the Earl of Sandwich, was proceeded against by that nobleman for the publication of a 494 APPENDIX. libel, and the attorney-general having to move the Court of King's Bench for his lordship upon the subject, Mr. Erskine was retained by Captain Baillie to oppose the motion ; upon which he displayed so much eloquence and spirit that he received, when leaving the court, no less than thirty retainers from attorneys who happened to be present. But of all Erskine's cases, those which raised the advocate's reputation the highest were his splendid defences of Lord George Gordon and of Admiral Keppel. He was likewise distinguished in an eminent degree for the prisoners in the memorable state prosecutions against John Home Tooke, Hardy, etc. His lordship died of inflammation of the chest, November 17, 1823, at Amondell, near Edinburgh, the seat of his nephew, the Hon. Henry Erskine. The following is the inscription upon the tomb of his wife : Near this place lies buried The Honorable Frances Erskine, The most faithful and most Affectionate of women. Her husband, Lord Thomas Erskine, An inhabitant of this parish, Raised this monument To her lamented memory. A. D. 1807. John Moore, the collector, left, as we see by his will, two daughters — Rebecca and Mary. Of Rebecca I have been able to find no account, and am led to believe she died unmarried. Mary became the wife of Peter Evans, Esq., who was high sheriff of the city of Philadelphia. He was born in the city of London, and was an attorney by profession. He styles himself, in his will (May 13, 1745), "of the Inner Temple, London." He died in Philadelphia, May 25, 1745, leaving four children, viz. : John, Mary, Margaret and Ann. I find no record of John. Mary married a Peter Robinson. Ann died a child, and Mar- garet married Mr. David Franks, December, 1743, and had issue — 1. Abigail, born January 6, 1744-5. 2. Jacob, born January 7, 1746-7. 3. Mary, born January 25, 1747-8; died August 26, 1774. 4. Rebecca. David Franks was British agent in Philadelphia as late as 1779. His eldest daughter, I. Abigail married Andrew Hamilton, Esq., of the "Woodlands," near Philadelphia, January 6, 1768, and had issue as follows: 5. Margaret, born October 4, 1768. 6. Ann, born December 18, 1769; died 1798. 7. Mary, born August 21, 1 771. ArrEXDix. 495 8. James, bom July 31, 1774; died July 20, 1817. 9. Andrew, born November 6, 1776; died May 16, 1825. 10. Franks, born May 22, 1779; died August 4, 1798. 11. Rep.ecca, born November 7, 1783; died February 2, 1S42. IV. Rebecca Franks married Sir Henry Johnson, Bart., for an account of whom see "Burke's Peerage." VI. Ann Hamilton married James Lyle, October 17, 1792, and had issue : 12. Mary, born January 22, 1796; died November 1, TS29. 13. Ellen, born October 21, 1797; died February 8, 1852. James Lvle was a broker of the firm of Lyle & Newman. He died at Long Branch. August 10, 1826. IX. Andrew Hamilton married Eliza, only daughter of the Rev. D. H. Urquhart, of Brondmayne, Dorset, England, June 11, 181 7, and had issue : 14. Mary Ann, born January 8, 1822; died January 24, 1S51. Andrew Hamilton died in 1825, and his widow married Mr. John Gardiner; she died March 12, 1834. XI. Rebecca Hamilton married Francis Lewis O'Beirne, Novem- ber 28, 1809, and had issue: 15. Thomas Ormst.y, born 1810; died October 25.. 1839. 16. James Hamilton. 17. Rececca Jane, died 1S39. Francis Lewis O'Beirne was the son of the Lord Bishop of Meath, who styles himself "of Arabraccan House, in the county of Meath., in that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland, but now, 1800, re- siding in London." After marriage they resided at Fern Cottage, Heston, near Southwell, in the county of Middlesex, England. In 1818 Mrs. O'Beirne returned to America (Philadelphia), where she died February 2, 1842. Francis Lewis O'Beirne died July 7, 1840. Their son, Thomas Ormsby O'-Bcirnc, entered the English army, and became a captain in the Twenty-fifth Regiment Bengal Native Infantry, "near Shause," where he died, single, October 25, 1839, leaving a will which is of record in the Register of Wills' office, Philadelphia. XII. Mary Lyle married Henry Beckett, November 12, 1818; had issue : 18 Mary Ann; died 1844. 19. Hamilton. 496 APPENDIX. Henry Beckett was the son of Sir Henry Beckett. See "Burke" (Hamilton). XIII. Ellen Lyle married Hartman Kuhn, December 15, 1818; had issue: 20. Mary. 21. Ellen. 22. Elizabeth, born February 17, 1826; died April 2, 1S30. 23. James Hamilton (killed in the Rebellion). 24. Charles. 25. Rosalie, born April 23, 1S29; died December 20, 1841. 26. Hartman, born February 22, 1831. 27. Elizabeth (2d), born October 24, 1S33. 28. Sophia, born June 5, 1835. Hartman Kuhn was the son of Adam Kuhn, M. D., of Philadelphia; he was born February 4, 1784; died November 6, i860. XIV. Mary Ann Hamilton married Septimus Henry Palairet, May 1, 1843. By this marriage there was no issue. Septimus Henry Palairet died June, 1854. XVI. James Hamilton O'Beime married Henrietta Francis ; had issue: 29. Hamilton Kuhn, born January 8, 1866. 30. Frances Stuart. 31. Lewis Ormsby. 32. Armine James. 33. Emily. 34. Charles Burgoyne. 35. William Henry De Lancey. 36. Eveline Fanny Amelia. XVII. Rebecca Jane O'Beime married Major Armine Simcoe Henry Mountain, June 10, 1837; had issue: 37. Jenny (died an infant). Major (afterwards Colonel) Armine Simcoe Henry Mountain was in her Britannic Majesty's service, in the Twenty-sixth (Cameronian) Regiment. Upon the death of his wife, in 1839, he again married Miss Charlotte Anna Dundas, and died February 8, 1854. XVIII. Mary Ann Beckett married Sir Thomas Whichcote, Bart. ; died May, 1844. APTEXDIX. 497 XIX. Hamilton Beckett married Sophia, daughter of Lord Lyndhurst. — ^See "Burke.") XX. Mary Kuhn married (her cousin) Hartman Kuhn (son of Charles i, February 3, 1S42. 38. Frederick, born December 16, 1843; died December 23, 1844. 39. William. 40. Mary. 41. Ellen. 42. Cornelius Hartman. 43. Charles. XXI. Ellen Kuhn married Manlius Evans. 44. Cadwai.ader. 45. Ellen Lvle. 46. Rosalie. 47. Hartman Kuhn. XXIV. Charles Kuhn married Louisa, daughter of the Hon. Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts. XXVI. Hartman Kuhn married Grace McCarey. Another son of John Moore was William Moore (known as of Moore Hall), from his seat on the banks of the Schuylkill, above Valley Forge. He was born in Philadelphia, May 6, 1699, and at the age of fourteen was sent to England to finish his education. He graduated at the Uni- versity of Oxford in 1719, and returned to America, where he married Williamina, daughter of David, fourth Earl of Wemyss.* She had, to- *A recent writer in " Frazer's Magazine" gives the following account of the Wemyss of Fifeshire : The Wemyss family has claims to great antiquity, being descendants of Gillimachus, fourth Earl of Fife. Their great ancestor, the first Earl, is the Macduff of Shakspeare, whose important service to King Malcolm was rewarded by that monarch with the Earldom of Fife. Three special privileges were also bestowed upon him at the same period : First, that he and his successors should conduct the king to the chair of state at coronations; second, that they should lead the van of the army in battle; and, third, that unpremeditated murder on the part of any of Macduff's kin to the ninth degree was expiable by certain fines or offerings at the cross of Macduff. "Our judicious Skeen," as Sibbald calls him, thus refers to this curious privilege: "The croce of clan Mackduff had privelege and liberty of girth, in sik sort, that when onie manslayer, being within the ninth degree of kin and bluid to Mackduff, sometime Earl of Fyffe, come to that croce, and gave nyne kie (cows) and an colpindach or young kow, he was free of the slaughter committed be him." A dangerous privilege, it will be thought, in those lawless times. Very little now remains of this famous cross. There 32 $9 3 APPENDIX. ■gether with her brother James (afterwards fifth Earl of Wemyss), been driven from Scotland in the year 1716, on account of their father having espoused the cause of the Pretender. " Burke," in his Peerage of Scotland, gives the following LINEAGE. This ancient family traces its origin to John, baronial Lord of Weems, whence the surname was probably derived, who was younger son of the celebrated Macduff, Thane Df Fife, the vanquisher of the tyrant Macbeth. Sir Michael de Wemyss was sent, according to Fordun, in 1 290, with Sir Michael Scot, to Norway, by the lords of the regency in Scotland, to conduct the young Queen Margaret to her dominions; but her majesty unfortunately died upon the journey, at the Orkneys. Sir Michael swore fealty to Edward I., in 1296, and he witnessed the act of settlement of the crown of Scotland by King Robert I., at Ayr, in 1315. From Sir Michael lineally descended: Sir John Wemyss, of Wemyss, who married, first, in 1574, Margaret, eldest daughter of William, Earl of Morton, but by that lady had no issue; and, secondly, in 1581, Anne, sister of James, Earl of Moray, by whom he had, with other issue, Sir John WTemyss, of Wemyss, who was created a Baronet May 29, 1625 ; and elevated to the peerage of Scotland, as Baron Wemyss, of Eklio, April I, 1628. His lordship was advanced to the dignities of Earl of Wemyss, in the county Fife, and Lord ElcJw and MetJiel, June 25, 1633. This nobleman, although indebted for his honors to King Charles I., took part against his royal master, and sided with the Parliamentarians. He married, in 1610, Jane, daughter of Patrick, seventh Lord Gray, by whom he had six children, and was succeeded in 1649 by his only son, David, second earl. This nobleman married, first, in 162S, Jean, daughter of Robert Balfour, Lord Burleigh, by whom he had an only surviving daughter, Jane, who became, first, the wife of Archibald, Earl of Angus; and, after his lord- ship's decease, of George, Earl of Sutherland. The Earl of Wemyss married, secondly, Lady Eleanor Fleming, daughter of John, second Earl of Wigton, but by that lady had no issue. He married, thirdly, Margaret, daughter of John, sixth Earl of Rothes (widow successively of James, Lord Balgony, and Francis, Earl of Buccleuch), by whom he had an only surviving daughter, Mar- garet, in whose favor his lordship, having resigned his peerage to the crown, obtained, August 3, 1672, a new patent, conferring the honors of the family, with the original precedency, upon her ladyship. He died in 1680, when the baronetcy became dor- mant, but the other dignities descended accordingly to his daughter, can be no doubt that these early Earls of Fife exercised absolute and almost royal stale and jurisdiction within their territories, forming a kind of imperium in imperio. A manuscript referred to by Sibbald says: " He had all his earldom (Fife) erected into a principality, that is to say, to exime his tenants and subjects from all other courts and judgement, and give justice to all his, m his own countries." Very likely it is owing to this, rather than to its general wealth and importance, that the county, which at that time included Kinross, Clackmannan, and portions of Perthshire and Stirling- shire, came to be designated " the Kingdom of Fife." The Wemyss branch of the Macduffs broke off from the main stem at the fourth earl, in the twelfth century, and the present Fife branch of the family is descended from James, third son of the fifth £axl of .Wemyss. The chief of the blood is the Earl of Wemyss, APPENDIX. 499 Lady Margaret Wemyss, as Countess of Wemyss. Her ladyship married Sir James Wemyss, of Caskycrry, who was created, April 15, 1672, for life, Lor.d Burntisland, having had previously a charter of the castle of Burntisland. The issue of this mar- riage were : David, successor to the countess's honors. Anne, who married David, Earl of Leven and Melville, and had issue. Margaret, married to 'David, Earl of Notthesk. The Countess of Wemyss married, secondly, George, first Earl of Cromarty, but had no issue by his lordship; she died in 1705, and was succeeded by her only son, David, fourth earl. This nobleman, who was appointed by Queen Anne, Lord High Admiral of Scotland, sworn of the Privy Council, and constituted one of the Commissioners for concluding the treaty of union, married, first, in 1697, Lady Anne Douglas, daughter of William, first Duke of Queensberry, and sister of James, Duke of Queensberry and Dover, and of William, first Earl of March, by whom he had one surviving son, James, his successor. Williamina (afterwards Mrs. Moore). There is a tradition in the family that the wife of David Wemyss died in childbed, and, believing her expected child to be a boy, requested that it be christened William, after William of Orange; being a girl, it was christened Williamina. David Wemyss married twice afterwards, but had no male issue. He died March 15, 1720. Upon his marriage, William Moore settled upon an estate presented to him by his father, John Moore, which was situated upon the river Schuylkill, some twenty-five miles from Philadelphia. This property consisted of about twelve hundred acres of land, which he farmed with the help of a large number of slaves and redemptioners. He built upon it a large house (still, in 1880, standing). It was known as "Moore Hall." William Moore died at Moore Hall, May 30, 1782. His will, which is written "with his own hand," is a singular document, being mainly a tribute to his wife, to whom he gives his whole estate, and of whom he says: "Never frightened by the rude rabble, or dis- mayed by the insolent threats of the ruling powers — happy woman, a pattern of her sex, and worthy the relationship she bears to the Right Honorable and noble family from whence she sprang." He was a staunch Royalist, but during the stay of the army at Valley Forge he invited Colonel Clement Biddle and his staff to make Moore Hall his headquarters. Mrs. Moore survived him until December 6, 1784, when the family removed to Philadelphia. The following notice of the death of William Moore, Esq., appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette of June 18, 1782: SOO APPENDIX. On Friday, May 30th, died at his seat in Chester county, William Moore, Esq., of Moore Hall, in the 84th year of his age, and was interred on the Sunday following, in his family burying-ground, at Radnor churchyard. His funeral was attended by a large concourse of his most respectable neighbors, and an excellent sermon was preached by the Rev. William Currie. At an early period of his life Mr. Moore was a member of the Assembly, a Colonel of militia, one of the Justices of the Peace, and President of the County Courts of Chester, which last office he filled with great and acknowledged abilities for about forty years. He has left a numerous family of chil- dren, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to bewail his memory; and more es- pecially a mournful and beloved wife, with whom he lived upwards of sixty-one years in the most perfect and uninterrupted conjugal felicity. The following inscription is on a slab at Radnor Church, Delaware county, Pennsylvania: " To the memory of William Moore, Esq., of Moore Hall, in the County of Chester, and of WlLLIAMINA his wife. He departed this life on the 30th day of May, 1783, aged 84 years. She died on the 6th day of December, 1784, in the 80th year of her age. " This venerable pair lived together in perfect love and unremitted harmony and confidence for the long period of sixty-three years; dis- pensing the best duties of life in ardent and uninterrupted zeal; beloved by their children and by their friends, respected by the community in which they passed their lengthened days. Benevolence and urbanity beamed on all who sought their hospitable mansion; they administered comfort to the worthy poor, protecting humble honesty though cursed with poverty. " He presided in the Common Pleas, Quarter Sessions, and Orphans' Courts in Chester county for a great length of time. As a judge and a magistrate he was indefatigable in executing the solemn charge of these important stations, acquitting himself with intelligence, impartiality and dignity. He was a kind father, a warm friend and an indulgent master. She was one of the brightest patterns of excelling nature. Possessing a bright and cultivated heart and understanding, she was mild, consider- ate, kind and good; she was consequently distinguished by her amiable disposition and unassuming manners. With calmness, but with resigna- tion, she bore the heaviest afflictions, the severest trials of an uncertain world, and placed her firm reliance upon a state of happiness beyond the grave — " ' That place Celestial, where no storm assails, No ills approach — where bliss alone prevails.' " APPENDIX. 50I The foregoing inscription was written by Phineas Bond, a grandson of the Moores. For a full account of the issue and descendants of William and WUliamina Moore, of Moore Hall, see Appendix XI. No. III. — Page 237. Alexander Murray, D. D. [By John A. Childs, D. D.] The Rev. Alexander Murray, D. D., was a native of Scotland, born in 1727. He was educated in King's College, Aberdeen. After his ordination to the ministry he was induced, it appears, most prob- ably by the Rev. William Smith, D. D., who was a graduate of the same college, on his visit to England, his native land, to come to Pennsylvania, under an appointment by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He arrived in Pennsylvania in 1763, and immediately began his ministry at Reading and Morlatten. His ecclesiastical views were of a very decided character, and his work as a missionary very extensive. He laid the foundations of a church at Reading, called St. Mary's, and the people of that town were very solicitous for the continuance of his appointment by the society, and addressed the offi- cers to that effect. During the agitation which existed previous to the war of independence, he sympathized largely with the colonies, and in 1775 signed a paper, with a number of clergy, hoping and praying for some method of conciliation, and satisfaction of a reasonably discon- tented people. When, however, a separation became not only imminent, but a fail accompli to all intents, he refused to discontinue the prayers for the royal family. He was threatened with some violence, and thereafter sailed to London. He continued to reside there during the Revolutionary war, and being always a strong advocate for an Episcopate in the church in the colonies, he used his influence with the Bishop of London, as well as with the Archbishop of Canterbury, in seeking for the consecration of bishops in the United States. In ac- complishing this he kept up a correspondence with the Rev. William White, D. D., communicating the conditions under which consecra- tion would be imparted. His advice and influence contributed to that end, and deserved, as has been said, honorable mention and grateful remembrance. 502 APPENDIX. In 1 790 Dr. Murray returned to America, and continued to reside in Philadelphia until his death, September 14, 1793. His body lies interred with those of the Sims, Morgan, Evans and Clark families, with which he was connected by marriage — families particularly promi- nent in the early history of the church in Philadelphia. Upon his decease he left by his will directions to found bursaries in connection with the university at which he graduated. No. IV.— Pages 185, 258. The Case of the Episcopal Church Considered. [By Mr. Thomas II. Montgomery.] Bishop White begins the concluding paragraph of his " Episcopal Charge on the subject of Revivals, delivered before the Forty-eighth Convention of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and addressed to the Cleri- cal Members of the Convention, printed by order of the Convention, Philadelphia, 1832," with the following words: Brethren, it is bordering on the half of a century since the date of the incipient measures of your bishop, for the organizing of our church out of the wreck of the Revolution. On a copy of this charge in my possession the Bishop has added, on the last blank pages, the following note : "Those measures began with the author's pamphlet, entitled 'The case of the Episcopal Churches in the United States considered.' " The circumstances attached to that publication are the following: " The congregations of our communion throughout the United States were approaching to annihilation. Although within this city three Episcopal clergymen, including the author, were resident and offici- ating; the church over the rest of the State had become deprived of their clergy during the war, either by death or by departure for Eng- land. In the Eastern States, with two or three exceptions, there was a cessation of the exercises of the pulpit ; owing to the necessary disuse of the prayers for the former civil rulers. In Maryland and in Virginia, where the church had enjoyed civil establishments, on the ceasing of these, the incumbents of the parishes, almost without exception, ceased to officiate. Further south the condition of the church was not better, APPENDIX. 503 to say the least. At the time in question there had occurred some cir- cumstances which prompted the hope of a discontinuance of the war : but that it would be with the acknowledgment of American indepen- dence there was little reason to expect. "On the 6th of August, 1782, the Congress, as noticed on their printed journal of that day, received a communication from Sir Guy Carleton and Admiral Digby, dated the 2d of that month, which gave the first opening of the prospect of peace. The pamphlet had been advertised for sale in the Pennsylvania Packet of the 6th, and some copies had been previously handed by the author to a few of his friends. This suspended the intended proceedings in the business; which, in the opinion of the author, would have been justified by necessity, and by no other consideration. "It was an opinion commonly entertained, that if there should be a discontinuance of military operations, it would be without the acknowl- edgment of independence, as happened after the severance of the Netherlands from the crown of Spain. Of the like issue there seemed probable causes, in the feelings attendant on disappointed efforts for conquest; and in the belief cherished, that the successes of the former colonists would be followed by dissensions, inducing return to the domination of the mother country. Had the war ended in that way, our obtaining of the succession from England would have been hopeless. The remnant of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, laboring under penal laws not executed, would hardly have regarded the bringing down on themselves of the arm of government. Fear of the like offence would have operated in any other quarter to which we might have had re- course. In such a case, the obtaining of the succession in time to save from ruin, would seem to have been impossible." No. V. — Page 309. Peregrine Wroth, M. D., of Baltimore, Md. The great interest taken in this work by the late venerable Dr. Peregrine Wroth, of Baltimore, in furnishing information in regard to Dr. Smith's life in Maryland, prompted me to write to him to get some of the particulars of his life, out of which to prepare a notice of him in event of his death, which I felt sure would occur ere its publication. I therefore give such extracts from his letters, which will be found entire 504 APPENDIX. in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, as may tend to that purpose. He says, under date April, 1877 : It is a rather difficult task, especially to one whose life is not such as to serve as an example for the imitation of others. But this I can say, that my family (in America), beginning with James Wroth, Esq., who emigrated from England in or about 1660, can trace back the name to one who bore the name of De Wrothatn, in the reign of King John. The family in England held a very respectable rank in society, as a genealogy sent to me by John Newlon Lane, Esq., of King's Bromley Manor, near Lichfield, in 1S54, informs me. Mr. Lane descended from Mary Wroth, the eldest daughter of Sir Henry Wroth. I was of the fifth generation after James, and was born April 7, 1786, being now 91 years old on the 7th of this month. Before I left college 1 was adopted by a cousin of my father, and intended as a student of law under Hon. James A. Bayard, of Delaware, the grandfather of Hon. T. F. Bayard, now a Senator of the United States, the office held by his father and grandfather. But he who had adopted me dying before my father, I was persuaded to study medicine, and began to practise in 1807, and after the age of 70 retired from public life, and, 1868, removed to Balti- more. Having been baptized by your distinguished ancestor, the first Principal of my (Washington) college, I have always felt an interest in that college, and finished my course there in 1803 under Rev. Dr. C. Ferguson, the second Principal, the successor of your ancestor, then Provost (I think) of the University of Pennsylvania. I practised fifty years, lacking two months. Of myself I can only say that I think I held a respectable rank among my contemporary physicians, and about 1840 or 1 841 published a small volume under the title of " Clinical Aphorisms," for beginners. I afterwards wrote Brief Memoirs of the twelve physicians of my county (Kent) who were in practice before the act of " Incorporating the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland" was passed — at the request of the eminent Dr. George C. M. Roberts, late of this city, who contemplated a work on that portion of the faculty; but which of course was not published. Under date February 8, 1872, he says: Your ancestor, Rev. William Smith, D. D., was Rector of I. U. Parish, Kent county, the church in Chestertown being at that time a chapel of ease, where he regularly preached, and lived in Chestertown. I have many, many times been in the house where he lived, and almost feel as if I had been acquainted with him — having been baptized by him and afterwards an alumnus of the college of which he was the first Principal. I will here send you one or two anecdotes which, I am confident, are authentic. On some occasion a man from the country was in his house, and being in the library with the doctor, and amazed at the great number of books, exclaimed, " My — my ! Doctor, did you ever read all these books ? " The doctor replied : " Hoot, mon, no; but I know what's in 'em." This was during the doctor's residence in Chester — from about 1 780 to — . Btfore that time he lived in Philadelphia. About the commencement of the Revolution of 1776 the gentlemen of Philadelphia were in the habit of meeting every day in the old City Hall, in Market street below Third. One day the meeting had taken place, and after a while Dr. Smith entered the hall. Dr. Benjamin Rush was there, and, walking up to the doctor, said: " Dr. Smith, we have APPENDIX. 505 come to the conclusion that you are the author of " [Publius, I think, an article which had appeared in one of the newspapers). The doctor regarded Rush with a glance of dignified contempt, and said: " Ben. Rush, I knew you when you were so high," holding his hand about three feet from the floor. " You are no higher yet, mon." No more was said on that subject. These anecdotes I heard, I am almost sure, from Dr. Morgan Browne, an eminent physician of Chestertown, and my preceptor, and had been a pupil of Dr. Smith, and may be considered authentic. Of his daughter (I will not be sure of her name. If he had another daughter living with him in Chestertown, it may not have been William- ina), I heard from the same authority, I suppose, that she was walking in the street, and the mud took one of her shoes off. She did not stop to take it up (at that time the sidewalks for foot-passengers were not paved), but walked on, stepping on with the foot which had a shoe on ; then, drawing up the shoeless foot to it, again advanced the foot that had a shoe on, etc. After walking on in this way, she was met by a friend, who asked: " What are you doing? " Miss Smith replied : " I'm putting my best foot foremost." These little things seem at first sight of little value, but they serve to indicate char- acter. Such as they are, I offer them — to be used as you think proper. I do not remember to have given you the history of the endowment of Washington and St. John's Colleges — the former at Chestertown, the latter at Annapolis, Maryland. If I have not, and such account shall be desired and in time for your work, I will send it when you let me know.* I have the account, and will copy it off — to send as soon as I hear that it may suit your plan — if I live. Very truly yours, P. Wroth. H. W. Smith, Esq. Again he writes : We have a life-size painting (bust) of Dr. Smith in the Library at Washington Col- lege. It was painted by W. W. McLane, from a print in a volume of Dr. Smith's sermons, which belonged to me, and very closely resembles, I think, the likeness you sent me. The painting was retouched by Unger, a distinguished portrait painter of Pennsylvania — a native of Prussia. Dr, Wroth had been married four times. He died at Baltimore, June 13, 1879, in his 94th year. No. VI. — Page 324. The Hon. Thomas Willing, Esq. It was my hope to be able to present a somewhat full biographical sketch of this distinguished citizen of Philadelphia. I find myself, however, unable to do so. The following genealogical notice, which is * For this account see Vol. II., page 308. 506 APPENDIX. understood to come from the papers of one of the most eminent gene- alogists of our city, now for some years deceased, and who contem- plated preparing, and did in part prepare, bestowing much labor on it, "A Dictionary of our Philadelphia Genealogies," may in part supply the loss; and I have the greater satisfaction in presenting it in these volumes since a portion of it, the poetical tribute to an early member of the family, is from the pen of my ancestor, Dr. Smith; whose ready talents, often called on in this way, rarely found a worthier subject for their exercise. The Willings belonged to the Proprietary party,* and until Dr. Smith was displaced from the college by the confiscatory act of 1779, were munificent friends of that institution. On these accounts, as for others, they were highly valued by Dr. Smith. The Willings came into England from the neighboring district of Wales. The name, which in its present form is not a common one either in England or America, has been regarded, on traditional report, as a change upon that of Wellyn, or Llewellyn. Joseph Willing, of Gloucestershire, England, married, July 1, 1672, Elizabeth Plaver, by which lady (who died October 4, 1675) he had issue : (1) George, born September 12, 1673. (2) Joseph, born September 22, 1675. He married, secondly, May 24, 1676, Ava Lowle, of Gloucester, an heiress of ancient family and of good estates, descended to her through several generations from her Saxon ancestors. By this lady, whose arms, in place of the proper arms of his own family, he took with her estates, and who died December 31, 171 7, he had issue, six children, among whom were Mary, born June 3, 1678; married, October 11, 1705, to Stephen Burcomb, of Monmouth, by whom she had issue: (1) Ann. (2) Thomas, of whom presently. (3) Richard, born May 26, 1681 ; died September 6, 1736, and is buried in the Mayor's Chapel at Bristol; married, February 21, 1790, Mary Syms, by which lady he had issue, three children, among whom were (1) Charles, born November 23, 1712; married December 22, 1735, Chadery Tudsbury. (2) Mary Syms, born May 2, 1725 ; died at Temple Cloud, in the * Mr. Thomas Willing was one of the persons who, along with Lynford Lardner, Richard Hockley, William Peters and some others, " applauded" when Dr. Smith, A. D. 1758, had his great quarrel with the Quaker Assembly, and were arrested by order of the Assembly for a breach of privilege. See Vol. L, p. 177. APPENDIX. 507 city of Somerset, being the last survivor of her family of the name of Willing in that district of country. Thomas Willing, the oldest son of Joseph and Anne Willing, born January 16, 1679-80, visited America with his younger brother Richard, first in 1720. Returning to Bristol, England, he died in that the city of his residence, 1760. He married, July 16, 1704, Anne, granddaughter, on her paternal side, of Major-General Thomas Har- rison, a lawyer of the Inns of Court, a member of the Long Parliament, Major-General in Cromwell's time, one of the judges who sat on the trial of King Charles I. ; also granddaughter on her mother's side, as has been traditionally said, though this is not so certain, we believe, to Simon Mayne (more properly written Meyn), a gentleman of Lincoln- shire, a principal actor in Cromwell's time, and another of the persons who sat on the trial of this unfortunate monarch. By this lady, who was born in 1684 and died in 1747, and whose character, distinguished by sweetness of temper, by great accomplishment, and by deep piety, seems to have been "dulcified" in its flow of two generations from "the hard, acidulous, metallic tincture" of its Puritan and military spring, he had issue, among other children, (1) Charles, of whom presently. (2) Thomas, who resided in the Temple, London, and is hereafter spoken of. (3) Dorothy, married Hand, in England, where she remained. Charles Willing, whom we may regard as the founder of the American family (he having been the first who permanently resided here), born May 18, 17 10, was taken to Philadelphia, in the then Province of Pennsylvania, at the age of 18, on a second visit to that country by his father, who, during his previous residence of five years there, had foreseen its rising greatness, and was determined to establish his oldest son there, at Philadelphia, its metropolis. In this city the subject of our notice pursued with great success and with noble fidelity to its best principles, the profession of a merchant, in which career he obtained, both at home and abroad, high and permanent consideration by the scope, vigor and forecast of his understanding, by his great ex- ecutive power, by his unspotted integrity, and by the amenity of his disposition and manners. His enlarged and successful operations, and his well-founded credit, assisted in early establishing with foreign coun- tries a high reputation for American commerce ; and contributed to give to the city of his adoption, then the chief city of the confederacy, and afterwards the seat of its Congress, that reputation for public honor and for private wealth which it enjoyed at the opening of the Revolu- tion, and which was of such eminent importance to the nation in its 508 APPENDIX. negotiations with France and Holland in the struggles of that contest. He was active in establishing the " Philadelphia Associators," in 1744, and one of the founders and first trustees of the University of Pennsyl- vania, a warden and active member of Christ Church. Towards the close of his life he discharged with dignity, justice and efficiency the important functions of Chief Magistrate of Philadelphia, in the Mayor- alty of which city, now filling it for a second time, he died, not yet having attained the age of 45 years, respected and lamented by a whole community, November 30, 1754. His death, in the bloom of life, was justly regarded as a civic calamity to Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Gazette of December 5, 1754, contains a tribute to his memory, with some elegiac stanzas, by the Rev. William Smith, D. D., first Provost of the College of Phila- delphia. They are in these words : Last Saturday, after a short illness, departed this life, in the 45th year of his age, Charles Willing, Esq., mayor of this city. As it may be truly said that this commu- nity had not a more useful member, his death is justly lamented as a public loss to his country, as well as an almost irretrievable loss to his family and friends. In the character of a magistrate, he was patient, indefatigable, and actuated by a steady zeal for justice. As a merchant, it was thought that no person amongst us un- derstood commerce in general, and the trading interests of the Province in particular, better than he ; and his success in business was proportionably great. \s a friend, he was faithful, candid and sincere. As a husband and parent, few ever exceeded him in tenderness and affection. Being himself a sincere Christian, he was strictly atten- tive to the education of his children in every virtuous qualification; and in a particular manner he was remarkable in the discharge of that essential part of a parent's duty, so little considered— a regular attendance, together with his numerous family, on the public worship of God. And for this, accordingly, they will now have reason to bless his memory ; since the impressions thereby received will go farther to teach them how to bear their present heavy affliction, and recommend them to the favor of the world (degenerate as it is), than all the external advantages — all the fortune, graces and good nature he has left them possessed of. ODE TO THE MEMORY OF CHARLES WILLING, Esq. 1. Once more I seek the cypress shade, To weave a garland for the dead, Alone, dejected, wan ! Shall Willing quit this mortal strife, And not a verse show him, in life And death — An Honest Man? 2. Forbid it every grateful muse — The world itself will patriot-views, With transient tears, commend; But nobler far your task, ye Nine! 'Tis yours th' immortal wreath to twine, And consecrate each friend. APPENDIX. 5°9 3. Be present then — this boon bestow ! A friend is lost ! Now bind his brow And bid each age proclaim How first among th' illustrious band That fix'd your mansions in this land, Stands Willing's honor'd name.* 4. Bid helpless innocence reliev'd, The widow's hopeless state retriev'd, And orphan's right restor'd — Tell how he graced the judgment seat,-)- Still incorrupt and firmly great, Alike to slave or lord. 5. How nicely he the various plan Of bounteous commerce^ knew to scan, And raise his country's weal — Her trade by him enlarg'd, her good Thro' every secret maze pursu'd, To distant times will tell. 6. What more he did to bless the State, And all the deeds of life complete, Should any seek to know ! Bid them behold his num'rous race, And read in each illumined face What language cannot show ! 7. Bid them look up to Celia's eyes, Where all the soul of softness lies, And reason beams through truth. Or, should this risk be deem'd too bold, Bid them each manly grace behold, Rip'ning in Damon's youth. 8. Damon, attend ! proceed to shine ! To fill a father's place be thine, And soothe a mother's care ! This done — still mindful of his hearse, Whose doom was sudden, write this verse, And drop a filial tear. EPITAPH. If to be all the wise and good commend, The tender husband, father and the friend; At home belov'd and blest, esteem'd abroad; Studious to serve mankind, and please his God; If this from death one useful life could save, Thou hadst not read that Willing fills this grave ! * As a trustee of the Academy. f As a magistrate. J As a merchant. 5IO APPENDIX. MORAL. But ah ! what boots it that, with ceaseless toil, We court renown, or bask in fortune's smile? In midst of all our fond enchanting dreams, E'en while our souls are bent on patriot schemes, Death lurks behind to cut life's thin-spun thread; Then swift as noontide shadows all is fled ! One only thought remains to cheer the mind — If human aims are just — "That Heaven is kind!" This Charles Willing built, a. d. 1749, the large and imposing dwel- ling house, till lately standing, at the southwest corner of Willing's alley and Third street, whose character and history is eloquently dwelt on by Dr. Griswold in the "Republican Court." An engraving on wood, giving a good representation of it and its spacious grounds, is in " Watson's Annals," Vol. II., page 619, Hazard's Edition. He married, in Philadelphia, January 21, 1730, Anne, daughter of Joseph and Abigail Shippen, and granddaughter of Edward Shippen, a man of pre-eminent consideration in the early history of Pennsylvania; Speaker, in 1695, of the Assembly of the Province; appointed by its charter, in 1701, first mayor of the city of Philadelphia; President from 1702 to 1704 of the Governor's Council, and appointed by William Penn, proprietary of the Province, to be one of the executors of his will. By this lady, who was born in Philadelphia, August 5, 1710, died in the same place, June 23, 1791, he had issue, eleven children, among whom were : (1) Thomas, of whom presently. (2) Ann, born July 10, 1733, died January 2, 1812; married, February 8, 1762, to Tench Francis, of Philadelphia. (3) Dorothy, born July 16, 1735; died in Scotland, 1782. (4) Mary, born September 24, 1740, died March 28, 1814; mar- ried William Byrd, Esq., of Westhover, in Virginia. (5) Elizabeth, born February 10, 1742, died 1830; married, August 7, 1769, Samuel Powel. (6) Richard, born January 2, 1744, died January 30, 1798. (7) Margaret, born January 15, 1753, died September 21, 1816; married Robert Hare. Thomas, the oldest son, was taken by his father, at a tender age, to England, and educated in liberal studies at Bath, under the eye of his grandmother, Anne Willing, already spoken of. He afterwards went to London, where he was placed under the care of his uncle, Thomas Willing, Esq., a gentleman of fortune, abilities and reputation, residing oi the Temple. Under his uncle's supervision, the subject of our APPENDIX. 5 1 1 present notice was entered a student of law in that venerable seat of legal learning, and pursued for several months with great assiduity the studies of a barrister. Returning to his native city, the opulence, pow- erful connections and established reputation of his father's commercial house, pointed to commerce as a profession. And on the death of his father, in 1754, he assumed the exclusive control of that gentleman's large concerns. He associated with himself the late Hon. Robert Morris, Esq., afterwards well known as "the Financier of the Revolu- tion," but separated himself from that gentleman upon Mr. Morris's great enterprises of landed purchase, which, ending disastrously, clouded the latter years of his distinguished and useful life. Mr. Willing was in many places of public trust in the Province, occupying among them a seat on the Bench of the Supreme Court. He was among the persons who early opposed the unconstitutional measures of Great Britain. His name stands at the head of that great list of merchants and traders who signed the non-importation resolutions of 1764. He was President of the Provincial Meeting of Deputies, chosen by the several counties of Pennsylvania, which met in Philadelphia, July 15, 1774, one of whose resolves was in these memorable words: That, although a suspension of the commerce of this large trading Province with Great Britain would greatly distress multitudes of our industrious inhabitants, yet that sacrifice and a much greater we are ready to offer for the preservation of our liberties. But in tenderness to the people of Great Britain as well as of this country, and in hopes that our just remonstrances will at length reach the ears of our gracious sover- eign, and be no longer treated with contempt by any of our fellow-subjects in England, it is our earnest desire that the Congress should first try the gentler mode of stating our grievances and making a firm and decent claim of redress. Mr. Willing was in the Congress of 1775, and in that one more cele- brated, though composed of less able men, of 1 776. He voted steadily and fearlessly against the Declaration of Independence, considering that he had not received power from the assembly, by whom he was appointed a delegate, to vote for a revolution; and that, whether or not, the time had not arrived in which Pennsylvania should come into the measure. He remained also in the city during the occupation of it by the British army. But when Sir William Howe sent a person to ad- minister the oath of allegiance to George III., he refused to take it. For all this no one ever questioned his political integrity; though many did that of men about him who were vigorous in declaring their devo- tion to the cause of independence. During the session of the Congress of 1774 he was in constant and confidential intercourse of the great men who strove to make Great Britain yield to the solicitations of the 512 APPENDIX. colonies, and repeal her obnoxious acts of legislation. John Adams, after speaking, in his Diary, of numerous persons of great fame whom he met in Philadelphia during the session of the Congress, says: Sunday, 1 1 October, 1774. There is such a quick and constant succession of new scenes, characters, persons and events turning up before me, that I can't keep any regular account. . . . Dined at Mr. Willing's, who is a Judge of the Supreme Court here, and the gentlemen from Virginia, Maryland and New York a most splendid feast again; turtle and every, thing else. Mr. Willing is the most sociable, agreeable man of all.* When, in the year 1781, with a view of enabling the United States of America to carry on the war for independence, the Bank of North America was chartered by Congress — a time when our finances were almost des- perate, when public credit was at an end, when no means were afforded adequate to the public expense, when the money and credit of the United States were at so low an ebb that some members of the Board of War de- clared that they had not the means of sending an express to the army — it was made a part of the enactment by that body, such was the confidence had by it in his integrity, skill and solid wealth, that Thomas Willing be the present President of the Institution. At a later day, March 26, 1782, when the State of Pennsylvania came to act on the charter, cer- tain members of the Assembly opposed this feature of the enactment, arguing that Mr. Willing had voted against the Declaration of Inde- pendence, had remained in the city during the occupation, etc., etc. "We think," said they, "that loading with honors a man who so lately contributed what he could to enslave his country, is a discouragement to the Whigs, is a wound to the cause of patriotism, and is trampling on the blood of those heroes and martyrs who have fallen in the defence of our liberty." But, upon the question being taken, the objectors — country members, and mostly of the Democratic side — were over- whelmed, and, by a vote of thirty-eight to sixteen, the Congressional enactment left undisturbed. Mr. Willing entered at once upon the Presidency of the Bank of North America, and until taken from it, eight or nine years afterwards, to be placed in the higher office of President of the Bank of the United States, then lately chartered by the Federal government, administered it with the most satisfactory results; its dividends being for years of a magnitude previously unheard of in the history of banks. The bank to this day maintains the highest reputation. His administration of the Bank of the United States was ♦Among "the gentlemen from Virginia, Maryland and New York," were George Washington, Patrick Henry, Peyton Randolph, William Paca, Samuel Chase, John Jay and Philip Livingston. — Works, Vol. II., page 378. Arn-ixDix. 513 not less beneficent; and when, in 1816, having been hunted down by a political party, its charter ceased and its affairs were wound up, it paid in gold, during the prevalence of a paper currency which placed gold at a high premium, $116 for each lodget, Jr., written about the time of his appointment as Supervisor at Washington, complimenting him on his services to the city, and sending his good wishes to his venerable father at Concord, N. II. APPENDIX, 519 twelve half squares, and 186 single lots were standing to his name on the assessment books for many years, most of them so remaining in 1807. In 181 2 to 1814 his health was much broken, and further misfortunes to his property interests, resulting from the war, induced his final return to Philadelphia, in 1814, where he died in April of that year. In pursuit of his purpose of founding a national university, he made at one time a large donation of his property in the city of Washington — 1,500 lots — and stocks in various companies were left to the same purpose in President Washington's will, at his death, in 1799. The estimated value of these stocks was $25,000, but in both cases the intended dona- tion was not realized. Several thousand dollars were, however, de- posited by Mr. Blodget in a bank at Georgetown, and a form of organi- zation of trustees was maintained for many years afterwards, Judge Bushrod Washington being the principal and last surviving trustee. The enterprises and efforts which engaged his attention almost from 1775 to the day of his death were peculiarly difficult, and their success doubtful or remote. But the city of Washington, which was looked on as being impracticable at the time it was founded, and for which Con- gress then absolutely refused all aid, was actually prepared for occupa- tion as the seat of government, in 1S00, in a great degree by his own efforts and sacrifices. The records of the commissioners — Daniel Car- roll, Thomas Johnson and David Stuart — are full of testimony to the vital character of the aid rendered them at every step by Mr. Blodget, and the money given by him personally was the first considerable amount applied to the erection of the two most necessary structures, the Capitol and the President's House. . With him it was a labor of love and a work of supreme patriotism to aid in founding the city Washington had chosen, and Congress had reluctantly permitted Washington and Jefferson to build, if they could, in the comparatively remote locality on the Potomac. Other cities looked on the effort as unwise, and opposed it as being injurious to their interests ; but the commissioners, without money, finally triumphed — a few devoted friends of Washington, who became attached to him when in New England, in 1775, came to their relief, and adhered to them to the end. Mr. Blodget left four children (see genealogy). His portrait, painted by Trumbull, is in existence. His remains are buried in Christ Church ground, Philadelphia. 520 APPENDIX. No. VIII.— Page 407. The Hon. Thomas Smith. My chief knowledge of this collateral ancestor of my own — a half- brother of my great-grandfather, Dr. William Smith, the Provost — is derived from an obituary notice of him in the United States Gazette of April, 1809. I am not able to say who the author of it was, possibly Mr. Enos Bronson,* long the editor of that paper: a gentleman of talents at once versatile, strong and graceful, with an education various and finished. This gentleman was an acquaintance and friend of Judge Smith, as were almost all that high class of gentlemen, mem- bers of the bar and leading Federalists of Philadelphia, who gave tone to society in our city at that time: Edward Tilghman, William Rawle, William Lewis, Joseph Hopkinson, Charles Willing Hare, Horace Bin- ney, Charles Chauncey, John B. Wallace, William Meredith and others. Mr. Bronson may very well have written it, though a literary friend familiar with his style, as also with that of the late Chief Justice Tilgh- * Enos Bronson, as we learn from Mr. Eugene II. Munday's valuable Historical Sketch of the North American and United States Gazette, was a native of Waterbury, Conn., and born March 31, 1774. lie was graduated at Yale College, and afterwards began the study of the law. He did not, however, long continue this pursuit. Removing to Philadelphia, he became a teacher in the Academy of the Protestant Episcopal Church. I lis tastes were towards literature and political acquisitions, etc. He soon afterwards (a. D. 1801) purchased the Gazette of the United States, succeeding John Ward Fenno in the editorship, and conducting the paper in the interest of Federal politics. About the time of our declaration of war against Great Britain (a n. 1S12), party spirit ran very high. In Baltimore a riot occurred, and the printing office of a Federal news- paper was destroyed by a mob. The office of Mr. Bronson was threatened with a similar fate if he did not cease from his unfavorable criticisms upon the administration and its Democratic leaders. Mr. Bronson was not to be intimidated, nor to cease the expression of his just political views at the dictation of ruffians. At last, however, the threats of violence against his office took actual shape. He received intelligence from a good source that on a night fixed the office would be sacked. On that same night the late Nathaniel Chapman, M. D., Charles Chauncey, the Hon. Bird Wilson, John B. Wallace, Horace Binney, Thomas Biddle, with a few other gentlemen (all intimate friends of Mr. Bronson), Federalists all, of vigorous strength, came to the office of the Gazette with muskets well loaded with ball, bayonets set, and gave evidence of what any band of ruffians misjht expect. The ringleaders of the mob came and looked ; ArPEXDIX. 5 2 I man, suggests to me that a certain plainness of manner gives if rather to the eminent Chief Justice of Pennsylvania just named, who was warmly attached to his Associate, and was one of the executors, I think, of his last will. Come from what source it may, it is worthy of preser- vation in the biographies of the eminent Judges of Pennsylvania. OBITUARY. Hon. Thomas Smith was a native of North Britain, from whence he emigrated in early life to this continent. On the 9th of February, 1769, he was appointed deputy surveyor of an extensive frontier district, and established his residence at the town of Bedford. In the execution of his official duties he displayed integrity and abilities which could not have been exceeded. His fidelity in this important and interesting trust was so strongly marked that no individual has been able to complain of injury; and exemption from law suits, and certainty of titles to property, have been almost the invariable result. So high was his sense of honor, so inflexible his principles of jus- tice, that he would never suffer even suspicion to cast a shade over his official char- acter. His private interests yielded to the firmness of his mind; and although landed property was then so easily to be acquired, he scrupulously avoided all speculation, determined that the desire of gain should neither warp his rectitude nor give birth to jealousy in others. When the county of Bedford was erected, he received commissions from the then proprietors to execute the offices of Prothonotary, Clerk of the Sessions, Orphans' Courts, and Recorder of Deeds for that county; and such was the uniform tenor of his conduct as to insure the respect, esteem and attachment of all who had any trans- actions with him. At the commencement of the late Revolution he zealously espoused the cause of his adopted country, and at the head of his regiment of militia performed his tour of duty looked again and went away. An hour or two after midnight they came again and found the guard still on duty. They then disappeared, and never renewed their visits or their menaces. While proprietor of the United States Gazette, Mr. Bronson pub- lished several works, including " Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medecis," and " Leo X.," by the same author. They are beautiful specimens of typography. " Under much coldness of manner, amounting almost to apathy, Mr. Bronson," said the Baltimore Chronicle, when noticing his death, which occurred in April, 1823, " possessed a warm and benevolent heart, alive to all tender impulses, blended with uncommon boldness and decision. His facility in writing and his powers of abstraction were remarkable. With his office filled with men like Joseph Dennie, Nathaniel Chapman, Thomas Biddle and others, the wits and conversation men of Philadelphia at that day — talk ing, telling stories and laughing, he would hand sheet after sheet of his ready compo- sition to the printer's boy, and read proofs in which not an error would be left." Mr. Bronson married Mary, daughter of the venerable Bishop White. Two of his seven children survive: one the widow of the late accomplished Prof. Henry Reed, who was lost at sea on the ill-fated "Arctic;" the other the Rev. William White Bron- son, a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church, distinguished for his theological learning and valued by all who know him for his devotion to the sick and poor and suffering of every class who need his service. I owe to him my many thanks for ser- vices rendered to me in the presentation of this work. 522 APPENDIX. in her service; and his attachment to the liberties and independence of these United States was inviolable. By the citizens of his county he was chosen to represent them in the convention which formed the first constitution of this commonwealth, but it is just to add, that instrument did not meet his entire approbation. As a member of the Legislature, frequently elected, his talents were useful, his exertions and industry un- remitted ; and when, towards the close of the Revolutionary war, he was appointed to represent this State in Congress, he carried with him into that body the same invaluable qualities, the same firm and inflexible integrity. The law was his profession, and he practised with industry and success, seeking to do justice, but abhorring iniquity and oppression ; never greedy of gain, he was mod- erate in receiving the honorable reward of his professional services. lie was a father to those who confided in him, however poor or afflicted. He delighted to encourage merit and virtue wherever he found them; but he exposed, with severity, violence, fraud and iniquity, whether clothed in rags or shrouded behind the mantle of wealth or influence. To those who sought it, he gave honest and sound advice in questions of law, according to the best of his skill and judgment. He discouraged law suits, and scorned to foment litigation for the sake of gain. He may have frequently erred — '• more frequently may have been deceived by statements imposed upon him by clients,- but he never, knowingly, recommended the prosecution of an unjust cause. When the judiciary department, under the present constitution of Pennsylvania, was organized, he was appointed President of the district composed of the counties of Cumberland, Mifflin, Huntingdon, Bedford and Franklin, in which office he continued until, upon the resignation of Mr. Bradford, he was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The arduous duties of both those stations he performed with skill and integrity. He spared not himself in sickness or in health — he shrunk from no labor or fatigue. Although his constitution was wearing away, his high sense of- duty foreclosed from his view his approaching danger; or, though he beheld it, it ap- peared to him trivial in comparison with what he considered the obligations of con- science. He never tasted the bread of idleness; nor would he have touched the emoluments of office if unable to perform its duties. But he sunk under this tco zealous attention to rigid duty, at an age not greatly advanced ; and when, by a little indulgence and self-denial (most surely justifiable), he might yet have been spared to his afflicted family. The expressions of his features were apparently austere : his outward manners were not marked w.th grace or softness. In conversation, his sentiments were delivered with blunt sincerity, and were sometimes supposed, by those who knew him, not to designate the character of harshness — but his heart was replete with the finest qualities which could adorn it — humane, benevolent and just. — In his friendships ardent and sincere, and his acts of friendship executed with peculiar delicacy and grace. In all his dealings he was scrupulously exact, and there exists no man who can truly say he has received from him an injury. Those who knew him well will not hesitate to ac- knowledge the correctness of this brief eulogium on departed worth. To his family his loss is irreparable ; as a husband and a father, he was affectionate, mild, indulgent. The happiness of his family was the great object of his life. Do- mestic harmony reigned in his household. His mansion was the abode of hospitality ; long, very long will his loss be mourned ; the memory of his virtues will remain as their sweetest consolation ; but the deep felt sorrows of his afflicted widow and chil- dren cannot recall the husband, father, friend. ATTEND IX. 523 The following arc the inscriptions from the tombs in Christ church- yard. Philadelphia, over the graves of Judge Smith and his family: Thomas Smith, One of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, Rests beneath this marble. He sustained various public offices with ability and fidelity; Ills integrity was inviolable. An affectionate husband and father. In his friendships Benevolent and sincere. He conscientiously discharged his public duties Until the last day of his life with Unremitted industry and zeal, And died March 31, 1 809, Aged 64 years. Also Letitia Smith, Wife of the above, died March 8, 181 1, Aged 52 years, Reposes here. Her last request prohibits more. Let angels speak her praises. Frances SorniA Smith, Daughter of Thomas and Letitia Smith, Died in Savannah, Feb. 8, 1829, Aged 50, Reposes here. Rebecca Smith, Died March 16th, 1855- Letitia Smith, Died October 15, 1832. George Washington Smith, Died April 22, 1876. Aged 76. George Washington Smith, whose name is the last upon the list of Judge Smith's children, was the only son of Judge Smith. The fol- lowing notice of him appeared in one of the papers of the day: DEATH OF GEORGE WASHINGTON SMITH, Esq. It is with sincere regret that we announce the death of Mr. George Washington Smith, who expired on Saturday last, April 22, 1S76, after an illness of some length, at his residence, No. 911 Clinton street. Mr. Smith never having been in public office, nor in the practice of a profession of any kind; having been a £ood deal 5^4 APPENDIX. reserved in general intercourse, and having, moreover, been a frequent traveller and resident abroad, was not much known to the present generation of Philadelphians. But he was well deserving of the honor and respect of them all. His father was the Hon. Thomas Smith, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, a native of Scotland (born near Aberdeen), and half-brother of the able and accom- plished Dr. William Smith, Provost, and in fact the founder, of the old College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania, both being sons of Thomas Smith, a man of property in Scotland. Thomas Smith, coming to this country, went to Carlisle, Pa., where he practised law successfully, and built the large house there afterwards occupied by Mr. Hamilton. In 1790 he came to this city, and resided on the south side of Market street, between Tenth and Eleven h. He was appointed in 1 794 a Judge of our Supreme Court, and died in 1809, leaving the reputation of an able and most upright judge. He was de- votedly attached to the Federal party — the party of Washington and Hamilton, of Jay and Marshall; and he named his son after Washington, with whom he was on terms of personal friendship. His wife, who, if a picture of her by the elder Peale, still preserved, does not exaggerate her personal attractions, must have been distinguished by beauty, was of the family name of Van Dearen. Mr. George Washington Smith was born, as appears by a record in his own hand- writing in our Historical Society, on the 4th of August, 1S00. His mother died while he was a mere infant, and his father in 1809, before he had completed his ninth year. He was then committed to the care of the late Chief Justice Tilghman and Edward Shippen Burd, as his guardians, the actual guardianship being discharged by the former, for whom Mr Smith, in common with all who knew him intimately, ever entertained the warmest affection and respect. He received his primary instructions in classical literature from the well-known James Ross, the author of the Grammar, and in 1818 graduated at Princeton, where the late gifted Joseph Mcllvaine, Esq., afterwards Recorder of this city and a Representative in the Legislature, was his classmate. He studied law in the office of the late Hon. Horace Binney, and was in due time admitted to the bar. But his circumstances were such as raised him above the necessity of practising Ins profession, and he never did so. He, however, engaged actively in matters of public interest, especially those relating to railroads, which then occupied the attention both of practical and scientific men, Mr. Moncure Robinson, yet surviving in honor among us, being in those days at the head of them. He was also greatly interested in the subject of prison discipline. Two papers signed with his initials, " G. W. S.," in the Views of Philadelphia, published by the late Mr. Cephas Childs, give evidence of his ability in the discussion of what is now known as Penology. He had already been abroad, and paid much attention to the subject of railways in England and on the continent, and was often before committees at Harrisburg, where it was remarked by the late John B. Wallace — a leading member of the House of Representatives, and much interested in the subject of internal improvements, then representing, for about three years (fiom 1830 to 1S33), one of our western counties in the Legislature — " that his information could always be depended upon for its accuracy." During some years Mr. Smith afterwards resided in Edinburgh and London, where he was engaged in vindicating before the Superior Courts of England, and finally before the House of Lords, the rights of a sister, who had married a Scotch gentleman of rank and fortune, to a large amount of pioperty which, in his idea, she had, in disregard of her rights, surrendered to her husband's family, in the settlement of a family difficulty. The case came finally before the APPENDIX. 525 British House of Peers, and is reported. The House adjudged, as we recall the matter, that his views were correct ; though a majority of the Peers, acting on an old rule, made in the interests of family peace and harmony, that a family settlement will not be disturbed, even though a party have surrendered rights, unless the case be very grievous, refused to break up what had been once signed anil sealed. Of late years Mr. Smith had travelled much, not only in Europe, but also in Africa and Asia, spending much time in the regions which make the subject of Sallust's Jugurthine war, exploring its antiquities, and also in Palestine, where he sought to widen and to deepen the foundations of a religious faith that from early life lie ever professed. Mr. Smith, at the time of his death, was the senior Vice-President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, of which, with Benjamin Horner Coatcs, he was in 1822 a founder, and in which he ever took a deep interest. This he testified quite lately by a munificent donation of money. He was also a warden and a vestryman of Christ Church, in whose general welfare, and especially in the welfare of whose Sunday schools — where he personally labored as a teacher — he took a deep interest. During such time as his health allowed he was to be seen regularly in the ancient pew of the family, near to that of the same as occupied by Washington while President of the United States. He was for several years, and up to the very close of his life, a muni- ficent benefactor of the Episcopal Hospital, devoting his large income to this and to other objects of charity, religion, or literature, in the most unostentatious manner, and without one charge upon it in his own favor for luxury, or avarice, or personal aggran- dizement of any kind. In his politics, Mr. Smith belonged to the school of which Lis father was a well-known advocate, and from the principles of that school he never swerved. He was distinguished by a very high sense of political and personal honor; and though, as we have said, not widely known in this city at this day, his death will be lamented by a most respected class of persons among us. Resolutions of respect to his memory were adopted by the Vestry of Christ Church this iflorning. Mr. Smith was one of the vestrymen of that venerable church for more than thirty years, and was one of its most liberal benefactors. For several years past he had annually deposited in the basin at the offertory at Christ Church, on Thanks- giving Day, for the benefit of the Episcopal Hospital, the sum of $5,000. He also gave largely to the new parish building fund, and constantly gave to the current char- ities and expenses of the parish, which will greatly feel his loss. The funeral of Mr. Smith will take place from Christ Church on Wednesday morning. No. IX.— Page 411, Richard Penn Smith. Richard Penn Smith was born at his parental resideace, the vener- able edifice still standing at the southeast corner of Chestnut and Fifth streets, Philadelphia. He received his early education at Joseph Neif 's 526 APPENDIX. grammar school, at the Falls of Schuylkill, with whom he remained until he was ten years of age. He and his brother, Samuel Wemyss Smith, were for some years under the care of a private tutor by the name of Sanderson,* whom their father, William Moore Smith, Esq., had found reading the classics in the original upon one of his annual tours up the Juniata. He took a fancy to him, and brought him to Philadelphia as the tutor and companion of his two sons above mentioned. When Mr. Neif quit his school these boys were sent to one at Mount Airy, kept by Mr. John T. Carre. After some years spent at Mount Airy, Mr. Smith went to Huntingdon, Pa., and was placed under the care of the Rev. John Johnson, a Presbyterian clergyman, who had there established a school, and was for many years well known as a successful teacher of the Greek and Latin languages. In 1818 he re- turned to Philadelphia and entered the office of William Rawle, Esq., to study the law. His fellow-students in the office were David Paul *John Sanderson, who was born in Carlisle in 1783, studied the classics with a clergyman living some six or seven miles from his home, and in 1S06 came to Phila- delphia as private tutor to the children of William Moore Smith. In 1808 he became a teacher in Clermont Seminary, which was established near Frankford, the Principal of which was John T. Carre. Afterward Sanderson married a daughter of Mr. Carre's, and became a partner in the management of the school. He was a contributor to the Portfolio. While residing in the family of Mr. Smith he designed " The Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence," which was the first attempt to combine their biographies. The first and second volumes of this book were written by John Sanderson, assisted by his pupils. The life of Hopkinson was written by Richard Penn Smith, and that of Chancellor Wythe by William Rudulph Smith ; but the work was not published until 1820. The remaining seven volumes are attributed to Robeit Wain, Jr., Henry Dilworth Gilpin, and others. Mr. Sanderson published, in 1826, " Remarks on the Plan of a College to Exclude the Latin and Greek Languages." His views were adverse to the establishment of such an institution. After the death of Stephen Girard he advocated, in accordance with those opinions, the introduction of the languages in the course of studies at Girard College. These arguments were enforced through the medium of the press, in a series of letters signed " Roberjot." He went to Paris in 1835, and remained there one year. His impressions were given to the world in " Sketches of Paris, in Familiar Letters to his Friends, by an American Gentleman. Two volumes. 1838; "" The American in Paris. Two volumes. 1838." These are light, agreeable, and abounding in wit and humor. Theodore Hook sug- gested the publication of this book in England. Jules Janin translated it into French, and it was published in 1843. He commenced a work to be entitled " The American in Paris," portions of which were published in the Knickerbocker Magazine. Upon his return to Philadelphia he opened a private school, and when the High School was established he was Professor of Greek and Latin. The writer was long his pupil. He died in 1844. ATTEND IX. 527 Brown, Thomas White* (afterwards of Indiana, Pa.), and Thomas S. Smith. He was admitted to practice as a member of the bar in 1820. He inherited from his family a taste for letters, and was early distinguished for the extent and variety of his acquirements. His first appearance as an author was in the columns of the Union, where he published a series of letters, moral and literary, under the title of the " Plagiary." About the close of the year 1822 he purchased the news- paper establishment, the Aurora (which long before this date had lost its violent political caste), from Mr. Duane, and assumed the arduous * Upon the death of Judge Thomas White, which occurred in 1SS0, the following notice appeared in a Philadelphia paper: A citizen of Philadelphia, through your journal, desires to offer a memorial tribute to the late Judge Thomas White, of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, who departed this life at his residence on the 23d inst. The deceased was a worthy descendant of a highly aristocratic family in Dublin, and born about 1799, in Sussex, England, where his father was barrack-master in the British army. At a very early age he was brought to our city, where he was raised and educated. Under the friendly auspices of the late John Vaughan, Esq., he was entered as a student of law in the office of the venerable William Rawle, where he graduated with his fellow-student, Richard Penn Smith, in 1S20, with flattering encomiums, and was admitted to practice. Me soon after settled in Indiana county, this State, in which circuit he rapidly rose to profes- sional honors and wealth. Thus distinguished, he sought not political station, because it was uncongenial to his nature. Imbued with literary taste, he was at home in his well-selected library, and while he cultivated literature he also devoted his energies to agriculture and to the breeding of blooded stock animals — thus blending the elegant pursuit of letters and judicial learning with the useful science of modern farming. Nothing more honorable can be said of Thomas White. To delineate a character so amiable and pure as that of the deceased, wherein eminent integrity was combined with all the domestic virtues of the husband, father, brother and friend, may prove a task more difficult than the writer of this may with propriety undertake, or truth unadorned can draw. The simplicity of his manners was proverbial. He was guided by the fixed principles of religion and good morals. On the election of Governor Ritner, in 1834, he received the appointment of President Judge for his district. Governor Curtin — in view of his conservative but loyal predilections, and to avert, if possible, an ultimate appeal to arms to sustain the Union cause — appointed Judge White one of the commissioners to the Peace Convention that assembled at Washing- ton before the rebellious die was cast. Alas ! his eloquent appeals were fruitless. Domestic affliction during the latter part of Judge White's life did its work to en- feeble his constitution. The sudden loss of an only daughter in the first bloom of womanhood — the death of his eldest son, Colonel Richard White — the long captivity of his son, Brigadier-General Harry White — with the additional loss of a very prom- ising favorite grandson — so sapped his health and mind that he yielded at length his harassed spirit to that Supernal Power that gave it sixty-seven years ago. His body is buried in peace with his offspring — but his memory will live in the hearts of his widow and his family. 528 APPENDIX. and responsible duties of an editor. At this work he continued about five years, when, finding it both wearisome and unprofitable, he aban- doned it and resumed his profession. A good classical scholar, and a tolerable linguist, with a decided bent for the pursuits of literature, his mind was well stored with the classics, both ancient and modern ; and amid the vexations and drudgery of a daily newspaper, he wooed the muses with considerable success. Perhaps to the discipline which editorship necessarily imposes, and the promptness which it requires, may in part be attributed the great facility he possessed in composition. While engaged in the duties of a profession, generally considered un- congenial to the successful prosecution of literary adventure, he pro- duced a number and variety of pieces, both in prose and verse, which showed considerable versatility of talent. His favorite study was the drama, and with this department of literature he was thoroughly familiar. With the dramatists of all nations he had an extensive acquaintance, and in the dramatic history of England and France he was profoundly versed. Perhaps there are few who studied the old English masters in this art with more devoted attention, and with a keener enjoyment of their beauties. But it is not alone in the keen enjoyment and appreciation of others that he deserves attention. He has given ample evidence that he possessed no ordinary power for original effort in this most difficult department of literature. We do not know how many plays he has produced, but the following, all from his pen, have been performed at different periods, and in most instances with complete success: "Quite Correct;" "Eighth of Jan- uary;" "The Disowned; or, the Prodigals;" "The Deformed; or, Woman's Trial;" "A Wife at a Venture;" "The Sentinels;" "Wil- liam Perm;" "The Triumph of Plattsburg;" " Caius Marius;" "The Water Witch;" "Is She a Brigand?" "My Uncle's Wedding;" "The Daughter;" "The Actress of Padua;" "The Bravo." As an evidence of his facility in composition, it may be mentioned that several of his pieces have been written and performed at a week's notice. The entire last act of "William Penn " was written on the afternoon of the day previous to its performance, yet this hasty produc- tion ran ten successive nights, drawing full houses, and has since been several times revived. His "Deformed" and "Disowned," two dramas which may be compared favorably with any similar production of this country, were both performed with success in London. In 1831 Mr. Smith published a work in two volumes, called the "Forsaken," the scene of which is laid in Philadelphia and the adjoin- ing country during our Revolutionary struggle. Many years ago Ameri- can novels — with the exception of Cooper's — were not received with APPENDIX. 529 the same favor as now; but a large edition of the "Forsaken" was even then disposed of, and it obtained from all quarters strong commendation. In 1S36 Mr. Smith wrote for Carey & Hart, of Philadelphia, a "Life of David Crockett," and one of " Martin Van Buren," and also pub- lished two volumes, entitled "The Actress of Padua, and other Tales," which have been eminently successful. As a writer of short tales, he was natural and unaffected in manner, correct in description, concise in expression, and happy in the selection of incidents. He possessed, moreover, a quiet humor, and an occasional sarcasm, which make his productions both pleasant and pungent. Mr. Smith wrote much for the periodical literature of the day, both political and literary, and his poetical pieces, if collected, would make a large volume; but these appear to have been scattered abroad, without any purpose of reclamation. His name is attached to a limited num- ber, which are distinguished by a healthy tone of thought, neatness of expression, and harmony of versification; but as, generally, they were produced for some particular occasion, they have — most of them, at least — passed into oblivion with the occasion that called them into existence. Mr. R. P. Smith married Mrs. Elinor Matilda Lincoln, on the 5th of May, 1823, the ceremony being performed in Christ Church, Phila- delphia, by the Rev. Dr. Abercrombie. Five children were the off- spring of this union, of whom I am the only survivor. My mother died September 16, 1833, and we were alone — he made me his companion. Well do I remember how proud I was of him ; he took me with him. wherever he went, and his associates and companions (child as I was) became mine. James N. Barker, Robert M. Bird, Joseph C. Neal, Edwin Forrest, James Goodman, Edgar A. Poe, Louis A. Godey, Wil- liam E. Burton, Robert T. Conrad, Joseph R. Chandler and Morton McMichael were the literary magnates of Philadelphia, and of all that intellectual coterie my father's star was the brightest, his wit the gayest, and his sarcasm the most cutting; as a writer he was admired; as a dramatist, at that day the most successful in the country, and with some fame as a poet, he was beloved as a companion and a gentleman. In 1836 my father again married, retired from active life and went to reside upon the family-seat at the Falls of Schuylkill, near Phila- delphia. Here he died, August 12, 1854. His social qualities made him a great favorite among his acquaint- ances, and the remembrance of his brilliant conversation will long pre- serve his name from oblivion. His papers I carefully collected, which, with a full set of his printed works, have been deposited in the archives 34 53° APPENDIX. of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, with the fond hope that he may some day have a great-grandson to edit them and give them to the public. James Reese, Esq. ("Colley Cibber"), in his " Life of Edwin For- rest," the tragedian, speaking of my father, says: There are numerous anecdotes related of Richard Penn Smith, all of which display the most ready wit and sarcastic humor. Indeed, he was so celebrated for repartee and off-hand sayings that he was actually dreaded in company, and very few had the courage to measure lances with him when wit was the prize. A few we give here: Richard Penn Smith avowedly wrote for money, and he required something more substantial than the blandishments of the Muses to tempt him to put his pen to paper. If Green Room anecdotes are to be depended upon, he was blessed with a thicker skin than usually falls to the lot of the genus irritabile vatum. It is told of him that upon one occasion he happened to enter the theatre during the run of one of his pieces, just as the curtain was falling, and met with an old school-fellow, who had that day ar- rived in Philadelphia, after an absence of several years. The first salutation was scarcely over when the curtain fell, and the author's friend innocently remarked : " Well, this is really the most insufferable trash that I have witnessed for some time." " True," replied Smith, " but as they give me a benefit to-morrow night as the author, I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you here again." At another time a. friend met him in the lobby, as the green curtain fell on one of his progeny, and, unconscious of its paternity, asked the author, with a sneer, what the piece was all about. " Really," was the grave answer, " it is now some years since I wrote that piece, and though I paid the utmost attention to the performance, I confess I am as much in the dark as you are." When Mr. Smith was a young man, he was introduced by his father to a well- known Philadelphian by the name of Wharton, who, from the fact of having a very large nose with a wart on it, was called " Big-nosed Wharton," to distinguish him from another gentleman of the same name. When out of hearing, the father said to the son: "They call that gentleman Big-nosed Wharton." The son quickly replied: " They have made a mistake ; they should call him Wart-on Big nose." Upon going one day into a hotel in which some of his friends were holding an argu- ment about the city of Dumfries, Scotland, they made an appeal to him to decide the question. " I know nothing of the Dumfries of Scotland, but I know a Dumb-freas of Germantown." Mr. Freas, of the Germantown Telegraph , an excellent gentleman, who was deaf and talked but little, was sitting within hearing at the time. He was at a dinner given to the Judges of the Supreme Court by the Bar of Phila- delphia, on the change of the constitution, in 1837. Mr. Smith had his health drank, and when he arose to reply, a lawyer by the name of Lee, of a character almost in- famous, and every way low, pulled him by the coat and urged him to toast him. As Mr. Smith closed his remarks he said : "Gentlemen, you have toasted the Binneys, the Chaunceys, the Rawles and Sergeants of the bar; allow me to offer the Lees of the Philadelphia Bar." Mr. Lee did not see the joke, and replied, to the amusement of all present. Mr. Smith always raised his own pigs. On one occasion he had them killed on the eighth of January (the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, where Sir Edward Packenham was killed). The next day he met a friend, who remarked: "Smith, yesterday was a fine day for killing pigs." "Yes," replied Smith, "but a bad day for Packing-ham." APPENDIX. 53 * The reader will excuse me for the insertion of some extracts from my father's letters to me, but they tend to show his character as a parent. To Horace W. Smith, Nazareth Hall, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, October 16, 1837. My Dear Son: You must not imagine that you are forgotten from my not having written to you ; there is never a day passes but we talk about you. Your mother* is getting the clothes made, that you require, and in a few days they shall be put in a box and for- warded to you. We are at a loss to find a lid to any of the boxes about the house, as you cut them all up to make ships and toys, so that you have occasioned unnecessary trouble for want of thought. Before you throw away or destroy anything, you should always reflect whether it will not be of use to you at some future day. A little reflec- tion of this kind will save you a great deal of trouble throughout life. We are all well, and little brother Richardf has grown to be a fine big boy. He crows and laughs, and to-day we bought him a basket chair to teach him to sit alone. Grandmother is well, and takes great interest in your letters. She keeps them, and leads them over and over again. You must write to her without delay, and in your letter say something to aunt Lydia, who loves you very much, as we all do, and feel a deep interest in hearing a favorable report of your conduct and attention to your studies. Mr. Godey was a good deal amused at receiving a letter from you, and told me that he would write to you. You should have borne in mind to have paid the postage on that letter, as you wrote to him on your own business, alone ; but as it was to Mr. Godey, it did not matter. However, make it a rule always to pay the postage when vou write to gentlemen on business in which you are solely interested. Your letter was very well put together, and afforded us all much amusement. Mr. Forrest has returned from England ; I went to see him, and he enquired after you. . . . Mother laughs a good deal at your sending for a while satin vest, for she was not aware that you owned one. You shall have a new black velvet one, out of my old one. I have but to repeat to you, to attend to your studies, and by correct and amiable deportment endeavor to secure the esteem of your preceptors and schoolmates. If you are unfortunately at any time placed under restraint, for neglect of your lessons or any other cause, bear in mind that it is a temporary punishment for your own good, and instead of being annoyed at those who punish you, blame yourself, and endeavor to avoid a repetition of the cause. Do not view your teachers as taskmasters, but be grateful to them for the information they endeavor to impart, and set about all that is required of you with a cheerful spirit. Do not neglect to write to grandmother, and address your letter to me. Write soon. Bless you, my dear boy; I wish to see you very much. Your affectionate father, Richard Penn Smith. Give my respects to Mr. and Mrs. Yan Vleck. - My stepmother — my father's second wife. •(- This was my half brother, Richard Penn Smith, Jr. He took a prominent part in the suppression of the late rebellion as Colonel of the California regiment. 532 APPENDIX. Again : Philadelphia, January 24, 1838. Dear Son : You have neglected to write to me since your return, and I find that I must write to you, or remain ignorant of your health and condition. We expected to hear all about your journey up, your safe arrival, and happy reunion with your teachers and school- fellows ; but it appears that you have not a single word to say, though you spoke, when here, in such high terms of the kindness you had received, and your perfect satisfac- tion. You must repair this neglect, and write without delay, for we are all anxious to hear from you, and grandmother is becoming quite impatient. I have nothing new to communicate. Your uncle William is still at Washington, and has not been here since he first went. There has been a remarkable exhibition at the Walnut Street Theatre — a man seven feet eight inches high, from Kentucky, and but twenty-one years old. Think what a creature ! he is half a yard taller than Mr. Traquair, and you have never yet seen a man who could not walk under his arm-pits. There was also a nice little man with him, scarcely a yard high, who is nearly twice his age — a mere Liliputian. I went behind the scenes and had a conversation with them both, to satisfy myself that there was no deception. The big man was feeble, possessed but little muscular power, and his health was delicate. He had outgrown his strength. He told me that he grew thirteen inches in one year, during a great portion of which time he was confined to his bed through rheumatism and weakness. The little fellow was as brisk as a bee, and though twice as old, bids fair to outlive his friend, " the man mountain." My dear son, nature, in her works, goes immeas- urably beyond the extent of human comprehension; objects are daily presented to our eyes, of whose magnificence our feeble intellects could form no conception, and we pass them by without even noticing their beauty ; but when, as in the present instance, she deviates from some well-established rule, our dull senses are shocked at the enor- mity, we recoil from her works, and cry " Unnatural ! " Still it is her work ; fcr what purpose thus formed — inscrutable ; but though disfigured, not the less entitled to respect. That which is coarse and grotesque seizes hold of the imagination of all; it is the lot of a chosen few to have a keen perception, and relish for the beautiful. I would have you rather look for beauties than defects. Cultivate a taste of this kind, and it will be an inexhaustible source of enjoyment to you. The world is full of beauty. The sky, glittering with myriads of unknown worlds, the green fields, the flowing rivers — I would have you love them all. They are mighty volumes, which God has spread before all his creatures ; we see them daily, and it is wicked to blindly turn away, and refuse to read his works as illustrated there. Study and love these, my son, and your mind will be as young and joyous as at present, even when your head is gray. We are all well, and send you a great deal of love. Your mother has been urging me to write to you for several days, but I have been much engaged in my office, and constantly writing. Say something to please grandmother, and write to her soon. Your uncle Britton died on Sunday, and was buried yesterday in the city. I went to the funeral. He had been sick for some time. Little brother Dick grows like a man, and I hope will soon write you a letter. I am going to Trenton, New Jersey, to-morrow. Give my respects to Mr. Van Vleck, and tell him that whenever he thinks proper to draw upon me for the amount of your bill for tuition, etc., he can do so, and it shall APPENDIX. 533 be paid. Attend to your studies with diligence, and, above all, endeavor to do nothing — not even the slightest thing — that will tend to humble you ill your own esteem. Respect yourself, and others will respect you. I scratch this hastily, with a very incorrigible pen, and fear you will not be able to read it. God bless you, my dear boy. Your affectionate father, Richard Penn Smith. Under date Philadelphia, April 25, 1838. MY Dear Son : Shortly after the receipt of your letter I procured a copy of the "Actress of Padua" for you, and left it at the stage office; about two weeks after I called to ascertain whether you had received it, and found that it had not been forwarded, but the clerk promised to send it the next day, so I presume you have received it before this time. You shall have your music book, but I fear it will be attended with similar difficulties to transmit it. The picture came safe, and your mother has had it handsomely framed and hung in the parlor. The frame cost three dollars, so your present has been somewhat expen- sive to me; but it was an evidence of your good feeling, and it afforded us all much satisfaction. It looks quite flashy, I assure you. Thomas wrote to you from Harrisburg, and doubtless mentioned Anne's marriage to Mr. Hobart, and the melancholy death of poor David.* Within a few hours of his dissolution he was talking cheerfully of his speedy recovery. We are truly in the midst of death. My dear boy, you are but twelve years old ; and yet in the brief scope of your memory how many of your friends and acquaintance, both younger and older than yourself, have departed ! — within little more than one year, five or six of your own immediate relatives. Think at times seriously upon this, but not with a gloomy spirit. It is as much a condition upon which we receive life, as the necessity of breathing, and remember that death is divested of all terrors to the enlightened and pure in mind. It is the act of a wise man to live in such a way that the close of life will become more cheerful, and hold out far brighter promises than even the sunny days of his boyhood. In this manner I trust you will live Your uncle William went to Sunbury a few days ago. His book on " Wisconsin " has been published. Aunt Lydia is living with grandmother at the Falls. Why don't you say a kind word to them in your letters? They are always thinking and talking about you, and as soon as they learnt that you required new clothing, they both came to me privately, and wished to pay for a suit. Our sources of gratification in this world, my dear boy, are manifold, and not a few so newhat mysterious. It is beyond your philosophy to understand what pleasure they could derive in spending their money for you, when I cheerfully furnish you with everything necessary; but still it is so, and when you have made some progress in metaphysics, you may amuse yourself in tracing the motive to its pure fountain. You want your clothes by the time of the examination, but you have not stated when it takes place, and really I do not know. They shall be sent soon. Little Dick grows finely. He has been very sick with a cold for three weeks, but is recovering. He endeavors to talk, can shake day-day, and pushes a chair from one end of the office to the other. He looks very much like what you were, and has a rousing big head. Mother scolded at your saying nothing to her in your last letter; * David Conden, a bound boy, raised in the family of my grandmother. 534 APPENDIX. she wished me to send you a dollar when she received the picture, but I thought I could spend it better, so declined. She sends you a great deal of love. Attend to your studies with diligence, for in four or rive years your school-education must terminate. I intend you for a man of business, for such are the most indepen- dent and happy. To become such will require the attention of several years, so you will perceive the importance of your time. I hope to see you industrious and provi- dent. These are virtues enjoined upon us in the Sacred Writings, and their effects are forcibly illustrated in the following passages : " The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; " " The spider taketh hold with his hands, and is in kings' palaces." I enclose you a dollar, which your mother insists must go this time. Our best re- spects to Mr. and Mrs. Van Vleck. We all send you our best wishes and love, and hope you'll write soon. Affectionately your father, Richard Penn Smith. No. X. — Page 445. Printed Works of William Smith, D. D. From the year 1750 to the year 1803, so far as known, or supposed to exist, by me. — H. W. Smith. A Memorial for the Established or Parochial Schoolmasters in Scotland, addressed to the great men in Parliament, etc. By William Smith, as Commissioner of said Schoolmasters. London, Jan. 31, 1750. An Essay on the Liberty of the Press. London, July, 1750. A Scheme for Augmenting the Salaries of Established or Parochial Schoolmasters in Scotland, dated at Abernethy, November 5, 1749. Scott 's Magazine, October, 1750. Essay on Education. Published in a New York paper, Nov. 7, 1752. New Year's Ode. January 1, 1753. A General Idea of the College of Mirania. With some Account of its Rise, etc. 8vo. J. Parker & W. Weyman, New York, 1753. A Compendium of Logic, including Metaphysics, and one of Ethics, by Samuel Johnson, D. D. ; with a Philosophical Meditation and Religious Address to the Supreme Being, for the use of young stu- dents in Philosophy, by William Smith, A. M. Published in Phila., in 1753, by B. Franklin, and in London, 1754. APPENDIX. 535 Letter to Archbishop Herring, giving an Account of the Death of Sir Dan vers Osborne, Governor of New York. London, Dec. 15, 1753. Historical Account of the Charity for the Instruction of the Poor Germans in America. Franklin, Pliila., 1753. Several Essays on Education were published during 1754 in the Antigua Gazette. Sermon preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, on the Death of a Beloved Pupil, September 1, 1754. Published by Benjamin Franklin, 1754. A Sermon Preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, before the Ancient and Honorable Society of Free and Accepted Masons. 8vo. B. Franklin & D. Hall, Philadelphia, 1755. A Brief State of the Province of Pennsylvania. 8vo. R. Griffiths, London, 1755. A Brief View of the Conduct of Pennsylvania for 1755 : being a sequel to the last. Svo. R. Griffiths, London, 1756. The American Magazine, for 1757 and 1758. From October, 1757, to October, 1758, with a supplement ; 13 numbers in all. Svo. Wm. Bradford, Philadelphia. A Charge, delivered May 17, 1757, at the First Anniversary Com- mencement in the College and Academy of Philadelphia, to the Young Gentlemen who took their Degrees on that occasion, by W. Smith; to which is added an Oration in Latin, by Paul Jack- son. i2mo. Printed by B. Franklin 6° D. Hall, Philadelphia, 1757. A True and Impartial State of the Province of Pennsylvania, being an Answer to the pamphlets entitled "A Brief State," and "A Brief View." 8\ro. IV. Dunlap, Philadelphia, 1759. Recommendation of William Smith, D. D., to the University of Oxford. 4to, large paper. (50 copies. Privately printed at Philadelphia, 1865.) London, 1759. Discourses on Public Occasions during the War in America. 8vo. London, 1759. A Discourse Concerning the Conversion of the Heathen Americans. Svo. W. Dunlap, Philadelphia, 1 760. 536 APPENDIX. An Exercise, consisting of a Dialogue and Ode, sacred to the Memory of his late Gracious Majesty George II. Performed at the Public Commencement in the College of Philadelphia, May 23, 1761. The ode set to music and sung with the organ. Philadelphia : Printed and sold by Andrew Steuart, in 2d street, and by Andrew Gaine, in New York. Discourses on Public Occasions during the War in America. Second edition. 8vo. London, 1762. The Last Summons, a Sermon Preached in Christ Church, Philadelphia, on January 10, 1762, at the Funeral of Robert Jenny, Rector of the said Church. i2mo. A. Steuart, Philadelphia, 1762. Exercise on the Accession of George III., at the College, 18th of May, 1762. 4to. Philadelphia, 1762. Speech by John Dickenson, Esq., in Assembly of Pennsylvania, May 24, 1764; with Preface by William Smith. Phila., 1764. Answer to Mr. Franklin's Remarks on a late Protest. 8vo. Printed by William Bradford, Philadelphia, 1 764. Juvenile Poems on Various Subjects, with the Parthia, a Tragedy, with some account of the Author and his Writings. 4to. By Thomas Godfrey, Jr. (This was edited by William Smith, D. D., and an account of the author inserted.) Henry Miller, Phila., 1765. Dialogue, etc., for the Commencement in the College, 30th of May, 1765. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1765. An Historical Account of the Expedition Against the Ohio Indians, in the year 1764, under the Command of Henry Bouquet. Illustrated with a map and copper plates. William Bradford, Philadelphia, 1765 ; at the London Coffee- House. (This work was reprinted in London in 1766, in Paris in 1769, and in Cincinnati 'in 1868.) Four Dissertations on the Reciprocal Advantages of a Perpetual Union between Great Britain and her American Colonies; written for Mr. Sargent's Prize Medal, to which is prefixed an Eulogium spoken on the Delivery of the Medal. 8vo. William c^ Thomas Bradford, Philadelphia, 1766. An Exercise containing a Dialogue and Two Odes, performed at the Public Commencement in the College of Philadelphia, May 20, 1766. Philadelphia : Printed by W. Dunlap, in Market street, 1766. APPENDIX. 537 An Exercise containing a Dialogue and Two Odes, performed at the Public Commencement in the College of Philadelphia, November 17, 1767. Philadelphia: William God Jard, in Market street, 1767. Some Account of the Charitable Association lately erected ; also a Ser- mon Preached in Christ Church, October 10, 1769. 4to. D. Hall & IV. Sellers, Philadelphia, 1769. Cato's Letters, containing some Remarks on Paine's Common Sense, etc. Published by John Holt, New York, 1769. Some Account of the Charitable Corporation, and also a Sermon Preached in Christ Church. 8vo. D. Hall & W. Sellers, Philadelphia, 1770. An Exercise containing a Dialogue and Two Odes, performed at the Commencement of the College of Philadelphia, June 5, 1770. Printed by J. Cruikshank cV J. Collins. Works of Nathaniel Evans. John Dunlap, Philadelphia, 1772. An Oration, delivered January 22, 1773, before the American Philo- sophical Society. 4to. J. Dunlap, Philadelphia, 1773. An Examination of the Connecticut Claim to Lands in Pennsylvania. With an Appendix, containing Extracts and Copies from Original Papers. 8vo. Joseph Cruikshank, Philadelphia, 1774. A Sermon on the Present Situation of American Affairs, preached in Christ Church, 1775. 8vo. J. Humphreys, Jr., Philadelphia, 1775. A Fast Sermon and Prayer, at All Saints Church, Philadelphia, July 20, 1775, on Occasion of the first Fast appointed by the American Congress. Philadelphia, 1775. An Oration in Memory of General Montgomery, and of the Officers and Soldiers who fell with him, December 31, 1775, before Quebec. 8vo. J. Dunlap, Philadelphia, 1776. A Sermon Preached in Christ Church (for the benefit of the poor), by appointment of and before the General Communication of Masons, on December 28, 1778. Dedicated to George Washington. 8vo. J. Dunlap, Philadelphia, 1779. Ahiman Rezon, abridged and digested as a help to all that are or would be Free and Accepted Masons, to which is added a Sermon (see last pamphlet). 8vo. Hall &> Sellers, Philadelphia, 1783. 538 APPENDIX. An Account of Washington College, in the State of Maryland, pub- lished by order of the Visitors and Governors of the said College, for the Information of its Friends and Benefactors. 51 pp., 8vo. Philadelphia, 1784. An Address to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, in the Case of the Violated Charter of the College, etc., of Philadelphia. i2mo. R. Aitken 6° Son, Philadelphia, 1788. Two Sermons delivered in Christ Church. 8vo. Dobson 6° Lang, Philadelphia, 1789. Eulogium on Benjamin Franklin. Be?ijamin Franklin Bache, Philadelphia, 1792. An Historical Account of the Rise, Progress and Present State of the Canal Navigation in Pennsylvania. Map. 4to. Zachariah Poulson, Jr., Philadelphia, 1795. An Account of the Proceedings of the Illinois and Ouabache Land Companies, in Pursuance of their Purchases made of the Inde- pendent Natives, July 5, 1773, and October 18, 1775. 8vo. William Young, Philadelphia, 1796. Remarks on the second Publication of B. Harvey Latrobe, Esq. Z. Poulson, Philadelphia, 1799. The Works of William Smith, D. D., late Provost of the College and Academy of Philadelphia. 2 vols., 8vo. Portrait. Hugh Maxwell, Philadelphia, 1802-3. No. XI. — Page 447. Account of Dr. Smith's Papers. My respected friend, Mr. Thomas H. Montgomery, great-grandson of Bishop White, is good enough to give me, at my request, the subse- quent history of the papers of Dr. Smith taken by Dr. White upon the death of the former. " 2320 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, "14 November, 1879. "My Dear Sir: " The MSS. of Bishop White, composed of his correspondence and other writings, which accumulated in his hands during the organization APPENDIX. 539 of the American church, were lent by him to the late Rev. Dr. F. L. Hawks, as an aid to that eminent historian in compiling his records of our ecclesiastical history. With him they remained for many years, as his work was a vast one and demanded time ; and Bishop White, it appears, never sought to recover them, nor did his executors, after his death, give the matter prompt attention. Both of the executors pre- deceased Dr. Hawks by some years, and upon the death of the latter the Bishop's descendants took steps to obtain the MSS. from Dr. Hawks's estate. When it was ascertained that since Dr. Hawks's death they had practically been in the custody of the House of Bishops, Bishop White's descendants, with entire unanimity, decided that it was emi- nently proper they should remain in such custody; and under date of 15 October, 1868, presented the following Memorial to the Bishops: " To the Right Reverend the Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America in Convention assembled : "The Memorial of the undersigned, descendants of the late Right Rev. William White, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, re- spectfully show : " That the said Bishop White, some few years prior to his death, loaned to the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D. D., LL. D., for the purpose of historical examination/the major portion of his collection of MSS., consisting of correspondence between himself and many bishops, clergymen and laymen, in this and other countries ; as also other papers, bearing principally on the establishment of the church in America, and being of very great value. That these papers were in Dr. Hawks's custody at the death of Bishop White, but were not claimed by the latter's executors, because of their under- standing that Dr. Hawks had not concluded his investigations, and so remained with Dr. Hawks until his decease, September 26, 1866, no claim having as yet been laid to them for the reason above stated. That on the 27th of October, 1866, subsequently to Dr. Hawks's death, a descendant of Bishop White, and agent of your memorialists, called upon one of the executors of his estate, and there did make claim, to which answer by letter was returned under date of November 16, 1866, by the said executor, to the effect that he would be heard from in due time upon the subject; that, notwith- standing this reply, nothing further has been heard, nor was anything known as regards these papers by your memorialists, until a few months since, when information was received that they had all been placed by Dr. Hawks's executors in the custody of your venerable body. "Your memorialists further show that they represent all the descendants of the said Bishop White, with the exception of two, who are now residents of distant parts of the United States, and with whom your memorialists have put themselves in communica- tion ; that they have every reason to believe, and do believe, that the assent and ratification of the same will in due course be had to this action of your memo- rialists, although it has been impossible up to this date to obtain it for presentation herewith. " Your memorialists therefore pray that your Reverend Body take into consideration their claim to the said papers, and acknowledge the same, if in your wisdom it seems just; and that they be permitted hereby to put upon record their wish to make a gift 54° APPENDIX. of the same to the House of Bishops and their successors, when such gift can be per- fected by ail the parties interested therein.* "This Memorial was, on motion of the Bishop of Pennsylvania, who had presented it, referred to the Committee on Memorials and Peti- tions, namely, the Bishops of Delaware, Virginia and Western New York, who submitted the following report : " The Standing Committee on Memorials and Petitions, to whom was referred the Memorial of the descendants of the late Right Rev. William White, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, and Presiding Bishop, setting forth that certain papers of much historical interest had been loaned by their venerable ancestor to the late Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D. D., LL. D., and upon the decease of Dr. Hawks had been placed in the custody of the House of Bishops, asking of this House a recognition of their right of property, and permission to put upon record their wish to make a gift of the same to the House of Bishops, when such gift can be perfected by all the parties interested therein, report the following resolutions : "Resolved, That the House of Bishops hereby acknowledge that the right of property in the papers loaned by the late Bishop White, of Pennsylvania, to the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D. D., LL. D., remains in the heirs and descendants of Bishop White. "Resolved, That this House highly appreciate the generous proposal of the memo- rialists to present to the Bishops the above-mentioned papers, and return their cordial thanks for the promise of a donation of so much historic value. " Which resolutions were on motion adopted. f "At the meeting of the House of Bishops, in the General Convention of 1 87 1, 'the Bishop of Pennsylvania presented a communication from the descendants of the late Bishop White, together with a deed convey- ing certain historical documents to the sole custody of the House,' when, on his motion, it was "Resolved, That the House of Bishops gratefully acknowledge the reception of the deed of gift by the descendants of Bishop White, conveying to this House the papers mentioned therein, and return to Thomas H. Montgomery, Esq., and through him to all represented by that gift, the thanks of this House for the important trust now con. fided to their sole custody.J "In the interesting report of the Special Committee to the House, in 1868, in the papers left by Dr. Hawks reference is first made to the transcripts made in England, at the expense of the General Convention, from original documents, ' in all eighteen folio volumes of historical matter, the value of which cannot be too highly estimated.' The report proceeds to say that, ' besides these important folios, this collection comprises the correspondence of Bishop White, Bishop Hobart and Bishop Ravenscroft, and the Rev. Drs. William Smith and Samuel Peters. || * Journal of the General Convention of 1 868, pp. 216, 431. | Ibid., 1868, p. 227. \ Ibid., 1871, p. 274. || Ibid., 1868, p. 228. APPENDIX. 541 " Trusting that the above narration may afford you the desired state^ ment as to the destination which the valuable MSS. of your distin- guished ancestor finally took, " I remain, truly yours, " Thos. H. Montgomery. " Horace Wemyss Smith, Esq., Falls of Schuylkill." No. XII. Genealogical Account of the Descendants of William Moore, Esq., of Moore Hall, Penna., whose Daughter Dr. Smith Married. William Moore (known as of "Moore Hall") married William- ina, daughter of David, fourth Earl of Wemyss,* 1722. 1. Rebecca, born at Moore Hall, February 21, 1724-5; died Janu- ary 9, 1728. 2. William, born at Moore Hall, October 5, 1726. 3. Williamina, born at Moore Hall, February 21, 1727-8. 4. John, born at Philadelphia, October 1, 1729; died February 2, I73°- 5. John (second), born at Moore Hall, January 21, 1730. 6. Rebecca, born at Philadelphia, February 21, 1732-3; died Oc- tober 20, 1793. 7. Thomas William, born at Moore Hall, June 12, 1735. 8. Margaret, born at Moore Hall, March 26, 1738; died July 17, 1745- 9. Mary, born at Moore Hall, July 8, 1741. 10. Anne, born at Moore Hall, October 4, 1742; died December 20, 1810. 11. Frances, born at Moore Hall, March 10, 1744-5. 12. James Wemyss, born at Moore Hall, July 22, 1747. III. Williamina Moore married Phineas Bond, M. D., August 4, 1748. 13. Phineas, Jr., born July 15, 1749; died 1816. 14. Williamina, born February 26, 1753. 15. Ann, born August 5, 1756; died December 13, 1796. * See pages 498-9. 542 APPENDIX. 1 6. Rebecca. 17. Elizabeth, died January 26, 1820. Dr. Phineas Bond was born in Virginia, in the year 171 7; died in Philadelphia, June 11, 1773. IV. John Moore married Miss Ann O'Niel, December 3, 1758. 18. Williamina, born November 17, 1759. VI. Rebecca Moore married William Smith, D. D., July 3, I758- 19. William Moore, born June 1, 1759 > died March 12, 1821. 20. Thomas Duncan,* born November 18, 1760; died July 9, 1789. 21. Williamina Elizabeth, born July 4, 1762; died December 19, 1790. 22. Charles, f born March 4, 1765 ; died April 18, 1836. 23. Phineas, born January 31, 1767 ; died August 16, 1770. 24. Richard, J; born January 25, 1769; died October 1, 1823. 25. Rebecca, born April 11, 1772; died March 9, 1837. 26. Eliza, born May 16, 1776; died September 25, 1778. VII. Thomas William MOOre married Mrs. Anne, widow of Dr. Richard Ascough, a surgeon in the British army, July 6, 1761. 27. Janet Forman. 28. Thomas William. Thomas William Moore, Sr., was a merchant in New York city, of the firm of Moore & Lynsen. He was admitted to membership in the Chamber of Commerce, October 4, 1765, and in 1769 was made free- man of the city under the appellation of gentleman. He died in England. X. Ann Moore married Dr. Charles Ridgely, June 2, 1774. 29. Williamina Moore, born February 20, 1775; died April 21, 1808. 30. Mary, born August 9, 1777 ; died March 9, 1855. 31. Henry Moore, born August 6, 1779; died August 6, 1847. 32. George Wemyss, born April 4, 1781 ; died at sea, 1800. ^t,. Ann, born February 12, 1784; died August 29, 1805. Dr. Charles Greenbury Ridgtly was born January 26, 1738; was educated at the College of Philadelphia. He generally wrote his name Charles Ridgely, dropping the Greenbury. He died November 25, 1785; he was buried at Dover; Dr. Smith officiated. For an account of him see this volume, page 252. * See Appendix No. XIII. f Ibid., No. XIV. % Ibid., No. XV. A F TEND IX. 543 XIV. Williamina Bond married General John Cadwalader, January 30, 1779. 34. Thomas, born October 29, 1779; died October 31, 1841. 35. Frances, born June 25, 1781 ; died March 25, 1843. 36. John, born May 1, 1784; died July 10, 1785. General John Cadwalader was a son of Dr. Thomas Cadwalader, born in Philadelphia, January 10, 1742; died at Shrewsbury, Md., February 10, 1786, aged 44 years. XVII. Elizabeth Bond married John Travis, of Philadelphia, 1792. 37. Ann Bond, born August 8, 1793. 38. John Phillips, born April 18, 1795; died 1817. 39. Frances Bond, born September 4, 1797. 40. Elizabeth, born 1799. 41. Williamina Wemyss, born 18023 died 1876. XIX. William. Moore Smith married Ann Rudulph, June 3, 1786. 42. William Rudulph,* born August 31, 1787; died August 22, 1868. 43. Samuel Wemyss, born September 1, 1796; died January 6, 1819. 44. Richard Penn,| born March 13, 1799; died August 12, 1854. XXI. Williamina Elizabeth Smith married Charles Golds- borough, Esq., of Horn's Point, Dorchester county, Md., May 15, 1783- 45. Robert, born February 18, 1784; died June 22, 181 7. 46. William Smith, born September 26, 1786; died 1813. 47. Sarah Yeabery, born August 8, 1787 ; died 1862. 48. Williamina, born December 1, 1790; died 1792. Air. Charles Goldsborough was the son of Robert Goldsborough, bar- rister-at-law. He was born November 21, 1761, and died June 12, 1801. XXII. Charles Smith % married Mary Yeates, of Lancaster, Pa., March 3, 1791. 49. Jasper, born March 15, 1792; died November 19, 1823. 50. William Wemyss, born March 20, 1795 ; died March 27, 1825. 51. Williamina Elizabeth, born October 3, 1797; died January 9, 1848. 52. Sarah Yeates, born March 24, 1802 ; died March 4, 1847. 53. Charles Edward, born March 6, 1804; died January 2, 1829. *See Appendix No. XVI. f See Appendix No. IX., page 525. \ See Appendix No. XIV. 544 APPENDIX. 54. Mary Margaret, born October 16, 1806; died January n, 1870. 55. Theodore Horatio, born January 20, 1809; died March 27, 1837- 56. Catherine Yeates, born December 31, 1810; died July 3, 181 7. Mrs. Mary Smith was the daughter of the Hon. Jasper Yeates, Asso- ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. She was born March 13, 1770, and died August 27, 1836. XXIV. Richard Smith* married Letitia Nixon Coakley, of Lancaster. No issue. Mrs. Letitia Smith was the daughter of John Coakley and Letitia Nixon, his wife. XXV. Rebecca Smith married Samuel Blodget, Jr., Esq., May 10, 1792. 57. Thomas Smith, born August 25, 1793; died 1836. 58. Julia Ann Allen, born November 13, 1795 ; died July 26, 1877. 59. Elinor Matilda, born 1797; died September 16, 1833. 60. John Adams, born December 28, 1799; died March 5, 1870. For an account of Samuel Blodget, Jr., see Appendix No. VII XXVII. Janet Forman Moore married Lieutenant Jacob Jones, f of the navy. 61. Williamina. 62. Richard Ayscough. XXVIII. Thomas William Moore, Jr., married (first) Mary, * See Appendix No. XV. ■f Commodore Jacob Jones was born about the year 1770, near the village of Smyrna, Kent county, Delaware. His father was an independent and respectable farmer. The subject of our memoir was at first intended for the practice of medicine; accordingly he graduated, but did not continue long in practice. The clerkship of the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware was conferred upon him ; in this office he continued for some time, but as it did not agree with his health, he resolved to enter as midship- man in the service of his country. On the breaking out of the war with Tripoli he was stationed on the ill-fated " Philadelphia; " he was there taken prisoner, and kept in confinement about a year and a half. He was now promoted to a lieutenancy; he was shortly after appointed to command the "Argus," and gave such entire satisfaction that he was appointed a captain. In 1811 he was transferred to the command of the "Wasp," and distinguished himself in several engagements with the enemy's vessels; he was afterwards captured and placed on his parole. In 1 82 1 he took command of a squadron, in which he continued for three years. On his return he was ordered to the command of the Baltimore station, in which capacity he served until transferred as Post-Captain of the Harbor of New York. Commodore Jones died August 3, 1850,, APPENDIX. 545 daughter of George Gibbs, who died in 1813; married (second) Miss Bibby, of New York. 63. Thomas Bibby. XXX. Mary Ridgely married William Winider Morris, M. D., November 5, 1807. 64. William Ridgely, born January 23, 181 1. 65. Emily Ridgely, born 1814. 66. Annie M., born 181 9. XXXI. Henry Moore Ridgely married Sarah, daughter of John Banning, Esq., of Dover, Del., November 21, 1S03. 67. Ann, born February 21, 1815. 68. Henry, born April 15, 1817. 69. Nicholas, born December 18, 1820; died December 1, 1849. 70. Eugene, born May 4, 1822. 71. Willi amina Elizabeth. 72. Edward, born January 30, 1831. XXXIV. Thomas Cadwalader married Mary Biddle, 1804. 73. John, born April 1, 1805 ; died January 26, 1879. 74. George, born May 16, 1S06, died February 30, 1879. 75. Thomas, born August 27, 1808; died January 19, 1844 76. Henry, born January 21, 1817; died July 2, 1844. 77. William, born October 2, 1820; died October 15, 1875. Mrs. Mary Cadwalader was the daughter of Clement Biddle, Esq., of Philadelphia. She was born January 6, 1781. XXXV. Prances Cadwalader married David Montagu Ers- kine, of Restormel Castle, county Cornwall, England, 1800. 78. Thomas Americus. 79. John Cadwalader. 80. Edward Morris. 81. James Stuart. 82. Frances. 83. Mary. 84. Sevilla, died March 12, 1835. 85. Stewarta. 86. Elizabeth. 87. Harriet. 88. Jane Plumer. Lady Frances Erskine died March 25, 1843. His lordship married. 35 546 APPENDIX. (second) Ann Bond, daughter of John Travis, Esq., of Philadelphia, she being first cousin to his first wife. No issue. XXXV. Frances Travis married J. G. Williamson. No issue. XL. Elizabeth Travis married William Greene Cochran, 1825. 89. Fanny Travis, born March 8, 1825. 90. Elizabeth. 91. Travis, born March 7, 1830. 92. William, born February 3, 1832. 93. Annie Bond, born October 10, 1834. 94. Henry, born January 9, 1836. 95. George, born April 14, 1838. XLII. William Rudulph Smith married Eliza Anthony, March 16, 1809. 96. William Anthony, born November 13, 1809. 97. Thomas Duncan, born February 7, 181 2. 98. Henrietta Williamina, born May 2, 1814; died November 27, 1873- 99. Anne Amelia, born March 13, 1816. 100. Algernon Sidney, born February 3, 1818; died October 10, 1818. 101. Eliza, born October 27, 1820; died June 5, 1825. Mrs. Eliza Smith was the daughter of Joseph Anthony, of Philadel- phia, born August 12, 1789; died January 10, 1821. XLII. William Rudulph Smith married Mary H. Vandyke (second wife), October 25, 1823. 102. Rudulph Vandyke, born September 5, 1825; died June 17, 1857. 103. Richard Moore, born October 1, 1828. 104. Penelope Campbell, born August 2, 1830; died December 17, 1852. 105. John Montgomery, born October 26, 1834. 106. Letitia Nixon, born January 5, 1833; died February 24, 1833. 107. Maria Letitia, born September 10, 1836; died December 26, 185-2. .108. Samuel Wemyss, born April 10, 1840. 109. Mary Eliza, born January 24, 1845. no. Henry Hobart, born May 21, 1848; died April 18, 1850. -Mary Hamilton Vandyke, fourth daughter of Dr. Thomas James Van- APPENDIX. 547 dyke, United States army, and his wife, Penelope Smith Campbell, born at Maysville, Tenn., April 17, 1S05. XI. IV. Richard Penn Smith married Mrs. Elinor Matilda Lincoln, May 5, 1823. in. Elinor Matilda, born September 13, 1S24; died November 19, 1825. 112. Horace Wemyss, born August 13, 1825. 113. Duncan Moore, born September 15, 1827; died March 6, 1S29. 114. Helen West, born May 9, 1831 ; died July 20, 1832. 115. Emma Matilda, born October 26, 1832; died 1834. Mrs. Elinor M. Smith, see No. 59. XLIV. Richard Penn Smith married (second) Isabella Strat- ton Knisell, 1836. 116. Richard Penn (second), born May 9, 1837. 117. Isabella Penn, born January 22, 1839. 11S. William Moore, ) ^ , > twins, born January 4, 1841. 119. Eliza Arnold, J 120. Maria Lewis, born January 23, 1844; died April 1, 1869. Airs. Isabella Stratton Smith was the daughter of Christopher and Elizabeth Knisell, born November 27, 1812; died May 17, 1880. XLV. Robert Goldsborough married Mary Nixon, 1810. 121. Nicholas Locherman, born 1810; died December 5, 1850. 122. Louisa Nixon, born May 21, 1813. 123. Sarah Yeabury, born November 5, 1815. 124. Williamina Elizabeth Ennals, born 1818. Mrs. Mary Goldsborough was the daughter of the Hon. Charles Nixon, of Dover, Del., and the niece of Nicholas Vandyke. After the death of Robert Goldsborough (June 22, 181 7) she married Mr. Gard- ner Baily, November 1, 1825. XLVll. Sarah Yeabury Goldsborough married Charles Goldsborough, Esq., of Shoal Creek, Md., 1803. 125. Charles Yeabury, born 1805 ; died 1807. 126. John McDowell, born 1806; died 1807. 127. William Tilghman, born 1808; died 1876. 128.- George Washington, born 1810; died 1812. 129. Charles McDowell, born 181 1 ; died 1815. 130. Robert F., born 1814; died 1819. 131. Williamina E. E., born 1813; died 1865. 54§ APPENDIX. 132. Mary Tilghman, born 1816; died 1849. 133. Caroline F., born 1820; died 1854. 134. William Henry, born 1818. 135. Robert F., born 1822; died 1824. 136. Sarah Lloyd, born 1824; died 1825. 137. Richard Tilghman, born 1826. 138. Henrietta Maria, born 1828; died 1845. 139. Charles F., born 1830. Charles Goldsborough, Esq., born 1765. He was a State Senator of Maryland, member of Congress from 1804 to 1817, and Governor of Maryland in 1819; died 1834. LI. Williamina Elizabeth Smith married Thomas b. Mc- Elwee, Esq., February 6, 1822. 140. Mary Rebecca, born May 14, 1823. 141. Charles John, born April 4, 1825 ; died January 7, 1850. 142. Sarah Yeates, born April 23, 1827. 143. Anna, born June 12, 1829; died May 15, 1842. 144. Catherine Yeates, born October 16, 1831. Thomas B. McElwee was a member of the bar, born October 31. 1792; died August ?■;, 1843. LII. Sarah Yeates Smith married Leonard Kimball, Esq., January 29, 1823. 145. Charles Edmund, born December 22, 1823. 146. Theodore Horatio, born June 17, 1825; died February 22, 1874- 147. William Douglas, born February 14, 1827; died 1838. Leonard Kimball, Esq., son of Edmund and Rebecca Kimball, born December 11, 1785, at Bradford, Essex county, Mass. ; was an attorney; died at Philadelphia, January 28, 1847. LIII. Charles Edward Smith married Miss Owen, of Baltimore. 148. Mary Yeates, born 1829; died in Baltimore, October 28, 1854. LIV. Mary Margaret Smith married George Brinton, Esq., of Philadelphia, July 27, 1831. 149. John Hill, born May 21, 1832. 150. Mary Yeates, born November 22, 1834. 151. Sarah Frederica, born January 23, 1839. 152. Margaret Yeates, born August 3, 1843. APPENDIX. 549 George Brinton was the son of John Hill and Sarah Brinton, born at Philadelphia, March 7, 1804; died June 30, 1858. LVII. Thomas Smith Blodget married Miss Anna Marshall. 153. An infant. LVIII. Julia Ann Allen Blodget married John Britton, Jr., of Philadelphia. 154. Ellen Matilda. 155. John Blodget. 156. Maria Louisa, died 1831. 157. Harriet Emily. 158. George Edward, born September 10, 1825; died July 3, 1861. 159. Isabella Smith, died 1854. 160. Mary Yeates, died 1853. 161. William Henry, died July 10, 1851. John Britton, Jr., died January 20, 1838. LIX. Elinor Matilda Blodget married Abel Lincoln, Esq., of Massachusetts, 1810. 162. William Smith, born November 10, 181 1. 163. Thomas Blodget, born 181 3. 164. Julia Maria, born February 7, 1816. 165. John George, born 1818; died 1842. Abel Lincoln, Esq., died of yellow fever in New Orleans, June 5, 1822. Mrs. Lincoln married Richard Penn Smith, as will be seen under No. 44. LX. John Adams Blodget married Nancy Fletcher, of Bed- ford, Pa., 1825. 166. Rebecca Smith, born March 27, 1826. 167. Eliza Duncan, born 1828. Mr. John Blodget was an attorney at law, and practised his profession in Bedford, Pa.; he died in Philadelphia, July 5, 1872. lxii. Richard Ayscough Jones. 168. John M. LXIV. William Ridgely Morris married Catharine Harris, May 15, 1845. 169. Mary M., born June 20, 1847. 170. Walter, born February 18, 1849. 171. Julia, born May 13, 1857; died 1858. 550 APPENDIX. LXVI. Annie M. Morris married Judge Caleb S. Layton. LXVII. Ann Ridgely married Charles Irenee du Pont, Esq., May ii, 1 841. 172. Amelia E. , born February 26, 1842. 173. Henry Ridgely, born November 19, 1848. Charles Irenee du Pont was born in Charleston, S. C, March 29, 1797. He was the son of Victor du Pont and Gabrielle Josephine La- fitte de Pelleport. His grandfather was Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours ; he was educated at Mount Airy, Germantown. In man- hood he engaged in various manufacturing employments on the Brandy- wine. He died January 31, 1869, aged 72 years. LXVIII. Henry Ridgely married Virginia Jenkins. 174. Ruth Ann, born June 28, 1848. LXIX. Nicholas Ridgely married Mary Tilden, December 18, 1845- 175. Mary Tilden, born August 11, 1849. LXX. Eugene Ridgely married M. A. Mifflin. 176. Daniel Mifflin. LXXI. Williamina M. Ridgely married Alexander Johnson. 177. Henry Ridgely, born March, 1847. 178. Nicholas Ridgely. 179. Ann du Pont, born December, 1856. LXXII. Edward Ridgely married Elizabeth Comegys. t 180. Harriet Moore. 181. Edward du Pont. 182. Sarah Baning. 183. Henry. LXXIII. John Cadwalader, Sr., married (first) Mary, daugh- ter of Hon. Horace Binney, of Philadelphia, October, 1828. 184. Mary Binney, born September 22, 1829; died May 26, 1861. 185. Elizabeth Binney, born September 22, 1831. Mrs. Mary Cadwalader, born February 27, 1805; died 1830. LXXIII. John Cadwalader married (second) Mrs. Henrietta Maria McIlvaine, daughter of Charles N. Bancker, 1833. 186. Sarah Bancker, born 1834. 187. Frances, born 1835. APPENDIX. 551 188. Thomas, born 1837; died August, 1841. 189. Charles E., born November 5, 1839. 190. Anne, born 1841. 191. John, Jr., born June 27, 1843. 192. George, born 1845. Hon. Joint Cadwalader was born at No. 172 (old number) Chestnut street, Philadelphia. He was educated at the University of Pennsyl- vania, and graduated in the Department of Arts in 1821. He entered the office of the Hon. Horace Binney, and was admitted to the Phila- delphia bar September 30, 1825. He at once took a high position as a lawyer, and was distinguished for the thoroughness, accuracy and variety of his learning and his success as a counsellor. In 1855 he was elected a member of Congress for the Fifth Congressional District, composed of a portion of Philadelphia and Montgomery counties, and served for a single term, when he was succeeded by the late Owen Jones. Upon the death of the Hon. John K. Kane, Mr. Cadwalader was appointed to fill the vacancy in the United States District Court, by President Buchanan. Judge Cadwalader died January 26, 1879. LXXIV. George Cadwalader married Frances Mease. 193. Frances, died an infant. General George Cadwalader was born in Philadelphia (see No. 74). He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated at that institution in 1823. He did not engage in any profession, but became the assistant of his father, General Thomas Cadwalader, who was the agent of the Penn estates — to which position he succeeded his father. He in early manhood manifested a taste for military affairs, and at the age of 18 joined the First Troop of Philadelphia City Cavalry. During the Mexican war General Cadwalader served in that country under General Scott. He was breveted Major-General for gallant ser- vice at Chapultepec. In 1861, at the breaking out of the rebellion, he was assigned to a command under General Robert Patterson in the Shenandoah valley. He continued in the service during the entire war, and held a number of responsible positions. General Cadwalader mar- ried Miss Fanny Mease, a daughter of Dr. Mease, of Philadelphia. General Cadwalader died February 3, 1879. His wife died January 9, 1880. LXXVIII. Thomas Americus Erskine married Louisa, daughter of G. Newnham, Esq., of New Timber Place, Sussex, and relict of Thomas Adlington, Cheshire, May 12, 1830. 5 5 2 APPENDIX. lxxix. John Cadwalader Erskine, in the East India C. C. S., Bengal, married Margaret, daughter of John Martyn, Esq., of county Tyrone. 194. William Macnaghten, born January 7, 1841. 195. Fanny Macnaghten. LXXX. Edward Morris Erskine married Mrs. Caroline LOUGHNAN. LXXXII. Frances Erskine married Gabriel Shawe, Esq., 1824. LXXXIII. Mary Erskine married Herman Count de Baum- garten, of Bavaria, June 16, 1832. LXXXIV. Sevilla Erskine married Henry Francis How- ard, Esq. LXXXV. Stewarta Erskine married Yates Brown, Esq., Oc- tober 26, 1828. LXXXVI. Elizabeth Erskine married St. Vincent Keene Hawkins Whitshed, Esq., only son of Admiral Sir James Hawkins Whitshed, Bart., K. C. B., April 1, 1832. LXXXVII. Harriet Erskine married Charles Woodmass, Esq., of Alveston, county Warwick, August 29, 1833. XCI. Travis Cochran married Mary, daughter of Isaac Norris, Esq., of Philadelphia, April 30, 1857. 196. Mary Norris. 197. John Travis. 198. Isaac Norris. 199. Fanny Travis. XCII. William Cochran married Eliza, daughter of John R. Penrose, Esq., of Philadelphia, March 20, 1857. 200. William Greene, born December 27, 1857. 201. Harriet Penrose, born November 5, i860. XCIII. Annie Bond Cochran married Samuel L. Shober, No- vember 16, 1858. 202. John Bedford. 203. Elizabeth Travis. 204. Samuel L. APPENDIX. 553 205. Fanny Cochran. 206. Anne Bond. 207. Reginald. XCV. George Cochran married Augusta, daughter of Andrew K. Hay, Esq., of Winslow, N. J. 208. George Bond. 209. Elizabeth L. XCVI. William Anthony Smith married Miss Rebecca C. Bellas, of Sunbury, Pa., May 23, 1842. 210. William Bellas, born April 13, 1843; died December 5, 1865. 211. Thomas Rudolph, born August 12, 1844. 212. Henry Hobart, born June 30, 1846. 213. Hugh Bellas, born March 23, 1850. Mrs. Rebecca C. Smith died August 8, 1861. XCVII. Thomas Duncan Smith married Miss Sarah W. Barns, February 3, 1847. 214. Mary Barns, born November 27, 1847. 215. Thomas Duncan, born November 21, 1849; died December 31, i860. 216. William Rudolph, born October 13, 1851. 217. Catherine, born 1853; died 1855. 218. Sarah Wurts, born May 5, 1855. 219. Anne Hobart, born December 20, i860. 220. Henry A., born February 3, 1864. XCVII I. Henrietta Williamina Smith married Robert Enoch Hobart, of Pottstown, Pa., July 30, 1835. 221. William Smith, born April 4, 1836. 222. Sarah May, born March 2, 1838. 223. Eliza Anthony, born August 4, 1840. 224. Robert Enoch, born February 20, 1843; died November 14, 1843. 225. John Henry, born September 25, 1844. 226. Henrietta, born May, 1847. XCIX. Anne Amelia Smith married John Potts Hobart, Esq., April 5, 1838. 227. Eliza Smith, born March 14, 1839. 228. Julia Biddle, born March 29, 1841; died June 13, 1879. 229. Joanna Holland, born February 12, 1843. 554 APPENDIX. 230. Mary, born February 3, 1845. 231. Nathaniel Potts. 232. Cecil, died 1877. 233. David McKnight. Mr. John Potts Hobart is an attorney at law, son of Nathaniel P. and Joanna Hobart. CIII. Richard Moore Smith married Miss Frances Boyden, January 3, 1856. 234. Penelope Eunice, born October 13, 1858; died January 23, 1859. 235. Mary Frances, born February 18, i860; died March 22, 1861. CIV. Penelope Campbell Smith married William Henry, Esq., August 2, 1848. CV. John Montgomery Smith married Miss Antonia Hil- debrand, October 14, 1862. 236. William Hildebrand, born July 10, 1863; died January 1, 1869. 237. Richard Montgomery, born April 21, 1866. 238. Henrietta Williamina, born July 14, 1867; died January 16, 1869. Mrs. Antonia Smith died August 17, 1868. CV. John Montgomery Smith married (second) Mrs. Jane M. Crawford, November 23, 1870. 239. Hamilton Vandyke, born August 13, 1871; died March 24, 1872. 240. Frances Amelia, born July 24, 1872; died December 1, 1872. 241. Etta Milton, born September 1, 1873. CVIII. Mary Eliza Smith married George W. Dedrick. CXI. Horace WemySS Smith married Rebecca, daughter of Isaac Dorland, Esq., of Huntingdon, Pa., April 26, 1849. 242. Eleanor Matilda, born February 2, 1850; died April 20, 1865. 243. Richard Penn (third), born November 6, 1851. CXVI. Richard Penn Smith* (second) married Lucy Piper, daughter of John George and Mary A. Woods, of Pittsburgh, Pa., November 16, 1863. * Commonly known as " Colonel'1'' Richard Penn Smkh. APPENDIX. 555 244 245 246 247 Mrs Richard Tenn (fourth), born May 31, 186: Mary Fleming, born August 17, 1867. Morton Wistar, born June 23, 1872. Edward Gould, born December 15, 1875. Lucy Piper Smith, born May 5, 1S43 CXVII. Isabella Penn Smith married James E. Fleming, April 2S, 1859. 248 Lizzie Schroder, born January 20, i860; died June 23, i860. 249. Williamina, born September 17, 1863; died January 27, 1864. 250. Maria Smith, born June 22, 1865; died July 11, 1865. 251. Eliza Gould, born July 31, 1866; died August 1, 1866. 252. Maria Lewis, born August 8, 1871. 253. Isaac Wistar, born November 17, 1875; died December 5, 1875- CXVIII William Moore Smith married Elizabeth Beede Melville, August 4, 1S65. 254. William Moore, born January 19, 1867; died January 7, 1S77. 255. Isabella Knisell, born February 10, 1868. 256. Edna Gould, born May 7, 1874. Mrs. Elizabeth Beebe Smith was born May 1, 1841. CXIX. Eliza Arnold Smith married Edward Wanton Gould, December 24, 1861. 257. David James, born March 24. 1863. 258. Edward Wanton, Jr., born November 5, 1866. CXXII. LOUisa NlXOIl GoldsborOUgh married William E. Harrison, Esq., May 15, 1844. 259. William E., born May 3, 1845; died October, 1846. CXXIII Sarah Yeabury GoldsborOUgh married Mr. James B. Steele, of Eldon, Md., 1839. 260. Louisa Nixon. 261. Williamina E. E., born 1844. 262. Ellen Goldsborough, born December 12, 1846. 263. Sophia Isabelle. 264. Clarence. cxxiv. Williamina Elizabeth Ennals Goldsborough married Mr. Francis Jenkins Henry, 1S36. 265. Mary Nevitt, born 1837. 266. John Campbell, born 1840. 55^ APPENDIX. 267. Nannie Ogle Buchanan, born 1842. 268. Elizabeth Nixon, born 1844. 269. Williamina G., born 1846. 270. Francis Jenkins, born 1847. 271. Robert G., born 1849. 272. Nicholas G., born 1852. 273. Hampton, born 1853. CXXVii. William Tilghman Goldsborough married Miss Ellen Lloyd, of Wye House, Talbot county, Md., 1838. 274. Charles, born 1839. 275. William Tilghman, born 1840. 276. Edward Lloyd, born 1843. 277. Ellen Lloyd, born 1848. 278. Fitzhugh, born 1849. 279. Nannie Lloyd, born 1852. 280. Sally Murray, born 1854. 281. Richard Tilghman, born 1855. 282. Alice Lloyd, born 1858. 283. Mary Lee, born 1863. cxxxi. Williamina Elizabeth Ennals Goldsborough married William W. Laird, Esq., son of Rev. James Laird. 284. James Winder, born 1838; died 1864. 285. Charles G., born 1840; died 1840. 286. William Henry, born 1842. 287. Martha Pierce, born 1845. 288. Philip Dundrige, born 1846. CXXXII. Mary Tilghman Goldsborough married William Goldsborough, of Myrtle Grove. 289. Robert H., born 1841; died 1865. 290. Susan Elizaeeth, born 1842. 291. William, born 1843. 292. Charles. 293. Mary T., died 1849. cxxxiii. Caroline F. Goldsborough married Mr. p. p. Davidson, of Virginia. 294. Mary F., born 1840; died 1845. 295. Nannie S. , born 1842. 296. Philip P., born 1843. 297. Sarah G., born 1845. APPENDIX. 557 298. Charles G., born 1846. 299. William F., born 1848. CXXXiv. William Henry Goldsborough married Miss Rosa J. Packard, daughter of Professor Packard, of the Theological Seminary of Virginia. CXXXVII. Richard T. Goldsborough married Miss Mary Henry. cxxxvnr. Henrietta Maria Goldsborough married Mr. D. M. Henry. CXXXIX. Charles F. Goldsborough married Miss Char- lotte A. P. Henry. CXL Mary Rebecca McElwee married J. M. Sleek, June 30, 1841. 300. Mary Rebecca. 301. George. CXL. Mary Rebecca McElwee married (second) William J. Rock, April 23, 1857. 302. Frederick Jackson, born 1857. 303. Wallace Shippen, born 1859. 304. Florence Katherine, born 1862. 305. Frank Marburg, born 1866. CXLll. Sarah Yeates McElwee married Townsend Whelen, October 21, 1847. 306. Henry, born August 20, 1848. 307. Charles Smith, born July 28, 1850. 308. Kingston Goddard, born October 5, 185 1. 309. Alfred Whelen, born June 9, 1854. 310. Sarah Yeates, born August 7, 1856. Townsend Whelen, son of Israel and Mary Whelen, born in Phila- delphia, April 3, 1822; died October 26, 1875. CXLiv. Catharine Yeates McElwee married Evans w. Shippen, November 25, 1852. 311. Frances Huidekoper, born November 18, 1853. 312. Catharine Yeates, born November 5, 1857. 313. Franklin, born September 9, 1865. 314. Herman Huidekoper, born September 4, 1869. 558 APPENDIX. 315. Harbert, born November 1, 1870; died November 15, 1870. 316. Harry Houston, born February 12, 1872. 317. Mary Elizabeth, born November 23, 1873; died October 25, 1876. CXLV. Charles Edmund Kimball married Miss Sigismunda Stribling, daughter of Commodore Stnbling. 318. Theodore Horatio, born November 8, 1854. 319. William Ware, born August 3, 1857. CXLVI. Theodore Horatio Kimball married Miss Elizabeth Fuller, daughter of Richard Fuller, Esq., of Baltimore, April 13, 1858. 320. Richard Fuller, born November 3, 1859. Mrs. Elizabeth Kimball died November 27, 1861. CXLIX. John Hill Brinton, M. D., married Sarah Ward, daughter of Rev. F. DeWitt Ward, D. D., of Geneseo, N. Y. 321 George, born April 11, 1868. 322. John Hill, born December 13, 1870. 323. Ward, 1 . ( born May 27, 1873. 324. Jasper Yeates, J ' (born May 27, 1873; died September 22, 1876. 325. Jasper Yeates (second), born October 5, 1878. CLI. Sarah Frederica Brinton married J. M. DaCosta, M. D., April 26, i860. 326. Charles Frederick, born December, 1874. CLI I. Margaret Yeates Brinton married Nathaniel Chap- man Mitchell, November 5, 1868. 327. Mary Brinton, born October 20, 1869. 328. John Kearsley, born October 15, 187 1. 329. Elizabeth Kearsley, born October 31, 1877. CLlV. Ellen Matilda Britton married Cornelius Moore, M. D., of North Carolina. CLIV. John Blodget Britton married Miss Fanny B. Horner, daughter of Joseph Horner, Esq., of Warrington, Va., October 1, 1874. CLVII. Harriet Emily Britton married Mr. S. R. Bowen, of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, August 15, 1844. 330. John Joseph, born December 13, 1848. 331. William Cornelius, born November 11, 1851. ATTEND IX. 559 CLXII. William Smith Lincoln married Mary, daughter of Robert Given, Esq., of Centrevdle. Pa., December i, 1842. 332. John George, born October 1, 1844. 333 334 335 336 337 33S 339 Margaret Taylor, born January 26, 1846. Robert Given, born September 12, 1847. Julia Matilda, born September 23, 1849. William Smith, born September 25, 185 1. ELINOR Matilda. Hattie Bell, born March 4, 1856. Harry, born 1858. CLXIII. Thomas Blodget Lincoln married Sophia, daughter of Michael W. Ash, Esq., of Philadelphia, March 1, 1S35. 340. Elinor Matilda. 341. Harriet. 342. Sophia. 343. James Rush. Mrs. Thomas B. Lincoln died at Belmont, Philadelphia, January, 1844. CLXIV. Julia Maria Lincoln married Rodert Williams, Esq., of Hollidaysburg, Pa., 1840. 344. Elinor Matilda, born April 19, 1841. 345. Robert Berkley, born July 1, 1845. 346. Sarah Barns, born August 24, 184S. 347. William Lincoln. 348. Richard Currie, born June 10, 1855 ; died March 29, 1879. CLXVI. Rebecca Smith Blodget married Samuel Calvin, Esq., attorney at law, December 26, 1843. 349. Eliza Blodget, born November 27, 1844. 350. Matthew Calvin, born January 1, 1847. 351. John Blodget, born Aprd 24, 1853; died July 14, 1853. CLXVII.. Eliza Duncan Blodget married Mr. Alfred Adams Craine, June 24, 1853. 352. John Blodget, born March 5, 1854; died February 25, i860. 353. Rebecca Calvin, born July 31, 1859. CLXIX. Mary M. Morris married Caleb S. Pennewill, June 17, 1869. CLXXII. Amelia E. du Pont married Eugene du Pont, July 5, 1866. 56o APPENDIX. 354. Anne Rtdgely, born April 22, 1867. 355. Alexis Irenee, born August 2, 1869. 356. Eugene. 357. Amelia. 358. Julia Sophia, born 1877. CLXXIV. Ruth Ann Ridgely married Richard Harrington. 359. Henry Ridgely. 360. Samuel M. CLXXVI. Daniel Mifflin Ridgely married Miss Ella Madden. CLXXXIV. Mary Binney Cadwalader married William Henry Rawle, September 13, 1849. 361. Mary Cadwalader, born December 12, 1850. 362. William, born September 3, 1855; died April 25, i860. 363. Edith, born April 29, 1861. Mrs. Mary Binney Rawle died May 26, 1861. CLXXXV. Elizabeth Binney Cadwalader married George Harrison Hare, of the United States navy. No issue. CXC. Anne Cadwalader married Rev. Henry J. Rowland, 1878. 364. John Cadwalader, born February 10, 1879. CXCI. John Cadwalader, Jr., married Mary Helen, third daughter and child of Joshua Francis Fisher, of Philadelphia, April 17, 1866. 365. Sophia, born February 6, 1867. 366. Mary Helen, born March 19, 1871. 367. John, born February 24, 1874. Mrs. Mary Helen Cadwalader was born July 1, 1844. CCXVI. William Rudulph Smith married Elizabeth R., daughter of Dr. George Bailey, October 7, 1875. 368. Laura.. CCXVIII. Sarah WurtS Smith married Alfred Whelen, Esq., April 21, 1876. 369. Townsend, born March 6, 1877 (see 309). CCXXI. William Smith Hobart married Frances Laura, daughter of Isaac Sanborn, Esq., of Peru, N. Y., January 5, 1865. APPENDIX. 56 ! 370. Mary Henrietta, born October 3, 1S68. 371. Robert Enoch Hobart, born June 15, 1 S 7 4 . CCXXII. Sarah May Hobart married William J. Rutter. Esq., of Pottstown, Pa. 372. Robert Hobart. 373. Jessie Ives. 374. Charles. 375. William Ives. CCXXIII. Eliza Anthony Hobart married John W. Royer, Esq., October 25, 1865. 376. Henrietta Hobart. 377. Sarah Whelen. 378. John W. 379. Eliza Hobart. CCXXVII. Eliza Smith Hobart married John W. Hunt, M. D. 380. Myra. CCXXIX. Joanna Holland Hobart married Mr. E. F. Cham- bers Davis, of Pottsville, September, 1873. 381. John Hobart, born July 27, 1874. 382. George Linn Lachlan. CCXXXI. Nathaniel Potts Hobart married Miss Anne Rose- berry, October, 1875. 383. Blanche Roseberry. CCXLIII. Richard Penn Smith (third) married Kate Cecelia, daughter of Joseph Russell, of Philadelphia, April 28, 1874. 384. Richard Penn (fifth), born October 13, 1875. 385. Russell Moore, born January 26, 1877. 386. Edgar Wemyss, born September 2, 1879. CCLX. Louisa Nixon Steele married Mr. Joseph Henry Hooper. 387. Mary Meritt. 388. William Henry. 389. Harry Ennals. 390. Agnes Pitt. 391. Muncy. CCLXII. Ellen Goldsborough Steele married Mr. J. D. Richards, of Pennsylvania. 36 562 APPENDIX. CCLXIII. Sophia Isabella Steele married Walter Mead Buck, Esq., of England. CCLXV. Mary Nevitt Henry married Mr. Selby Spence, of Worcester county, Maryland. CCLXVI. John Campbell Henry married Miss Nannie Lake. 392. Bessy Tryon. cclxvii. Nannie Ogle Buchanan Henry married Mr. j. N. Steele. 393. James. CCLXVIII. Elizabeth Nixon Henry married William t. GOLDSBOROUGH. CCLXix. Williamina Goldsborough Henry married Mr. D. S. Meese. 394. Robert G. 395. Mary Nixon, born September 10, 1877. CCCVI. Henry Whelen married Laura, daughter of William S. Baker, Esq., of Philadelphia, October 21, 1875. 396. William Baker, born July 6, 1877. 397. Laura, born September 6, 1878. CCCVII. Charles Smith Whelen married Mignonette, daughter of William A- Violett, Esq., of New Orleans, January 14, 1880. CCCVIII. Kingston Goddard Whelen married Miss Mary Roberts Harbf.rt, October 15, 1S74. 398. Sarah Yeates, born December 21, 1875. 399. Rebecca Harbert, born May 25, 1877. 400. Virginia Harbert, born October 19, 1879. CCCIX. Alfred Whelen, M. D., married Sarah Wurts Smith (see No. 218). CCCXI. Frances Huidekoper Shippen married William Robert Gill, Esq., May 3, 1875. cccxxxin. Margaret Taylor Lincoln married Mr. w. b. Watson, February 6, 1878. APPENDIX. 563 CCCXXXIV. Robert Given Lincoln married Miss Martha Campbell, of McConnellstown. 401. William Campbell. CCCXLIII. James Rush Lincoln married Eliza Aldridge, daughter of Benjamin R. Blake, Esq., of Virginia, March 28, 1865. 402. Rush Aldridge Hunt, born April 8, 1866. Mrs. Lincoln died May 12, 1866. CCCXLIX. Eliza Blodget Calvin married George W. Smith, M. D. , of Hollidaysburg, Pa., April 16, 1S74. 403. Rebecca Calvin, born January 7, 1875. 404. Mary McDonald, born March 16, 1876. CCCLXI. Mary Cadwalader Rawle married Frederic Rhinelander Jones, March 22, 1870. 405. Beatrice Cadwalader. I have completed, so far as I have been able, the record through six generations of the descendants of William and Williamina Moore, of Moore Hall. Of necessity, as in every case of a genealogy so long, and where the progeny has been so numerous, there are many omissions, and I suppose there must be some mistakes; but I have done the best that I could do under the circumstances. As to the character of these descendants, the reader will have noticed they intermarried with prominent and influential families of England and America. Many have gained high and honorable places in the learned professions, and others deserve a fair place in the ranks of literature. I have known many, too, who, without any worldly emi- nence, and with no distinctions which literary fame gave to them, have held a place which, in any true view, ranks more highly than the highest of this poor earth; men and women, in private stations— some in private stations that were but humble — who discharged through long lives, and under many and trying vicissitudes, their duty to God and to man, "having their eyes only on the Master's service, and looking forward to 'the recompense of reward.' " They have not been borne to honors on the corrupted currents of this world. Their reward will come where there is " no shuffling," and " where the action lies in his true nature." 564 APPENDIX. No. XIII.— Page 542. Thomas Duncan Smith. Thomas Duncan Smith, second son of Rev. William Smith, D. D., and Rebecca Smith, was born at Philadelphia, on the 18th of November, 1760, and was baptized by the Rev. J. Duche, the Rev. Dr. Peters and Mr. Thomas William Moore being sponsors. Of his youth we know but little. He was educated at the College and Academy of Philadelphia, where, under the training and watchful care of his father, he became an excellent classical scholar, and graduated with honor at the commencement held in June, 1776. Upon leaving college he studied medicine, and, having completed his studies, settled himself at Huntingdon, then a small town on the Juniata river, which had been laid out by Dr. Smith in 1767. It subsequently became and still remains the county town of Huntingdon county, which was erected in pursuance of an act of the Legislature on the 20th day of September, 17S7. The new county had formerly been embraced within the limits of Bedford county, from which it was stricken off in compliance with the necessities and demands of the people; but the measure met at that day the most strenuous opposition, and it was only after a determined struggle that it was accomplished. Immediately after the erection of the county, offices were established for the transaction of the public business, and appointments made to fill them. Among others, Thomas Duncan Smith, of the town of Huntingdon, was duly commissioned one of the Justices of the county on the 23d day of November, 1 787. Here in his dual capacity as physician and magistrate he continued to reside until his death, which took place, after a severe attack of fever, on the 9th day of July, 1 789. As a young physician he is said to have been very successful in his practice, and by his talents and deportment to have enjoyed the confidence of all. As a magistrate he was firm and decisive, requiring from all obedience to the laws, and often adjusting difficulties among neighbors without legal process. A beautiful tribute to his memory, by his father, may be seen in his will, on page 419 of this volume, and his tomb may be found in the large cemetery on the hill overlooking the town of Huntingdon, and from which, looking up and down the Juniata river, can be had one of the finest views along its APPENDIX. 565 whole course. During his short life he had passed through "stirring times," and not the least of them in that portion of our State where he had located, and which was then becoming settled by a wild and adven- turous population. He was a good and useful citizen, and died in the prime of life and in the midst of his usefulness, deeply regretted by the community in which he lived. Cotemporaneous with the erection of Huntingdon county was the framing of the Constitution of the United States, which was signed at Philadelphia on the 17th day of September, 17S7. Its adoption, as is well known, met with much opposition in several of the States, and in Huntingdon county became violent and riotous. The leader of the opponents was General William McAlevy, who had acquired a military title during the Revolutionary war, being mentioned as Colonel Mc- Alevy in the records of that struggle, and in connection with the alarms caused by the Tories and Indians. His residence was at McAlevy's Fort, in Standing Stone valley, a place that still bears his name, and he possessed much political influence among the people. The excitement of the times led to attempts by large bodies of armed men to obstruct the performance of public duty by the officials of the county, and to the offering of the grossest indignities to them personally, of which Thomas Duncan Smith came in for his share. Minute details of the events of those days may be found in the " Colonial Records; " but to give some idea of the feelings governing the people, I shall quote somewhat from M. S. Lytle's "History of Huntingdon County: " " Colonel John Cannan, member of the Supreme Executive Council from Huntingdon county, was the first against whom there was any manifestation of enmity. On the first day of the court, in March, 1788, a number of men, bearing bludgeons and carrying an effigy of Colonel Cannan, entered the town. Justices Phillips and Henderson left the bench, the courts being then in session, and met the mob at the upper end of Allegheny street, and endeavored to dissuade them from a dis- turbance of the peace, which they seemed to have in contemplation. This effort, however, was unsuccessful. They marched down the street to the house in which the courts were sitting. There they made so much noise that it was impossible to proceed with business, and, after they had been several times warned to desist from this outrage, the sheriff was directed to arrest the one who seemed the most turbulent, and commit him to prison. When he had been taken into custody a riot ensued, and he was rescued by those who were acting with him in this violation of the law. An indictment was immediately drawn against the principals, presented to the Grand Jury, returned a true bill, and entered upon the records of the Court of Quarter Sessions ; 566 APPENDIX. but as preparations could not then be made for trial, the case was con- tinued until the next sessions. " In the following May a battalion of militia, which had been organ- ized by Benjamin Elliott, Lieutenant of the county, was ordered to assemble in Hartslog valley. Some of the riotous element was present, and after falling into ranks made an objection to mustering under Colonel Cannan and Major Spencer, two field officers who had been commissioned when the battalion belonged to Bedford county, and who, it was alleged, had not been fairly elected — Colonel Woods, then lieutenant of that county, having obtained the return of such men as pleased himself. An assault was made upon Colonel Elliott, and he re- ceived many severe blows from several persons. A friend of his who undertook to protect him and restore order, was treated in the same violent manner. Elliott, in an account of this affair, says that 'they met, some for the purpose of doing their duty, and others for the pur- pose of making a riot, which they effected, about the Federal govern- ment, in which riot I was very ill used by a senseless banditti, who were inflamed by a number of false publications privately circulated by people who were enemies of the Federal government.' "A commander was then selected for the battalion, who, according to previous arrangement, ordered that all who were unwilling to serve under the field officers heretofore named should withdraw from the ranks. More than one-third of those in line marched out and formed a new line in front of the rest. Colonel Elliott and the field officers, finding that the roll could not be called, and that to remain longer would be unavailing, retired from the field, accompanied by that part of the battalion which had shown a disposition to render obedience to those who had a right to command them. "A few days afterwards warrants were issued by Thomas Duncan Smith, one of the justices, for the arrest of three of the leaders in this demonstration. The prisoners were taken by the constable before Thomas McCune, another justice, who merely required them to enter into their own recognizances for their appearance in five days before Justice Smith. In the meantime they gathered a large force of men, and when they came before the justice on the day appointed, his office was instantly filled by the crowd. They refused to give bail, and in- sisted that they should be committed. As he was aware of their designs, and as he was unwilling to give them a pretext for the commission of further outrages, he declined to comply with their request. There was, besides, no safe prison in the county, none having been yet erected. He reminded them of this, that the jail was but a ' block house,' and told them that, as two of them were owners of real estate, and that as it APPENDIX. 50/ was but eight days until the June Sessions of the court, he would release them without security. Finding that he was unalterable in his deter- mination, one of them, who was subsequently discovered to have a cut- lass concealed under his coat, grossly insulted him and threatened him with violence. "The accused and the crowd left the office and the town, and in the afternoon, about one o'clock, returned, more than ninety in number, sixty of them armed with rifles and muskets, and the remainder with clubs, scalping knives and tomahawks. They marched down Allegheny street to Second, up Second to Penn, up Penn to the Diamond, where they formed into a circle. Justice Smith was then called into the centre, and it was demanded that he would tear up the warrants upon which the arrests had been made. He refused to do so; but, having them in his pocket, he delivered them to one of the leaders. They were then passed into the hands of a man who must have been the greatest desperado of the party, as he had previously presented a rifle three times to Justice Smith's breast, and was only prevented by the interference of others from taking the Justice's life. He stepped from the ranks, and tearing the warrants threw some of the pieces at the Justice, saying, ' See now what it is to be a magistrate.' "The Clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions was next required to deliver to them the indictment that had been found at the March Ses- sions. It was also destroyed. "Justices Smith and Henderson, having gone to the house on Alle- gheny street in which the courts were held, were followed by a number of armed men, who demanded possession of the Quarter Sessions docket. On obtaining it they obliterated the record of the proceedings against the rioters, the part which was obnoxious to them. "The compliance of the officers with these demands was compelled by intimidation and threats. The order-loving portion of the commu- nity was completely overawed. " Information was then brought to Smith and Henderson that per- sonal injury was intended them. Both sought safety, the former by secreting himself and the latter by flight. Their own houses and several others were searched for them. The sheriff and David McMurtrie, the latter of whom had incurred their enmity at the review, had gone from town the day before, and avoided unpleasant consequences to them- selves. Two constables were obliged to leave their homes to save their lives. The sheriff could not with safety go into the country to serve writs, and all kinds of business was affected by this unhappy state of affairs. "Another visit was feared, and on the 5th of June, 1788, a full state- 568 APPENDIX. mer.t of these occurrences was sent to the Council, with the assurance that, without the interposition of the government, order could not be preserved. "The Council took action in regard to the matter on the 25th of June. The chief justice and one of the judges attended, and a confer- ence was held relative to these disturbances. The following were the proceedings, as found in the minutes: "A letter from two of the magistrates in Huntingdon county, stating that the daring and violent outrages were committed by a lawless set of men, that the officers of the government have been insulted and their lives endangered, and that part of the records of the court have been destroyed and erased, was read, praying the support of the government, etc. Thereupon, "■Resolved, That the most proper and effectual measures be immediately taken to quell the disturbances in Huntingdon county, and to restore order and good govern- ment, and that the Honorable the Judges of the Supreme Court be informed that the Supreme Executive will give them aid and assistance, which the laws of the State will warrant, and shall be found necessary to accomplish this end. "The language of this resolution was more vigorous than the action which followed it. Nothing further was then done to suppress these high-handed acts, approaching so nearly to a revolt that they can scarcely be called by any other name. "After the Council had been informed of them, and before the pas- sage of the resolution, other violence had been committed. Samuel Clinton, who had made himself notorious as a rioter, Abraham Smith and William McCune, came into town at the head of about twenty men, and beat Alexander Irwin, a citizen. The same party, joined perhaps by others, assaulted the houses of the county officers at night with showers of stones. The persons against whom there seamed to be the greatest hatred were Robert Galbraith, President Judge of the County Court of Common Pleas, etc., Thomas Duncan Smith, Justice, Andrew Henderson, Recorder of Deeds, etc., and Benjamin Elliott, Sheriff and Lieutenant of the County. " Threats were sent from all parts of the county that death, cropping. tarring and feathering, should be inflicted upon these or any other offi- cers who should attempt to enforce the laws. And these threats were not made without an intention of carrying them into execution. Aboui the middle of August, one hundred and sixty men, collected from all parts of the county, some of them from Huntingdon, led by General McAlevy, Abraham Smith, John Smith and John Little, paraded thr streets, not armed as before, but with muskets secreted, as was supposed by those who had reason to fear them. The officers and a few others, who gave their support to the government under the constitution, took AT TEND IX. 509 refuge in the house 01 Benjamin Elliott, and there, with arms, were de- termined to defend themselves and to repel force with force. Thus protected, no attack was made upon them. The enemy was content with marching through the streets, under flying colors and to the music of the life. They met at William Kerr's house and elected delegates to a convention to be held at Lewisburg. At this election all were per- mitted to vote who had marched in the ranks that day, and all others were excluded. " This political animosity continued for more than a year. The subject was again before the Council in June, 1789. On the 12th day of that month a committee, to whom the matter had been referred, made a report, which, if it had been published or preserved, would have thrown greater light upon these transactions than can now be obtained from any source. By order of Council, the next day was assigned for further action upon the report. On the 13th the following resolution was adopted : "Resolved, That the consideration of the report of the committee to whom was re- ferred the representation from the justices and others of Huntingdon county, relative to some late disturbances in that county, be postponed. "As the Council had delayed so long, and as the excitement had subsided, perhaps no wiser course could have been pursued at that time. This daring opposition to the execution of the laws, formidable as it seemed, was not sufficiently powerful to accomplish its purposes, and its interference with the functions of government in Huntingdon county could not retard their progress elsewhere. Unassisted by similar com- binations in other parts of the State or nation, its ultimate failure and discontinuance were necessary consequences; and while it was the duty of the Executive to protect the incumbents of places of trust in their official capacities, and the lives and liberty of the people, yet it was good policy to refrain from the employment of military power until it became absolutely unavoidable. That the fury of this political tempest would soon exhaust itself must have been apparent. It ended without loss of life or limb, and with but slight personal injury to any. We cannot excuse those who instigated and encouraged this unlawful con- duct, but the civil authorities were competent to bring them to punish- ment. We have not ascertained whether this was done. One of them was under bonds in February, 1790, for his appearance at the next Supreme Court in this county, but whether he was brought to trial, and if so, whether it resulted in conviction, we are not informed. "It has generally been stated and believed by those who have had nothing but traditionary accounts of these occurrences, that the records of the court were burned by McAlevy and his men, but there is no 570 APPENDIX. official evidence that such was the case. There are in existence authen- tic and reliable documents which seem to prove conclusively that some of the records were torn and others obliterated by erasures. It has been said that a copy of the Constitution of the United States was burned, and this may be correct, and may have given rise to the statement that other papers were destroyed in the same way." No. XIV.— Page 54; Hon. Charles Smith. Charles Smith, the third son of Rev. William Smith, D. D., and Rebecca Smith, was born at Philadelphia, oh the 4th of March, 1765, and was baptized by the Rev. Mr. Sturgeon; John Moore, Esq., and Mr. Charles Smith, both of London, being sponsors. His early education was under the care of his father, in Philadelphia, and subsequently at Washington College, Maryland, where he grad- uated at the commencement held on the 14th day of May, 1783, deliv- ering the valedictory oration on that occasion.* Having completed his collegiate education, he commenced the study of the law with his eldest brother, William Moore Smith, at Easton, Northampton county, Pa., and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia in June, 1786. After his admission to the bar he opened his office in the town of Sunbury, Northumberland county, Pa., where his industry and rising talents soo'. procured for him the business and confidence of the people. He was elected a delegate, with his colleague, Simon Snyder, to the convention which framed the constitution for the State of Pennsylvania, adopted in 1790, and was looked on as a very distinguished member of that talented body of men. Although differing in the politics of that day from his colleague, yet Mr. Snyder for more than thirty years after- wards remained the firm friend of Mr. Smith, and when the former became the Governor of the State for three successive terms, it is well known that Mr. Smith was his confidential adviser in many great State matters. Mr. Smith was married on the 3d day of March, 1791, to Mary, daughter of Jasper Yeates, one of the Supreme Court judges of the * See Maryland Journal, ,and Baltimore Advertiser, July 8, 1 783. APPENDIX. 571 State, and soon after removed from Sunbury to Lancaster, where Judge Yeates resided. Under the old Circuit Court system it was customary for most of the distinguished country lawyers to travel over the northern and western parts of the State with the judges, and hence Mr. Smith, in pursuing this practice, soon became associated with such eminent men as Thomas Duncan, David Watts, Charles Hall, John Woods, James Hamilton, and a host of luminaries of the middle bar. Among them Mr. Smith always held a conspicuous station, and his practice was consequently lucrative and extended. The settlement of land titles at that period became of vast importance to the people of the State, and the founda- tion of the law had to be laid with regard to settlement rights, the rights of warrantees, the doctrine of surveys, and the proper construc- tion of lines and corners. In the trials of ejectment cases the learning of the bar was best displayed, and Mr. Smith soon was looked on as an eminent land lawyer. In after years, when called on to revise the old publications of the laws of the State, and under the authority of the Legislature to frame a new compilation of the same (generally known as "Smith's Laws of Pennsylvania"), he gave to the public the result of his knowledge and experience on the subject of land law in the very copious note on that subject which may well be termed a Treatise on the Land Laws of Pennsylvania. In the same work his notes on the Criminal Law of the State are elaborate and instructive to the student and the practitioner. Mr. Smith was appointed, on the 27th day of March, 1819, President Judge of the Judicial District composed of the countie* of Cumberland, Franklin and Adams, where his official learning and judgment, and his habitual industry rendered him a useful and highly popular Judge. On the erection of the District Court of Lancaster City and County, he became the first President Judge, and was duly commissioned April 28, 1820, which office he held for some years. He afterwards removed with his family to Baltimore, where he lived a few years, and finally re- moved to Philadelphia, where he spent the last years of his life, and died in that city on March 18, 1836, aged 71 years. He was buried from his residence, No. 12 Clinton square, in his family vault, in the yard of the Church of the Epiphany. 572 APPENDIX. No. XV. — Page 542. Richard Smith. Richard Smith, the fifth son of Rev. William Smith, D. D., and Rebecca Smith, was born at Philadelphia, on the 25th of January, 1769, and was baptized in Christ Church, on the 19th of March follow- ing, by the Rev. Dr. Peters, his sponsors being Dr. Smith and Richard Hockley, Esq., Receiver-General of the Province of Pennsylvania. His youth passed during the troublesome times of the Revolution, and the early impressions then made upon his mind appear never to have been forgotten. Carefully educated by his father, he soon became a good classical scholar, and imbibed a love for literature which he re- tained and enjoyed until the day of his death. Soon after leaving college he commenced the study of law, and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia on the 27th day of February, 1792. He subsequently located himself at Huntingdon, the seat of justice for Huntingdon county, which had been erected in 1787; but the precise time of his going there is not known. In the act erecting the county and fixing the seat of justice, it recited "that the proprietor of said town had agreed t;o lay off and set apart a proper and sufficient quantity of grounds, for the site of a court house, county gaol and prison, and hath engaged to give, assure and convey the same to the Common- wealth, in trust and for the use and benefit of the said county;" there- fore certain trustees were named and appointed to carry the same into effect. On the 25th of August, 1791, in pursuance of the agreement under which Huntingdon had been made the county seat, Dr. Smith conveyed lot No. 41, on the east side of St. Clair (now Second) street, to Benjamin Elliott, Ludwig Sell, George Ashman, William McAlevy, Richard Smith and Andrew Henderson, Trustees, as a site for a county prison. The first appearance of Mr. Smith in the courts of the county seems to have been in 1795, as he was there admitted as a member of the bar in that year. He was regarded as a ripe scholar, an ornament to the bar, and soon occupied a prominent position at it. He was personally popular, and spoken of as being "the pride of the village." From 1797 to 1 80 1 he represented the district composed of the counties of Hunt- APPENDIX. 573 ingdon, Bedford and Somerset in the State Senate in a manner highly satisfactory to his constituents, and then resumed his professional duties. He was married at Lancaster, Pa., on the 7th day of May, 1804, to Miss Letitia Nixon Coakley, the marriage ceremony being performed by the Rev. Joseph Clarkson, at the house of William Montgomery, Esq. Then returning home, he settled down at the place he had selected for his future residence, on the bank of the Juniata, about half a mile above the town of Huntingdon, and well known as " Cypress Cottage." Here he continued to reside until his death, which occurred suddenly, on the ist day of October, 1823. The "cottage" stood upon elevated ground, a short distance from the river, surrounded by shade and fruit trees, as well as shrubbery, with its several out-houses and fences, all neatly whitewashed, present- ing an air of comfort, and making it a most inviting spot. To the right of the cottage a handsome lawn extended down to the bank of the river, well shaded by large buttonwood and other trees, and which became the resort of the young people of the town for their pic-nic parties, and where, on each annual return of our national birthday, it was duly celebrated in a most patriotic manner. Here the military and citizens of the town marched in procession to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence and the usual oration, and then all par- ticipated in a good dinner spread on a long table erected under the shade of the grand old trees. The farm attached to the cottage as well as the one on the island were both well cultivated, and about thirty feet to the right of the dwelling stood a two-story building called ''The Study." In this was a large and well-selected library, and here, amidst his books, Mr. Smith spent many happy hours, either quietly attending to his business or perusing his favorite authors. The walk along the river bank was a very pleasant one, and much used by the young people. Calls were almost daily made (especially in summer) at the cottage, where all were hospitably welcomed, as the " latch-string was always out." And in return, it is but just to say that "Uncle Richard " and "Aunt Lettie," as they were familiarly called by all, were respected and loved by both old and young in the town. Thus time passed on. Mr. Smith had inherited and also acquired much landed property, but eventually, from various causes, found him self financially embarrassed, and had to see much of his property sacri- ficed to satisfy his creditors. The hard times following the war in 1815, the worthless paper currency then in circulation, and the depreciation in real estate, can only be appreciated by those who witnessed the scenes occurring at that day. In February, 1821, Mr. Smith was appointed, by Governor Heister, 574 APPENDIX. Recorder of Deeds and Register of Wills for Huntingdon County, which offices he accepted, and continued to discharge their duties until the day of his death. To add to his difficulties, he now found himself involved in a law suit about the title to a piece of property in the borough of Hunting- don, the amount involved not being large, according to the valuation of property in the town at that day, yet he had come to consider it as the great event of his life. He prepared for the trial with much anxiety of mind, as if his future prosperity depended upon its result, or he feared something serious would happen. At length the day of trial came, and its progress was watched by him with the most intense in- terest until its close, when the jury returned a verdict in his favor. A motion was made by his opponent for a new trial, and this was argued upon the second day after the rendition of the verdict. Upon the argu- ment he was grossly insulted, and statements made by his opponent which Mr. Smith promptly arose to deny. He was sternly ordered by the court to sit down, when he slowly sank down in his seat, his head fell forward and rested upon the counsel table, having been seized with apoplexy. His nephew, General William R. Smith, one of the mem- bers of the bar, caught him in his arms and had him carried to the open air at the door of the court room, where Dr. Henderson immediately attempted to bleed him, but all in vain, and in less than ten minutes he was dead ! The consternation and confusion this event occasioned in court caused it to immediately adjourn, and nothing further was done in the cause. His funeral took place in a few days, his body being followed to the grave by the members of the bar and a large concourse of citizens of the town and county, among whom he had so long resided. The following inscription covers his grave and that of his elder brother, by the side of whom he was buried : Sacred To the memory of Thomas Duncan Smith, M. D., Born Nov. 18, 1760, Died July 9, 1789; And of Richard Smith, Esq., Born Jan. 25, 1769, Died Oct. I, 1823, Sons of "William Smith, D. D. In life United in brotherly love; In death They are not divided. apt end ix. 575 In personal appearance Mr. Smith is described by those who knew him "as a large, portly, fine-looking gentleman of the old school, pos- sessing the most attractive social qualities, and all the elements of popu- larity were combined in him." His widow, Letitia Nixon Smith, was a refined and intelligent lady, and continued to reside in Huntingdon for some years after the death of her husband, devoting her time to the interests of education, Sunday schools and the church. She finally removed to Athens, Tenn., and spent the remainder of her days with her nephew, Thomas Nixon Van- dyke, Esq. There she died and was buried, some thirty years or more after the death of her husband. Among the fugitive pieces written by my father, Richard Penn Smith, I find the story of "My Uncle Nicholas," and no doubt he had his uncle in view when it was written. As an evidence of his style of writing, I here add it : "MY UNCLE NICHOLAS. " BY RICHARD PENN SMITH. "'Call no man happy 'till you know the nature of his death; he is at best but for- tunate.'— Solon lo Crasus. "Time eats the children he begets, and the memories of few men outlive their monuments; nay, myriads pass into oblivion even before the elements have sullied their epitaph. My uncle Nicholas, notwith- standing his deserts, has not escaped this order of things. I knew him in the April of my years — the flower-time of my life; and as my mind reverts to those sunny days, the first object it rests upon is the beloved image of my uncle Nicholas. "He was a placid being, overflowing with the best of humanities. His heart and his doors were open to all his fellow-beings, and there was not a creature endued with animal life towards which he did not studiously avoid giving pain. His dogs loved him, and he could not walk abroad into his fields but his cattle followed him, and fed out of his hand. " 'He was a scholar, a ripe and a good one,' at least I viewed him as such in my boyhood- His mind was stored with good learning, but his favorite companions were those hearty old poets who have retained their freshness for centuries, and who possess a reproductive faculty that will make them blossom through succeeding ages. With what delight would he pore over the harmonious numbers of Spencer, and Drayton, and Drummond, and the vigorous dramatists of those times ! and there was scarcely a gem of the minor poets that he had not culled to grace 57& APPENDIX. his memory. These he would recite with all the feeling and enthusiasm of early life, and at times I imagined they were golden links that insep- arably bound him to his boyhood. They appeared to possess the faculty of making him young again. "He was a quiet humorist, but with no more gall than might be found in a dove. His face was ever mantling with some pleasant thought, and his mind flowed on as gently as a secret brook, that ever and anon dimples and smiles at" its own babbling. " He was married, and my aunt was one of the gentlest of creatures. You might have searched the world without finding a pair whose hearts and minds so perfectly harmonized. She was a delicately attuned in- strument, ever breathing the softest music ; never depressed to sadness, and seldom exhilarated beyond a placid smile. If perchance she laughed, it was at some jest of my uncle Nicholas; not that it excited her risible faculties, but that she perceived by the mantling of his coun- tenance there was more intended than came within the scope of her apprehension; and she would laugh outright that he might more fully enjoy the freak of his imagination. How they loved each other! " My uncle dwelt on a farm on the outskirts of a village. He had selected it as a residence in early life, and had lived long enough to see the primitive settlement assume something like a name on the map of his country. He was identified with the spot; all the villagers in a* measure looked upon him as a patriarch, and even the children would break off their amusements to salute him as he passed; and he ever had a kind word and a jest to bestow upon the humblest of the little troglo- dytes. They all called him uncle Nicholas, and he was so kind to them that many grew up in the belief that he was actually the uncle of the whole village. " His residence was a delightful spot. His farm was well cultivated, and his buildings, while they afforded every comfort, were not so osten- tatious as to awaken the envy of his less prosperous neighbors. A river flowed beside it, and in the rear were shady walks of sugar maple, to which the villagers would resort of a summer afternoon for recreation, and few would fail in returning to stop at my uncle's cottage and par- take of the hospitality of his board. Indeed he and his were looked upon as common property. "At these social gatherings all the belles of the village would rival each other to secure my uncle's attention. He was ever the gayest among the gay, while his gentle manners and playful fancy ministered to the delight of all; and it was amusing to behold the quiet compla- cency of my aunt as she gazed on his little gallantries, and to watch her countenance gradually light up, as her mind would pass from the scene appendix. 577 before her to the halcyon days when he wooed and won her, and then she would turn to her next neighbor and whisper, in a tone mingled with pride and fondness, ' You see his winning ways have not yet left him.' And then she would smile and look on in silence, as if life could afford no delight like gazing on my uncle Nicholas when he was happy. "Happy! — the heavens themselves are never so bright and clear but that a cloud overshadows some portion, and there lives not that man whose mind is so free but that at some period a phantom pursues it, from which he fears escape is impossible. My uncle's phantom was the dread of poverty. He had lived generously, and from his habits and tone of mind was ill calculated to increase his possessions. As he ad- vanced in life he perceived that his property had imperceptibly wasted away ; and to increase his terrors, there was a lawsuit against him that had been pending many years. He dreaded its termination would re- sult in ruin, though convinced that justice was on his side; but the boasted trial by jury is by no means as infallible as its encomiasts pre- tend, for it is a difficult matter for one man who does not understand his case to explain to twelve who frequently are incapable of compre- hending the matter under any circumstances. And by this frail tenure do we cling to our possession of liberty and life. The sword of Damocles is a type of the trial by jury. " It was a melancholy sight to behold the old gentleman, term after term, attending court to learn the issue of his cause. It absorbed all his faculties and sapped the very foundation of his mind. He was wont to have a word and a cheerful smile for all he met, but now he would pass his next neighbor without token of recognition. His little friends, the children, no longer followed him. His favorite volumes remained undusted on the shelves — their charm had passed away, and those vernal fancies, that were wont to make his heart like a singing bird in spring, had died and it sung no more. "He would at times struggle to disengage his mind from the phan- tom that embraced it with iron clutches, and affect more cheerfulness in the presence of my aunt, for he perceived that his melancholy was contagious. How tenderly she watched over him, and soothed him and encouraged him ! God bless her ! At one of those tender inter- views, which were frequent, he appeared suddenly animated with hope — the world was open to him — he was a man, and could labor like other men — his countenance brightened, and he exclaimed, exultingly: " 'The spider taketh hold with her hands and is in kings' palaces.' He fondly looked into the recess of his wife's heart through her glisten- ing eyes, and continued: 'The ants are a people not strong.' He 37 578 APPENDIX. paused, and finished the proverb in a tone scarcely audible — 'yet they prepare their meat in the summer. Alas ! the snows of many win- ters are on my head.' A tear dropped from his eye on the pale forehead of the partner of his bosom. She consoled him no more that day. "He had contracted various small debts with the tradesmen of the village, among whom were some newcomers who had not known him in his palmy days. And even if they had, the chances are that it would not have altered their conduct towards him. Few men make an aegis of the past to shield them from present evils. True, he has been as liberal as the sun that shines on all alike without distinction, but how soon do we forget the splendor of yesterday if the sun rise in clouds to-morrow. " His creditors became impatient, and though there was some hesita- tion in taking out the first execution, yet that being done, others fol- lowed as regularly as links of the same chain. There was a time when he felt as confident and secure among the villagers as in the bosom of his own family ; but now there was no longer safety for the sole of his foot on his hearthstone. He was humbled, and he moved among his neighbors, a broken down man, with fear and trembling, dreading all whom he chanced to meet. "At length his library was seized upon and sold. His books were of no great value to any other than himself, but he prized them beyond every thing. He had bought them in his boyhood; to lose them was to sever the chain that bound him to happier days, and as he beheld them scattered one by one, he wept as if they had been things of life that had abandoned him in his misfortunes. " It was a melancholy sight to behold him after this event, seated in his study, gazing on the empty shelves, and repeating various choice passages from his favorite volumes. I witnessed him once, looking in- tently on the vacant spot where a fine old copy of 'Herrick's Poems' had stood for near half a century. I knew the place well, for at that time it was my delight to delve for the pure ore of that 'very best of English lyric poets.' A melancholy smile came over his bland counte- nance, and he repeated, in a low tremulous voice : " Call me no more, As heretofore, The music of the feast Since now, alas ! The mirth that was In me, is dead or ceased. APPENDIX. 5/9 " Before I went To banishment Into the loathed west ; I could rehearse A lyric verse And speak it with the best. " But time, ah me ! Has laid, I see, My organ fast asleep ; And turn'd my voice Into the noise Of those that sit and weep. " His eyes slowly moved along the empty shelves until they rested upon a place that had been occupied by a collection of the old dramat- ists. He smiled, though he shed tears: "'Beshrew me, but thy song hath moved me.' I turned from the window through which I was gazing, unperceived, and left him breath- ing fragment upon fragment. " My uncle was accustomed to rise with the sun, and continued his habit to the last. But he no longer enjoyed the songs of the birds, the babbling of the waterfall, nor the fresh breeze of the morning laden with fragrance — their influence had departed from them; still, he ad- hered to his custom, and would wander from his green meadows to the maple grove, and from the grove to the river, as if in pursuit of some- thing—he knew not what. On his return his usual remark was, ' Is it not strange that the flowers should have lost their fragrance, and the little birds their skill in singing ! ' In happier days how he would praise the flowers and the birds ! "As term-time approached, his malady ever increased. His morning meal would scarcely be over when he would adjust his dress, and call for his hat and cane, and on being asked whither he was going, he would invariably reply : ' To the village to see my friends. Of late they have ceased to come here, and it is right that I should see them.' He would for hours walk from one end of the village to the other, and bow to all who accosted him, yet pause to converse with none; and on his return, when my good aunt would inquire whether he had seen his friends, the constant reply was, 'No, I have fallen in with none of them.' Alas! my poor uncle, how thy brain must have been shattered to imagine that a man in adversity can ever find his friends ! "At length the dreaded day arrived — his cause was marked for trial, and in a few hours the result would be known. The matter in dispute was not of such a great moment, but he had brooded over it until his 580 APPENDIX. fears had magnified it to vital importance. His opponent was a coarse and brutal man, and in their protracted contest the abruptness of his demeanor had awakened whatever latent asperity had found a hiding- place in my uncle's bosom. He looked upon that cause, trifling as it was, as the most important matter of his life. His daily thoughts and irritated feeling had magnified it. Even the little ant, by constant ap- plication, can create a mound altogether disproportionate to its size, and there is not a column so beautiful that may not be defaced by the trail of a slimy snail. My poor uncle feared the ant-hill, and recoiled at the filth of the worm. " The morning his cause was to be tried he dressed himself with un- usual care, and my aunt, knowing the bent of his mind, exercised all her little appliances to encourage him. He went to the court-house and took his seat, a dejected man. He looked around as if in search of some one to sit beside him to aid and sustain him, but none such were present, and he sat alone. " The caus was called, the jury empanelled, and the investigation proceeded. Every question that arose, in its progress wrought up my uncle's mind to painful intensities. In the ardor of his feelings he at times interrupted the proceedings, and was rudely ordered by the court to sit down and be silent. He obeyed, while every fibre of his frame shook with passion and offended pride. His opponent smiled in tri- umph as he beheld his confusion. He sat alone; no one approached to sympathize with him, and he felt as if deserted by all. In consequence of the distracted state of his mind, his defence, though a just one, had been imperfectly made out. Facts had escaped his memory; papers were missing that should have been produced, and the result was, the jury returned a verdict against him without leaving the box. It fell like a thunderbolt upon him; he fancied the last business of his life was over, and in the triumph of the moment his adversary taunted him, and openly charged him with dishonesty. The old man rose to repel the insult, while every limb shook with passion as if palsy-struck. All was confusion. The judges interfered to preserve order. My uncle heard them not. He was commanded to sit down, but still persisted to vin- dicate his character. A second, a third time was he called upon to sit down and be silent, which awakened him to a sense of his position. He beheld his antagonist still smiling; he slowly sunk into his seat, and, as if abashed, his head hung over his bosom, and gradually descended until it rested on the desk before him. Order was again restored, and the court proceeded in its business. A few moments after some one approached my uncle, and on raising him he was found to be dead ! APPENDIX. 581 " Thus died that good old man. There was a time when I looked upon him being secure from the shafts of fate; but who may boast of to-morrow ! He was wealthy, had health and friends, and his gentle spirit made his home a paradise. His sources of enjoyment were bound- less, for all nature, from her sublimest mysteries even down to the petals of a simple flower, was one mighty minister, and he drew wisdom and delight from all. And yet a single cloud was magnified until it over- shadowed his heaven of happiness, and he died friendless and heart- broken; all had vanished that made earth beautiful. But is this strange? — The flowers of life pass away as the flowers of the seasons, without our being conscious of the cause of their decay, and there breathes not that man, however prosperous, but, like my poor uncle, hath his phantom, and in time discovers that 'even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' " No. XVI.— Page 551. William Rudolph* Smith. [By Richard Moore Smith.] William Rudolph Smith, the eldest son of William Moore Smith, was born at La Trappe, in Montgomery county, Pa., on the 31st day of August, a. d. 1787. The family removing to Philadelphia in 1792, he was placed at school under the tuition of Mr. James Little and his ushers, this being at that time the largest and best preparatory school in the city. In 1799 he was placed in the Latin school of the Rev. James McRea; but soon afterwards the whole care of his education was as- sumed by his grandfather, the Rev. William Smith, D. D., who received him into the old family residence at the Falls of Schuylkill, where he remained, under a rigid course of instruction, until April, 1S03, when, as private secretary, he accompanied his father to England, the latter being one of the commissioners, under the 6th article of the Jay treaty, to adjust and settle the demands of the British claimants. During their protracted residence in England the father and son travelled much together at various times, journeying along the south coast from Dover to Falmouth, visiting all points of interest in the in- terior of the south and west, and making frequent and extended jour- *The Rudulph family spelt their name with a u. My uncle always spelt his Rudolph. 582 APPENDIX. neys into other parts of the kingdom. In London their time was happily spent at the houses of many friends, and particularly at the house of Charles Dilly, Queen's Square, so often mentioned by Boswell in his life of Johnson. Mr. Dilly took great satisfaction in showing to his guests the arm-chair in which Dr. Johnson always sat at his table, and where he enjoyed himself, perhaps, more than at any other house in London. It was at this hospitable table that Dr. Johnson met with and learned to tolerate the great radical leader, John Wilkes. In Mr. Dilly's house the young secretary had the gratification to meet with the venerable Pascal Paoli, with Richard Cumberland, with a brother of James Boswell, and with many of the literary celebrities and other notorieties of the day. And Benjamin West, the President of the Royal Society, in his attentions to the father and son, did not forget the obligations which, in early life, he owed to his friend and patron, Dr. William Smith. In the home of Mr. West, in Great Newman street, and in the pic- ture-gallery, young William Rudolph Smith met and formed friendships with many of the great painters and artists of England and of the con- tinent, for in those stirring times London was the city of refuge for the emigres and for all classes of refugees seeking safety from the whirlwind of strife then sweeping over every country in Europe. George Cadou- dal, the great Vendean chief, and General Pichegrou, both afterwards concerned in the attempt to assassinate Napoleon, were among the ac- quaintances thus formed. These London days, teeming with the recol- lections of Sarah Siddons, of John and Stephen Kemble, of the old crazy King George III., to whom he had been presented at court, of the Prince of Wales and Beau Brummel, of the soldiers and statesmen who were then shaping the destiny of the civilized world, were the solace of many an hour in after years, and, related in his inimitable way, the delight of three succeeding generations of listening friends. Intended by his father for the bar, young Smith, during his residence in England, commenced a preparatory course of study under the direc- tion of Thomas Kearsley, Esq., of the Middle Temple, and from this period until the autumn of 1808 he was a diligent student — for the first two years after their return to America under the direction of his father, at his country residence, five miles from the city, on the Old York road, and afterwards in the office of James Milnor, in Philadel- phia; in after years Mr. Milnor removed to the city of New York, and, having taken orders, became a distinguished minister of the Episcopal Church. In 1808 Mr. Smith was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia; his examiners were Richard Rush, Thomas Ross and Peter A. Browne ; the Judge was Jacob Rush. The following year he removed to Hunt- APPENBIX. 5 S3 ingdon, Pa., where he entered into the practice of his profession. On the 17th of March, 1809, he was married to Eliza Anthony, of Phila- delphia, who was descended on the father's side from the Rhode Island family of that name, and on the mother's side from Michael Hillegas, the Treasurer of the United States during the Revolution. For the ensuing eleven years Mr. Smith led a busy life ; assuming at once a leadership in his profession, he soon became extensively known as one of the most profound lawyers in the State. He was appointed, in 181 1, Deputy Attorney-General for Cambria County, under Walter Franklin; he was reappointed to the same office by Richard Rush, Attorney-General, and in 181 2 was again reappointed by Jared Inger- soll, Attorney-General. A boy's love for a military career had impelled Mr. Smith, in early life, to connect himself with the Third Troop of Philadelphia Light- Horse, and, whilst a member of this body, he had the satisfaction of riding the same horse which had carried his father, when a member of this same troop, in the expedition to suppress the celebrated Whiskey Insurrection. His taste for military affairs strengthened with advancing years, and caused Mr. Smith to study carefully the question of the national defences and the organization of the State militia forces. He devoted a large portion of his time to the study of field tactics, and was active and energetic in the thorough organization and drilling of the Pennsylvania militia, in which he served in various grades up to the rank of major-general. In the war of 1812-15 with England, he was Colonel of the 62d Regiment of Pennsylvania Reserves, and com- manded that regiment when ordered up to Erie to support General Scott in the movement on Canada, which resulted in the victory at Lundy's Lane. General Smith was in Baltimore during the siege of that city; he witnessed the disaster at Bladensburg, the subsequent occupation of Washington, and the burning of the Capitol by the British. In civil life General Smith filled with distinguished ability the various offices to which he was, at intervals, elected or appointed. He served in both branches of the Pennsylvania Legislature, held many offices of civil trust and honor, and in January, 1S36, was admitted Counsellor of the Supreme Court of the United States, at Washington In January, 1821, General Smith lost his wife, her death occurring very suddenly, after a brief illness of a few hours only. Three years afterwards he married again, his second wife being Mary Hamilton Van Dyke, whose family, originally from Delaware, had removed to and settled in the State of Tennessee. In 1827 General Smith removed from Huntingdon to Bedford count}', 584 ATP END IX. where he continued to reside until the year 1837, when he was ap- pointed Commissioner of the United States, in conjunction with Gov- ernor Henry Dodge, to treat with the Chippewa Indians for the purchase of their pineries on the Mississippi river and its tributaries. The journey into the Northwest, in the fulfilment of this trust, forms an important epoch in the life of General Smith. . The wonderful resources of the country in all that makes a nation happy, rich and great, impressed him profoundly as a statesman ; with prophetic vision he saw the sceptre of Empire passing from the East to settle firmly in the grasp of the Mighty West; instantly he resolved to be one of those earnest pioneers who turned heroically from the attractions of Eastern life to devo'te their lives to the work of formulating the legislation and shaping the destiny of these States of glorious promise. His letters to his brother, Richard Penn Smith, afterwards published in Philadelphia, under the title of "Observations on Wisconsin Territory," are filled with glowing descriptions of this paradise for farmers. That the magic beauty of the scenery deeply touched his poetic nature may be witnessed by the fol- lowing lines dashed off in a moment of tender recollection: All hail, Wisconsin ! Prairie land, In summer decked with flowers, As scattered by some fairy hand 'Midst sylvan shades and bowers. Thy soil abundant harvests yields, Thy rocks give mineral wealth; And every breeze that sweeps thy fields Comes redolent of health. Perennial springs and inland seas Give other beauties zest; Long may thy dwellers live in ease, Gem of the fertile West ! Returning to Pennsylvania, General Smith, in 1838, removed his family to Wisconsin and settled in Iowa county, at Mineral Point. In 1839 he was appointed Adjutant General of the Territory of Wisconsin, by Governor Dodge, which office he continued to fill, under successive administrations, for more than twelve years. He also received from Governor Dodge the civil appointment of District Attorney of Iowa county, retaining this office also for many years. In 1840 he was called to preside over the first Democratic convention that assembled at the seat of government of Wisconsin Territory, and he drafted the address sent forth by that body to the people. He was elected Secretary of the Legislative Council of Wisconsin, and in 1846 was elected delegate to APPENDIX. 585 the Convention to form a Constitution for the State of Wisconsin; the journals of that convention show that General Smith originated many of the great legislative reforms that have since become law, not only in Wisconsin, but have been widely adopted in other and older States of the Union, notably the " Homestead Exemption Law," and the Rights of Married Women to hold their own earnings and to own property, independently of and beyond the control of their husbands. In 1849 General Smith was elected Chief Clerk of the Senate, and again in 1850 was re-elected to the same office, receiving a unanimous vote. In 1849 he, together with a few other citizens of kindred spirit and with similar tastes, all deeply interested in collecting and preserving matters of his- torical interest, founded the "State Historical Society of Wisconsin." The immediate success of the society in this work induced the Legis- lature to place the institution under State patronage. A room in the Capitol was assigned for their use, and annual appropriations of money made to carry out and enlarge the designs of the society. By a special act of the Legislature, in 1852, General Smith was au- thorized to compile a " Documentary History of Wisconsin from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time." To this work he devoted several years of his life, and the first two volumes of the history were published by the State in 1854. In 1856 General Smith was elected Attorney-General of the State of Wisconsin, and filled the office with marked ability for two years; then having reached the ripe age of 71 years, he deemed it best to rest from his labors and retire from active professional and political life, intending for the remainder of his days to quietly enjoy his home, his library, and the society of his family and intimate friends. Here for eleven years more he was the delight of all who approached him, his ripe scholar- ship and varied information, his sparkling wit and kindly disposition, gave a charm to his conversation that will never be obliterated from the memories of those who knew him. His reminiscences of Washington and the statesmen of his day, and the leading incidents of those early days of the republic, were related with dramatic effect; the hands of Washington had rested upon his head, he had listened to the first read- ing of the Farewell Address, and was present in the German Lutheran church in Philadelphia when Major-General Lee, by the appointment of Congress, pronounced the funeral oration of Washington. He was present in the theatre on the night when the now national anthem of "Hail Columbia" was first sung, and was witness to the enthusiasm with which the song was greeted. It had been his strange fortune to see every President of the United States from Washington to Lincoln; these and similar recollections served to entrance a generation of listen- 586 APPENDIX. ers who could look upon them as events belonging to, to them, almost a remote antiquity. In 1868 General Smith, still active and in good health, made the tour of Wisconsin, visiting many of his old friends in the northern and east- ern part of the State; then proceeding to Quincy, in the State of Illi- nois, he finished his tour in a visit to his youngest daughter, residing in that city with her husband, Mr. Robert H. Deaderick. And here, in the fulness of years, this long and brilliant life came to a quiet and peaceful close. General Smith during all his life was an active and prominent Mason, passing through all the degrees of that order, from the Blue Lodge to the Royal Arch Chapter. He was several times made Grand Secretary, and was twice Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Wisconsin. He had a singular love and veneration for the order while he lived, and he Was buried with Masonic honors on the 26th day of August, a. d. 1868, at Mineral Point, Wis. A Masonic monument marks his place of rest. No. XVII.— Page 463. In asserting what I here do, I do not forget that in "The Form of Prayer for the Visitation of Prisoners" it is said, in that part of the form provided for " persons under sentence of death," that after a par- ticular confession, by the person under sentence, of the sin for which he stands condemned — which confession the visiting clergyman is to exhort him to make — such clergyman shall "declare to him the pardoning mercy of God, in the form which is used i>i the communion service ;" that form being admitted by all to be one more capable of being interpreted to be a form of "absolution" than any other in our Prayer Book. The infer- ence drawn therefore by some is that the church here puts an interpre- tation on that form generally, interpreting it wherever it occurs in the Prayer Book as but "a declaration of God's pardoning mercy." Conversing not long since with a layman of our church, whom I have often consulted in the preparation of this biography, he made some remarks of which what follows, so far as I remember, is the substance. I adopt them as expressing my own views : I do not consider that the church in this rubric says in terms exactly what these words, brought from the communion service, are or do, except, perhaps, as when they APPENDIX. 587 are said to a malefactor convicted of crime for which he has been judicially sentenced to death, and who now, confessing the crime, admits his awful guilt. And I think that the same words which are uttered at the communion-table over bishops, priests, deacons and baptized laity professing to be religious — all presumably known to the minister, and all presumably guiltless of heinous crimes — may properly be left to have whatever meaning the said words have in themselves, or as read by the light of postures prescribed, or by the light of other things existing in connection with them ; while those same words may well be restricted in meaning by a rubric, when said to a male- factor judicially sentenced to death for what may be the most dreadful crime known to laws, both human and divine, which crime he now confesses that, with perhaps num- berless others like it, he has perpetrated. The minister, we must remember, in visit- ing the person under sentence of death, may have never seen or heard of him until the morning of the execution, and just before the minister is about to utter over the wretched man the commendatory "prayer for a person at the point of departure." In the sin- cerity of repentance of such a person — a person whose whole life may have been marked by atrocious crimes, and who may be a most hardened sinner, having, besides, in the hope of a pardon from the government, a motive to appear repentant when not so in reality — the minister may utterly and rightly disbelieve. The convict, as yet, has not commu- nicated, and he may wish never to communicate. The service for the Visitation of Prisoners is not in the English Prayer Book. It comes to us from a form (somewhat altered, I doubt not) set forth by the Convocation and Parliament of Ireland, and first appeared in the Proposed Book. That book oblit- erated the word priest from its rubrics, substituting for it the word minister. This word includes deacons. But as by the practice of the Church of England, deacons do not pronounce " absolution," the Proposed Book characterizes as " a Declaration con- cerning the forgiveness of sins" those same words which the English book calls "The Absolution or Remission of sins." In the Visitation of Prisoners it therefore made its rubric read thus : "After his confession the minister shall declare to him the pardoning mercy of God "— Adding — " in the form which Is used in the Communion Service." The Convention of 1789, ignoring very much the Proposed Book, used as the basis of its work, the English Prayer Book, and generally restored the word priest in the rubrics, or, where it did not, as in the Visitation and Communion of the Sick, guarded the use of the word " minister" by references — " out." But, as I have said, this service of the Visitation of Prisoners was not in the English book, and a service of the sort being thought a most fit one to be in a Prayer Book, the Convention took it irom the Proposed Book ; the rubric above quoted, with its word " minister," coming in as part. Most other services in our Book of 1789 were referred to committees, were reported on, amended and discussed ; but about this one there was no such advisement. It was adopted on the last day of the Convention's session, "originating," as the minutes tell us, in the House of Bishops, and being " passed " by the Deputies. Haste and its usual concomitant, mistake, seems to be shown by what followed as a result in the Prayer Book of 1789, then made. Those same words which in the daily and evening service that book allows the priest, alone, to say, and to say only in a certain posture (that is, standing), and which the people are allowed to hear only in a certain other posture (that is, kneeling), and which in the communion service 5 °° APPENDIX. a Bishop (if a Bishop is present) alone may say, we here allowed a deacon to say, in any posture, to a malefactor under sentence of death in any posture, the same or other; the posture before the "declaration " of both parties having been, according to proba- bilities, that of sitting. Indeed Bishop White himself tells us that the use of the word "minister," in the book of 1789, instead of the word "priest," must have been from "oversight" (Brownell's Family Prayer Book, Ed. of 1875, p. 493). This inconsistency was too great to be left, and in the standard Prayer Book of 1838 the rubric was changed by putting the word priest in the place of the word minister* This change of the word minister to the word priest may perhaps of itself " tone up " the word " declare " from a low meaning (as ex.gr.: "state" or "make known"), to a higher one (as ex. gr. : " declare officially ; " that is, " pronounce.") If it does not do this, why was the change made ? The Proposed Book prescribed " the form which s used in the communion service," instead of the form in the morning and evening service of the same book (the form of the English book, and the first of the two forms in our book of 1789), from the impro- priety, I suppose, of making a convict who is on the point of being executed praying that " the rest " of his life "hereafter " may be pure and holy, " so that at the last" he may come to God's eternal joy. The change made by the standard of 1838 leaves the rubric defective and awkwardly mended. Is the " priest " alone, under it, to " visit " persons under sentence of death ? Is "absolution," of any kind, to be given to one who has been confessedly a heinous malefactor, and who has not communicated ? It no " absolution " is intended, why, as I have already asked, do we not allow the thing to be said by a " minister," as of old ? I recognize, of course, the old distinction of absolutions declarative, precatory and ju- dicial. But, under it, the form in the communion is not the declarative one. The fact is that the committee who issued the standard of 1838 had a difficulty too great for any committee not having larger power than it had to manage. They were trying to raise by the change of one word the tone of a rubric improvidently imported from a book of a low plane of churchmanship throughout (the Proposed Book), and with whose other rubrics this one was in unison, to a pitch which should accord with the better considered rubrics of a book of a much higher plane of churchmanship (our Book of Common Prayer of 1789), and with whose rubrics this rubric was not in uni- son. If I remember, the committee had but power to change errors in typography. I am not sure about this. But I am sure that in their present state, matters are not fully enough stated to be clear. The thing, however, was a dangerous one to handle. On the whole case, neither the old rubric nor the new one can be looked on as inter- preting "the form which is used in the communion service" anywhere but in the ser- vice of the Visitation of Prisoners itself, if, indeed, it interprets that form even there. I may add, that even in the Proposed Book, except as this rubric there may so char- acterize it, this form — the form, I mean, used in the communion service — is not char- acterized as a " Declaration " of any sort, although another form, in language truly declarative — though with an entreaty appended — and which other form the Church of England calls " the Absolution, or Remission of Sins" — is. For Dr. Smith's private declarations that the Proposed Book — which went further in the way of reform of the English Prayer Book than does our Prayer Book of 1789 — did not proceed on the idea that the Church of England was in anything erroneous, see supra, p. 178. INDEX. Abercrombie, Rev. Dr., I., 563; II., 221. Academy, opened, I., 53. account of, I., 54. Episcopal, II., 28. Adams's, John, character of Dr. Smith, I., 266, 334. Ahiman Rezon, II., 53. Alexander, William, I., 449, n. Allen, Dr. Ethan, II., 35, 41. Rev. Richard, II., 374. Allibone, Dr. S. Austin, I., 485. great value of his Bibliographical Dictionary, I., 485, n. one of its merits, its history of the lesser authors, I., 485, //. Andrews, Rev. John, D. D., I., 365; II., 243. 362. Andrews, St., Society, I., 503. Antes, Rev. II., I., 5S3. Antill, Edward, I., 485, 498. Archbishop of Canterbury, address to, I., 269. Archbishops and bishops of England, ad- dress of, II., 232. reply to, II., 233. of York and Canterbury, address to, II., 301. Armor, Rev. Samuel, I., 469. Arnold, Benedict, at Philadelphia, II., 14. "Art and Scenery in Europe," by H. B. Wallace, Esq., II., 215. Articles, the Thirty-nine, II., 212, 219. Attorney, power of, from the Royal Com- missioners to Dr. Smith, I., 332. Auchmuty, Rev. Samuel, commendation of Rev. R. Blackwell, II., 470. Bachelor of Medicine, degree of, II., 3'2- Barton, Rev. Thomas, I., 120, 132, 579, (see letters). Bass, Rev. Dr., II., 351. consecration of, II., 410. Beach, Rev. Dr. Abraham, II., 103. Beckett, genealogies and marriages of various persons of this family in Philadelphia, II., 495 7. Berrian, Rev. Dr., II., 215, 11. Beveridge, Bishop, II., 135. Biddle, Owen, I., 438, 451 ; II., 10. Binney, Hon. Horace, II , 19, 28, 235. Blackwell, Rev. Robert, D. D., a memoir of him, II., 469 his ancestry, on Long Island, N. V., II., 467.' a graduate of Princeton, II., 469. studies medicine in early life, II., 469, 470. studies divinity with Rev. Dr. Auch- muty, or Rev. Mr. Samuel Sea- bury, II., 470. recommended as " a serious good young man" by the furmer, II., 470. letter from Rev. Dr. Peters, II., 472. ordained June, 1772, II., 473. a missionary of the S. P. G., II., 473. takes charge of the mission of Clou- cester, N. J., II., 473. desires no connection with Metho- dists, II., 474. enters, A. D. 1776, the army as chap- lain and surgeon, II., 476. (589) 590 INDEX. Elackwell, Rev. Robert, D. D., becomes, A. D. 1781, one of the ministers of "the United Churches," II., 477. is attacked by yellow fever, A. 1>. 1793, but recovers, II., 479. his sermons characterized, II., 480. a very useful man in the church and otherwise, II., 481. retires, A. D. 1811, from active minis- terial service, II., 485. action of the United Churches on the event, II., 485. domestic and family affairs, II., 486. Thomson Westcott's description of his dwelling-house, II., 486. various references to him in this work, I., 366, 433, 466, n. ; II., 61, 103, 104, 362, 371, 379. death and character of his wife, with stanzas to her memory, II., 61-3. Blodget, Mr. Samuel, II., 514. Mrs., her wit and beauty, I., 472; II-, 344- Bond, Phineas, writes inscription on Wil- liam Moore, II., 500. Book, the Proposed, II., 116, 118, 119, 132, 204-239, 256, 261,463. Bouquet, Colonel Henry, I., 368. Bradford, Colonel 'William, I , 164. Brief, the king's, I., 306. layers, I., 306. Bronson, Enos, Esq., his fine literary tal- ents, and sketch of him, II., 520. Wm. White, the Rev., his son, II., 521. Brunholtz, Rev. Peter, I., 65. Buchanan, Rev. Dr. E. V., value of his " History of Oxford Church," I., 260,401. thoroughness of his historical re- searches, I., 260, 401. Burke, Rev. Jesse Y., II., 473- Burnet, Bishop, II., 135. Bute, Lord, I., 302, 320. Cadwalader, General John, II., 253. genealogies, marriages, deaths, etc., of various descendants of his, II., 550, 551, 560. Cadwalader, Hon. John, II., 551. Canal, the Union, II., 407. Carey, Matthew, II., 365. Carolina, South, condition of church in, II., 225. " Case of the Episcopal churches consid- ered," II., 185, 258-271. " Century of Beneficence," by Hon. J. W. Wallace, LL. D., I., 425 ; II., 116. Chambers, two of General Convention, II., 287. Chandler, Dr. Samuel, I., 40, 43, 315, 35°- Dr. Thomas B., I., 25, 386,413; II., 226. Chauncey, Dr. Charles, I., 387. Chester Parish, testimonial of, to Dr. Smith, II., 240. Childs, Rev. Dr. John A., his memoir of Rev. Alexander Murray, D. D., II., 501. Church, High and Low, II., 457. English and American identical in doctrine, II., 463. Reformed Episcopal, II., 204, 228. Cincinnati, Society of, II., 318. City Tavern, meeting at, I., 493. Claggelt, Dr., elected Bishop, II., 351. his consecration, II., 351. sermon by Dr. Smith at, II., 352. Club, Orpheus, I., 293, n. Colestown, St. Mary's Church at, L, 434. College of Philadelphia, Dr. Smith a teacher at, I., 26. Dr. Smith, Provost, I., 45. its charter to confer degrees, I., 99. commencement, 1757, I., 153. 1759, I., 209. 1761, I., 276. 1762, I., 290. 1763, I., 330. 1765,1., 363. 1766, I., 393. 1767, I., 408. 1770, I., 457. 1771, I., 469. 1775- !•» 5°°- 1776, L, 563- INDEX. 591 College of Philadelphia, closed, I., 571, 577- medical department, I., 364. Society of Alumni, I., 153. vote of thanks of, to Dr. Smith, I., 357- no meeting of trustees of, II., 10. work of reconstruction, II., 15. attack upon, by President Reed, II., 20. minute of trustees, II., 22. charter abrogated, II., 23. repeal of act of 1779, II., 27, 255. charter restored, II., 305. College, Washington, of Maryland. General Washington a subscriber to, II., 78. General Washington a trustee of, II., 65- . sketch of, II., 65. instrument of trust, II., S3. declaration of visitors, II., 83. visitors of Kent County School to General Washington, II., 85. answer to above, II., 85, S6. proceedings of Maryland Assembly, II., S6. first commencement, II., 87-90. see also II., 466. "Comparative View," White's, II., 213. Constitution, church, ratified by Eastern clergy, II., 285. Coombe, Rev. Thomas, I., 261, 394-5. Conventions, church, 1760, I., 262. 1761, 1., 277. 1764, I., 358. 1765, I., 3S5. general, desires for, II., 104. first steps towards, II., 104. meeting of " Corporation for Re- lief," etc., II., 105. laymen consulted, II., 105. meeting held May 25, 1 784, II., 107. meeting called for October 6, 1784, II., 106. sketch of convention of 1 784, II., 115. Conventions, general, sketch of convention of 17S5, II., 119. alterations in Prayer Book pro- posed, II., 1 19. committee to publish Prayer Book, II., I40. Convention, general, of 17K9, II., 264, 361,362. adjourned, of, 1789, II., 291. 179?, II . 35°- 1795, II., 409. 1799, II., 411. 1801, II., 415. Corporation of Christ Church and St. Peter's become separate, I., 324. for Relief of Widows, etc., I., 416, 423; II., 104, 105, 116,465. Coudon, Rev. J., II., 41. Mrs., II., 41. Council of Philadelphia, communication to, I., 51. Creed, the Athanasian, II., 23S. Cress, Peter, charges Dr. Smith with dis- loyalty, II., 14. Davies, Rev. F., D. D., Memoir by him of " Dr. William Smith, of Step- ney," II., 274, n. Deane, Silas, I., 517. De Benneville, George, II., 371. De Lancey, Bishop, I., 278, 565. Governor, I., 27. Dennie, Joseph, I., 346. Denny, Lieutenant-Governor, I., 180. Dickinson, John, I., 359. Doctor in Medicine, qualifications for a, II., 312. Doddridge, Dr., I., 444. Dorr, Rev. Dr. Benjamin, I., 277, 278, 410; II., 297. Duche, Rev. Dr., I., 75, 153, 211, 214, 215, 219, 229, 261, 263, 265. Dupont, Francis Xavier, II., 370. Eclipse of sun, A. D. 1776, II., 10. English Bishops, address to, II., 232. "Episcopal Church, The Case of, Consid- ered," Bishop White's tract, so ear- 59- INDEX. titled, vindicated from the charges put upon it by American Low Churchmen, II., 185, 258, 271. Episcopate, Colonial, I., 385, 413. Erskine, Lord Chancellor, married Frances Moore, II., 493, 494. Eulogy on Franklin, anecdote of, II., 344. memorandum on, II., 346. " Europe, Art and Scenery 111," II., 215. Evans, Rev. Nathaniel, I., 326, 366, 434, 479; II., 60. Ewing, Rev. Dr., I., 283; II., 306, 315. Fever, the Yellow, II., 365, 479. sermons on, II., 379. Fire Company, Hand-in-Hand, Dr. Smith, Bishop White, Dr. Blackwell, and most eminent citizens of Philadel- phia, members of, I., 465. Foggo, Rev. Dr., II., 207. Folhergill, Dr. John, of London, memoir of, I., 590. Francis, Tench, I., 54. Franklin, Dr., applies to Dr. Johnson to take headship of academy, I., 24. approves of schools for Germans, I., 25- is a commissioner at Albany, I., 47. seeks an intercourse with Dr. Smith, I., 24. opposes Dr. Smith, I., 128, 335. claims Kinnerley's discoveries, I., 341. misrepresents the college, I., 349. Dr. Smith, I., 357. made President of Philosophical So- ciety, I., 464. his bad character in Philadelphia, I., 344. 5S7- colonial agent, protests against his appointment as such, I., 587. his " Prayer Book," II., 174, 257. death of, II., 324. eulogy on, II., 329, 344, 346. Franks, David (British Agent), his daugh- ter marries Andrew Hamilton, II., 494- descendants of these, II., 494-497. Funeral, Dr. Smith's, II., 448. Garrick, I., 319. Gates, Thomas, D. D., II., 94. Gauden, Bishop, II., 135. German, Education Society, I., 40. trustees of, I., 64. deputy, I., 71. importance of, I., 97. schools opened, I., 93. Sauer opposes, I., 48, 68. Godfrey, Thomas, I., 187, 389. Goldsborough, Hon. Charles, I., 289. Mrs. Charles, II., 322. Gordon, John, D. D., II., 102. Governor, address of convention to, I., 266. Graeme, Miss Elizabeth, afterwards the well-known " Mrs. Ferguson," I., 289. Thomas, I., 473. Griffith, Rev. David, afterwards Bishop elect of Maryland, II., 61, 238, 265, 266, etc. Griswold, Dr. Rufus Wilmot, his charac- ter of Bishop White, II., 223. of the Rev. Robert Blackwell, D. D., II., 480,481. Hall, Carpenter's, II., 286. Hamilton, Andrew, marries Ahigail Moore, II., 494. his descendants, II., 494-497. Governor, I., 208, 325. William, I., 293. marriages and genealogies of various persons of the family of the Wood- lands of this name, II., 494-497. Harrison, family of, at Gloucester, N. J., II., 60-63. Hell, descent into, II., 165, 238. Henricks, Captain, I., 541. Henry, Mr. William, of Lancaster, the person who first saw and patronized the genius of Benjamin West, I., 592. Hermit, the, II., 444. High churchmen and Low churchmen, popular ideas about distinctions be- tween, unfounded and foolish, II., 455- 465- INDEX. 593 Hildeburn, Charles Riche, his talents and acquirements as an antiquary, I., 27S. Hills, Dr. George Morgan, II., 251. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, its great services to the State spoken of by Governor Hartranft, I., 369. Hobart, Bishop, II., 458. Hopkins, Bishop, II., 2S5, 459. J. H. (D.D.),II.,459, "■ Hopkinson, Hon. Francis, I., 74, 293; II., 166, 210. Thomas, I., 54. Hymns, Dr. Smith advocates them; Bishop White does not, II., 210, 216, 220. Illinois, land company of, II., 410. Inscription, proposed by Dr. Smith on College of Philadelphia at the restoration of its charter, II., 310. Inscriptions in St. Peter's churchyard, by Messrs. Bronson and Hildeburn, I., 278. James, Rev. J. W., tribute to his worth, by Christ Church, I., 399; II., 227. Jauncey, Dr., his bequest, I., 287. Jay, Dr. (Sir James), I., 300, 313. Hon. John, II., 232. Jefferson, Thomas, II., 345. Jenney, Dr., baptizes William Moore Smith, I., 214. and Rev. W. Macclenachan, I., 216. an invalid, I., 215, 221, 231, 263, 265. his order to his congregation, I., 227. not partial to the college, I., 337. sketch of, death and burial, I., 286. lohnson, Dr. Samuel, of Connecticut, his intimacy with Dr. Smith, I., 24. asked to take charge of academy, I., 24- his work on Ethics, I., 24. his life, by Chandler and Beardsley, I., 25. Jones, Hon. Horatio Gates, Memoir of Kinnersley, by him, I., 165, «. Samuel, sketch of, I., 294. 3& Jordan, Mr. John, Jr. (Vice-President of the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania), valuable information given by him about the early life of Ben- jamin West, I., 592, n. Kinnersley, Rev. Ebenezer, memorial win- dow in the University of Pennsyl- vania raised to him by efforts of Senator Horatio Gates Jones, an alumnus, I., 341, 586. his discoveries in electricity appropri- ated by Dr. Franklin, I., 165, 340. memoir of, by Hon. H. G. Jones, I., 5S6. Kuhn, genealogies and marriages of vari- ous persons of this family in Phila- delphia, II., 496, 497. Langguth, John M., II., 252. London, Bishop of, address to, I., 271. Leech, Thomas, I., 178. Letters, Dr. Andrews to Dr. Smith, II., 243- Antill, Edward, to Dr. Smith, I., 498. Auchmuty, Rev. Dr. Samuel, to Rev. Dr. Richard Peters, II., 470. Barton, Rev. Thomas, to Dr. Bear- croft, I., 133. Do. to Dr. Peters, I., 580. Do. to Dr. Smith, I., 120, 132, 489. Dr. Bearcroft to Dr. Smith, I., 101, 163. Blackwell, Rev. Dr. Robert, to Rev. Dr. Richard Peters, II., 472. Do. to Bishop White, II., 485. Cadwalader, Mrs., to Mrs. Ridgley, II., 350, 445, 448. Chandler, Dr. S., to Dr. Peters, 1., 354- to trustees of German Society, I., 40. Circular (letter), to the counties of Pennsylvania, I., 496. Clergy of Philadelphia to Bishop of London, I., 524. Coit, Dr. Thomas, to Horace W. Smith, II., 290. Coke, Mr., to Bishop White, U.,.24,6-. 594 INDEX. Letters, Colden, Cadwalader, to Dr. Smith, I., 464. college, trustees of, to D. Barclay & Co., I., 285. Do. do. to Dr. Smith, I., 313. committee of general convention to Bishop Seabury, II., 280. convention, general, to Archbishops of Canterbury and York, II., 239- Franklin, Dr., to David Barclay, I., 591- Do. to Dr. Smith, I., 23, 25, 28, 44, 464, 472. Garrick, David, to Drs. Smith and Jay, I., 319, «. German Society to trustees of London Society, I., 139. Hall, David, to trustees of college, I., 128. Herring, Archbishop, to Dr. Smith, I., 29, 100. Jenney, Dr., to Archbishop of Canter- bury, I., 185. Do. to Rev. W. Macclenachan, I., 232. Do. to wardens and vestry of Christ Church, I., 232, 233. Johnson, Sir William, to Dr. Smith, I., 421. Johnson, William Samuel, to Dr. Smith, I., 487. Junius to Wesley, I., 521. Llewelin, Dr., to Dr. Edwards, I., 356. London, Bishop of, to Dr. Jenney and others, I., 234. Do. to Dr. Smith, I., 362. Macclenachan, Rev. W., to Arch- bishop of Canterbury, I., 237. Madison, Rev. J., to Dr. Smith, I., 566. Maskelyne, Nevil, to Dr. Franklin, L, 448. Do. to Dr. Smith, I., 448. Muhlenberg, Mr., to Dr. Smith, I., 78. Muhlenberg, Dr., to Dr. Smith, II., 250. Letters, Murray, Rev. Dr., to Dr. William White, II., 237. McKean, Rev. Mr., to Dr. Bearcroft, I., 181. McPherson, John, to Captain John McPherson, I., 542. Oliver, A., to Dr. Smith, I., 485, 490. Oxford, Bishop of, to Dr. Smith, I., 458- Parker, Rev. Samuel, to Bishop White, II., 303. Parsons, William, to Dr. Peters, I., 85. Penn, Lady, to Dr. Smith, I., 503. Penn, Me.ssrs. Thomas and Richard, to trustees of college, I., 353. Penn, Thomas, to Dr. Smith, I., 351. Do. to trustees of college, I., 352. Peters, Smith and Duche, Drs., t® Bishop of London, I., 412, 45S. Peters, Dr., to Dr. Smith, I., 320, 325- Presbyterian ministers to Archbishop of Canterbury, I., 235. Priestley, Dr., to Dr. Franklin, I., 519. Reiger and Stoy to Dr. Smith, I., 84. Rittenhouse, David, to William Bar- ton, I., 448. Do. to Dr. Smith, I., 445, 452, 454, 455- Seabury, Bishop, to Bishop White, IT., 259, 275. Do. to convention of 1789, II., 282. Do. to Dr. Smith, II., 272, 275, 304. Schuyler, General, to Captain Mc- Pherson, I., 543. Seeker, Bishop, to Dr. Samuel John- son, I., 42. Seeker, Archbishop, to Rev. W. Mac- clenachan, I., 246. Do. to Dr. Peters, I., 354. Do. to Dr. Smith, I., 258, 396. Do. to trustees of college, I., 350. Senior class to trustees of college, I., 126. Smith, Dr., to Rev. T. Barton, I., 110,463. INDEX. 595 Letters, Smith, Dr., to Barton, William, I., 444, 461. Do. to Bearcroft, Dr., I., 141, 149, 273. 274. 28S. Do. to Biddle, Owen, I., 451. Do. to Burd, Colonel James, I., 487. Do. to Chandler, Dr., I., 45, 77, 96, 101, 392. Do. to college, trustees of, I., 26, 3'5- Smith, Nixon and Mifflin, to commit- tee of Boston, etc., I., 492. Smith, Dr., to Cotman and Johnson, II., 106. Do. and Jay, to England, clergy of, I.. 3°9- Do. to Ennals, Henry, Esq., II., 323. Do. to Gloucester, Dean of, I., 385. Do. to Goldsborough, Hon. Charles, II., 322. Do. to Herring, Archbishop, I., 86, 118. Do. to Johnson, Sir William, I., 391, 417- Do. to Morgan, M., I., 162. Do. to Parker, Dr., II., 202. Do. to Peters, Dr., I., 49, 317, 467. Do. to Reiger and Sloy, I., 81. Do. to Rodney, Cajsar, II., 40. Do. to Rush, Dr., II., 372. Smith, Hamilton Allen, and others to Rev. Mr. Schlatter, I., 92. Smith, Dr., to Seabury, Bishop, II., 278. Do. to Seeker, Bishop, I., 183. Do. to Sharpe, Governor, I., 162. Do. to Smith, Wm. Moore, II., 412. Do. to Society, Propagation, I., 29, 381, 384, 406, 407, 414, 416, 434, 457. 459- 460, 462, 465, 477, 490, 528, 538. Do. to Stuart, Gilbert, II., 447. Do. to Webb, Joseph, Esq., II., 29, 30. 31-33- Do. to West, Dr., II., 249, 255, 263, 326. Do. to White, Bishop, II., 95, 142, 146, 148, 167, 171, 176, 181, 183, 187, 192, 195, 197-199, 201, 236, 238. Letters, Smith, Dr., to Williams, Jona- than, Esq., II., 349. Smith, Mrs., to Smith, Charles, II., 253. 254- Smith, Richard Penn, to his son, Horace Wemyss Smith, II., 531 —4. Washington, General, to Grand Lodge, II., 34S. Do. to Smith, Dr., II., 40. Webb, Joseph, to Smith, Dr., II., 3°.3I- Wharton, Rev. Dr. C. II., to While, Bishop, II., 154. White, Bishop, to Blackwell, Rev. Dr. Robert, II., 484. Do. to Smith, Dr., II., 141, 144-146, 148, 150-154, 165, 166, 170, 172, 178, 1S1, 191, 194-196, 19S, 201. Wroth, Dr., to Smith, Horace W., II., 308, 504. Low churchmen and High churchmen, popular ideas as to distinctions be- tween, unfounded and foolish, II., 455-465. Macclenachan, Rev. W., disturbs the church, I., 215. his disrespect to Dr. Smith, L, 263. had been a " Dissenter in form," I., 255- rector of St. Paul's, Philadelphia, for two years, I., 260. fails to appear at convention, I., 277. his letters and also the replies to them, I., 236, 259; II., 460, 461. Magaw, Rev. Samuel, D. D., I., 65, 261, 564; II., 104. Magazine, American (Colonel W. Brad- ford's, of 1757), edited by Dr. Smith, I., 164, 172; II., 444. Magazine, Pennsylvania, I., 368. Martin, W. T., I., 73. Maryland, conventions of, II., 36, 41, 64, 94, 96, 108, 239, 241, 254. Convention of, to Assembly. II., 37. state of church in, A. D. 17S0, II ., 35. 5J*5 INDEX. Maskelyne, Nevil, I., 448. Masonic Lodge, address of and to, II., 347. 4°9- celebration, I., 107; II., II. Mausoleum, Dr. Smith's, at Falls of Schuylkill, II., 415, 449. Mifflin, Governor, II., 378, 412, 413. Mirania, College of, I., 21, 22, 23, 25. Money, Continental, II., 15. Montgomery, Mr.Thomas H., great-grand- son of Bishop White; valuable con- tributions to this work, II., 1S5, 502. Moore, Richard Channing, Bishop, II. ,490. Moore, William, of " Moore Hall," ob- noxious to Quakers, etc., I., 167. charges against, and counter address, I., 16S-172. replies to, I., 172. replies translated for German papers, I., 172. in custody, I., 172. tried and sentenced, I., 173. case disposed of in England by the king in council, and Moore sus- tained, I., 174. memoir of, and of his ancestors and descendants, II., 488, 541. death of, II., 64. Muhlenberg, Rev. H., I., 66, 69. Murray, Rev. Alexander, memoir of him by Rev. Dr. Childs, II., 237, 501. Neill, Rev. Hugh, I., 260; II., 59, 60. Nicholson, " Bishop," his gross ignorance, II., 204. Norristown, sketch of, I., 56S. Norriton Manor, I., 567. report on, II., 31 1. Odell, Rev. Jonathan, author of well- known verses on Dr. Franklin, I., 456; II., 60. Odenheimer, Rev. W. H. (D. D.), opens St. Peter's Church for the daily service, II., 207. Ogden, Rev. Uzal, II., 226. Onderdonk, Bishop Henry Ustick, the great reasoner and logician oj the American church, II., 459. Paca, Governor, appeal of, in behalf of religion, etc., II., 93, 99, too, 114. Penn, Hon. John, II., 408. Penn, Lady Juliana, I., 65. Penn, Thomas, his gifts to the College of Philadelphia, I., 28, 65, 275, 306, 437- welcomes Dr. Smith, I., 298. advocates Philadelphia and New York Colleges, I., 301. visited by Dr. Smith in England, I., 331- Perry, Bishop William Stevens, I., 88, 428; II., 218, 242. Peters, Rev. Dr. Richard, sketch of, I., 85. sponsor of William Moore Smith, I., 214. Do. Thomas Duncan Smith, I., 262. baptizes Williainina Elizabeth Smith, I., 289. Do. Richard Smith, I., 421. rector of Christ Church and St. Peter's, I., 322. his churchmanship of an amiable kind, I., 337. wanted in England, I., 323. his tribute to the Swedish churches, I., 338; II., 462. Petition for German schools, I., 70, 80, 81, 89-91. of St. George's, Lutheran, to English archbishops and Bishop of London, I., 360. of Maryland churches to General Assembly, II., 91. of Dr. Smiih and William Gales to General Assembly, II., 94, 95. Philadelphia evacuated, II., 13. address to citizens of, II., 376. Pilmore, Rev. Dr. Joseph, I., 261 ; II., 273. Prayer Book, committees on, II., 288. adopted, II., 291. criticisms upon, II., 292. INDEX. 597 Press, Printing, German, I., 69. Primus (Dr. Smith's slave), his death, II., 416. Proprietaries, the Honorable, address to, I., 268. Provoost, Dr., II., 238. Provoost, Bishop, and Bishop Seabury, II., 273, 274, 289. Psalms, selections of, II., 215, 224, 291. Publications, Dr. Smith's various, II., 534. Publication Fund of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, its great service to the Commonwealth, testified to by Governor Hartranft, I., 368, n. Queries, Bishop White's, on Preface to Proposed Book, II., 180. Reed, President, attacks the college, II., 20. his character, II., 28. Revere, Paul, bearer of the Philadelphia resolutions, I., 494. Ridgely, Dr. Charles G., II., 252. Rights, Declaration of, by church in Maryland, II., 97. presented to Governor Paca, II., 99. Governor's answer, II., 100. Rittenhouse, David, I., 409, 438; II., 10, 345- Roberdeau, Daniel, quarrels with Dr. Smith, I., 129. Rudulph, Joseph, II., 408. Rush, Dr. Benjamin, II., 345. Dr. Smith thanks him for sympathy during the yellow fever, II., 372. Dr. Smith's low estimate of his un- derstanding, II., 504-505. Sanderson, Bishop, II., 135. Seabury, Dr., II., 226. consecration of, II., 251. Do. refused on political grounds by England, II., 272 (see tit. Letters). Scotch Bishops, succession of, recognized, II., 277. Schuylkill water, introduction of into Philadelphia, assisted by Dr. Smith, II., 410. Seeker, Archbishop, his letters, ability and virtue, I., 246-259. Smith, James, father of Dr. William, I., 17- Smith, Hon. Charles (of Lancaster), memoir of, II., 570. Smith, George Washington (of Philadel- phia), memoir of, II., 523. Smith, Richard (of Huntingdon, Pa.), memoir of, II., 572. Smith, Richard Penn (5th), II., 561. Smith, Russell Moore, II., 561. Smith, Edgar Wemyss, II., 561. Smith, Hon. Thomas, Judge of the Su- preme Court of Pennsylvania, me- moir of, II., 52°- Smith, Dr. William, birth and parentage of, I., 17. education and early writings, I., 21. graduates at University of Aberdeen, I., 20. sails for New York, I., 21. teaches in Academy and College of Philadelphia, I., 26. returns to England, I., 28. is ordained deacon, I., 39. is ordained priest, I., 39. preaches in Scotland, I., 39. returns to America and is elected Provost, I., 45. sermon on the death of W. T. Mar- tin, I., 73. issues a pamphlet on Pennsylvania, I., 123. charged with disloyalty, I., 126. charge examined, Dr. Smith vindi- cated, I., 127. senior class acts and approves of his loyalty to the Crown on the above charge, I., 126. Gazette of Franklin & Hall refuses to print the report of the trustees, I., 128. sermon on condition of the colony, I- 131- visits Huntingdon, I., 132. sermon to forces under General Stan- wix, I., 161. 598 INDEX. Smith, Dr. William, arraigned and im- prisoned for an alleged libel on the Quakers, I., 174. hears his classes in jail, I., 186. liberated and re-arrested, I., 187. address to colonies, I., 188. marries Miss R. Moore, I., 193. Thanksgiving sermon on campaign of 1758, I., 193. sends an appeal to the Crown, I., 193- sails for England; receives the de- gree of D. D., I., 197. returns to Philadelphia, I., 214. mission to England in behalf of the college, I., 283. his instructions, I., 285. sails for England, I., 290. appeal for college, I., 295. reception by Mr. Thomas Penn and Archbishop Seeker, I., 288. visits Scotland, I., 313. presented at court by Mr. Penn, I., 322. made D. D. by Trinity College, Dub- lin, I., 330. visits Mr. Penn, I., 331. returns to America, I., 352. vote of thanks by trustees of college, I-. 357- on Bouquet's expedition, I., 370. purchases land at Huntingdon, I., 397- is rector of Trinity Church, Oxford, I., 401. lectures on natural philosophy, I., 410. in charge of Christ Church, Phila- delphia, I., 410. chaplain to 18th regiment, I., 41 1. President of Corporation for Relief of Widows, etc., I., 432. retires from the above in 1 789, I., 433. at an Indian conference, I., 435. observes transit of Venus, I., 436, 456, 461. founds the Philosophical Society, I., 437- Smith, Dr. William, visits South Carolina in interests of college, I., 467. address before Philosophical Society, I., 483. Do. on Colonial Grievances, I., 495. his opinions on the Revolution, I., 5°4, 539- sermon on death of General Mont- gomery, I., 540. makes a large purchase of land, I., 567- observes transit of Mercury, I., 570. warrant to arrest, as a Tory, I., 372. comment on statement of Bishop White, 1., 574. at Barbadoes island, II., 9. Forty Fort, Wyoming, II., 10. returns to Philadelphia, II., 13. replies to charge of Peter Cress, II., 14- removes to Chestertown, Md., II., 27. Principal of academy, afterwards Washington College, II., 27, 34, 64. preaches at St. Peter's, Philadelphia, II., 39- proposes General Washington as member of Philosophical Society, II., 40. sermon on Fast of 1781, II., 41. Do. on capture of Cornwallis, II., 47. at Gloucester Mission, II., 60. elected Bishop of Maryland, II., 100. testimonial to Bishop of London, II., 101. sermon before Convention of Mary- land, II., 109. presides at General Convention of 1784, II., 115. favors extensive changes in Prayer Book, II., 118. sermon before Convention of 1785, II., 214. foresees our national greatness, II., 207. reply to English bishops, II., 233. sermon before General Convention of 1769, II., 265. INDEX. 599 Smith, Dr. William, sermon at funeral of Rev. Dr. Griffith, II., 267. with Mr. William Henry, of Lan- caster, one of Benjamin West's earliest and most valuable patrons, I., 591. proposes to leave Maryland, II., 307. returns to Falls of Schuylkill, II., 310. sermon before the Society of the Cin- cinnati, II., 318. appointed "An Agent of Informa- tion," II., 328. eulogy on Dr. Franklin, II., 329. published sermons, II., 421. Do. titles of, II., 428. his last sermon, II., 445. his last will, II., 416. his theological views, II., 455-464. his active, useful life, II., 465. obituary notice of and verses upon Charles Willing, II., 508. his last official act, II., 448. his last illness, II., 446. his funeral, II., 448. his estate, II., 449. why not consecrated Bishop for Maryland, II., 450. Dr. Wroth's anecdotes about, II., 504-505. Smith, William, " of Stepney," II., 274, 11. Smith, William Moore, I., 214; II., 543. Smith, William Rudolph (General, of Wisconsin), memoir of, II., 581. Smith, Hon. Charles (of Lancaster), II., 320, 323, 570. Smith, Elizabeth, I., 567. Smith, George Washington (Senior Vice- President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania), II., 523. Smith, Isabella, II., 416. Smith, Richard, I., 421 ; II., 572. Smith, Richard Penn (father of the au- thor), I., 479 ; II., 411,525. Smith, Richard Penn (Colonel), II., 554. Smith, Rebecca, I., 471 ; II., 350. Smith, Hon. Thomas, Judge of the Su- preme Court of Penna., II., 520. Smith, Thomas Duncan, I., 269; II., 574. Smith, Williamina Elizabeth, I., 289; II., 102. Smith, William Moore, his birth, I., 214. graduates, I., 501. sketch of, I., 573; see II., 446. Spangenberg, I., 43. Standing Stone creek, I., 397. " State of the Episcopal Churches Consid- ered," II., 271. State House, Convention of 17S9 meets in, II., 286. Stewart, General Walter, II., 319. Stille, Provost of the college, his just ap- preciation of Dr. Smith, as shown in many ways ; a worthy successor of him ; a Restitutor of the institu- tion of which Dr. Smith was the Fundator and first Condilor ; prob- able loss which the university will suffer by his retirement; different references to him, I., 24, 124, 125, 295. 335. 340; II., 21, 27, 316, 318- Stone, Mr. F. D., his valuable essay on Continental Paper, II., 15. Stoy, William, I., 84. Stringer, Rev. William, I., 261, 423. Stuart, Gilbert, I., 472; II., 413, 447. Sturgeon, Mr., I., 265, 322, 323. St. Andrew's Society, I., 503. St. John's Church, II., 445. St. Paul's Church, I., 259, 422, 423. St. Peter's, dedication of, I., 277-282. a separate coqioration, I., 324. inscriptions in churchyard, I., 278. Berkeley, Clarksborough, II., 473, n. Synod, Presbyterian, I., 217. Talbot, Rev. John, II., 251. Tavern, One Ton, I., 45. Tennent, Rev. William, I., 129. Title, Protestant Episcopal Church, II. ? 38- Transit of Mercury, I., 570. of Venus, I., 436, 456, 461. [ Union of churches effected, II., 285. 6oo INDEX. University of Pennsylvania and College of Philadelphia combined, II., 315. languishes, II., 318. Virginia, state of Church in, II., 225. protesters in, against an American Episcopate, I., 388. Venus, transit of, I., 436, 456, 461. Veto with House of Bishops, II., 284. Wallace, Horace Binney, his "Art and Scenery in Europe," II., 215. Wallace, John Bradford, his report to the Legislature of Pennsylvania on the proposed change of the Constitution of the State, II., 296. other references to, II., 520, 524. Wallace, John William, LL. D., President of Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania: his address in the New Hall, I.. 97- his " Century of Beneficence," I., 425; II., in. Wallace, Joshua Maddox, of Burlington, N. J., sketch of, I., 408. Washington, General, not Grand Master of Masons, II., 34. no hand in making the Proposed Book, as it is erroneously alleged by Mr. Nicholson that he had, II., 204. Waterford (X. J.), St. Mary's Church, II., 471.473- Wemyss, John, II., 52. genealogy of this family, II., 498. West, Benjamin, history of his early life, I., 591. West, Dr. William, II., 102. Wharton, Rev. Dr. C. H., II., 140, 229. Whitby, Dr., II., 135. Williams, Jonathan, II., 345. Will, last, of Dr. Smith, II., 416. executors of, II., 419. Wilson, Dr. Bird, II., 459. Wilson, Hon. James, I., 409. White, Bishop, graduates, I., 365. White, Bishop, his letter for Orders, I., 458- his " Case of Episcopal Churches Considered," this tract vindicated, I., 405; II., 185, 258, 502. and Dr. Blackwell only clergymen at one time in Pennsylvania, I., 403. refuses to preach military sermons, I., 561. is President of Corporation for Relief of Widows, etc., I., 434. why called at one time " Doctor," instead of " Bishop," I., 389, «. is Chaplain to Congress, II., 10. and Dr. Blackwell desire and get a General Convention, II., 103, 105. on the meeting at New Brunswick, II., 107. uses the " Proposed Book," II., 132. opposed to extensive changes, II., 141, 217, 219, 224. his " Hints towards a Preface " to Proposed Book, II., 155. on music and hymns, II., 220. recommended for consecration, II., 238. his consecration, II., 264. and Dr. Smith contrasted, II., 217. his tribute to Dr. Smith, II., 307. refuses to leave Philadelphia during the yellow fever, II., 379. and Benjamin R. Morgan with Dr. Smith in his last illness, II., 446. buries Dr. Smith, II., 448. appointed by Dr. Smith to be one of his executors, II., 419. did not vote for himself as Bishop in 1786, II., 459. expresses to Rev. Dr. Blackwell re- grets at losing his services at the United Churches, II., 485. Willing, Charles, memoir of, II., 505, 507. Willing, Thomas, memoir of, II., 10, 325, 50S, 5io. Wroth, Peregrine, M.D., II., 503. Wyoming, lands purchased at, I., 47.