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 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
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 Memoirs of the life and services of the 
 
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 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029459231 
 
Memoirs of Alonzo Potter. 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 LIFE AND. SERVICES 
 
 Rt. Rey. Alomo Potter, d.d., lld., 
 
 BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 
 DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 BY 
 M. A. DeWOLFE HOWE, D.D., 
 
 Rector of St. Luke's Church, Philadelphia. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 J. B. LIPPINGOTT & CO. 
 
 1871. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S70, by 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 
 
 In the OfBce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 X 
 
 LippiNCOTi'B Press, 
 P'bilaselphia. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 T N offering this volume to the public, the writer deems it 
 proper to state that the task of preparing it was not com- 
 mitted to his hands until a year after the death of Bishop Potter. 
 The work had been first entrusted to his friend and brother in 
 the Episcopate, the late lamented Bishop of Maine, who was 
 himself called to a higher Ministry in the presence of his 
 Saviour before he had composed a single chapter of the Biog- 
 raphy he was so eminently qualified to write. A few brief 
 hints of thoughts which he intended to unfold, written on two 
 or three sheets of paper, are the only mementos which remain 
 of his purpose to make the record of Bishop Potter's life. 
 Most of his notes will be found in the Appendix to this 
 volume. 
 
 After his death, the papers were entrusted to another far less 
 entitled to the honor of commemorating the departed, and 
 burdened with Pastoral duties which rendered it impossible 
 for him to give them prompt and continuous attention. These 
 memoirs have been written and arranged during the few weeks 
 
o PREFACE. 
 
 of successive summers in which the writer has been permitted 
 to be absent from his parochial charge. This may account in 
 some measure for whatever may seem disjointed in the order 
 of the book, and for the repetition of some thoughts and ex- 
 pressions which the critical reader will be sure to discover. 
 Had the issue of the volume been postponed another year, its 
 composition might have been greatly improved, but, alas ! such 
 is the rush of American life that the dead, however eminent 
 have been their services, are soon forgotten. By delay, the 
 book would lose as much in interest as it would gain in pre- 
 cision. 
 
 Everybody must know that the life of a Christian Bishop 
 who has lived on the Atlantic sea-board in the past twenty-five 
 years cannot, in the nature of things, have been very eventful. 
 His Biography, so far as the incidents of his career enter into 
 it, might be quite briefly given. No singular adventures are 
 here recorded, nor has any attempt been made to represent 
 ordinary experiences - in such way as to invest them with fac- 
 titious interest. The chief endeavor of the writer has been 
 ■rather to portray the man — than to narrate what befell him 
 from day to day ; to convey some idea of his character and 
 work ; and so to collate his opinions on the duties of the 
 Church and the instrumentalities by which she is to fulfill her 
 mission, and on questions of speculative and practical import 
 "in the living present," that his beneficent influence may 
 survive, an efficient power in the communion for whose highest 
 good he prayed and wrought and died. 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 If in this endeavor (pursued not without a sense of depend- 
 ence on the help that cometh from above) the writer has been 
 blessed with any measure of success, to God be all the 
 glory. At the Master's feet he lays this portraiture of one, 
 in whom the power of his grace was illustriously shown, 
 thankful if in the commanding aspect of the subject^the 
 hand that has drawn it be unseen or forgotten. 
 
 Of the two likenesses contained in this volume, the one 
 is a photograph of a portrait taken when Dr. Potter was 
 Rector of St. Paul's Church, Boston, at the age of twenty- 
 nine; the other a photograph from life, taken when the 
 Bishop had reached his sixty-fourth year. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ancestry, Childhood, Youth and Education 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Ministry at St. Paul's Church, Boston 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Mr. Potter again a Professor at Union College 52 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Election to the Episcopate of Pennsylvania 104 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Bishop Potter's Policy 145 
 
 Convocations — Young Men's Institutes, 1849 — Religious Training of 
 the Young — Clergy Daughters' Fund — Training-Schools — Primitive 
 Deacons — Sympathy for his Clergy — ^Bible Society — Other Mixed 
 Societies — Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church — Counsels 
 to Students of Divinity — The Position of the Negro Race in the 
 Church — " The Irrepressible Conflict " — the Muhlenburg Memorial. 
 
 11 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bishop Potter's Suggestions on some Speculative and 
 SOME Practical Questions . . . 248 
 
 Extreme Ecclesiasticism— Protestant Sisterhoods — The Home Ele- 
 ment in the Religious Instruction of the Young — Music and Ritual 
 of the Church — Church Newspapers — The Rule of Faith — May Un- 
 baptized Persons act as Sponsors for those to be Baptized ? — Policy 
 of Small Dioceses, and the Subdivision of Large Ones — Hints to a 
 Popular City Rector. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Incidents of the Years of his Episcopate Resumed in 
 THEIR Order 283 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 Close of Bishop Potter's Career 352 
 
 Appendix 409 
 
 Notes of Bishop Burgess — Personal Reminiscences — The Presidency 
 of a College — Education Societies, Treatment of Beneficiaries — The 
 Bishop Deprecates Profuse Praise. 
 
 Index 417 
 
MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 ANCESTRY, CHILDHOOD, YOUTH AND EDUCATION. 
 
 WHEN great men pass away, survivors often attempt to 
 make a record of their lives. But the effort is really 
 vain, the object is unattainable. No man can keep a perfect 
 transcript of his own life. The most complete and detailed 
 diary begun in early manhood, commences after the character 
 is actually formed, and omits of necessity all those minor and 
 subtle influences which in plastic childhood and youth really 
 fashioned the mind and heart and destiny of the future man. 
 And, even after self-observation commences, and the busy 
 individual begins to take note of his experiences, he can write 
 but a small part of what transpires within and about him, 
 unless he passes his days pen in hand, and transfers his 
 thoughts and feelings to his journal, if he can, as fast as they 
 are produced in the hidden chambers of the soul. Such a life 
 would be of no more service to the world than that of a spider 
 that spins a thread of interminable length out of its own 
 bowels ; or of a silkworm that spends one entire stage of its 
 existence in weaving its own shroud, and then lies enwrapped 
 in it in dull stagnation. The most minute and elaborate diary 
 that ever was written can have credit for containing only a 
 very partial record of what actually befell its author. Some 
 
 2 13 
 
14 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 trivial incidents of domestic life, some words spoken at the 
 fireside, which the vainest man would scarce regard as worthy 
 of his own remembrance, made impressions upon his spirit 
 which eternity will never efface. These were the delicate 
 touches which, like the last and most dainty chiselings of the 
 sculptor, gave the distinctive character and expression to the 
 living, as those do to the ideal, man. If no man, then, can 
 write the perfect history of his own life, how much less can 
 another ! 
 
 The common and gross conception of human life is that 
 it consists in what we experience of calamity or welfare by 
 the visitation of God, and what we do of a practical nature 
 in the ways of men. The relation of these particulars in the 
 career of any person is called in ordinary parlance a Memoir 
 of his Life. But, in fact, these things constitute only the 
 framework and scaffolding of a man's life. They help to 
 fashion him, and to bring out to observation the traits which 
 distinguish him ; but they do not constitute his real self, or 
 disclose the half of what he thinks and feels ; or make known 
 the measure of his influence upon the men and the events of 
 his time. Men have lived, the visible incidents of whose 
 lives could be printed on a leaflet, yet whose powers a library 
 could not unfold, and with the pulses of whose thoughts the 
 world shall throb for ever. 
 
 Alonzo Potter was one of those men of whom a very imper- 
 fect memoir can be written. There is no autobiography from 
 which the facts, of any portion of his life can be gleaned, no 
 diary or note-book in which any of his daily impressions and 
 feelings were put on record. I would not venture the invid- 
 ious remark or implication that whoever transcribes himself is 
 impelled by his vanity, but I may say that the real humility 
 of Bishop Potter's spirit and the thorough earnestness of his 
 life combined to restrain him from the effort to perpetuate 
 personal experiences, which seemed to him of little moment 
 in the great aggregate of human interests. He was too con- 
 
HIS ANCESTRY. 1 5 
 
 scious of urgent demands for further thought and effort to 
 stop and record what he had already thought and done. And 
 yet this very impulse always to be exerting his powers for 
 new achievements made his life intense and actual beyond the 
 measure of common men. He lived more in his threescore 
 years than most of those who stretch on to the utmost limit 
 of earthly continuance do in their larger span. 
 
 And it is that life of ceaseless mental activity, of thorough 
 devotion to God and inexhaustible charity to man, which, in 
 all its successive processes, it is now impossible to recall and 
 commit to the page of history. 
 
 The ipresent volume purports to be only an outline of the 
 man — a rehearsal of some of the things which he did and 
 said, and an inference of what he was from the little that 
 appeared in his public life. As the physiologist attempts to 
 portray the form and dimensions of one of an extinct race 
 when he finds only two or three of the bones of his long-dis- 
 membered frame, so I endeavor from the fragments in my 
 possession to impart some approximate idea of what he was 
 whose like can nowhere be found. 
 
 The Potter family, from which the subject of this memoir 
 sprang, first settled in this country at Portsmouth, R. I., the 
 northern extremity of the Island on which Newport is 
 built. Subsequently, his more immediate ancestors removed 
 to Cranston, in the same State. Descendants of the same 
 stock are still numerous in Rhode Island, and in the Western 
 section of the State have long been reckoned among its more 
 distinguished families. 
 
 Alonzo Potter was the son of a farmer of Dutchess Co., in 
 New York. He was the sixth child of Joseph and Anna 
 Potter, and born in the town of Beekman, now La Grange, 
 on the 6th of July, 1800. His father had been then but 
 a few years a resident in that comparatively frontier region, 
 having sold, it appears, his paternal estate in Cranston, 
 R. I., in the year 1791. He, with his wife, belonged to the 
 
1 6 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Society of Friends, a religious body that had become numer- 
 ous in that quarter under the tolerant principles of Roger 
 Williams. Mr. Joseph Potter was a man of tall, erect person, 
 of grave and taciturn habits, of good understanding and of 
 honorable repute in his neighborhood. He represented his 
 county in the legislature of the State. His library consisted 
 of only a few volumes, but they were the standard works in 
 the English literature of that day. Mrs. Potter was a woman 
 of remarkable character and powers, having a bright and ready 
 wit, a prompt and accurate judgment and a strong and well- 
 directed will. Almost all great men have had such mothers. 
 The traits which they derived by inheritance have been 
 developed in the nursery; and when the youth has gone forth 
 from the home-circle, his mind and character have been as 
 ineffaceably marked by her influence as his form and features 
 by the lineaments of the mother that bore him. The child 
 Alonzo Potter was sent first to the district school of hiS 
 native hamlet, and was there favored with the instruction of a 
 Mr. Thompson, a man who was capable of appreciating him 
 and of calling out and directing the activities of his mind. 
 Bishop Potter never forgot him, nor withheld the acknow- 
 ledgment of his debt of gratitude for an impulse and a 
 guidance in his early boyhood which had much to do with 
 the habit and success of his whole after life. In his early 
 boyhood, though bright in understanding, he was not addicted 
 to books until the story of Robinson Crusoe fell into his 
 hands. He opened it, as it were, by accident, became at once 
 engrossed with its contents, and never left it but for his 
 meals until, late at night, he had perused the entire volume. 
 It seemed to waken in him a new sense. A fresh world of 
 'enjoyment was opened to him. He re-read this book of won- 
 ders, and was even stimulated to attempt a romance of his 
 own. " The impetus had been given," said he to a friend, late 
 in life, to whom he related this incident, " and from that time 
 
A STUDENT AT COLLEGE. \J 
 
 forth I took pleasure in books." It was after this, when his 
 father was at Albany, a member of the Legislature, that Dr. 
 Nott went thither on business relating to Union College. Dr. 
 Nott was spending an evening at Mr. Potter's rooms, and 
 whilst there a letter was brought to the latter, which, having 
 read, he handed to Dr. Nott, saying, " If you take any in- 
 terest in my boys, perhaps you would like to read this com- 
 position from my son Alonzo." Dr. Nott took it, and after 
 reading it, he said : " I must have that boy ; promise me that 
 you will let me have him when he is old. enough for college." 
 The promise was given ; " And this," added Bishop Potter, 
 when he was relating the incident to an intimate friend in the 
 privacy of his own study, " was the beginning of my relations 
 with Dr. Nott, which have lasted throughout my life and been 
 very pleasant to me." 
 
 At twelve years of age he was sent to Poughkeepsie, a 
 dozen miles from home, where an elder brother was estab- 
 lished in business. There he entered the academy taught 
 by Master Barnes. He had not been long under his tuition 
 before his preceptor pronounced him the best of his pupils, 
 and entitled, by capacity and scholarship, to a collegiate educa- 
 tion. At fifteen he came to Schenectady, and from the hour 
 of his examination for admission to Union College took a 
 first rank in his class. One who was a Senior in college when 
 Alonzo Potter was a Freshman told the writer, on the fiftieth 
 anniversary of his graduation, that he had a very vivid recol- 
 lection of young Potter and his appearance at his first coming 
 to "Union." "He had a very rustic" look. But they who 
 began to smile at his seeming verdancy soon grew grave and 
 respectful when his eminent standing in his class forced itself 
 upon their notice. He was graduated before he reached 
 *the age of nineteen, and adorned with the highest collegiate 
 honors. The eminent Dr. Nott, seconded by an able corps 
 of Professors, had already won for this institution an honorable 
 fame among American Colleges ; to gain its laurels was no 
 
 2« B 
 
1 8 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 mean attainment ; to have learned wtiat its Faculty taught was 
 no scant education. 
 
 When Dr. Nott assumed the Presidency of Union College 
 it was little more than a respectable academy. When after- 
 ward Alonzo Potter was there pursuing its course of studies 
 and competing for its honors, he found himself in generous 
 rivalry with Francis Wayland, William H. Seward, George 
 W. Doane and John S. Stone, men who in their respective 
 spheres have gained a reputation for trained intellect and 
 polite learning excelled by none of .their contemporaries. 
 Could there be found in the qatalogue of any other American 
 college a galaxy of such stars illuminating a single page of 
 its record, and most or all of them grouped in one class ? 
 
 Soon after completing his college studies, Mr. Potter 
 repaired to Philadelphia, where another brother, older than 
 himself — Mr. Sheldon Potter, a well-known bookseller of that 
 time — had his residence. While there his religious convic- 
 tions became so decided that he resolved to connect himself 
 with the visible Church, and was baptized at St. Peter's, and 
 soon after confirmed at Christ Church, by the venerable 
 Bishop White. He was not long in determining to devote 
 his life to the sacred ministry in the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, with whose communion he had now become con- 
 nected. His theological studies were accordingly commenced 
 under the immediate direction of the Rev. Dr. Samuel H. 
 Turner, afterward for many years a distinguished Professor in 
 the General Theological Seminary. His Alma Mater, how- 
 ever, had not forgotten him in his removal from the shadow 
 of her classic halls. He was called to be Tutor in Union 
 College, and returned, not reluctantly, when he was yet but 
 twenty years of age, to the scenes amid which he had learned 
 and achieved so much. Scarce had a twelvemonth passefi 
 before he was advanced to the Professorship of Mathematics 
 and Natural Philosophy. In 1823, Mr. Potter first appeared 
 in print as the author of a tractate on " Logarithms," which 
 
HIS ORDINATION. 1 9 
 
 at once gave him rank as a proficient mathematician. Doubt- 
 less there are graduates still living who remember Professor 
 Potter at that early stage of his official life, with a native 
 modesty which no honors could dispel, and yet with a dignity 
 on which no measure of youthful effrontery would venture to 
 presume. Thoroughly prepared for all the duties of the 
 class-room, he met in scholarship and in manners the requi- 
 sition which St. Paul laid upon Timothy : " Let no man despise 
 thy youth." 
 
 Notwithstanding ,this accumulation of scholastic honors 
 and duties. Professor Potter was still in pursuit of his purpose 
 to enter the sacred ministry. The necessary preparation hav- 
 ing been attained, he was admitted to Deacon's orders by 
 Bishop Hobart; and at twenty-four was advanced to the Priest- 
 hood by Bishop Brownell, with whom and with whose family 
 at that period he became well acquainted, and for whom, from 
 that time forth, he cherished an ever-increasing affection and 
 respect. A graphic sketch of the character and work of that 
 gentle and accomplished Prelate, as well as a most affectionate 
 tribute to his memory, will be found in a subsequent portion 
 of these pages, written by this his "son in the ministry" 
 when the venerable patriarch was gathered to his fathers and 
 the subject of this memoir had attained to a place of eminence 
 in the same ministry and apostleship. 
 
 When he had just attained to his majority, his younger 
 brother appealed to him for counsel and encouragement 
 respecting an effort to gain a collegiate education, which 
 he very much desired to do. He had reached that age 
 at which it was proper that he should begin to do some- 
 thing for his own maintenance. His lot in life seemed 
 already to have been determined. He was employed in a 
 business house, but his desire for learning — his ambition to 
 engage his powers in some nobler pursuit — was inextinguish- 
 able. To the brother whose example, advice and help 
 had first stimulated his literary tastes he opened his young 
 
20 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 heart when the decision of his destiny for Hfe was just 
 impending. He met a ready and cordial response. Letters 
 which I am not at hberty to spread upon these pages passed 
 between these youthful brothers, exceedingly creditable to 
 both, which indicate that to Alonzo Potter is it due, under 
 God, that Horatio was rescued from mercantile life and set 
 upon the course of studies which fitted him for that ministry 
 in which he has attained so exalted a position. 
 
 There were three older brothers, men of more than ordinary 
 capacity, who had enjoyed only a common-school education. 
 How remarkable is it that the two who had college opportu- 
 nities were both anointed with God's renewing grace, brought 
 out from Quakerism into the Episcopal Church, and at length 
 advanced to the chief ministry in the two largest dioceses of 
 that communion ! It seems almost like the designation of 
 Saul and David when they were yet undistinguished among 
 their rustic brethren to be princes over the house of Israel. 
 
 In the same year in which he attained to the Priesthood, 
 Professor Potter was married, having won the heart and hand 
 of Sarah Maria, only daughter of President Nott, a lady of 
 superior mind, exceeding loveliness of character and elegant 
 accomplishments. God, who destined him for eminent use- 
 fulness, thus made the influences of home to favor the devel- 
 opment of all that was good and great in his heart and mind. 
 This connection brought him also into closer relations with 
 that remarkable man who ruled the college with such con- 
 summate wisdom and distinguished success ; whose benign 
 and ennobling influence multitudes of educated men, in every 
 profession and in all parts of the land, account as among the 
 choicest blessings of their lives. 
 
 The lessons of beneficence which are characteristic of the 
 rehgious system held by the Quakers had not been lost upon 
 the generous nature and large humanity of the Reverend Pro- 
 fessor Potter; nor in accepting other forms of faith did he 
 repudiate those practical charities which he had learned in 
 
EARLY INTEREST IN THE AFRICAN RACE. 21 
 
 childhood. From his youth he took a Hvely and compas- 
 sionate interest in that unfortunate race which in every section 
 of our country was once in servile subjection. Not allied to 
 those who made the African an occasion of political agitation, 
 he was ever ready to recognize his manhood, and to do what 
 he could to ameliorate his condition and to qualify him for a 
 higher sphere. Perhaps his hfelong interest in the colored 
 race had its first impulse in an association of his early child- 
 hood which he mentioned to a friend in the latter days of his 
 episcopate. He was " speaking of the difficulty he had in 
 recalling the very words of Scripture, and remarked that it 
 arose from the want of early training — that he had never had 
 much religious instruction in his early years ; his parents were 
 Friends, and, like others of that sect, waited for the moving 
 of the Spirit. A colored servant-girl living in his father's 
 house was the only one whom he remembered as having spoken 
 to him directly on religious subjects, and she would frequently 
 ask him to read the Bible to her, which, as she was very kind 
 to him, he did for her enjoyment." In the brief interval be- 
 tween his graduation and his return to the college he employed 
 a portion of his time in giving instruction to colored persons 
 in Philadelphia ; one of whom under his tuition was raised 
 from the position of a household servant to be a minister ,of 
 the gospel among his own people, and was put in charge of a 
 congregation in Baltimore. It is said that on one occasion, 
 while Alonzo was an inmate of his brother's house in the city, 
 his mother (being on a visit to them both) found him seated 
 in the parlor with a negro man. It was then, I judge, a very 
 unwonted license, for even her Quakerly sense of propriety 
 was shocked, and she said, when his sable visitor had gone, 
 "Alonzo, every one in his proper position." When afterward 
 Professor Potter was advanced to holy orders, he gathered a 
 little congregation of blacks in Schenectady, and to them dis- 
 pensed that gospel which his consecrated powers' and high 
 
22 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. - 
 
 culture qualified him to proclaim with great acceptance to the 
 most refined and educated classes. 
 
 These circumstances of his early life, indicative of an active 
 sympathy with those whose lot it has hitherto been to serve 
 as " hewers of wood and drawers of water" to a more power- 
 ful race, are mentioned here not because they are of great in- 
 trinsic interest, but because they show that his subsequent 
 concern for the dispensation of equal rights and opportunities 
 in Church and State to all sorts and conditions of men, was no 
 sudden or passionate impulse engendered by political or sec- 
 tional influence, but a sober conviction at which he arrived in 
 the days of his youth, when the position of the negro in our 
 national system seemed almost as determinate as that of the 
 white man. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 MINISTRY AT ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, BOSTON. 
 
 THE ministerial gift, as every other which was in him, 
 Professor Potter did not neglect to stir up and exercise. 
 He preached frequently in St. George's Church, Schenectady, 
 and in other places as time and opportunity served. In 1819 — 
 a date at which he had but recently determined to consecrate 
 his life to the sacred ministry — Mr. Potter was for a while 
 employed, it would seem, as a lay-reader at St. George's, 
 Schenectady, and a more permanent relation was evidently in 
 the contemplation of some of its members. The clue to these 
 facts is found in the following copy of a letter addressed 
 
 To THE Wardens and Vestry of St. George's, Schenectady : 
 
 Gentlemen : As considerable time must elapse before my age 
 will warrant my admission into holy orders, I wish it distinctly 
 understood that no arrangement which has been made between the 
 vestry and myself will be considered by me other than as a tem- 
 porary arrangement, and that nothing but the unanimity of the 
 congregation could induce me to continue my services among them. 
 
 The partiality which was then manifested by the good peo- 
 ple of St. George's toward the youth of nineteen did not 
 abate when in after years at different periods, and once for a 
 whole twelvemonth, in the absence of their pastor, the accom- 
 plished Professor from the neighboring college supplied their 
 pulpit. And his reputation as a young clergyman of high 
 promise was constantly growing and spreading abroad. In 
 December, 1825, the official intelligence of which lies before 
 me, Professor Potter was elected President of Geneva (now 
 
24 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Hobart) College, a post of honor and responsibility which he 
 felt it his duty to decline. In the same year he published an 
 elaborate treatise on " Descriptive Geometry," with numerous 
 and intricate problems. 
 
 His intimate friend and classmate, Francis Wayland, who 
 was also, if I mistake not, a contemporary tutor in " Union 
 College " (afterward the eminent President of Brown Univer- 
 sity), had become pastor of the Hanover-Street Baptist Church 
 in Boston, and had won a high reputation among all or- 
 thodox Christians for personal worth and preaching ability. 
 It will appear presently that the relations subsisting between 
 these college associates had something to do with the first 
 settlement of Mr. Potter as a shepherd of souls. In 1826 he was 
 called to succeed the accomplished Dr. Samuel Farmar Jarvis 
 as rector of St. Paul's Church, Boston. At that juncture no 
 rectorship in the Episcopal Church was more important or 
 more difficult to fill. The great Unitarian controversy which 
 for nearly half a century had kept New England in a 
 turmoil had almost spent itself, and religious men, of what- 
 ever shade of opinion, were falling back upon the conviction 
 that error might be better antagonized by the simple presenta- 
 tion of truth than by direct and contentious disputation. Drs. 
 Beecher and Channing, the champions of their respective 
 schools, were still in the Boston pulpit with unabated powers, 
 but even their preaching had become less polemical. And 
 as the zeal of partisans grew cool many began to seek for 
 other and more peaceful communions, where doctrine and 
 worship would be found pure and positive without a tone of 
 controversy. In fact, it was to meet this condition of things 
 at the centre of rehgious thought and influence that St. Paul's 
 Church was founded in the year 1820. At the close of the 
 Revolution one of the three Episcopal churches established 
 in Boston in colonial times had been wrested from its proper 
 use, and its place had not yet been supplied by the creation 
 of a new parish. Population — such as then inclined to the Epis- 
 
ORIGIN AND CONDITION OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH. 25 
 
 copal Church — had removed from the neighborhood of Old 
 Christ Church and were clustering around the Common. 
 
 Trinity Church, with its quaint gambrel-roofed edifice and 
 its English rector, was in the vicinity ; but it was a venerable 
 monument of conservatism, incapable of adjustment to the 
 lively necessities of the time ; and, besides that, already filled 
 with old families who seemed mainly anxious to keep the 
 patent of their inherited religion, and were little more ag- 
 gressive than the Jews. Dr. Gardiner, their rector, was an 
 elegant scholar, an accomplished gentleman, an admirable 
 reader of the Liturgy, and at times an eloquent preacher; but 
 the tenor of his doctrine and administration was like that 
 which prevailed in his native island in the latter half of the 
 last century, when he was being educated — sound in principle, 
 but high and dry in spirit. 
 
 St. Paul's Church, fronting on the Common, was intended 
 by those who organized it to represent a more vital type of 
 orthodoxy than this — to be a refuge for those who desired the 
 security offered by a fixed creed and uniform Liturgy, and yet 
 would hear the truths which they embodied proclaimed from 
 the pulpit with pungency and power. Under its first adminis- 
 tration this church did not fully meet the expectations and 
 wishes of those who had embarked in it. There was too 
 much of ecclesiasticism in the pulpit discourse and pastoral 
 teaching of the learned rector to suit the tastes if not the 
 necessities of the time. After five years of unsatisfactory 
 experiment, the rectorship of St. Paul's was made vacant by 
 the decision of the bishop and his presbyters ; and the parish 
 left prostrated, depleted and in debt. What consummate wis- 
 dom did he need, who at such a juncture came to a church 
 elegant in structure indeed, attractive in position, but de- 
 pressed to the verge of ruin ! To dispense " the truth as it is 
 in Jesus " in the midst of a community habituated to the nice 
 distinctions of casuistry and to the keen and racy severities 
 of polemic strife, and to do it with vivacity and power enough 
 3 
 
26 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 to command and keep attention without the use of these 
 accessories, would have been a difficult work had the parish 
 been in the height of prosperity. To a post of such serious 
 and manifold embarrassments came our youthful divine, wise 
 beyond his years, and with a ripeness of intellectual training 
 which with marvelous versatility he transferred from the 
 class-room to the pulpit, and readily won for himself a com- 
 manding place among the guides of religious thought in the 
 metropolis of New England. Some recollections of Mr. 
 Potter's call to St. Paul's, and of the character and influence 
 of his ministry there, have been furnished by a professional 
 gentleman of long and eminent standing in Boston who en- 
 joyed his pastoral care and personal friendship. It may 
 diversify this narrative somewhat if, instead of culling out the 
 facts which he has supplied, we insert entire and in his own 
 language his graphic and affectionate contribution to the 
 memoirs of the pastor whom he loved in his early manhood : 
 
 Mr. Potter was invited to the rectorship of St. Paul's Church, 
 Boston, in 1826. This was done through the instrumentality of a 
 few gentlemen, members of that parish, who met at the house of 
 one of their number every Sunday evening for religious services. 
 The late Dr. John C. Warren, one of this small circle, had been 
 in professional attendance upon Francis Wayland, D. D., at that 
 time pastor of the Baptist society worshiping in Stilman street, and 
 subsequently President of Brown University, Providence. 
 
 The parish of St. Paul's had been about a year without a rector. 
 Dr. Jarvis having withdrawn from his ministration there. It was 
 the anxious desire of the gentlemen that the place should be filled 
 by an evangelical preacher and pastor ; which being made known 
 to Dr. Wayland, he, in a letter addressed to Dr. Warren, proposed 
 and strongly recommended Mr. Alonzo Potter, then a tutor in the 
 college in Schenectady, as a gentleman of talent, high cultivation, 
 mature judgment, deep religious feeling and of decided evangelical 
 views. It was ascertained by the few then interested that Mr. 
 Potter was such a person as they desired ; and an effort was made 
 
CHARACTER OF HIS MINISTRY AT ST. PAUL'S. 2/ 
 
 to induce the parish to invite him to the Rectorship. This was 
 soon done by them with great unanimity. Having accepted this 
 call, Mr. Potter was instituted Rector. 
 
 To understand the kind of ministry required of him at that time, 
 it is requisite to know something of the state of the religious senti- 
 ment and of the character of the community in which he was 
 called to labor. In the Episcopal churches there was not, and had 
 not been, a general understanding or reception into the heart of 
 the vital doctrines of the Bible. There were in all the parishes 
 individuals renewed in the spirit of their minds by the Holy Ghost, 
 but these were not associated in their efforts, and their separate 
 lights were but dimly visible in the surrounding darkness. Of 
 other denominations, the Congregational (Trinitarian) and the 
 Baptist societies had been for some years arousing from the leth- 
 argy into which they had fallen, and were producing a decided 
 influence upon the community. Previous to the call of Mr. Potter 
 there had been a " revival of religion," or more properly an incip- 
 ient interest in the minds of many on religious subjects, resulting 
 in the conversion of some, who then entered upon a religious life. 
 This quickening had extended to the Episcopal churches, leading 
 some to a spiritual change, and bringing within its pale a great 
 number of seriously disposed persons. The congregation of St. 
 Paul's was composed for the most, part of individuals of this class 
 when Mr. Potter came among them, and it was of such, from the 
 higher order in social position, that a large parish was formed 
 under his ministry. To educate these in religious truths, and to 
 bring them into the fold of the spiritual Church of the Redeemer, 
 to lead real but feeble Christians to a higher life, to make the 
 Episcopal Church "arise and shine," and to defend it from the 
 obloquy of pious persons of other denominations and from the 
 prejudice of a community generally indifferent to the great subject 
 of salvation, constituted the momentous and responsible labors on 
 which he had entered. For all this Dr. Potter was eminently 
 qualified. 
 
 To accomplish these great purposes he so arranged the prominent 
 features of his ministry that the several parts of ministerial duty 
 should support and strengthen each other, and all should tend to 
 
28 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the one great result of leading souls to the Saviour. In this way 
 his discourses from the pulpit, his addresses in the lecture-room, 
 his social intercourse and his pastoral visits, especially to the sick, 
 were distinctive in their character and yet closely allied in their 
 aim and their result. 
 
 A few words under these heads will perhaps portray his ministry 
 while in Boston more clearly than a more general delineation. His 
 sermons were adapted to his congregation ; they were well calcu- 
 lated to instruct in the elementary principles of true religion, and 
 to lay firmly the foundation and prepare for the superstructure of 
 Christian knowledge. Some of his hearers had come to him for 
 instruction without being aware what it was which they were seek- 
 ing or knowing what they needed. Some, who having listened to 
 a preaching which was a negation of the doctrines of Scripture, 
 were tired of instructions in disbelief, and had come to inquire 
 what they should believe, as yet ignorant of the meaning of the 
 injunction, "Repent and be converted." Many had come who 
 had received moral instruction from the pulpit, and were desirous 
 of a higher standard of truth. There were also those who had 
 experienced the power of the Divine Spirit, and who, although few 
 in number and but "babes in Christ," were they who were to sus- 
 tain their teacher by their prayers, and were to be in his hands a 
 little leaven to leaven the whole. 
 
 Dr. Potter so preached to these various minds as to lead all 
 onward, almost unconsciously, in the attainment of divine know- 
 ledge. This was done with such remarkable prudence and dis- 
 cretion as never to give offence to any — one of the peculiarities of 
 his preaching. He was never harsh nor severe. He delineated 
 the divine life and made it attractive. " Knowing the terror of the 
 Lord, he persuaded men" and led them gently to the Saviour. He 
 may have been sometimes thought to be wanting in the directness 
 of his appeals, but his prudence and sound judgment led him to 
 enlighten the understanding of his hearers and win them by the 
 love of Christ. His discourses were always Gospel truths. He 
 never preached on questionable subjects, but always chose the plain 
 and simple doctrines which the Bible inculcates as requisite for 
 salvation. These he illustrated plainly, and presented clearly the 
 
CHARACTER OF HIS MINISTRY AT ST. PAUL'S. 29 
 
 duties which they enjoined. The style of his writing and the 
 modeling of his sermons were well suited to accomplish his pur- 
 pose. It was more like that of Dr. Chalmers than of any other 
 eminent divine. He was remarkable for the closeness with which 
 he kept to his subject — perhaps sometimes copious in his illustra- 
 tions, but never wandering from the point to be enforced. The 
 heads of his discourse, always directing to a fixed centre, were 
 distinct and clearly defined, so that to this time the reading or 
 hearing a passage of Scripture which had been his text will not 
 unfrequently bring to the remembrance of one who heard him the 
 heads and something of the modeling of his sermon. There was 
 a connection in his sermons, a train of thought carried throughout, 
 which showed them to be the productions of his own mind without 
 adventitious aid — the easy and graceful flow from his treasury of 
 knowledge. One who had occasion not unfrequently to enter his 
 study when he was engaged in writing them has said that "he 
 could not but notice that the Bible, with pen, ink and paper, were 
 the only implements at hand." 
 
 The appointment of weekly lectures was another important 
 means of grace-. These were extempore addresses, delivered on 
 the Tuesday evening of each week in some hall obtained for the 
 purpose, there being no chapel at that time in connection with St. 
 Paul's Church. These were always solemn and impressive, and 
 were fully attended. Dr. Potter was aware that his auditors on these 
 occasions were those more advanced in Christian knowledge, and 
 the more seriously disposed of his people, or earnest inquirers for 
 the truth, and he so adapted his addresses to them as to meet the 
 requirements of each. On these occasions there was no restraint 
 in presenting the Gospel in all its simplicity and in all its power, 
 and urging its acceptance by the most eloquent and impressive 
 appeals. His gifts and graces fitted him eminently for the per- 
 formance of this duty. He was a most ready speaker. His 
 thoughts flowed freely, gracefully and connectedly, clothed with a 
 diction of surpassing elegance and purity, but there was never any 
 effort at display. He seemed to forget himself in the magnitude 
 of his subject. It was so also with his audience. They were so 
 lost in the contemplation of the momentous truths to which they 
 3* 
 
30 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 listened that they were not aware at the time of the intellectual 
 and eloquent feast of which they had partaken. These lectures 
 were instrumental in bringing a great number to a more perfect 
 knowledge of the truth and a personal interest in the great atone- 
 ment. As was said by an eminent Christian lady, advanced in 
 years as in the divine life, "His lectures were perfect." The 
 remembrance of them has been very precious to many listeners 
 who have now passed away, and are so still to the few who yet 
 survive. They were probably the first course of evangelical lectures 
 ever given in the Episcopal Church in Boston. Their power and 
 appropriateness were seen in the many seals which they afforded to 
 his ministry. 
 
 Pastoral visiting was another important element of success in his 
 ministrations. For this duty he set apart all the day of Monday 
 and the morning of Tuesday of each week. The afternoon of 
 Tuesday was occupied in preparing his lecture for the evening of 
 that day. The remainder of the week was devoted to writing one 
 or two sermons for the ensuing Sunday. In his pastoral visits to 
 his flock he was a faithful shepherd. In conversation he still 
 preached the gospel, unwilling that trifling or worldly converse 
 should intrude to the exclusion of religious subjects. It was his 
 general habit, in these visits, to read a portion of the Scriptures 
 and offer prayer. It is known in one family that he never came 
 there to a social gathering or into the domestic circle without using 
 these means of grace. 
 
 His visits to the sick and dying presented another prominent 
 feature in his ministerial character. These were not confined to 
 the time allotted to his general visiting, but were made at any time, 
 even daily when required. The writer of this brief sketch has very 
 often knelt with him in prayer by the bedside of those suffering in 
 lingering fatal disease, and testifies to the faithfulness of his pastor ; 
 and can truly say that he never felt so drawn to him in Christian 
 love or so venerated his deep piety as when he heard him plead- 
 ing with God to be gracious to the sick. 
 
 One or two instances of the faithfulness, perseverance and effec- 
 tiveness of Dr. Potter in the performance of this duty will present 
 him more clearly in this relation. On one occasion he was re- 
 
CHARACTER OF HIS MINISTRY AT ST. PAUL'S. 3I 
 
 quested to visit a lady who was a missionary of the Board of Com- 
 missioners for Foreign Missions. She had just returned from Malta, 
 where she had labored for some years as a most devoted and zeal- 
 ous missionary. Broken down by long and arduous mental and 
 physical exertion, she had come home to die in her own country 
 among her friends. The bodily complaint under which she suf- 
 fered was a disease of the spinal cord ; it was probably in conse- 
 quence of this that her mind became weakened and depressed and 
 her Christian hope at times obscured or wholly darkened. In this 
 condition she was visited by several of the wisest and most devoted 
 Christians, who sought to comfort her. But the presentation to her 
 mind of her faithfulness, even to martyrdom, to that Saviour to 
 whom she had consecrated herself, offered as proofs of her love to 
 him, failed to restore her peace. Dr. Potter was taken by her 
 physician to visit her under these circumstances. On learning her 
 condition, he soon led her away from the contemplation of herself, 
 holding up before her the blessed Saviour as able and willing to 
 save to the uttermost all who come to him. The sight of this for- 
 giving Saviour whom she had so long and deeply loved was to 
 her as was the brazen serpent to the children of Israel. It renewed 
 her affection, restored her faith and gave her peace. The bright- 
 ness of this picture of divine love would always dispel any clouds or 
 darkness which ever afterward came over her soul. She died not 
 only peaceful, but joyful in the assurance that she should soon be in 
 the presence of her Redeemer. 
 
 One other case, evincing the perseverance and faithfulness of Dr. 
 Potter in his endeavor to win souls to the Saviour, may be men- 
 tioned. 
 
 A gentleman of a highly cultivated mind, intellectual and acute 
 in reasoning, avowedly an infidel in his views, the editor of a 
 newspaper in Boston, was found by his physician to be so far ad- 
 vanced in consumption as to preclude all hope of his recovery. 
 The necessity of regeneration, salvation by Jesus Christ, justifica- 
 tion by faith only and sanctification by the Spirit had been earn- 
 estly pressed upon him by his medical attendant as being truths 
 taught in the Bible. But this had been stoutly resisted with the 
 most ingenious sophistry. Dr. Potter, having been taken to visit 
 
32 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 him, perseveringly continued his visits and instructions for some 
 time, but he resisted the logical arguments and the strong plead- 
 ing of the minister of the gospel with the same obduracy that he 
 had thrown aside the simple instructions of the physician. His 
 opposition went so far as to induce him to move from the city with 
 his family to a neighboring town, " to get rid, " as he said, ' ' of both 
 of his attendants. ' ' But he did not acconiplish his purpose. He was 
 followed by Dr. Potter, who continued there his faithful teaching. 
 And it was not long before this persevering effort was crowned with 
 success. He gave himself away unconditionally to God. Sending 
 again for his physician, he expressed in strong terms his gratitude 
 to God and to the instruments which God had used for his conver- 
 sion. His medical friend was afterward present, by his request, 
 when Dr. Potter administered the holy communion to the dying 
 man and received his infant child by baptism into the visible 
 Church. It has been said by one who saw much of Dr. Potter 
 under similar circumstances that " he did not remember a single 
 case where he had left the subject of his teaching short of the king- 
 dom of heaven." 
 
 Dr. Potter was eminently a Christian gentleman. This, with 
 his ability and acquirements, explains the strong hold which he 
 had upon the affections of his people and the respect entertained 
 for him by the whole community. He was remarkably dignified 
 in his manner and address, and yet urbane and syimpathizing. To 
 those who wished to see him unbend for trifling conversation or 
 frivolous engagements he might appear austere and repellant ; and 
 to some not seriously disposed he might seem unapproachable, but 
 to all devoutly inclined, or who would listen to the truth, and es- 
 pecially to those who had attained it, he gave a cordial welcome 
 to his friendship, his sympathy and his affection. 
 
 Dr. Potter was always ready to aid in promoting the interests of 
 education and sound learning. He was an advocate of scientific 
 pursuits. He gave his influence, both by precept and example, to 
 the cause of temperance. Each of these subjects he advanced with 
 great ability; sometimes by a course of public "lectures, sometimes 
 by a written discourse, but more frequently an extempore address, 
 in all which he was pre-eminently successful. His engagements in 
 
HIS TYPE OF CHURCHMANSHIP. 33 
 
 these various objects, with his incessant parochial duties, consti- 
 tuted a vast amount of labor, too great to be borne for a long time. 
 Exhaustion from this amount of work, together with other causes 
 not under his control, compelled him to resign his Rectorship 
 in 1831. No-Rector was ever more deeply loved by the people of 
 his charge, or mourned with a deeper sorrow when he left them. 
 
 Taken in all its aspects, his ministry in Boston for five years was 
 a marked success. It gave an impetus to vital religion which is 
 still felt and will extend to the distant future. 
 
 It is proper here to state that Mr. Potter, from the begin- 
 ning of his ministry, belonged to that school of theologians 
 and Churchmen represented by Bishop White and Bishop 
 Griswold, rather than to the Bishop Hobart school of that 
 day. In his system of doctrine, as in his pastoral teaching, 
 less prominence was given to the Church as a visible institu- 
 tion, to her ministry, sacraments and rites, than in the scheme 
 of many who were his contemporaries. Yet it may be doubted 
 whether he ever thought of the possibility of a connection, 
 private or official, with any other communion. He loved the 
 Church cordially and unfalteringly as he found her disclosed 
 in her articles and formularies. Her worship was as agree- 
 able to his taste as to his conscience. He did not chafe for 
 the liberty of Congregationalism, nor hanker after the sen- 
 suous and mediatorial rites of the Romish system. He did 
 not disparage the piety of his own spiritual household, nor 
 inordinately glorify it and pronounce that the covenant of 
 salvation is exclusively in its keeping. He was just a quiet, 
 consistent, faithful, straightforward clergyman of the Pro- 
 testant Episcopal Church, who earnestly preached its doctrine, 
 and gave its Liturgy — the only commendation which it or- 
 dinarily needs — the advantage of a reverent, natural and ap- 
 preciative delivery. Worshipers were thus persuaded that 
 ours is an "adrnirable Liturgy," although perhaps their 
 minister never said so. 
 
 The first of Mr. Potter's sermons which appeared in print, 
 
 c 
 
34 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the present writer believes, was his discourse before the Board 
 of Directors of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society 
 of the Protestant Episcopal Church, preached in St. James' 
 Church, Philadelphia, on Tuesday, May 12, 1829. This was 
 during his incumbency at St. Paul's. . There was then a 
 lamentable apathy in our Church in reference to the whole 
 work of missions, and especially of missions to the heathen. 
 Few felt interested enough even to reflect upon the enterprise 
 as a quest-ion of duty. There was not concern enough to 
 prompt an effort to gain information. And they who were 
 ignorant were worse than indifferent — they were prejudiced 
 against foreign missions. The willfully uninformed still are. 
 It is an interesting item in Mr. Potter's history that, at the 
 age of twenty-nine, he had been so singular as to have studied 
 this subject for himself, and arrived at earnest convictions tha' 
 were quite in advance of the popular sentiments of th 
 Church. Many more profound discourses he produced in 
 after years, but none of more fervor than this appeal for mis- 
 sions, and especially for missions to those afar off, sitting in 
 darkness and the shadow of death. " There is a warmth and 
 even passionateness of feeling infused into this sermon such 
 as could scarcely be matched among the other productions of 
 his pen. The fire of true eloquence is in it, for he spoke as 
 one who realized that he had a single opportunity to vindicate 
 a sacred cause before a religious community who either gave 
 it no heed or thought of it only to pronounce it Quixotic and 
 fanatical. The existence of a Domestic and Foreign Missionary 
 Society proves that there were some in the Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church who knew and endeavored to do their duty in 
 the dispensatiion of the Gospel. Some martyrs for the faith 
 had already offered their lives on the pestilential shores of 
 Africa, and some who did not go forth labored and gave and 
 prayed to sustain those who went. The mission to the Greeks 
 was then in its very inception, and the contributors for its 
 support few and faltering. It cannot be doubted that a ser- 
 
ORGANIZATION OF GENERAL BOARD OF MISSIONS. .35 
 
 mon of such fervor, delivered by a young divine of eminent 
 talents and position, and propounding ideas then novel (though 
 now happily familiar to thoughtful members of our Church), 
 had great influence in awakening the missionary spirit, and 
 preparing the whole body ecclesiastic for that notable advance 
 which was made in 1835, when the Church, by its great 
 Council, declared itself a missionary society, and every man 
 and woman in it a member thereof That idea was either a 
 sudden and special inspiration, or else, from a Few master- 
 minds imbued by divine grace with missionary principle 
 and sentiment, an influence had gone forth to infuse the 
 whole Church, which found utterance at length in that truly 
 primitive and apostolic declaration. The experience of the 
 thirty succeeding years gives sanction to the fear that the 
 truth was accepted with the understanding rather than real- 
 ized by the heart of the Church. Probably the general rep- 
 resentative body will never recall its avowal that the Church 
 is Christ's designated agency for the work of spreading abroad 
 his Gospel. Ah ! when will the great constituency feel in 
 every member that common duty can be fulfilled only by 
 individual fidelity, and that what the Master has required of 
 all he has required of each according to his measure? The 
 theory of this organism is perfectly correct; every baptized 
 person is a member of Christ's society for the dissemination of 
 the Gospel ; but, alas ! whatever grace accompanies the sacra- 
 ment, it is evident that infusion of the missionary spirit does 
 not always go with it, and so it befalls that this missionary 
 society — the Church — has in it a multitude of members who 
 take no part in its mission as the evangelizer .of the world, 
 and some who actively oppose the prosecution of its errand to 
 the heathen. This great mass of inert and of heterodox 
 material very seriously impedes the advances of the whole 
 body; and good men are divided on the question, whether it 
 is better still to abide by the theory and the mode of action 
 inaugurated under it, and to strive and wait for a more hearty 
 
36 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 appreciation of its truth to pervade the Church, or to accept 
 the limited existence of a missionary spirit as a lamentable 
 fact, and, without denying that the Church ought to do the 
 work in its corporate character, to meet the present necessity 
 by the voluntary association of those who harmonize in 
 opinion and feeling, and burn with a kindred zeal. 
 
 Alonzo Potter was one of those who doubted the expedi- 
 ency of abandoning the voluntary organization which existed 
 before 1835, and merging the whole of the general missionary 
 work of the Church in a Board elected by the General Con- 
 vention. He did what he could to dissuade from the change. 
 He never afterward came to believe that it had been a wise 
 measure. But he yielded with true loyalty to the decision of 
 the Church's great Council. He accepted the Board of Mis- 
 sions as the Church's authoritative agency for the conduct of 
 its missions, as the General Convention is its agency for the 
 structure and enactment of its laws. He never faltered in 
 his fidelity to that organism. He was always prominent and 
 influential in its counsels. He never believed that its errand 
 was done. He would never co-operate in any measures which 
 would embarrass its action. When the " Missionary Associa- 
 tion for the West" was organized, in his diocese, it could not 
 have had his sanction if it had not first consulted the com- 
 mittee of the Board in charge of our domestic missions, 
 secured their approval, and constituted itself as auxiliary to 
 them. He wished the experiment on which the Church has 
 been practicing for the past thirty years, of conducting her 
 missions in her organic capacity, to have a fair and full trial. 
 And if all men in the high places of the Church were as 
 thoroughly missionary men as he, desiring the simple dispen- 
 sation of the Gospel to the ends of the earth without par- 
 tiality, yearning for the salvation of souls and the honor of 
 their Redeemer, and subordinating to that end the numerical 
 increase of the visible body to which we belong, the experi- 
 ment at home and abroad would have proved a brilliant 
 
MR. POTTER'S PLEA FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 2i7 
 
 success, and few could have been found to pronounce the 
 scheme Utopian and visionary, and to demand its abandon- 
 ment or attempt its subversion. 
 
 Mr. Potter in 1829 struck a keynote of missionary truth 
 and spirit with which the Church is not yet in full accord. A 
 reprint of his entire discourse, published as a tract and scat- 
 tered broadcast over the whole heritage, would now be a 
 timely admonition. A somewhat copious extract from it 
 claims insertion here as a specimen of its eloquence, as an 
 utterance of its author's then mature and noble sentiments, 
 and as a tribute from one who " being dead yet speaketh " to 
 a holy cause and a fearfully unrealized duty. 
 
 But, my friends, claims yet more sacred have these pagans 
 upon us. We are Christians. We look on the heathen not 
 only as men, but as immortal men. We remember that life is a 
 scene of probation ; that here are formed characters with which we 
 enter and spejjd eternity ; and that as these characters shall be holy 
 or unholy, so must our ultimate condition be happy or wretched. 
 And with this fact before us we cannot but tremble when we think 
 of the ultimate condition of the heathen. God forbid that we 
 should shut them out from all access to his mercy ! We doubt not 
 that in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness 
 will be accepted of him. But where, we ask, are pagans who fear 
 God and work righteousness? Yes, estimating them only by the 
 dim and imperfect light under which they live ; comparing their 
 conduct with what they know, or might know, of moral duty ; com- 
 paring their daily actions with the dictates of that inward monitor 
 whose thoughts meanwhile excuse or else accuse, — where, we say, 
 are pious pagans ! Observation, experience, the concurring voice 
 not of missionaries merely, but of unprejudiced travelers, and of 
 travelers inveterately hostile to missions, these proclaim that there 
 are almost none. These proclaim that of almost all idolaters it 
 may be said, in the language of St. Paul, that while they know God 
 they glorify him not as God ; that they like not to retain God in 
 their knowledge ; that though knowing the divine judgment — that 
 they who commit such things are worthy of death — they not only 
 4 
 
38 ' MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them ! And if 
 such be their moral state; if such are the affections and habitudes 
 with which they enter the eternal world ; and if in that world we 
 have reason to believe that the predominant passions of the heart 
 are left to operate without restraint, — then what, I ask, must be their 
 prospects ? Paul hesitates ' not to pronounce of the heathen of 
 his time that they were children of wrath, without hope in the 
 world. And who that sees' his anxiety to give them the gospel ; 
 who that reads his expressions of compassion as he pronounces 
 them afar off, gone out of the way, alienated from the life of God ; 
 who that sees how his soul is pressed and straitened till he could 
 finish the work of his ascended Master; and, above all, who that 
 looks on the mission of this Master himself; who that sees Him 
 who was in the form of God becoming of no reputation and assum- 
 ing the form of a servant and made in the likeness of men, — can 
 doubt that the exigency was great — that the peril of those whom 
 he came to seek and to save was indeed imminent and awful ? 
 
 Here then is the pagan's claim. His soul is depraved, and, 
 dreadful as is the thought, he does seem to be treasuring up wrath 
 against the day of wrath ! He stretches out to you his imploring 
 hands, and as he sinks deeper and deeper in the abyss of ruin his 
 cries come up into your ears. And will you do nothing for his 
 help? No matter whether he is near or remote — no matter 
 whether his ruin is consummating on the banks of the Delaware or 
 on the banks of the Hindus. God hath made of one blood all 
 nations of men, and in his sight a thousand or ten thousand 
 miles is as one mile. Whoever needs your aid, in whosesoever 
 behalf appeal is made to your bounty, he is your neighbor. Re- 
 member then — I speak to each individual — there is one pagan 
 soul — -3. soul which must live for ever ; a soul for which your Saviour 
 bled ; a soul which can feel and suffer and enjoy as well as yoii — 
 there is one such soul that depends for salvation on you and on 
 you alone. After all that benevolence has done, or during the pre- 
 sent age can do, millions will still remain unenlightened. Select 
 one of these, and reflect that for you it is to say whether that soul 
 shall receive the offers of redeeming mercy. You can, humble as 
 may be your station, scanty as may be your means — you, by your 
 
MR. POTTER'S PLEA FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 39 
 
 prayers, your example and your bounty, can create an influence 
 which, going forth in the multiplied forms of Bibles and tracts, 
 and schools and missionaries, shall constitute a moral impulse 
 sufficient — I am conscious of no exaggeration when I say it — suffi- 
 cient to bear at least one soul triumphant into the joy of its Lord ? 
 But restrain those prayers ; refuse this bounty ; co-operate not in 
 this cause ; speak and act perhaps against it, and thus palsy the 
 energies of others, and that soul is lost. You cannot delegate its 
 conversion to another. You cannot bequeath it to posterity. It 
 has no protracted existence; it is contemporary with yourself; with 
 you it will descend into the tomb ; for you therefore — oh that the 
 Holy Spirit would write this truth on your inmost hearts ! — for you 
 whose are the means of its salvation, and without whose remissness 
 it shall not be lost — for you it is to say whether at the last day 
 there shall be upon your 'heads the guilt of its blood or the glory 
 of its redemption ! 
 
 Wish you, my friends, for other arguments ? They are at hand. 
 Others there are, and yet more imperious. You are Christians. 
 As such you hold yourselves bound to make reparation for wrongs 
 done by you to any other ! On this ground, what do you not owe 
 to idolaters? What for centuries have you been doing in pagan 
 lands but contracting a long and fearful list of arrears ? The 
 influence which Christendom has sent over those lands, what is it ? 
 Her merchant ships, her vessels of war, her soldiers and her traders, 
 what have they done for pagan morals and pagan happiness ? Ah, 
 let history answer ! Let her answer in terms which ought to wring 
 from us bitter tears. Let her tell of the refi.nements of civilized 
 vice engrafted on the rank luxuriance of savage corruption ! Let 
 her tell of burning tides of intemperance rolled across our Western 
 wilds, sweeping generation after generation to the tomb, and about 
 to extinguish the race of aborigines for ever ! Let her tell of 
 debauchery and disease carried by Christian ships to the islands of 
 the Pacific, and annihilating, in less than half a century, two-thirds of 
 their whole population ! And that endless series of wrongs and 
 retaliations, of external wars and internal dissensions, of frauds, 
 and oppressions commenced by the avarice and perpetuated by the 
 intrigues of Christian traders, — let these rise up before us, as they 
 
40 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 one day will before God, a swift, terrible witness ! For these 
 wrongs, my brethren, may they not claim recompense? What, I 
 ask, on the ground of simple reparation, what think you in His 
 sight who is no respecter of persons, what think you at His bar 
 who heareth the groanings of the prisoner and the sighing of the 
 oppressed, is not due from Christian nations to these victims of 
 their rapacity ? Oh that you could hear their cries as they now go 
 up before the Lord of Sabaoth ! Oh that you could hear Africa 
 tell of her children carried captive ; of her sons set up for sale in 
 Christian shambles ; of her tribes embroiled in interminable quar- 
 rels, and her once simple people now tutored in all the hellish arts 
 of cruelty and rapine ! Oh that you could hear India recount the 
 story of Christian conquests and Christian oppression, of Christian 
 avarice fomenting her bloodiest rites or looking upon them with 
 cold and heartless indifference ! Oh that you could stand by some 
 aged chief of your own native tribes, and see him point with flash- 
 ing eye and agitated hand to the sepulchres of his fathers, and hear 
 him tell of territories wrested from them by Christian violence, of 
 nations once mighty now dwindling away under the desolating 
 influence of Christian cupidity ! And oh, above all, that, as you 
 hear this fearful array of charges, you could also hear that no other 
 remuneration can be given, no other remuneration is asked, than 
 the gospel ; than that you who have so long been conspiring to rob 
 these nations of their people and their substance should now give 
 them back what is but their own, even the light of revelation, the 
 blest charities of Christian civilization and the glorious consola- 
 tions of an immortal hope ! Yes, brethren, this cause is the cause 
 of justice ; this debt is the debt of Christendom ; and shame to the 
 land, shame to the heart, that would evade it ! 
 
 And who would evade it ? Who, because we happen to be the 
 stronger, would tell these hapless nations to go back to their idols 
 and brood there over these unexpiated wrongs ? Or who will say 
 that the time for their illumination has not come — that they are not 
 yet prepared to receive or to comprehend the gospel — that they 
 must wait ? And is this so ? What ! when God himself declares 
 that the fullness of time has come, when he decided eighteen 
 hundred years ago that the world was ripe for the glad tidings of 
 
MR. POTTER'S PLEA FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 4I 
 
 redemption, shall we profess ourselves wiser than he ! Now that 
 such improvements have been made in the arts and sciences ; now 
 that facilities for extending the knowledge and securing the recep- 
 tion of the Bible have been so multiplied ; now that the art of 
 printing enables us to flood the world with the words of eternal 
 life ; now that navigation is opening to us new and unexplored 
 regions, and almost annihilating the distance which divides them 
 from us ; now that the human mind seems stirred by some mighty 
 impulse, and instead of being wedded to old systems of govern- 
 ment or religion looks abroad and talks of coming change, — is this 
 no time ? The apostles in face of the Roman power, in defiance 
 of an idolatry more inveterate than the world ever saw ; destitute of 
 numbers, or talent, or influence ; aided only by the gift of tongues 
 and the power of miracles, could go forth and in three hundred 
 years win the whole civilized world to Christ ! And shall we, with 
 the power of acquiring all tongues ; with the record of those same 
 miracles to authenticate (which was all that the miracles themselves 
 could do) the divinity of our commission; assisted, too, by so 
 many and such peculiar advantages, — shall we stand and parley, 
 and say it is not time ? Not time ! when paganism seems smitten 
 with infirmity and tottering under the imbecility of old age ! Not 
 time ! when the people of the saints of the Most High seem going 
 forth in serious earnest to take possession of the kingdom and 
 dominion and greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven ! 
 Not time ! when on every side we have proof positive and ocular 
 of the practicability and the success of their enterprise ! when the 
 notes of Christian praise are heard from the cliffs of the North and 
 the isles of the South ; from the shores of the East and the wilder- 
 ness of the West ; when whole villages of Asia are seen subverting 
 their idol temples, and tribes of Africa are heard calling out for 
 "good men and good books;" when the power and efficacy of 
 Christian truth are witnessed in the renovated lives and happy 
 deaths of many a pagan disciple ; when from the dying lips of a 
 Karaimoku, a Keopuolani, a Catherine Brown, there are heard 
 almost at this moment the accents of Christian peace and hope, — is 
 this not a time ? — When in God's name will be the time ? Are 
 we to wait till more generations shall have descended into eternity ? 
 4 » 
 
42 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Are we to wait till God, wearied with our sloth, shall work some 
 miracle to reproach our unbelief and supersede our labors ? Are 
 we to wait till in literal truth an angel of heaven shall come forth — 
 come to perform our duty ; come to publish in our stead the ever- 
 lasting gospel unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every 
 nation and kindred and tongue and people ? Shall we ? No ! 
 while we have opportunity let us do good — let us do good unto all 
 men. Now is the time, the accepted time ! Ships are freighting 
 for every idolatrous land ; access is opening to every wandering 
 and benighted horde : they wait, perhaps they long for our arrival ; 
 time presses — eternity is at hand ; and soon we who can give and 
 they who might have received shall stand together ,at the judg- 
 ment seat of Christ. Yea, brethren, the time is come, the set time, 
 to have mercy upon the heathen. 
 
 Say not that we forget the wants of our own country, of our own 
 Church. We forget them not. We know that they are great — that, 
 if you will, they are paramount. We see them pressing up for 
 relief from every quarter. We forget not that an eventful moral 
 experiment — an experiment involving not only our national des- 
 tiny, but the destiny perhaps of other nations — is here in progress ; 
 that among us there has been committed, for the first time, to 
 private benevolence, the task of Christianizing a great and ever- 
 growing people. We do not overlook the difficulty of this task, 
 nor deny that it has hitherto been grossly neglected. We often 
 compare the extension of population with the extension of religious 
 means, and contemplate the appalling fact that the latter is greatly 
 outstripped by the former ! In one word, that since the formation 
 of our government the cause of Christianity has really declined 
 among us ; that so great is the disparity between its advance and 
 the advance of population that it has lost more than one-third of 
 its entire relative strength ; that at this moment and in this land, 
 the asylum of conscience and the ark of civil freedom, there are 
 destitute of the means of grace not less than four millions of souls 
 on whose virtue depend alike the welfare and the being of our 
 republic ; and that, at this rate, but sixty years need elapse before 
 two-thirds of our whole population will be found living without 
 Christian instruction and dying without Christian hope ! These 
 
MR. POTTER'S PLEA FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS. 43 
 
 are facts which we do not deny, which we plainly see ; and as we 
 see them we confess that our hearts do tremble for our country — 
 for the ark of God ! 
 
 But what then? Because our brethren after the flesh have 
 claims, does it follow that the pagan has none? Because one 
 creditor is pressing, must the rights of another be forgotten ? Paul 
 was a debtor to the Greeks, but did he on that account forget that 
 to the Barbarians he was a debtor also ? Our countrymen are suf- 
 fering a famine of the word of God, but does that diminish the 
 necessities of the heathen ? Still they frequent the altars of a cruel 
 superstition ; still to the number of five hundred millions they pine 
 under a bondage direr than was that of Egypt — a bondage, too, from 
 which we alone can rescue them. Who then shall say, "There are 
 wants at home — I can send nothing abroad''' ? Let the one be done, 
 but let not the other be left undone. Pour the radiance of the 
 Gospel on the dark places of your republic, but remembering that 
 without its borders there are places yet more dark — remembering 
 that it was for their illumination also that this Gospel was con- 
 fided- to your care. On them also let that radiance be poured. 
 Nor wait ere you do this to see its last triumphs at home. Before 
 then centuries may elapse. Imitate rather the example of the 
 apostles. Go first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and 
 when they have received the invitation of Mercy, then, whether 
 they hear or whether they forbear, hasten onward. If, like the 
 chosen people of old, they put it from them — if they listen to it 
 only with dull and insensate hearts — then turn ye to the Gentiles. 
 Leave behind you Bibles to instruct, ministers to exhort ; and your 
 charity having thus begun at home, let it continue and increase and 
 advance. Its efforts are to be bounded only by your ability — by 
 the spiritual exigencies of mankind. The field is the world. You 
 niay not gather in a full harvest from one part of this field when 
 the seed is not even sown in another. ■ It must whiten together unto 
 the harvest. You may not introduce the millennium into one nation 
 when in another the slightest preparation for it has not been made. 
 The intercourse subsisting between them must for ever forbid this. 
 If you would indeed accelerate the approach of that blest era, you 
 must do as did the first missionaries of the cross. Having planted 
 
44 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the Church in one place, you must hasten to another. Having 
 made a lodgment in the enemies' country, you must plant at favor- 
 able points your fortresses, and leave them to complete the con- 
 quest. Your labors must be extended, and extended, and extended, 
 till missionary stations shall twinkle as radiant points over all the 
 expanse of pagan darkness. Then may you look for the second 
 advent of the Sun of Righteousness. From these stations shall 
 emanate a light waxing brighter and brighter. Fed by Christian 
 zeal and fanned by Christian prayers, they shall burn with an 
 intenser heat ; they shall diffuse a more resplendent lustre, until at 
 length the millennial day shall dawn, and over all the earth at once 
 shall the glory of the Lord arise. 
 
 In the autumn of 1835 — the same season in which the 
 Board of Missions vv^as organized — Professor Potter wrote to 
 his friend, Mr. Appleton : "... No subject can be presented 
 to the human mind more interesting and important than the 
 extension of Christianity, nor is there an object which will so 
 surely and liberally repay its benefactors. If missions did 
 nothing for the pagan or for the misguided, they would do 
 much for Christians in exciting them to form adequate notions 
 of the grandeur of their religion, of the forlorn condition in 
 which the human mind is found when without revelation, 
 and also of the proper use of the property and talents with 
 which God has entrusted them. And may we iiot hope, my 
 dear sir, if we can rouse ourselves to take some interest in the 
 salvation of others, that we shall in the very act be awakened 
 to more sensibility to our own religious concerns, and find 
 ourselves more strongly urged to make our peace with God ? I 
 feel great confidence that such will be the case, and my first 
 advice to those who are inquiring the way to a firm faith and 
 hope in Jesus Christ would be to be much occupied in doing 
 good to the bodies, and, above all, to the souls, of their fellow- 
 men. ' He that doeth the will of God shall know of the doc- 
 trine whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.' 
 
 " The prospects of the missionary cause in our Church are 
 
JDEPJiESSING INFLUENCES OF. HIS POSITION. 4S 
 
 brightening. ■ At the convention at Philadelphia a very gen- 
 eral and lively interest was manifested. The utmost unanimity 
 prevailed. Measures were taken which I trust may be the 
 means of awakening all the members of the Church to in- 
 creased activity and munificence." 
 
 To the same gentleman, a merchant and a man of fortune, 
 he wrote again in 1 843 : " My confidence in the importance 
 of foreign missions is not shaken. On the contrary, with the 
 great extension of commerce which characterizes our age, it 
 seems to me to be a sacred duty to make a corresponding 
 effort to extend the knowledge of the gospel ; and just at this 
 juncture the East, and especially China, evidently has among 
 foreign stations the highest claim on our attention. 
 
 "Whether our Church will support foreign missions de- 
 pends much upon the example which is set by our leading 
 laymen. We all need the stimulus of example to sustain our 
 confidence even in our own principles." 
 
 While Mr. Potter was identified in his opinions and sympa- 
 thies with what was reproachfully named the " Evangelical or 
 Low-Church party," he had as little of the spirit of a partisan 
 as it is possible for an earnest man to possess. He was deeply 
 averse to contention in the Church, and believed that the 
 interests of truth could be maintained by " a more excellent 
 way." Though noted all his life through for sagacity in the 
 choice of means to compass his purposes, he would never 
 lend himself to any subtle or indirect way of compassing the 
 personal success of himself or his friends. While Mr. Potter 
 was Rector of St. Paul's, his former college-mate, the Rev. 
 George W. Doane, became Assistant Minister at Trinity 
 Church. In his youth, as in his later and more distinguished 
 life, Mr. Doane was a man of very decided opinions, not alto- 
 gether in harmony with those of Mr. Potter. Moreover, he 
 was then, as ever afterward, active in their propagation. With 
 an energy whose honesty of purpose I would not asperse or 
 question, he endeavored to give his sentiments ascendency in 
 
46 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the Diocese. Before, under the gentle administration of 
 Bishop Griswold, there had been no scoring of ecclesiastical 
 differences, nor any array of opposing forces. Diocesan con- 
 ventions soon became occasions of unwonted excitement. 
 The Rector of St. Paul's was expected to take his part, and 
 that a leading part, in the endeavor to maintain the old regime. 
 He had no heart for partisan strife ; the seeming necessity for 
 it worried and wearied him. The burden of leadership in 
 such domestic conflicts he felt indisposed and unable to add 
 to the labors of his important pastoral cure. The sense that 
 he was expected by friends to do so was a constant trial to 
 him, and contributed its share to the accumulation of burdens 
 that broke him down and determined him for a while to desist 
 from pastoral life. After five years of most honorable and 
 successful service at St. Paul's, he felt constrained, by partial 
 loss of voice and otherwise impaired health, to leave a position 
 the honor of which he himself had greatly enhanced; for. 
 his parish, which, when he came to it, was reduced by dis- 
 cord and embarrassed with debt, had risen in members and 
 strength, in temporal and spiritual prosperity, to the very 
 foremost rank, and the spirit of his administration had be- 
 come so inwrought into its very being that it has never lost 
 his impress. The most earnest efforts were rhade by the 
 vestry and other friends to retain their beloved Rector. After 
 placing his letter of resignation in the hands of the parish 
 officials, Mr. Potter went to Schenectady. The proprietors 
 of the church were immediately convened, and a resolution 
 adopted in which he was requested to reconsider his purpose 
 and to accept a year's respite from parochial labor and the 
 means to occupy the time in European travel. Allusion to 
 these facts will be found in the following letter to William 
 Appleton, Esq., a friend and parishioner, to whom he had 
 become warmly attached, and with whom, through all the 
 remainder of his life, he maintained a more active correspond- 
 ence than with any other person. The pastoral fidelity man- 
 
FAITHFUL LETTERS TO HIS FRIEND. 47 
 
 ifested in this letter renders it a model for those who sustain 
 similar relations. We never shall know, until the great day 
 shall reveal it, what influence this gentle word of exhortation 
 had in bringing that distinguished man- to consecrate himself 
 and his substance, as he did in after years, to the service of 
 his Lord and Master : 
 
 Aug. IS, 1831. 
 My dear Mr. Appleton: We arrived here on Saturday p. m., 
 and you will be pleased to learn that Mrs. Potter experienced very 
 little inconvenience from her journey, and is now, with the excep- 
 tion of some fatigue, well. The proceedings of the proprietors 
 on Wednesday came to hand just after my arrival, and though from 
 having been advised beforehand of their character they could not 
 excite surprise, they have excited new feelings of regret that I seem 
 called upon to separate from so many cherished and generous 
 friends. You will pardon me, I trust, for saying that among these 
 friends I can never forget yourself You were one of the two who 
 first visited me in relation to St. Paul's, and yours was the last 
 hand which I was permitted to grasp. Through five years of 
 uninterrupted intercourse you have been my counselor and aid, 
 and my memory endeavors- in vain to recall the many, many acts 
 of kindness for which I am your debtor. My great regret now is 
 that I have not endeavored to discharge these debts by a more 
 faithful performance of my duty to you and to your family. You 
 will excuse me, my dear sir, for saying that you would be happier 
 and more useful if you would give your remarkable talents and 
 your generous heart entirely to God. It is with me a subject of 
 bitter self-reproach that I have not availed myself of some of the 
 many opportunities which our intercourse has afforded of pressing 
 this duty upon you in the confidence of private friendship ; and I 
 would now, with the solemnity which befits what may be one of 
 my last acts as your pastor, remind you of the young man in the 
 gospel whom Jesus loved, and who was not far from the kingdom 
 of God. If I mistake not, it is to a great extent your case ; and I 
 would impress upon you that it is only by forsaking all things for 
 Christ's sake, making his favor the first chief object of your desire 
 and your pursuit, that you can be saved. Would that I had so 
 
48 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 lived as to imprint this truth more deeply on your heart and under- 
 standing ! My light has shed but a dim and doubtful lustre through 
 the circle of my friends, and I feel that my example has done but 
 little indeed to enforce and recommend my preaching. 
 
 With the earnest prayer that God may draw you to himself with 
 the cords of his love, and make you a faithful and humble follower 
 of Jesus Christ, and employ in his own service those qualities and 
 powers which are now the delight of your friends, I remain, my 
 dear sir, As ever yours, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 After giving respectful consideration to the pleadings of the 
 parish for the recall of his letter of resignation, Mr. Potter 
 communicated the final decision to which he came, with his 
 reasons for it, in the following thoughtful letter to the same 
 friend : 
 
 Lake Champlain Steamboat, 1 
 Aug. 25, 1831. J 
 
 My dear Sir : I embrace a leisure moment, while returning from 
 Montreal, to communicate with you on the subject which remains 
 open between the parish and myself The excursion has been very 
 pleasant, and has contributed materially, I think, to improve my 
 health and spirits. I regret, however, to add that, with all the 
 opportunity for reflection which it has afforded me, it has failed to 
 present me with a sufficient reason for recalling the decision which 
 I some weeks since made respecting the Rectorship. You will 
 believe me when I assure you that I have not been deterred by any 
 foolish pride from faithfully reconsidering the subject, and that the 
 conclusion to which I have come now, as it is final, so is it to my 
 own mind at least, right. 
 
 Had I consulted inclination merely, I should have accepted the 
 generous offers of the proprietors. It would have served at least 
 to prolong a relation which to me has been a source of great hap- 
 piness, and of the total rupture of which I cannot think without the 
 greatest pain. If I am to travel in Europe or elsewhere, there is 
 certainly no title which I should be prouder to bear than that which 
 n^mes me Rector of St. Paul's. But there are interests at stake of 
 
REASONS FOR LEAVING ST. PAUL'S. 49 
 
 infinitely more moment than the indulgence or disappointment of 
 my wishes. The interests of your parish, which would, as I have 
 often remarked, be very unfavorably affected by my absence for a 
 year, and which, were I to find myself at the expiration of that 
 period still unfitted for duty, would be left in a condition much less 
 auspicious than that in which I propose to leave it now. These are 
 at stake.* They demand, I think, my immediate retirement, be- 
 cause I have very little hope that even a year's relaxation would at 
 present put me in a condition to discharge efficiently and perma- 
 nently the duties of the station. An efficient ministry is the only 
 one with which I can be content, and if, after laboring a few months, 
 I should become again incapacitated for labor, you will easily per- 
 ceive how much better both for the parish and for me it would 
 have been if I had persisted in the course I have already marked 
 out. I am strongly persuaded that tranquillity and comparative 
 leisure for a few years will enable me to rebuild my strength and 
 be in some station, more or less important, useful ; and as strongly 
 I am persuaded that taking the course recommended by the pro- 
 prietors would, in consequence partly of my moral and partly of 
 my physical temperament, destroy or render me useless in a very 
 few years. This belief is not grounded so much on any present 
 indisposition I suffer, as from a knowledge of the resources of my 
 constitution as compared with the calls which must and will, if I 
 remain at 'Boston, be made upon me. And here let me add, dis- 
 tinctly and emphatically (so that no mistake may be made), that 
 if my strength is found inadequate to your church, it is not because 
 the duties are so peculiarly arduous, for they are in no respect more 
 arduous than considering the state of the world and of the parish 
 they ought to be, nor is it because the officers or individual mem- 
 bers of the church have been unmindful of my health in their de- 
 mands for labor : on the contrary, they have been in the highest 
 degree considerate, often objecting to the amount of labor which I 
 have found it my duty to perform, and always manifesting the 
 utmost willingness to allow me every indulgence in the way of 
 absence and relaxation. My strength has proved inadequate, sim- 
 ply because it was originally slight, and I retire now not because 
 I am irretrievably broken down, but because at my period of life I 
 
 5 D 
 
50 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER'. 
 
 cannot recover without more and longer rest than is at all compati- 
 ble with the faithful or even creditable discharge of the ministry. 
 
 Thus niucli I have thought proper to say to you personally. In 
 a day or two I shall answer the letter of the proprietors, and in that 
 will set forth my reasons with more or less minuteness, as may at 
 the time seem expedient. In the mean time, you may wish to ma- 
 ture some measures in anticipation of the meeting, and I therefore 
 send you this letter in advance. The meeting may be called as 
 early as you think proper; my letter will be at Boston by the 21st. 
 
 He did not cease to minister at St. Paul's immediately after 
 his resignation of the Rectorship. Sometimes an unreasonable 
 estrangement of feeling ensues when a pastor feels it to be his 
 duty to vacate his post despite the protestations of a reluctant 
 people. Mr. Potter continued to serve his grieved but not 
 offended flock for several months. In the portion of the fore- 
 going letter which I have not thought it expedient to publish, 
 it is evident that he was their chief counselor in the choice 
 of one to succeed him. Every element in the parish had been 
 moulded into conformity to his principles and spirit, and the 
 wish was universal to secure a man of kindred sentiments. 
 Seldom does a church take and keep the impress of a Rector, 
 however protracted his term of service, as St. Paul's received 
 and has retained the character of Mr. Potter's ministrations. 
 It is instinct with his spirit to this day. 
 
 In Decen:iber, subsequent to his resignation, Mr. Potter re- 
 ceived a pledge of the unfailing love and interest of his 
 parishioners, whereof the following graceful letter indicates 
 the nature and conveys his acknowledgment: 
 
 • 
 James C. Dunn, Esq. : 
 
 My dear Sir: Your favor of the 12th, enclosing a check for 
 twelve hundred dollars, which you request me to accept as a token 
 of affectionate regard from a number of individuals of St. Paul's, 
 is before me. Had I obeyed the first impulse of my feelings, I 
 should have returned you the enclosure with the earnest request 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF A GIFT FROM ST. PAUL'S. SI 
 
 that I might be permitted to decline it. I have already received 
 from this beloved congregation so many expressions of regard, and 
 these — even had I made the sacriiices of which you are pleased to 
 speak, but of which I am by no means conscious — would have so 
 ■ fully rewarded me, that I cannot but feel some pain at being again 
 the object of their unmerited and too partial liberality. 
 
 On further reflection, however, I have thought that I should 
 better consult their feelings if I waived these scruples ; and in the 
 confidence that by accepting this generous gift I shall impart some- 
 thing of the same pleasure which I have ever experienced in receiv- 
 ing the kindness of my parishioners, I beg you to express to the 
 individuals interested my most grateful and affectionate thanks. 
 
 Should Providence render it necessary for me to travel abroad, 
 it will afford me no little pleasure to reflect that I derive the means 
 from friends endeared to me by so many and tender recollections ; 
 and should I remain at home, I shall place the amount in the 
 savings! bank as an offering from St. Paul's Church toward the 
 education of my sons. 
 
 With earnest prayers for the prosperity of the parish, and with 
 sentiments of the warmest esteem for yourself, believe me, 
 Dear sir. 
 
 Most faithfully, yours, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 Tremont street, Dec. 13, 1831. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 MR. POTTER AGAIN A PROFESSOR AT UNION COLLEGE. 
 
 IN the spring following, Mr. Potter was succeeded at St. 
 Paul's by his friend and college-mate, the Rev. John S. 
 Stone. He himself returned to "Union College," for no 
 sooner had it become apparent that Mr. Potter must retire 
 from pastoral care than the trustees of the institution recalled 
 him to a position of prime importance among her learned 
 Faculty. He now filled the chair of Moral and Intellectual 
 Philosophy and Political Economy, and carried back to the 
 college the scholarship and fame which he had acquired in it, 
 ripened and exalted in another sphere. 
 
 I have already adverted to the ecclesiastical difficulties 
 which at that period rendered the life of an orthodox, peace- 
 loving Church-clergyman uncomfortable in Massachusetts. 
 
 Bishop Griswold, in a letter dated December 15, 1831, 
 wrote as follows : " The churches in this Diocese have now 
 for twenty years been remarkably united, and little has been 
 said among us of High or Low Church. To which side indi- 
 viduals of our clergy incline I have known but little, and 
 cared less. I have endeavored to maintain a perfect impar- 
 tiality among them, but I have recently observed, and with 
 no little concern, that a spirit of such party distinction is 
 showing itself among us. Should it increase, I should think 
 it the greatest evil that had happened to our churches." The 
 strife that grew out of this partisan movement culminated at 
 the Massachusetts Diocesan Convention of 1832. Mr. Stone 
 entered on his duties as Rector of St. Paul's early in June, 
 
 62 
 
AGITATIONS IN THE DIOCESE OF MASSACHUSETTS. S3 
 
 " almost wholly ignorant," as he has declared in his memoir 
 of Bishop Griswold, of the ecclesiastical condition of things 
 around him. The convention, which opened on the 28th of 
 that month, revealed to him the whole. He then found that 
 he " had approached a mountain which from a distance had 
 seemed quiet and beautiful, only to be covered with a some- 
 what large proportion o^ the lava and ashes thrown up by its 
 sudden volcanic explosion. Could he from a distance have 
 heard its low, premonitory rumbling, or seen the heavy cloud 
 which was gathering so threateningly above it, this, to say 
 the least, would have much increased the hesitation which, 
 even in his ignorance of the true state of things, had well- 
 nigh prevented his entrance upon so important a sphere of 
 duty." This extract demonstrates that Mr. Stone did not 
 bring the trouble with him into the Diocese, nor enter into it 
 with alacrity and gusto when the issue came. Allusion to it 
 has here been made not for the purpose of directing attention 
 to a painful page in the history of the Church in Massachu- 
 setts, the actors in which have nearly all passed away, but to 
 illustrate a characteristic letter of Mr. Potter, which justice to 
 his memory requires to appear on these pages. It was ad- 
 dressed to his intimate and confidential friend, Mr. Appleton, 
 who had expressed, it would seem, some solicitude in view 
 of the unwonted condition of affairs. His generous sympathy 
 for his successor, his aversion to partisan strife and his expe- 
 rience of the peculiar discomforts of the time and place all 
 appear in it : 
 
 Union College, July 6, 1832. 
 My dear Sir: I was much gratified by the receipt of your 
 letter last evening. For some time I have been purposing to write 
 you, but not knowing certainly that you were at home, and doubt- 
 ing whether a letter directed elsewhere would ever reach you, I 
 concluded to wait till I could hear of your return. I am now re- 
 joiced to learn that you are not only at home, but so much im- 
 proved in health. May the blessing be continued ! I thank you 
 5» 
 
54 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 for what you say of Mr. S . I have already communicated with 
 
 him on the subjects you mention, and was glad to find in him a 
 strong dispositioii,to adopt some suggestions which I made, and a 
 desire very sincere, I believe, not only to keep the congregation 
 united, but to repress the dissensions which seem to be creeping 
 into your community. I have been excessively pained to see by 
 the papers what has taken place in the late meeting of convention. 
 The effect must be bad in every direction, and yet it is very possi- 
 ble that it was unavoidable. The fact that some men, both laymen 
 
 and clergymen, averse to parties, acted with Mr. S , induced 
 
 me to believe that he must have had strong reasons for the attitude 
 which he took. Be the fact, however, as it may, I shall not hesi- 
 tate to urge upon him the duty as well as the expediency of suffer- 
 ing much and long, rather than involve the Church in scenes like 
 those which we have been compelled to witness elsewhere, and 
 which are alike injurious and discreditable. 
 
 Mr. S is prepared to cultivate your good-will and to repose 
 
 much confidence in your opinion. I hope you will become inti- 
 mately acquainted with him. He is very frank and honest, and 
 will receive aiiy suggestions you make with kindness, and I am 
 confident they will be useful to him. I cannot cease to pray and 
 hope that a kind Heaven *ill smile upon his labors and his people, 
 and that you may still continue to stand fast with one mind and 
 one heart in the faith of the Gospel. For myself I abhor, and 
 with God's blessing will ever avoid, the quarrels into which clergy- 
 men are apt to be betrayed. But I know the difficulties of Mr. 
 
 S 's situation, and (confiding implicitly in your discretion and 
 
 confidence) I may add that he will have to bear with many sore 
 provocations. If he does not always evince the patience he ought, 
 I hope you will remember that he is but man, and that he will need 
 much of your counsel and aid. That he will receive them I have 
 no doubt, and that he is destined to be a more faithful and useful 
 pastor to you than I have ever been is my most sincere hope and 
 prayer. 
 
 Professor Potter, removed from the rasping atmosphere of 
 the sea-coast to the dry airs of the interior, relieved from the 
 heavy responsibilities and distasteful excitements of his pas- 
 
EARNEST DEVOTION TO COLLEGE DUTIES. 55 
 
 toral position, and restored to the quiet and familiar duties of 
 a college instructor, recovered his voice, and otherwise so im- 
 proved in health that he was able to postpone his projected 
 visit to foreign shores. He entered at once with all alacrity 
 into the duties of his office. He seems to have learned very 
 early in life that important lesson, "Whatsoever thy hand 
 findeth to do, do it with thy might." It is not only a duty 
 before God as being one of the precepts of his word, but it 
 is one of the essential elements of success. Some men would 
 have said to themselves: "My profession is that of a Clergy- 
 man ; I expect to return to the pulpit after a while. This 
 scholastic engagement is merely temporary ; it is but to fill a 
 gap in my ministerial life. It is needful only that I make 
 myself respectable in it. I will attempt nothing more." On 
 the contrary, in every stage of Professor Potter's life he 
 wrought as if he were engaged in his lifelong occupation. 
 On his return to " Union " he identified himself with the col- 
 lege as one who looked for nothing beyond it. With the 
 most assiduous labor and high enthusiasm, he applied himself 
 to study and instruction. His acquirements were so thorough 
 and so various that whenever emergencies arose in which a 
 substitute was wanted for the regular Professor, he conducted 
 recitations in logic, in rhetoric, in mathematics, geometry, 
 technology, trigonometry, or in Greek and Latin classics, as 
 the occasion might require, and exhibited such familiarity 
 with the whole curriculum of college study that he gained 
 the reputation of being qualified alike for whatever depart- 
 ment. As a teacher. Professor Potter was distinguished for 
 his rare power of analysis, his readiness in the use of all his 
 resources of knowledge and his peculiar terseness and felicity 
 of expression. He was eminently an educator — not content 
 with mere textual recitations, but studiously calling out 
 powers of thought and, language in his pupils and exerting 
 his own. He did not regard a college as an institution for 
 converting active young minds into stagnant depositories of 
 
56 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 other men's ideas, but as an intellectual gymnasium for the 
 training and exercise of their own faculties. But while he 
 cultivated freedom of thought and frankness of expression, 
 he enjoined and enforced the great principles of religion and 
 philosophic truth, not indeed as dicta of his own, but *5 sus- 
 tained by due authority and agreeable to the mental and 
 moral sense of man. The great themes of speculative thought, 
 the divers theories, false and true, of social economy, on which 
 studious young men are so sure to dwell and so apt to get 
 astray, were matters which fell properly to his department, 
 and he treated them with a fairness, freedom and ability which 
 gave him a prevailing influence over his classes. His mind 
 was incapable of disposing of any obnoxious dogma by in- 
 direction or subterfuge. He met error with a bold front and 
 on an open field, and not only silenced but convinced any who 
 ventured to be its advocates. It is believed that they who 
 went forth from under his moulding hand into the arena of 
 active life were with comparatively few exceptions established 
 in sound convictions and animated with true and lofty aims ; 
 and yet so unhampered and forceful in their powers that they 
 were ready to meet the actualities of their position, whatever 
 it might, be, with bold thoughts and vigorous deeds. Pro- 
 fessor Potter had from the first a wonderful power of impress- 
 ing himself upon those with whom he had to do. Some modern 
 theorists would call it magnetic force. He transfused himself 
 into them, took possession of their minds and wills, filled 
 them with his own thought and imbued them with his own 
 principles of action. "There was always," says one who was 
 associated with him as a Professor in the college — " there was 
 always something in the glance of that dark eye, and in the 
 decided expression of the countenance, which indicated very 
 plainly that men were expected to exhibit some knowledge of 
 the lesson; a circumstance which had a material influence 
 upon the amount of study given to the subjects in his de- 
 [nrtment." 
 
EFFECTIVE METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. $7 
 
 \From the same source we have the following sketch of his 
 method of conducting the exercises of the class-room: 
 " Either in the course of the recitation, or more frequently at 
 its close, he would himself take up the subject of the lesson, 
 clear the doubtful points, show its relation to other subjects, ; 
 illustrate by anecdote or by reference to ancient and modern 
 literature, science or art. These discussions, which seemed to 
 be entirely extempore, were uttered with wonderful ease and 
 fluency, without the recall or change of a single word, and in 
 elevated language which might at once have been transferred 
 to the printed page. Thus continually were brought forward 
 and applied the garnered treasures derived from widely ex- 
 tended reading and study, and which seemed to have been 
 stored away in the recesses of a capacious memory, as carefully 
 arranged\and as completely within reach when required as 
 the kindred groups of specimens in a cabinet of minerals. 
 The extent and variety of his knowledge were certainly very 
 great, but, after all, the perfect command of that knowledge, 
 the ability to lay it under contribution at any moment, was the 
 more prominent characteristic. His absolute command of 
 knowledge j^nd of language enabled him to speak, and to 
 speak to the ^oint, upon any emergency, however sudden, and 
 it empoweredihim to execute, as he often did successfully, that 
 difficult manoeuvre, to diverge gracefully from the main line 
 of discourse, a:nd, after the discussion of some related topic, 
 as gracefully return to the line which had been thus aban- 
 doned, apparently quite unconscious of having performed any 
 remarkable feat. 
 
 "The large and many-sided culture which found in him 
 an example so striking could not but be felt by those with 
 whom he was brought in contact. His view could be confined 
 within no narrow limits. His eye ranged over the whole field 
 of human knowledge, and he equally appreciated the value 
 of liberal acquirements in art, in science and in literature. 
 Hence the earnest worker in any department, whether the 
 
S8 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 worker were a college officer or a student, was sure of his 
 ready sympathy and aid. His deep interest in the advance- 
 ment of sound learning everywhere led him to labor with 
 untiring zeal in his own sphere." 
 
 Dr. Nott, the venerable President of Union College, was 
 now far past the meridian of life, and was applying his 
 versatile powers to the care of the fiscal concerns of the 
 institution ; a work in which he was so wise, forecasting and 
 successful that as the result of his measures the college will 
 soon be one of the best endowed in our country. The duties 
 of administration naturally devolved upon Professor Potter. 
 He had an inborn aptitude for government, and his relations 
 to Dr. Nott, most intimate and filial, possessed him with all. 
 the fruits of his experience. 
 
 " Dr. Nott's principles of government," says the same Pro- 
 fessor whose contributions to these pages have already been 
 acknowledged, " were in marked contrast with those which pre- 
 vailed in other American colleges,, and in no other hands, 
 perhaps, could have been successfully carried out. None 
 really held the reins with a firmer grasp, but their tension was 
 ordinarily so gentle that the presence of the curb was scarcely 
 felt. In his estimation, the perfection of government had been 
 reached when each student, quite unconscious of constraint, 
 governed himself He could not bear the thought of sending 
 forth a young man into the world with a stigma upon his 
 character, and was therefore utterly opposed to the infliction 
 of any disgraceful punishment. Hence his forbearance with 
 the indolent, the wayward, and even with the vicious, was 
 practically without limit. Like the cautious and kind-hearted 
 surgeon, he hesitated long before resorting to amputation, in 
 the persistent hope that milder curative means would finally 
 have their desired effect, or that the diseased member might 
 at length drop off of itself, leaving the structure of which it 
 had formed a part unharmed. 
 
 " But while he attached a high value to the system of the 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF COLLEGE DISCIPLINE. 59 
 
 President and cordially co-operated with him in administering 
 it, and while he fully appreciated his rare wisdom in judging 
 and his wonderful skill in execution, Professor Potter was less 
 hopeful than Dr. Nott of favorable results from long forbear- 
 ance with the indolent, and feared more than he the evil influ- 
 ence from the example of the incorrigibly vicious. His own 
 method was therefore less circuitous, and his discipline apt to 
 be comparatively short, sharp and decisive. Our Faculty 
 meetings served sometimes to illustrate very clearly the rela- 
 tive position of the two men on the subject of discipline. On 
 t)ne occasion the continued shortcomings of certain students 
 had been under discussion, and the adoption of more vigorous 
 measures with them had been strongly advocated. Dr. Nott 
 said, ' We must patiently strive to bring back the erring ; we 
 cannot secure high scholarship in all; there will always be 
 dunces in every class.' Professor Potter, in yielding the point, 
 said, with a tone betraying some irritation, ' Very well ; I 
 should, however, prefer not to have the responsibility of 
 making them dunces.' " 
 
 Professor Potter was a man of sterner nature than Dr. Nott. 
 His sense of right was rigid and uncompromising. Left to 
 his natural impulses, he would have ruled the college in a 
 more vigorous way. His ideas were, as we are informed 
 above, overruled somewhat by his official superior. Thus 
 modified he became, when formally appointed Vice-President 
 in 1838, a better administrator than he would have been freed 
 from Dr. Nott's influence, and perhaps on the whole better 
 than the doctor himself There can be no doubt that his ex- 
 perience as chief executive of a college, on terms of cordial in- 
 timacy with that veteran whose government had been ^ marvel 
 of combined gentleness and efficiency, was of the greatest pos- 
 sible value to him who in a higher and holier office was des- 
 tined of God to have the oversight and guidance of other men. 
 He retained his native decision and promptness, and acquired 
 a suavity and skillfulness in its exercise which reconciled those 
 
6o MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 with whom he dealt to the rigor of his administration. In- 
 deed, he learned the consummate art of controlling men with- 
 out their knowing it, so that while as a Bishop he determined 
 the course and policy of his Diocese to an extent rarely at- 
 tained in the Protestant Church, there seemed to be — nay, there 
 was — the greatest individual liberty. This was a science in 
 government for which he possessed, indeed, a peculiar apti- 
 tude, but which he learned under the light of a shining ex- 
 ample instead of by the hard and slow process of experience. 
 
 It fell to the lot of Professor Potter, when he served also as 
 Vice-President, to conduct the daily evening devotions in the 
 college chapel. " Surely," writes a fellow-Professor who still 
 adorns that seat of learning, " none whose privilege it was to 
 be present can have wholly lost in after life the hallowing in- 
 fluence of those impressive services. That they still remain 
 fresh in the memory of his pupils there can be no doubt." 
 One of them, after the lapse of a quarter of a century, says : 
 " Professor Potter always seemed to me to come to the col- 
 lege devotional services directly from his closet." 
 
 On the Sunday evenings it was his custom to deliver in the 
 chapel courses of lectures on the Evidences of Christianity, 
 which were attended voluntarily by large numbers of the 
 students. These were given entirely without notes. They 
 are said to have been powerful and effective discourses, ex- 
 hibiting that same large comprehensive extent and accuracy 
 of knowledge, clearness and logical sequence of arrangement 
 and purity and nervousness of style which distinguished Pro- 
 fessor Potter in the class-room. These were not mere scho- 
 lastic productions designed to show how Christianity could 
 be vindicated by the wit of man, as a law-professor would dis- 
 cuss the principles of Jurisprudence in a moot-court of his 
 pupils: they were the endeavors of a Christian man, of a 
 faithful steward of the mysteries of God, to convince the youth 
 who, under his tuition, were preparing themselves to be the 
 guides'of public opinion, that at the foundation of all social 
 
PROFESSORSHIP IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 6l 
 
 virtue and all true happiness there must lie eternal principles 
 of right sanctioned by the word of the Creator, and that they 
 are to be found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 
 In November, 1835, the founder of the Professorship of 
 Ecclesiastical History in the General Theological Seminary, 
 in whom was vested the right of nomination, tendered the Chair 
 to Professor Potter. In his prompt answer declining the ap- 
 pointment he wrote : " To be the object of your preference 
 would under any circumstances be very gratifying to my feel- 
 ings ; in the present instance, and coming as it does with the 
 assurance that your private views would not be unsatisfactory 
 to the Church, it is peculiarly so ; if I felt myself at liberty just 
 at present to follow my own wishes and return to the exclu- 
 sive service of the Church, few situations would offer greater 
 attractions than the one you have so kindly presented to my 
 notice, and I could hold office by no tenure more agreeable." 
 No reader will pass over this item in the history of Bishop 
 Potter's early manhood without falling into a reverie of specu- 
 lation upon the possible results that might have followed a 
 contrary decision. He could be a teacher of young men no- 
 where without impressing himself upon them by an influence 
 quite predominant. And if in all these years the history of 
 opinion and worship in the Church had been studied in our 
 principal school of the Prophets, under such exposition and 
 comment as he would have given, would there have been so 
 widespread an inclination to revive doctrines and practices 
 and alliances which our Protestant fathers renounced? If 
 Alonzo Potter had spent his riper years in training men for 
 the ministry of the Church, would he have accomplished more 
 or less for the welfare of the Church and the glory of its 
 Divine Head than he achieved in a loftier office ? Or would 
 he have been himself modified by a more exclusive and 
 special line of reading, in the stead of the liberal and diversified 
 range of study by which his mind was enriched and amplified, 
 and his liberal and catholic character fashioned ? Who can tell ? 
 
 6 
 
62 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 In the autumn of 1835, also, an effort was made to draw Dr. 
 Potter back to Boston as Rector of a new and beautiful church 
 then just completed. It was in fact a product of his own 
 effective ministry while at St. Paul's. The nucleus of the con- 
 gregation was a body of active and earnest Christian men who 
 had been stimulated to effort by his influence, and who inau- 
 gurated their enterprise in the same building in which Dr. 
 Potter had held his exceedingly useful and popular Tuesday 
 evening and other occasional expository lectures — then a 
 novel means of pastoral instruction by a Clergyman of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church in Boston. " Grace Church " 
 was born and cradled in the same little chapel in Bedford 
 street. And no importunity was spared, when the hopeful 
 young parish had succeeded in rearing an elegant Gothic 
 church, to persuade him who had in fact been the indirect 
 occasion of its establishment, and whose acceptance of the 
 cure would ensure to it immediate and eminent success, to 
 give it the prestige of his name and the blessing of his wise 
 and faithful administration. Their persuasions were warmly 
 and generously endorsed by his manly successor at St. Paul's. 
 Only three years having elapsed since he had felt constrained 
 to retire from parochial duty in Boston, tearing himself as it 
 were from a people whose heartstrings were still sensitive 
 from the wound of disappointment, it would seem that " the 
 wish" must have been "father to the thought" that such a 
 change were possible. The call was declined, and the Rev. 
 Thomas M. Clark (now the eloquent Bishop of Rhode Island), 
 then a newly-ordained Deacon in our Church, became ere long 
 the popular and attractive Rector of Grace Church. Under 
 him a large congregation was gathered. But under subse- 
 quent repeated changes in the Rectorship it again declined, 
 and at length, by an unfavorable shift in the tide of population, 
 the locality of the church became unsuitable, and it passed out 
 of the hands of Churchmen, and — strange and mortifying result! 
 — Grace Church Parish fell in dissolution ! 
 
EFFORTS FOR MECHANICS AND APPRENTICES. 63 
 
 Most men would have felt that in preparation for such mul- 
 tifarious exercises connected with the work of public educa- 
 tion as Professor Potter pursued at the College, g.nd in the ful- 
 fillment of ministerial duty whenever opportunity presented 
 itself, they were applying all the time and all the power which 
 society might reasonably require of them. Judged by the 
 common standard, Dr. Potter, it will be seen, did some works 
 of supererogation. The young Mechanics and Apprentices 
 awakened his interest, and were made to feel his elevating 
 influence as well as they who entered the School of Letters. 
 Soon after his return to the College in 1832, he instituted 
 public scientific lectures for the benefit of such in Schenectady, 
 and organized them, we believe, into an association for reading 
 and other exercises for mental improvement. This was, if 
 not the first, certainly among the first, of those experiments 
 out of which has grown the establishment of Apprentices' and 
 Young Men's Lyceums, Institutes, Libraries and Reading- 
 rooms throughout the country. 
 
 One of his earliest enterprises, after fixing his Episcopal 
 residence in Philadelphia, was to inaugurate " Young Men's 
 Institutes," and in each of the four quarters of the city he 
 soon succeeded, with the aid of active Laymen whom he 
 aroused to interest in the object, in effecting their establish- 
 ment and procuring means for rearing large and imposing edi- 
 fices for their accommodation, the corner-stones of which he 
 laid with appropriate ceremonies and with addresses full of 
 practical wisdom. 
 
 Dr. Potter's efforts to provide attractive and edifying enter- 
 tainment for the young tradesmen and mechanics of Schenec- 
 tady led to his being called out for the inauguration of sim- 
 ilar undertakings in other towns throughout the interior of 
 the Commonwealth. 
 
 One of his addresses to mechanics and apprentices, delivered 
 at Poughkeepsie in 1836, lies before me. It is replete with 
 manifestations of his lively interest in the advancement of the 
 
64 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 laboring classes, and with practical suggestions of the true 
 methods by which their real dignity and legitimate power 
 may be prompted and recognized. In acceding to their 
 request for its publication, he wrote : " The substance of the 
 following address was delivered some time since before the 
 young mechanics of Troy, and also before those of Schenec- 
 tady, and the author yields with less reluctance to the pres- 
 ent request for its publication, inasmuch as similar requests 
 had been previously made from those places. He asks for 
 its suggestions the candid consideration of young mechanics 
 and apprentices, and he sincerely hopes that it may contribute, 
 in some slight degree, to animate them in their efforts at self- 
 improvement. It is his intention to offer for their acceptance, 
 at no distant day, two small volumes designed especially to. 
 aid such efforts, one on ' The Application of Science to the 
 Useful Arts,' and one on those ' Principles of Political Econ- 
 omy ' which are most interesting to the industrial classes." 
 
 This brief preface reveals how much of his time and 
 thoughts were given to the improvement of a class of young 
 men for whom literary celebrities and College Professors 
 usually have little care. Dr. Potter was as thoroughly repub- 
 lican in the realm of letters as of civil rights, while he was 
 in neither, a fanatic or a demagogue. He wanted every post 
 of honor and of power open -for the competition of all, but 
 he did not maintain, with some, that every hard-fisted man is 
 by intuition fit for whatever elevation. He strove to awaken 
 in the humblest citizen a legitimate ambition, not to seize with 
 rude and boorish hand places of trust and influence which 
 only skill and culture can well administer, but by timely and 
 diligent training to become qualified for them. He sought to 
 level society up to a mountain plane where life is intense, not 
 to drag it down to a dank and fetid morass on which existence 
 is barely tolerable, and men at the utmost nerve themselves 
 not to do, but to suffer. His whole address was predicated 
 upon the assumption that " it is perfectly practicable for a 
 
HOW MECHANICS MAY GAIN MENTAL CULTURE. 65 
 
 young man to be cultivating the highest talents, nursing the 
 noblest purposes, drinking deeply from the purest springs of 
 knowledge, while he still pursues with diligence and zeal his 
 daily task in the forge or at the work-bench." * The proposi- 
 tion seems paradoxical, but on a subsequent page we find 
 Professor Potter's suggestion of the way in which this process 
 of self-culture may go on. His own habits of untiring 
 industry, maintained throughout his life, his rich and varied 
 attainments, the results of that diligence, afford a very forci- 
 ble illustration of the practical value of those hints by which 
 he sought to fire the ambition and assure the success of others 
 in less hopeful circumstances. At first thought it would be 
 said that the mechanic could not command time enough for 
 application to study, that the stated hours of manual labor 
 extend through so much of the day as to leave no space for 
 devotion to books. On this point we may profitably repro- 
 duce the suggestions of Dr. Potter : " A man's achievements 
 do not depend upon the time allowed him. They depend 
 rather on his energy and spirit. To a listless, lethargic, idle 
 man you might give ages, and he would effect nothing; 
 whereas, a man full of fire, and bent on some great end, 
 seems to have the art of converting his minutes into hours. 
 Husbanding every moment with a miser's care, he accomplishes 
 in those little fragments of leisure which most men think 
 nothing of wasting, works that would seem to have required 
 years. And perhaps they did require years, for minutes mul- 
 tiplied swell at last into years ; and many a one whose apology 
 it is that he lost only a moment here and a moment there 
 will at length find, when he reaches the age of fifty or sixty, 
 that these little moments have extended into years — long 
 years — which stand a melancholy blank in the history of his 
 life. It is related of the celebrated Madame Campan, that 
 she composed one or more of those works which, have 
 been so popular during the brief intervals which were accus- 
 tomed to elapse between the moment of her obeying the sum- 
 
 6* E 
 
66 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 mons to dinner and that of sitting down to table. Mr. 
 Brougham [Lord Brougham, no\y lately deceased], whose 
 labors present such a miracle to the scholar of these degen- 
 erate days, who, in addition to his cares and labors in the 
 Courts and in Parliament — sufficient of themselves to over- 
 whelm ordinary men — finds time to master all the discoveries 
 of modern science ; nay, to place himself in the very front 
 rank of writers and inquirers ; nay, to write books on Natural 
 Theology ; who can be seen at one hour probing the abuses 
 in the public charities of the country, at the next investigating 
 the state of popular education, and giving to that education 
 new impulses ; and perhaps before the day closes bestowing a 
 last revision on some work designed for the instruction or 
 entertainment of the common people ; — this man tells us, as the 
 secret of his labors, that he has work cut out for every moment, 
 and that he never postpones for an hour what can be done now. 
 And another name [John Wesley] associated with, or rather, 
 under Providence, the source and strength of, one of the 
 greatest religious movements recorded in history — a name 
 which will ever be quoted as an example of energy and moral 
 power — can hardly be recalled without thinking of that favor- 
 ite motto of his, ahvays in haste, but never in a hurry. 
 
 " Here then is the way in which you can make time for the 
 pursuit of knowledge. It is by gathering up the fragments 
 that nothing be lost — by hoarding them with a frugal care, or 
 rather by spending them with a provident liberality in laying 
 up stores of useful science which at some future day will repay 
 you an hundred fold. Consider for a moment what these frag- 
 ments amount to in a year. It will be admitted, I presume, 
 that, after meeting all the claims of your business, your family, 
 your health and your religion, you can still save out of every 
 day, in ' odd ends ' of time, nearly if not quite two hours, which 
 is about one-eighth of all the hours not spent in sleep. Thus 
 one-eighth of the whole of life may be devoted to intellectual 
 improvement, amounting (should a man live to the age of 
 
DR. POTTER'S BOOKS FOR THE PEOPLE. 6/ 
 
 threescore) to almost eight entire years. And is that all? 
 Far from it. These brief intervals for study recurring each 
 day, and several times a day, will if improved supply constant 
 materials for interesting thought during your hours of labor, 
 so that not only may knowledge be acquired while you are 
 poring over books, but that knowledge can be digested and 
 incorporated with the very substance of the mind while you 
 are at work ; nay, can effectually be amplified and enriched by 
 the new applications and illustrations which will be suggested 
 by your pursuits or by intercourse with others." 
 
 By popular lectures and wise and stimulating' counsels, 
 Professor Potter became, in all the interior of New York, the 
 recognized pioneer in the organization of Young Men's Asso- 
 ciations, and in placing them in that important position which 
 they still occupy. His useful services in this behalf were 
 formally acknowledged in a resolution adopted by a Genera) 
 Convention of Delegates from the local Institutes h^d at 
 Auburn in 1842. At their request he made ready and issued 
 in the following year a volume entitled " Hand-Book for 
 Readers and Students," intended especially to aid those who 
 should be charged with the selection of libraries for such 
 institutions. In the same year he prepared for the American 
 press, with valuable introductions from his own pen, and with 
 a view to the benefit of the same active and intelligent classes, 
 " Maury's Principles of Eloquence " and " Michelet's Modern 
 History." About the same time appeared from his abundant 
 stores " The Principles of Science applied to the Domestic 
 and Mechanic Arts," large portions of which, as stated in the 
 preface, had been delivered in the form' of Lyceum lectures. 
 
 Dr. Potter was a republican on principle. He did not owe 
 it to the accident of birth in a Commonwealth that he believed 
 in the political institutions that are here established. He 
 accounted society capable of self-government. He loved 
 mankind, and both as a philanthropist and a patriot he took 
 the liveliest interest in the diffusion of knowledge and the 
 
68 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 increase of public intelligence and virtue. He had no petty 
 jealousy which inclined him to keep science in the possession 
 of a few magi, and to hold the rest of the world in a state of 
 darkness and abasement. But, impressed with a profound 
 sense that he was born to be useful, he was eager to dispense 
 what he possessed, and to equalize the condition of society by 
 elevating its depressed portions and making the endowments 
 of heart and mind a common heritage. 
 
 Animated with such principles, he could not be indifferent 
 to the subject of free schools. At that period the objections 
 which have since become current in some quarters had 
 scarcely been broached, and were sustained by no facts of ex- 
 perience. " False doctrine, heresy and schism " had not 
 become so strong and presumptuous as now. Especially was 
 that dominion of darkness which practices on the false adage, 
 " Ignorance is the mother of devotion," then much less ag- 
 gressive than it has since become. Like Samson waiting for 
 his locks to grow, Romanism was then very submissive and 
 obsequious. No objection was' made by anybody to the 
 reading of the Bible in the common schools (and that is all 
 that any considerate Christian has ever asked). The ignoring 
 of all religion in our system of public instruction, oblivious 
 of the fact that there is a Book of more value than all books 
 beside, would render the education of our people very insuf- 
 ficient for the duties of American citizenship. It is not only 
 needful for a man under our civil economy to be able to 
 acquaint himself with facts, and to understand their relations 
 when acquired, but also to know what is right and to have 
 some acknowledged standard of good morals. This is an 
 integral part of an American education. Peculiar systems of 
 faith deduced by the ingenuity of Divines with more or less 
 of fairness from the Bible, Dr. Potter believed might be fitly 
 left for children to learn at home and in connection with their 
 respective Sunday-schools and churches ; but the simple text 
 of the Word he esteemed an essential part of that knowledge 
 
HIS INTEREST IN COMMON SCHOOLS. 69 
 
 which it is the duty of the State and the interest of society to 
 impart to each and every individual. It has seemed just to 
 the memory of one who took -a very active part in fashioning 
 the common-school system which now obtains in the Eastern 
 States to define his position on this great and now agitating 
 question of the exclusion of all reference to religion. Select 
 narratives out of the Holy Scriptures are all that the Unitarian 
 regards as admissible; while the Papists are clamoring for 
 the exclusion of the whole Bible, or — the appropriation of a 
 part of the school fund to them according to their numerical 
 strength (not according to the portion of the taxes which they 
 pay) for the support of their denominational schools. 
 
 The common school would cease to be a blessing to the 
 country when, by omitting to give any culture to the moral 
 sense, it should suggest to the youth of the land the idea that 
 for the well-being of society it is only needful that the intel- 
 lectual faculty of the people be rightly trained and kept in 
 exercise. And when any one Christian Church or body may 
 from the common treasury feceive the means to sustain its 
 own schools, of course every other one may reasonably claim 
 a like favor : — the common schools would so be disbanded, and 
 the State, instead of being as now the teacher of a simple 
 Christian and harmonizing morality, would make itself the 
 abettor of Protean forms of faith, a contributor to the perpe- 
 tuity of sect and a fomenter of partisan bigotry and bitter- 
 ness. 
 
 Under the conviction that the public schools as originally 
 established, with an open Bible, but without polemic instruc- 
 tion, gave just that measure of religious tuition which the 
 common welfare demands, without detriment to the denomi- 
 national interests of any. Dr. Potter lent his influence to their 
 extension and perfection. He put himself into communica- 
 tion with those in his own and other States who were most 
 actively occupied with the subject, such as Professor Henry 
 and Messrs. Barnard, Philbrick, George B. Emerson and 
 
JO MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Horace Mann. He attended educational conventions, and 
 often lectured before them. His influence became second to 
 none in moulding the educational system of the State of New 
 York. Mainly through his influence, before the establish- 
 ment of normal schools, arrangements were made with cer- 
 tain academies to open departments for the proper education 
 of teachers. Having thus come to be recognized as a leading 
 spirit among the friends of popular instruction, he was selected^ 
 in 1842, by James Wadsworth of Genesee, to prepare, in con- 
 cert with Mr. George B. Emerson of Boston, a volume which 
 should discuss the object, relations and uses of the school, 
 and also set forth the proper character, pursuits and duties 
 of the teacher. This volume, entitled " The School and the 
 Schoolmaster," was published in 1843, and distributed gratu- 
 itously, through the generosity of Mr. Wadsworth, in all the 
 school districts of the State. In this work Professor Potter 
 strongly advocated the establishment of normal schools for 
 teachers. It would perhaps be assuming too much were one 
 to say that, in consequence of the force of Dr. Potter's argu- 
 ments, the State Legislature in the following winter enacted 
 the bill by which the State Normal School was instituted. 
 He was chosen to be a member of the first Executive Com- 
 mittee, June I, 1844, together with Colonel Samuel Young 
 (State Superintendent of Schools), Gideon Hawley (of Al- 
 bany), William H. Campbell, D. D. (afterward President of 
 Rutgers College), and Francis Dwight. He was delegated 
 to bear his appointment to the first chosen Principal, to confer 
 with him on the organization and conduct of the school and 
 to attend to its inauguration. Thus it will appear that he was 
 the working man on that commission. Indeed, he was an 
 active and often controlling power in every committee on 
 which he consented to be placed. He never lent the prestige 
 of his name where he did not apply also the vigor of his 
 helpful power. 
 
 From the facts here presented, it is fully apparent that Dr. 
 
COMMON AND PARISH SCHOOLS. J I 
 
 Potter gave his cordial support to the common-school system 
 ais it was developed in his day. As a religious man, as an 
 earnest member and Minister of the Church of Christ, he felt 
 no scruple in laboring for the establishment of schools in 
 which the children of persons of every shade of religious 
 opinion should be congregated, instructed in secular learning 
 and taught the common lesson of reverence for God's Word 
 and acquaintance with the text of its sacred pages. He be- 
 lieved that the influence of such schools would conduce not 
 to a general indifference to all religion, nor to an abjuring of 
 the doctrines of Christianity; but to an universal respect for its 
 sanctity and a diffused sentiment of mutual charity that would 
 surely abate the evils of sect,and contribute in a remote way to 
 the fusion of all good Christians in one holy catholic Church. 
 This position did not commit Dr. Potter to a course of hos- 
 tility against parish and other Church schools, very many of 
 which were organized in his Diocese after he came to the 
 episcopate with his full approbation. Create as many as we 
 may of these, there will be still an outlying throng of chil- 
 dren that cannot be drawn into them, and for all of whom the 
 Church would scarcely make provision if they could be. The 
 smaller the sect, the narrower its spirit. Those religious 
 bodies which are least able to educate their own children are 
 most unwilling that other Christians should do it for them ; 
 so that if all the stronger denominations should institute 
 sc'iiools for the instruction of the young belonging to them 
 respectively, the common school would be broken up, and the 
 children of the feebler sects be deprived of any education. 
 Besides, in the smaller communities, where, as is usually the 
 case, there is much division of religious sentiment and rival 
 meeting-houses stand in weak profusion, no Christians of any 
 name are numerous enough to sustain efficient parish schools. 
 In such places the common-school system alone can provide 
 suitably for the mental wants of the young. Yet, on the 
 other hand, in towns and cities where the population is large, 
 
72 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 there are classes of children for whom the influences of the 
 parish school are most desirable. Its more complete and 
 specific Christian instruction is far more likely to be attended 
 with spiritual results. The culture which deals with all parts 
 of man's complex nature, and educates him both for time and 
 for eternity, is certainly to be preferred where it may be had ; 
 and so, in their measure and place, Dr. Potter throughout his 
 life bestowed on parish schools his favor and support, while, 
 considering the structure of American society and the sparse- 
 ness of much of our population, he labored to perfect and 
 extend the common-school system wherever his influence 
 might be felt. In his Diocesan Address of 1847 he thus 
 expressed himself respecting Common Schools : 
 
 " I cannot dismiss the subject of scholastic education for our chil- 
 dren without expressing my hope that an interest in the institutions 
 just mentioned will not lessen our solicitude for the support and 
 improvement of the common schools of the State. Pennsylvania is 
 now engaged in a noble effort to supply every child within her limits 
 with the means of elementary instruction; and the success of that effort 
 must be a cherished objectwilh all who would see our civil institutions 
 properly administered, or the claims of Christianity in general, and 
 of our own Church in particular, properly appreciated. The friends 
 of sober piety and of primitive apostolic truth have everything to 
 hope and nothing to fear from the spread of intelligence among the 
 people ; and that is an end which can be secured, in the first instance, 
 only by a general system of schools aided by the bounty of the St%te 
 and subjected to one plan of supervision. Where there are diver- 
 sities of language and religious faith, and where large masses of 
 population are unconnected with any religious body, experience 
 has shown that education cannot become general, without the inter- 
 vention of a central authority which can at once foster, concentrate 
 and direct the awakening interest in schools. In this country that 
 authority must leave to the people in the respective districts the 
 details of school government, insisting only on a certain standard 
 of mental and moral qualification in the teachers and a certain 
 amount of time to be employed in communicating instruction. In 
 
ENGAGED IN THE TEMPERANCE REFORM. 73 
 
 such a country, too, specific religious instruction must be communi- 
 cated to the pupils of common schools, principally through the 
 agency of parents, Sunday-schools and pastors. As these schools 
 are attended almost exclusively by day scholars, it can be given to 
 them chiefly at home and in connection with their respective par- 
 ishes ; or it might, as in some countries of Europe, be imparted in 
 school at certain prescribed times by the respective Clergymen who 
 have charge of the families to which children in attendance belong. 
 No difficulty on this subject ought, I conceive, to endanger the para- 
 mount object of bringing the neglected children of indigence, of 
 vice and of sordid indifference under the benign influence of those 
 who can teach them much, if not everything ; and who, in pro- 
 portion as they open their understandings and raise their tastes, will 
 only prepare them the better for that religious culture which other- 
 wise they might never have attained. It should be considered, 
 too, that most of the children taught in our common schools can 
 never enjoy the advantages of such seminaries as we have in con- 
 nection with our Church, and if educated at all must be educated 
 near their own homes and at rates made sufficiently low by the 
 united contributions of the holders of property, who, for all they 
 contribute to schools, will receive abundant return in the diminu- 
 tion of taxes and in the increased security of their persons and 
 estates. ' ' 
 
 While Dr. Potter was thus one of the foremost among those 
 who were laboring thirty years ago to perfect and extend the 
 benefits of popular education ; and to awaken and satisfy the 
 desires of those who had been pushed forward into industrial 
 life without suitable mental culture or means of enjoyment ; he • 
 gave his sympathy and personal aid to an effort for moral re- 
 form, of which the country was then desperately in need, and 
 from which for one and another reason most men in high 
 position held back. Drunkenness, still a grievous evil among 
 our population, was then in fact our national vice. Out of 
 the limits of New England no man was so active, none so 
 much, in advance of the common sentiment on the necessity 
 and means of a thorough reform, as Edward C. Delavan, Esq., 
 7 
 
74 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 of Albany, a gentleman of high social position, large fortune 
 and great personal worth. No one would dispute with him 
 the precedence in the inauguration and guidance of the great 
 temperance movenient in the State of New York. It would 
 be strange if there were no mistakes made in the positions 
 which were taken or in the manner of their defence. " To err 
 is human," and in all controversy it usually occurs that some 
 indiscretion is committed even by those who are on' the side 
 of right. It would be a purpose aside from the legitimate 
 subject of this book to impugn or defend the men or the 
 measures involved in that great struggle. That a high and 
 generous philanthropy animated those who attempted to stay 
 the fearful flood of intemperance, and that they were blessed 
 of God to the accomplishment of incalculable good, there can 
 be no doubt. That they did not achieve more is due rather 
 to the culpable indifference of the multitude, who only looked 
 on and criticised, than to the errors of those who thought and 
 felt and spoke and acted. Dr. Potter, notwithstanding the 
 multiplicity of his labors as a Clergyman, as a Professor and 
 as a citizen, found time and courage to lend himself to the 
 cause of temperance. He co-operated with its distinguished 
 friends everywhere by personal and epistolary counsels, by 
 public addresses, by debates in conventions, by articles for the 
 press and by private encouragement to humbler and less con- 
 spicuous advocates. 
 
 Mr. Delavan, still engaged with all the energies of a green 
 old age in the same benevolent enterprise, writes of him : 
 " From the commencement of the temperance reformation in 
 this State (New York) to the death of Bishop Potter, very few 
 letters passed between us, as my residence was so near his, 
 while he was connected with Union College. Our meetings, 
 however, were frequent, and he, with his father-in-law, Rev. 
 Dr. E. Nott, was among my most valued and most trusted 
 advisers as to any steps I desired to take in the cause we 
 each had so deeply at heart. Professor Potter was very early 
 
HIS DISSENT FROM "DRINKING USAGES." 75 
 
 brought to the conviction that the extent of his influence over 
 the four hundred young men in College must be limited, while 
 it was known among them that wine was a beverage upon his 
 table, and he banished it at once. About the same time the 
 President of the College, Professor Potter and others, his as- 
 sociates, signed the pledge of—total abstinence from all intoxi- 
 cating drinks as a beverage." That pledge was never re- 
 tracted nor violated by Dr. Potter while he lived. He pro- 
 ceeded very cautiously and thoughtfully in the acceptance of 
 the views and plans of more enthusiastic reformers, delaying 
 movements by his course which had else been untimely, and 
 modifying and tempering expressions of thought and feeling 
 that were right in principle, but unwise in presentation. He 
 became in the end thorough and uncompromising, though 
 never pharisaical and denunciatory. He declined the courtesy 
 of a glass of wine at table, but was not careful to advertise to 
 all the other guests that he did so. As a public man often 
 having occasion to entertain distinguished personages at his 
 house, he was always heroic enough to refrain from providing 
 what he conscientiously believed it were better they should 
 not partake. He used "hospitality without grudging," ac- 
 cording to the precept, but he would not sanction by his con- 
 formity one of the usages of society which he esteemed a 
 prolific source of sin and misery. He had as a philanthropist 
 carefully investigated the remote causes of intemperance, and 
 found that no man ever began the use of strong drink with 
 the intention or apprehension of becoming an inebriate. In 
 his early ministry at Boston suffering from indigestion, his 
 physician ordered the use of a little brandy daily at his din- 
 ner. He followed the prescription for a while, but probably 
 conscious that his natural aversion was giving way and being 
 succeeded by a craving, he broke off at once, saying: " I had 
 rather die a dyspeptic than live to become a drunkard." 
 When long afterward at his episcopal residence in Philadel- 
 phia he received large gatherings of his Clergy, there was 
 
76 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 always a generous supply of the things good for food ordi- 
 narily furnished in that city of abundance, but nothing that 
 could intoxicate. A facetious Clergyman, at the close of one 
 of these abstinent parties, said to a circle of his brethren as 
 he lifted the water-pitcher, " Let us drink again of the Bishop's 
 punch before we go." 
 
 On this subject of total abstinence Dr. Potter was no less 
 ready to commit himself when in the chief office of the 
 Church than he had been when at the head of his College. 
 In April, 1852, he delivered in the City of Pittsburg, the chief 
 centre of influence in the Western section of his Diocese, a 
 powerful and most explicit lecture on " The Drinking Usages . 
 of Society." Read the following extract, and you will see 
 what his own practice must have been, and on what considera- 
 tions he adopted it and commends it to the imitation of all 
 who revere his opinion and example : 
 
 Here, then, lies the gist of 'the whole difficulty. Fashion pro- 
 pagates itself downward. Established and upheld by the more re- 
 fined and opulent, it is soon caught up by those in less conspicuous 
 walks. It thus spreads itself over the whole face of society, and, 
 becoming allied with other principles, is planted deep in the habits 
 and associations of a people. It is pre-eminently so with drinkitig 
 usages. Immemorial custom — the example of those whose educa- 
 tion or position gives them a commanding sway over the opinions 
 and practice of others — appetite with them who have drunk till 
 what was once but compliance with usage is now an imperious 
 craving — the interest of many who thrive by the traffic in intoxicat- 
 ing drinks or by the follies into which they betray men, — here are 
 causes which so fortify and strengthen these usages that they seem 
 to defy all change. But let us not despair. We address those who 
 are willing to think, and who are accustomed to bring every ques- 
 tion to the stern test of utility and duty. To these, then, we ap- 
 peal. 
 
 Drinking usages are the chief cause of intemperance, and these 
 usages derive their force and authority, in the first instance, wholly 
 from those who give law to fashion. Let this be considered. Do 
 
REBUKE OF DRINKING USAGES OF SOCIETY. JJ 
 
 you ask for the treacherous guide who, with winning smiles and 
 honied accents, leads men forward from one degree of indulgence 
 to another till they are besotted and lost? Seek him not in the 
 purlieus of the low grog-shop — seek him not in any scenes of coarse 
 and vulgar revelry. He is to be found where they meet who are 
 the observed of all observers. There in the abodes of the rich 
 and admired, there amidst all the enchantments of luxury and 
 elegance, where friend pledges friend, where wine is invoked to 
 lend new animation to gayety and impart new brilliancy to wit, in 
 the sparkling glass, which is raised even by the hand of beautiful 
 and lovely woman, — there is the most dangerous decoy. Can that 
 be unsafe which is thus associated with all that is fair and graceful 
 in woman — with all that is attractive and brilliant in man ? Must 
 not that be proper, and even obligatory, which has the deliberate 
 and time-honored sanction of those who stand before the world as 
 the "glass of fashion" and "rose of the fair state?" 
 
 Thus reason the great proportion of men. They are looking 
 continually to those who, in their estimation, are more favored of 
 fortune or more accomplished in mind and manners. We do not 
 regulate our watches more carefully or more universally by the 
 town-clock, than do nine-tenths of mankind take their tone from 
 the residue -^ho occupy places toward which all are struggling. 
 
 Let the responsibility of these drinking usages be put, then, 
 where it justly belongs. When you visit, on some errand of mercy, 
 the abodes of the poor and afflicted — when you look in on some 
 home which has been made dark by drunkenness, where hearts 
 are desolate and hearths are cold — where want is breaking in as an 
 armed man — where the wife is heart-broken or debased and chil- 
 dren are fast demoralizing — where little can be heard but ribaldry, 
 blasphemy and obscenity, — friends ! would you connect effect with 
 cause, and trace this hideous monster back to its true parent, let 
 your thoughts fly away to some abode of wealth and refinement 
 where conviviality' reigns, where amidst joyous greetings and 
 friendly protestations and merry shouts — the flowing bowl goes 
 round, and there you will see that which is sure to make drinking 
 everywhere attractive, and which, in doing so, never fails, and 
 cannot fail, to make drunkenness common. 
 7» 
 
78 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Would we settle our account, then, with the drinking usages of 
 the refined and respectable ? We must hold them answerable for 
 maintaining corresponding usages in other classes of society, and 
 we must hold them answerable, further, for the frightful amount 
 of intemperance which results from those usages. We must hold 
 them accountable for all the sin, and all the unhappiness, and all 
 the pinching poverty, and all the nefarious crimes, to which intem- 
 perance gives rise. So long as these usages maintain their place 
 among the respectable, so long will drinking and drunkenness 
 abound through all grades and conditions of life. Neither the 
 power of law aimed at the traffic in liquors, nor the force of argu- 
 ment addressed to the understandings and consciences of the many, 
 will ever prevail to cast out the fiend drunkenness, so long as they 
 who are esteemed the favored few uphold, with unyielding hand, 
 the practice of drinking. 
 
 Hence the question whether this monster evil shall be abated 
 resolves itself always into another question, and that is. Will the 
 educated, the wealthy, the respectable, persist in sustaining the 
 usages which produce it? Let them resolve that these usages shall 
 no longer have their countenance, and their insidious power is 
 broken. Let them resolve that wherever they go the empty wine 
 glass shall proclaim their silent protest; and fashion, which now 
 commands us to drink, shall soon command us, with all-potential 
 voice, to abstain. 
 
 Return we to contemplate Dr. Potter yet further in his 
 public and private life at Schenectady. The shattered con-" 
 dition of his health, it will be remembered, was the occasion 
 of his retirement from pastoral care in Boston and resump- 
 tion of scholastic duties in Union College. The reader must 
 have realized before this, that he secured to himself no mate- 
 rial reduction of toil and responsibility by this change. He 
 might have done much less, and still have been very useful. 
 There are few who, under such circumstances, would not have 
 contented themselves with a life of quiet study, in the depart- 
 ment of learning in which it was his office to teach. But Dr. 
 Potter was irrepressible. He held his gifts and acquirements 
 
ELECTED ASSISTANT BISHOP OF EASTERN DIOCESE, "jg 
 
 in such abiding consciousness that they were his only to use 
 for the good of others, — he recognized the call of God so dis- 
 tinctly in the opportunities of usefulness which presented 
 themselves in his pathway — that he could not be otherwise 
 than occupied all his time to the extreme limit of his powers. 
 The foreign travel which was urged upon him in 1831, and 
 which he then conscientiously declined, he was forced by yet 
 more impaired health to enter upon in 1838. 
 
 In January of that year he had been chosen by an unanimous 
 vote of the Clergy, and an only not unanimous vote of the Laity, 
 Assistant Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, comprising the States 
 of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, 
 of which since 1 8 1 1 the venerable Dr. Griswold had been 
 Bishop. That honored Prelate had now passed his three- 
 score years and ten, and was needing relief from the long and 
 wearisome journeys to which his official duties called him in 
 those times of imperfect facilities of communication. Nearly 
 seven years had elapsed since the subject of this memoir had 
 left Boston. What was the savor of his name in all that 
 region may be inferred from the fact above recited. The 
 structure of that so-called "Eastern Diocese" was anomalous. 
 The churches in the respective States (then few and feeble) 
 had in a joint Convention chosen Dr. Griswold, and given to 
 his jurisdiction the name, " The Eastern Diocese." Their act 
 had been recognized by the General Convention, and the 
 Bishop consecrated under that style. They assembled by 
 their Clergy and Lay Deputies annually in Convention, and 
 there listened to the Bishop's report of his official acts. And 
 yet there was also an annual Convention of the Churches in 
 each of the States, and by those State Conventions all the 
 local Ecclesiastical Laws were made. Everybody realized 
 that such a strange and complex arrangement could not be 
 permanent. When, therefore. Dr. Potter was chosen as Assist- 
 ant to the Bishop of the Eastern Diocese, many of his 
 friends felt that the office ought not to be pressed upon him, 
 
8o MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 unless the Church in some one of the States composing the 
 Diocese, should also give him an election pro tanto, so that he 
 might know where, in the eventual dissolution of the Eastern 
 Diocese, his lines would be likely to fall. Dr. Potter sailed 
 for Europe while this matter was pending. 
 
 It ought not to be said that the nomination of Dr. Potter 
 by the Clergy of the Convention of the Eastern Diocese was 
 unanimous, without mention of the fact that on the first ballot 
 a considerable number of votes were cast for his friend and 
 successor at St. Paul's, the Rev. Dr. John S. Stone, who had 
 earnest and influential supporters. Dr. Stone, however, felt 
 extremely reluctant to stand in an attitude of seeming rivalry 
 to the associate of his youth — the brother who had prepared 
 the way for his own happy settlement in Boston, and whose 
 position on all the great questions which were agitating the 
 Church differed but a shade from his own. He therefore, with 
 the prompt magnanimity of his nature, peremptorily withdrew 
 his name. This was in January. The Convention of Massa- 
 chusetts (which was the only State in the Confederation 
 wherein the Church was then ready to anticipate the dissolu- 
 tion of the Eastern Diocese) would not hold its Convention 
 until June. The interval was a time of no little excitement. 
 The personal friends of Dr. Stone, many of whom had come 
 to the Diocese since his predecessor left it, were not opposed 
 to Dr. Potter, but were tenacious in their devotion to him 
 whom they knew better, and insisted much on the presentation 
 of his name to the Convention of Massachusetts. Dr. Stone, 
 however, was persistent in his determination not to be pitted 
 against his friend, and Dr. Potter was again chosen by the part 
 as he had been before by the whole of the Diocese. Nothing 
 could be said so illustrative of the Christian manliness and 
 generosity of Dr. Stone's conduct in this whole proceeding as 
 his own private letter to Dr. Potter, which the modesty of the 
 writer would perhaps, were he consulted, withhold from the 
 public, but which the reader will pronounce one of the 
 
DR. STONE'S LETTER ON HIS ELECTION. 8 1 
 
 legitimate documents in this history, especially as it sets forth 
 the ecclesiastical status and affinities of Dr. Potter at that stage 
 of his life. 
 
 Boston, June 28, 1838. 
 
 Rev. and dear Brother: It gives me great pleasure to say- 
 that the important husiness of selecting an Assistant for our aged 
 and venerable Bishop is at length accomplished, and that with great 
 unanimity the selection has fallen, as was expected, on yourself 
 
 This is a subject on which for obvious reasons I have not hitherto 
 felt inclined to speak. The way in which my own name was at first 
 connected with the subject prompted me to silence — so long as the 
 question was pending, except that in my private correspondence 
 and conversations I did not fail to advise your election. The 
 unanimity which has marked the final result has been in a measure 
 produced by the influence which I have been able thus quietly to 
 exert. All the Clergy present at the Convention did not vote in 
 your election. I mention this for the purpose of saying that the 
 reason with most of those that did not vote was a constitutional 
 one.* They did not believe Massachusetts in any sense competent 
 to the election of an Assistant Bishop while she continues a member 
 of the Eastern Diocese. Had this constitutional difficulty been out 
 of the way, there was not an Evangelical Clergyman in Convention 
 who would not with all his heart have voted for you. After the 
 election was made, and the constitutional question thus disposed 
 of, whether rightly or wrongly, every member of the Convention, 
 I believe, both Clerical and Lay, signed with a right willing heart 
 the testimonial required by the canon to be laid before the 
 General Convention ; and there was but one mind amongst us all at 
 the conclusion of the business, that of unfeigned thankfulness that 
 an agitating question had been thus quietly settled, and settled by 
 the selection of one so highly qualified to be over us in the Lord. 
 It is not often that a question of this nature which had so long 
 excited the mind of the Church is disposed of in so perfectly tem- 
 perate and delightful a spirit. You have all the unanimity of feeling 
 in your favor which any man could reasonably hope — perhaps as 
 much as any man ought ever to desire. 
 
 * The present writer was one of them. 
 F 
 
82 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 There is another point which I fear will give you greater difficulty 
 when you come to the question, whether or not you will accept the 
 appointn^ent thus made, than that of the unanimity of your election. 
 I refer to the fact that the Convention at the time of your election 
 neither said nor did anything touching the matter of your support. 
 Why this was neglected I cannot possibly assign a reason. I am 
 anxious, however, that the neglect should not operate against your 
 acceptance of the election, for at the worst it was but an oversight. 
 The subject has been much talked of since, and I believe two or 
 three ways of furnishing your support have been suggested, in any 
 
 one of which it will give me the greatest pleasure to concur 
 
 The most feasible mode of supporting our Assistant will I think be 
 that which I had formerly the pleasure of proposing to you, though 
 in a different connection. I refer to the endowment of a Theo- 
 logical Professorship which shall be the foundation of a future 
 flourishing seminary amongst us. In this plan I should delight to 
 labor. But whether this or some other be adopted, you may depend 
 on a full and hearty concurrence of the Evangelical Clergy, so far 
 as I understand their feelings, in your pecuniary as well as your 
 moral support. Let me then express to you my unfeigned desire, 
 my anxiety even, that you should accept jthe post of duty to which 
 you have been called, and thus give stability amongst us to our now 
 brightly opening prospects of peace, union and prosperity in all 
 the high interests of our Zion. 
 
 Your affectionate friend and brother, 
 
 John S. Stone. 
 The Rev. Dr. Potter. 
 
 Hovsr this intelligence was received by Dr. Potter, and how 
 deeply he realized from the first the difficulties which might 
 bar his acceptance of the office proposed to him, appear in 
 the following letter to his friend, Mr. William Appleton : 
 
 Wexford, Ireland, July 19, 1838. 
 My dear Sir : I have your letter in regard to the proceedings 
 of the Massachusetts Convention, and also the official communica- 
 tion of the committee appointed to apprise me of the election. I 
 should be utterly unworthy of such distinguished favor from so 
 
LETTERS— IMPROBABILITY OF HIS ACCEPTANCE. 83 
 
 large, respectable and diversified a class of men, if I did not feel 
 deeply touched by it. Still, I cannot conceal from myself the great, 
 and, as I apprehend, insuperable, obstacles in the way of my accept- 
 ing the office, and I ought (I conceive) to lose no time in recalling 
 them to your recollection. The final decision of the question may, 
 and I should think ought to, be postponed until I return to the 
 United States. I am willing to follow the guidance of Providence ; 
 and this matter having been withdrawn, as it would seem, almost 
 entirely from my direction, I am willing to wait for still further 
 developments. Still, it seems to me wise that our friends in Massa- 
 chusetts should be preparing for that which is so likely to come. 
 
 I shall not enlarge upon this subject now. I write from Wexford, 
 a small town in the South of Ireland, to which I have been brought 
 partly to view the scenery and partly in the hope of finding a con- 
 veyance which will take me to Bristol by the time the Great 
 Western sails. Should I succeed in the latter of these objects, that 
 fine ship will convey this letter. Otherwise, it will go by the 
 earliest packet. 
 
 I was tempted to linger too long in London, and amidst the 
 tumult and excitement of the season have lost something of the 
 health I gained on my voyage. I travel now to recruit, but move 
 quite rapidly 
 
 Next week I hope, with God's blessing, to set my foot on the 
 Continent, and after a hasty look to set my face homeward. He 
 who has a wife and children ought not to travel or ought to take 
 his jewels with him. 
 
 Ever and aifectionately yours, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 In the month of October following, the General Conven- 
 tion was to have one of its triennial meetings. The certificate 
 of Dr. Potter's election and the canonical testimonials must 
 therefore wait its approval. No explicit declaration of his 
 purpose to accept or decline was meantime received. It 
 was probably difficult for him to determine so grave a ques- 
 tion wit-hout personal conference with his family and friends. 
 The General Convention, of course, assented to the elevation 
 
84 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 of such a man to the Episcopate, and the House of Bishops 
 took order for his consecration. In the same month, Dr. Pot- 
 ter returned to the United States. 
 
 To his confidential friend and counselor, Mr. Appleton, he 
 addressed the following premonition of his purpose, with an 
 epitome of the reasons which ruled his decision : 
 
 Union College, October g, 1838. 
 
 My dear Sir : I reached New York a few days since, and take 
 an early opportunity of communicating with you. It is proper, I 
 presume, that the Church in Massachusetts should no longer be in 
 suspense in regard to my acceptance of the office of Assistant 
 Bishop. The period of my absence seems to have multiplied 
 rather than diminished the obstacles in the way of my removal, and 
 I am brought to the reluctant conclusion that my "strength is to 
 sit still." I say to the reluctant conclusion, for I have no hesita- 
 tion in saying that on many accounts it would please me well to be 
 once more in the midst of the best friends I have ever had or ex- 
 pect to have, and with the prospect of living and dying among them. 
 At present, however, I see no prospect of this,unless I choose to dis- 
 regard claims which appear to be imperative, and also to run the 
 risk of taxing my friends and the Church in Massachusetts with the 
 support of a man disabled by infirmity from rendering them any 
 efficient service. My health, so far as ray throat is concerned, is 
 better, but generally the toils and excitements of traveling have 
 debilitated rather than strengthened me, and I look forward to a 
 long and inclement winter with solicitude and apprehension. My 
 principal regret in respect to this matter is that I did not more 
 fully appreciate these difficulties when the subject was first proposed 
 to me. I should then have saved you much trouble and been free 
 from embarrassment myself .... 
 
 My great desire is to retain the kind opinion of my friends and 
 brethren, which I have endeavored to deserve, and which I have 
 not forfeited in the course of this business by any intentional 
 act. 
 
 Believe me, as ever, your obliged and faithful friend, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
NEW DIOCESE OF WESTERN NEW YORK. 85 
 
 No definite action had been had in Massachusetts for the 
 increase of the Episcopal fund, or in any other way for the per- 
 manent support of an Assistant Bishop. It would be too much 
 to allege that this fact had any influence in shaping Dr. Pot- 
 ter's decision, though few persons would pronounce it un- 
 worthy of consideration by a man already committed by 
 Divine Providence to the maintenance of a family of six chil- 
 dren. But, besides, there were peculiarities in the state of 
 things at "Union College" to which, and to its venerable head, 
 Dr. Potter was bound by strong and sacred ties, which ren- 
 dered his stay almost indispensable. Moreover, his health, 
 although improved by his respite from professional duty, was, 
 especially in his vocal powers, far from satisfactory. And 
 after sanguine hope and long patience, his friends in the East 
 were grievously disappointed by receiving his refusal of the 
 Bishopric. 
 
 In 1838, for the first time a Diocese of the American Church, 
 having outgrown the measure of a Bisjjop's strength to ad- 
 minister, was divided ; and in November the Convention of 
 Western New York held its primary meeting for the election 
 of a Bishop. There was not then perfect unanimity of opin- 
 ion as to the type of Churchmanship which should be throned 
 in the Episcopal chair. Indeed, a very excited and difficult 
 canvass was anticipated. Had not Dr. Potter just declined 
 the Episcopate of Massachusetts, it may not unreasonably be 
 presumed that, known and revered as he was throughout the 
 Commonwealth, the early presentation of his name would 
 have averted the partisan strife which ensued. Notwithstand- 
 ing the "Nolo Episcopari" which he had just pronounced, 
 prominent Clergymen of Western New York — some of them 
 now at rest — urged Dr. Potter to allow the use of his name. 
 One letter lies before me, in which its distinguished writer 
 says : " I see no other prospect of harmony but in that to which 
 all parties have pledged themselves, to a union in yourself." 
 Another, also among the leading Clergy, though of different 
 
86 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Church affinities, writes, " I have received several letters during 
 the past week urging me to ' see you, and not leave you until 
 I am authorized to say at our Convention, at least that you 
 will consent to be our Bishop if we cannot unite upon any 
 other.' " To one of these Dr. Potter replied : " . . . . After 
 what has transpired in Massachusetts, viewed in connection 
 with the shock which my health has recently experienced and 
 with the many strong claims, both public and private, which 
 the post I now occupy has upon me, I cannot persuade myself 
 that it would be proper or right for me to be accessory to any 
 step which contemplated my early removal." .... 
 
 These documents are referred to as evidence that the men- 
 tion of Professor Potter's name as one eligible to the Episcopate 
 of the new Diocese was not due to the partiality of a few per- 
 sonal friends, but to the character which he had won among 
 men of all shades of opinion in the Church for piety, learning, 
 catholicity, the wisdom which dwells with prudence, and what- 
 ever other gifts might fit a Bishop to soften and mould into 
 living union and efficiency materials seemingly discordant. 
 
 The providence of God reserved Dr. Potter for another and 
 yet more important sphere, and advanced to the headship of 
 Western New York a Bishop of distinguished ability, of un- 
 tiring activity and of remarkable administrative power, who, 
 in the quarter of a century through which he bore the pas- 
 toral staff, impressed his views, his policy and himself upon 
 his Diocese in a remarkable degree, and gained a large influ- 
 ence and an unlimited respect in the Church which he 
 adorned. 
 
 The following letter contains allusions to some of these 
 things, and was addressed to his old friend and College-mate, 
 the distinguished President of Brown University, soon after 
 his return: 
 
 Union College, Jan. 2, 1839. 
 My dear Sir : The sight of your welcome superscription yester- 
 day reminded me of the five hundred resolutions I have made since 
 
LETTER TO DR. WAYLAND. 87 
 
 my return to write you, and among other things to congratulate 
 you especially on your marriage. I once had the pleasure of 
 knowing your wife and numbering her for a short time, I think, 
 among my parishioners. Be pleased to remember me kindly to her, 
 and remind her that as she has condescended to take you, she will 
 have to take one of your old friends also. I only hope she may find 
 you as good a husband as I am sure she will prove a wife. 
 
 I received your kind letters of introduction after I reached Lon- 
 don. Dr. Cox was absent on a missionary tour of some two 
 months. His wife was engaged when I called, but, having left your 
 letter, shortly after I received a very kind note from her expressing 
 her anxiety to cultivate the acquaintance of any friend of yours, 
 and asking me out to dine with her. I was sorry that a multitude 
 of engagements prevented me from going. 
 
 Mr. (John) Foster lived a little way out of Bristol, and having 
 but little time I found it impossible to get out to see him. Dr. 
 Hoby and his wife received me with that prompt and cordial hos- 
 pitality which is peculiarly English when John Bull is well dis- 
 posed. They are very pleasant people, and I was exceedingly sorry 
 not to be able to cultivate them more. 
 
 I spent but one day at Dublin, but was fortunate to have an houi 
 and more of talk with Whately, now Archbishop of that Province. 
 It was in the presence, however, of his Chaplain and another 
 gentleman, so that we could not get quite as intimate as I wished. 
 He is very simple and rather awkward in his manners, something 
 of an egotist, a man of enlarged and enlightened benevolence, 
 not eminently serious, perhaps, nor the reverse, very unpleasantly 
 conditioned as it related to his Clergy, they being more evangelical 
 than he, but much less disposed to conciliate the Papists of Ireland, 
 and as it seems to me much less wise, at least in that respect. He 
 is too much occupied and perplexed to do anything more for the 
 literature of the world. His particular friend, Nassau W. Senior, 
 formerly Professor of Political Economy in Oxford, but now a 
 Barrister in London, is destined to exert a much greater influence 
 in the country, especially on its financial policy, pauperism, etc., 
 etc. I saw a good deal of him. 
 
 I had on the whole a pleasant and profitable time. Being too 
 
88 MEMOm OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 much straitened for time, however, and a good deal out of health, 
 I was constantly fagged, and am only just now reaping the good 
 fruits (physically) of the voyage, etc. The loss of voice, 
 under which I labored when I left here, threatened to return upon 
 me when I got home, and I am obliged to omit public speaking 
 altogether for the present. My general health is improving. This 
 will explain why it was inexpedient for me to go to Massachusetts, 
 
 or to the new Diocese of , to the Bishopric of which I might 
 
 probably have been elected if I had chosen. The state of my 
 family, as well as that of the Doctor's (Nott), might have ren- 
 dered the same course necessary in any event, and of course recon- 
 ciles me to what, under more auspicious circumstances, might not 
 have been my own individual choice. My wife joins me in affec- 
 tionate remembrances. Believe me 
 
 Ever yours. 
 Dr. Wayland. A. Potter. 
 
 Dr. Potter thus far in life seems to have experienced very 
 little of that providential discipline which a man ordinarily 
 needs, for the best and fullest development of his character. 
 His health indeed was not perfect, but probably it was no 
 more impaired than his inordinate labors constrained it to be. 
 He taxed his physical powers too much, and they protested 
 by threatening to fail him. But he had no organic disease. 
 The constant and varied demand for his services attests in what 
 esteem he was held among men, while the honors, Scholastic 
 and Ecclesiastical, which clustered to crown his head, must 
 have made him conscious that he was blessed above the com- 
 mon lot; and that there was in reserve for him, in the keeping 
 of Him who determines the bounds of man's habitation, some 
 position of yet wider influence and more signal honor. How 
 mysterious and yet how wise are the teachings of the Hand 
 Divine ! • Possibly God kept him back from honor at this 
 stage of his life, because he needed the experience of one great 
 sorrow before he could quite fulfill all the offices of a chief 
 shepherd in the fold of Christ ! Possibly he was restrained 
 
DEATH OF MRS. POTTER. 89 
 
 that he might employ his maturer powers in a more central 
 position and become the spiritual father of a much more 
 numerous flock ! " The day will declare it." What fruits his 
 Episcopate might have borne in Massachusetts no divination 
 can determine. His destined sphere was Pennsylvania, and 
 in every part of it are the tokens of the Supreme Wisdom that 
 designated him for its occupancy, and of the fidelity with 
 which he executed his mission. 
 
 It has been already intimated that Dr. Potter's home was 
 peculiarly congenial and happy — the abode of refinement, 
 elegant culture and mutual love. The mother of Mrs. Potter 
 died in her infancy, and she was an only daughter. She had 
 now been a wife for fourteen years, and until this time her 
 father had remained in widowhood. She was almost as neces- 
 sary to him as to her husband. He was the -gentlest of men 
 and she the most dutiful of children. And her husband, for 
 her sake as well as for his own worth, was taken to her father's 
 heart as a gift from the Lord, a man in whom his soul 
 delighted; and they all lived together on the College 
 grounds, and the same interests in great part occupied their 
 hearts and hands alike. Six healthy and joyous children — all 
 boys-r-gladdened the house. Not one tender olive-plant had 
 been nipt by death's untimely frost. Hope, scarcely shaded 
 with fear, rejoiced in expectation of further increase. On the 
 sixteenth of March, 1839, an only daughter was born into the 
 household, which for a generation before had rejoiced in an 
 only daughter; and as in the former instance, so now, the ad- 
 vent of the child to this world of trial was the signal of the 
 mother's translation to a world of rest. With what human 
 sorrow, yet Divine consolation, this calamity was met, the fol- 
 lowing letter to the friend he had so playfully addressed a few 
 months before most touchingly reveals. 
 
 Union College, March 23, 1839. 
 
 My dear Wayland. : I thank you from the heart for your kind 
 letter. I am indeed sorely smitten. God only knows what utter 
 8 * 
 
go MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 desolation reigns in our dwelling and in our hearts. It seems as if 
 all that gave zest to life, ardor to hope or confidence to exertion 
 had gone. But, blessed be His name ! we are not without hope. 
 If a life of rapidly brightening graces can give assurance of an 
 interest in Christ, my dear wife now rests from her labors. Ever 
 since our marriage she has seemed to advance in the knowledge 
 and favor of God, especially within the last two years. Her spirit 
 was intimate with the mercy-seat and with itself. Through many 
 trials of a physical and moral nature she seemed ripening for a 
 more than earthly triumph over the infirmities of nature, and I feel 
 the comfortable trust that she now reaps that triumph in the pres- 
 ence ofher Saviour. 
 
 The blow fell upon all like a bolt direct from heaven. It was 
 not until about three minutes before she expired that I became 
 really alarmed So confident was the feeling of her phy- 
 sician that, though th^re had been some nervous prostration and 
 other unfavorable symptoms, he left her and went to the North Col- 
 lege. Becoming disturbed, however, at her continued faintness, I 
 sent for him, and though he returned immediately, all that was 
 done seemed to have no effect upon her pulse, and she sunk about 
 four hours, after having given birth to her seventh child, — her 
 first daughter. All these children survive her, and you who know 
 her, know how my heart must bleed when I look at them. 
 
 Sometimes the thought rushes on me that more, much more, 
 might have been done to save her life. But I dare not entertain 
 the thought: "that way madness lies." I could not retain my 
 senses if I did not feel that it was " God's work;" as such I can 
 look upon it and be dumb. 
 
 For myself, my poor children and her friends, I trust it may be 
 a message of mercy. We leaned, too much upon her. We did not 
 sufficiently value her. She made home so happy that we often 
 forgot that we were pilgrims. Oh that this fearful admonition 
 might rouse us to diligence in our Christian life, and that when 
 death comes, we might have reason to say that it is good for us 
 that we have suffered ! 
 
 Ever your friend, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. APPLE TON. 9 1 
 
 One of the ties which bound him to Schenectady was thus 
 disrupted. The Divine Leader under whose direction he had 
 bound himself to follow, thus early began to prepare him to 
 strike his tent and move onward to another point on " the 
 world's broad field of battle." In his special work as an 
 instructor and Vice-President in the College he continued 
 with all diligence. Nothing of his zeal and activity in out- 
 side enterprises of beneficence was remitted. Besides, he did 
 not- forbear to testify the gospel of the grace of God. For a 
 whole year, during the absence of a Rector, he supplied the 
 pulpit of St. George's Church in Schenectady. 
 
 The influence of God's discipline and grace upon the mind 
 and heart of his stricken and still faithful servant reveals itself 
 incidentally in the following letter to his confidential friend, 
 Mr. Appleton. To what desolation his home had been brought 
 by the decease of his wife is also disclosed. The letter has no 
 date, but is marked " 1840" by the hand of that sy.stematic 
 merchant to whom it was addressed, and to whose care in 
 preserving and filing every letter from his former Pastor we 
 are indebted for more of Dr. Potter's correspondence th^n has 
 been furnished from all other sources put together. 
 
 It may not be amiss here to remark that although Dr. Pot- 
 ter was necessarily a voluminous letter-writer, yet he was so 
 busy and so practical a man, that he scarce ever wrote except 
 about current affairs, and these were frequently of a nature so 
 personal that the letters referring to them were either de- 
 stroyed as soon as they were received, or, if yet in existence, 
 are regarded as of too private a character to be presented to 
 the public eye. Dr. Potter never found time to write epistol- 
 ary essays on abstract subjects. 
 
 The letter to Mr. Appleton above referred to is as follows : 
 
 Wednesday. 
 My dear Sir : The welcome sight of your hand met me on en- 
 tering my ofifice this morning, and I take an early opportunity of 
 acknowledging the kindness. Many causes of one kind and an- 
 
92 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Other have prevented my communicating with any of my Boston 
 friends recently,' but you may be assured that I have not forgotten, 
 I can never forget, them. It is very grateful to me to receive this 
 new evidence that I still live in your memory, though I should not 
 have presumed to doubt it even had you remained silent. Your 
 statements in regard to yourself find a melancholy echo in my own 
 heart. Life seems to me little more than a scene of broken vows 
 and resolutions ; and after all I have experienced of the uncertainty 
 and vanity of life, of the necessity there is in all of us for more 
 grace, and of the sufficiency which we find in it for our support 
 when we make it our trust, under such circumstances nothing is 
 more amazing to me than that my affections should still revert so 
 fondly to the world. It is some comfort if we are not saiisfied 'vi\t\v 
 such a state of things, and if we are driven by a sense of its guilt 
 and danger to greater fervency of prayer and effort. The Spirit of 
 . all truth and grace deserts us, my dear sir, only because we first 
 desert him. More vigilance, more effort, and, above all, a more 
 constant and controlling sense of God's presence, we greatly need, 
 and more of all these we might have if we would. Ought we not 
 before all things to pray, " Cast us not away from thy presence, 
 and take not thy Holy Spirit from us " ? 
 
 I have often thought it might be a good plan at the commence- 
 ment of each day to write off two or three new texts of Scripture, 
 containing pointed cautions against those sins which most easily 
 and frequently beset us in our business, in society, etc., and put < 
 them in our pocket-books, where Ve might refer to them at intervals 
 during the progress of the day. Truth is, with God's blessing, the 
 great instrument of improvement, and if we could keep such truths 
 as most intimately concern us more continually present to the mind, 
 maintaining at the same time the feeling that their efficacy must 
 depend after all upon assisting grace from heaven, it would be 
 well. 
 
 My bereaved flock are as well disposed of as could be expected. 
 My infant has been adopted by a very near and dear friend of my 
 wife, a lady of great piety and talent. My four sons next older 
 are residing in a very kind and affectionate family, relations of my 
 wife. They are about sixty miles west of this place. My next 
 
TRIBUTE TO HIS DEPARTED WIFE. 93 
 
 oldest son, I believe a god-son of yours, is at school in Troy. The 
 
 oldest is with me, and is in college. Thus far they have been good 
 
 and dutiful children, and are a great comfort. Henceforth they 
 
 must occupy a large share of my thoughts and labors. After the 
 
 fearful loss which they have suffered, I shall feel but too happy if I 
 
 can be the means of rearing them up in the way that they should go. 
 
 ******* 
 
 With affectionate remembrances to Mrs. A. and the children. 
 
 Believe me, dear sir, ever your friend, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 Of the wife of his youth, he who knew her best inscribed 
 this memorial : 
 
 She was pre-eminently a woman. Her person, her understand- 
 ing, her tastes and affections, her manners and conversation, — all 
 savored of that delicacy and beauty which we associate with the 
 most favored of her sex. There was that about her, especially as 
 she ripened in years, which left its perfume in any circle long after 
 she retired, which impressed beholders with the feeling that she 
 belonged to a higher sphere, and which filled those who had only 
 heard of her with strange regrets that it had never been their priv- 
 ilege to know her. While fitted to embellish and give dignity to 
 any station, she yet allied herself to a young man without family 
 or fortune, and who had nothing but his character and labors to 
 'claim such honor. She submitted with the utmost cheerfulness to 
 the drudgeries and seclusion of their lot ; nerved herself to all the 
 labors and anxieties incident to maternity ; animated her husband 
 in his studies and public ministries ; and shed over all the relations 
 of life an exquisite grace. She became the mother of six sons and 
 one daughter. Wiser, more faithful or more loving mother chil- 
 dren never had. With a strong taste fot letters and a delicate 
 relish for beauty and wit, she gave herself, seemingly without a 
 pang, to her household, to her friends and to any whom she could 
 make more happy. "How can you endure so many dull and 
 stupid people?" said a lively friend. " I do not find them dull," 
 replied she ; "I cannot bestow a great boon on them or any one ; 
 but if I can give them a few crumbs, or add in any way to their 
 
94 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 enjoyment, they are not losers ; I am a gainer. Is it not more 
 blessed to give than to receive?" She was indeed what a dear 
 friend of her husband said to him on hearing of his engagement : 
 "In the affections of such a woman you have a treasure for which 
 you might well barter away the mines of Golconda or the honors 
 of an empire. She has all that the heart desires or the eye looks 
 for in woman." Suddenly, in March, 1839, God took her to 
 himself The oldest of her children was about fifteen years of age, 
 the youngest but two hours. To her husband, who had been re- 
 lieved of all care of his family by her vigilant efficiency and 
 wisdom, the future had no light but in a Father's providence." 
 
 That this estimate of her character and worth was not 
 overwrought, that she was not seen in the rainbow hues in 
 which affection, often looking through its tears, beholds the 
 form of departed loveliness on which its wealth has been 
 bestowed, it may be mentioned that this tribute was written 
 more than twenty-five years after his bereavement. Besides^ 
 the beautiful eulogy of the Rev. Prof Reed, delivered in 
 St. George's, Schenectady, on March 24, 1839, more than 
 confirms the record of conjugal remembrance. It cannot be 
 amiss to incorporate in the biography of a man, some memo- 
 rials of a wife whose eminent virtues must have made their 
 delicate impress upon him in the plastic gentleness of his 
 early manhood, as the beautiful fern traces its image on the 
 hardening rock. Dr. Reed said of her : 
 
 God tried her with the most alluring of temptations — talents, 
 education, beauty, the highest rank in the circles of the elegant 
 and the gay, with the most exquisite and varied accomplishments 
 to sustain and adorn it — but he was pleased to endow her with 
 strength to resist them all. In his wise providence he united her 
 destiny with that of one of his own Ministers, to bear with him 
 the burden of his duties, to aid him in his visits of mercy to the 
 dreary abodes of sorrow, of sickness and of death, and by the light 
 of her high and spotless example to win many to righteousness. ' 
 Well and faithfully did she discharge her trust. Years have elapsed 
 
MEMORIALS OF MRS. POTTER. 95 
 
 since ill health compelled her husband to relinquish the charge of 
 his numerous congregation, but time seems to have had no effect 
 in weakening their recollections of her sweet and powerful influ- 
 ence among them 
 
 One of the most striking features of Mrs. Potter's character was 
 her perfect self-control. It may be matter of surprise to many, 
 even of her intimate friends, who had such frequent occasion to 
 admire her equanimity under all circumstances, to learn that by 
 nature her character was so constituted as to render extremely diffi- 
 cult the attainment of that excellence by which she was so signally 
 distinguished. Like all marked and decided minds, hers was natu- 
 rally subject to the strongest impulses of the human heart. All 
 were subdued. Her benevolence, which was originally so acute 
 that it might have been cause of perpetual pain as she looked upon 
 the distresses of her fellow-beings, and might have resulted in the 
 indiscriminate adoption of measures for their relief, was converted 
 by self-training and the power of Divine grace into that enlight- 
 ened charity which, while it is always " kind" and "never faileth," 
 yet "thinketh no evil," and "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but re- 
 joiceth in the truth." Her vivid and suggestive imagination, 
 which, uncontrolled, would have rendered her life miserable by 
 extravagant indulgence in unnatural and sickly sentiment, and by 
 its pictures of fictitious wretchedness, was by the same means so 
 completely chastened and subdued that it served only as an instru- 
 ment for imparting an inexpressible charm of rich and varied 
 interest to her conversation, while it still enabled her readily to 
 conceive and sympathize in the wants and sufferings of the desti- 
 tute and the afflicted. And so it was with her whole character. It 
 was reduced to unqualified submission and obedience to the Divine 
 Law. In that submission lay the secret of her virtue, her happi- 
 ness and her influence. They explain the uninterrupted evenness 
 of her temper, the complete balance which existed among all the 
 powers of her soul, her ready adaptation of her conversation and 
 cbnduct to all circumstances and persons, and the deep and uni- 
 versal sentiments of love and veneration now entertained for her 
 memory. 
 
96 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 The Wardens and Vestry of St. George's, Schenectady, 
 attested her remarkable graces in resolutions of condolence 
 with her husband and family, and requested a copy of Dr. 
 Reed's commemorative discourse for publication. St. Paul's 
 Church, Boston, in which her husband had ceased to be 
 Pastor seven years before, was hung with the drapery of 
 mourning; an extraordinary and most touching testimony to 
 the winning beauty and commanding force of a character 
 which, after long separation, was in no degree forgotten. 
 " Dimidium mece aninicB !" he might well exclaim, at the loss 
 of one who had contributed so richly to his happiness, his 
 improvement and his success. 
 
 The death of Mrs. Potter called forth such tributes to her 
 memory, and such expressions of sympathy with those who 
 were bereaved by her loss, as are seldom uttered. These 
 demonstrations indicate under what domestic influences that 
 manly character was formed which all admired for its equi- 
 poise and its unreserved devotion to the service of society 
 and of God. By his fireside right views were entertained of 
 the true purpose and uses of life ; and the cares of the house- 
 hold were so shared by his helpmeet, that he had time and 
 vigor and mental concentration to give to social duty. He 
 was not fretted and unmanned by frivolous claims upon his 
 attention, nor distracted with the care of children otherwise 
 likely to be spoiled by maternal weakness. He was linked 
 with one whom he could trust to make his family a model of 
 what he sought by professional and Christian effort to make 
 society itself The power of such an alliance over the for- 
 mation and development of a man's character, how great 
 soever he be, can scarce be overestimated. 
 
 From January to May of 1840 efforts were in progress to 
 induce Dr. Potter to return to Boston as Rector of a venerable 
 and important church. In regard to these overtures he wrote 
 to a friend : 
 
SCHEMES TO WIN. HIM BACK TO BOSTON. 97 
 
 The obstacles in the way seem rather to increase than diminish; 
 and with the precarious state of my health, the condition of my 
 family, large, dependent and composed principally of boys who 
 need the advantages of a public education, added to the fact that 
 my presence and active agency here seem to others, friends not 
 only of the college but of the church, to be much more important 
 than I can persuade myself they are, — all these together form a barrier 
 to the indulgence of what on many accounts would be my private 
 inclination, which appears at present insurmountable. I would 
 gladly do my duty in the matter at any cost. 
 
 It was a theme of common rumor at the time in Boston 
 (though the present writer dares not to vouch for it as a fact 
 of history) that after the death of Dr. Greenwood, for many 
 years Pastor of " King's Chapel " (which before the Revolution 
 was an Episcopal church, but after the dispersion of most of 
 its worshipers by the war, fell into the hands of the Unita- 
 rians), advances were contemplated, if not made, to Dr. Potter 
 to bring about the committal of that ancient church to his pas- 
 toral care. Certainly the conditions must have been such as 
 to compromise his fidelity to the Communion of which he was 
 a Minister, for the end would have been worth any other sac- 
 rifice he could have been called upon to make. The subject 
 is here adverted to as significant, even if the rumor were some- 
 what overwrought, of the esteem in which Dr. Potter was held 
 by the religious community in Boston, and that he had not 
 forfeited the confidence nor quenched the desire of those who 
 had known him in and out of the church, by his refusal to ac- 
 cept the Episcopate. Indeed, the hope was not abandoned 
 that he would yet allow himself, after years of further service 
 in the College, to be again elected to that high office. In 1841 
 he replied to a friend, " If any movements, such as you referred 
 to in respect to a special Convention of Massachusetts, are in 
 contemplation, I hope you will arrest them, as I see no pros- 
 pect of being able to leave here, at least for some years to 
 come." 
 
 9 G 
 
98 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 The reader will have noticed in one of *Dr. Potter's letters 
 to Mr. Appleton mention that at the death of his wife four of 
 his children were taken in charge by a relative of their mother. 
 It was her cousin, Miss Sarah Benedict. Between them there 
 had long subsisted mutual and most cordial esteem and affec- 
 tion. This lady, whose training and experience in her girl- 
 hood had admirably fitted her for the undertaking, gave to 
 these bereaved little ones the best tutelage that could be sup- 
 plied to children whose mother God had taken. 
 
 But such an arrangement could in the nature of things be 
 only temporary. No true father could scatter a family of 
 seven little children and long live separate from them all. 
 Duty to them, to himself and to his position and work in the 
 world imposes on such a one the necessity that he shall have 
 a home for those whom God has given him. In 1841, she 
 who had held so wisely and tenderly the provisional care of 
 those infants consented to bring them back to their father's 
 house as his wife and their adopted mother. 
 
 In 1834 the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity had been 
 conferred on Professor Potter by " Kenyon College ;" and the 
 same compliment was repeated by " Harvard University " in 
 1843. His own College, in the year which followed his eleva- 
 tion to the Episcopate, supplemented his literary honors with 
 the title of " LL.D.," " Legum Literarum Doctor;" — he was 
 truthfully dubbed at an institution of learning where he had 
 given instruction in every department and gained the reputa- 
 tion of being a master in all. 
 
 In 1842, the age of Bishop Griswold had so far advanced 
 that it became imperatively necessary to provide him some 
 relief from his official burdens. Wistfully the Churchmen of 
 Boston again turned their eyes toward the elect of a previous 
 year, and arrangements were attempted by which they hoped 
 to make the call of Massachusetts more irresistible than it 
 had before been. Dr. Potter felt it his duty to repress the 
 movement, seeing that he was more than ever needful to 
 
PLANS FOR ADVANTAGE OF UNION COLLEGE. 99 
 
 Union College and to its octogenarian President. In Feb- 
 ruary of 1843, Bishop Eastburn having been consecrated as 
 Bishop Griswold's Assistant in Massachusetts, the Eastern' 
 Diocese was dissolved by the sudden death of its venerable 
 head, and the several States which had composed it were left 
 to make separate provision for the Episcopal care of the 
 Churches in them respectively. Massachusetts was happily 
 supplied. ■ Overtures were made by men influential in the 
 Church in Rhode Island to induce Dr. Potter to sanction the 
 use of his name as a candidate for the Episcopal office there. 
 To these he replied : " You are probably aware that similar 
 advances were made to me in Massachusetts during the last 
 year, and that I felt constrained, partly by the precarious state 
 of my health, and- yet more by the peculiar and apparently 
 imperative character of the duties with which I am charged 
 here, to decline them. These considerations seem to retain 
 all their force, and compel me to regard myself at present as 
 a fixture." 
 
 Professor Potter was at this time no doubt the mainspring 
 of Union College. On the evening before Commencement 
 Day, in 1841, he had invited all the graduates present to take 
 tea together at the West College. The objects he had in view 
 were to promote social enjoyment, to strengthen the tie con- 
 necting the Alumni with their Alma Mater and to set on foot 
 a movement for the increase of the College Library. These 
 meetings were continued annually while Professor Potter re- 
 mained connected with the college, and resulted in a subscrip- 
 tion for the proposed object of ten thousand dollars. 
 
 "Union College " was founded in 1795. Accordingly, its 
 semi-centenary would occur in 1 845. Professor Potter was 
 desirous that this should be celebrated in a way to create a 
 warmer and more extended interest in the institution, and a 
 more cordial esprit du corps among the Alumni. At the 
 College Commencement of 1 844 arrangements were made for 
 such a festival, and Dr. Potter was appointed one of the 
 
lOO MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 orators for the occasion as a representative of the later classes 
 of graduates. • " The wisdom of the choice was vindicated," 
 says an honored Professor to whom we are indebted for most 
 of our reminiscences of Dr. Potter's scholastic life, " by the 
 manifest interest with which eight hundred of the Alumni 
 listened to the eloquent discourse pronounced in the Reformed 
 Dutch Church of Schenectady, July 22, 1845. I" that 
 discourse will be found his matured views of what- a College 
 owes to the community and of what it is able to accomplish. 
 His affecting allusion to the scenes about to be abandoned, 
 amid which the prime of his manhood had been passed, and . 
 his apostrophe to his Alma Mater, drew tears from many an 
 eye unused to weep." 
 
 The noble discourse on which his old College-mate, Bishop 
 Doane, pronounced a very fervent eulogium at the Alumni 
 dinner which followed, had the following eloquent peroration : 
 
 He who has occupied your time so long feels that this is a mem- 
 orable day for him. After spending amidst these shades the better 
 portion of his life, he is about to exchange them for other and 
 more trying scenes.* Will it be trespassing too much on your 
 patience or on the most delicate propriety, if he presumes for one 
 instant to blend his personal remembrances with the prayer which 
 in your name he would fondly offer for this temple of learning, 
 this sanctuary of the faith? He came here, it is now nearly thirty 
 years since. Like hundreds who hear his voice, he has since buried 
 most of those toward whom his heart beat most tenderly. The 
 images of others, "the loved and" lost," will come up at such a 
 time and mingle with the new faces and the new forms that throng 
 around us. He came a stranger, but he found a home. He came 
 poor in the world's goods, and poorer still in the wisdom that 
 passeth riches, but he found knowledge, employment and the be- 
 nignant light of Christ's religion. He found a treasure which 
 shone for years the light of his dwelling, and which, though it has 
 been called to brighter and more congenial worlds, has left behind 
 it remembrances and influences that can never perish. Here he 
 * About to become Bishop of Pennsylvania. 
 
SEMI-CENTENARY AT UNION. lOI 
 
 has spent the best years, and here perhaps he has applied the most 
 useful energies, of his life. This peaceful scenery,, this unsurpassed 
 landscape, these halls for prayer and recitation, these fond associ- 
 ations, this treasured dust, he leaves with pangs which they only 
 can know who know what it is to part with home and friends and 
 loved pursuits when the noon of life is past. He goes leaving 
 behind him those toward whom his deepest affections must ever 
 turn. He goes sorrowing that he has not served our common 
 mother better in years that are past — sorrowing that he has not 
 some worthy offering of his gratitude and love to lay on her altars 
 to-day, and breathing from his inmost heart this prayer in her 
 behalf: "Honored parent! Heretofore you have been the abode 
 of religious toleration. May you be so still ! Thus far you have 
 been the nursery of free spirits, of a comprehensive and large- 
 minded but reverent philosophy. Thus may it always be ! Here 
 have parental kindness and forbearance ever tempered the exercise 
 of authority, and a wakeful parental vigilance been applied to the 
 forming of youthful character. Be it never otherwise ! And when 
 the term of fifty years has again rolled away, and your children 
 and your children's children, even to the fifth and sixth generation, 
 shall come back to celebrate your praise and write up your first 
 centennial records, may it be found that this is then the home of 
 true and brave men, of men braver, truer, holier than we, that 
 better and wiser spirits have risen to direct your counsels, and that 
 a higher scholarship and a deeper sanctity are sending from these 
 shrines rich blessings on the world !" 
 
 In the General Convention of 1 844, which sat in the City 
 of Philadelphia, culminated in the American Church the great 
 Tractarian controversy. Not a fevs^ of our Clergy, and some 
 of our Laity, were captivated by the teachings of the famous 
 "Tracts for the Times." Much that they contained was 
 acceptable and useful to all sorts of Churchmen. The infu- 
 sion of unsound doctrines was very gradually, not to say 
 insidiously, made. And we must in charity presume that 
 some were at first beguiled by it who, if they had had or 
 exercised a more ready discrimination, would have been 
 
I02 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 spared the mortification of that retrogression through which, 
 with as Httle manifestation as possible, they were constrained 
 to pass. The debates in the Convention of 1844 were, for 
 the most part, engrossed with these topics, and were marked 
 with signal ability on both sides. Dr. (afterward Bishop) 
 Henshaw there measured lances with his eminent Lay col- 
 league in the deputation from Maryland, Judge Chambers, a 
 most accomplished tactician and debater. Twenty years after- 
 ward I heard the Judge remark, " I never met a more formid- 
 able adversary." Dr. Potter was present at that Convention, 
 as a member of the Board of Missions. With his usual 
 calmness and candor he employed his great influence in 
 assuaging the excesses of partisan feeling, and in endeavoring, 
 by private influences upon them, to bring the members of the 
 Convention to the expression of such sentiments as would 
 show jts fidelity to the standards of truth, irritating as little as 
 might be the few that were " shaken in mind and judgment." 
 Although the most impassioned opponents of the Tractarian 
 School were thwarted in the measures which they had hopejd 
 to" carry, yet it can hardly now be doubted that the whole 
 result of that Convention was favorable to the establishment 
 of the Protestant character of our Church. From that 
 time forth the Tractarian controversy subsided; insomuch 
 that in 1,850, when the great representative Council of the 
 Church came together for the second time after the memorable 
 Convention of 1844, the issues of that period had entirely 
 disappeared. Some men who, un'der the lead of Newman and 
 his school, had proceeded too far to keep their balance on a 
 Protestant platform, had toppled over into the Church of 
 Rome ; while others, who were but a little way behind them, 
 recoiled, and betook themselves to a plane of super-eminent 
 Churchmanship at which most men, until habituated, would 
 feel dizzy. 
 
 Under date of Union College, Oct. 31, 1844, Dr. Potter 
 wrote to a distinguished Layman : 
 
FORESHADOWINGS OF COMING EVENTS. IO3 
 
 I think we have reason on the whole to be well satisfied with the 
 result of the General Convention. I was at first vexed that those 
 men would broach the subject and get beaten ; but the discussion 
 was conducted with so much decorum, and drew out such a fiill 
 admission of the right of private judgment from those who in 
 theory are least disposed to recognize it, while the resolution of 
 Judge Chambers asserts a principle so true in itself, and so import- 
 ant to our future peace and to the preservation of a tolerant spirit, 
 that I am inclined to hope substantial good from the discussion. 
 
 It is not improbable that the judicious Bearing of Dr. 
 Potter through that most exciting and, as it then seemed, 
 most momentous session of the General Convention, held as 
 it was in the City of Philadelphia, first introduced him to the 
 personal knowledge of some who a few months afterward 
 united to call him to an office in which one needs, more than 
 in any other, stability in sound doctrine, tolerance toward 
 others and good judgment and eminent grace to reconcile 
 simple fidelity with large charity. 
 
 Early in May following, his faithful friend, Mr. Appleton, 
 having heard rumors that Dr. Potter's name would be likely, 
 in certain contingencies to unite the suffrages of the Diocese 
 of Pennsylvania, communicated to him that intelligence, to 
 which he replied : " If the summons comes I should desire to 
 regard it as providential, and therefore I have studiously 
 avoided everything which might look like inviting it. May 
 God direct it for his own glory ! When I look into my own 
 heart and remember the frailty of my understanding, I cannot 
 but feel a cold chill at the thought of such responsibilities." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 ELECTION TO THE EPISCOPATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 IN the beginning of the year 1845 the Episcopate of the 
 Diocese of Pennsylvania was vacant by the unhappy resig- 
 nation of Bishop Onderdonk. So ev.enly balanced had par- 
 ties been at the time of his election in 1829 that by a vote of 
 only one was the majority determined in his favor over the 
 opposing candidate, the Rev. Dr. William Mead, afterward 
 Bishop of Virginia. Dr. Onderdonk was a man of decided 
 opinions and of strong and vigorous character. He adminis- 
 tered his Diocese according to a determinate policy, and did 
 what he could to give prevalence to those Church sentiments 
 which his own judgment and conscience had led him to em- 
 brace. And yet, when the vacancy was to be filled at the 
 close of his Episcopate, singular is the fact that the same par- 
 ties existed in the same relative strength. Two eminent Cler- 
 gymen of the Diocese had each his respective adherents, 
 who, with earnest and almost impassioned devotion, urged 
 their respective claims on the support of the Convention. 
 Both of them were men of rare gifts, and had an enviable 
 reputation for pastoral fidelity and personal worth. One was, 
 in the Providence of God, fourteen years after made Assistant 
 to the man who became the elect of the Diocese at this time. 
 The other, in the largest Church of the American metropolis, 
 has from that juncture to the present hour exerted as wide 
 an influence and accomplished as much for the increase of 
 the Church and for the salvation of man as if he had been 
 
 104 
 
\ 
 \ 
 
 ANTECEDENTS OF THE ELECTION. lOS 
 
 a Bishop in a less central position. His Parish, under God's 
 blessing upon his labors, has grown to the dimensions of a 
 Diocese. 
 
 Months before the Convention of the churches in Pennsyl- 
 vania assembled for the momentous work of choosing an 
 Episcopal Head, it was foreseen that the prevalence of one or 
 the other of the prominent candidates would be effected with 
 much difficulty, and that the tides of agitated feeling after a 
 triumph so hardly won would not soon subside. Under this 
 condition of things the minds of many friends of the Church, 
 in and outside of the Diocese, had turned to Dr. Potter as one 
 well fitted to reconcile all parties — evangelical in doctrine, 
 tolerant in spirit and true to the peculiarities of our discipline 
 and worship". Early in April he was addressed by a Clergy- 
 man of Pennsylvania, who habitually took an active part in 
 Diocesan affairs, for the purpose of ascertaining whether he 
 had " formed a fixed determination to remain at Union Col- 
 lege." This, we may say, of course, Dr. Potter admitted that 
 he had not done. But he added : 
 
 Having made this admission, however, the terms and spirit of 
 your letter both assure me that you will not understand it as pledg- 
 ing me to any particular course hereafter, nor as indicative of any 
 desire on my part that my name should be mixed up with this most 
 important subject. I should hope that in this instance, there may 
 be union on some one more equal to the cares and more worthy of 
 the honors of so trying a position. 
 
 When the time for action had fully come, the Clergy of the 
 Diocese were found to be pretty equally divided between the 
 two nominees to whom reference has been already made. A 
 few scattering votes rendered necessary repeated ballotings; 
 and as those who cast them fell one after another into the 
 ranks of one or the other party, according to their established 
 affinities, the. contest narrowed and became intense, until one 
 of the candidates was declared to be the choice of the Clergy 
 
Io6 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 by a majority of one. The noijiination was not confirmed by 
 the Laity. It became needful for the Clergy to vote again. 
 
 At this juncture the Rev. Dr. S proposed the name of 
 
 the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Potter. Who can doubt, since the issues 
 of twenty years have followed, and the beneficent results of 
 the connection of that name with the life of the Church in 
 Pennsylvania are matters of history, that the Spirit of God 
 hovered over the Council of his Church, and overruled what 
 seemed its unhappy divisions to the glory of his name and 
 the welfare of his flock ? 
 
 Upon the first ballot after his formal nomination Dr. Potter 
 was pronounced the elect of the Clergy, and when the choice 
 was submitted, to the Laity it was concurred in by an unani- 
 mous vote. It is due to the truth of history to say that the 
 name of Alonzo Potter was proposed and mainly supported 
 by those who had not been in sympathy with the administra- 
 tion of Bishop Onderdonk. He received the suffrages of 
 others, not because they supposed him to be in concert with 
 themselves, or that there was anything uncertain or equivocal 
 in his doctrinal and ecclesiastical principles, but because he 
 was known to be large-minded and large-hearted, holding his 
 own opinions frankly, kindly, tolerantly — a man from whom 
 others could differ without incurring his utter distrust and 
 condemnation; a Low Churchman indeed, but no partisan; an 
 earnest. Evangelical Christian, but no self-righteous and pre- 
 scriptive zealot. 
 
 The election took place on the 23d of May. Before he 
 retired to rest that night, the oldest Presbyter in the Diocese — 
 the fervor of his nature not one whit abated by the lapse of 
 years — mailed the following characteristic letter — the impetu- 
 osity of its style as amusing as its information was solemn : 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir : Say me not, Nay ! You are the only man 
 I know entirely to unite this hitherto divided Diocese. My pray- 
 ers are heard so far as regards your election, and I feel confident 
 that you will feel bound to give this subject your prayerful atten- 
 
PERSUASIVE LETTERS FROM FRIENDS. lO/ 
 
 tion. May the Great Head of the Church direct you, and may He 
 have you in his holy keeping ! 
 
 Your sincere friend and 
 
 Most affectionate brother, 
 
 L B . 
 
 P. S. So full of your election to the Episcopate, I had almost 
 forgotten to mention that this day you were elected Bishop of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 Another veteran Presbyter, than whom no man had warmer 
 or more generous impulses, or was more ready to give 
 utterance to his exuberant feelings, but of different ecclesias- 
 tical affinities, the following day posted off his personal en- 
 dorsement of the doings of the Convention : 
 
 Rbv. and dear Sir : I write now to express the earnest hope 
 that you will not fail to accept the office to which we have elected 
 you. You were chosen under circumstances highly flattering to 
 you, and which it seems to me make it your duty to come among 
 us. Everything is now quieted, and all join in the hearty desire 
 that you will consent to be our Bishop. You will have no party 
 arrayed against your administration, no cliques to annoy and vex 
 
 you. We will receive you to our hearts as one man Should 
 
 you decline, the most unhappy consequences will result to our 
 
 hitherto afflicted Diocese I must not trouble you at this 
 
 anxious moment with many words or further importunity. But 
 repeating ray earnest solicitation that you will accept the office, 
 and offering my heart's congratulations to you, . 
 
 I remain, dear Dr. , with unfeigned esteem. 
 Your affectionate brother and friend, 
 
 H. W. D . 
 
 Persuasive letters from others prominent in the Diocese, 
 Clerical and Lay, and of both sides of the house, are before me, 
 which, within a few days after his election, greeted the eyes 
 and strengthened the heart of the man who with unfeigned 
 humility shrank from an office for which the Lord had fash- 
 
I08 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 ioned him, and to which, by the fiat of his providence, he was 
 now unmistakably called. A venerable Clergyman wrote : 
 
 Never was a call to the Episcopate more distinctly marked by 
 the finger of God than that which you have received to come 
 among us I pray that you may come filled with " the prep- 
 aration of the Gosj)el of peace," and assure you not only of a hearty 
 welcome, but also of a united Diocese — I mean, united in its 
 efforts to sustain its Bishop, and I hope also to spread the Gospel. 
 
 Said an active Layman : 
 
 The ardent prayers of all good men are daily made that your 
 decision may be favorable to our wishes and to the evident leadings 
 of Providence in this whole matter. That the great Head of the 
 Church will order all things rightly, I know ; and I know too that 
 he can, and often does, make weak the strength of man ; ^et so 
 manifestly has his all-controlling hand been seen in what we have 
 been brought to do, that I can hardly understand how his work 
 can be stopped. 
 
 The election of Dr. Potter was hailed with lively satisfac- 
 tion and with many thanksgivings to God by earnest friends 
 of the Church everywhere. He was deluged with letters of 
 importunity from the East and the West, pressing upon him 
 the conviction that the time had come when he must leave the 
 calm retreats of learning and stand in the forefront of the 
 sacramental host. A fervent letter of this tenor was ad- 
 dressed to Tiim by his old friend and College-mate, the Rev. 
 Dr. John S. Stone ; and he was one of the very first to whom 
 he communicated the decision which, after great searchings 
 of heart, he was divinely empowered to make. 
 
 The cheering intelligence was acknowledged by Dr. S 
 
 in the following admirable letter, which depicts so faithfully 
 and beautifully what a Bishop ought to be, that it has seemed 
 a duty to rescue it from the files of the dead and commend it 
 to the notice of the living : 
 
CHEERING LETTER FROM REV. DR. S . IO9 
 
 Brooklyn, June 7, 1845. 
 
 My dear Friend and Brother: Your letter of the 4th in- 
 stant gave me more pleasure than I know how to express. It 
 filled both my heart and eyes to overflowing; and although, in 
 relation to its subject, we are now even in the number of our let- 
 ters, yet I cannot pass over the occasion without again unburden- 
 ing myself, though in doing so I make the number of our letters 
 odd, and constrain you to read more than you have time to write. 
 
 I seem to see in your decision so much of the good hand of God 
 over our Church that it constrains me to fear less and to hope 
 more than has been my wont of late for her permanent purity and 
 general welfare. What we want with special urgency in our highest 
 ministry is, not men who seek the honor, but men who dread the 
 respopsibility, of office ; not men who will start the watchwords of 
 party, but men who will attach themselves with single purpose to 
 the one great cause of the Saviour and the Word of God ; not 
 men who will devote great learning, great abilities and great per- 
 sonal influence to the establishment and propagation of a theory, 
 but men who will bring all their powers and all their influence to 
 act in the simple work of saving the souls of men by literally fol- 
 lowing Christ in their lives and by faithfully dispensing the Gospel 
 in their ministrations. And such a man I rejoice in having reason 
 to hope we have, by the favor of God, found for the vacant Dio- 
 cese of Pennsylvania. Your brethren have confidence in you, dear 
 friend, not merely because they sympathize with others in their 
 admiration of the varied endowments and qualifications for your 
 work with which God has been pleased to bless you, but because 
 they think they see in you not one who has run for office, but one 
 whom God has called to work ; not one who will vauntingly trust 
 in his own strength, but one who will confidingly cast himself on 
 God for help; one, therefore, whom God will use as his instru- 
 ment of great good to the world : — so that, after all, our confidence 
 is not so much in the human as in the divine, not so much in man 
 as in God. And this, I doubt not, is just the sort of confidence 
 which you would have us cherish. In this confidence, too, it will 
 be sweet for a multitude of warm and earnest hearts, whether in 
 your future Diocese or out of it, to gather round you and keep you 
 10 
 
no MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 living in their prayers and strong" in their love, through the power 
 of God resting on such a fellowship. Go forward then, dear 
 brother, to your work, with less of a saddened and more of an 
 encouraged heart. With sucli views and motives as God has given 
 you, you will disappoint none of the expectations of your friends 
 or of the Church, because they expect only what God will vouch- 
 safe upon your faithful perseverance in duty. Yours, I firmly 
 believe, is God's call to his own work; and believing this, it were 
 wrong to doubt that he will bring his own glory out of that to 
 which lie has called you. He will give you wisdom amid the con- 
 flicts of the Church, strength in your wrestling with the world and 
 a blessing on your labors for the salvation of your people. During 
 the past, God has given our Church one Griswold — a man of 
 talents, learning and holiness, and capable' of acting silently and 
 througli long-after ages on large masses of the mind of the Church. 
 In you and your coming ministry may he give us all this and one 
 thing more, — the sanctified power of a safe as well as widespread 
 influence on still larger masses of that mind, acting with a present 
 effect, and filling your own age with new fountains of good to com- 
 ing generations. Oh how sweet the thought springing up from 
 various indications around us, that God has great good in store for 
 our sadly chastened Church — that he is preparing to fill her not 
 only with unity, but also with purity ; with the blended blessings 
 of a faith uncorrupt and of a practice undefiled ! May the pleas- 
 ing thought be embodied in blessed reality ! and, when we are all 
 done with our ministry and are looking back on the scenes through 
 which we have passed, may there be unnumbered thanksgivings to 
 God in heaven, that in bringing forth that reality he was pleased 
 both to prompt the decision to which you have been brought and 
 to bless the labors which that decision is to draw after it ! 
 
 I hope your dear wife will not think my letters contain too close 
 preaching. I mean them not as such, but as the free outpouring of 
 a brother's heart — of a heart that has long and tenderly loved you, 
 and that, if life be spared, will ever hold you in its best thoughts 
 and follow you (how poor soever they may be) with its best prayers 
 to God. Ever your faithful friend, 
 
 J. S. S. 
 
OBSTACLES TO ACCEPTANCE. Ill 
 
 On the 4th of June, Dr. Potter transmitted to the Chairman 
 of the Committee, through whom he had received official 
 notice of his election, his formal letter of acceptance. The 
 Committee consisted of the Rev. Dr. Morton, Rev. Dr. T. M. 
 Clark, Mr. Thomas Robins and Dr. J. L. Atlee. A portion 
 of the Committee went, immediately on the adjournment of 
 the convention, to Schenectady, and presented to him in person 
 the call of the Diocese. After this interview he had written 
 to his friend, Mr. Wm. Appleton, under date of May 27 : 
 
 The question of my acceptance is not yet settled, and any 
 counsel, therefore, you may offer, would be acceptable. I tremble 
 at the difficulties and responsibilities in prospect, and yet I shall 
 probably encounter them. Where I expected the most determined 
 and painful opposition there is comparative resignation, so that 
 my difficulties here are less formidable than I apprehended. So 
 far as my own happiness is concerned, I cannot hope to add to it 
 by a step which involves so fearful an increase of care, but I may 
 hope that such cares, patiently and prayerfully sustained, may con- 
 tribute to nourish a piety which is too apt to languish amidst literary 
 pursuits. 
 
 The apprehended opposition to which he here alludes was 
 doubtless that which would naturally arise from the reluctance 
 of the Rev. Dr. Nott to lose his efficient coadjutor in the 
 Presidency of the College. We may infer that he had already 
 on former occasions felt the strength of that bond, and yielded 
 to its stress, when others would have pronounced that more 
 sacred calls had justified its disruption. His obligations to 
 Dr. Nott, and, indeed, to "Union College," were peculiar. 
 He was not merely an alumnus who, by diligent use of his 
 opportunities, had won a place among the Faculty of the in- 
 stitution. He owed the fact of his receiving a liberal educa- 
 tion to the influence of Dr.- Nott upon his father. From the 
 moment of his appearance at College he was the object of his 
 special interest and care. He had a most profound sense of 
 indebtedness for the moral and mental culture which he had 
 
112 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 received of him through all his earlier years. And there was 
 a yet more tender tie, on which death had set the seal of per- 
 petuity, which gave the man of fourscore a claim for filial 
 duty that the bereft husband of his daughter would not dis- 
 own. In the College, though not seemingly in the service 
 of the Church, he was wielding a great influence for morality 
 and religion on those who were destined to be the guides of 
 others, and silently winning them to the Church of which he 
 was so bright an ornament; through him the regimen and 
 reputation of the College and its consequent prosperity were 
 being maintained as they could not be under any other ar- 
 rangement, and a dynasty being prolonged the extension of 
 which was then essential to the accomplishment of measures 
 for the future liberal endowment of the College. And be- 
 sides all these considerations binding him to the College and 
 its venerable head by an almost indissoluble link, his experience 
 of an exclusively ministerial life had occasioned the fear that 
 his physical constitution, especially in his vocal organs, would 
 not withstand the wear and tear of continual preaching. Dr. 
 Potter was in no sense a timid man. He never so distrusted 
 his powers as to falter in the performance of any obvious duty, 
 or to lose full control of his faculties and acquirements in at- 
 tempting to do it ; but he was cautious, slow to incur gratuitous 
 responsibilities, and too conscientious to abandon hastily a 
 position, in which Providence was evidently crowning his 
 efforts with favor, and to which his adaptation was proved, that 
 he might make an experiment in a new work. This cast of 
 character conspired with the circumstances above recited, to 
 render Professor Potter less prompt than some other men 
 would have been to go forth from that scholastic life in which 
 he was quietly achieving so much good, to the untried excite- 
 ments and labors of the Episcopal office. But now, the agen- 
 cies of Divine Providence seemed to conspire for the relaxing 
 , of these bonds, and he felt at liberty. 
 
 His letter of acceptance was on this wise : 
 
ACCEPTANCE OF EPISCOPATE. II3 
 
 Union College, Schenectady, June 4, 1845. 
 To THE Rev. Drs. Morton and T. M. Clark, and Messrs. Thos. 
 
 Robins and J. L. Atlee: 
 
 Gentlemen : I received several days since, through your kind- 
 ness, the official notice of my election to the office of Bishop of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania. I want words 
 to express my gratitude for this undeserved and distinguished mark 
 of public confidence, and to each of you I owe my warmest 
 thanks for the cordial manner in which you were pleased to 
 urge my acquiescence. I have given to the subject all that anxious 
 consideration which it so eminently merits, and have concluded, 
 though not without many misgivings, to accept the appointment. 
 Besides conflicting claims of a sacred nature, and deep reluctance 
 to leave scenes endeared to me by long habit and pssociation, I 
 have had to contend with the painful consciousness that I shall be 
 likely to prove wholly unequal to the fearful responsibilities of such 
 a charge. Accustomed to a life of retirement and of comparative 
 exemption from care, I cannot but contemplate with deep solicitude 
 the prospect of the arduous public labors to which you have 
 called me. But I commit myself to God and the support of his 
 grace, and it is my most earnest hope and prayer that I may not 
 prove entirely unworthy of your generous confidence, nor forget 
 under any circumstances the meekness, diligence and zeal which 
 become a Bishop in the Church of God. 
 
 The same mail which bore his letter of acceptance carried 
 also two others to private friends characteristic of him and full 
 of interest to those who have known him. The one was ad- 
 dressed to the Rev. Dr. S. H. Turner, the friend and guide of 
 his youth, his chosen witness in baptism, his chief instructor 
 in theology — the venerable man to whom so many of our 
 Clergy are indebted for that knowledge of the Holy Scriptures 
 which makes them wise to win souls. That precious letter, 
 addressed to the young catechumen, and to which Alonzo 
 Potter frequently returned for counsel through many succeed- 
 ing years, we would gladly transfer to these pages for the . 
 perusal of other Christian young men, but the manuscript 
 10* H 
 
114 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 unfortunately cannot be found. Dr. Turner's letter urging him 
 to accept the Episcopate is likewise missing. Dr. Potter's 
 reply, itself a model, owes perhaps much of its excellence 
 to the value of that lost utterance of wisdom and friendship 
 which called it forth. The following is the reply of the Bishop- 
 elect : 
 
 Union College, June 4, 1845. 
 Rev. Dr. Turner; 
 
 Dear Sir : Among many letters which have reached me during 
 the last week, none has been so welcome as yours. The sum- 
 mons which has come to me from Pennsylvania has brought 
 back most vividly the few months which I spent there under 
 your auspices when I was just setting out on my manly as well 
 as Christian life. The scene in St. Peter's when I received 
 baptism at the hands of Bishop White in your presence as the 
 eldest of my chosen witnesses ; the scene when I received 
 confirmation from the same venerable hands — your father — your 
 father's hospitable house — your study, where I so often received 
 counsel and instruction — my daily walks with your only other 
 pupil, Mr. Sitgreaves, now no more, — all have been constantly 
 passing and repassing before me. I have not often met you since, 
 nor have I ever expressed the lively and grateful sense which I have 
 always retained of your disinterested kindness at that critical period 
 of my life ; but I have cherished it none the less. A faithful letter 
 which as my sponsor you wrote me after I left Philadelphia often 
 meets my eye. And I have always counted it one of the chief 
 felicities of my education that it was commenced under your guid- 
 ance, and received from your catholic influence and from the con- 
 versations and beautiful example of Bishop White an impress which 
 it will, I trust, never lose. 
 
 Such being the case, your letter, as you may suppose, proved a 
 cordial to me, and has had no little weight in deciding my course. 
 You have judged rightly in supposing that my taste and habits lead 
 me to prefer the retirement of my present pursuits. It is not with- 
 out the deepest reluctance that I contemplate the necessity of tear- 
 ing myself away and giving the remainder of my life to public 
 
DEPRECATES COMPLIMENTARY NOTICE. II5 
 
 labors, to distracting cares and to a world tumultuous with contro- 
 versy. But the call has seemed so providential that I have not 
 dared to decline it. This day's mail carries my acceptance. And 
 now, my dear sir, let me entreat you, as you love the cause of Christ 
 and the welfare of our Church, give me your prayers that I may be 
 the Bishop you describe — unostentatious, humble, laborious, de- 
 voted to the flock, forgetful of myself, combining wisdom with all 
 the harmlessness of the dove. I have only time to add that I am 
 as ever, dear sir, 
 
 Your obliged and faithful friend, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 The other letter of the same date was addressed to the Rev. 
 W. W. Spear, then Rector of St. Luke's Church, Philadelphia, 
 Vi^ho had felt an early and warm interest in the accession of 
 Dr. Potter to the Episcopate of Pennsylvania. It appears that 
 Mr. Spear had entrusted a private letter to the hand of a mem- 
 ber of the Committee who waited on the Bishop-elect with 
 the official certificate of his election. 
 
 The following is Dr. Potter's reply : 
 
 Union College, June 4, 1845. 
 
 My dear Sir : My time and thoughts have been so severely 
 taxed during the last week that I have not been able to acknowledge 
 sooner your kind letter by Mr. Clark. I have felt painfully the 
 immense responsibility in the step which I was asked to take ; and 
 but for the consciousness that the matter is not of my seeking, and 
 the general concurrence of my friends that the call is Providential, 
 I should shrink from yielding to it. The mail which carries this 
 carries my acceptance, addressed to the Committee that waited 
 upon me. May the issue be God's glory and the good of his 
 Church, whatever it shall be to myself personally ! 
 
 There isynothing for which I pray so fervently as that I may be 
 kept humble ; and if trials are necessary to that end, I hope they 
 may come. You are aware that we have sometimes sinned against 
 Christian simplicity as well as against good taste by the silly ado- 
 ration which we have seemed to offer to our Bishops. May we 
 have none of this in Pennsylvania! The consideration which 
 
Il6 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 properly belongs to the office will be accorded, I am sure, if I am 
 enabled to do my duty ; and it is as unwise as it is wrong to give 
 "occasion to those who are without" to blaspheme. It is my 
 earnest desire, therefore, that there may be no flourish of trumpets 
 beforehand. "Let not him that putteth on his armor boast him- 
 self, as he that taketh it off"." Let my friend Mr. R (with 
 
 whom I remember to have had a brief but pleasant meeting many 
 long years ago) impose silence on "The Recorder." Let "The 
 Banner ' ' give out no emblazonments that bear my name. I shall 
 have more than enough to do to fulfill the just expectations of the 
 Diocese, without encountering those excited by mistaken views of 
 my character or consequence ; and may my brethren let their earn- 
 est, importunate prayers go up, that I may be fervent, diligent, 
 prudent, self-denying, as becometh those who would be found 
 faithful at last ! . . . . Little did I think what was passing in your 
 mind during our ride from New York to Princeton, or what was 
 preparing by an inscrutable Providence for me and for your Dio- 
 cese. God's ways are not our ways. 
 
 Ever, dear sir, faithfully and 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 The Chairman of the Committee of Convention acknow- 
 ledged the receipt of Dr. Potter's letter of acceptance in the 
 following terms : 
 
 Philadelphia, June 6, 1845. 
 
 Reverend and dear Sir : My heart has been made glad by 
 the reception of your letter ; and I am sure that multitudes 
 will share with me in the feeling of satisfaction thus produced. 
 Rumor had begun to fly around us, uttering the boding cry pro- 
 claiming the probability of a refusal of the appointment lately 
 made ; but, thanks be to God ! we can now add yet another to the 
 many proofs already possessed that Rumor lies and is not to be 
 regarded. 
 
 .... Your communication to the Committee of which I have 
 the honor to be Chairman shall be immediately laid before the 
 
DR. POTTER'S ECCLESIASTICAL POSITION. II7 
 
 Standing Committee, and all needful measures taken to bring to a 
 speedy completion the work thus auspiciously begun. 
 With great respect and affection, 
 I remain truly yours, 
 
 H. J. M . 
 
 Rev. Alonzo Potter, D. D. 
 
 « 
 
 It must be evident to the reader, after perusing the assur- 
 ances of satisfaction which were addressed to Dr. Potter from 
 Pennsylvania by men of different ecclesiastical affinities, that 
 he was regarded by all as a man of catholic spirit, of large 
 understanding, and such good judgment and Christian mod- 
 eration as would secure to the Diocese a fair and impartial 
 administration. He was not the first choice of earnest, active 
 partisans, such as on either side conduct caucuses and obtain 
 from them the nomination of their own favorites, but of that 
 larger body of men who range between them, and whose 
 voice is never heard until the time for calm and conciliatory 
 counsels has arrived. At such a crisis the minds of men in 
 Pennsylvania turned by a spontaneous impulse to Dr. Potter. 
 
 With what constancy he held those doctrines of Evangelic 
 truth and those moderate views of Ecclesiastical polity in 
 which he had been trained, and yet with what consideration 
 and respect he was ready to treat the principles of those who 
 differed from him, are happily exhibited in the following letter 
 addressed to a distinguished Lay gentleman in New York 
 City. He was a personal friend of Dr. Potter, and in writing 
 to congratulate him on his call to the Episcopate had appa- 
 rently given some friendly intimation of the style of Bishop 
 which he hoped Dr. Potter would become : 
 
 Union College, Aug. 4, 1846. 
 My dear Sir : I thank you from my heart for your kind and 
 frank letter. No man can give me a clearer evidence of his good- 
 will than by such an unreserved expression of his feelings. I can- 
 not flatter myself that I shall ever fulfill the expectations which you 
 are pleased to cherish in respect to my future usefulness. I shall 
 
U8 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 devote my feeble energies to the labor and study which comport 
 with the position. I shall pray for grace to do it with an unbiased 
 and sincere mind, and if I do not in every respect conform to 
 your views, it will be on the strength of convictions which you 
 will respect, even though you may not approve them. Early in 
 life I sat at the feet of Bishop White. I did not learn there to 
 attach all the importance to certain views of doctrine and polity 
 which is attached to them by those who, like yourself, were reared 
 under different auspices. It has always been my desire and study, 
 however, to comprehend and do justice to these views, apd I know 
 there are many reasons which render their adoption by a Bishop, 
 at least politic. Powerful inducements will therefore be super- 
 added in my case to their intrinsic claims. But they are induce- 
 ments, as you will deeply feel, against which a good man ought to 
 be somewhat on his guard. I have no ambition to be a martyr, 
 but in these days no man can hope to serve the world and his 
 Master without reproach, whichever line he may take ; and it will 
 be my earnest desire and prayer that, in reconsidering the great 
 questions now under discussion, I may do it with an eye singly 
 directed to truth and to the honor of my Master. 
 
 I am, dear sir. 
 Your obliged and faithful friend, 
 
 A. P . 
 
 "The great questions then under discussion" were those 
 with which the Oxford Tractarians had first convulsed the 
 Church of England. The storm had somewhat subsided where 
 it arose, but the cloud had swept westward, and its shadows 
 were darkening the American Church and bewildering many 
 of her members. The General Convention of 1844 was agi- 
 tated with long and excited debate upon topics more or less 
 related to that famous controversy. The tempest then spent 
 itself in "winds of doctrine;" and the atmosphere from that 
 time forth became more clear and placid. The same elements 
 seem now to be gathering from another quarter; the lights 
 and shadows fall differently and give them a new aspect, but 
 they are identical, and generate the same arrows of death. 
 
.RESIGNATION OF PROFESSORSHIP. II9 
 
 Ritualism looks like a mere fleece-cloud, white and pictu- 
 resque and transient, but it is semi-Popery seen from a new 
 position. Let us pray and trust that the same Divine Spirit 
 who before lightened our darkness will again cast his bright 
 beams of light upon the Church, and suffer no vapor, how- 
 ever thin and dreamy, to obscure tha open heaven of truth 
 under which it is ours to live. " Come from the four winds, 
 O Breath, and breathe !" 
 
 Nothing of special moment in the life of Dr. Potter trans- 
 pired after this date until his consecration as a Bishop in the 
 Church of God. Professor Potter's retirement from the 
 Faculty of Union College was consummated at the close of 
 the Collegiate year, July, 1845, and with sentiments on either 
 hand expressed in the following papers. 
 
 Schenectady, July 22, 1845. 
 To THE Trustees of Union College : 
 
 Gentlemen : I ask permission to resign the Professorship of 
 Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy which I have held under your 
 supervision during the last fourteen years. I cannot take this step 
 without being reminded that still earlier in life I was connected 
 with the Institution in other capacities, and that I have now spent 
 within its- walls, as Pupil and Instructor, the aggregate space of 
 twenty-four years. Having experienced nothing but kindness at 
 the hands of the authorities of the College during all this time, 
 and having cherished the deepest interest in its welfare and pros- 
 perity, I cannot take my final leave of it now without emotions 
 which I will not attempt to describe. It is my earnest prayer that 
 the smiles of a gracious Providence may continue to rest upon it, 
 and that under your wise- and well-directed auspices it may long 
 stand an ornament to the State and a blessing to mankind. With 
 sincere wishes for the felicity through life and in death of every 
 member of the Board, 
 
 I am, gentlemen, with great respect, 
 
 Your obliged and faithful servant, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
I20 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 The Board of Trustees were then assembled, and on the day 
 following, Governor Wright, from the Committee to which the 
 above communication was referred, reported the following 
 resolution, which was unanimously adopted by the Board : 
 
 Resolved, That it is with regret which cannot be expressed that 
 this Board finds itself called upon to dissolve the connection which 
 has so long, so happily and so beneficially to Union College and 
 its pupils existed between the Rev. Alonzo Potter and that Institu- 
 tion, by the acceptance of his resignation of the Professorship of 
 Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy tendered to the Board yesterday ; 
 and still, fully conscious that this step is taken on his part under 
 the deep conviction that higher and holier duties call him to 
 another and a different field of labor, that resignation is cheerfully 
 accepted, and the best wishes of the Board tendered to Dr. Potter 
 that health, happiness and increased usefulness may mark his career 
 in his new position. 
 
 Dr. Potter when called to the Episcopate was under another 
 literary engagement, of which he could scarce relieve himself 
 by a letter of resignation. He was committed to the under- 
 taking, and he felt that in fulfilling it he had opportunity to 
 do great good to a very influential community, and to use for 
 the honor of God resources which he had been long acquir- 
 ing, and faculties specially suited by nature and cultivation 
 for the important service. He had promised to deliver a series 
 of public lectures in Boston which would be continued through 
 several successive winters. Such courses are provided for 
 in that city under an endowment called the " Lowell Institute." 
 It had recently been established, and the Trustees were very 
 properly solicitous in the earlier years of the foundation to 
 secure the services of men who would give substantial instruc- 
 tion to the people and win honor to the Institute by their 
 national reputation. Dr. Potter felt himself much embarrassed 
 by this engagement when the work of the Episcopate was 
 first proposed to him. The representatives of the Diocese to 
 whom he made known this encumbrance would not entertain 
 
ENGAGEMENT FOR LOWELL LECTURES. 121 
 
 it as a sufficient reason for his refusal of the high office. It 
 was felt that a few weeks of his time in mid-winter, when ex- 
 tended visitation of his vast Diocese must be in a measure 
 suspended, would not be unsuitably employed in asserting at 
 the New England centre of religious opinion and influence 
 those great principles of moral science which underlie all 
 types of Christian faith and the political and social system 
 under which we live. And besides, as the revenues of the 
 Church in Pennsylvania were insufficient for the liberal sup- 
 port of its Bishop, it was felt that it would be ungenerous not 
 to rejoice that the elected head of the Diocese would have the 
 honor and the emoluments of this lectureship for a few years. 
 So it was by mutual understanding between Dr. Potter and 
 the Committee from Pennsylvania arranged that his accept- 
 ance of the Episcopate should not vacate his agreement to 
 deliver the " Lowell Lectures" in Boston. 
 
 This provision for popular instruction was instituted by Mr. 
 John Lowell, an affluent gentleman of high culture who died 
 childless while on an extended Oriental tour, and by his will 
 left an endowment in the hands of trustees for the liberal 
 compensation, year by year, of lecturers who should discourse 
 under their appointment on moral and scientific subjects in 
 some public hall in the City of Boston. Dr. Potter's entire 
 course was divided into four series, commencing in the winter 
 of 1845 and reaching to that of 1858-9. These productions, 
 when the circumstances and manner of their preparation and 
 delivery are considered, were probably the most remarkable 
 intellectual and scholastic achievement of Dr. Potter's life. 
 Remembering what was then the prevailing tone of religious 
 sentiment in Boston, and to what extent its literati were per- 
 vaded with the idea that most of the learning of the country 
 had its well-spring in that grand old University which is still 
 the pride of Massachusetts, we can but regard the selection 
 of Dr. Potter — an orthodox Clergyman, a Professor in a New 
 York College — to lecture on Natural Theology and Christian 
 11 
 
122 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Evidences as a personal compliment of most emphatic import. 
 High expectations were entertained of the usefulness and in- 
 terest which would invest even those abstract and somewhat 
 trite subjects under the treatment of Dr. Potter. The literary 
 metropolis was all astir. The Federal Street Theatre, which 
 had ceased to be used for histrionic purposes and had donned 
 the classic name " Odeon," was (though the largest audi- 
 torium in the city) filled to overflowing. Ministers of every 
 name, Professors and students from the University, recluse 
 scholars and men of science, educated and studious merchants 
 (of whom there is a larger proportion in Boston than in any 
 other American city), ladies whose accomplishments of mind 
 and grace of manners made them the fit associates of these 
 cultivated classes, — thronged to listen. What was the surprise 
 of all when Dr. Potter came before such an assembly of critics 
 prepared indeed to grasp his subject in all its vast proportions, 
 to fathom its philosophy, array its evidences and depict its 
 illustrations, and yet without a line of manuscript before his 
 eyes ! Sometimes in his course he held a small slip of paper 
 containing a brief of intended arguments, but, for the most 
 part, throughout that long series of sixty lectures, he stood 
 out upon the open platform, not to play upon the passions of 
 men with extemporaneous harangue (that were a compara- 
 tively easy task), not to tickle their fancies with tasteful images 
 such as any poetic tongue can improvisate, but to unfold, in 
 language evolved at the moment from the rich laboratory of 
 his thoughts, profound principles of truth concerning the being 
 and character of God and the moral obligations of man which 
 required the mind to be in its calmest and most deliberate 
 mood, and the lips to be supplied with the most choice and 
 discriminating forms of expression. When it is considered 
 that all these lectures, extending in successive courses through 
 several winters, were attended by the same admiring throngs 
 with no abatement of interest, it must be confessed that they 
 witness to an intellectual power in their author, a compass of 
 
RELUCTANCE TO CHANGE PURSUITS. 1 23 
 
 knowledge, a measure of dignified but not presumptuous self- 
 possession, and a grace and copiousness of diction which very 
 few men in the realm of letters could match. 
 
 Dr. Potter had only accomplished the first part in this 
 great series of discourses, when the whole current and occu- 
 pation of his life was by Him "who ordereth a good man's 
 goings" unexpectedly changed. Called to be a Bishop in 
 May, 1845, he was consecrated to that holy office on the 23d 
 of September following, in Christ Church, Philadelphia. 
 
 The struggles of mind and heart through which Dr. Potter 
 reached the conclusion that the voice of duty and of God 
 called him away from the classic halls with which so much of 
 his manly and honorable life had been identified it were vain 
 to attempt to rehearse. To separate himself from friends with 
 whom he had taken counsel so long, — to abandon studies whose 
 pursuit had now become to him a second nature, — to leave the 
 College where he had received the training which qualified 
 him to render her a service that no fresh successor could 
 supply — and that in her peculiar need, when the hand of the 
 magician who had so long ruled and illustrated her destinies 
 was losing its vigor, if not its cunning — to commence life 
 anew when past its meridian, — to exchange the quiet seclusion 
 of a scholar for the wanderings of an itinerant Missionary 
 (such is the work of a Bishop), — was to Dr. Potter no agreeable 
 allotment ; yet his strong will bowed in cheerful submission 
 to the will of God, and with a brave heart and a mind by 
 nature and by habit easy of adjustment to whatever sphere of 
 labor, he entered on his new and most eminent career. Obliged 
 for several years after his accession to the Episcopate, in ful- 
 fillment of a pledge given before his election, every winter 
 to suspend for a while his multifarious labors, so unfavorable 
 to philosophic and metaphysical study, and to proceed with 
 his interrupted and yet successive course of " Lowell Lec- 
 tures," he showed that the suppleness of his faculties was as 
 extraordinary as their strength. Those lectures were after- 
 
124 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTERS 
 
 ward reduced to writing, so that there is happily ground for 
 hope that others beside the delighted auditors who attended 
 their delivery may yet be instructed by their profound and 
 original arguments, and charmed by the simple beauty of their 
 composition. 
 
 We have referred at length to these lectures in this place 
 (although most of them were delivered after he entered upon 
 his Episcopate) because he commenced them while yet at 
 Union College, and because the reputation which led to his 
 selection by the Trustees he acquired as a Professor. The 
 preparation of these was a scholastic and not a ministerial 
 effort. They crowned and consummated, and we may say 
 closed, his literary life. Up to the time when he became a 
 Bishop, although he had been a Clergyman for more than 
 twenty years, and five of them had been passed in a parochial 
 cure, his energies had been chiefly devoted to the work of 
 education. He did not neglect to stir up the gift that was in 
 him by the putting on of Apostolic hands, ministering the 
 Word as he had opportunity, but his stated occupation, in 
 which his power was most felt, was in the College and in those 
 agencies for the dissemination of sound learning of which he 
 made it the centre and well-spring. His consecration to the 
 Episcopal • office was, so to speak, the dividing-line between 
 his scholastic and his clerical career. He was known as a 
 Professor before, he was known as a Bishop afterward; and 
 yet, as he did not in his Collegiate period forego any occasion 
 to do the work of an Evangelist, so henceforth he found time, 
 omitting nothing which his Diocese required of its Episcopal 
 head, to lend his influence and his aid to the cause of popular 
 education. It is a great art to fill one's own sphere and at the 
 same time without distraction to do good outside of it — to be 
 a recognized master of his situation and still to be felt as a 
 power beyond its limits. Few men do one thing well ; very 
 few do more than one. Dr. Potter had acquired such mastery 
 over himself that he could, by a side flume, divert an effective 
 
FACULTY TO DO MORE THAN ONE THING. 125 
 
 streamlet of his enthusiasm without turning its whole current. 
 He could be and do what he purposed, and yet allow himself 
 in the entertainment of some subordinate interests. There 
 being few men who can thus distribute themselves, it was 
 natural that some, who were quite engrossed with pursuits in 
 which he had a part, were concerned lest their favorite objects 
 should suffer by the diversion of his thoughts to other inter- 
 ests. Doubtless there were devotees of Union College who 
 were jealous of Dr. Potter's labors as a Clergyman of the 
 Church and as a promoter of popular and common-school 
 education. Certainly there were those afterward who, concen- 
 trating theif cares and sympathies upon the Church of which 
 he was a Bishop, feared lest, in lending his help to the ad- 
 vancement of the mental and social welfare of the community, 
 he should rob the Church of time and influence that were 
 due exclusively to its furtherance. No conceit could be more 
 prejudicial to the cause of true religion than that which would 
 separate it from whatever effort is made to make society more 
 intelligent, more moral or more happy. The great Head of 
 the Church, who himself " went about doing good," although 
 his special errand was to reveal truth and achieve redemption, 
 has ordained his representative body to be the benefactor of 
 mankind, and accounts him his best steward who makes 
 society feel most the manifold benefits of his economy of 
 grace. What were Dr. Potter's opinions on the limits of 
 Christian duty the manner of his life sufficiently reveals. He 
 gave a living illustration of the precept, "Whatsoever thy 
 hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." As a Bishop he 
 maintained not only the constrained connection with the world 
 of letters to which we have above referred, but from time to 
 time, all through his Episcopal life, he took his wonted place 
 among the votaries of popular education in his adopted State 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 Under date of June 9, 1845, five days after his acceptance 
 of the Episcopate, he wrote to Mr. William Appleton : 
 11* 
 
126 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 My dear Sir : Thank you for your friendly letter. The rubicon 
 is now passed, and the letters of which you spoke might be addressed 
 to Messrs. Binney, Ingersoll, etc., with great advantage. In 
 regard to our moving to Philadelphia, I do not think it will take 
 place before the middle or close of October. It is impossible at 
 present to conjecture when the consecration will take place, but 
 probably not earlier than the close of September or first of October. 
 
 In regard to the "Lowell Lectures," I should like your advice. 
 I shall take that of the Standing Committee at Philadelphia. It is 
 understood that there will be no objection for next winter, and I 
 should have 'no wish to go beyond that time except as it will enable 
 me to complete the argument I had laid out, and also to earn the 
 additional emolument. But I shall of course wish to do that which 
 is most proper all around, and as the whole course of my next win- 
 ter's lectures depends on the decision I may make,T will thank you 
 for an early and perfectly frank opinion. 
 
 It may here be mentioned that Dr. Potter had been 
 officially informed that the permanent Episcopal fund of 
 Pennsylvania then amounted to forty thousand dollars, yield- 
 ing an annual income of two thousand dollars,, and that ten of 
 the principal churches in Philadelphia had agreed jointly to 
 contribute fifteen hundred dollars per annum, so that his whole 
 salary would be the somewhat stinted sum of thirty-five hun- 
 dred dollars. 
 
 The necessary assent of the Bishops and Standing Commit- 
 tees of the several Dioceses was so promptly given that the 
 Presiding Bishop (Dr. Philander Chase of Illinois) was able to 
 take order for Dr. Potter's consecration on the twenty-third 
 of September following. That imposing, and to the Diocese 
 momentous, solemnity was celebrated in Christ Church, Phila- 
 delphia — the mother Church of the Diocese — the sanctuary 
 in which good Bishop White had ministered through his long 
 and eventful life, who had also a quarter of a century be- 
 fore administered to this his successor the Apostolic rite 
 of confirmation. Bishop Chase was his consecrator, assisted 
 
ADVICE FROM DR. NOTT. 1 27 
 
 by Bishop Hopkins of Vermont (who preached the sermon), 
 Bishop Doane of New Jersey, Bishop Lee of Delaware and 
 Bishop Whittingham of Maryland. Few in the crowded as- 
 semblage who witnessed that imposing ceremony realized 
 what a power was that day introduced into the Diocese of 
 Pennsylvania — what wise and manifold devices for its welfare 
 and enlargement were to emanate from the teeming brain and 
 generous heart that there before the altar of God gave them- 
 selves to its lifelong service. He came to the Diocese at a 
 very trying juncture in its history, when it was depressed and 
 mortified by recent troubles as well as distracted by party 
 strife. He deeply felt the peculiar difficulties of his position, 
 and not only begirt himself for the exercise of his own best 
 powers, but sbught from human and Divine sources counsel 
 and support. Before leaving Schenectady he invoked the sug- 
 gestions of one who had always manifested toward him the 
 affection of a father, and whose practical wisdom he had 
 learned to regard with profound respect. The following 
 admirable letter from the venerable Dr. Nott followed him 
 immediately to his new field, and illustrates with what good 
 reason he had dome to rely on the wisdom and friendship of 
 that eminent man. It were well if the counsel here given were 
 committed to memory by other men in high ecclesiastical 
 office. 
 
 DR. NOTT'S advice ON SETTLEMENT OF ECCLESIASTICAL 
 DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 Union College, October 8, 1845. 
 
 My dear Sir : You asked me when parting to write you in rela- 
 tion to my method of action when difficulties exist in churches, 
 adding that you yourself would be called to act under such circum- 
 stances. Now, offences and causes of offence are so diverse in dif- 
 ferent places, and as every case has its own peculiar character, 
 which can only be judged of on the spot, and in view of the facts 
 of each, it will not be possible for me to say anything in reference 
 to a particular case and the manner of proceeding therein that will 
 
128 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 be of use to you. I can only state some of the principles that have 
 governed me and some of the modes of procedure ' which I have 
 observed. First, then, to have influence in settling a difficulty, I 
 have felt that I must be considered as impartial in order to be use- 
 ful, and that I might be so considered I have resolutely determined 
 to be so, not in appearance and in word (which is the case with all 
 inediators), but in reality and in fact. 
 
 2. I have gone directly to the party which sympathized the least 
 with me, and to the leader, or, in other words, to the worst man, 
 or the man of the greatest influence in that party, endeavoring to 
 come to terms with that man and to induce him to bring to terms 
 those with whom he acted. I have then pursued the same course 
 with the opposite party. 
 
 3. I have passed and repassed between the leader or leaders of 
 the two parties, inducing one side and the other to give a little, till 
 I had found some mean where they could unite. 
 
 4. I have avoided bringing the parties together till everything 
 was definitely settled, so that no discussion should be necessary if 
 the parties should be required to meet ; and if they did meet, 
 having previously arranged the business, I have endeavored to take 
 the conducting of it while the parties were; together into my own 
 hands, and to do and talk so much myself, if possible, as to pre- 
 vent the parties of either side from talking. 
 
 5. In my intercourse between the two parties I have endeavored 
 to bring a powerful religious influence to bear upon the minds of 
 each, urging that it was better to give than to receive, that I should 
 rather belong to the party that made concessions than to that 
 which insisted that concessions should be made, and that the party 
 I was conversing with should study to see how much they could 
 concede to their brethren, and not how much they could compel 
 their brethren to give up to them. 
 
 6. In my intercourse I have been careful to be the bearer only 
 of the good which the one party might have said of the other in - 
 my hearing, and never the bearer of evil, and by exerting as a 
 mutual friend a kindly influence to bring those upon whom it was 
 exerted into a better and more kindly frame of mind. 
 
 7. As a preliminary to acting I have endeavored to become ac- 
 
ADVICE FROM DR. NOTT. 1 29 
 
 quainted with the condition of the parties, the real causes of 
 grievance and the real means and channels of influence. I have 
 often found that other than the apparent grievances existed, and 
 that great knowledge of all the circumstances of the case, as well 
 as great delicacy on my part, was necessary, and that often time and 
 patience were called for. 
 
 Your difficulties may result not so much from local causes as 
 from radical differences among the people of your extensive charge : 
 with reference to this, being a member of a different Church, I 
 ought, perhaps, not to speak ; still, such have been the peculiar rela- 
 tions in which we have stood to each other, and such is the interest 
 I feel in your welfare, and — may I not add ? — in every component 
 part of the Church of Christ, that it may be pardonable in me to 
 say something on even that delicate subject. 
 
 Where there are party lines drawn in a Church, and especially 
 where those lines are understood to be the boundary lines of great 
 principles, no man holding an important station can maintain a 
 perfect state of neutrality, nor can he assume to do it, without event- 
 ually losing the respect of both parties, and of the community 
 itself; for it is natural to respect men differing from us in principles 
 more than men who are understood to have no principles at all. 
 
 But though a state of perfect neutrality is not to be attempted 
 and cannot be maintained, still, a man having his own principles 
 and preferences may be a man of candor and liberality and bro- 
 therly kindness toward them that differ from him ; and if he be a 
 man of power and of place, he may do much without compro- 
 mising his duty, to calm the turbulence of passion and to displace 
 wrath and strife by the cultivation of brotherly love and a general 
 co-operation in saving souls and doing good. 
 
 Your Church has great advantages and it is attended with great 
 dangers. It possesses forms and ceremonies which, as aids to 
 piety, may become great blessings; but the use of which brings, 
 along with it a constant temptation, especially in common minds, 
 to trust in the form as an end rather than to use it as a mean. 
 And as standing between those that exalt and those that disparage 
 formularies and rites, a teacher may, without joining in that dispar- 
 agement or that exaltation, which would only offend the one party or 
 
 1 
 
130 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the other,'and probably make both worse, use the one and perform 
 the other, and while using the one and performing the other, always 
 keep his own mind and the mind of his audience directed to the 
 inward grace, in which all good people of both parties will sym- 
 pathize, and by sympathizing therein and having their 'minds oc- 
 cupied therewith will be insensibly drawn away from disputing 
 about the shadow to dwell upon the substance. 
 
 It seems to me that whatever good is to be done in bringing 
 your Church to peacte and unity is to be done by indirection ; and 
 that by being an affectionate and paternal governor of your 
 Church and a zealous and faithful preacher of the Gospel, by 
 endeavoring everywhere, in place of assailing other Churches, to 
 raise the standard of piety and cultivate a spirit of charity in your 
 own, you will do more for the cause of God and man than can 
 be done by any direct interference and polemical discussion of the 
 questions which divide the people of your charge. 
 
 Duty and interest are in the long run, in the providence of 
 God, always united ; and I cannot but think that the ultra men who 
 would sever themselves from the sympathies and charities of Prot- 
 estant Christendom err as greatly with respect to the true interests 
 of your Church in a country situated like our own, as they do, in my 
 judgment, as to the nature of saving faith and vital religion. 
 
 If the covenanted mercies of God were confined to any outward 
 form of ecclesiastical polity, those destitute of that form were to 
 be pitied rather than reproached, and the way to win them back to 
 the adoption of that form, it should seem, would be to exhibit the 
 kindly and fraternal spirit which is cherished, rather than to preju- 
 dice them still more against it by asserting offensive claims and 
 indulging in angry rebuke. 
 
 Every position in life has its temptations and its dangers. A 
 Bishop in your Church, if a man of talents, is an agent of great 
 power for good or evil ; and it is generally said, perhaps without 
 reason, that they are less humble and less wise and less charitable 
 after receiving this distinction than before. If this be the rule, I 
 pray God that you may be the exception. It is diflficult, I am 
 aware, to possess great power, and at the same time to use it be- 
 nignly. But if the temptations of your place are great, so are its 
 
AD VICE FR OM DR. NO TT. 1 3 1 
 
 responsibilities, and I would, by the grace of God, resolutely resist 
 the one and strive to feel the solemnity of the other. You may be 
 an Episcopalian, and you ought to be, and to bring your talents to 
 bear upon that compartment which God has committed to your 
 charge ; but {here is no reason why you should not cherish good- 
 will and exercise all the charities of a common brotherhood 
 toward him who cultivates the adjoining compartment, be he who 
 he may. He is a man and a brother. I am aware that to flatter 
 the pride and foster the prejudices of sect is an easy way to acquire 
 a sudden and limited distinction, but it is a distinction which a 
 good man, and especially a good minister, would not wish to 
 possess upon a bed of death, or to carry with him to the bar of 
 judgment. 
 
 Were it permitted me to transfer an individual with my own 
 views and feelings into your place, much as I should desire to 
 see him cherish a catholic spirit toward other denominations, I 
 should say to that individual, Your first and chief duty is to the 
 people of your charge ; and desirable as it may be to bring about a 
 better state of feeling between your own and other denominations, 
 you cannot do much, and must not attempt to do much, in that way, 
 till you have made. a lodgment in the affections and gained the 
 confidence of those to whom you are called chiefly to minister. 
 
 You ought indeed to give your countenance to every good work, 
 and meet, whenever you can meet on common ground, those who 
 differ from you in Church polity — that is, you ought as a man and 
 Christian to do this when you can do it and carry with you the 
 approbation of those entrusted to your care. At present, perhaps, 
 the only thing you can do is (in imitation of the venerable Bishop 
 White, who still lives in the affections as well as the memory of 
 all good people) to unite with the friends of the Bible in giving 
 that Book dear to all Protestants to this country and to the 
 world. 
 
 To such an act it will be difficult to object, on the one hand, as 
 thus far mitred heads have gone, on both sides of the Atlantic ; 
 and such an act will of itself be received, on the other hand, as a 
 pledge against all leaning toward Rome, a pledge also of sympathy 
 with, and good-will toward, the friends of the Bible in America. 
 
132 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 With these, as with all men, it is desirable that you should live in 
 the exercise of good-will and reciprocating kind offices, as God 
 shall give you opportunity, so that your life shall be regarded as 
 the life of a good man as well as of an Episcopal Bishop, and 
 your tomb honored as -the resting-place of a Chrisfian, and not 
 pointed at as the depository of the remains of a bigot. 
 
 Mrs. Potter left us, with the children, the day after you passed 
 
 through. We are, through God's goodness, all well. C has 
 
 commenced very well, and though he has some things yet to learn, 
 
 yet he has already learned something. H wants counsel, and 
 
 seems disposed to listen to it. I shall try to do my duty to these 
 children, now more especially entrusted to me ; the rest I commit 
 to God. And that he may keep and guide and bless both you and 
 them is the prayer of 
 
 Yours, with great affectionate esteem, 
 . Eliph't Nott. 
 
 The first Episcopal act of the new Bishop was pei formed 
 on September 24, the day following his advancement ; it was 
 the consecration of the new " Church of the Nativity," in the 
 City of Philadelphia. 
 
 Bishop H. U. Onderdonk, who had resigned his jurisdiction 
 of Pennsylvania, was yet living in the City of Philadelphia, 
 interdicted from the performance of any ministerial service. 
 With very becoming sense of the proprieties of his position, 
 he maintained great privacy, rarely being seen in the streets, 
 save in the shadows of twilight, when he went forth for need- 
 ful exercise, and on Sundays and other holy-days, when he 
 attended with great regularity his chosen Parish church. 
 
 Bishop Potter, before attempting any visitation in the inte- 
 rior of his vast Diocese, sought the advice of Bishop Onder- 
 donk respecting the route which he should pursue and the 
 succession of appointments in remote towns, and the intervals 
 of time required in journeying from place to place. The gen- 
 erosity of his own nature appears in his thus assuming the 
 generosity of another ; and it is a beautiful and most honor- 
 
EFFORT TO MOLLIFY RIVAL CHURCH-PAPERS. 1 33 
 
 able incident in the retired life of his predecessor that, with 
 unreserved freedom and apparent pleasure, he afforded to him 
 who had entered into his labors all the information which his 
 own experieyice qualified him to give. The grave has closed 
 upon both these distinguished men. It cannot now be improper 
 to relate that on the first visitation of Bishop Potter to the 
 church, at which his predecessor and family were worshipers, 
 one of the candidates on whom he laid Apostolic hands was 
 a daughter of Bishop Onderdonk, who, with profound solem- 
 nity and emotion, witnessed the touching scene. His were 
 not the. only eyes that overflowed at that spectacle. 
 
 Bishop Potter hasted to make an extensive circuit through 
 the Northern and Western counties of the Diocese bisfore the 
 winter. His great desire to suppress all causes of irritation 
 and to bring all the forces within his jurisdiction into benefi- 
 cent and, if possible, harmonious action, is set forth in the 
 following letter written during his first Episcopal tour. At 
 the time of his accession to the Diocese there were two re- 
 ligious newspapers in the interest of the Episcopal Church 
 issued weekly in Philadelphia — the " Episcopal Recorder,'' 
 established in the days of Dr. Bedell, and still imbued with 
 the savor of his opinions, and the " Banner of the Cross,'' 
 more recently introduced, and representing a different school 
 of Theology and Churchmanship. The tone of their com- 
 ments upon one another was not always becoming, nor pro- 
 motive of peace and good-will among their respective patrons. 
 Upon this untoward influence the Bishop at once laid his 
 hand, not with the force of authority, but with the gentleness 
 of friendly admonition applied to one with whom he had 
 relations of peculiar intimacy : 
 
 WlI.LIAMSPORT, Nov. 3, 1845. 
 
 My dear Mr. S : I am about to take a liberty which I 
 
 know you will excuse, and which is prompted simply by my regard 
 for yourself and for the common cause of our Master. I allude 
 to one principle in the management of a religious paper which, in 
 12 
 
134 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the present state of our Church, seems to me very important. It 
 is, that where there are two papers in the same Diocese and city, 
 representing different opinions, they shall shun as far as possible 
 all mutual animadversion and criticism, since these will, in the end, 
 almost inevitably degenerate into mutual reproach and recrimina- 
 tion. I refer to the subject because I perceive, in looking very 
 hastily to your last "Recorder," that, under the title "Our 
 Neighbors," you take occasion to animadvert on an opinion ad- 
 vanced the week previous in the "Banner." As that opinion was 
 put, I believe, in the abstract form, and conveyed to a reader like 
 myself no reflection on your paper (which, as far as I recollect, 
 has been rather reserved in its animadversions on Bishops), any 
 notice of it on your part seems unprovoked and likely to re-open 
 unprofitable controversy. In regard to the abstract question, I 
 think you are nearer the right, for I know of no reason why 
 Bishops more than Presbyters should be above criticism. I refer, 
 therefore, only to the expediency of taking notice of any matter 
 which may appear in the "Banner." If z, misstatement is made, 
 it can be corrected, and this may often be done even without spe- 
 cifying the paper in which the error appeared. But matters of 
 opinion are so vague and so numberless that endless and unprofit- 
 able controversy must almost invariably ensue when two papers 
 are engaged weekly in selecting, each from the other, the articles 
 from which it dissents, and against whiclf'il protests. And I should 
 also hope that, with respect to papers outside of the Diocese (such 
 as "The Witness," e1;c.), you would have as little bickering as 
 possible. 
 
 I write this in the utmost haste, and have been able to do no jus- 
 tice to my views, and may have done injustice to the article in ques- 
 tion, for I only glanced at it ; but I feel naturally very anxious that 
 the two presses should not be again in the attitude in which they 
 were a year ago, and which I find in traveling was a subject of deep 
 dissatisfaction among the Laity in the Diocese. As to any right to 
 dictate or even advise, founded on my Episcopal office, I disclaim 
 it entirely. I have seen such mischief in another State from the 
 connection of a Bishop with the press that I feel the editor should 
 conduct it on his own responsibility. I write, therefore, simply 
 
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF HIS DIOCESE. 1 35 
 
 as a friend, only anxious for your success and that of the Church, 
 and most ready to receive like suggestions from you. 
 
 Believe me affectionately yours, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 On his return to his new home in Philadelphia, which he 
 reached on the 25th of November, he gave his first impressions 
 of the field committed to his care, under date of December 4, 
 1 845 , to his constant friend and correspondent, Mr. Appleton, 
 as follows : 
 
 I have been at home now about ten days after an eight weeks' 
 tour in Western Pennsylvania and along the Northern and Eastern 
 frontiers of the State. The weather was delightful, the country is 
 surpassingly fine, and the inhabitants were to me all that I could 
 have possibly a,sked. Our churches, however, are, many of them, 
 very feeble ; the Clergy straggling to live on inadequate stipends, 
 and great mountains of prejudice built up by ignorance without 
 and by our own unfaithfulness and divisions within. A Diocesan 
 of Pennsylvania must calculate at best upon great toil and sore dis- 
 . couragements. 
 
 At present we are at peace, so far as I am concerned, and de- 
 voutly do I pray that we remain so. But I cannot be blind to the 
 times on which we are fSlIen, and to the impossibility of giving 
 satisfaction to everybody. Most earnestly do I pray that I may 
 keep a conscience void of offence, have wisdom to do my duty 
 and patience to abide meekly by the consequences. It is not best 
 that they should always be pleasant ; I need a great deal to keep 
 me humble and distrustful of myself I endeavor to school myself 
 constantly with the conviction that the rod is suspended and must 
 fall. ' 
 
 The portion of the winter of 1845-6 in which he was not 
 required to be in Boston for the delivery of his next course of 
 lectures, Bishop Potter devoted to the visitation of the city 
 churches, the study of the condition and wants of his Dio- 
 cese and the cultivation of the opportunities that were afforded 
 
136 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 him for enlarging his acquaintance with the people among 
 whom his lines were fallen. He brought into the new circle 
 where his example was to be more observed, and to exercise 
 a wider influence than ever, his resolute habit of abstinence 
 from all that can intoxicate. He was one of the brave pio- 
 neers in that reform which has made it possible for a man to 
 say without offence, when the after-dinner compliment of a 
 toast is proffered to him, " I thank you, sir ; I do not drinjc 
 wine." The houses of most of the hospitable gentry of Phila- 
 delphia, whether they were Episcopalians or otherwise, were 
 thrown open to welcome a gentleman of such scholastic 
 celebrity and a Divine whom the Church had chosen to be a 
 leader of God's host. These civilities the Bishop felt it his 
 duty and pleasure to accept. But when the evening was 
 spent and the hour proper for retirement to rest approached, 
 he followed the law of sobriety rather than that of fashion. 
 Whether refreshments had been served or no, not later than 
 half past ten the Bishop took Mrs. Potter on his arm, paid 
 his parting respects to his host and quietly retired. This was 
 his silent but emphatic protest against the sin and folly of per- 
 verting to purposes of festivity the hours which the God of 
 our . life has appropriated to slumber. Even if he accom- 
 plished by it no more than an occasional accommodation to 
 his habits by those who, having heard of them, desired to pay 
 him the courtesy of inviting him to meet friends at their 
 houses, still it was not without power ; it introduced him to a 
 community of which he was thenceforth to be a conspicuous 
 member as a man who would consider the proprieties of life 
 for himself, and deport himself as a Christian Bishop, even 
 though, as it fared with St. Paul, " no man stood with him." 
 
 In this first winter of his Episcopate he brought about the 
 revival of the "Academy of the Protestant Episcopal Church," 
 a chartered institution, which was inaugurated more than fifty 
 years before, under the auspices of Bishop White, but had now 
 been suspended for a long period. Meantime, its funds had 
 
REVIVAL OF EPISCOPAL ACADEMY. 1 37 
 
 somewhat accumulated. Securing for it the services of that 
 accompHshed scholar and admirable teacher, the Rev. George 
 Emlen Hare, D. D., the Bishop, in co-operation with the 
 Trustees, caused it to be re-opened in the spring of 1846. It 
 soon secured the confidence and patronage of the community, 
 and outgrew in the number of its pupils the hired rooms in 
 Market above Ninth street, at which its exercises were con- 
 (Jucted. The Trustees were encouraged to erect a suitable 
 building for the permanent use of the Institution. The cen- 
 tral portion of a tasteful structure in the collegiate Gothic 
 style, after designs by Mr. John Notman, was built in Locust 
 street near Broad, and in September, 1850, opened with 
 appropriate ceremonies. Even in its unfinished state its 
 aspect is suggestive of its uses. When completed it will be 
 an imposing scholastic structure, an honor to the Church and 
 an ornament to the city. The Bishop, from the first, appre- 
 ciating the importance of infusing into the education of those 
 who seek the culture that gives large social influence, a know- 
 ledge of religion and a reverence and love for the Church and 
 her formularies, took the liveliest interest in this school, at- 
 tended its stated examinations, commended its proficient 
 pupils, and by every means in his power contributed to elevate 
 its standard of scholarship and morals and to give it favor 
 with the community. The result has been that from that day 
 to this the Episcopal Academy has been in high repute as a 
 school of the classics, and has constantly had under instruc- 
 tion as many as one hundred and fifty youths from the first 
 ranks of Philadelphia society. 
 
 Bishop Potter seemed to feel that the chief function of his 
 office was administration, and so he gave himself to the device 
 and direction of large and diversified plans for the extension 
 and improvement of the Church over which he presided, and 
 to the selection and encouragement of the agents by whom 
 they were to be wrought out. He accepted nobody's personal 
 prejudices; he judged of men as they revealed themselves to 
 12 » 
 
138 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 his own keen and discerning eye, and called into use whatever 
 faculty was available for good in the most eccentric of his 
 sons in the Ministry. The whole Diocese felt at once the 
 presence of a wise and energizing power. In the new inter- 
 ests which were created, old issues were forgotten ; amid the 
 unwonted activities of the hour, there was no time for jeal- 
 ousy and strife, and men found themselves working together 
 in full fraternity, who once, distrustful of one another, stood 
 aloof and interchanged only the decent courtesies of acquaint- 
 ance. By engaging men in co-operative labor the Bishop 
 exorcised the spirit of party, and by an influence which per- 
 haps was involuntary he gradually, and through a process of 
 which its subjects were unaware, brought the whole Diocese 
 not into subservience, but into substantial accordance with 
 himself, and became supreme because he was right and had 
 the grace to inspire other men with a sense of it. 
 
 All who remember the Rev. Dr. Bull of Chester County, 
 the senior Presbyter of the Diocese at the time of Bishop 
 Potter's accession to the Episcopate, remember nothing about 
 him — except his magnificent appearance — more vividly than 
 his frank and generous nature, and his zeal for the evangelic 
 purity of. the Church and for the blameless deportment of her 
 Ministers and members. The following letter to Bishop Pot- 
 ter indicates that the doctor had written to him in the freedom 
 of personal friendship, and the fidelity of one jealous for the 
 Church's honor. The response shows how a Bishop of true 
 humility, lofty purposes and large heart could receive and ap- 
 ply such an admonition: 
 
 Philadelphia, March 3, 1846. 
 My dear Doctor: I am greatly obliged by your kind letter. On 
 looking over my finances, I begin to fear that I may not find a 
 horse quite a convenient luxury ; and as you would rather have a 
 Bishop who can pay his debts than to have him the nominal owner 
 of the best horse in Chester County, you will excuse me, though I 
 do not ask you to close the bargain for either of those you mention. - 
 
REPL Y TO ADMONITOR Y HINTS FROM DR. BULL. 1 39 
 
 I shall not forget your kindness, and when the proper time comes 
 may have to invoke the benefit of it. 
 
 I thank you, too, most kindly, for your hint about the " Wistar 
 Parties. " * It is just the friendly act which I should desire at your 
 hands, for it proves that you are a friend indeed, and I value such 
 an admonition more than the most honeyed compliment. It is 
 true that I was early in the winter twice at those parties, for a short 
 time only, in each case. I then resolved to abstain from going 
 altogether, partly because they fell on Saturday evenings, partly 
 because I discovered that they were more numerously attended, 
 and by consequence were less intellectual, than I had supposed. My 
 principal motive in going at all was to extend my acquaintance 
 among those with whom I am to live hereafter; yet, though I met 
 there some of the most distinguished Clergymen of other denom- 
 inations, I quickly reached the same conclusion respecting them 
 that you indicate. 
 
 The remaining point touched upon in your letter is more serious, 
 and I should be glad (if it be not improper) to have you enlighten 
 me somewhat farther. I have hardly hoped that that evil could be 
 averted, but if I knew from what quarter it was likely to start, I 
 might do something to delay its coming, and possibly to lessen the 
 severity of it. [This is a reference, we imagine, to some warning of 
 organized opposition to the tolerant policy with which the Bishop 
 from the first characterized his administration.] 
 
 I have but one wish — i. e., to see a prosperous and uncorrupted 
 Church — and I am not sensible that in endeavoring to promote 
 unity, I have ever compromised an important principle or en- 
 dangered in any sense the integrity of our Protestant faith. I do 
 not mean to do it, but on the other hand I do mean, God helping 
 me, to pursue a generous course toward those differing from me ; 
 and I believe such a course to be as politic as it is congenial with 
 
 * Note. — The " Wistar Parties " were instituted by tlie famous pliysician of 
 that name. They were social gatherings of literary and refined gentlemen, held 
 at the houses of the members in turn, on the Saturday evenings of many suc- 
 cessive winters, and closed on each occasion with a sumptuous repast. The late 
 internecine war created such diversities of political opinion as to render their 
 continuance inexpedient. 
 
I40 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the spirit and letter of the- Gospel. It is an inexpressible comfort 
 to me to know that it meets your approbation. 
 I am, dear doctor, ever affectionately. 
 
 Your friend and brother, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 In his primary address to the Convention of his Diocese in 
 May, 1 846, he gave utterance to the deep humility with which 
 he contemplated his own powers and resources, in view of the 
 great and untried work before him, and to the fervor of desire 
 with which he invoked the sympathy of man and the help of 
 God. He says : 
 
 The twenty-third day of September, 1847, which marked my 
 admission to the functions of the Episcopate, I can never forget. 
 It introduced me to duties so novel and responsible, involving a 
 change in my habits and pursuits so radical, that I could not ap- 
 proach it without a painful feeling of my own insufficiency, nor 
 without earnest prayer to the God of all wisdom and grace. In 
 reverting to it now, I should do equal injustice to my own deep 
 sense of gratitude and to a generous Diocese if I did not ac- 
 knowledge with emotions to which I cannot give utterance the 
 kindness and cordiality with which I have been received, both in 
 this city and throughout the State, the unwearied hospitality with 
 which I have been made welcome in private houses, the alacrity 
 with which I have been aided in my journeys, and the facilities 
 which have been everywhere provided for enabling me to make 
 the acquaintance of the people. I should know little of the vicis- 
 situdes of life, and appreciate but poorly the trials through which 
 our Church is called to pass, if I did not consider how easily these 
 delightful relations might be disturbed. Give me your prayers, 
 brethren, that I may be kept from all presumptuous confidence in 
 myself or in anything earthly, and that, looking with unwavering 
 devotion to my duties and with unfaltering trust to the support of 
 God, I may be prepared to meet with resignation every trial, and 
 may be endowed with the wisdom, simplicity and faithfulness which 
 functions so varied, perplexing and important require. 
 
 Only once before, in May, 18 19, had the new incumbent of 
 
FIUST MEETING WITH DIOCESAN CONVENTION. I4I 
 
 the Episcopal office been present .at a Convention of the 
 Diocese of Pennsylvania, — Bishop White presiding. He was 
 then a youth of nineteen summers, just beginning to look for- 
 ward to the responsibilities of the Christian Ministry. 
 
 "Another twenty-seven years passed," §aid Bishop Potter in 
 closing His address, "and who of us will be likely to come up to 
 these courts or mingle in these councils? While we are spared may 
 we never cease from striving to emulate the example of the faithful 
 men who have gone before us ! The venerable form of one of them 
 — a .master in Israel — seems to rise spontaneously to our remem- 
 brance or our imagination, whenever we endeavor to picture to our- 
 selves the convention scenes of those days. His dignified and 
 benignant presence — bending over the assembled Delegates, while 
 his wisdom guided their deliberations with a gentleness, firmness 
 and skill peculiarly his own — has left an indelible and cherished 
 impression on the hearts of all who ever saw him in such a relation. 
 May a gracious Saviour grant that, though he has been called to a 
 higher and holier ministry, his spirit of blended meekness, firmness, 
 prudence and zeal may still delight to dwell within our walls ! And 
 may he who in the mysterious providence of God has been called 
 to bear his office be permitted to tread at humble distance in his 
 footsteps, living, as he lived, for the promotion of a spirit of unity 
 and peace in the household of faith — for the constant and unwearied 
 discharge of sacred duties — for a watchful vigilance in regard to the 
 prospective as well as present exigencies of the Church — and for a 
 generous devotion of all his powers to the service of the afflicted, 
 and to the one great cause of Christian order, Christian freedom 
 and Christian holiness." 
 
 Thus, on the first occasion of meeting the Diocese in its 
 organic form, Bishop Potter bespoke the confidence of all who 
 revered the gentle spirit and sustained the moderate policy of 
 the first administrator of the Church in the State and in the 
 country. It was a declaration of independence of all partisan 
 trammels ; it rebuked alike all hopes and all fears that a nar- 
 row and proscriptive regime was now to be inaugurated, and 
 gave assurance to every one conscious of fidelity to the Gos- 
 
142 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 pel and the Church that in his Ecclesiastical superior he 
 should find a father and a friend. 
 
 Such a genuine meekness as characterized Bishop Potter is 
 not often displayed by a man of so vigorous and positive a 
 nature. He had his own opinions, and held them with no 
 faltering spirit. When the occasion demanded it he was not 
 backward to avow them. They were not prejudices, but con- 
 victions — the result of patient thought, the conclusion from 
 reasons which he was willing to submit for intelligent arbitra- 
 ment. Hence he held them not in shamefacedness (for he 
 knew his own powers and respected his own mental processes 
 and their results), but in modesty. Always ready to revise 
 his own positions, he did not spurn to hear and consider what 
 others might say in vindication of theirs. Out of this trait 
 grew that spirit of toleration with which he regarded the 
 earnest opinions of men in and out of the Church with whom 
 he did not agree. On points of faith — which are determined 
 by the Divine oracles — he felt that there was no pretext for 
 diversity. He sat as a little child at the feet of the Master, and 
 neither urged nor sanctioned the skeptical question of Nicode- 
 mus when heavenly things beyond the reach of human inves- 
 tigation were the theme, but he did not claim for all his 
 opinions the rank and dignity of doctrines ; and he entertained 
 a manly charity toward those whom he esteemed erratic in the 
 realm of human speculation. 
 
 As a specimen of the amiable ingenuousness with which he 
 was ready to reconsider even his public utterances the follow- 
 ing instance is commended to the reader's attention : 
 
 In the first year of his Episcopate his friend and Presbyter, 
 
 the Rev. Mr. S , then Editor of the " Episcopal Recorder," 
 
 asked the Bishop's judgment of an Essay by Professor T. 
 L oh the visible Church ; and in the note which ac- 
 companied the article offered for his perusal, adverted to 
 a report in one of the public prints of a lecture which Bishop 
 Potter had recently delivered. By the report it appeared that 
 
CRITICISES, AND SUBMITS TO CRITICISM. I43 
 
 the Bishop had sketched the charaiCter of Washington, and 
 had omitted any reference to the work of the Holy Spirit in 
 the impartation and development of his religious life. This 
 omission, if the fault of the reporter, the Editor of the Re- 
 corder offered, in an intended mention of the lecture, to 
 correct. 
 
 The Bishop's answer, when he returned the Treatise, is here 
 transcribed. In the part which is personal to himself there is 
 a frankness, a humility, a submission to criticism, which pre- 
 sents a very engaging aspect of his character. A weaker and 
 more faulty man would have been far more tenacious, and the 
 dignity of a small official would have bristled ,up at the libertj' 
 taken by a subordinate. 
 
 My dear Sir : I have read Professor L 's article, and as you 
 
 are likely to need the work soon, I return it. The discussion, as he 
 conducts it, contains so much food for thought and raises so many 
 difficult and all-important questions that I must go over the article 
 again at my leisure. It does not satisfy me, and yet it contains 
 very much that every one must approve. I wish he had told us 
 what he understands by the visible Church of Christ. I rise from 
 this paper with the feeling which all his writings create in my 
 mind — a feeling that he is a critic rather than a philosopher, can 
 see faults more clearly than remedies and dogmatize better than he 
 can reason. And yet no one can deny that his paper is a very able 
 and seasonable one, and one likely to do much good. But more 
 of all this hereafter. 
 
 I thank you sincerely for 'calling my attention to the passage in 
 the lecture. It is correctly reported. It never before occurred 
 to me to view it in a theological light, and I am bound to say 
 frankly that it is obnoxious to criticism. Had some passages that 
 preceded it been reported, it would have appeared less objectionable, 
 but even as explained by them it would not have satisfied you, 
 
 and ought not perhaps to have satisfied me While I lived 
 
 at Boston I became so impressed with the utter insufficiency of 
 everything short of the whole Gospel to make men wise and good, 
 that I dwelt upon the subject perhaps too exclusively. Having 
 
144 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 been always averse to one-idead men and to bringing all things 
 in Theology into each discourse, I probably, when I got away 
 from them and. among a people who professed to receive the 
 whole Gospel, dropped. into the other extreme. To you I need 
 hardly say that no man could abhor more the notion that studying 
 and trying to imitate any model of human excellence would, 
 without the grace of Christ, make a man good, than I do. I 
 should have thought of this when I was writing. That I did not 
 shows how hard it is to present all sides of truth, and how easily 
 men may incur the reputation of errors which they reprobate. It 
 shows too how important are the counsels of a friend. 
 
 Take no notice of the matter. I might make a plausible defence, 
 but it is better to repent, confess and amend. 
 
 Ever yours sincerely, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 BISHOP POTTER'S POLICY. 
 
 HAVING now, with such continuity as the materials at 
 command made possible, narrated the principal occur- 
 rences of Dr. Potter's life up to the commencement of his 
 course as a Bishop in the Church, I propose to postpone the 
 further relation of events, that we may first review some of 
 the prominent features of his administration — ideas which were 
 propounded early in his Episcopate, which he reiterated and 
 developed year by year, and many of which, through his influ- 
 ence, were embodied in enduring and most beneficent forms to 
 bless the present and the coming generations. 
 
 CONVOCATIONS. 
 
 In the very first month of his personal residence in Phila- 
 delphia, Bishop Potter began to excogitate plans for bringing 
 the Clergy, especially of the rural parts of the Diocese, into 
 more frequent friendly intercourse and co-operation in good 
 works. Doubtless he had in view not only the greater good 
 which they could accomplish by joint labor, but also the ob- 
 livion of those jealousies and mutual distrusts which partisan 
 strife had engendered. By no process can the differences of 
 good men be more surely reduced, and those which must 
 remain be relieved of any tendency to produce personal 
 estrangement, than by the union of hands and hearts in some 
 
 13 K 145 
 
146 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 common enterprise for the glory of Christ and for the benefit 
 of man. Before proceeding to any active measures for organ- 
 ization, Bishop Potter took pains to acquaint himself thor- 
 oughly with the practical working of such instrumentalities 
 in other places. 
 
 In the Diocese of Connecticut there had been Associations 
 of the Clergy for nearly half a century ; from the venerable 
 Bishop Brownell, who since 18 19 had had them under his 
 Episcopal oversight, and for whose calm and godly judgment 
 he cherished the most profound respect; he sought, through 
 Dr. George Burgess, then Rector of Christ Church, Hartford, 
 a statement of their organism, proceedings and results. In 
 Maryland, also, there were occasional meetings of the Clergy 
 in certain rural districts, which they called " Associations ;" 
 from Bishop Whittingham he elicited some account of them, 
 and his impressions of their influence. 
 
 The Clerical Convocation of Rhode Island was of special 
 interest, for it was widely known as being the Missionary 
 organization of the Diocese, and as having accomplished 
 wonders in stimulating the life and increase and fellowship 
 of the Church. To Bishop Henshaw he had recourse for full 
 and accurate information about the working of the Rhode 
 Island organization. 
 
 Full and very interesting letters were received from all 
 these quarters. Needing as the Church still does some effect- 
 ual method for abating the Congregationalism of our parochial 
 system, and imbuing our Clergy and people with a deeper 
 sense of their obligation to labor " for the furtherance of the 
 Gospel " outside their own appointed limits, the recorded ex- 
 perience of our fathers may help us to the device of some 
 agency for co-operative effort in our field of Home Missions, 
 whereby, with advantage to Parishes already organized, Min- 
 isters and people " may be enlarged to preach the Gospel in 
 the regions beyond." As a contribution to the material 
 
LETTER OF REV. DR. BURGESS. 1 47 
 
 required for some intra-Diocesan organism suited to this end, 
 it will not, we trust, be thought inapposite that we here give 
 extracts from letters not likely otherwise to come before the 
 public. The following is from the letter of Dr. Burgess : 
 
 Hartford, Jan. 2, 1846. 
 
 Right reverend and dear Sir : With respect to the inquiries 
 which you have addressed to me, I have conferred, as you sug- 
 gested, with Bishop Brownell, and will endeavor to state as com- 
 pletely as I can the operations of the Clerical Associations in this 
 Diocese. They are three in number — those of the counties of 
 Litchfield, Fairfield and New Haven. In the other counties the 
 churches are scarcely numerous enough for such a purpose ; and if 
 two or more counties were united, the Clergy would be too widely 
 separated. Thus, in the county of Tolland there is but a single 
 church ; in that of Windham there are but three ; in that of New 
 London but four; in that of Middlesex, six; in that of Hartford, 
 eight, of which two are in the city and two others of very recent 
 
 origin I believe that where the Associations exist none of 
 
 the Clergy have refused to participate in their operations, but of 
 course the attendance is subject to great variations. The Fairfield 
 Association is the oldest, and was in existence before Bishop 
 Brownell came to the Diocese, but that of Litchfield has been the 
 most efficient. 
 
 In the counties of Fairfield and New Haven the meetings are 
 held in the second week of every alternate month ; in the county 
 of Litchfield they are monthly, and in some instances have em- 
 braced successive services within two contiguous Parishes. Tues- 
 day and Wednesday are the days which are chosen. Divine service 
 is performed on Tuesday afternoon and evening, and three times 
 on Wednesday. Except in Fairfield county, one of the services is 
 followed by Missionary addresses and exercises, with a collection ; 
 and it is very common to devote one of them to a sermon or ad- 
 dresses in connection with the Sunday-school. In the county of- 
 New Haven, where there is a church in almost every town, there 
 is comparatively little room for Missionary exertion at home. In 
 
148 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 that of Fairfield vigorous efforts have been adopted by the Asso- 
 ciation in aid of two or three new churches, but there, too, almost 
 every town has its church. In the county of Litchfield important 
 assistance has been rendered to the establishment of several new 
 Parishes, or the revival of such as were quite enfeebled. This 
 constitutes the active business of the Associations, for which a 
 short time is devoted. Otherwise, the edification of the Parishes, 
 as well as of the Clergy themselves, is the sole object. There are 
 no literary or theological exercises or discussions, and the private 
 religious means of improvement consist only in prayers at the 
 opening of the meetings, and in such conversation as may freely 
 suggest itself. The Annual Sermon is delivered in addition to the 
 others. 
 
 The Bishop is aware of no considerable evil that has resulted 
 from the Associations or the manner in which they are conducted. 
 He thinks the chief, and perhaps the only, danger to be, that they 
 may be abused to purposes of ecclesiastical gossip and of unsuitable 
 combinations to control Diocesan affairs. The best precaution 
 against this evil he believes to be that the time should be very fully 
 employed in other and better occupation; and he thinks, where 
 this course has been adopted, and also where it has been a distinct 
 understanding among the Clergy that such topics should be ex- 
 cluded, the remedy has been sufiEcient. It may be added that 
 while the appropriation of missionary funds, by themselves within 
 their own neighborhood, has been found to call forth larger con- 
 tributions, it has also appeared that a local feeling may easily be- 
 come too prevailing and the general interests of the Diocese be 
 somewhat disregarded. The employment of Missionaries is of 
 course a matter no further regulated by the Associations than as 
 they pledge a certain assistance to a Minister who is invited to the 
 charge of a Parish or is sent out by the Bishop. Their contribu- 
 tions pass, too, as official appropriations, through the Diocesan 
 Missionary Society. 
 
 There is no question, on the other side, that the Clergy and the 
 Parishes that haVe entered with zeal into these Associations have 
 reaped very important benefits. An energy, an activity, a con- 
 sciousness of brotherly fellowship, a sympathy among Parishes, a 
 
LETTER OF BISHOP WHJTTINGHAM. 1 49 
 
 universal acknowledgment of obligation to Missionary duty, a 
 readiness to do their utmost for themselves, such as are often 
 missed in Ministers and congregations that stand alone, have been 
 among their fruits. In large towns such Associations will prob- 
 ably have little influence, but among a rural population, where the 
 Parishes are not too much scattered, where is room for many more 
 congregations, and where those which already exist need the 
 strengthening aid of each other, these Associations have their most 
 appropriate sphere. Where churches are more numerous and 
 stronger, they are, as our experience would persuade us, still 
 
 highly useful, if bound by strict rules to their due purposes 
 
 I am, right reverend and dear sir. 
 Yours, very obediently, 
 
 George Burgess. 
 
 The following suggestive and interesting letter was written 
 by the Bishop of Maryland, and by his kind permission has 
 its place in this narrative : 
 
 Baltimore, February 3, 1846. 
 
 My dear Bishop : Sickness and its attendant distractions have 
 occasioned the delay of this answer to your letter of December 20. 
 I have not much to say on the subject concerning which you made 
 inquiry, but what I have I did not wish to say without a little pre- 
 vious cool coHsideration. 
 
 "Associations," as you are aware, have been in vogue in this 
 Diocese for many years. Their nature and result were, very early' 
 after my removal hither, an object of my attention and inquiry. 
 
 I found that they had been conducted with little system. Only 
 in one instance, as I believe, was there anything like organization, 
 and in that, I think, the constitution under which the members 
 were associated became a dead letter within a very short period 
 after its adoption. 
 
 The usage has been for the Rector of a given Parish to issue, 
 some six weeks or two months before the time selected, invitations 
 to some half a dozen or more of his brethren of the Clergy to attend 
 an association on such and such days (usually those in the middle 
 of the week, but sonietimes including, and in such case generally 
 13 » 
 
I50 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 terminating with, a Sunday), at church (naming his Parish 
 
 church, or if he have, as is common in our Parishes, two churches, 
 one or both of them). The Clergy invited have been usually, but 
 not always, of the neighboring Parishes ; usually, but not always, 
 selected on account of proximity without reference to principles or 
 parties, even when the latter ran the highest. 
 
 One advantage attending this practice has been the preservation 
 of kind feelings and brotherly intercourse among the Clergy, even 
 at times when intense party feeling was prevalent, and much very 
 unjustifiable party intrigue and management was resorted to on 
 both sides. 
 
 Another has been the extension of the acquaintance of the Clergy 
 (and proportionably of their influence), so that few of the Clergy 
 of the lower counties (in which these associations have most pre- 
 vailed) have remained long unacquainted with the prominent mem- 
 bers of the Church throughout the portion of the Diocese in which 
 they reside. 
 
 Another has been the presentation of the Clergy frequently before 
 the people as a united and associated body — united and associated 
 in voluntary ties of love and mutual aid, even when divided on 
 grave questions by party lines. 
 
 Another has been the support derived to each Parish Clergyman 
 from this evidence of union and association with his brethren, 
 manifested not unfrequently by his bringing their joii^t influence to 
 bear upon his parishioners, or upon some refractory individual or 
 clique in the Parish. They have thus been to him what Selden in 
 his Table Talk says the Elders of a Presbyterian Church Session are 
 to the Pastor, the stakes planted around a young tree to bolster it 
 up against any adverse wind. 
 
 Another has been the influence for good exerted by the Clergy 
 thus associating upon each other, and through each other upon each 
 other's Parishes, by which the energy, industry, zeal and wisdom of 
 a valuable Pastor would be sure more or less to communicate 
 themselves to his brethren, and act upon their Parishes as well as 
 his own. 
 
 These advantages I state not from a /mn speculation on what 
 
LETTER OF BISHOP WHITTINGHAM. 151 
 
 might be and ought to be, but from actual observation of what has 
 been. 
 
 On the other hand, there are very serious disadvantages attendant 
 on " Associations " so conducted relating both to the Clergy and to 
 their flocks. 
 
 One has been, in time past, the temptation to irregular ministra- 
 tions. This in part has grown out of peculiarities of the Parishes 
 in which the practice has prevailed. Sparsely populated, they do 
 not admit of two distinct services in a day- — that is, of two between 
 which the congregation may disperse and reassemble. At most, a 
 morning and afternoon service, with an "intermission" of a half 
 an hour or an hour, is all that has been found practicable. Where 
 eight or ten Ministers have been convened for a three-days' Asso- 
 ciation, many reasons easy to imagine have led to arrangements by 
 which all might preach during the Association. Hence, two or 
 three or even more sermons in succession have been preached 
 during one occasion of worship. To make room for these the 
 prayers have been shortened. The result has b^en a twofold 
 tendency — to the over-estimate of preaching and " hearing preach- 
 ing " — as the phrase is — and an under-estimate of worship as an 
 object of " assembling together " in the name of Christ. Partly to 
 counteract this, partly as a fruit and continuation of the kind of 
 devotion which over-excitement by hearing three or four (perhaps 
 declamatory, at all events usually) fervid and exciting discourses 
 tends to gen'erate, extempore prayer has not unfrequently been 
 introduced, even to the extent of making "an Association occasion" 
 resemble very strongly the prayer-meetings of the Methodists and 
 New School Presbyterians. 
 
 These irregularities certainly have grown out of "Associations," 
 and at one time formed a prominent feature of the usage. Now, 
 however, I believe that they have almost or quite ceased, and that 
 the sequence of two successive sermons, or of a sermon and "ex- 
 hortation," is the only departure from the conduct of worship on 
 ordinary occasions, that is observable in these. The conjunction 
 of a morning and an afternoon service by means of an "intermis- 
 sion " I do not account a departure from ordinary usage, as it is by 
 
152 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. ] 
 
 no means uncustomary in summer in the Parishes in question in the . 
 regular Sunday worship. 
 
 Another disadvantage, however, attendant upon the "Associa- 
 tions" has been very much the result of those "intermissions." 
 Notice being given out long before and widely spread, people at- 
 tend at an "Association" from all the surrounding Parishes, and 
 sometimes from those quite distant. They meet, greet, discuss 
 news domestic, parochial, political, chat, laugh, and not unseldom 
 frolic, with the freedom which a numerous assemblage of all kinds 
 of people in the open air is so apt to produce. At the " intermis- 
 sion" refreshments are brought out and spread on the grass, or 
 boards under the trees, etc. It is easy to imagine that much then 
 occurs little suited to promote the great end for which all are osten- 
 sibly convened. Many mix in these scenes with views like those 
 of a gay girl in one of the Parishes on the Potomac who said one 
 day to a companion in high glee, "We shall have fine fun next- 
 month; first, the Commencement at Alexandria; then the week 
 
 after, Mr. 's great ball; then, the week after that, Mr. 's 
 
 Association.''^ It is certainly undesirable that the young and 
 thoughtless should have religious duties and privileges presented to 
 them with such concomitants as to form part in their calculations 
 of "fun" and frolic, to say nothing of the kind oi preparation in 
 dress and provisions for hospitality which I know to have been in 
 too many cases the precursor of an "Association " for days or even 
 weeks. 
 
 .Another disadvantage has been the tendency to create and foster 
 in the people an appetite for novelty and " itching ears." The va- 
 riety of style and manner in the preaching at an Association renders 
 the sameness of the ordinary ministrations of the Parish compara- 
 tively monotonous, tiresome and uninteresting. It is a matter of 
 frequent observation that the attendance at Sunday worship is di- 
 minished for some weeks after an "Association." 
 
 Another disadvantage of kindred nature is the tendency to 
 awaken and promote dissatisfaction with the Minister of the Parish. 
 He is thrown, perhaps, into unfavorable contrast with one or more, 
 or all, of his assembled and officiating brethren. More than one 
 
LETTER OF BISHOP WHITTINGHAM. 1 53 
 
 removal, and the consequent injury and decay of more than one 
 Parish, can be distinctly traced to this cause. 
 
 Lastly, though I am happy to say and believe but very rarely, 
 "Associations" have proved means of disturbing the parochial re- 
 lations of a Minister by the disadvantageous presentation of his 
 person, principles or policy to his people by some of his brethren 
 either in their public ministrations or in their private intercourse. 
 
 Weighing with myself these advantages and disadvantages, I have 
 found them so nearly to balance as to leave me hardly able to de- 
 cide positively in the matter. 
 
 Practically, I think the decision of the Diocese has been unfavor- 
 able to ' ' Associations ' ' as hitherto usually conducted here, for I have 
 observed that both the Clergy and Laity most favorable to them 
 have become less and less assiduous in keeping them up ; while the 
 number of those, both of the Clergy and of the Laity, who are 
 avowedly unfavorable to them has been decidedly on the in- 
 crease. 
 
 Notwithstanding, my own conclusions bear in the opposite direc- 
 tions : I think most of the advantages may be attained by a better 
 organized periodical assemblage of neighboring Clergymen, while 
 most, if not all, of the disadvantages are the result of the mode in 
 which "Associations" have been conducted in Maryland, and are 
 avoidable with due care and foresight. 
 
 I have for some time past meditated an organization of Associa- 
 tions in Maryland on a plan similar to that recommended by the 
 Bishop of London, and now very successfully carried out in his Di8- 
 cese- under the name of Rural Deaneries and Chapters. Whether it 
 would be expedient to introduce those names into our Church at the 
 present juncture may be questionable. The thing^^txas, to me fully as 
 well suited to our circumstances and institutions as to those of the 
 English Church. The Clergy of a Diocese divided, according to local- 
 ities, into companies of from ten to twenty each, might either elect 
 the head of each, or, which would be perhaps better, recognize as 
 such the senior resident Parish Minister. He would notify meetings, 
 convene, preside. Through him the Bishops would communicate 
 with that company and precinct. Meetings would be held quar- 
 terly at place and time fixed at each next preceding meeting, and, 
 
154 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 as to place, rotating throughout the district as might be known best 
 to suit the convenience of Clergy and people. At such meetings a 
 series of regular services would be held, and discourses preached 
 on subjects previously determined on (thus avoiding the strange 
 medley or as strange repetition not uncommon at "Associations" 
 where there has been no preconcert, and providing occasional pre- 
 sentation of topics from time to time most useful, with more than 
 usual fullness and weight of authority), the whole terminating with 
 the Lord's Supper on the second or third day, while in the inter- 
 vals of public service the Clergy would hold their private meetings 
 for mutual improvement by conference and discussion, and for mu- 
 tual advice and counsel concerning parochial and Diocesan affairs. 
 The Bishop would from time to time be with them, and occasion- 
 ally so regulate his visitations in that portion of his Diocese as to 
 make it begin or terminate with one of these assemblages. 
 
 This plan has been in my mind three years. I have made it the 
 subject of conference with a few of the Clergy and of the Laity in 
 most parts of the Diocese, among both the friends and the unfriends 
 of "Associations." I have narrowly watched the latter, as they are 
 still carried on with reference to the possibility and expediency of 
 a change. I have weighed, as well as I was able, all the objections 
 and difficulties that from time to time occurred or were suggested 
 to me as likely to impede the execution or hinder the advantages 
 of such a plan. Nothing has yet occurred to me to deter me from 
 the attempt, but on the contrary my resolution to Inake it has con- 
 tinually gained strength. 
 
 Of this I am fully persuaded, that, unless our large Dioceses are 
 divided (which with all my heart I wish might be done : mine 
 would make five), some such plan as this must be devised and put 
 into execution to enable the Bishops to have and exercise oversight 
 such as they ought to have, and to make the working of the Clergy 
 uniform and effectual. 
 
 I shall be deeply obliged if you will have the goodness to inform 
 me of your own conclusions when you shall have examined this 
 subject to your satisfaction. If, perchance, the result should be 
 your agreement in my preference of the Ruridecanal plan, or your 
 adoption of any similar plan for the consociation and periodical 
 
LETTER OF BISHOP HENSHAW. 1 55 
 
 meeting of the parochial Clergy in fixed districts, it would be my 
 pride and pleasure to take part in your determination, and, if able 
 to concur as to the details, to move together with you in its execu- 
 tion. Very faithfully and affectionately, 
 
 Your friend and brother, 
 
 W. R. Whittingham. 
 Rt. Rev. Dr. Potter, Bishop of Pennsylvania. 
 
 From the Bishop of Rhode Island, in which Diocese the 
 Convocation had become part and parcel of the organic life 
 of the Church, Bishop Potter received the following detailed 
 account of its machinery and practical operation : 
 
 Providence, Jan. 5, 1846. 
 
 Right Rev. and dear Sir : Yours of the 26th ult. was received 
 on the eve of my leaving home on public duty, or it would have 
 met with an earlier response. I hope it is not too late for me to 
 assure you of the high gratification which I felt on your election to 
 the Episcopate of Pennsylvania, and of my fervent prayers that by 
 God's blessing upon your faithful oversight the Diocese may con- 
 tinually advance in peace, holiness and prosperity. 
 
 The enclosed Canon will give you all needful information as to 
 the organization of our Missionary Convocation, to which, under 
 God, the Church in Rhode Island is chiefly indebted for its har- 
 mony and progress. 
 
 [Canon I., Board of Missions. — The Missionary operations of 
 the Church in this Diocese shall be conducted by a Board of Mis- 
 sions, to be called the Missionary Convocation of the Church in 
 Rhode Island, consisting of such of the Clergy in the Diocese 
 entitled to seats in the Convention as shall pledge to the Treasury 
 of the Board for the Missionary purposes of the same an annual 
 sum equal to at least one-tenth of their respective salaries. The 
 Board shall report annually to the Convention their proceedings, 
 together with an account Of their receipts and expenditures and a 
 general statement of the condition and prospects of their Mission- 
 ary stations. 
 
 The Bishop of the Diocese shall be ex-officio President of the 
 Board, and no appointment of Missionaries shall be made unless 
 
156 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 approved by him, according to the condition of the thirtieth Canon 
 of the General Convention of 1832. 
 
 Whenever a Missionary is to be employed without a call from 
 any Parish, the Bishop shall have a concurrent vote in his appoint- 
 ment. 
 
 The Treasurer of this Board shall be a Layman of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church, j 
 
 Its working is admirably adapted to the circumstances and wants 
 of a snug and compact Diocese like this, but would probably 
 require important modifications to render it equally efficacious in 
 so large a Diocese as that of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The Convocation is composed of the Bishop and such of the 
 Clergy as pledge a sum equal to a tithe upon their salaries. This 
 pledge of the Clergy is redeemed by the contributions of ladies' 
 circles of industry in the respective Parishes and Missionary sta- 
 tions, for the Missionaries no less than the settled Rectors subject 
 their salaries to the tithe. From the fund thus collected most of 
 our Parishes have received aid, and several of the most flourishing 
 were indebted to it for several years of nourishing care and pro- 
 tection. Ten of our Clergy and thirteen Parishes and stations are 
 now aided by the Convocation. We ensure to unmarried Mission- 
 aries three hundred dollars and to married ones five hundred dol- 
 lars per annum. The people to whom they minister are required 
 to raise what they can, and the Convocation makes up the de- 
 ficiency. By adopting the sliding-scale of reduction, we are ena- 
 bled to extend the work from year to year. 
 
 The business meetings of the Convocation are held quarterly, 
 and intermediate ones as they may be appointed from time to 
 time. The meetings take place in the different Parishes in rotation 
 as nearly as may be. At each meeting the Clergy continue to- 
 gether for two days, during which time public services are held in 
 the Church three times each, day. At the first service the Holy 
 Communion is administered by the Bishop, or in his absence by 
 the senior Presbyter present. The sermons and addresses are gen 
 erally adapted to the quickening of the zeal of Christians or to the 
 awakening and conversion of sinners. These services have often 
 been attended with a manifest blessing upon the Parishes, and have 
 
CONVOCA TIONS. 1 5 7 
 
 a most powerful influence in the promotion of unity and love 
 among the Clergy. By forming District Convocations to meet 
 annually or semi-annually or quarterly, the benefits of the system 
 might to a considerable extent be secured to a larger Diocese ; but 
 I would advise that the Bishop should always be present and pre- 
 side if it be practicable. 
 
 Hoping that this letter may be some aid to you in the adoption 
 of measures for the more efficient and united co-operation of your 
 Diocese in the work of self-edification and extension, 
 I am, dear sir, very affectionately 
 
 Your friend and brother. 
 
 Bishop Potter. J. P. K. Henshaw. 
 
 We doubt not that Bishop Potter, after collating such infor- 
 mation as he could obtain from outside sources, and fusing it 
 in the laboratory of his own reflection, and fully qualifying 
 himself to speak intelligently on the whole subject, communi- 
 cated with leading Clergymen in the interior of the Diocese. 
 Throughout his Episcopate, it was his habit thoroughly to 
 possess himself of all the facts bearing on any practical 
 matter on which he needed the co-operation of other men, 
 and to make himself master of the subject in all its possible 
 aspects before inviting to it their attention. That was one 
 • secret of his wonderful power. If there were any fatal 
 objection to any plausible scheme for doing good, he had 
 found it out, and the project was never broached by him ; if 
 there were any specious difficulty likely to suggest itself, he 
 would have anticipated it, and be prepared to meet it when 
 propounded by another. Of his first letters to the Clergy of 
 his Diocese on the subject of Convocations no copy is at 
 hand for use in this memoir. The following, under date of 
 June 17, 1846 (after the Annual Diocesan Convention), when 
 there had been opportunity for face-to-face conversation on 
 the subject, was addressed to the Rev. Dr. Upfold, then 
 Rector of Trinity Church, Pittsburg, and the Rev. Mr. Cow- 
 ell, Rector of Christ Church, Brownsville. 
 
 14 
 
IS8 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir : Yours of the 1 2th did not reach me until 
 Monday p. m. , and as your meeting was to take place on Tuesday, 
 I was unable of course to comply with your request in respect to 
 an answer. You are right in assuming that I should rejoice in see- 
 ing the Clergy in different parts of the Diocese co-operating for the 
 extension of the Church and the edification of their respective 
 flocks, as well as for their own improvement. I can easily com- 
 prehend, however, that there must be practical difficulties in the 
 way of any plan proposed, and that mutual concession and much 
 good judgment will be needful to give it effect. I like the outlines 
 of the plan you suggest, i. e., to have in rotation in the several 
 Parishes of the co-operating Clergy three daily services with ser- 
 mons, the services to be continued two or three days, and one of 
 the morning services (I should think the last) to be accompanied 
 with the Holy Communion. I should myself not object to substi- 
 tuting on one of these occasions addresses from the Chancel for a 
 sermon, if it were so desired by the Rector of the Parish ; and 1 
 should think that an extra service, or more than one, might be held 
 in the Church for the examination of the Sunday-school, or for the 
 reading of Missionary intelligence and for addresses. My own 
 impression is, that the more time you spend on these occasions in 
 the public exercises, the better, provided you reserve enough for 
 rest and for private meetings among the Clergy for conference and 
 devotion. I should myself prefer that there be no extempore 
 prayer in the Church. 
 
 I would suggest whether it would not be advantageous to fix at 
 each meeting on the subjects to be preached upon at the next meet- 
 ing, and also the order in which and the person by whom they 
 should be respectively presented. This would prevent the incohe- 
 rence which would otherwise mark the subjects when taken together. 
 The good done to the people will depend much on having the 
 topics discussed of a kindred character, all contributing toward one 
 or more definite ends. 
 
 In Rhode Island, as you are aware [Mr. Cowell was from Rhode 
 Island], the Convocation has been a principal and blessed instru- 
 ment for aiding feeble and rearing new Parishes. I should hope 
 fhat feature would not be lost sight of. 
 
ON CONVOCATIONS. 1 59 
 
 In some of the Associations the senior Clergyman, I understand, 
 always presides ; in others, a President is chosen ; in others, it is 
 taken by rotation. These points, and as many more as possible, 
 even in respect to the private meetings of the Clergy, had better be 
 agreed upon at the outset to' prevent subsequent misunderstanding. 
 Trusting, my dear sir, that God's best blessings may rest on every 
 effort which is made by you and my other brethren west of the 
 mountaips, for his own glory and the weal of his Church, I am. 
 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 P. S. You will understand, I presume, that I do not send these 
 hi7its as authoritative directions, but merely as the suggestions of a 
 friend. I shall have much confidence in the conclusions to which 
 the brethren generally may come, though they should happen not 
 to accord with my own. 
 
 In his address to the Diocesan Convention of 1847, the 
 Bishop brought the subject of Convocational organization 
 directly before the Diocese, and adverted to it again and again 
 in subsequent years. What shape the vs^hole subject took in 
 his mind will be seen by the following extracts. (1847.) 
 
 Many of our Clerical brethren are much isolated by the remote- 
 ness of their cures from each other, and opportunities for free com- 
 munion and conference, with mutual prayer for the Divine aid and 
 guidance, can hardly fail to reanimate them • in encountering the 
 toils and sacrifices of their ministry, while it must supply them 
 with hints in respect to their public and private labors which may 
 prove rich in blessing as well to themselves as to their respective 
 flocks. Such meetings among the Clergy, too, if connected with 
 frequent public service, with much private prayer, and with absti- 
 nence from unprofitable and irritating controversies, must conduce 
 to strengthen the bonds of mutual affection and confidence, and to 
 induce that spirit of general and cordial co-operation so essential 
 to the growth of our Church and of true religion. They prove 
 most profitable, it is believed, where they involve systematic efforts 
 for the strengthening of weak Parishes, for the formation of new 
 ones in destitute places, and for providing occasional services for 
 
l6o MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the scattered members of our fold. These were objects kept 
 steadily in view in the Convocation at Pittsburg. 
 
 (From the same Address.) 
 
 Nothing I believe is needed but earnest co-operation among the 
 churches and Clergy to render most of the Parishes now dependent 
 on Missionary aid, self-supporting, and to build up new Parishes 
 where our services are much desired and would prove a great bless- 
 ing. In addition to other advantages which are likely to flow from 
 these Convocations properly conducted, will be the gradual prep- 
 aration of the remoter parts ol this State to be formed into one or 
 more separate Dioceses. Such a result must be desired by every 
 friend of true religion ; but to render the measure a safe and ben- 
 eficial one, the Parishes within the territory proposed for a new 
 Diocese should be able not only to sustain themselves, but to bear 
 the increased burden which will be occasioned by the support of 
 the Episcopate and by Church extension within their own limits. 
 
 (From the Address of 1848.) 
 I mentioned in my last address that Convocations of the Clergy 
 had been assembled at two or three points in the. Diocese at the 
 time of my visitation ; that they were likely to become a perma- 
 nent element in our system of operations ; and that, in my opinion, 
 they would prove, if properly conducted, powerful instruments of 
 improvement to the Clergy and of blessings to their people, while 
 they might be made subservient in a high degree to the extension 
 of the Church. I would now state that I have met with four Con- 
 vocations during the year. My convictions in regard to their value 
 and efficiency are strengthened. At the meeting in July of the 
 Convocation of Northern and Central Pennsylvania, a permanent 
 organization was adopted on principles which will be found in a 
 note to this addi;ess, and the members comprising it have contin- 
 ued to meet quarterly. 
 
 (From the Address of 1849.) 
 
 In addition to the Northern Convocation, the rules of which I 
 reported to the last Convention, three others have since been or- 
 ganized on the same principles. The meetings have been to me 
 
CONVOCA TIONS. 1 6 1 
 
 occasions of delightful intercourse with my brethren of the Clergy 
 and with the people of their Parishes. Besides public services 
 and informal meetings in private, the members hold frequent ses- 
 sions for the discussion of practical questions touching the duties 
 of their office and for reading sermons, essays and dissertations. 
 The following may be specified as some of the advantages which 
 seem likely to flow from these meetings, and I am glad to say that 
 as yet I have observed no counteracting evils which do not admit 
 of remedy : 
 
 1. The cultivation of fraternal feeling among the Clergy, as also 
 between them and the different congregations within the bounds 
 of the Convocation and between the congregations themselves. 
 
 2. A spirit of local co-operation among the Parishes and Clergy 
 of different parts of the Diocese. 
 
 3. Enabling the younger Clergy to avail themselves of the expe- 
 rience of their older brethren. 
 
 4. Improvement in theological learning. 
 
 (From the Address of 1855.) 
 The system of Convocations for the Clergy, in different districts 
 of the Diocese, was adopte_d in the hope that it would develop a 
 spirit of co-operation and self-reliance among the churches in such 
 districts, that it would create centres of church enterprise and ac- 
 tivity, out of which independent Dioceses might in some cases ulti- 
 mately spring, and promote sentiments of affection and fraternity 
 generally among our Clergy and people. Some of these results 
 have, I think, been secured already, and I cannot but hope that if 
 the system works itself out steadily and efiiciently, all of them 
 will be compassed in time. Some of the Convocations evince in- 
 creased interest in missions within their own bounds. 
 
 (From the Address of 1863.) 
 
 In this connection let me express the satisfaction with which we 
 find that the Convocations in various parts of the Diocese are en- 
 gaging more actively in Missionary work. By directing their 
 efforts to points hitherto unoccupied in their own districts, a deeper 
 interest is awakened among the people of their congregations. By 
 co-operating for the support of these vacant Parishes, a spirit of 
 .14 » L 
 
1 62 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 union is developed and strengthened among Ministers and people ; 
 and by degrees centres of activity and self-help will be formed in 
 different parts of the Commonwealth, which will greatly facilitate 
 the formation of separate Dioceses. That Convocation (the North- 
 eastern) which has operated the longest, and which has cherished 
 steadily this habit of co-operation, occupies a district which has 
 now nearly, if not quite, the number of self-supporting Parishes 
 and Presbyters which would enable it to become an independent 
 Diocese. The same result can doubtless be produced elsewhere by 
 the use of the same means. In order to promote this work in the 
 Convocations, and at the same time to supply itself with more infor- 
 mation in regard to the whole field committed to it, the Diocesan 
 Board of Missions has opened, through its secretary, regular com- 
 jnunications with the officers of these bodies. 
 
 In his last address, that of 1865, Bishop Potter expressed 
 himself thus : 
 
 The Convocations of the Diocese are working with diligence and 
 with considerable effect. One, embracing the North-western part 
 of the Diocese, has been organized within the last year. I have 
 tried the experiment on two or three occasions of making the meet- 
 ings of Convocations migratory, and of connecting them with my 
 annual visitations. As an occasional variation from the usual mode 
 of holding their sessions, it seems to me that this plan has some 
 special advantages. It prolongs the time during which the Bishop 
 can be present at the private meetings of the Clergy, as well as at 
 their public services. It adds also to the effect of his official labors 
 in the different Parishes that he is surrounded by a considerable 
 body of Ministers, all specially interested in the district which he 
 is visiting, that he can have their aid in preaching and ministering 
 the sacrament, and that there will be free opportunity for conference 
 with him in respect to their several duties and trials. I hope there 
 may be opportunity of extending this plan over the Diocese. 
 
 YOUNG men's institutes, 1 849. 
 
 Bishop Potter, on becoming a resident in Philadelphia^ was 
 painfully impressed with the rowdyism and apparent profligacy 
 
YOUNG MEN'S INSTITUTES. 1 63 
 
 of multitudes of the young men lounging about the corners 
 and taverns, running with the fire engines, and making night 
 hideous with their yells and street fights. Then, as now, the 
 number of licensed and unlicensed groggeries was legion, and 
 intemperance was fearfully prevalent. Many of these night- 
 prowlers, born of destitute parents, had been compelled in 
 early boyhood to enter the workshops and factories for em- 
 ployment, and to forego instruction in even the elementary 
 branches of common learning. The police was at that period 
 almost impotent, for what is now the compact City of Phila- 
 delphia was then six independent municipalities, and rioters 
 had but to run a few squares from any point to get beyond the 
 jurisdiction of their pursuers. All these influences combined 
 ,to make the metropolis of Pennsylvania renowned for its 
 lawlessness and violence. 
 
 He whose life thus far had been devoted to the moral and 
 mental improvement of young men of all ranks could not 
 contemplate this state of things with indifference, nor leave it 
 without an effort for reform. One who was foremost among 
 the Bishop's helpers in his efforts to provide some profitable 
 entertainment for these unfortunate and unpromising classes 
 has furnished the following reminiscences : 
 
 Philadelphia, July, 1869. 
 
 Rev. and dear Doctor : The following official report answers 
 most of your inquiries regarding the Young Man's Institute in the 
 formation of which Bishop Potter took so active a part. In 1849 
 and 1850 the Bishop's noble soul was deeply stirred by the increas- 
 ing lawlessness of the youth of our city. Instead of invoking the 
 power of our civil rulers, as is too usual in such cases, the Bishop 
 spent much time and anxious thought in seeking out remedial 
 measures. The little band of Laymen who were most active in the 
 details of the attempted reformation caught their inspiration mainly 
 from the Bishop, and throughout the whole movement he was their 
 wisest counselor. He was also ever ready to make public addresses 
 to the young and to those who were clothed with authority, or who 
 could aid in promoting the moral and intellectual development of 
 
164 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 neglected and misguided young men. Night after night he was thus 
 engaged, allowing nothing but positive official engagements to 
 interfere with this self-denying duty. 
 
 The parent institution and the 'five or six branches founded so 
 largely through the agency of Bishop Potter are now in their twen- 
 tieth year, and several of the libraries and night-schools continue 
 
 to increase in usefulness. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 W. W. 
 
 From the " Official Report " above referred to, we present 
 the following extract in demonstration of the material results 
 that came forth and yet remain to testify of the Bishop's phil- 
 anthropic influence : 
 
 When, by an Act of the Legislature, the police of the old city 
 and that of its districts were combined and rendered efficient, phil- 
 anthropic gentlemen sought out members of the most lawless club 
 in Moyamensing, and of the Schuylkill Rangers, and gathered them 
 into night-schools under their own personal supervision. The 
 experiment was eminently successful, for lads who had been fore- 
 most in the fray now excelled in the schools, manifesting an ardent 
 thirst for learning, although often too much begrimed by work in 
 iron, brick or dye-stuff, to bring their outward appearance into har- 
 mony with their gentlemanly conduct. The hardest day's toil did 
 not weaken their desire for mental improvement, when they were 
 aided by competent teachers and encouraged by the presence of culti- 
 vated, syjnpathizing visitors. 
 
 The good conduct and improvenient of these roughs led to the 
 formation of the Young Man's Institute, which was specially 
 designed to provide Libraries, Reading-Rooms and suitable instruc- 
 tion for lads over sixteen years of age, especially for the sons of 
 widows and others whose lot was toil from early youth, that they 
 might enjoy some of the advantages afforded by the High School 
 to lads in more independent circumstances. 
 
 The sum of thirty thousand dollars was generously contributed to 
 the Young Man's Institute, and an offer was made by it to loan 
 five thousand dollars without interest to residents in six localities ; 
 
RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF THE YOUNG. 1 65 
 
 four thousand dollars to be expended in the erection of a building, 
 and one thousand dollars in the purchase of books. It was believed 
 that the city and the several districts would give ground on which 
 to erect these High Schools for the graduates of the night-schools, 
 and that donations could be procured from citizens in their respective 
 neighborhoods. Philanthropic men residing in Spring Garden, in 
 West Philadelphia, in the old city proper, in Moyamensing and in 
 Southwark accepted the offer, adding contributions from the dis- 
 trict corporations and from individuals, and erecting or purchasing 
 the five buildings still in operation. In Kensington several unsuc- 
 cessful efforts were made by. its citizens to erect a building, and then 
 the parent association deemed it best to invest the money designed 
 for that section of the city, and to use the interest for the benefit 
 of the five existing Libraries and Reading- Rooms, that their useful- 
 ness might thereby be increased. Five hundred dollars of the 
 accumulated interest was subsequently donated to a Library Com- 
 pany and Free Reading-Room in Frankford to increase its efficiency 
 by the purchase of books. 
 
 RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF THE YOUNG. 
 
 In his address to the Diocesan Convention of 1847, Bishop 
 Potter gave the following counsel : 
 
 "It is my wish at present to leave with the Rector of each Parish 
 an unfettered discretion in regard to the question whether Confir- 
 mation shall be adiTiinistered at any particular visit I make. Con- 
 firmation, being a renewal of baptismal vows, ought not to be ap- 
 proached except by those who are in a proper state to receive adult 
 baptism, and I presume few will doubt that that sacrament ought to 
 be administered only to those who are firmly purposed to lead a 
 religious life and to separate themselves from the sinful practices 
 and corrupting vanities of the world. Hence I should deprecate 
 any influence applied by Pastors to the young or to other members 
 of their flocks to induce them to come to Confirmation, except that 
 rite be distinctly presented to the careless and worldly as the begin- 
 ning of a life of godliness, and to the serious-minded as a means of 
 strengthening them in their determination to be the Lord's. Two 
 extremes, as it seems to me, need to be guarded against : the one is 
 
1 66 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 that of urging persons to Confirmation who are not decidedly 
 serious, or who are imperfectly instructed in regard to the nature of 
 the vows which they ratify, and the obligations which as Christians 
 they assume ; the other is that of neglecting to extend the invitation 
 and to afford the instruction which the Church requires whenever 
 the Bishop gives notice of his intention to visit a Parish." .... 
 It is a gratifying fact that in a large proportion of the Parishes 
 of this Diocese most of the persons confirmed soon become com- 
 municants. I refer to this as evidence that there is an increasing 
 disposition to recognize the solemnity of the rite and the necessity 
 of a spiritual preparation for receiving it. 
 
 (From the Address of 1849.) 
 
 I have no desire to see the ranks of those who approach this rite 
 swelled except by persons who are sincerely bent upon leading vir- 
 tuous and godly lives. The number of such persons, however, will 
 depend much upon the diligence and zeal with which Pastors train 
 the young of their flocks and deal with the consciences of those 
 who, though older, are still undecided and reckless in respect to the 
 great duty of consecrating themselves to God's service. We shall 
 never, as it seems to me, realize the ideal which the Church pre- 
 sents in her baptismal office until we regard each baptized child as 
 committed to our special care, to be duly prepared, through the 
 joint efforts of parents, teachers, sponsors and Pastors, for pub- 
 licly ratifying the Covenant in which by baptism they were sepa- 
 rated from the world and given over to be faithful followers of 
 Christ. Hence the solicitude with which, in their public and pri- 
 vate ministrations in the Sunday-school and catechetical class. Pas- 
 tors should watch over the lambs of the flock. The frequent return 
 of Confirmation affords opportunities equally frequent for special 
 appeals to the whole congregation, and for more than usual efforts 
 to impress upon the young a deep sense of their Christian obliga- 
 tions. 
 
 (From the Address of 1850.) 
 
 Another topic on which I would gladly enlarge is the religious 
 training of our children. This is everywhere identified with the 
 best hopes of the Church and of the world, but in no country, per- 
 haps, so much as in our own. The almost unbounded liberty to 
 
RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF THE YOUNG. 1 67 
 
 which the rising generation among us are soon to be admitted, ren- 
 ders it all important that they should have engraven deeply upon 
 their hearts a sense of their responsibility to God and man. Sub- 
 ordination to law can be hoped for in such a country only where 
 there is during childhood a due submission to the authority of pa- 
 rents, teachers and Pastors. I cannot enlarge on this subject, but I 
 may be permitted to remark that as Episcopalians it becomes us to 
 employ that special system of training which our Church has pro- 
 vided. Our Sunday-schools are a great blessing, but I think their 
 usefulness to society in some cases would be much increased and 
 their service to the Church greatly augmented if our Catechism and 
 Liturgical services held a more prominent place, and if teachers 
 were more carefully selected and induced to prepare- themselves 
 better for the work of instruction. It should be an object kept con- 
 stantly in view, to be pursued judiciously and in its proper place, 
 but yet never neglected, to attach the young under our care, to our 
 own mode of worship and to our distinguishing tenets and usages. 
 This requires positive instruction as well as the indirect and power- 
 ful influence of custom and habit. To secure the aid even of these 
 last, children should be early trained to respond in Sunday-schools 
 and in church, and as far as practicable convenient places should 
 be provided where they can both see and hear during public wor- 
 ship. 
 
 (From they-Vddress of 1851.) 
 
 I beg leave to renew the expression of my hope that increased 
 care will be taken lest Sunday-schools supersede the proper religious 
 instruction in families and their due care and nurture by the Pas- 
 tors of the flock. The catechetical instruction which is required to 
 be given statedly and "openly in the church" might with great 
 advantage be accompanied with an annual course of lectures on the 
 Catechism, to be delivered each year in the presence of the whole 
 - congregation. 
 
 Mention has already been made of Bishop Potter's prompt 
 and effectual effort to revive the defunct "Academy of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church." 
 
 Its early success inspired him with the belief that a day- 
 school of high order for girls, established in the city under the 
 
1 68 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 auspices of the Church, would meet with equal favor. He ac- 
 cordingly in 1 848 instituted such a seminary under the gentle 
 and wise superintendence of the Rev. Dr. John A. Vaughan. 
 A Board of Counselors co-operated with the Bishop in its gen- 
 eral management, while Dr. V., with an efficient corps of as- 
 sistants, controlled its internal economy and imparted instruc- 
 tion. The religious influence of the school was excellent, and 
 the reputation which it soon acquired for thoroughness in 
 teaching and gentleness in government put it ere long almost 
 beyond rivalry in the number and social standing of its pupils. 
 After a few years Dr. Vaughan retired from the post of Prin- 
 cipal, and it passed into other hands. If the change occasioned 
 any alteration in the standard of teaching and scholarship, it 
 contributed to elevate it. Dr. Vaughan's successor, the Rev. 
 Charles H. Wheeler, was a fine scholar and an accomplished ed- 
 ucator, but his exactions of diligence on the part of the pupils, 
 at school and at home, were in their esteem " grievous to be 
 borne," and the school declined in public favor when it was 
 most worthy of it ; and when it was no longer supported it fell 
 into extinction — a catastrophe at which Bishop Potter was some- 
 thing more than disappointed. But not only in Philadelphia, 
 in other parts of the Diocese also, wherever an opening could 
 be found and a spirit of enterprise awakened, the Bishop en- 
 couraged the establishment of Church schools, and at once, 
 by his powerful influence and practical skill, gave a wonderful 
 impulse to the cause of Christian education. 
 
 In his address to the Diocesan Convention of 1847 he 
 enlarged on the subject of scholastic culture for the children 
 of the Church under the influence of the Church, with special 
 notice of the schools already established. We have before 
 adverted to Dr. Potter's mterest in the common-school system 
 in the State of New York. Transferred to another Common- 
 wealth, and from the halls of learning to the office of an over- 
 seer in the Church, he did not repudiate his opinions of the 
 usefulness of public schools, but took early occasion to vl'ndi- 
 
RELIGIOUS TRAINING OF THE YOUNG. 169 
 
 cate their claims to the support and interests of all good 
 men. 
 
 In the address of 185 1 the Bishop adverts again to the 
 Church schools, which he never failed to foster, whatever 
 grade of education they were fitted to impart. The following 
 are his words : 
 
 The subject of education continues to receive attention. Our 
 academies and female schools are entitled to a place in the remem- 
 brance and support of our people. They pursue the tenor of their 
 way noiselessly and without pretension, but as homes for training 
 the young of the gentler sex they deserve on that very account the 
 more of our favor and consideration. I am most desirous of seeing 
 seminaries for the young, of different grades of expense, rising in 
 every part of the Diocese as fast as Providence may open to us 
 facilities, but I shall be equally desirous that they be places de- 
 voted to thorough and therefore unpretending culture, and that 
 they grow up as all useful and permanent institutions are likely to 
 grow — gradually and with well-compacted strength. 
 
 We add one more extract, and this is from the Bishop's 
 address to the Convention of 1854, indicative of his watchful 
 care over the schools of the Church and his efforts to have 
 them multiplied. 
 
 Of the whole number of Clergymen now resident canonically in 
 this Diocese, four are occupied as principals or professors in semi- 
 naries of learning, and of the Parish Clergy thirteen are also 
 actively engaged in teaching the higher branches of learning. It 
 may serve to convey some conception of the influence— almost 
 unobserved — which a few Clergymen in this Diocese are exerting 
 upon the education of the young, when I state that there are not 
 less than five hundred children and youth of both sexes who are 
 pursuing, under their immediate auspices, the more advanced 
 studies of an English and classical course. If to these we add 
 those who are instructed by lay members in schools established in 
 connection with our communion, and the much larger number who 
 in parochial schools are imbibing the elements of sacred and secu- 
 
 15 
 
170 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 lar knowledge, we shall perceive that the Church in this Diocese is 
 not entirely idle in the work of Christian education. Add to this 
 the fact that more than fifteen thousand children are enrolled as 
 attending upon our Sunday-schools, and we shall find reason to 
 bless God who has inclined the hearts of his Ministers and people 
 to give themselves so willingly, and at such great expense of time 
 and labor, to the nurture of the young. 
 
 I have spoken in the former part of this address of the relation 
 of the Church in this Diocese to schools. For what we are now 
 doing in this important field I trust I am duly thankful ; yet it 
 bears but a small proportion to what with wisdom and patient 
 enthusiasm we shall be able to accomplish. Has not the time 
 arrived — at least is it not at hand — when within the bounds of each 
 Convocation and each considerable section of the Diocese there 
 ought to be provision in one or more good boarding-schools for 
 the young of both sexes who are pursuing the higher branches of 
 education, so that they can be trained under a proper church influ- 
 ence ? We need such schools for our own children, many of whom 
 are sent, with a singular want of foresight, where they will receive 
 either no religious instruction at all or one utterly alien from our 
 services, or, what is worse, where their allegiaftce to the simplicity 
 of the Gospel and to the very first principles of the Reformation 
 will be secretly and insidiously undermined. We need such 
 schools, too, for many who are not of our fold, but who are more 
 than willing that their children should be educated under the posi- 
 tive system of teaching and the orderly Christian nurture which 
 characterize, and are destined still more to characterize, the 
 working of our Church. Has not the time also arrived when our 
 Clergy should identify themselves more than ever with our public- 
 school system, exposed, as it is, on one side to perversion, and on 
 the other to ruin, and yet presenting, as it does, the only available 
 means for spreading a universal education over the land ? 
 
 CLERGY daughters' FUND. 
 
 In his address of 1849 the Bishop had the satisfaction of 
 announcing the beginning of one of those noble charities 
 which were founded during his Episcopate. He said : 
 
TRAINING - SCHO OLS. 1 7 1 
 
 In my last address I stated that efforts had been made to provide 
 free scholarships at different schools for the sons and daughters of 
 the Clergy of this Diocese. I called attention especially to the 
 importance of creating permanent scholarships for the daughters 
 of such Pastors as receive small salaries and live where good 
 schools are not yet established. Through the temporary contribu- 
 tions of a few benevolent individuals nine young ladies have been 
 placed at boarding-schools, besides those who are received as free 
 day-scholars at the Female Institute in Philadelphia. I am now 
 able to state that the foundation of a permanent fund for this pur- 
 pose has been laid. The late Mrs. Stott of this city (Philadelphia), 
 who died in the month of June last, full of years, rich in faith and 
 good works, and loaded with the blessings of multitudes who had 
 tasted her bounty or who had seen the daily beauty of her life, 
 manifested a special interest in this charity. In addition to pre- 
 vious coiatributions, made a few months before her death, sufficient 
 to support three scholars for one year, she bequeathed four thousand 
 dollars to it in one of the last codicils to her will, and an associa- 
 tion has been formed under the title of "The Trustees of the 
 Clergy Daughters' Fund." To the charge of these Trustees all 
 funds devoted to this purpose will be committed. I cannot but 
 hope that so blessed an example as Mrs. Stott's may be followed in 
 this and in other charities by those who would leave behind them 
 a memorial to gladden many hearts and be the means of incalcu- 
 lable good to the Church and her children. 
 
 The good Bishop's hope has been so far realized that the 
 permanent fund of this excellent trust has now (1869) reached 
 the sum of ^11,600, and its income provides for ten bene- 
 ficiaries. 
 
 TRA I NING-SCHOOLS. 
 
 The sense of the vastness and the needs of his, Diocese was 
 more and more impressed upon Bishop Potter as he measured 
 its distances in his official journeys and corresponded more 
 fully with its Clergy and Laymen in various parts. He real- 
 ized, as he traversed its rough places and witnessed the moral 
 apathy which prevailed in others, that the laborers who could 
 
172 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 successfully cultivate such a field must be prepared to endure 
 hardness, and qualified and disposed not only to teach well in 
 the pulpit, but to exemplify Christian activity and to organize 
 the efforts of those among God's people whose zeal could be 
 aroused for usefulness. In his Primary Address to the Con- 
 vention of his Diocese in 1846, he introduced the idea of a 
 Diocesan training-school, and intimated that he had already 
 taken measures himself to impart, and to secure from others in 
 whom he had confidence, instruction for Candidates for Holy 
 Orders in the City of Philadelphia. We have already men- 
 tioned the reopening of the Episcopal Academy under the 
 tuition of Dr. Hare. Bishop Potter introduced to the Diocese 
 the subject of home education for Candidates, as follows : 
 
 A considerable portion of the Candidates in this Diocese are 
 pursuing their studies in Theological Seminaries. Of the residue, 
 such as reside in Philadelphia receive counsel and direction from 
 the Clergy of the Parishes with which they are respectively con- 
 nected ; and by the liberality of the Trustees of the Episcopal 
 Academy, provision is also made by which the Rev. Dr. Hare can 
 devote an hour daily, for five days in each week, to their instruction 
 in the original languages of the Old and New Testaments. To a 
 small number of Candidates I have myself been able to give some 
 instruction, and I hope hereafter to have leisure to do more. The 
 relation in which a Bishop is placed to those who are preparing for 
 the Ministry, as well by the fearfully important interests at stake 
 as by his vows made at his consecration and by the 9th Canon of 
 1832, which requires him to give vigilant superintendence both to 
 their studies and their moral deportment, is a relation of the most 
 serious and responsible character. At a time when the efficiency 
 of the Clergy depends so peculiarly on their exemplary conduct, 
 their practical good sense and their ample literary and theological 
 acquirements, one whose duty it is to confer the sacred office by 
 the laying on of hands would fail in a most important department 
 of his labors if he did not strive to become personally acquainted 
 with all the Candidates within his jurisdiction. In an age, too, 
 when questions, once considered as settled, are reopened and are 
 
TRAINING-SCHOOLS. 1 73 
 
 discussed with equal learning, ability and zeal, it has becbme 
 especially important that young men preparing for the sacred Min- 
 istry should be trained to that careful and reverent spirit of inquiry 
 which will guard them as well against the resuscitated errors of 
 the past as against the unwarrantable novelties of the present. The 
 mournful experience of the last few years, both in England and in 
 this country, shows the danger of that rash and presumptuous tone 
 of speculation which is sometimes most rash when employed in 
 advocating the abstract claims of authority ; and which, beginning 
 with harsh and unfilial animadversions on the reformers and found- 
 ers of our Church, terminates but too frequently in renouncing 
 their guidance for the spurious Catholicism of Rome. This dispo- 
 sition, unbecoming in all, is peculiarly unbecoming in those who 
 are only preparing for orders, and who should appreciate the 
 awful responsibility which they assume if they seize upon doubtful 
 opinions, hardly consistent with loyalty to the Church, and hold 
 them with a confidence which nothing but years of the most 
 patient and thorough investigation could warrant. In whatever 
 direction such a spirit may manifest itself, it ought, as it seems to 
 me, to be promptly discouraged ; and young men should be warned 
 against the peril and guilt which they incur if they press forward to 
 a Ministry which they cannot leave without reproach, and in which 
 they may find that they cannot continue without dishonor. I make 
 these remarks the more freely now because, as far as I know, the 
 Candidates in this Diocese are not liable to censure in these 
 respects, and I can make them therefore without invidiousness. So 
 far as I have any voice in the councils of the Diocese it shall 
 always be raised in favor of a generous and charitable policy ; but 
 it ought not to be forgotten that such policy must be maintained 
 without sacrificing the integrity of our reformed and truly catholic 
 faith, and hence that some limits must be fixed to the license in 
 which they can indulge who would be allowed to serve at our altars. 
 
 (From the Address of 1849.) 
 
 Esteeming it important that the Church in this Diocese should 
 
 be better acquainted with the spiritual condition of those districts 
 
 in which the population is most rapidly increasing, I last summer 
 
 commissioned two of our Candidates for orders, in whose judg- 
 
 15 » 
 
174 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 ment and efficiency I had confidence, to explore the whole coal 
 region in the eastern part of the State. These Candidates, accom- 
 panied by one from the Diocese of Western New York, performed 
 a laborious tour of a month's duration, during which they passed 
 from Pottsville through Schuylkill, Carbon, Luzerne and Wayne 
 Counties to Honesdale, visiting 1433 families, distributing Bibles, 
 Testaments and Prayer-books (510), and 15,000 pages of tracts. 
 They supplied me on their return with a full and circumstantial 
 account in writing of the results of their tour, and it is one which 
 reflected much credit on their activity and zeal. As other efforts 
 of this kind will probably be made under my direction, and as 
 they seem to me, if duly directed, to promise much benefit, as 
 well in the information which they will furnish as in the good done 
 to the people and in the useful experience gained by the Candi- 
 dates, I subjoin in a note the instructions which were delivered to 
 the young gentlemen. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 Philadelphia, July 15, 1848. 
 
 My dear young Friends : You have undertaken to visit some 
 portions of this Diocese as Catechists and Colporteurs. It is 
 proper, therefore, that you should receive a few hints from me as 
 to the course which you ought to pursue in discharging duties so 
 important, so delicate, and I may add so unprecedented. 
 
 The sphere of your operations will be mainly in the principal 
 coal basins of Eastern Pennsylvania, and your primary object will 
 be to place yourselves in communication with the resident popula- 
 tion, and especially with those engaged in developing the entire 
 mineral resources (iron, etc., as well as coal) of these districts. 
 In your intercourse with these people you will endeavor to 
 ascertain : 
 
 1. The number of families and of souls in each locality. 
 
 2. Of what country they are natives, how long resident in the 
 United States, how long resident in Pennsylvania, and how long 
 resident in that particular locality. 
 
 3. In what faith or form of worship and Church polity they were 
 educated. 
 
TRAINING FOR CANDIDATES. 1 75 
 
 3. (3) What places of worship (if any) they attend, and how 
 often. 
 
 4. How far their children have been baptized. 
 
 5. How far are they supplied with Bibles, Religious Tracts, etc. 
 
 6. What attention is paid to the religious education of the chil- 
 dren at home, in Sunday-schools, etc. 
 
 7. What proportion of the whole population have been accus- 
 tomed to or would be inclined to attend the services of the Epis- 
 copal Church. 
 
 8. Whether there is any opening, and how great, for the labors 
 of a Missionary or Minister of our Church. 
 
 9. What are the habits of the people as to intemperance, dese- 
 cration of the Lord's day, impurity, etc., etc. 
 
 You will also endeavor to make yourself useful to the people 
 with whom you may meet, 
 
 1. By conversation judiciously and unobtrusively directed to 
 their own religious welfare, and especially to that of their children 
 and neighbors. 
 
 2. By visiting the sick, ministering to their bodily comfort, 
 praying with them, etc. 
 
 3. By leaving Bibles and Prayer-Books (to be sold or given) and 
 giving Tracts. 
 
 4. By making arrangements for the establishment of Sunday- 
 schools or catechetical classes where there are none. 
 
 5. By appointing a time when you will return through the same 
 place, and will hear the children say their Catechism, etc. 
 
 6. By performing Divine service when opportunity offers and 
 reading short and plain sermons. 
 
 7. By brief and simple addresses on the duty of parents to chil- 
 dren in respect to religious education, etc., on forming Sunday- 
 schools, attending public worship, etc. 
 
 8. By taking the earlier preliminary steps, where there are open- 
 ings for congregations, toward organizing them. 
 
 In discharging these duties you will remember that, as young 
 men and Candidates for orders, you should abstain from what per- 
 tains exclusively to the public functions of the Ministry, and from 
 that which, though it might be well received if it came from the 
 
1/6 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 aged or mature in years, would be ungraceful in the young and 
 inexjperienced. 
 
 You will, before entering any district, take pains to place your- 
 self in communication with the Clergyman of our Church who may 
 be resident in that vicinity, and receive his advice and instructions. 
 
 You will be careful to refer always with respect to such Clergy- 
 man when speaking of him. 
 
 You will decline entering into controversy as to the relative 
 merits of our Church and other bodies. If explanations are asked, 
 give them in the meekness of wisdom. If attacks are made, reply 
 with blessings and prayers, but unostentatiously, and leave a tract 
 calculated to obviate prejudice and instruct ignorance.. 
 
 Do not obtrude the fact that you come as representatives of the 
 Episcopal Church. Let it rather transpire incidentally, and let it 
 be seen that your supreme desire is to be useful to the souls and 
 bodies of men. 
 
 Seek opportunities of mingling unreservedly with the people in 
 their houses. The females and children can be seen through the 
 day ; a second visit near evening will enable you to see the head 
 and father of the family. 
 
 Always defer to his wishes and authority in respect to the religious 
 welfare of his family, except in very extraordinary cases. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 P. S. In addition to the other duties specified, you will endeavor 
 to direct persons attached to our Church to the nearest place of 
 worship belonging to the same and to provide for their accommo- 
 dation. 
 
 You will have the goodness at the close of your tour to make a 
 report to me of your services and of such facts as throw light on 
 the spiritual condition of the districts visited. 
 
 (From the Address of 1854.) 
 I have thought that much advantage would accrue if a training- 
 college were established, in which young men willing to consecrate 
 themselves to the service of their fellow-men, and filled with the 
 right spirit, might be prepared for such spheres of usefulness as on 
 trial they should be found best fitted for — be it of Presbyters, of 
 
TRAINING FOR CANDIDATES. 1 77 
 
 Deacons, properly so called, of Catechists and Bible readers, or 
 even of schoolmasters. I could find places for a very large number 
 of teachers in Pennsylvania, and, were they earnest and intelligent 
 members of our Church, they could as such often prepare the way 
 for the establishment of congregations, and where the Church is 
 already planted they could act as most efficient auxiliaries to settled 
 Pastors and to Missionaries. This suggestion needs to be devel- 
 oped with more fullness than is consistent with the limits of this ad- 
 dress, and I therefore dismiss it for the present. 
 
 (From the Address of 1856.) 
 
 In order to train Clergymen to the highest possible efficiency, it 
 is necessary that study and work should be more or less combined, 
 as well during their novitiate as afterward. This consideration has 
 led to the idea of establishing in this Diocese a proper training- 
 school for Candidates for orders, where they could be trained at one 
 and the same time to the theory and practice of their profession. 
 I have been in no haste to press the commencing of the institution, 
 not doubting that if really needed and approved of the great Head 
 of the Church the way would in time be opened. Meanwhile, I 
 have much satisfaction in stating that many of our Candidates are 
 diligently at work as Scripture readers, Catechists and Lay Mission- 
 aries. Two of the most efficient and interesting missions among 
 the neglected and debased population of Philadelphia are con- 
 ducted by two of our Candidates. Most of the others are zealously 
 engaged within and without the Diocese. It is my purpose to send 
 them, during the summer vacation, over those parts of Pennsylvania 
 where there is most spiritual destitution, to distribute tracts, Prayer- 
 books and Bibles, to seek out the scattered members of our fold 
 and to prepare in other ways for the introduction of regular mis- 
 sions. 
 
 In our sore lack of Clergymen, and of means to support them, 
 it is grateful to find that pious and intelligent Laymen are becom- 
 ing more and more sensible of the obligation which rests upon 
 them as stewards of Christ's truth. They are devoting more of 
 time and care to the instruction of Bible-classes, and, in connec- 
 tion with the Clergy, are devising and industriously applying other 
 means to bring young men within the sphere of a proper Church 
 
 M 
 
178 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 influence and to carry the Gospel to those of every age and condi- 
 tion who are living without it. So long as these efforts are judi- 
 ciously made in connection with our Church system they promise 
 only blessing ; and I pray God that many more laborers may be 
 sent forth of Him who alone can send effectually. One Layman 
 in this city has under his teaching nearly one hundred young men 
 just verging on manhood, and the recruits which pass each year 
 from his classes to Confirmation and to the Holy Communion show 
 how the Saviour smiles upon his work. 
 
 (From the Address of 1857.) 
 The number of Candidates for orders in the Diocese was yester- 
 day thirty-three. By the ordination of this morning it has been 
 reduced to twenty-eight. Of this number a large proportion — 
 nearly two-thirds — are residents of Philadelphia or its immediate 
 vicinity, and several of them have been compelled by domestic 
 and other causes to remain, while preparing for the Ministry, near 
 their homes. The residue have prosecuted their studies at New 
 York, Alexandria or Middletown, at the seminaries established at 
 those places respectively. During the last winter the Candidates 
 and Deacons in Philadelphia, some sixteen in number, have had 
 the opportunity of meeting statedly to receive instruction at the 
 hands of the Bishop, aided by a few of the Clergy. A c6urse of 
 lectures was delivered during Lent twice a week, in the chapel of 
 the academy of the church in Locust street near Broad, and exer- 
 cises in speaking and in written and unwritten composition were 
 appointed. As the causes which congregate so considerable a 
 number here are of a permanent nature, it seems proper, and 
 almost necessary, that some more thorough provision should be 
 made for their instruction. In the hope that I shall have the 
 co-operation of the Clergy, and if necessary of the Laity, some 
 effort will be made to secure regular exercises through a large part 
 of each year, and to connect with them that practical training in 
 the Pastoral and Missionary work, of .the importance of which I 
 have spoken in several preceding addresses, and entertain every 
 year a deeper conviction. A large city affords unlimited scope for 
 such training, under the eye of experienced Pastors and Mission- 
 aries. If properly employed under their direction, Candidates 
 
TRAINING FOR CANDIDATES. 1 79 
 
 could render important services, while they would gather an inval- 
 uable fund of experience and practical efficiency. 
 
 During the last summer's vacation I deputed several Candidates 
 — most of whom are now in orders — to act as Lay readers and 
 Catechists at different points in the interior of the Diocese. Some 
 of them were stationary, others itinerant. They acted under 
 instructions and in conjunction with the Clergy in the vicinity of 
 their appointed fields. Much, however, was necessarily left to 
 their own discretion, and it was satisfactory to learn that they 
 acted with prudence as well as zeal, winning a good report from 
 those among whom they labored and doing much to edify and en- 
 courage those who were without stated ministrations. The best 
 evidence of their efficiency, and of the propriety with which they 
 bore themselves, may be found in the fact that applications for their 
 services, when in orders, have been preferred with earnestness from 
 nearly every place which they visited. None are more ready than 
 themselves, however, to recognize the fact that they gained in 
 practical power more than an equivalent for all the service which 
 they were enabled to reiider. 
 
 In these progressive hints and experiments we find the be- 
 ginnings of that noble institution, the Philadelphia Divinity 
 School, which the Bishop lived to found, and to characterize 
 with many of those beneficent ideas which his experience and 
 sagacity had taught him. 
 
 There is probably no large Diocese of our Church in which 
 most of these suggestions could not with great advantage be 
 reduced to practice. And in many of them the result would 
 be, in due time, the establishment and endowment of theo- 
 logical schools suitable to their need. Many Church enter- 
 prises fail because they are started prematurely. Ardent men 
 see great institutions in the older Dioceses, and, instinctively 
 impressed with the need of such agencies in their own newly- 
 opened and uncultivated fields, launch at once into the scheme 
 of reproducing them at points where there has been no pre- 
 paratory experience, and where there are neither means to 
 
l8o MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 rear nor men to sustain them if they could be created by- 
 miracle. It was Bishop Potter's policy to inaugurate all such 
 undertakings on a small scale, and to wait for them — ^by dili- 
 gent culture to grow and develop under the shaping hand 
 and benignant blessing of a wise Providence. A careful, pre- 
 paratory home training of those who are destined for the 
 sacred Ministry, under their own Bishops and Pastors, would 
 qualify such of them as enter any of our existing theological 
 schools to profit more by their advantages than many who 
 now resort to them are qualified to do. The immediate bene- 
 fit of the establishment of such training-schools would fully 
 compensate for the trouble and the moderate expense; the 
 possible substantial issues of the far future would therefore be 
 a clear gain. 
 
 PRIMITIVE DEACONS. 
 
 The necessities of the American Church have been such 
 for Clergymen to take Pastoral care, that practically we have 
 lost the order of Deacons as they were known to the early 
 Church, and as they are described in the Ordinal of this 
 Protestant Episcopal Communion. Vacant Parishes in all our 
 past history have been clamorous for some one commissioned 
 to conduct public worship and to dispense the Word of God; 
 and Bi.shops have felt themselves compelled by the exigencies 
 of the times to license all on whom they have laid hands, and 
 to put them at once into parochial charge. Twenty-five years 
 ago the only perceptible difference between a Deacon and a 
 Presbyter was that he did not pronounce Absolution and the 
 Apostolic Benediction, nor by himself administer the Lord's 
 Supper. Every other function of a Pastor every Deacon was 
 expected to execute. It is too late to say whether this was a 
 wise concession of Apostolic practice, if not doctrine, to what 
 seemed to be a paramount need. 
 
 The Church, as represented in the General Convention of 
 1844, manifested a disposition to recur to the primitive stand- 
 
PRIMITIVE DEACONS. l8l 
 
 ard, by making such changes in her legislation in regard to 
 the attainments to be required of Deacons as would render 
 the ordination of men fit only for Diaconal duty possible. 
 In that measure Bishop Potter felt a lively interest. He did 
 not desire to see the Church largely supplied with a Ministry 
 of meagre education, and supporting themselves by partial 
 application to some secular calling and aspiring to no higher 
 grade of the sacred office ; but he was willing to see the ex- 
 periment fairly tried, and at any rate to restrict men in the 
 Diaconate to the distinctive duties of their station. In his 
 first Episcopal address (1846) he opened this subject also, 
 and enriched it then and at subsequent Conventions with wise 
 and cautious practical observations which are well worthy the 
 thoughtful consideration of the Church at this day, seeing 
 that Pastors of large Parishes, in many instances, still toil on 
 without their legitimate Assistants ; and Deacons are for the 
 most part burdened with full parochial care before they have 
 ever seen from a Ministerial standpoint the interior working 
 of a Parish. 
 
 Bishop Potter's views of the proper training of Candidates 
 for Holy Orders we have already introduced. We give now 
 some of his thoughts on the primitive and profitable exercise 
 of a Deacon's office : 
 
 (From the Address of 1846.) 
 By Canon VI., of 1844, a Bishop is authorized to admit persons 
 who have not been tried and examined in the manner prescribed 
 in other Canons, provided he shall be requested to do so by a reso- 
 lution of the Convention of his Diocese. The object and import 
 of this Canon are probably understood by the members of this 
 body ; and they will be prepared, therefore, to prefer the request 
 referred to, if in their judgment the interests of the Church in this 
 Diocese shall require it. The Deacons contemplated in this Canon 
 are not in any case to have charge of Parishes, and can be ordained 
 Presbyters only when they have completed the studies and passed 
 16 
 
l82 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the examinations prescribed in other Canons, both for Deacons and 
 for Priests. 
 
 In officiating and performing other duties, they are to be under 
 the direction of the Rector within whose Parish they labor, and 
 they are not to have seats in any Convention, nor be made the 
 basis of any representation in the management of the concerns of 
 the Church. I have not been able to satisfy myself how far officers 
 sustaining such a relation to the Church and its Clergy are likely 
 to be useful in the present state of society in this Commonwealth. 
 That some aid for the Clergy in our larger Parishes, and especially 
 in cities, is much to be desired, is certain ; and it is not impossible 
 that this aid might be effectively rendered by Deacons, such as are 
 provided for in this Canon. From a passage in the treatise of 
 Bishop White on the Ordination Offices, it is evident that that wise 
 and .venerable counselor of our Church felt many years since the 
 importance of some further provision in relation to Deacons. After 
 adverting to the various duties specified in the Ordinal as pertain- 
 ing to this office, and especially to that which requires the incum- 
 bent "(where provision is so made) to search for the sick, poor 
 and impotent people of the Parish; to intimate their estates, names 
 and places where they dwell, unto the Curate, that by his exhorta- 
 tion they may be relieved with the alms of the parishioners or 
 others," the Bishop adds that it were much to be desired that in 
 this respect, practice were more accordant with theory. He then 
 proceeds : "Of the improvement here intimated there can be 
 little hope, until the Church shall think it expedient to ordain to 
 the office of Deacon some of whom no expectation is entertained 
 that they will rise to a higher order of the Ministry. And where 
 would be the impropriety, or rather how comely as well as useful 
 would it prove, if, even in churches provided with incumbents, 
 there was a religious person of each Church following some secular 
 employment, yet managing any revenues appropriated to the poor, 
 under a designation known to be paramount and from the source 
 of all ecclesiastical authority? which expedient might be so con- 
 ducted as to leave the tenure of property where it is, in the hands 
 of Church wardens and vestrymen, to whom also there should be an 
 accountability for the disposal of moneys in the Deacons' hands. 
 
PRIMITIVE DEACONS. 1 83 
 
 But the institutioB would be still more useful in places in which, 
 because of the small number or the poverty of the people, there 
 can be no permanent provision for a Minister devoting his whole 
 time to the services of the sanctuary; an evil which would be in 
 some measure remedied by the appointment to the Deaconship of a 
 proper character, wherever it should offer, with the view not only 
 of his distributing to the poor, but further for the reading of Scrip- 
 tures and discourses, and for baptizing. It cannot but be supposed 
 that his reading of prayers and of sermons of approved Divines would 
 carry more weight than when it is done, as occasionally at present, 
 by a I^ayman ; although this, where necessary, is commendable. 
 
 "While there is thus held out the utility of an alteration in our 
 practice, it is not wished to be understood as a proposal to hazard 
 the accomplishment of it by any imprudent haste, especially by 
 producing such dissatisfaction as might endanger the peace of the 
 communion. But there is perceived no impropriety in the express- 
 ing of the opinion, countenanced as it is by avowed principles of 
 this Church, from which there is a deviation in practice, although 
 in points not materially affecting either truth or order." 
 
 Before dismissing this subject, I may be allowed to suggest 
 whether the time may not be approaching when it will be expe- 
 dient for Deacons who have taken the usual course of study and 
 preparation to remain for some time, especially if they are still 
 young and inexperienced, as Assistants in the Parishes of the older 
 Clergy. They will thus receive, under the direction of minds ma- 
 tured by study, reflection and observation, that training in \\\e. prac- 
 tical duties of their profession which Theological Seminaries can 
 hardly be expected to afford, but without which education for the 
 sacred profession is essentially imperfect. If excused from preach- 
 ing too during such a novitiate. Deacons would be able to make 
 important additions to their stock of theological learning, and 
 ' would be enlarging, in every respect, their resources for future use- 
 fulness, while they would be rendering "valuable services to our 
 people and to overburdened Pastors. 
 
 (From the Address of 1848.) 
 
 It is proper to state that in the case of two of the Deacons ordained 
 this year the ordinary license to preach was withheld. This course 
 
1 84 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 was adopted in conformity with the wishes of the Candidates them- 
 selves, and as the result of deep conviction on my part that the 
 ultimate usefulness of our younger Clergy will be materially pro- 
 moted if they pass a large portion of their Diaconate in the Parishes 
 and under the supervision of the elder Clergy. 
 
 (From the Address of 1849.) 
 In my first address to the Convention of this Diocese I intimated 
 my conviction that the Church would be better served if Deacons were 
 more frequently ordained without a license to preach — serving as 
 Assistants in the Parishes of the older Clergy and studying under 
 their direction. In my last address I reported the names of two 
 Deacons who had cheerfully acquiesced in my wishes in this respect. 
 I have now to add that a portion of those who have been ordained 
 within the last year have taken the same course, and that three 
 Deacons are now laboring in this city on the primitive model. 
 
 (From the Address of 1853.) 
 In my anxiety to increase the working power and efficiency of 
 the congregations and Clergy we now have, I may have sometimes 
 overlooked too much another duty of the Episcopate — that of 
 taking in and introducing into the Ministry young men of the requi- 
 site zeal and ability. It is certain that the number of Candidates 
 for orders in this Diocese (seventeen) is altogether disproportioned 
 to her wants, and how to increase it becomes a question of such 
 interest and such pressing necessity that I commend it to the serious 
 consideration of all the members of the Church. We have great 
 need to ponder the words of our Master, "The harvest truly is 
 plenteous, but the laborers are few." These words hold true to the 
 letter, of the work which Providence spreads out before us in Penn- 
 sylvania. The call is from every side, and the frequency and the 
 importunity with which it is repeated become a source of inexpres- 
 sible anxiety and pain to those who are expected to afford assistance 
 wholly beyond their ability. Let our prayers then go up more 
 earnestly and frequently to the Lord of the harvest that he will 
 send forth laborers into his harvest, and let us be ever ready to 
 encourage and sustain those who in the true spirit and with the. 
 proper qualifications offer themselves for the work. Twenty-five 
 
PRIMITIVE DEACONS. 1 85 
 
 Clergymen are at this time much needed, and that additional num- 
 ber could now be supported, provided they were men who love work, 
 who can endure hardness, and who are not wanting in piety, pru- 
 dence and ability to teach. 
 
 (From the Address of 1854.) 
 The resto^ration of the Diaconate to a nearer conformity with the 
 primitive model was another measure which this Convention* at- 
 tempted. I regard that attempt as a wise one. We much need a 
 class of men who can assist in the outdoor work of the Church, 
 where robust sense, fervent piety and knowledge of the world are 
 often more important than mere erudition, or even than the capacity 
 to teach, in the highest sense of that word. In some cases these 
 men will be found to possess eminent gifts, and will advance to the 
 highest positions. In others, they will remain permanently and 
 contentedly in subordinate stations, and will there give to Pastors 
 of churches and to Missionaries aid which they have long needed, 
 and the need of which is coming every day to be more keenly and 
 generally felt. The legislation of October last on this subject was 
 merely experimental, and may need material revision. It was 
 founded in a deep conviction not only that we want more laborers, 
 but that we want those of more diversified powers and attainments; 
 and it was intended to charge Bishops and Standing Committees 
 with a larger discretion and a graver responsibility in respect to the 
 first grade of the Ministry. He, of course, greatly misapprehends 
 the object, and, as I think, the tendency, of this measure, who sup- 
 poses that it was intended, or must contribute, to depreciate learn- 
 ing in the Ministry, or to set aside a thorough elementary training 
 for those who are to become useful and able Ministers of the New 
 Testament. The importance of erudition and of the most consum- 
 mate intellectual ability among the Clergy I should be among the 
 first to insist on, but no one will contend that either of these can 
 be made universal, or that, in all stations, either of them is indis- 
 pensable or even necessary. Let the utmost be done to secure 
 Pastors for our congregations who are accomplished in all that can 
 make men wise to win souls, but let us not forget that to perform 
 that which, according to our Ordinal, appertaineth to the office of 
 * General Convention of 1853. 
 16* 
 
1 86 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 a Deacon, requires only an inferior grade both of capacity and 
 knowledge. It may not be improper, in leaving this topic, to ex- 
 press the hope that efforts to raise the standard of literary and theo- 
 logical attainments among the Clergy will keep pace with every 
 effort to bring our services nearer to the people ; and that in all 
 such efforts we shall remember, first, that a vigorous, well-disciplined 
 and active mind is much more of a power than mere learning, how- 
 ever great ; but, secondly, that more extensive and profound learn- 
 ing is needed in our Church in this country — that we are without 
 the appliances of wealth and learned leisure which the theologians 
 of our Mother Church have enjoyed ; and hence, thirdly, that our 
 clergy, after they receive orders and are charged with the cure 
 of souls, need, as students, a degree of self-culture, self-reliance 
 and co-operation among themselves greater perhaps than was 
 ever needed before in any Church since the primitive ages of 
 Christianity. 
 
 What w^ere the Bishop's opinions, after partial experiment 
 in his own and other Dioceses, on the expediency of intro- 
 ducing to the Ministry of the Church any considerable num- 
 ber of men of very limited attainments, aspiring to no 
 higher rank than the Diaconate, and relying on secular em- 
 ployment for support, cannot be declared with assurance. 
 But in the later years of his Episcopate he ordained none 
 such ; and it is believed that few, if any, of that sort have in 
 the past twenty years been admitted by other Bishops. Prac- 
 tically, it has been found that these unfurnished men, often 
 finding themselves in positions where preaching is required, 
 importune for license, and at length obtain it, and in many 
 instances, through the connivance of partial Presbyters, after 
 a sham examination, get recommended for the Priesthood, 
 and, in its ranks, although zealous and often of good natural 
 abilities, disgrace the whole order by their ignorance and 
 presumption. The fact that by hook or by crook most of 
 them insinuate themselves into a "degree" for which they 
 have never been fully prepared, has probably led those in 
 
Pf^/S£ PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATION. \Z^ 
 
 authority to disuse the hberty to ordain such, which the Canon 
 now gives them. 
 
 We have thus set forth at length Bishop Potter's views 
 touching the practical training of Candidates for Holy Orders, 
 the proper functions for Deacons in the Church, the need and 
 the legitimate work of Convocations, the due preparation of 
 those presented for Confirmation and the duty of the Church 
 to provide for the higher education of her own children. It 
 may seem to some readers that we have turned aside too long 
 from the events of the Bishop's life to rehearse Kis opinions. 
 They who have to do with the daily working of the Church 
 will not think so. Bishop Potter's most eminent gift was his 
 executive ability. In all affairs to which he applied himself 
 he knew what to do and how to do it. They are still living 
 questions on which we have here collated his earnest and 
 prolific thoughts. The lapse of years has not made them ob- 
 solete. In them the life and growth of the Church are 
 involved. When they are wisely determined, and the decision 
 fairly wrought out in practice, a new impulse will be given to 
 the work of the Lord in every Diocese. 
 
 But the motive for introducing these copious extracts from 
 the earlier addresses of Bishop Potter to his Diocese has 
 . been to illustrate his Episcopal administration, to bring into 
 prominence sonje of the distinctive, and, we may say, germinal, 
 ideas with which he began his life as a Bishop, and for the 
 experimental development of which he never ceased to strive. 
 They characterized his work and gave to his management 
 very much of its honorable success. Men who were advanced 
 to the Ministry by him did not fail to get his conceptions of 
 Ministerial duty ; a large portion of them received somewhat 
 of the practical training which he described. Many were intro- 
 duced gradually, after temporary engagements as Assistants, to 
 the responsibilities of the Pastoral office. The Clergy of the 
 interior, some of whom had scarce known the pleasures of 
 Ministerial fraternity from one Annual Convention to another, 
 
l88 . MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 had their sense of isolation dispelled and their minds and 
 hearts and energies stimulated at their Convocational meet- 
 ings, the Bishop often being with them, so that the pulses of 
 that renovated life which beat at the heart of the Diocese were 
 felt also at its extremities. All who recognized him as their 
 father in God were inspired with a deeper sense of the im- 
 portance of guarding carefully the appointed entrance to the 
 communion of saints, suffering none to assume the vows who 
 were not properly instructed in the duties of the Christian 
 life. Church-schools were multiplied, encouraged by the 
 Ministry and' patronized by the Laity as never 'before. The 
 whole body ecclesiastic seemed infused with a new life. 
 Earnestness was the order of the day. Questions that would 
 gender strife were crowded out of men's minds and mouths 
 by conferences for mutual labor, and individual engrossment 
 with new enterprises for good in every man's. sphere, or new 
 activity in the transaction of old ones. 
 
 SYMPATHY WITH HIS CLERGY. 
 
 Another great element of success in his Episcopate was 
 Bishop Potter's earnest and substantial sympathy with his 
 Clergy. Persons who saw him infrequently, or only in the 
 public exercise of his office, observed a certain severe majesty 
 in his carriage and expression which led to the conceit that 
 he was a man without sensibilities. The experiences of his 
 life as a College officer, on whom for several years the cares 
 and dignities of the President were devolved, created no doubt 
 an austerity and reserve of manner greater than he would 
 have otherwise acquired. The very departments of study in 
 which he taught — first mathematics, and afterward moral 
 philosophy — served to develop rather those faculties of the 
 mind which are calm, contemplative and judicial than those 
 which are high-wrought and emotional, and this had its influ- 
 ence upon his character. The discipline of self-control to 
 which as a public man, and indeed as a Christian, he felt it his 
 
SYMPATHY PRACTICAL, NOT SENTIMENTAL., 189 
 
 duty to subject himself, covered over, as the ice covers but 
 does not obstruct the current of a mighty river, the flow of 
 his deep and strong sympathy. He was not garrulous of his 
 opinions or his feelings upon any matter. He did not affect 
 intenseness of expression. He never with Galilean fervor fell 
 upon the neck of a friend and kissed him. After the counsel of 
 St. John, he did not love " in word, but in deed and in truth." 
 A cold heart usually looks out through an undiscerning eye. 
 It does not feel pity, because it perceives no occasion for its 
 outflow. Bishop Potter never stood unconscious in the pres- 
 ence of human suffering or sadness. His words of condo- 
 lence were few, but always, like his other sayings, pertinent. 
 Were there anything he could do for its relief, then or after- 
 ward, it was sure to be done. He did not weep in a passion- 
 ate burst of sympathy, and straightway turn to other objects 
 of interest with a light heart and forgetful mind. If by per- 
 sonal observation or through. report of others he learned that 
 one of his Clergy, through the neglect or inability of his 
 flock, was suffering for want of the necessaries of life, to the 
 individual he said perhaps nothing but that which would serve 
 to sustain his patience or nerve his heroism (for he esteemed 
 a whining spirit of complaint a baser poverty than any measure 
 of material destitution), while in some delicate way, either 
 from his own limited resources or by appeal to some liberal 
 friend, he provided for the present distress, and hiding the 
 human hand which ministered relief, made his bounty "fruit- 
 ful in many thanksgivings unto God." In a method least 
 mortifying to an honorable pride, he was constantly affording 
 succor to sons in the Ministry, of whose wants he became 
 aware often to their great surprise. In the bereavements 
 which from time to time befell them he was afflicted, and 
 some pledge of sympathy from him was among their earliest 
 tokens that they did not sorrow alone. One of his letters of 
 condolence was written in August, 1847, when he was on a 
 visit to Schenectady, where he learned, probably through the 
 
igO - MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 public prints, of the death of a daughter of the Rev. Dr. 
 Bull. Immediately he hastened to send an assurance of sym- 
 pathy as follows : 
 
 My dear Doctor : I heard with deep regret of the new bereave- 
 ment which God has been pleased to send into your domestic circle. 
 When passing through Wilkesbarre some weeks since I met Mr. 
 Alricks, and gathered from him the grateful intelligence that Mrs. 
 
 P was again with you in much improved health. But the ways 
 
 of God are inscrutable. Thanks to his mercy that we know they 
 are ever right ! You have had many sorrows as well as many bless- 
 ings. A cup thus mingled is the best token our Father can give 
 that he deals with us as his children indeed. May you enjoy all a 
 child's unwavering trust, and experience the fullness of a Father's 
 grace and be able to rejoice evermore ! I thank God that you have 
 been spared so long, and implore his mercy in your behalf, that 
 your last may be your best and happiest years. 
 
 I make no appointments (on further reflection) except for Church- 
 town and Morgantown. 
 
 With kind remembrances to Mrs. B., 
 
 Affectionately your friend and brother, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 Dear old Dr. Bull, after a long life of earnest piety and 
 untiring devotion, checkered with many and varied experi- 
 ences, has gone to his rest. Others still survive who have 
 similar mementos of the Bishop's fatherly tenderness laid up 
 among their treasures, who morbidly esteem even their past 
 sorrows too sacred for the appearance on a printed page of 
 any allusion to them. 
 
 Besides the troubles which arise from lack of maintenance 
 and the death of relatives, Clergymen frequently experience 
 sore trials in their parochial relations. All are not wise as 
 serpents nor harmless as doves. Many who are thrown into 
 very rough and difficult positions have had too little of that 
 practical training which Bishop Potter sought so earnestly to 
 make part of every Pastor's preparation. Careful students— 
 
A MEDIA TO JZ IN PASTORAL TROUBLES. , 191 
 
 skilled theologians — holy men — they have seen little of the 
 world, and have little conception of the eccentric and angular 
 and ill-fitting characters that are distributed among its popu- 
 lation. Such Ministers, sometimes culpably, often innocently, 
 get at variance with members of their flocks, and they must 
 retain their posts in wearisome and disqualifying conflict, or 
 leave them with a cloud upon their reputation, unless a wise 
 and authoritative counselor can interpose to save them. In 
 such junctures Bishop Potter was to his Clergy a friend above 
 all price. The generosity of his nature disposed him to side 
 with the weaker party, and his confidence in the christian 
 principle of an earnest Minister inclined him to assume prima 
 facie that if he were wrong in any difference he was so by 
 mistake. In all such issues, therefore, when the Bishop inter- 
 posed, the Clergy knew that their cases were not prejudged to 
 their disadvantage. A sympathizing heart was with them; 
 and a clear head, a righteous spirit, a calm, determined will, 
 would investigate the facts and deal with them justly, kindly 
 and wisely. In very many instances during the twenty years 
 of his Episcopate, Bishop Potter composed parochial differ- 
 ences that otherwise had proved disastrous to Minister and 
 people. 
 
 Among his papers is the following copy of a letter to a 
 leading Layman in a rural Parish, where there was a painful 
 state of feeling : 
 
 My dear Mr. : I have received from your vestry a copy of 
 
 a preamble and resolutions adopted last month in regard to a sepa- 
 ration from your Rector ; and also sundry papers from him and a 
 large number of the worshipers and communicants of the congre- 
 gation objecting to the terms of said preamble and resolutions. I 
 have known for some time, with deep regret, of the existence of 
 differences and heartburnings, and it is my desire, if they cannot 
 be healed, that there should be a severance of the ties that bind 
 Rector and People. But it seems very desirable that this should 
 be accomplished in a way which will disturb the future peace and 
 
192 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 unity of the congregation as little as possible, and be no breach in 
 respect to the Clergyman or others of justice or charity. It is at 
 best a great hardship and mortification to a Pastor to separate from 
 his people under such circumstances. At this time especially [prob- 
 ably in the disastrous year 1857], when the pressure upon business 
 cripples so many Parishes and prevents them from employing a 
 Clergyman, the embarrassments attending a change of place are 
 peculiarly severe. It seems, therefore, the part of magnanimity 
 and Christian kindness to lighten the blow by abstaining from 
 whatever can tend to brand a Clergyman with disgrace and prevent 
 his being useful elsewhere. 
 
 Now it seems to me that in this respect the course of your vestry 
 has been unnecessarily harsh. Their preamble and resolutions 
 affirm a want of sympathy and good-will between the Rector and 
 his congregation. Is this strictly true? Is it not with a part of 
 the congregation — an important and most influential part, I grant, 
 but yet not the whole, or even a majority? And does not action 
 under such a resolution carry with it to the dismissed Clergyman 
 the charge of having forfeited all but universal respect and affec- 
 tion ? I write to you personally because I believe that your brother 
 and yourself can arrange the matter with ease and with very little 
 publicity. By private conference with other members who acted 
 with you, can you not agree to rescind the action of the vestry on 
 
 this occasion, it being understood that on this being done, Mr. 
 
 will at once tender his resignation, to take effect by the first of Jan- 
 uary next, or earlier if possible ? 
 
 My only desire is that no leaven of discord should remain to 
 work in the Parish after he leaves; and that he shall himself be left 
 free to seek a new field without reproach; and that you and your 
 brother shall have the satisfaction of reflecting that the end desired 
 has been eff'ected at the least cost of peace or happiness or useful- 
 ness to any. 
 
 A copy of another of similar character, w^ithout date or su- 
 perscription, is a model of kindly and yet intelligible official 
 rebuke which ought not to be withheld from the perusal of 
 those whom it may edify : 
 
LETTER OF REBUKE TO A VESTRYMAN^ I93 
 
 My dear Mr. : I have considered the state of things in your 
 
 congregation with deep solicitude. I shall advise your present Min- 
 ister to leave, but I must be permitted to say that his doing it un- 
 der the circumstances, imposes upon you individually a great respon- 
 sibility. Nothing could justify the manner in which you thrust him 
 from your door and the inflexible refusal to offer any explanation 
 or apology. 
 
 The very fact that you are the principal supporter of the church 
 
 at should dictate to you the strictest circumspection, lest it be 
 
 said that it was not the Church of Christ, but the Church of Mr. 
 
 -y and that its Minister must be his bondman, rather than the 
 
 servant of his Divine Lord. 
 
 This I am sure is fast getting to be the feeling. I have heard but 
 one opinion expressed, even among your best friends, concerning 
 
 the manner in which Mr. 's predecessor was compelled to leave ; 
 
 and if this course is to be persisted in, the whole work will lose the 
 favor of man, as it must forfeit the blessing of God. ' No Minister 
 of Christ is perfect, no parishioner is perfect, and they can work 
 together for their own good, the welfare of society and the glory of 
 God only by mutual forbearance, courtesy and love. 
 
 I feel it my duty to express myself thus plainly. I pray God that 
 it may not lose me your confidence and affection. More fervently 
 do I implore him to guide you, and all associated with you, in the 
 right way. Yours faithfully, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 While Bishop Potter w^as thus decided in vindicating the 
 cause of his Clergy vs^henever any of them vi^ere wronged by 
 Parishes, or by mischievous and assuming individuals in their 
 flocks, he was equally kind and faithful in correcting their 
 mistakes, rebuking their follies and endeavoring to save them 
 from tribulation which they were likely to bring upon them- 
 selves. 
 
 The following extractsf from letters to Clergymen will show 
 with what frankness and good judgment he dealt with those 
 over whom the Lord had called him to exercise a spiritual 
 father's faithful vigilance : 
 
 17' N 
 
194 t MEMOIR' OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Reverend and dear Sir ; I have just received your letter of the 
 28th inst. I cannot disguise my astonishment that you should 
 think such a meeting the proper depository of griefs, vfhich you did 
 not think proper to mention to me at the time they were experienced, 
 when my intervention might have been of some use. The circum- 
 stances, foi* example, of your Sunday-school anniversary were such 
 as I should suppose you would have freely spoken of to me at that 
 time, and I should promptly have represented to the parties the 
 impropriety of their conduct. Instead of this, you retain the whole 
 matter in your own breast until the time of accomplishing any 
 purpose, except that of exciting irritation, is passed, and then state 
 it in such terms as to convey the imputation that I might have 
 been privy to the slight put upon you ! Is this wise or kind or 
 just? .... , 
 
 If the wish you now express had been intimated twelve months 
 since, I do not doubt that your vestry would have cheerfully retired 
 and given you the opportunity of substituting others 
 
 .... The object, I presume, of the statements you made was 
 to secure the displacement of the present vestry and the rescinding 
 of their recent action. Why not have accomplished that object 
 when it was equally in your power, and when the peace of the 
 church would have remained undisturbed ? 
 
 You stated to the meeting that I had advised you to resign. 
 You did not state to them that for more than three years I have 
 combated the discontent excited by your apparent want of interest 
 in your field of labor, and that it was only when I had reached the 
 reluctant conviction that you were out of place, and would not have 
 the co-operation of the only Laymen whom I knew of taking any 
 active interest in the mission, that I consented to give the advice 
 to which you referred. 
 
 On the whole, I cannot conceive any good result that is likely to 
 
 proceed from such a statement. It involves criminations which 
 
 are likely to provoke recriminations. These recriminations will 
 
 not benefit you; they can only injure the cause of peace and 
 
 , piety. 
 
 Truly your friend and brother, 
 \ Alonzo Potter. 
 
LETTER TO AN EX-RECTOR. ' 195 
 
 To a Clergyman disabled and residing still in the Parish 
 of which he had been Rector he wrote : 
 
 There is, I fear, in the congregation at , more or less dis- 
 content occasioned by the alleged interference of yourself and your 
 
 family in its concerns. Mr. never complained to me, but 
 
 since he has left I understand that he felt strongly that you impaired 
 his influence, by the freedom of your criticisms on his preaching, 
 
 and that you took pains to do it 
 
 . I hesitate to give advice to one of your age, experience and piety. 
 But I cannot refrain from expressing the opinion that where one 
 Clergyman lives among the parishioners of another, he is bound, as 
 far as he can with a good conscience, to uphold and strengthen bis 
 hands ; and that where he cannot commend he should, except in 
 flagrant cases, abstain himself, and lead his family to abstain, from 
 open censure. Silence is generally a sufficient censuie, and the re- 
 lations of brethren of the same profession are so delicate and so 
 easily disturbed, that much care and forbearance are needed to keep 
 the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Hoping that you 
 will excuse the frankness with which I have spoken, I beg you to 
 believe me, as ever. 
 
 Yours faithfully. 
 
 At the same time the Bishop wrote to the incumbent ex- 
 culpating this very brother from some insinuations which the 
 Bishop knew he had breathed, against him. The letter is too 
 specific for publication. 
 
 To a Clergyman of gladsome spirit and social vivacity, for 
 whom he had great personal regard, he communicated an evil 
 rumor that gave him occasion for a note of caution, which 
 is a gem of Pastoral fidelity and personal tenderness and 
 friendship : 
 
 My dear : I heard a report this morning which pains me 
 
 so much that I must communicate it to you. If it were the first 
 rumor of the kind I should dismiss it, but I love you, and I hope I 
 love the Ministry to which we have both been devoted, and there- 
 fore you must bear with me. 
 
196 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 The story is that at a party not long since you drank champagne, 
 and that so freely that you left in a condition not proper for any 
 
 gentleman. Now, my dear , I take it for granted that the story 
 
 is false, but could it arise if you were as prudent as you ought to be ? 
 With your excitable temperament, are you not peculiarly liable to 
 misconception if you drink at all? And without adopting my 
 fanatical notions about abstinence, would you not do wisely to put 
 an effectual estoppel on all misapprehension and misrepresenta- 
 tion by declining all intoxicating drinks? Such reports, though 
 ever so much exaggerated, do you harm ; they afflict your friends, 
 they injure the Church, and therefore, dear , make them im- 
 possible / I shall see you to-morrow. On reflection, I will take 
 
 the preaching duty at B , but should be very glad to meet you 
 
 there. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 Friday morning. Alonzo Potter. 
 
 Among the Bishop's papers is found the following copy, 
 endorsed " Letter to a discontented Clergyman." He was 
 one who,, to meet a special want, was introduced into the Min- 
 istry before his preparatory studies were completed, and who 
 was unhappy about it : 
 
 Philadelphia, June 29, 1853. 
 
 Dear Mr. P : Your letter of the tenth of February did not 
 
 reach me till after the middle of May, when it found me in the 
 midst of the labors incident to our Diocesan Convention. I greatly 
 regret to find that you have suffered so severely from sickness. I 
 trust your strength before this has been re-established, and that you 
 do not find your labors pressing so severely upon your spirits. I 
 agree with you that a thorough preparation is much to be desired, 
 but the step which has been taken in your case is now irretrievable. 
 It is one for which you are not greatly responsible, and it is the part 
 of wisdom to bring your mind into adjustment with the consequences 
 of it so far as God may give you grace to do so. That grace will 
 not be withheld if it is earnestly sought. 
 
 We are all prone to think how much better things might be with 
 us. The better course, I am sure, is to consider how much worse 
 
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE COMFORT OF THE CLERGY. 197 
 
 they might be, and how much better they may become through 
 God's blessing on our faithful efforts to improve them. 
 
 I have generally found that my mind ripened and my knowledge 
 increased faster when I was hard at work, than when I had nothing 
 to do but study. When one is fairly awake, he can take in more in 
 an hour than sleepy, dreamy students sometimes acquire in a week. 
 I have never improved so much in any five years of my life as when 
 I was situated much as you are now — obliged to write sermons con- 
 stantly, with the feeling that I was not properly prepared. Pray 
 God to give you a light heart that you may look on the bright side 
 of things, and beware of a querulous or fretful temper of mind. I 
 know well you suffer much. May God give you perfect relief and 
 incline you more and more to spend and be spent in his service ! 
 
 The Bishop's sympathy with his Clergy did not spend itself 
 in these individual expressions of friendship, consolatory, 
 vindicative and admonitory. He applied himself with all 
 diligence to the device and execution of various plans for their 
 relief, and accomplished very much in securing a better pro- 
 vision for the maintenance and comfort of themselves and their 
 families. 
 
 In his address to the Convention of 1848, after urging upon 
 the Clergy " a patient, self-denying and indomitable spirit, 
 with a faith in the ultimate triumph of their mission which can 
 outlive even a long period of privation and apparent useless- 
 ness," he proceeded to suggest to the Laity several measures 
 which in his judgment would contribute to the better condition 
 of the Clergy and the permanency of their settlement in their 
 respective Parishes. 
 
 " The first is the erection of parsonages. In cities and large 
 towns they are less necessary, but in the country they are almost 
 
 indispensable If congregations would have their Ministers 
 
 acquire a Aotne-feeling among them, they must see to it that they 
 have a Aome, a permanent and comfortable one, at a convenient 
 distance from the Parish church, and that this home is kept in good 
 repair. 
 17* 
 
198 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 " Let me add that a Rector's library ought, and I trust in time 
 will come, to be considered as a necessary appendage to every par- 
 sonage and every Parish. We need an enlightened and well- 
 furnished Ministry, but we cannot hope to have it unless the Clergy 
 have access to good libraries, and this access can never be enjoyed 
 by many of them if these libraries are to be furnished exclusively 
 at their own expense. For a Parish to gather such a library 
 requires but a beginning, a little steady and persevering attention, 
 and the contribution through a course of years of sums which, 
 though very small when divided among the members of a congre- 
 gation, would be wholly beyond the reach of most individual 
 Pastors. 
 
 "Another measure would, if adopted, do much, I think, to 
 lighten the burdens of the Clergy. I allude to some provision by the 
 Church for the education of their children. We have now several 
 admirable schools, both male and female, connected with the 
 Church in this Diocese, and their advantages ought to be especially 
 accessible to the children of those Clergymen whose means are 
 straitened, who live remote from schools of a superior character, 
 and whose children must -soon enter on life with no resources but 
 their talents and their worth. ' ' 
 
 In his address of the following year (1849) he added another 
 suggestion, to wit : 
 
 " There is another measure which if generally adopted would 
 also conduce greatly, I conceive, to the comfort of the Clergy and 
 the welfare of their families. In few Parishes of this country is the 
 salary such that a Clergyman can hope to save from it any adequate 
 provision for his family if he should be taken from them in early or 
 middle life. From any other source of supply through his own 
 efforts, he is cut off both by public opinion and by the duties of his 
 profession; and yet the circumstances in which he is placed render 
 early death not improvable to himself, and they render the capacity 
 for self-support very improbable in respect of his family. I would 
 suggest, therefore, that Parishes generally follow the course which 
 has been adopted, I believe, in a few instances in this city (Philadel- 
 phia) — of purchasing an endowment for the family of their Clergy- 
 man in case of his dying while in their service. 
 
BROAD BASIS OF HIS SYMPATHY. 1 99 
 
 .... Were it not that associations have been multiplied to an 
 extent which by many is deemed unreasonable, I should be dis- 
 posed to urge the formation of one to promote the building of Par- 
 sonages, the furnishing of Rectors^ libraries and the effecting of life 
 insurances in behalf of Parish Clergymen. Whatever is calculated 
 to multiply the ties between a Clergyman and his people and to 
 render the tenure of the Pastoral office more permanent is at this 
 time worthy of all consideration. 
 
 In 1852, in 1853 and again in 1856, the Bishop reiterated 
 his proposals foir the relief of the poorly-paid Clergy, and 
 especially in the latter address dwelt at length and with great 
 earnestness upon the evils and the causes of instability in the 
 Pastoral office. 
 
 In thus quoting largely from Bishop Potter's addresses to 
 his Diocese on the subject of Ministerial support, it has been 
 the object of the writer not only to exhibit the Bishop's prac- 
 tical and efficient sympathy with his Clergy, but also to repro- 
 duce his suggestions, that "being dead" he may yet plead for 
 a class of Christ's poor whom it seems we shall always have 
 with us, and who have not as many to plead for them as some 
 others who are less backward to make known their necessities. 
 This persistent advocacy of the claims of the poor Clergy on 
 the kind consideration and more liberal support of their 
 people, which is really a marked feature of Bishop Potter's 
 addresses, resulted not more from his fatherly care over his 
 "own sons in the Ministry" than from the innate benevolence 
 of the man, which looked on all human want with compassion, 
 and from the depth of his convictions as a Christian that to 
 do good was a cardinal aim of our holy religion and the true 
 credential of its presence and power. He believed with good 
 Bishop Cheverus, who said, in commencing one of his dis- 
 courses, " The religion of Jesus Christ is an amiable religion." 
 In whatever enterprise the good of man, the improvement of 
 the ignorant, the elevation of the abased, the reclaim of the 
 vicious or the relief of the poor and suffering was contem- 
 
200 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 plated he took a lively interest, and, if opportunity favored, an 
 active part. 
 
 BIBLE SOCIETY. 
 
 The counsels and co-operation of such a man, occupying 
 such a station, were soon solicited in connection with various 
 charities for which Philadelphia is celebrated. He gladly 
 became one of the Vice-Presidents of the Pennsylvania Bible 
 Society, of which his venerable predecessor. Bishop White, 
 was one of the founders, and for many years the President 
 He rejoiced to join hands with good men not of his own fold 
 in the dissemination of those " Holy Scriptures which contain 
 all things necessary to salvation." 
 
 In his address to the Convention of 1850 he thus adverted 
 to the too general neglect among Episcopalians of the duty 
 of distributing the Word of God : 
 
 I have reason to fear that the Churchmen of Pennsylvania are 
 doing but little toward the circulation of the Holy Scriptures with- 
 out note or comment— a work which ought ever to go hand in hand 
 with the distribution of our Prayer-book and the labors of our Mis- 
 sionaries. .As we have no institution of our own in whose opera- 
 tions this work has a prominent place, I would follow the example 
 of my venerable predecessor. Bishop White, in commending to 
 your support the two societies known as the Philadelphia and the 
 Pennsylvania Bible Societies. Over one of these institutions 
 Bishop White presided till his death, and I cannot more perti- 
 nently express my own views than in language employed by him 
 when addressing the Convention on an occasion [in 1822] like the 
 present : "Although the Bible Society of this city is not peculiarly 
 attached to our communion, yet as its object is not only one of 
 supreme importance, but that in which all denominations of Chris- 
 tians agree, and as it contributes its share to the great design of 
 publishing the glad tidings of salvation where they have been hith- 
 erto unknown, and of depositing the record of them in the hands 
 of the destitute of all countries nominally Chrisdan, it has been 
 presented to the notice of Conventions for sundry years past, and 
 
MIXED SOCIETIES. 20I 
 
 under the continuance of this impression there is now declared a 
 deep conviction of the importance of the subject." 
 
 OTHER MIXED SOCIETIES. 
 
 Respecting the association of persons of different religious 
 denominations, continued Bishop Potter : 
 
 For other objects connected with the propagation of the Gospel, 
 such as the circulation of a Christian literature, whether for adults 
 or for children, I feel constrained both by reflection and by expe- 
 rience to express the same views as were held by the same ven- 
 erated man. To him it seemed to involve a stipulated silence 
 respecting certain principles which we hold to be scriptural and 
 important, and silence where it is hardly consistent with the full 
 discharge of our duty. His apprehension, too, that such associa- 
 tions might not prove friendly to peace, either among ourselves or 
 with those around us, has been verified, I fear, at least to some 
 extent, by experience. 
 
 This utterance of distrust in the usefulness of mixed so- 
 cieties, organized on the condition of omitting from their 
 doings and their issues everything which would be offensive 
 to any orthodox Christian, drew out a strong controversial 
 pamphlet from the chief editor of the "American Sunday- 
 School Union." The Bishop would not enter the lists as a 
 pamphleteer, but contented himself with a fuller and more 
 cogent rehearsal of his views in the columns of the " Episco- 
 pal Recorder." The Bishop refused to be dragged into the 
 attitude of an assailant of that society or its consort, the 
 American Tract Society, neither of which had been mentioned ; 
 but reiterated his conviction that one who believes that a 
 Ministry and Sacraments are of Divine appointment cannot 
 take part in the dissemination of a religious literature which 
 represents Christianity without them. It were a flagrant mis- 
 representation to treat of this as an instance of exclusive or 
 sectarian behavior. No man who knew Bishop Potter could 
 for a moment impute to him any such spirit. 
 
202 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 One of the most truly beneficent institutions in Pennsylvania 
 is that for the " Care of Feeble-minded and Idiotic Persons." 
 Bishop Potter was one of the prime-movers in the inaugura- 
 tion of that charity, and a leading and active manager of the 
 establishment as long as he lived, associated in the work with 
 that ardent and liberal Baptist Layman, John P. Crozier, and 
 with several prominent members of the Society of Friends, 
 for which religious body he always cherished a sort of ances- 
 tral reverence. 
 
 His intimate acquaintance with the working of a College, as 
 well as his official eminence, led to his early election as a 
 Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. Into the counsels 
 of the Board he brought the results of large experience and 
 a wider observation. A destined resident of Philadelphia for 
 the remainder of his life, he was ambitious that its venerable 
 institution of learning should be made efficient to meet the " 
 scholastic' wants of the community, and especially that it 
 should adjust itself in its course of instruction to the practical 
 character and the diversified pursuits of the age and country. 
 
 The following extracts from a letter addressed to the Hon. 
 Joseph R. Ingersoll, Chairman of the Committee of the Board 
 on the Government of the College, under date of Philadelphia, 
 July 8, 1852, will give a succinct view of the University system 
 which he strove to introduce : 
 
 My dear Sir : At your request I place on paper a few hints 
 respecting a reorganization of the University on a new basis. The 
 suggestions which follow are submitted to your candid considera- 
 tion in the hope that by a free interchange of opinion, the Trustees 
 may be prepared to adopt such measures as will tell decidedly on 
 the future fame and usefulness of the University and on the public 
 welfare 
 
 So long as there is nothing to distinguish our institution from 
 one hundred and thirty or forty others, save that we teach better 
 than most of them (a superiority which few will know, fewer still 
 acknowledge and very few appreciate), so long we shall, I think, 
 
UNIVERSIT.Y EDUCATION. 2O3 
 
 continue to be what most of the one hundred and thirty or forty 
 undeniably are — i. e., small in numbers and limited in influence. 
 
 Other Colleges, foreseeing that such is likely to be their history, 
 are endeavoring to increase the number of their students by allow- 
 ing them to choose what studies they will pursue and for how long 
 a time. The experiment as applied to immature youths, such as 
 offer themselves for admission in a city College, seems to me to be 
 hazardous. At that age young men are hardly competent to make 
 a proper choice. Their ease and corrvenience or their caprice will 
 have more influence than their real necessities. The instruction 
 given will not be sufficiently comprehensive or liberal to make true 
 scholars who have a generous taste for letters and science and art. 
 
 So many institutions, too, tempted with the hope of winning 
 golden opinions, are likely to follow this example, that there is 
 danger lest ultimately the whole tone of teaching and study be 
 deteriorated and become more flimsy and superficial than it now 
 is. I will venture the prediction that ten years will demonstrate 
 the insufficiency of this movement to meet the real demands of our 
 time and land. 
 
 What are these demands in respect to intellectual education? 
 Are they not, first, that our elementary training for boys up to 
 eighteen or twenty be much more thorough than it now is, inducing 
 more accuracy, more power of thought, more taste, more love of 
 learning and more capacity for earnest and vigorous search after 
 truth? and, secondly, that our seminaries of learning furnish to 
 young men from twenty to twenty-five who have previously been 
 well disciplined, or who exhibit a strong bent toward specific studies, 
 an opportunity to pursue those studies much farther than any College 
 now takes them, and with more or less reference to active profes- 
 sional pursuits? 
 
 Neither of these ends is attained by our present College system. 
 That system is obnoxious to the further objection that it passes all 
 pupils, old and young, idle and studious,, bright and stupid, through 
 precisely the same curriculum of studies and recitations, thus charg- 
 ing some with too much, others with altogether too little, A\A.j. 
 
 I have a deep conviction that we need (and that time and expe- 
 rience will soon demonstrate it) the open University, where young 
 
204 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 men, older and better trained than our ordinary collegians, with 
 more active desire for improvement, can resort ; where graduates of 
 our Colleges and other young men bent on gaining knowledge can 
 resort and have the teaching of the best masters ; where, too, no 
 individuals should have, as in our Colleges, an entire monopoly of 
 the business of teaching in any department ; and where, as in the 
 European Universities, such inducements should be held out in the 
 form of prizes, scholarships, fellowships, as would secure the highest 
 attainable excellence in all departments, these distinctions to be 
 awarded only after the most rigid scrutiny by written examination. 
 
 Such a University, if properly organized, would not supersede 
 our existing Colleges. It would improve them, however, because 
 in the distinctions which it would confer only after the application 
 of searching tests it would designate in what Colleges young men's 
 minds were most thoroughly developed and the intellectual activity 
 most excited. It is in this way that the English Universities exert 
 so powerfully vivifying a control over the great schools, such as 
 Eton, Westminster, Harrow, etc. We have seen analogous results 
 produced by the High School of this city. 
 
 That we need such an institution may be inferred from the fact 
 that it has been suggested from various independent quarters. See 
 Prof. Tappan's work on University Education. See the attempt 
 made within the last year by such men as Bache, Agassiz, Dana, 
 Pierce and Frazer to establish at Albany, New York, such . an in- 
 stitution in which they sh,ould personally take part, and in which 
 most of the features which I have indicated were to be embraced, 
 e. g. , freedom in choice of studies, free cotnpetition in teaching, thor- 
 ough written examinations. 
 
 It is the opinion of these gentlemen that we need greatly such an 
 institution immediately, that we need but one, and that this one 
 ought to congregate about it the most eminent savans and literati 
 of the country. It is not likely that such an institution will soon 
 rise. 
 
 Where ought it to rise? At Albany or Philadelphia? It seems 
 to me that the ashes of Franklin would hardly sleep if we suffered 
 Albany to have the honor and happiness of founding such an estab- 
 lishment. 
 
A RECOGNIZED LEADER IN GOOD WORKS. 20S 
 
 Geographically and civilly our position is the best for such an 
 enterprise, that could be found in the Union. We have, too, in 
 our museums and cabinets, in our laboratories and manufactories, 
 in our libraries and conservatories and in our University, with its 
 antecedents, its funds and teachers, what can be found nowhere else 
 — means and appliances which no money could purchase. Do not 
 all these indicate, as with the finger of Providence, our duty? 
 
 This letter was of course laid before the Board, and the 
 subject-matter of it earnestly, indeed vi^armly, discussed by 
 the Trustees in counsel and by others outside. For so brave 
 an advance, it was at length determined the time had not yet 
 come; and after a little resuscitating agitation affairs settled 
 back into the quiet respectability of long ago. Some adapta- 
 tions have since been made; and perhaps the stir which was 
 then created is not to be without some advantageous results; 
 for the enlargement and liberalization of the University have 
 never ceased to be talked about, and seem now soon to be 
 realized. 
 
 As years wore on Bishop Potter rose step by step in the 
 regard and confidence of all good men in the community with 
 which he identified himself, until (it is no disparagement to 
 others to say) he became the recognized leader of society in 
 whatever concerned its moral or educational welfare. Many 
 members of -the Church whose official head he was were 
 jealous of this free expenditure of his strength ; none charged 
 him with neglect of his official duties ; but the fear was fre- 
 quently expressed by those who held him in high, veneration, 
 that he could not continue so to discharge the peculiar duties 
 of high office, and at the same time apply himself with such 
 earnestness to enterprises of general beneficence, without ruin 
 to his health. With stalwart frame and high vital powers, he 
 scarce noticed fatigue, and with whatever consequences to 
 himself he believed that it was his duty as a Bishop in the 
 Church of God to fall behind no man in devotion to the work 
 for which the Church exists, — the elevation and happiness of 
 
 18 
 
206 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the human race. The doctrine and discipline of his own 
 branch of the Church catholic, he loved with an intelligent 
 and hearty attachment, for he came to it, in ripeness of years, 
 hot by inheritance, but of his own deliberate choice. Yet he 
 was too great a man ever to be a bigot. No ecclesiastical 
 pales could shut in his sympathies. And his office as well as 
 his Christian manhood, though received through the agency 
 of a particular Church, gave him in his own regard a mission 
 of beneficence to any and all for whom Christ died. His 
 theory was unquestionably the true one. And few could now 
 be found who would deny that Bishop Potter's philanthropic 
 labors outside the bounds of his own communion, were as 
 greatly conducive to its advantage — as the measure of time 
 and strength which they occupied could have been, if concen- 
 trated upon the flock in which the Holy Ghost had made him 
 an overseer. His mistake was not in the catholicity of his 
 efforts, but in their excess. He was presumptuous in using 
 his powers as if they were inexhaustible. 
 
 The Church which he represented in all these associations 
 gained reputation and influence; made its power felt and re- 
 cognized, and the office which he so benignly wore was ac- 
 knowledged by stiff independents to be capable of good, and 
 even Friends called him " our Bishop." 
 
 ■HOSPITAL OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 One of the great achievements of Bishop Potter's life was 
 the founding of "the Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in Philadelphia." The need of an institution embody- 
 ing the characteristic features of that noble charity had been 
 long felt by one, who now for many years has illustrated the 
 medical profession in that city where for a century it has 
 been most illustrious — Dr. Caspar Morris. From the very in- 
 ception of this enterprise, his scientific knowledge, his zealous 
 yet wise co-operation, his social and personal influence were 
 as much at the Bishop's command as the resources of his own 
 
INCEPTION OF THE EPISCOPAL HOSPITAL. 207 
 
 mind. From his facile pen, by earnest solicitation, the follow- 
 ing memorials of the beginning of this undertaking have been 
 called out : 
 
 The idea of the hospital was conceived, during my residence in 
 the Pennsylvania Hospital as house physician, as early as the year 
 1826. I saw the need of some better provision for religious in- 
 struction and Christian consolation for the suffering, the dying and 
 the convalescent, and determined to use every effort in my power 
 to procure the establishment of such an institution. It was never 
 abandoned, and was often a subject of conversation and sometimes 
 of conference with those possessed of more influence than I. The 
 endowment of the chaplaincy grew out of such a conversation in 
 the sick chamber of Miss Rebecca Smith, as her sister Wilhelmina 
 informed me when she made the first donation to its support. I 
 was long undetermined in my own mind as to whether it should be 
 a general association, open to the equal charge of all evangelical 
 denominations and dependent for support on the benevolence of 
 the Christian Church of every name, or be limited in the chaplaincy 
 to one body, and dependent for support on that alone. I never 
 hesitated as to the peculiar adaptation of our own arrangements for 
 worship to the necessities of such an institution. Properjy applied, 
 its daily service furnishes just what is needed, and one who enters 
 into the spirit by which her services were framed, will find sufficient 
 pliability in the arrangement to meet every emergency as it may 
 arise. It was with no sectarian littleness of spirit that I decided, in 
 my own judgment, that many difficulties would be avoided by 
 placing the religious element of such an institution under the ex- 
 clusive control of one Church, and that the Protestant Episcopal. 
 But it was not without nights of sleepless anxiety, lest by any per- 
 version of the services it should fall into the bondage of Ritualism 
 and Formality. 
 
 Soon after his entering on the duties of the Episcopate, at my 
 first interview with Bishop Potter, he inquired of me what sugges- 
 tion I could make to him of any plan for usefulness in his new 
 field. No sooner had I alluded to my cherished idea than he took 
 it up with that calm yet earnest hold which was so peculiarly his 
 own, and requested me to consult my medical friends on the subject 
 
208 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 and submit to liim our views. He at once adopted the plan as his 
 own, and nurtured and cherished and perfected it, giving it his 
 whole soul and support. 
 
 The detail of arrangement was left to other hands. The training 
 of nurses was engrafted at his suggestion, and the entire system of 
 organized female effort for the spiritual and temporal relief of the suf- 
 fering peculiarly his own. It was his energy and determined effort 
 which gave vitality to what had otherwise continued a mere scheme 
 of a powerless projector, and it was he who enlisted in the service 
 the untiring assiduity, the matchless skill and the pecuniary ability 
 of one to whom the credit of our success is largely due, John 
 Welsh. 
 
 You must remember the meetings held in his parlor, the earn- 
 est hold he took on the enterprise even from its first inception, the 
 clear, strong, intelligent views he ever maintained, and the liberal 
 support he gave himself and procured from others 
 
 May God sanctify and accept the work of faith and labors of 
 love of his servants who thus ministered and still do minister to 
 the good of man and the glory of our Redeemer ! Bishop Potter 
 gave what he only could have procured for us — the confidence and 
 support of the Episcopal Church of the Diocese. Mr. Welsh gave 
 that without which even that would have been useless— the powerful 
 impulse of a clear head, a warm heart, a strong will and a ready 
 hand. 
 
 Before the Bishop made public his purpose to attempt the 
 establishment of a new hospital, and that under the auspices 
 of the Episcopal Church, he thoroughly informed himself on 
 the whole subject, and obtained the statistics of hospital 
 accommodations in London, in Paris, and in other large cities, 
 and proved by comparison how unequal was the ratio of sup- 
 ply in Philadelphia ; and he thoroughly excogitated the prin- 
 ciples on which a Church institution of the sort should be 
 conducted, and even noted down the names of Churchmen, 
 Clerical and Lay, whose co-operation in the enterprise he 
 would invoke, designating what he would assign each one to 
 do. He first called a meeting of Clergymen whom he desired 
 
FIRST MOVEMENTS FOR ORGANIZATION. 20g 
 
 to interest, and possessed them with the views which he had 
 elaborated. On the 14th of March, 185 1, a larger but still 
 select meeting of Clergymen and Laymen was held, at which, 
 On motion of the Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, seconded by 
 G. M. Wharton, Esq., 
 
 Resolved, That in the opinion of this meeting an effort ought to 
 be made to enlarge the hospital accommodations in the City and 
 County of Philadelphia for the destitute sick. 
 
 Resolved, That in the proposed institution the instructions and 
 consolations of religion ought to be regularly supplied to the 
 inmates and att indants ; and that to secure this end, and in a way 
 most conducive to Christian charity, it is expedient that the effort 
 be made under the auspices of Protestant Episcopalians. 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of nine persons be appointed to con- 
 sider, and report to a future meeting, the most eligible plan for the 
 attainment of the object proposed. 
 
 The committee were named, and the Bishop was added as 
 chairman. 
 
 On the 24th of April an adjourned meeting was holden, at 
 which a report prepared by the Bishop was presented. Some 
 extracts from this report will exhibit not only the principles, 
 on which the hospital was founded, but also the larger schemes 
 of beneficence of which it was by him meant to be the nucleus 
 and germ. Read the following; it contains some prolific 
 thoughts. 
 
 The importance of some effort to enlarge the hospital accommo- 
 dation in Philadelphia for the sick and disabled, and the duty and 
 expediency of connecting such efforts with provisions for supplying 
 the inmates and attendants with the instructions and consolations 
 of religion, were both so distinctly and unanimously affirmed at the 
 former meeting that it would be superfluous for the committee to 
 enlarge on these topics. They may be permitted, however, to 
 express the hope that the principle which has been thus recognized 
 as .applicable to an infirmary for the sick, will in the course of time, 
 and at no distant day, be extended to other charities. 
 
 18* 
 
2IO MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 The Church, in her collective and corporate capacity, owes a 
 debt not only to the destitute sick, but also to the fatherless, to the 
 widow, to the stranger and to the vicious who are without friends. 
 Her debt to the widow is likely to be discharged soon, on a scale 
 at, least more extended than hitherto, by the venerable institution 
 known as Christ Church Hospital. To the remainder her debt 
 can be adequately paid only when, in addition to the casual chari- 
 ties of her individual' members, she adds the systematic and well- 
 directed efforts of institutions administered on religious principles, 
 and in such a way as to effect with the least means the greatest pos- 
 sible amount of good. Experience teaches that much of the 
 charity which is directed exclusively to the bodies of men con- 
 tributes, in the end, to increase the evil it attempts to cure ; and a 
 like experience shows that when we could combine with such 
 charity, moral and religious culture, that culture will make a deep 
 and lasting impression on the character and habits, in proportion 
 as it is positive and definite, and in proportion also as it embodies 
 much of practical training and discipline. Hence we infer that 
 when we would assist the poor we should strive most of all to raise 
 their tastes and strengthen their feelings of self-reliance, while we 
 endeavor to enrich their minds and cheer their hearts with the 
 truths and consolations of the Gospel. To secure that this shall 
 be done steadily and with the utmost permanent effect requires 
 such unity of counsel and such patient detail in execution, as are 
 not likely to be attained except under the direction of those who 
 bear one Christian name. 
 
 There are few duties of our Church more imperative, and none 
 perhaps which at this time is more imperfectly discharged, than the 
 duty of hospitality to the poor. When persons belonging to our 
 communion reach our shores from distant lands, and in their igno- 
 rance or destitution ask for our paternal and fostering care, how 
 little systematic provision has our Church yet made for their wants ! 
 and how many for the lack of such care fall into evil courses or 
 suffer the utmost extremity of physical privation ! Or again, when 
 parents who have been bred in our faith, whose hearts' best affections 
 have been given to the Church of their fathers, whose prayers and 
 blessings may form that Church's most precious earthly inheritance, 
 
REPORT ON ORGANIZATION. 211 
 
 — when such parents are called to depart this life in poverty, where 
 is the orphan house into which their helpless littfe ones can be 
 adopted and trained with a mother's care in our most holy ways? 
 
 Institutions of this kind are needed, not to supersede private 
 beneficence on the part of our Pastors and people, but rather to 
 guide and encourage them. Much the largest proportion of cases 
 must always be met by individuals. It is for the benefit alike of 
 those who give and of those who receive that it should be so. But 
 associated effort is also requisite. It is requisite, in the first place, 
 to meet emergencies too great or too sudden for the application of 
 private relief. It is requisite, in the second place, in order to afford 
 definite and responsible channels through which their alms can be 
 dispensed who are unable or unwilling to bestow personal attention 
 upon the afflicted. It is requisite, in the third place, that standing 
 and public mementoes may thus be afforded of the wants of the des- 
 titute, and of the corresponding duty of those whom God hath 
 blessed. In rearing an institution for the relief of human misery in 
 any of its forms, the Church holds out a solemn challenge to all her 
 members not to forget the poor. In conducting the same institu- 
 tion judiciously and effectively on religious principles, she supplies 
 to us all an impressive example of the manner in which our private 
 charities ought to be dispensed. She thus provides also places 
 where moneys may be deposited that would otherwise never be ap- 
 propriated to purposes of beneficence, and she secures that, being 
 expended on system, by experienced and conscientious persons, those 
 moneys shall contribute to the greatest happiness of the greatest 
 number. 
 
 In a letter addressed during the War of the Revolution to the 
 overseer of his estate at Mt. Vernon he who has earned so well 
 the title of "the Father of his Country" thus writes: "Let the 
 hospitalities of the house, with respect to the poor, be kept up. 
 Let no one go hungry away. If any of this kind of people should 
 be in want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does not 
 encourage them in idleness, and I have no objection to your giving 
 my money in charity to the amount of forty or fifty pounds a yeaf 
 where you think it well bestowed. What I mean by having no 
 objection is that I desire that it may be done. You are to con- 
 
212 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 sider that neither myself nor wife is now in the way of doing these 
 good offices. In all other respects I recommend to you, and have 
 no doubt of your observing, the greatest economy and frugality, as 
 I suppose you know. I do not get a farthing for my services here 
 more than my expenses. It becomes necessary, therefore, for me 
 to be saving at home. ' ' 
 
 This is language which it might well become the Church of 
 Christ to address to all her members. Where they are not in the 
 way to do these good offices in person, there institutions should rise 
 which should act as their almoners, and which shall serve to pro- 
 claim to the world that they are not unmindful of their duty to the ■ 
 suffering and the afflicted. In every such institution "hospitality 
 to the poor" should be the motto, and industry and frugality, with 
 the fear of God and the faith of Christ, the ruling principles. 
 
 The Committee will be pardoned these preliminary remarks, 
 when it is considered that in the outset of every great undertakihg 
 some principles ought to be defined and the ends to be sought 
 after clearly set forth. The Committee cannot but indulge the 
 belief, that we are now entering upon a new era in the charitable 
 labors of the Church in this city and county, and that from the 
 humble foundation which we lay here and now, there will ascend, 
 in due time, a majestic system of charities, which shall embody the 
 pious offerings and give scope for the benevolent activities of many 
 in our own and coming generations. May that foundation be laid 
 in wisdom and in faith ! May it be crowned with the special and 
 rich blessing of the Giver of all good ! May there be engaged 
 upon it warm hearts and liberal hands ! and may such grace, fore- 
 cast and energy be vouchsafed, that evils shall be arrested, dan- 
 gers and difficulties overcome, and good compassed which shall 
 redound alike to the Divine honor and to the comfort and ' happi- 
 ness of multitudes of men ! 
 
 This report was unanimously adopted and a Committee 
 appointed " to take the proper legal steps to secure a charter 
 of incorporation." 
 
 Measures were immediately set on foot to awaken the public 
 interest and to obtain the necessary funds for a commence- 
 
MODEL HOSPITAL-BUILDING. 213 
 
 ment. In tlie Bishop's address to the Convention, in May, 
 1852, he thus referred to this institution: 
 
 The hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this city, 
 the conception and establishment of which I adverted to in my 
 last report, is not yet opened for the reception of patients. A 
 valuable square of land for a site, however, has been presented, 
 through the spontaneous liberality of two generous ladies (sisters), 
 and as it contains some buildings which can be adapted to hospital 
 purposes, and subscriptions have been received to the amount of 
 nearly fifty thousand dollars, it is hoped that the day is at hand 
 when the much-needed services of this institution will be at the 
 disposal of the public. , 
 
 In May, i860; in presence of the Convention of the Dio- 
 cese, " the Bishop laid the corner-stone of the present mag- 
 nificent structure," said Bishop Stevens in his Memorial 
 Discourse, " and he lived to see it recognized by the city, 
 by the Church, by the government and by the most em- 
 inent medical men of this country and of England as one 
 of the best and most efficient hospitals in the United States. 
 From the first opening of the hospital in the old ' Leamy 
 mansion ' to the present day the services of a chaplain, at first 
 visiting, now resident, have been had ; and besides, from the 
 beginning, Christian ladies under his supervision have aided 
 in the work of imparting to the institution a decidedly religious 
 character — ministering to the sick in those gentle offices which 
 women alone can fitly perform, and by conversation, by the 
 reading aloud of useful books, by prayers, leading hearts 
 softened by suffering or trembling on the verge of eternity to 
 Him who has promised to the penitent believer ' I will never 
 leave thee nor forsake thee.' " The locality of the hospital — 
 in a new and then sparsely-built part of the city, not near any 
 house of worship and especially remote from any Episcopal ■ 
 church — rendered it a very eligible centre for an extended 
 Missionary work. Its ample and beautiful chapel and other 
 halls, finished simultaneously with its wards for the sick, 
 
214 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 afforded places for the ingathering of many, old and young, 
 for instruction who were as "sheep without a shepherd." 
 And the task of visiting these neglected people, most of them 
 poor, many of them abject, and winning them'to come under 
 the spell of Christian love and the power of Christian truth, 
 might be committed hopefully to devoted disciples of the 
 gentler sex who had already, in connection with old estab- 
 lished Parishes, developed a special fitness for the work. 
 This field of benevolent effort gave the Bishop an excellent 
 sphere for experiment upon a conviction which had for years 
 been maturing in his mind, that the services of Christian 
 women may be profitably used in the work of Christ to 
 a much greater degree than they have hitherto been in the 
 Church of which he was a Bishop. On a loose slip of 
 paper among the Bishop's manuscripts is a minute of meas- 
 ures introduced by him in the House of Bishops at the 
 General Convention of 1850, and among them a project for 
 the revival of the order of Deaconesses. He did not con- 
 template the creation of permanent communities, bound under 
 conventual vows to celibacy and lifelong pursuit of the same 
 line of duty. He did not wish to call romantic young girls 
 away from their homes, and by the fascination of peculiar 
 vestments and the ceremonious conferring of successive veils 
 imbue them with the conceit that so they might attain a pe- 
 culiar sanctity. But he did believe that there are in all our 
 cities and towns. Christian ladies of mature age who, in child- 
 less widowhood or in otherwise single life, are free from 
 domestic duties and capable of great usefulness in the service 
 of Christ and his Church. These he would have trained for 
 efficient duty in hospitals or Parish schools or district visita- 
 tion, and consecrating themselves to such employments so 
 long as in Providence other claims should not arise of para- 
 mount obligation. As in all his other enterprises, he began 
 this cautiously, trying a few experiments before venturing 
 upon any fixed organization. To labor for spiritual fruits in 
 
"THE BISHOP POTTER MEMORIAL HOUSE." 21 5 
 
 and about this hospital, he sought some of the most accom- 
 phshed teachers in the Bible-classes and Sunday-schools of 
 the city churches ; and the result has been that, besides the 
 good wrought upon the sick who resort to its wards as 
 patients (by which multitudes of them are brought from 
 darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God), 
 there is in progress, in connection with the chapel and its 
 anterooms, an amount and a variety of beneficent work and 
 religious instruction which is scarce equaled in any great 
 Parish in the heart of the city. It will not be superfluous 
 here to add that, to facilitate the pursuit of this Christian 
 work in and around the hospital, the old mansion on the 
 premises in which the sick were received and treated before 
 the erection of the permanent buildings now devoted to its 
 use, has been, since the Bishop's death, with the cordial con- 
 sent of the board of managers, used as a training-school for 
 Christian ladies wishing to qualify themselves specially for 
 service to the sick and for such parochial departments of 
 beneficent labor as Christian and refined females are best fitted 
 to conduct. The house was furnished and has been hitherto 
 sustained by a Lay gentleman devoted to good works, and 
 who purposes, no doubt, to make it a permanent institution. 
 It is called " The Bishop Potter Memorial House." A portion 
 of the ladies in it appropriate certain hours of every day to 
 attendance in the hospital, assisting in the nursing of the sick, 
 and especially making themselves useful in reading to those 
 upon their beds, conversing with them on religious topics, 
 writing letters for them, and in eveiy way presenting to them 
 that practical aspect of Christianity which, by deeds of kind- 
 ness, melts the heart and convinces the better part of humanity, 
 while perhaps the head would be skillful to parry whatever 
 arguments might be offered in support of the dogmas of the 
 faith. Others of the ladies at the "Memorial House" devote 
 a portion of every day to visiting the poor and sick of the 
 neighborhood at their homes, looking after the neglected chil- 
 
2l6- MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 dren, and by the sweet constraint of unrecompensed sympathy 
 and effort compelling these classes to come to the chapel and 
 other rooms of instruction which the hospital throws open. 
 The establishment of such a centre of usefulness and school 
 of Christian exercise, since Bishop Potter was called to his 
 rest, cannot indeed be related as one of the events, but it is 
 certainly one of the issues, of his life ; and is fairly entitled to 
 be mentioned as an immediate outgrowth of his influence and 
 policy. The institution in its present condition is a novelty 
 among us, and may therefore be regarded as merely tentative ; 
 but it may ripen into the abode of a "Protestant Sisterhood" 
 such as the Church is needing for a department of her work 
 now neglected. With what interest and vigilance the Bishop 
 watched this undertaking may be inferred from the following 
 extracts from letters to the chaplain : 
 
 That our work there just at present is new and complicated, and that 
 its success or failure is likely to be used as an example to animate or 
 discourage benevolent or Missionary work throughout the Church, 
 seems to form special reason for concentrating ourselves upon it. 
 
 At another time he wrote to the same chaplain : 
 I will give my mind to the relations between the chaplaincy of 
 the hospital and the neighboring congregations and Parish Minis- 
 ters. I would remark, however, that those relations can always be 
 better fixed by kind, personal conference than by precise rules. 
 The Chapel of the hospital was, of course, opened for the inmates 
 and attach6s of the institution. But in a neighborhood so sparsely 
 settled, and with one neighboring Clergyman in very infirm health, 
 there is a present opportunity and call for Missionary work. The 
 dispensary patients open also an access to many families not other- 
 wise to be reached. How far this is to be availed of depends much on 
 the prudence and tact of your Lay helpers. If you will suggest any 
 special difficulty that you experience, I will endeavor to provide for it. 
 Generally, ■ as at present advised, lam inclined to regard the 
 outside work of the chaplain and his co-laborers as provisional 
 and temporary. But I have been most thankful that just at this 
 time such a sphere has opened for working out some new ideas in 
 
SOLDIERS IN THE HOSPITAL. -217 
 
 regard to Lay co-operation, and generally of advancing the interests 
 of Christ's kingdom.. 
 
 Through six months, comprising the winter of 1862-3, the 
 hospital was opened, under arrangements with the govern- 
 ment, for sick and wounded soldiers. The Bishop thus 
 reported respecting that very interesting item in the early 
 history of this beneficent institution in his Diocesan address 
 in May following : 
 
 In receiving these soldiers we were furnished by Providence 
 with an unforeseen opportunity of- trying the value of the kind and 
 assiduous ministrations of Christian ladies. Persons of culture 
 and zeal, who had given themselves for some months in another 
 Diocese [they were Philadelphians temporarily resident elsewjiere] 
 to such work in some of its branches, placed themselves at our dis- 
 posal ; and under one of them was organized a system of attend- 
 ance embracing nursing, kindly offices and spiritual instruction. 
 The result has been most benign and satisfactory. Gathered from 
 all parts of our country, many of them from homes of love and 
 competency, these men found here every appliance which Christian 
 skill and tenderness could furnish — every holy influence which 
 Christian zeal and intelligence could apply. Ministration to the 
 body opened the heart to spiritual counsel. Those who came reck- 
 less and profane went away from us, we trust, in many instances, 
 instructed and improved ; while several gave cheering evidence that 
 their hearts had been cleansed by the spirit of all grace, making 
 open profession of their faith in Christ and of their determination 
 to live for his service. In this way God prepared us for the intro- 
 duction of a similar element into our regular hospital, and in that 
 work we are now engaged. It is too early to anticipate results or 
 go into details. But as the work of Christian women in hospitals, 
 penitentiaries, and wherever ther6 is sickness, sin or sorrow, to be 
 conducted on system, is now engaging the thoughts of many earn- 
 est mindi and calls for candid and thorough considerations, I 
 • will but repeat the opinion expressed last year, that, if restored after 
 the ancient model, and kept from all eccentricity and extravagance, 
 it is full of promise. 
 19 
 
2l8 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Almost simultaneously, but really under the same prompt- 
 ing, the sphere of woman's work for Christ was enlarged in 
 other hospitals, and in one or two of the Parishes of the city. 
 Adult Bible classes, male and female, and mothers' meetings, 
 very numerously attended, were gathered, conducted and 
 taught by Christian ladies. The system of Lay co-operation 
 which has been so fully and successfully developed at St. 
 Mark's, Frankford, and the report of which has awakened and 
 stimulated many to make kindred efforts in other places, has 
 grown out of, although it has far surpassed, the experiment at 
 the hospital. There was more than ordinary life and activity 
 in that Parish before the religious work at the hospital to 
 which we have referred was inaugurated. And there were 
 energies employed there which were invoked by the Bishop 
 in giving shape to the experiment in and around the hospital. 
 As early as 1859, through the influence of Bishop Potter in 
 the Upper House and a Lay member from Pennsylvania in the 
 House of Deputies, the General Convention had " appointed a 
 Committee of Laymen to devise and carry out such means 
 and measures as they may deem advisable, calculated to reach 
 the*hearts of the Laity of this Church, and to awaken in them 
 a more earnest and holy zeal in the cause of Christ." Imme- 
 diately after his return from the General Convention the 
 Bishop convened the Clergy and prominent Laymen of Phila- 
 delphia to enlist their minds in this new movement, and to 
 make Pennsylvania, if possible, the first to put in practice, as 
 she had been the first to suggest, a more systematic use of the 
 " helps " which Christ has ordained for the work of his 
 Church. 
 
 At that meeting, continued through two evenings, a Committee 
 of ten (five Clergymen and five Laymen) was appointed to con- 
 sider the whole subject, and to prepare suggestions to the Parishes 
 throughout the Diocese as a basis for the increase of the Missionary 
 spirit and the more active co-operation of the Laity in the extension 
 of the Church of Christ. 
 
A SCHOOL FOR LAY CO-OPERATION. . 219 
 
 In the thoughtful report of that Committee, presented and 
 adopted at a meeting early in December, were contained 
 certain cardinal principles on which all its practical sugges- 
 tions were based, among which — and they are the gist of the 
 whole — are the three following : 
 
 The full, earnest co-operation of Laymen and women of every 
 class in the several departments of Christian effort is now more than 
 ever demanded. The Minister, imbued with his Master's spirit, 
 points out to them the way, and they become co-workers with him. 
 
 Preaching, however sound and able, fails of one of its great ends 
 unless it tends to make a working congxtgaXKon. 
 
 The Minister who succeeds in securing the cordial co-operation 
 of his congregation economizes his time and accomplishes more 
 than by his own most indefatigable labors without such co-operation. 
 
 We may not so far digress from the proper object of this 
 work as to repeat in detail the measures which were recom- 
 mended for the furtherance of these ends. The meeting was 
 not an authoritative body ; its suggestions, therefore, were 
 merely recommendatory. Of course they were not thoroughly 
 put in practice, but the wakening activities of the Diocese, 
 which, since the accession' of Bishop Potter, had felt the 
 stimulus of his influence and example, found a new impulse 
 and took a somewhat uniform direction from the plans which 
 were then and there digested. 
 
 The Episcopal Church is not yet the most thoroughly alive 
 in all its membership among the religious bodies striving for 
 precedence in this land; but there are Parishes in our com- 
 munion in which the Lay element is organized for beneficent 
 work, and enlisted in the doing of it to a degree unsurpassed 
 if not unequaled in any other denomination, and those Par- 
 ishes are in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. A beginning has 
 been made, an example has been set, and the movement, 
 under God's blessing, is destined to go on until this Church 
 shall be widely acknowledged as at least in the manifestation 
 of its actual life His representative who went about doing 
 
220 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 good. In 1 86 1 Bishop Potter wrote to Mr. William Welsh, 
 who had already issued a letter at the Bishop's desire descrip- 
 tive of the methods and results of " Lay co-operation at St. 
 Mark's Church, Frankford," urging him to put forth another 
 edition, with further details of its plan and progress. With 
 what constant oversight and encouragement the Bishop fos- 
 tered this work, and with how enlarged a view of its useful- 
 ness to others far' away — he promoted the dissemination of 
 intelligence respecting it, the following extracts will show: 
 
 I am persuaded that there is in every Parish a mine of unem- 
 ployed capacity and zeal which can be worked if we have but the 
 will and the way. In some congregations arrangements more or 
 less effective have been long in operation ; in others they are now 
 being made ; but in none I suppose is the full capacity of the 
 people employed. It is greatly to be desired on every account that 
 useful and beneficent occupation should be provided for all, that 
 thus all may reap the blessedness of doing good and the influence 
 of our Parishes be extended 
 
 I value the efforts making in your Parish because they demon- 
 strate the great value of house-to-house visitation ; because they 
 show the power of judicious Christian kindness in drawing people 
 of every age away from idleness and sin to the Lord's house ; be- 
 cause they tend to strengthen the tie that binds husband and wife, 
 parents and children ; because they exhibit the Church at its appro- 
 priate work of ministering at once to the bodies, the minds, the 
 social requirements and the spiritual need of the people; and 
 because they show that by engaging in such works Christians add 
 greatly to their own enjoyment and improvement. The growth, 
 too, of a true feeling of brotherhood among all the members of 
 our fold as it respects one another, and of a clearer perception of 
 their duty to all sorts and conditions of men, may be anticipated as 
 an inevitable consequence. Above all do I value the spirit of 
 prayer which preceded and attends these efforts, and which will 
 prove the best security for their continuance and their efficiency. 
 
 Upon the early history and administration of the Episcopal 
 Hospital and the works of Christian beneficence that have 
 
COUNSEL TO STUDENTS OF DIVINITY. 221 
 
 been conducted in and around it, and thenceforth spread into 
 the Parishes of the city and to other place's, we have hngered 
 long, for they distinguished Bishop Potter's Episcopate and 
 are destined to be far-reaching in their beneficent results. 
 
 COUNSELS TO STUDENTS OF DIVINITY. 
 
 Bishop Potter's early interest in the proper training of Can- 
 didates for Holy Orders has already been recorded in these 
 pages. All who* were resident in Philadelphia he called to- 
 gether from time to time that he might keep cognizance of 
 their theological opinions as they were developed by reading 
 or moulded by intercourse with ecclesiastics ; and that he 
 might give them such instruction and counsel as would restrain 
 them from the extravagances to which youth is prone, and cul- 
 tivate in them that spirit of piety and solemn sense of the sacred- 
 ness of the Ministerial office which would constitute their best 
 safeguard. With those who were pursuing their studies else- 
 where he held a fatherly correspondence, requiring copies of 
 their sermons and essays written as seminary exercises — to be 
 submitted to him, and criticising them freely if he found in them 
 any misty theology or exuberant ecclesiasticism'. This oyerr 
 sight of the divinity students under his jurisdiction was so 
 parental, temperate and unprejudiced that it exerted a very 
 powerful and salutary influence over those who were aspiring 
 to the Ministry, and inspired an early affection as well as 
 respect for their father in God. In a single instance in one 
 of the first years of the Bishop's official life this freedom of 
 criticism on the prurient productions of inchoate Divines, 
 involved him in a painful course of procedure as trying to the 
 Bishop as to any others whom it affected. His strictures 
 were not received with meekness and filial docility. A dispo- 
 sition was manifested to adhere to statements of religious 
 dogmas, to which the Bishop had objected as being hable to 
 lead to error, if not themselves false, and to court contro- 
 versy for their defence. When this was declined, a still more 
 
 19* 
 
222 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 intractable spirit arose, which, though never betrayed into 
 rudeness of speech, was so undutiful and inauspicious of 
 reverent obedience, that the Bishop felt constrained to regard 
 it as a moral impediment to ordination and to postpone the 
 advancement of the Candidate until he should come to " a 
 better mind." He was a young man of many excellent gifts, 
 natural and acquired, whose ministry on earth in any sphere, 
 public or private, was cut short by the interposition of His 
 providence who is the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls 
 calling him early to " the rest that remaineth for the people 
 of God." The case is here alluded to not to recall it in its 
 personal relations, but to show how vigilant the Bishop was 
 to keep out of the Church any whom he believed would per- 
 vert or alloy its teachings ; and, modest and unassuming 
 though he were in his own spirit, how careful to maintain the 
 dignity of his office ! He who was so pacific in temper that, 
 in all deliberative bodies in which he had a part, throughout 
 his life he was looked to at junctures of desperate division 
 and difficulty, to devise some measure of reconciliation and to 
 win for it the support of all parties — who was so liberal that 
 bigots accused him of readiness to compromise right for the 
 sake of quiet — was yet so manful that he never would yield a 
 principle nor connive at wrong, be the sacrifice of human favor 
 ever so great, and the conflict in his own breast ever so severe. 
 The paternal spirit with which the Bishop admonished this 
 Candidate of the faults of expression into which he had fallen and 
 the need there was for the cautions he thus gave are disclosed 
 in the following letter, the first of a painful correspondence : 
 
 Philadelphia, May 8, 1848. 
 My dear Sir: Since I left your MSS. in the hands of our friend, 
 from whom I trust you received them, I have been anxious to fulfill 
 my promise of conveying to you somewhat in detail the impressions 
 I received from a perusal, which, however, I regret to say was both 
 partial ^nd hasty. Hitherto I have been prevented from fulfilling 
 this desire, first, by incessant occupation while at home, afterward, 
 
CRITICISM ON THE SERMONS OF A STUDENT. 223 
 
 by an absence of a week in the interior of the State, and more re- 
 cently by physical inability, which obliges me even now to employ 
 the hand of another in writing — a hand, however (I ought to add), 
 which has no means of tracing the destination of this letter. 
 
 In the first place, I would express the pleasure which I received 
 frofti two or three characteristics of your sermons which are most 
 commendable in themselves and which these discourses possess in 
 a high degree. The ideas are obviously the result, in many in- 
 stances, of much reading and reflection. They are often expressed 
 tersely and with a good deal of power, and they bear incontest- 
 ible evidence of being the offspring of true and earnest conviction. 
 Less than this I could not say without seeming to be guilty of in- 
 justice ; more you would not desire me to say, for it is your wish, 
 I doubt not, as it is my purpose, that this communication may fur- 
 nish you with hints which may contribute to your assistance in re- 
 vising your theological opinions and in perfecting your plan and 
 style of sermonizing. To find fault, therefore, is to be my unwel- 
 come task ; to bear it patiently, and, if possible, to profit by it, is 
 to be yours. 
 
 In the first place, in regard to your style I would suggest that it 
 is sometimes too scholastic and sometimes too quaint and abrupt. 
 I recollect, for example, a sentence of this kind in one of your ser- 
 mons, though I cannot now remember in which : "The promise we 
 see not yet fulfilled in its utmost measure, nor can it be whilst eter- 
 nity still eternally presents eternity before us, for the measure of 
 the promise is measureless." I cannot without referring to the 
 context aver that this is wholly unintelligible, but it is evidently 
 not the simple, unaffected, natural language which becomes every 
 public speaker, and especially one who is addressing a mixed audi- 
 ence on subjects of the most urgent consequence. I regret that I 
 cannot recall some of your sentences and expressions which struck 
 me as too elaborate for a common congregation. It seems to me 
 that somewhere about p. 3 of the sermon on the Priestly Office of 
 Christ you may find one or more specimens. 
 
 Something of abruptness and quaintness in your style has arisen, 
 I should imagine, from a praiseworthy but perhaps somewhat ex- 
 treme desire to shun the too prevalent fault of pulpit verbosity and 
 bombast. These are great vices, but it should be remembered that 
 
224 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 they have their opposites and that they too are to be shunned, and 
 that here at least the maxim is good, "/« medio tutissimus ibis." 
 
 I will advert to but one other fault which pertains to manner or 
 style. It is the extreme severity with which you allow yourself to 
 denounce certain current errors in doctrine or practical piety, and 
 which seem to me hardly judicious or becoming. It is hardly be- 
 coming, because it is not usually thought to be the prerogative of 
 young men when they first begin to preach, to erect a standard for 
 the trial of orthodoxy in doctrine and practice, of the religious 
 world at large. The faults which they denounce may be real and 
 deplorable, but inasmuch as they may have had the sanction of 
 many who are venerable for wisdom and piety, it is generally 
 thought that a tone of greater moderation would be graceful in all 
 who assail them, and especially in those who have just been ad- 
 mitted to the sacred office. In meekness and modesty to edify and 
 improve those before whom we speak, and to set forward, as much 
 as in us lies, quietness, peace and love among all Christian people, 
 is of course the duty of every Christian Minister, but is virtually 
 required in a greater degree of the younger Clergy, and for the ob- 
 vious reason that age, with its concomitants of experience and ripened 
 learning, is supposed to invest its possessor with a corresponding 
 weight of authority. 
 
 Independent, however, of the question of decorum, it may well 
 be questioned whether such denunciations are judicious. They are 
 very apt to exasperate bad passions, both in those who may think 
 themselves assailed, and in those whose sympathies are with the 
 speaker, but who may be more inclined to see the motes that float 
 over the eyes of others than the beams that are lodged in their 
 own. In either case a state of mind is created not friendly to the 
 " love, joy, peace, long-suffering," which are represented as among 
 the choicest ffuits of the spirit. Those in whom we rouse anger 
 and displeasure toward ourselves will not be likely to listen to us 
 with docility or profit. Those in whose hearts we excite indigna- 
 tion or contempt toward others, "who profess and call themselves 
 Christians," may, be led to avoid their excellences as well as their 
 defects, and are of course in danger of cultivating dispositions and 
 tempers not friendly to His presence whose name is love. But on 
 this point I have said more, perhaps, than enough. By the way, I 
 
CRITICISM ON THE SERMONS OF A STUDENT. 225 
 
 had almost forgotten to observe that in the sermon on Christian 
 Liberty, pp. 3 and 4, and elsewhere, and also in the sermon on the 
 Reality of the Truth, pp. 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, you will, I think, find 
 passages which will enable you to appreciate my meaning. 
 
 I now approach a point of vastly greater consequence, and one 
 in respect to which I pray God to enable me to speak not only 
 what I deem to be the truth, but in terms so inoffensive and ac- 
 ceptable that you may appreciate the deep feeling of kindness and 
 affection which prompts them. In respect to your theological 
 opinions as a whole, I am certainly not inclined to make up my 
 judgment from a few sermons written as exercises, and which I 
 have but partially read. But you can readily suppose that I am 
 somewhat startled when I find in the compass of a single sermon 
 (No. 2) such positions as the following taken : 
 
 1 . That it is only in a less strict and proper sense that Christ is 
 said to be our Righteousness because he is our Atonement, or is 
 made sin for us. 
 
 2. That the Holy Spirit is given only through the sacraments 
 (p. 8), and that Christ can be ours only through them. 
 
 3. That first among all good works is fasting, that this is the very 
 medicine, — not with prayer and alms-deeds, — which avails for the ex- 
 pulsion of evil humors and the culture of all purity, peace and virtue. 
 
 And again when I find in sermon 8 : 
 
 1. T^^i faith and baptism are put on the same level, p. 8, and 
 elsewhere. 
 
 2. That heresy is spoken of as worse than drunkenness, fornica- 
 tion and adultery. 
 
 3. That there is a distinction taken httwttn pardonable and un- 
 pardonable sins, and between those committed before and after 
 baptism, which does not often appear either in the sacred Scrip- 
 tures or in the standard writers of the Church. 
 
 4. That the only comfort of the godly is in the hope \hzX. power 
 to obey will be given, p. 15, and in sermon 10, at the opening : 
 
 5. That he who is baptized has assurance that he vs, forgiven, re- 
 
 That you intended distinctly to take these positions I do not be- 
 lieve, but I feel quite sure that they would be understood to have 
 been taken, by a large proportion of such hearers as compose most 
 
 P 
 
226 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 of our congregations; and I ani equally confident that if accepted 
 and held as practical truths, in the way in which they have been 
 generally held in the Christian world, they would leave in sad 
 eclipse the most momentous truths of the comfortable Gospel of 
 Christ. My time will not permit me to suggest now what may be 
 the real state of your mind on these subjects, nor to hint at some 
 of the dangers of such a style of preaching as that to which your 
 tastes and opinions probably incline you. I am much pressed just 
 now with duties growing out of our approaching Convention. I 
 must defer, therefore, for some time, any further remarks. In the 
 mean time I shall be glad to hear from you, and shall hope that 
 you will express yourself with perfect freedom, in the assurance 
 that whatever you write will be scrutinized by none but a friendly 
 eye, and that you may write to me, as I have written to you now, 
 in all confidence. 
 
 It will be remembered by those who have read the earlier 
 pages of this memoir that, at the death of the wife of his 
 youth, Dr. Potter was left with a family of seven children, six 
 of them boys. When he removed to Philadelphia most of 
 these were quite young. In 1854 the fifth son was in a mer- 
 cantile house on Market street, for the purpose of being qual- 
 ified for business life. God had designated him for a more 
 sacred calling. In the letters which follow, the joy of the 
 father over this chosen son and the counsel which he contrib- 
 uted to make him wise and useful in the Lord's service are 
 happily revealed. They are introduced in this connection, 
 however, not so much to exhibit Bishop Potter in his parental 
 .character as to preserve some of his instructions to a young 
 man preparing for or having recently entered upon the work 
 of the Ministry. They show us the type of that influence 
 which the Bishop endeavored to exert over all who aspired to 
 the sacred Ministry. The following letter without date is 
 post-marked August 18, 1854: 
 
 My dear : I have been delighted beyond measure to hear 
 
 from your mother that your heart seems to have been touched by 
 
LETTERS TO A SON. 227 
 
 God's spirit with true contrition, and that you have gone for refuge 
 to the Blood that cleanseth from all sin. May it be so indeed, and 
 may you the rest of your days be a true soldier of the Cross, and 
 deem it your highest glory to live for Him who hath loved with 
 such wonderful love ! I have been of late more than ever grieved 
 at the absence from my children of any deep interest in the welfare 
 of their souls, and I cannot but fondly hope that this may mark the 
 beginning of a better and brighter era with them all. Remember 
 that they are in bonds ; you have been till very lately bound with 
 them. You can have no assurance that you are really Christ's, un- 
 less like Christ you long and labor for those whom he loves so 
 tenderly and died for. 
 
 A young Christian, however genuine his conversion, has difficul- 
 ties and dangers. As on recovering from sore sickness we are apt 
 soon to forget how much we have suffered and how delightful were 
 the sensations of returning health, so it is with the newly-renovated 
 soul. It needs much prayer, much watchfulness, much self-distrust, 
 much assiduity in doing all God's will. More than ever you should 
 be active and alert in the duties that pertain to your daily vocation, 
 doing them as unto the Lord and not as unto men. And at once, 
 if you would protect yourself from many temptations and importuni- 
 ties, take your position as one of Christ's followers, and let it be 
 known that for life you are on the side of God and duty, against 
 the World, the Flesh and the Devil. 
 
 Ever, dear son, your most affectionate father, 
 
 A. P. 
 
 It. pleased God, who had begun a good work in the heart 
 of this child of many prayers, to confirm it unto the end. He 
 soon determined to devote his life to the service of Christ in 
 his Ministry of reconciliation, and repaired to the Virginia 
 Theological Seminary to pursue the necessary studies. On 
 November 30 of the same year (1854) the Bishop addressed 
 to him the following letter : 
 
 My dear Son : I have been wishing to write to you for weeks, 
 but I am so little at home, and so incessantly occupied when travel- 
 ing with my duties and necessary correspondence, that no letters 
 
228 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 are written which are not indispensable. I hear most encouraging 
 accounts of your bearing and deportment. May God give you 
 grace to persevere and to be always honest with him and yourself. 
 We can so easily deceive ourselves, and the approaches of evil are 
 so insidious and so multiform, that "watch and pray " is the only 
 safe motto. At the same time strive to be a happy and cheerful 
 Christian, for "we have received not the spirit of bondage again to 
 fear, but the spirit of adoption," etc. 
 
 I have a little concern on two points : First, lest you crowd too 
 many studies on each day, a course dangerous to health of body 
 and health of mind. M.vi\.tum, not mul^a — a few books, a few 
 studies, well digested, at a time, is the true course. 
 
 Second. Lest the type of your theology and piety be narrow. A 
 tendency to narrowness, to party views and censorious judgment of 
 those who differ from us, is one of the dangers of our profession, 
 and I have noticed more of it than I could wish among the graduates 
 
 of . There are few things which I would cultivate more 
 
 assiduously and anxiously than the ability to see and appreciate 
 good in all classes of men, as far as they have it, and to use charity 
 in our surmises respecting their motives. All this I hold to be 
 perfectly consistent with fixed opinions and' unwavering loyalty to 
 them. We are all well. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 At a later stage in the theological course of his son, Bishop 
 Potter wrote to him the following practical suggestions re- 
 specting the structure of a sermon : 
 
 My dear Son : I received your letter in Baltimore, whither your 
 mother and I went late last week, and whence I returned on Mon- 
 day morning I shall return thither myself to-morrow. I 
 
 do not at present see that I can get to the seminary, though I wish 
 to, that I may see the other Pennsylvania Candidates as well as 
 yourself, and also to have some conference with the Professors 
 respecting the ordination. Who is now Dean, or Senior Profes- 
 sor? or, in other words, to whom of the Faculty should I write? 
 
 I wished to converse with you about sermonizing. The one you 
 
MAXIMS FOR SERMONIZING. 229 
 
 left with me is very good for a beginning. It has the faults almost 
 unavoidable at first, such. as (i) a disproportion in the parts> some 
 being too large, others too short ; (2) insufficient consideration in 
 the thought and expression ; (3) divisions which are not always 
 distinct from each other ; (4) some peculiar phrases which I cannot 
 recall at this moment, but which are of at least doubtful purity;* 
 (5) too long by nearly one-half. Better err on the side of brevity 
 than of prolixity. When I get a good opportunity I will send it 
 to you, with such pencil notes as occurred to me in reading it. A 
 few maxims about preparing sermons I put on opposite page. 
 
 Maxims, i. Have one distinct object in each sermon, toward 
 which everything converges. 
 
 2. Let that one object be the object of the text taken in its con- 
 nections. 
 
 3. Don't write till by reflection and reading you have, first, filled 
 your mind with material ; second, arranged it well (the Lucidus 
 ordo is a great merit) ; third, meditated long enough to get up more 
 heat. 
 
 4. Study variety. First, by always sticking to your text ; second, 
 by interspersing doctrinal and didactic with narrative, expository 
 and ethical sermons. 
 
 5. Let one set of sermons be in course, as, on the Ten Com- 
 mandments, the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 This interests the people, and enables you to read in course, and 
 render your reading from week to week directly subsidiary to your 
 preaching, and prevents (what too often happens) all one's preach- 
 ing from degenerating into a repetition of the same thing. > 
 
 6. -Prepare to write a sermon as you would prepare to pronounce 
 one extempore, remembering in both cases that the most import- 
 ant thing in both is to have plenty of relevant matter, well-digested, 
 and fused to the utmost degree of fluidity and heat by prayer and 
 mental devotion. 
 
 Immediately after the completion of his theological course 
 at Alexandria, this son was admitted to Holy Orders by his 
 father, and called to the charge of a rural Parish in Western 
 Pennsylvania, taking with him to his first Pastoral charge a 
 
 * P"or example, "as well," at the bottom of p. i, instead of "also." 
 20 
 
230 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 friend and privy counselor, an official almost as indispensable 
 in the administration of a Parish as in. that of a kingdom. 
 Of her the Bishop soon wrote to his son : 
 
 She has great capacities for usefulness, and as she will feel very 
 sensibly the absence of the large and lively circle at home, give 
 her all the employment you can find in the Parish. It will 
 strengthen the hold of both of you on the affections of the people, 
 and open your way to many hearts that you would not so well reach 
 otherwise. I can never forget how much I owed in this way to 
 your mother. At the beginning of one's Ministry such help is 
 especially important, that your time may not be too much frittered 
 away in details which distract the mind of a student. It is a start- 
 ling and deplorable fact that few Clergymen improve greatly in 
 knowledge or mental power after the first five years of their Min- 
 isterial life. This ought not to be so ; and it would not if our pro- 
 fession had more of the true spirit of self-culture, and were less 
 harassed by varieties of work much of which might be better done 
 by Laymen and by the Pastor's wife. 
 
 And in this' connection I may revert to what I believe I once 
 said to you on the malign influence of the other sex on the Clergy. 
 Any man who has a good wife to stand between him and the "silly 
 women ' ' (old and young) of his flock has reason to be greatly 
 thankful to God. Innocence in thought and deed is not now, 
 alas ! always a sufficient protection. There is abroad, unhappily, 
 and with too much reason, a distrust, which has led the New York 
 Tribune lately to lay down emphatically, and repeat the dictum, 
 that no Clergyman should suffer himself to be alone with one of 
 the other sex. When such cautions emanate from such a source, 
 circumspection can hardly be carried to an extreme. 
 
 Men can hardly appreciate the force and depth of a woman's 
 love, and the sacrifices of which she is prodigal where 'she has 
 given her heart. We are too apt to tax this generous self-forgetful- 
 ness, and not to be mindful, as we ought to be, of those little ten- 
 dernesses, amenities and self-denials which are as the breath of life 
 to a sensitive nature. No man will ever regret being too consid- 
 erate of his wife's feelings, and I frankly confess that want of such 
 
THE CHURCH OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 23 1 
 
 consideration has been one of my besetting sins. You, I trust, 
 will avoid it. I have confidence in your earnest desire to do right, 
 and I would gladly see you avoid every error. 
 
 To leave a place like Alexandria, where the atmosphere is highly 
 charged with the spirit of devotion, and go to one where there is 
 much negation of that spirit, is a severe trial of one's religious affec- 
 tions and of the strength of one's religious principles. May God 
 guard you against the depressing and chilling effect of such a 
 change, and rouse you to fight against spiritual declension as you 
 would against all that is most deadly ! 
 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 THE POSITION OF THE NEGRO RACE IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 In the first year of Bishop Potter's Episcopate an effort was 
 made by a few zealous Laymen of the Church to do something 
 for the spiritual good of a portion of the colored population of 
 Philadelphia, who before had been so utterly neglected by all 
 Christian people that they might have pleaded, in excuse for 
 any measure of moral degradation, " No man cared for my 
 soul." Ignorant, squalid, vicious, the neighborhood in which 
 they dwelt was festering with filth and corruption. For such 
 in their very midst, arrangements were made to institute a 
 Sunday-school and public worship. In this enterprise Bishop 
 Potter felt the liveliest interest, giving his personal ministra- 
 tions to these outcasts as often as his official engagements left 
 him at liberty. A Parish was soon organized by the humane 
 gentlemen who were engaged in the work, under the name of 
 "The Church of the Crucifixion;" a Clergyman employed and 
 measures taken to procure means for the erection of a suitable 
 church edifice. This great object was in due time accom- 
 plished, and the Church has continued to this day a fount of 
 blessing to the whole vicinity. The aspect of things just about 
 the Church has greatly changed ; for, as surely as drinking-sa- 
 loons and other kindred haunts of vice cluster around a theatre 
 or dance-house, so surely do they disappear from the shadow 
 
232 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 of a church in which the Gospel is faithfully preached and the 
 efficient members are imbued with its spirit. 
 
 This Church, having the same "Articles of Association" 
 which are prescribed for the organization of Parishes in this 
 Diocese, and having a vestry composed of gentlemen well 
 known in the community, was duly admitted into union with 
 the Convention. In nothing which was said or done at the 
 time did it transpire that the congregation was composed of 
 people of African descent. Of course the fact became known 
 afterward. When the following year white men of the highest 
 respectability appeared as representatives of this Parish in the 
 Convention, some members objected to their admission on the 
 ground that this Church was " in like peculiar circumstances " 
 with another African Church in the city whose colored depu- 
 ties were excluded by a specific and standing rule which had 
 blackened the records of the Convention for half a century. 
 Issue was taken on that question, and for several successive 
 Conventions it was re-opened, and long and excited debates 
 were had whether white men representing a congregation of 
 blacks should be permitted to sit in the councils of the Church 
 and take part in the enactment of the laws of the Diocese. 
 
 No individual who was present when the question was finally 
 disposed of has forgotten or can ever forget Bishop Potter's 
 explanation of the vote which he was about to cast. Few 
 Bishops in the history of our Protestant Episcopal Church 
 have been more backward than was this calm, impartial man 
 to sway by authority or influence by the public delivery of his 
 opinions the action of ecclesiastical bodies over which he pre- 
 sided. On most matters concerning which he thought it worth 
 the while in any wise to interpose, he did so in personal con- 
 versation with individual members before or during the recess 
 of Conventions, and his views reached the ears of the Assem- 
 bly not by his mouth, but through the lips of others to whom 
 he had submitted them with such convincing force that they 
 had adopted them as their own and spontaneously spoke in 
 
A COLORED CHURCH REPRESENTED IN CONVENTION. 233 
 
 their advocacy. This habitual reticence of the Bishop when 
 exciting questions were on the carpet led some persons to im- 
 pute to him an undue timidity and caution, a disposition for 
 the sake of keeping favor with all men to shun the committing 
 himself for or against' any. The customary restraint of his 
 influence gave to it great power when he was moved to exert 
 it. On the question of admitting to seats in the Convention 
 representatives of the Parish called " The Church of the Cru- 
 cifixion," the worshipers at which were colored persons, no 
 man could accuse him of repression or ambiguity. On that 
 occasion, and on others in which he saw that truth and justice 
 were in danger of being compromised, he spoke with a free- 
 dom, decision and manliness not often exhibited by those in 
 high places. He was considerate and tolerant to the last de- 
 gree, never loading himself with unnecessary responsibilities, 
 never challenging opposition by hasty or intemperate expres- 
 sions of his own opinions or feelings, but, when a crisis came 
 and he must stand in his lot and bear his testimony or see 
 "truth fallen in the street" and " equity forbidden to enter," 
 and himself chargeable with blameworthy reserve and caution, 
 he came out with an enviable heroism, a,nd astonished and 
 electrified those who had esteemed him over-cautious. 
 
 On the occasion referred to, the Bishop did not even request 
 another to take the chair that he might offer his remarks 
 from the floor of the Convention (a formality usually ob- 
 served by a presiding officer when he would take part in the 
 debates of a deliberative assembly), but from his elevated 
 position, and in his gown of office, poured forth the honest 
 and almost impassioned recoil of his soul from that measure 
 of prejudice and injustice, that would not only deny to men 
 of the proscribed race liberty to appear for themselves in the 
 councils of the Church, but also the privilege of being repre- 
 sented by men of the dominant race, though occupying the 
 foremost rank in the social circle. The Bishop did not refrain 
 from abjuring that peculiar type of Christian charity which 
 20* 
 
234 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 would both — hold the African in legal disability to confer with 
 brethren in the household of Christ on matters of common 
 interest — and also repel from counsel any who with generous 
 fraternity had braved the rebuke of the community and sought 
 to do him good. 
 
 The writer of this memento does not allege the parliament- 
 ary propriety of such an oration from the throne, still less the 
 usage of the Diocese from the chief seat of which it was ut- 
 tered, in calling, when a vote by orders is had, the name of 
 the Bishop before instead of after all the other Clergy ; but he 
 records it as a solitary instance in the Episcopate of Alonzo 
 Potter in which an overwhelming sense of right moved him 
 to an assertion of privilege, and a freedom a^pd fervency of 
 expression quite beyond his wont, and which would be dan- 
 gerous as a precedent for men of more impetuous temper. 
 Could that speech be recovered and spread upon these pages, 
 though the majestic presence and commanding tone of the 
 speaker were wanting, it would be recognized by all as a 
 specimen of spontaneous, unpremeditated eloquence of which 
 few orators in any department of forensic life are capable. 
 
 The Bishop's course on this occasion was no doubt 
 prompted somewhat by his interest in the race for whose 
 moral elevation and welfare the church in question was estab- 
 lished. He had always had an instinctive sympathy for men 
 of low degree, and especially for those who were suffering 
 the degradation of personal or ancestral boridage. His care 
 for them had been manifested in his boyhood, at his brother's 
 house in Philadelphia, and again in his ministry to the colored 
 people while a Professor at Schenectady. Yet, intense as 
 were his feelings of repugnance to the enslavement of any 
 human being, he made no factious assault upon the institution 
 of slavery as it existed under the laws of our country. 
 
 "the irrepressible conflict." 
 The subject of this memoir, through his professional life, 
 
BISHOP POTTER AS A CITIZEN. 235 
 
 took a more active interest in the public welfare, than is 
 common among those who are set apart to the sacred Minis- 
 try. In the structure of his mind he was more copiprehensive 
 than most men of letters. There are many of signal power 
 in certain departments of thought, who seem to owe their 
 eminence to the concentration of all their faculties. They 
 have no care, and therefore no wisdom, for matters outside the 
 line of their elected studies. A large proportion of the mag- 
 nates of history are men who did one thing well, but for 
 whose memories the world would have less respect if all their 
 weaknesses and follies were put on record, and it could be 
 seen at what a cost of common sense and common sympathy 
 their distinction was purchased. Bishop Potter was of that 
 larger mould which made him capable of fulfilling his own 
 proper work, and yet compassing the knowledge which per- 
 tains to other departments of social science, and qualifying 
 him to act, when occasion should require, as a citizen as intel- 
 ligently as if affairs of State were his special study; His 
 faculties were well balanced, — his character filled out in all its 
 elements like that of Washington, who could be a farmer, a 
 chieftain and a statesman at the same time, and so completely 
 do his work in each relation that men were at a loss to say 
 in which he excelled. 
 
 Bishop Potter's active engagement in all the educational 
 movements of the Empire State, in which the prime of his 
 manhood was spent, and his participation in the efforts of 
 philanthropists to promote the temperance reform (bqth of 
 which interests were involved in the legislation of the country), 
 brought him in contact with public men and measures, and 
 fostered that devotion to the public good and the mental and 
 moral elevation of the common people which characterized 
 his youth and failed not in his age. Besides, in all those 
 years he was associated on terms of closest intimacy with a 
 veteran scholar and Divine who, in the tuition of young men 
 in his College, had made his teachings as an apostle of uni- 
 
236 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 versal liberty felt and appreciated for fifty years. Dr. Nott, 
 the President of his College, the friend and father of his early 
 manhood, had illustrated before him how a man can be a true 
 patriot, alive to all the high interests of his country, and yet 
 not compromise his standing as a Minister of the Gospel, nor 
 divert his mind from the duties of his profession. Bishop 
 Potter, after the example of his venerable preceptor and of 
 the first Bishop of his Diocese, habitually exercised his privi- 
 lege as a freeman, casting his vote on the choice of rulers and 
 on the great constitutional questions which from time to time 
 were submitted to the direct decision of the people. 
 
 Twice in the period of his Episcopate, being in shattered 
 health, he made long sojourns with his brethren, the Bishops 
 of Georgia and of Louisiana, and formed personal friendships 
 with them of warm and enduring affection. His tempera- 
 ment was so calm, his judgment so perfectly dispassionate, his 
 conscience so free from fanaticism, that he could converse 
 without excitement or offence on the most exciting topic in 
 those sensitive times, and in a section where " Northern men 
 with Northern principles " could then scarcely be trusted to 
 speak. A very cordial intimacy grew up between those two 
 chivalrous Southern Prelates and the subject of this memoir. 
 They and members of their families enjoyed afterward the 
 hospitalities of his home. Alas that the influence of such 
 fraternal intercourse could not avert that unnatural war in 
 which one of those eminent men became a forensic champion 
 of the Rebellion and the other poured out his life for it on the 
 tented field ! 
 
 Bishop Potter foresaw and deprecated the coming conflict. 
 In so far as an ecclesiastic might, without turning a hair's 
 breadth aside from the line of his duty in the house of God, 
 he kept himself informed of the progress of events, and did 
 what he could in his sphere to promote the right and to 
 preserve the peace. 
 
 A Rector of one of the Episcopal churches at the national 
 
A LETTER— VALUE OF THE UNION. 237 
 
 capital, who by his pastoral office was brought into frequent 
 and close intercourse with pubhc men of all sections resident 
 at the seat of government, naturally felt it his duty from time 
 to time' to throw the element of Christian truth into the seeth- 
 ing questions of the day, and, as his congregation was largely 
 composed of legislators, he ventured more frequently than 
 Pastors otherwise situated can wisely do, in the pulpit to apply 
 the touchstone of the Gospel to matters of public policy. 
 One of these discourses — the publication of which was called 
 for by the interest which it awakened — fell into the hands of 
 Bishop Potter, his warm personal friend. It was delivered at 
 a time when sectional feeling was becoming very intense, and 
 prudent men were suggesting all the concessions that could 
 rightfully be made to maintain the peace. The sermon refer- 
 red to was an effort in that direction. In a note of acknow- 
 ledgment the Bishop said to the reverend author : 
 
 I have read your sermon with great, very great, pleasure. Situ- 
 ated as you are, it is natural that you should stand by the Union ; 
 but I hope you may be able to sympathize with the people of the 
 North, in feeling that to be converted into bloodhounds to run 
 down the fugitives from bondage of the South is about as high a 
 price as they ought to be asked to pay even for the Union. 
 
 Historically, I think you claim for us more than we are entitled ' 
 to — as to originating new principles of Government. Our Revo- 
 lution was defended in argument and maintained by arms on the 
 acknowledged principles of the English Constitution. Vide Lord 
 Chatham, Col. Barre, etc. Yours ever, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 Under date of May 11, 1861, the Bishop wrote to the same 
 Clergyman, still true to the Union, a letter of different tone. 
 The war had then actually begun ; and amid the distractions 
 which it occasioned in a place (we cannot say a community) 
 like Washington, made up of officials drawn from every sec- 
 tion, this honest, dispassionate pleader for loyalty to "the 
 powers that be" found his position too painful for endurance, 
 
238 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 and opened his heart to his old friend and wise counselor, the 
 Bishop of Pennsylvania. The Bishop's reply is before me, as 
 follows : 
 
 My dear Doct'or : Thanks for your letter. I have thought a 
 great deal of you and of the trials of your present position. I have 
 admired your frankness and boldness with prudence. Would that 
 I could bear a part of your burdens and divide your heavy and cor- 
 roding cares ! Washington must undergo a dreadful sifting, and 
 the work is most distressing to those situated as you are. Oh 
 that it may end in a final and righteous adjustment of this whole 
 dif&culty ! . . . . 
 
 What is before the whole country the All-seeing alone can say. 
 We have been a haughty, arrogant, self-relying people, idolizing 
 our institutions, ourselves, our great country and our " manifest 
 destiny;" and this, with the "monster iniquity," has deserved, if 
 it has not provoked. God's heaviest judgments. Oh that prayer 
 and humiliation might avert the blow ! 
 
 Be of good courage, my brother. God reigns. He ordereth all 
 things righteously and mercifully, but most mysteriously, and at 
 
 last it shall be well with those who fear him 
 
 Ever yours affectionately, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 Immediately on the outbreak of the Rebellion the Bishop 
 set forth Forms of Prayer for the government and its ene- 
 mies — for the country and its defenders — to be used in the 
 churches of the Diocese, which are a precious contribution to 
 the Liturgical literature of the Church, imbued as they are 
 with the very spirit of the Gospel, and composed in a style 
 singularly harmonious with that of our established formularies. 
 
 Deeply as the Bishop felt concerned for the country in its 
 struggle to preserve its integrity, and ardently as he desired 
 that in some way under the ordering of Divine Providence 
 the war might bring about the extinction of slavery, he did 
 not vex the public ear with popular harangues against the 
 institution, nor encourage his Clergy to meddle with those 
 
CAUTION TO THE CLERGY ON POLITICS. 239 
 
 local personal questions which have in them the virus of 
 party politics. 
 
 In October of 1 863 Bishop Potter prepared and sent to all 
 the parochial Clergy of the Diocese copies of the following 
 letter : 
 
 \Private.\ 
 Reverend and dear Brother : We have fallen upon times of 
 great agitation. Questions which touch the deepest duties and 
 interests of our individual, social and political life are under dis- 
 cussion, and they are brought more or less within the vortex of our 
 election contests. You will pardon me, therefore, if I urge upon you 
 to remember that as Ministers of the Prince of Peace it 'is our duty 
 as far as possible to avoid all unseemly exhibitions of feeling and 
 to bear with serene patience any seeming provocations that may be 
 presented. We must consider that those under our Pastoral care 
 and those among whom we live are entitled to freedom of opinion 
 and of speech, and that it is especially our parts and duties to shun 
 whatever may tend to needless recriminations and uncharitableness. 
 Many things occur in our party canvasses which all regret in their 
 cooler moments : — and there is nothing which I more ardently de- 
 sire, nor is there anything which appears to me more congenial with 
 the spirit and precepts of the Gospel, than that our Clergy should 
 be known as lovers of truth in the meekness of fear, and as pur- 
 suing assiduously the things that make for peace and that may 
 edify one another. " Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to 
 
 WRATH. ' ' 
 
 Pardon this suggestion, and believe me, 
 Affectionately and faithfully yours, 
 
 A. P., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in Pennsylvania. 
 
 This letter was rendered necessary, as the Bishop thought, 
 by an occurrence to which the present writer deems it proper 
 to make but an allusion. At a very critical juncture in the 
 war, and when a most important election, which should be in- 
 dicative of the bearing of the State toward the general gov- 
 ernment, was pending in Pennsylvania, an' ingenious defence 
 
240 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 of slavery by a high ecclesiatic of our Church was, with his 
 knowledge and consent, reprinted, and was used for circulation 
 as a political document. Against this act, as one of discour- 
 teous if not uncanonical intrusion — against the doctrines enun- 
 ciated in the obnoxious pamphlet — and especially against the 
 popular inference that it represented the authoritative or pre- 
 vailing sentiment of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Bishop 
 Potter and many of his Clergy issued an immediate, brief and 
 emphatic protest. There were strong personal considerations 
 which rendered this one of the most painful duties of the 
 Bishop's life. And besides, although every fibre of his heart 
 was in full sympathy with his country and her cause, he 
 shrank from the imputation of official intermeddling with 
 political affairs. His effort was to repel, not to inaugurate, ec- 
 clesiastical demagogism. His letter to the Clergy was de- 
 signed to forefend the inference which some hot spirits might 
 hastily draw, that an active interest on their part in public affairs 
 would, at that crisis, be incumbent, or at any rate not disap- 
 proved by their Bishop. Writing to a prominent Clergyman 
 of Western Pennsylvania at that period, he said : 
 
 I perceived at once that in isolated congregations in the smaller 
 towns, it (the protest) niight be the occasion of unnecessary trouble, 
 unless the Clergy of such congregations were circumspect and 
 self-restrained, and hence the letter which I circulated. Jt was 
 marked /rz»i2/^, not because I courted concealment, but because I 
 thought much of its good effect would be lost if it reached the Laity 
 prematurely, or if it gained publicity through the newspapers. 
 
 Bishop Potter never became fired with the war-spii-it so as to 
 desire its continuance for the sake of supremacy, or to exult 
 in its successes as demonsti-ations of the national prowess or 
 as occasions of humiliation to the enemy. He lon.ged for 
 peace on a basis of equity. 
 
 Witness the following, written when the conflict had been 
 protracted for two years to a distinguished man in the Con- 
 federacy : 
 
AN EFFORT FOR PACIFICATION 2\\ 
 
 One who has no claim to your ear save an intense longing for 
 the welfare of his country, and whose heart bleeds over the dis- 
 tractions and carnage around him, would lift his voice for reflection 
 and for prayer. There must be for the mighty problem before the 
 American people some solution which can be wrought out at best 
 only through mutual confidence and the help of God. Battles and 
 sieges are bringing us to recognize our courage and endurance. 
 War has called forth the manly and heroic qualities of both sec- 
 tions, and fitted us more than ever for the pursuits of peace and 
 for living together in amity and concord. The time seems to ap- 
 proach when arms inust give place to counsel. Are there not those* 
 on either side who will unite first of all in prayer to God that he 
 will of his infinite mercy reveal some way in which the war can 
 terminate without too deep humiliation to either party, with sub- 
 stantial advantage to both the races whose relations to each other 
 have occasioned it, and with firmer guarantees than ever for the 
 strength and perpetuity of our form of general government ? Are 
 there not those who will second their prayers by calm and judicious 
 efforts to induce a spirit of conciliation around them, and a dispo- 
 sition to weigh both the difficulties and the capabilities of the whole 
 subject ? And, finally, are there not those rich in experience and 
 wisdom and familiar with the history and structure of our govern- 
 ment, free from rancor and from the infection of prejudice, pas- 
 sion or interest, who will, by communing with God and with the 
 grand question in all its relations, fit themselves for coming forward 
 at the right nioment to achieve a righteous and a lasting settlement? 
 
 It will be found in the sequel that Bishop Potter only lived 
 to know that the war was terminated in the spring of 1865, 
 and that the prophetic motto on the old bell in " Independence 
 Hall," which first rang out the announcement that these Ame- 
 rican Colonies were resolved to be Sovereign States, had 
 reached its consummation — " Proclaim Liberty throughout 
 the land to all the inhabitants thereof." 
 
 THE MUHLENBURG MEMORIAL. 
 
 At the general Convention which sat in the City of New 
 York in October, 1853, a memorial was presented to the House 
 21 Q 
 
242 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 of Bishops bearing the signatures of the Rev. Dr. W. A. 
 Muhlenburg, and several other well-known Clergymen, pray- 
 ing that, if possible, some license might be declared in the use 
 of the Book of Common Prayer on other than the stated oc- 
 casions of morning and of evening prayers in the Church ; so 
 that our worship might be better adapted to use in halls and 
 school-houses and private dwellings, and to awakening the 
 interest, and at length securing the favor, of those who are ' 
 now estranged by its complexity and length. The memorial 
 further craved consideration for the question whether any plan 
 could be devised for making our Church more promptly than 
 she is now likely to become a centre and bond of unity among 
 those who hold the faith, but have not, as we believe, the 
 order, of the Gospel. Bishop Potter from the beginning took 
 the liveliest interest in this movement. Although no great 
 immediate results were reached at that Convention, yet no one 
 acquainted with the history of opinion and practice in this 
 Church, can fail to realize that the presentation of that me- 
 morial constituted an epoch in our career. If there was no 
 new liberty accorded, its rightful exercise was on all sides 
 acknowledged to have been occasionally used and constantly 
 pbssessed, and a larger discretion has ever since been em- 
 ployed, not resulting in any marked departure from the uni- 
 formity of our public worship, but in such rational pliancy as 
 to have contributed greatly to the increase and the usefulness 
 of the Church. The whole subject was referred to a large and 
 very able Committee, of which Bishop Potter was a member, 
 to consider and report at the next general Convention, in 1856. 
 The report of that Committee, and the volume of " Memorial 
 Papers," edited and issued by the Bishop of Pennsylvania in 
 1857, show that they were not indifferent to their work nor 
 remiss in its performance. 
 
 In his address to the Convention of his Diocese next fol- 
 lowing that Triennial Council at which the " Memorial " was 
 presented, Bishop Potter said : 
 
THE ''MEMORIALS AND ITS IMPORTANCE. 243 
 
 The proceedings of the General Convention held in New York 
 in October last are likely to form ah era in our ecclesiastical ex- 
 perience. Not the least noticeable feature in its deliberations was 
 the spirit of frank and fraternal co-operation which seemed to pre- 
 vail through all its sessions But what must endear that 
 
 Convention still more to the catholic Christian and philanthropist 
 is the broad sympathy with which it was disposed to regard every 
 •movement that seemed to promise increased efficiency to our 
 ■ Church in her grand work of saving souls 
 
 .... The first of the measures likely to impress themselves 
 permanently on the history of our American Church is a resolution 
 of the House of Bishops, referring to a commission of six of their 
 number a memorial of sundry Presbyteries in respect to the present 
 position and working capacity of the Church. That memorial 
 earnestly requests the Bishops to consider whether some means may 
 not be devised to enlarge the operations of our communion, to adapt 
 her better to the peculiar work of the Lord in this age and land, and 
 to enable her to aid more eifectually in restoring outwarii unity and 
 the spirit of true brotherhood among those who name the name of 
 Christ. No graver and more important question could possibly be 
 presented to the Fathers of the Church, and none to which they 
 ought to address themselves more calmly, more patiently or more 
 prayerfully. It will take time before we can even measurably grasp 
 its magnitude. Still more time may be necessary before some good 
 men will recognize either the expediency or the propriety of raising 
 such inquiries, and long and laborious consideration will be neces- 
 sary before any great and wise measure can be matured, or, being 
 matured, can be commended to the confidence and good-will of the 
 Church at large 
 
 To the Convention of his own Diocese in May follovs^ing 
 the general Convention of 1856 he related what had been 
 done by the Bishops on the subject in the following terms : 
 
 In the House of Bishops the "memorial movement" occupied 
 considerable time, and was disposed of in a way which is likely to 
 give satisfaction. The opinion expressed by the Bishops respecting 
 the use of the Book of Common Prayer under certain peculiar cir- 
 
244 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 cumstances will bear its fruits gradually. I have been glad to find 
 that the Clergy of this Diocese manifest no impatient desire to 
 make changes, and that they are not disposed to avail themselves 
 even of an admitted liberty when it will be the occasion of discon- 
 tent or heart-burning among others. Our object evidently should 
 be to make the several offices of our worship more and more loved 
 and appreciated, to train the children in each Parish to an earlier 
 an4 more intelligent use of them, and to have more constant refer- 
 ence to our Church year in preaching and catechising. These 
 objects being kept steadily before us, all such liberties as are con- 
 sistent with law and made expedient by emergencies — which must 
 vary in different parts of the country, and in the case of different 
 individual Ministers and congregations — will be enjoyed, and yet 
 our Liturgy only be raised the more in general estimation and in 
 the affections of our own people. Should this course be pursued, 
 the time will come when without discord or confusion, admitted 
 defects in. the Prayer-book itself may be supplied and variety be 
 
 gi^en to our Ritual 
 
 .... In respect to C^z^rrAwwVy, the deliberations of the Bishops 
 resulted in the appointment of a Committee of five of their number 
 to be entitled the Commission on Church Unity, thus indicating their 
 sense of the desirableness of more union among Christians, pledg- 
 ing their willingness to communicate or receive information tending 
 to that end, and providing an organ of communication or confer- 
 ence for this express purpose. The appointment has led already to 
 some useful discussion, and may, through the Divine blessing, help 
 at least to more kindly relations among those who name the name 
 of Christ, if not to ultimate fusion or intercommunion. The dis- 
 tracted condition of American Christendom — to say nothing of it 
 elsewhere — is certainly a calamity and a reproach, and one that, 
 through God's blessing, seems to be more widely felt than it once 
 was, and more sincerely deplored. The existence of this commis- 
 •sion will serve as the earnest protest of the Bishops of our Church 
 against it, and as clear evidence of 'their desire to be instrumental 
 in abating it only through fraternal conference, and without infring- 
 ing on the rights or wounding needlessly the sensibilities of any. 
 
 In his essay on " Church Comprehension and Church Unity," 
 
CHURCH THEORIES vs. CHURCH -PRACTICE.. 245 
 
 published soon after in the volume of " Memorial Papers," 
 Bishop Potter wrote : 
 
 ■ The theory of our Church recognizes the cardinal fact that 
 large diversities of opinion are compatible with loyalty to a com- 
 mon Saviour. It calls us to consider Christianity as a life, not as 
 a mere collection of dogmas ; it asks how men live, soberly or sen- 
 sually, righteously or unrighteously, godly or ungodly, rather than 
 what in all particulars, speculative as well as practical, they may 
 happen to think. She does not underrate the importance of the 
 faith once delivered to the saints, but she would secure it by moral 
 rather than by intellectual means, by proper culture and training in 
 the duties of life, and in the hopes and services of religion, rather 
 than through theological controversies. 
 
 Would that her practice might in every respect accord with her 
 theory ! Catholic she is, with her open Bible, her two great creeds, 
 her Apostolic Ministry, her sacraments the centres of Christian 
 communion. Might she not be more catholic in her practice ? In 
 dealing with the vast varieties of culture and faith in our land 
 might she not wisely adopt a greater diversity of method ? To 
 pass the debt which we owe to the millions who are left without any 
 Gospel, do we not owe something to those who hold that Gospel, 
 but walk not with us? We have an evangelic faith which the 
 Protestant respects. We have an ancient polity and worship which 
 entitle us as an historical Church to the sympathy of all who rev- 
 erence age and authority. We claim to have "gifts" such as are 
 possessed by no other Reformed communion except our mother 
 Church in Britain. Do we not hold these "gifts" as stewards, 
 and are we not bound to act on the principle that it. is more blessed 
 to give than to receive ? If catholic order and catholic faith be 
 ours in a greater degree than belongs to others, does it become us 
 to sit down and wait till those without come and humbly ask us for 
 a share ? or is it not rather our duty to offer, and even press them 
 on their acceptance ? So far is, authority and jurisdiction are con- 
 cerned, we are to claim them only over those who profess and call 
 themselves Episcopalians ; but so far as preaching Christ and him 
 crucified is concerned, are we not debtors both to the Greeks and 
 to the Barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise ? Should we 
 21 * 
 
246 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 give the sacraments only to those who will in advance pledge them- 
 selves to conform for ever to our form of worship? Shall our 
 orders never be extended except where we can carry all the other 
 peculiarities of our communion ? Is not this to impart to the Epis- 
 copate the character of a denominational or sectarian rather than 
 of a catholic institution ? 
 
 Advances toward the restoration of Christian unity can be made 
 more gracefully by no Church than by ours. With orders which 
 none of the Reformed Churches question, and with a worship 
 which the best-informed of other bodies respect, though not pre- 
 pared as yet perhaps to adopt ; with a moderation in doctrine and 
 a position in history which inclines toward her the more thoughtful 
 and catholic of every other Christian body, the Protestant Episco- 
 pal Church can afford to be generous. 
 
 We might multiply extracts from Bishop Potter's recorded 
 expressions of interest in the momentous subjects embraced 
 in Ae " Memorial" almost indefinitely. Would that vi^e could 
 reiterate all he said in the House of Bishops in advocacy of 
 ■ those broad and catholic principles which the quotations given 
 above shadow forth ; but of what transpires in that sacred 
 conclavfe nothing is recorded save the res gestce — the transac- 
 tions in which their discussions and deliberations terminate. 
 It is due to Bishop Potter's memory that he should be known 
 to the Church as one of the earliest, most efficient and most 
 liberal friends of that movement. The volume of " Memorial 
 Papers," most of the contributions in which were evoked by 
 him from Divines of our own and other communions, would 
 never have seen the light but for him — a volume which is itself 
 a great advance toward Church unity, and which will be studied 
 and valued more in the future than it has been in the past, 
 although in the present it is almost forgotten. No item in his 
 honorable history entitles him more to the affectionate remem- 
 brance of all who love " the Church of the living God, ttie 
 pillar and ground of the truth," than the forward part which 
 he took in those first endeavors to popularize our beloved 
 
FRUITS OF THE MEMORIAL. 247 
 
 Church, to adapt her in her conventional features to the needs 
 of "the million" and to infuse her with an aggressive power 
 which none could gainsay or resist. 
 
 Most of the parochial activities which now distinguish the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, and which are beginning to be 
 imitated by our brethren of other Protestant communions, 
 have come to life since the House of Bishops were memorial- 
 ized, in 1853, to consider " whether the period has not arrived 
 for the adoption of measures to meet the great moral and 
 social necessities of the day," and which activities are trace- 
 able, in respect to their origin, to that movement. The " Cot- 
 tage meetings," conducted by Deacons or by Laymen, with 
 the free use of the " Book of Common Prayer," the " Bible- 
 classes " for men and women, the " Mothers' meetings," the 
 ■' sewing-schools " taught by Christian ladies — some of them 
 new agencies for good, all plied with new methods and new 
 energy, — constitute a part of that revival which dates fsom 
 1853, and which places the Episcopal Church in the forefront 
 of those Christian bodies that are abroad, under the Master's 
 mandate, in the highways and hedges, with the sweet con- 
 straint of Divine love compelling as many as they find to 
 come in to the marriage-feast. It is not derogatory to the 
 efforts of any others, in or out of our Church, to say that 
 those new appliances, whose introduction constitutes an era in 
 the religious history of our times, were put into efficient use 
 first, in and about Philadelphia, under the favor and counsel 
 and personal oversight of Bishop Potter. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 BISHOP POTTER'S SUGGESTIONS ON SOME SPECULATIVE 
 AND SOME PRACTICAL QUESTIONS. 
 
 I. EXTREME ECCLESIASTICISM. 
 
 WE have already adverted to the culmination of the great 
 Tractarian controversy at the general Convention of 
 1 844. The " Tracts for the Times," issued at Oxford and 
 written by several of its eminent scholars and Divines, were 
 commenced, it is charitable to believe, for the honest purpose 
 of awakening a livelier interest in the Church and order and wor- 
 ship which in England, and perhaps also in this country, had 
 fallen away into negligence and almost disrespect. It is the 
 frailty of our poor depraved humanity, to attempt the correction 
 of one evil by running into another at the opposite extreme. 
 The tracts became objectionable as the series proceeded, until 
 No. 90 transcended all bounds of Protestant toleration, made 
 the issue of any more impossible and prepared the way for its 
 distinguished author to apostatize from the Church which once 
 he adorned and to enter a communion which in earlier num- 
 bers of the same publication he had denounced as unsound in 
 doctrine and impure in practice. But although Tractarianism 
 thus over-reached itself, and by the defection of Newman and 
 many of his adherents in England and America betrayed its 
 actual tendencies, all did not recoil from it with prompt aver- 
 sion nor dread the Romish superstition and ceremonial which 
 it scarcely disguised. Its influence continued after its power 
 had subsided, as the waves are; still turbulent when the storm 
 has sunk to rest. The teaching of the Oxford school did not 
 
 248 
 
TENDENCIES OF EXTREME ECCLESIASTICISM. 249 
 
 cause the perversion of all its disciples ; for many it but gave 
 expression to moods of thought and feeling by which they 
 had long been exercised. There is a proclivity in some minds 
 for the peculiarities of the Church of Rome which no accidents 
 of social position or early training can quite obliterate. Such 
 persons often stay in Protestant bonds, like splinters in the 
 flesh, alien substances fretting and poisoning the members that 
 cannot slough them off Men more or less infected with Trac- 
 tarian notions still continued, and probably always will con- 
 tinue, in the communion of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 Against their influence, and in warning of the mischiefs which 
 follow all departures from the Evangelical faith and the simple 
 worship of our Church, Bishop Potter kindly yet manfully 
 raised his voice and exercised his power. In his address to 
 the Convention of 1847 he employed the following language, 
 not inappropriate to these later times : 
 
 It has been my melancholy duty to record the displacement of 
 one Clergyman of this Diocese during the last year in consequence 
 of his having changed his relation to this Church for membership 
 in the Church of Rome. I have no desire to indulge in any un- 
 kind reflections either toward him or toward the religious body 
 with which he has become connected. To their own Master they 
 stand or fall. But I trust I may without impropriety refer to this 
 event as a reason for renewing my dissuasive from speculations 
 which, though begun sometimes in thoughtlessness and sometimes 
 in an over-fond pursuit of what calls itself catholic, are but too apt to 
 terminate in rejecting the very first principles of true Catholicism. 
 I rejoice in the assurance that there is in this Diocese a prevailing 
 and deep feeling of allegiance to the Church as it is, in its Liturgy^ 
 its government and its Articles. This allegiance will continue un- 
 impaired, and will grow into a yet more controlling sentiment if 
 we allow the provisions which our Church has made for the edifica- 
 tion of its members and for the conversion of sinners to work them- 
 selves out in a moderate and judicious manner. At such a time we 
 must, as it seems to me, be content to recognize practically the 
 broad and comprehensive principles on which the Reformation and 
 
250 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 re-organization of the Anglican Church were conducted, and thus 
 be tolerant of diversities in doctrine and practice which always pre- 
 vailed, and which are not likely to disappear except before the fires 
 of a ruthless intolerance. We must recognize also that wise refer- 
 ence as well to the principles of Scripture as to the condition and 
 institutions of our own country which governed the founders of our 
 American Church in their revision of the Prayer-book and in their 
 code of ecclesiastical law. We inust be willing to leave to Churches 
 more superstitious, and, as we believe, less pure, usages which, though 
 they may have the sanction of antiquity, are inconsistent with that 
 simplicity which we have been taught to love ; or which, having been 
 made directly subservient to gross errors, or having become insepa- 
 rably associated with such errors in the minds of a larger portion of 
 the Christian world, were on that account wisely laid aside by the 
 early Reformers. We must strive after so much uniformity, even in 
 externals, as will exhibit the unity and decorum of our system, shun- 
 ning the extreme of pomp and pageantry on the one hand and of 
 slovenly negligence on the other. We must multiply the means of 
 grace in public, but without drawing our people from the indispen- 
 sable duties of the closet and of the family altar. We must encour- 
 age reverence for the sacrament, but not at the expense of reverence 
 for that ordinance of preaching Christ and him crucified, which 
 has been the great instrument of winning souls to God. We must 
 endeavor to draw deference and affectionate regard toward our 
 ofiSce and our persons rather by our zeal and engagedness, than by 
 doubtful theories of priestly authority. We must be willing to ad- 
 mit the indefeasible right to think, which pertains to every human 
 being, while we combine with the admission of that right, clear 
 views of the fearful responsibility which attaches to all who wan- 
 tonly abuse it. We must cultivate gladly in our people the dispo- 
 sition for which the Apostle commended the Berean Christians and 
 on account of which he pronounced them noble — the disposition to 
 search diligently the Scriptures of eternal truth, and to search them 
 that they may learn whether the instructions which issue from our 
 lips are in conformity with the mind of the Spirit. At the same 
 time we must endeavor to train them up in a dutiful reverence for 
 the authority and requirements of the Church to which they belong, 
 
STRUCTURE OF CHURCHES. 2$! 
 
 and urge them constantly that, avoiding foolish and unlearned 
 questions, they endeavor to give full effect to her admirable provi- 
 sions for the training of the young and for the instruction and im- 
 provement of their own souls, neglecting none of her clear direc- 
 tions for the observance of the greater festivals, for the catechising 
 of children, and for the due and direct administration of her wor- 
 ship and offices. 
 
 The Bishop was not unobservant of the fact that there is 
 an affinity between certain forms of Church opinion and cer- 
 tain types of church architecture, so that either one will in 
 due time, unless the obstructions are formidable, induce the 
 other. Mediaeval churches gradually imbue those who wor- 
 ship in them with mediaeval sentiments, about as surely as 
 such sentiments crave the shelter of antiquated churches and 
 the modes of worship for which they were constructed. 
 
 In his Diocesan address of 1850 Bishop Potter thus ex- 
 pressed himself concerning the structure of churches : 
 
 It is with sincere gratification I record the fact that in nearly all 
 the churches throughout the Diocese there is a growing attention 
 to the proper preservation of the building and to neatness and 
 order. This is generally accompanied by a disposition to conform 
 the chancel arrangements to the long-established usage which pro- 
 vides a place for the pulpit and reading-desk as well as for the 
 Lord's table. In the few instances in which there has been any 
 material departure from this plan I am assured that there has been 
 no intention to exalt one office of the Church at the expense of 
 others, nor any thought of disparaging the ministry of the Word. 
 What may be the ultimate tendency of some of these arrangements 
 is a question about which minds the most enlightened and upright 
 will differ. Could your Bishop's opinion or wishes prevail, there 
 would be no deviation from the old plan which assigns a reading- 
 desk and surplice for the morning and evening prayer, including 
 the Litany ; the holy table and a font in the vicinity for the com- 
 munion and - baptismal offices, and a pulpit and gown for the 
 sermon — not that he conceives that these are things important in 
 themselves, especially in a communion which is still to win its way 
 
252 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 to general acceptance, and which must owe much of its power to 
 its blendad order and simplicity. To us more than to most Chris- 
 tian bodies uniformity in the mode of conducting Christian worship 
 in all our churches is of moment ; and it is therefore much to be 
 deplored when childish prejudices against the surplice or a hanker- 
 ing not less childish after novelties , that are none the less novelties 
 among us, because some precedent for them can be found in the 
 records of the distant past, when causes like these are permitted to 
 •interfere with our peace and perpetuate the presence of anomalies. 
 He, however, would greatly underrate the tenacity with which the 
 human mind clings on the one hand to old ideas and on the other 
 to new conceits who could expect at a period like the present 
 any other result. In the absence of canonical regulations on the 
 subject, which in this country would be framed with great diffi- 
 culty, these questions must be left in a good degree to time and to 
 the operation of the good sense and good feeling by which the 
 Churchmen of this Diocese are characterized. Where the Gospel 
 is faithfully preached and faithfully followed, there such questions 
 will ultimately sink into comparative insignificance ; and where 
 these are wanting little can be effected for the salvation of men by 
 any architectural arrangements, however they may conform to a 
 mediseval or a Protestant standard. It is due to the frankness 
 which ought always to obtain between a Diocese and its Bishop to 
 remark further that, should evils which have been apprehended 
 from some recent innovations be realized, the time will then have 
 come when I should conceive myself unworthy of the place I hold 
 if I did not exercise mildly yet firmly the discretion with which I 
 have been charged in respect to the consecration of places for 
 public worship. 
 
 A quarter of a century having passed since the last of the 
 " Oxford Tracts" made its appearance and blasted the reputa- 
 tion of the whole series, they no longer give a name to the 
 extreme of theological and ecclesiastical opinion of which in 
 their day they were the exponent. By excess they damaged 
 and reduced the party "whjch they were intended to build up, 
 but they did not dissolve its elements. ■ It will never cease to 
 
SEMI-POPERY LEADS TO PERVERSION. 253 
 
 have representatives in every religious body which has a Min- 
 istry, sacraments and ritual. • Some minds are so cdnstituted 
 that our common depravity manifests itself in them by undue 
 devotion to the instrumentalities of truth, whereby the truth 
 itself is thrown into shadow. The same monstrous and mis- 
 shapen Christianity in which 'the features are larger than the 
 head reappears ih our own day, with some new apparel and a 
 new name, and good men revolt at it with more or less 
 intensity of feeling. Some think it best to treat it with silent 
 contempt, lest it should gain dignity by too much notice or 
 win sympathy by too sharp rebuke. Some seek to keep the 
 balance of Catholicity by claiming toleration for a stark and 
 naked Christianity, " without form or comeliness,'' that may 
 put on or off whatsoever investiture it pleases ; and others 
 think that a great conflict must be had, a war of extermina- 
 tion be waged, by which, without relent or compromise, one 
 of the contesting elements shall be cast out and the Church 
 be left wholly Puritanic or wholly Ritualistic. 
 
 In his address of 1853 Bishop Potter said : 
 
 It is not to be denied, however, that questions touching the con- 
 stitution and working of the Christian Church have revived every- 
 where with unwonted power in these times, and that they demand 
 calm and wise treatment. They have proved too unmanageable for 
 some of our former associates, who have sought rest from the vex- 
 ing storms of doubt and controversy in submission to a power 
 which claims to be the infallible expounder of doctrine and duty, 
 but which usually relieves perplexity by extinguishing freedom of 
 thought. These perversions have been much less frequent here 
 than abroad, and less common in this Diocese, I am glad to say, 
 than in some other parts of our American Church. They are con- 
 fined, for the most part, to the Clergy, and are to be regretted 
 mainly as indications of an unsound temper of mind and habit of 
 thinking among a portion of that body. 
 
 If they are referred to now, it is not for the purpose of denun- 
 ciation. These misguided brethren have gone out from us because 
 22 
 
254 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 they were not of us, and we should accept their departure as cheer- 
 ing proof that no man who holds anti-Protestant opinions can, 
 with a good conscience, remain permanently in the fold. Their 
 power to do us material harm ceases when they declare themselves ; 
 and, for my own part, I hold 'them in much higher estimation when 
 they manfully meet the consequences of their opinions, than while 
 they remain repeating, with bated breath, their professions of alle- 
 giance, and insinuating doctrines which, till lately, no one sup- 
 posed could be compatible with loyalty to a Reformed communion. 
 We may well mourn, however, that instead of accepting the Ref- 
 ormation as a blessing, and planting themselves on. the liberty and 
 the simplicity of doctrine which that event gave back to the 
 Church, men of thoughtful minds and devout lives can be found 
 who pine after the spiritual bondage and the superstitious worship 
 which our fathers were unable to bear. One reason is to be found, 
 I apprehend, in the fact that, in our age, intellectual activity is 
 greatly in advance of moral earnestness ; and the consequences are 
 seen in fluctuations of opinion and in a restless spirit of specula- 
 tion which are little consistent with a high-souled devotion to the 
 work we have to do. In religion, too, as elsewhere, the ssthetical 
 element is claiming more consideration than properly belongs to 
 it, and sacred Art, instead of being a useful auxiliary or a service- 
 able handmaid, is too often exalted into a tyrannical mistress. At 
 such a time, men, weary of unexciting duties and simple but glori- 
 ous verities of the faith, languish after a pompous ritual and a 
 sublimated but sensuous piety. They rebel against the ordinance 
 which makes faith an exercise and trial of the moral nature, by 
 surrounding it with difficulties ; and they betake themselves to a 
 superior, who arrogates absolute supremacy alike over intellect and 
 over conscience ; or, sad to tell, they are too frequently borne by 
 a critical and skeptical spirit to question the claims of all positive 
 religion, and to substitute for it a merely subjective Christianity or 
 some phase of blank and cheerless unbelief. 
 
 What is the remedy for this disease? So far as it manifests 
 itself in a mediaeval or Romeward tendency we are not to cure it 
 where it exists, or prevent its appearance where it does not, by 
 defending or extenuating the mischief so long as the pervert 
 
PERVERSIONS TO ROME. 255 
 
 remains in the Church which he has ceased to love, and over- 
 whehning him with reproaches the instant he quits it. The earliest 
 approaches to an insidious will-worship and a disguised Romanism 
 should be guarded against. Habits of thinking and speaking, 
 which are but too prevalent, in which the Church is more promi- 
 nent than her Head, — sacramental grace more insisted upon than 
 holiness of heart and life, — a zeal for shibboleth substituted for zeal 
 in doing and suffering God's will, — outward unity put before fellow- 
 ship of the spirit in the bond of peace, — the liberty wherewith 
 Christ has made us free repudiated for a bondage to ordinances, 
 and for prostration of mind and soul before some imaginary 
 or self-constituted vicegerent of Heaven, — this style of thinking 
 and speaking is often the unconscious occasion of these defections, 
 and against it, therefore, we ought ever to watch. Should grave 
 doubts ever seize us as to the validity of our commission and the 
 claims of the Church to which we belong — should we ever come to 
 hanker after the private confessional and the sacrament of penance, 
 after' more power and less responsibility for the Clergy, and more 
 responsibility and less liberty for the people, — in such case we 
 should know that we are in imminent danger ; and, if Ministers of 
 the sanctuary, we should forthwith be resolved of our doubts or 
 suspend our ministrations. To doubt is not necessarily to sin ; but 
 to doubt and yet eat, to hover for a long time between two such 
 systems as that of the Papacy and our own, and then to pass in a 
 single day from the most sacred offices of our communion to the 
 obedience of one which brands her with anathemas and casts her 
 relentlessly out of the pale of hope, — this is a course which no 
 sophistry can shelter from the scorn of good and honorable men. 
 I venerate the talents, learning and zeal of some of those who 
 have taken this course ; but neither zeal, learning nor talent pro- 
 tects men from the gravest errors of judgment and the sorest dere- 
 lictions of principle ; and where such gifts are combined with recre- 
 ancy to virtue they only merit our sterner reprobation. 
 
 On the other hand, let us not, in attempting to shun one class of 
 dangers, expose ourselves to another. They greatly mistake who 
 would arrest defections from our Church by discrediting its pecu- 
 liarities. The positive institutions of Christianity are a real and a 
 
2S6 MEMOIR dp ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 most essential part of it. So long as we profess to regard these 
 institutions, as shaped by our communion, to be Scriptural and 
 edifying, so long we are bound to recommend them to the respect 
 and observance of our people. The inward and spiritual grace is 
 not to be implanted and strengthened in ordinary cases without the 
 outward arid visible means ; and it is surely wiser and safer, as well 
 as more dutiful, to cling to means which are appointed of God, or 
 directed by the Church to which we have pledged our allegiance, 
 than to resort to others of our own invention. In presence of such 
 grievous defections as we are compelled to witness we are prone to 
 think that the farther we recede from that which probably occa- 
 sioned them, the nearer we approach to the truth. Hence these 
 events are apt to produce their opposites, and we have the un- 
 seemly and pernicious spectacle of two opposite currents of opinion 
 and practice setting violently through the Church at the same time. 
 
 At such a juncture they who love and would promote the prin- 
 ciples of the Reformation must profit by the hard-earned experi- 
 ence of that period. Pertinacity in pressing points of doctrine the 
 most mysterious and unpractical, with stiffness in regard to clerical 
 dresses and to other questions of observance equally insignificant, 
 gradually produced in our Mother Church a reactionary school of 
 theology, which sooq lost the confidence and respect of the Eng- 
 lish people and helped to involve throne and altar in one common 
 overthrow. Zeal for truth easily degenerates into intolerance, zeal 
 for liberty into insubordination. 
 
 The times call for reverence toward the well-tried opinions of 
 our fathers and toward the golden mean which they adopted in 
 doctrine and worship. It calls also for true Christian freedom in 
 so adjusting our preaching, our worship and all our services as best 
 to move the minds with which we are called to deal. That some 
 changes might be made in our services, especially in those ap- 
 pointed for certain seasons, and in the Calendar of Lessons, that 
 larger liberty might with advantage be accorded to the Clergy in 
 adapting their ministrations to extraordinary- emergencies, and 
 that such changes need touch no important question of faith and 
 practice, will probably be admitted by most persons who have 
 considered the subject. What, however, is most needed is a frank 
 
PERVERSIONS TO ROME. 257 
 
 and cordial working out of the spirit of the Church in all her 
 essential elements as Evangelical and Catholic, as combining 
 liberty with order, as securing spirituality through the faithful use 
 of instituted means, — in one word, as giving to the Word and sac- 
 raments, the discipline and worship of the Church, each its due 
 place and proportion. He does little service to the Gospel at such 
 a time who faults our usages, who ignores, as far as he can, the 
 time-honored, commemorative observances of the Church, foment- 
 ing -suspicion among brethren and swelling the cry of indiscrimi- 
 nate denunciation against all who fail to adopt a similar laxity of 
 opinion and practice. If it shall be the privilege of any of us to 
 win back to the simplicity of the faith minds that are perplexed, it 
 will be theirs who combine the faithful preaching of Christ with 
 unfailing charity and with a devout observance of all those means 
 which the Church has established for the conversion of sinners 
 and the edification of the faithful. 
 
 The thoughts of a calm and broad-minded man, who was 
 singularly free from all partisan passions and influences, on 
 kindred issues in past time, may be reviewed with advantage 
 by the zealots of to-day. It is evident from these extracts 
 that, in Bishop Potter's judgment, they do not wisely who 
 endeavor to neutralize one class of extremists in the Church 
 by constituting themselves and as many as they can influence 
 into a class of extremists equally remote from the mean of 
 moderation and tolerance which our Church was intended to 
 occupy. When men depart from the simple sobriety of our 
 worship, and under cover of new vestments and scenic cere- 
 monial insinuate, if they do not intend to introduce, false doc- 
 trine, the great conservative portion of the Church cannot 
 surely be rescued from the insidious danger, by any who dis- 
 parage established forms and time-honored usages, and allege 
 that the germ of the evil is lodged in the worship and not 
 inherent in the depraved hearts of those who pervert it. One 
 who is imbued with the genuine spirit of our Church, and 
 loves her in all her distinctive peculiarities as she came to us 
 22 * R 
 
258 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 from our fathers, is as much shocked by those who assume li- 
 cense for omission or change as by those who launch into excess.- 
 
 PROTESTANT SISTERHOODS. 
 
 In his address to the Diocesan Convention of 1862, Bishop 
 Potter introduced the following guarded and wise suggestions 
 on this practical and now urgent question : 
 
 There is one department of this hospital which is not yet organ- 
 ized. It is that which contemplates the instruction and training of 
 suitable persons for the duties of nursing the sick. These persons 
 are not to be exclusively such as will nurse for wages, but those 
 also who will do it out of a loving heart for Christ's sake. We 
 doubtless need in our country a great increase of kind and skillful 
 paid nurses, and one part of the work of our hospital, we trust, 
 will be to furnish them. But we need, also, those of a higher cul- 
 ture and a more generous enthusiasm. There are many women of 
 education, refinement and earnest piety who yearn for a sphere in 
 which they can work for God and for the afflicted. There are 
 those whose characters and whose enjoyments would be vastly 
 improved by occupation. 
 
 This war is calling them forth, and, with thousands of others, 
 they are now giving themselves without stint to the care of the 
 wounded and diseased. Our camps and military hospitals are 
 blessed schools for educating our benevolent affections and our 
 capacities for charitable work; but they show at the same time that 
 it is not every benevolent woman who has health or the judgment 
 or the perseverance or the ready submission to order and system 
 which such a function requires. They show, too, the great import- 
 ance of previous training. Nursing, like every other art, is to be 
 acquired by practice under proper direction ; it affords scope for 
 knowledge, and it ought to be prosecuted, especially in civil and 
 religious hospitals, on system, and from a lofty Christian motive. 
 Such a modve does not necessarily preclude the idea of paid ser- 
 vice, but it flourishes best when the labor is given ffeely, out of 
 love to God and to his suffering and sinful children. 
 
 Hence the need in our hospitals (nor in them only) of trained, 
 enlightened and devoted Christian ladies. Their presence in St. 
 
PROTESTANT SISTERHOODS. 259 
 
 Luke's Hospital, New York, under the supervision of the Rev. Dr. 
 Muhlenburg, has contributed vastly to diffuse through that institu- 
 tion the refined and healing religious influence by which it is dis- 
 tinguished. The same influence goes to some extent into the 
 hospitals and orphan-houses of the Roman Church. It has been 
 recently organizing itself among the Reformed of Germany, Swit- 
 zerland and France. Without vows or superstitious practices, the 
 Protestant sisters, or Deaconesses, pass through a course of pupil- 
 age, and, being approved, they devote themselves, without pay, 
 wherever they are needed, to the relief of the sick and sorrowing. 
 In England, hitherto, a like success has not crowned efforts to 
 introduce this benign and powerful element into the working of 
 the Church. 
 
 What on this subject shall be the course of our communion in 
 this country? For years it has occupied the thoughts of many 
 among us. In 1850, at the General Convention at Cincinnati, the 
 Bishops called for "some plan* by which, consistently with the 
 principles of our Reformed communion, the services of intelligent 
 and pious persons of both sexes might be secured to the Church in 
 the edupation of the young, the relief of the sick and destitute, 
 the care of orphans and friendless immigrants and the reformation 
 of the vicious." In 1856 a Committee, reporting to the Bishops 
 on the best methods of making our Church more adequate to the. 
 spiritual and social necessities of the world, say among other 
 things, " We are constrained to call attention here to the wasted or 
 misdirected energies of the women of the Church. The Sisters of 
 Charity, in the Roman communion, are worth more, perhaps, to 
 their cause than the combined wealth of their hierarchy, the learn- 
 ing of their Priesthood or the self-sacrificing zeal of their Mission- 
 aries." What has been with us so long a theoretical conviction 
 ought to become, without much more delay, a practical reality. 
 No time could be more auspicious for a commencement than the 
 present. Volunteer nursing in the army hospitals has brought to 
 light mai%y noble spirits who can be employed hereafter in our mu- 
 nicipal and religious institutions. Nor is it among the sick only 
 or among" those of their own sex that the tenderness, skill and 
 assiduity of Christian women would be useful. 
 
 * Journal of General Convention (1850), page 132. 
 
26o MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Among criminals in our penitentiaries, among unruly and depraved 
 boys in our houses of reformation, among the poor and insane in 
 our almshouses, and wherever there is misery and sin, there would 
 they exert a wondrous power. What suffering, for example, what 
 deterioration of morals and what hopeless gloom must reign where 
 the sick and infirm poor are waited on only by coarse and unin- 
 structed paupers, or by rude and sordid hirelings ! How little 
 prospect of amendment among criminals if they see none but paid 
 keepers and routine officials ! And among the insane what a sooth- 
 ing calm comes from woman's presence and wise and gentle min- 
 istry ! Everywhere, but especially among the suffering and hardened 
 of our sex, does she carry the sunshine of patience and of hope. 
 
 In proportion as she has lofty Christian aims and the delicacy 
 which comes of refined associations, she is better qualified to com- 
 mand respect and inspire affection ; and in proportion as she pos- 
 sesses the experience and the ready resource which' spring generally 
 from nothing but training, will her agency be permanent and useful. 
 We have, it seems to me, but to weigh considerations like these, 
 we have but to remember what a vast amount of talent and hearty 
 zeal among women wants to be employed, we have but to contrast 
 the homes of our poor in sickness — and too often, alas ! in health — 
 our prisons, our asylums, our reformatories, our almshouses, our 
 hospitals, as they were, with what they might be if pervaded with a 
 higher feminine and religious influence, — and we shall perceive that 
 nothing but organization and a wise directing spirit is needed to 
 achieve this mighty and beneficent revolution. 
 
 THE HOME ELEMENT IN THE RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF THE 
 
 YOUNG. 
 
 On this topic the Bishop thus expressed himself: 
 
 In the moral and religious training of a people, and especially 
 of the rising generation, there is danger that the paramount import- 
 ance of the family and of influences properly domestic be over- 
 looked. At the foundation of all social, and indeed of alFpersonal, 
 welfare, God has placed the relation of the sexes and the organiza- 
 tion of the household. It is in his home that the child gets, or 
 should get, most of the lessons and habits which fit him for life and 
 
THE HOME ELEMENT IN EDUCATION. 26 1 
 
 for his part in the State and in the Church ; and throughout his 
 course in this world that home should be the centre of his best 
 affections and his dearest charities. At once its sovereign and its 
 priest, the parent should see that the tie which connects its mem- 
 bers is carefully cherished and is consecrated by the lapse of time ; 
 the Church should see that that tie is hallowed and strengthened by 
 the constant influence of religion. When separation becomes 
 necessary, those who leave its shelter should not lose the blessings 
 of domesticity, but should be so placed that those blessings fnay be 
 enjoyed in the largest possible degree. Youths who have to leave 
 home for scholastic advantages, minors sent to learn trades or gain 
 subsistence in towns, orphans who are to be taken care of -by the 
 benevolent, vagrant and disobedient children no longer subject to 
 parental authority, — none of these should be left without some pro- 
 vision for this primary want of our nature. 
 
 If this be so, then anything in our educational,' reformatory or 
 industrial systems of training which seems to ignore a principle so 
 important demands consideration. Anything which lessens on the 
 part of the parent, his' sense of responsibility for the proper support 
 of his child, or on the part of the child, his feeling of respect and 
 obligation toward those who gave him being, should be avoided'; 
 and when the relations of the household are destroyed or impaired, 
 our first object should be to restore them. As the young should in 
 every case have those to whom they may look with something of a 
 child's affection and confidence, so it is through them that they 
 should be approached by those who would do them good. For 
 those who have no parents, or none who care for their state and their 
 subsistence, homes should be provided which are either Christian 
 families or are modeled as to size and economy on their pattern. 
 For tlTOse who live at home, but without moral and religious culture, 
 our Sunday-schools offer a blessed resource ; but in conducting them 
 domestic relations should be cultivated, and if the child cannot be 
 reached through the parent, the parent, however thoughtless or sin- 
 ful, may be reached by persevering and judicious effort through the 
 child, afid thus the whole household be gradually won to the influ- 
 ence of the Parish and to repentance and amendment of life. 
 On this subject I can but touch. It demands and will repay 
 
262 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 thorough discussion, for which there is at present no room. I will 
 only suggest, by way of inquiry, whether in our Church-arrange- 
 ments for the religious training of the young we count sufficiently 
 upon home influences, and strive sufficiently to preserve and im- 
 prove them. Whether in institutions for the care of orphans or 
 the reformation of vicious children we recollect that they were all 
 intended by the great Father to live in families. Whether in pro- 
 viding for minors who are being trained away from home, in 
 schools, shops or manufactories, we are careful enough to secure for 
 them something like domesticity, with its comforts and its safe- 
 guards. Whether, in endowing large charities for neglected chil- 
 dren and a free education for all the youth of the Commonwealth, 
 there be not some danger that the State will substitute its legal and 
 compulsory care for the spontaneous efforts of parents and the 
 beneficent and discriminated aid of individuals. 
 
 MUSIC AND RITUAL OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Bishop Potter's record on this subject is as follows : 
 
 The music and ritual of the Church are becoming more efficient 
 as auxiliaries to devotion, and more useful as a resource for the 
 young and uncultivated. Music has a strange power, on which I 
 need not insist, but that power is not engaged, as it might be, in 
 the service of virtue and religion. Those who are skilled in it say 
 that the musical scale adjusts itself naturally to the expression of 
 all pure and innocent emotions, of all grand and pathetic ideas, 
 while some violence must be done to it before it can become the 
 organ of licentiousness or the vehicle of base and frivolous amuse- 
 ment. However this may be, there is no doubt that it may be 
 made everywhere the instrument of a healthy and holy influence ; 
 to every one, whether child, youth or adult, it may be the source 
 of delight in unemployed hours and an important aid in domestic 
 and social worship and in friendly companionship. A.ssociations 
 for the cultivation of it in connection with the Church, and in 
 subordination to its great work of winning souls and healing the 
 wounds made by sin or sorrow, might be multiplied with great 
 benefit. Not only would it thus become a counterpoise to idle and 
 demoralizing pleasures : it would prepare our congregations for dis- 
 
CHURCH NEWSPAPERS. 263 
 
 pensing with the elaborate music and expensive choirs which too 
 often supersede the people in an important part of their duty to 
 God, and minister to a culture which is artistic rather than religious. 
 In dealing with the young and undisciplined who have enjoyed 
 few advantages at home, and who need to be drawn to the Church 
 by strong attractions, services in which music predominates, but is 
 combined with short responsive worship, and with brief and 
 pointed exposition of Scripture, have been found full of advantage. 
 
 CHURCH NEWSPAPERS. 
 
 On his first accession to the Diocese, Bishop Potter was 
 sensible of the great influence of the Church papers in excit- 
 ing partisan animosity and strife. The editor of one of those 
 then published in Philadelphia was an intimate friend, and to 
 him the Bishop, while abroad on his first visitation, addressed 
 a letter which has already been introduced in the earlier pages 
 of this volume. 
 
 The tendency to indulge in needless asperities which be- 
 sets editors of rival papers is so constantly operative and so 
 nearly irresistible that the Bishop felt himself constrained, 
 after a few years, to address a more formal letter of remon- 
 strance to the conductors of both the journals which in Penn- 
 sylvania divided the support and sympathies of Churchmen : 
 
 Philadelphia, October 14, 1850. 
 
 To the Rev. , Editor of the Banner of the Cross, and the Rev. 
 
 Messrs. , , Editors of the Episcopal Recorder : 
 
 Brethren : I have been much pained of late in observing the 
 frequency and acrimony with which the Church papers in this 
 Diocese refer to each other. It affords a subject of deep regret, I 
 assure you, to many who patronize your labors ; and it can hardly fail 
 to be an occasion of stumbling to others, whether- within or with- 
 out the Church, who look to Christian teachers for an example of 
 meekness and moderation. It is a cause, too, which tends to ex- 
 cite among brethren feelings that are exceedingly unfriendly to 
 peace and to piety. I cannot think that the interests of truth re- 
 quire that this course should be persisted in. 
 
264 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 I write this note with no desire to interfere with the control of 
 your papers, but only in the hope that they may be rendered more 
 instrumental in promoting the honor of Christ-and the welfare of 
 the Church ; and that their conductors may resolve that they will 
 not in haste or through momentary excitement pen lines which 
 they may have occasion to review with sorrow hereafter. Pardon 
 me then if, as your friend and Bishop, I venture tcf request that 
 hereafter you will carefully abstain from offering provocation; that 
 when you receive it you will abstain from retaliation; and even 
 from reply; and that as far as possible you will avoid, in your 
 respective columns, all reference or allusion to each other. 
 
 The course which I suggest is, I know, no easy one. At times, 
 to pursue it may seem wholly incompatible with duty. Yet I 
 firmly believe that by this course' only can two religious journals, 
 issued in the same city, on the same day and in the interests of the 
 same Church, hold on their way with becoming dignity or in such 
 manner as to contribute in the greatest degree to the edification of 
 the people. 
 
 Affectionately, 
 
 Your friend and brother, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 Again, ten years later, this irrepressible conflict of the 
 scribes had proceeded to such sharpness of tone that Bishop 
 Potter broke silence once more in deprecatory and yet almost 
 despondent terms : 
 
 Philadelphia, i860. 
 
 My dear Dr. : I have no connection with the R ■, and 
 
 cannot assume any right to dictate in its arrangements. I will say, 
 however, that its tone and course on many questions which must 
 be considered- open (if the principles it advocates are to prevail) 
 seem to me to be most injudicious, and calculated to bring about 
 the very ends which it must deprecate 
 
 Why, in Church matters, cannot we have the frank, full discus- 
 sion in good temper which we all expect and require in ordinary 
 matters ? Why must it be assumed that those from whom we differ 
 in some respects (but' who agree in nine out of ten) must hold the 
 
THE RULE OF FAITH. 265 
 
 extreme opinions and be actuated by the unworthy motives which 
 we should in conversation, as gentlemen, be so slow, to impute ? 
 
 Experience makes me distrustful of the ability of anybody in our 
 Church to conduct a religious paper in a large-minded and liberal 
 
 spirit 
 
 Ever yours faithfully, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 the rule of faith. 
 
 There was from the first a very remarkable disposition, on 
 the part of those over whom Bishop Potter was called to pre- 
 side, to seek his judgment on vexed questions and to accept 
 his counsel. This resulted, it is believed, from his very dis- 
 passionate character. He seemed to be without prejudices. 
 His utterances were never outbursts from his heart — the irre- 
 pressible gush of momentarily excited feeling — but the calm 
 dicta of his reason and conscience, both of which powers 
 the whole discipline and practice of his life had served to 
 develop evenly and well. This was the compensation which 
 men had for that apparent want of sympathy and sentiment 
 of which, in some emergencies, they felt the need and thought 
 they suffered the lack. Nobody ever imagined, when Bishop 
 Potter gave him an opinion on any proposed question, that its 
 expression was warped in the smallest degree by personal like 
 or dislike toward himself, or by affinity with or repugnance 
 to his party alliances. 
 
 In the spring of 1847, when the Bishop had held office 
 little more than a year, he received the following ingenuous 
 letter from a young Candidate for Holy Orders — a letter 
 which is as truly a model of filial trust and docility as the 
 Bishop's reply is a model of fatherly kindness and theological 
 wisdom and moderation. 
 
 New York, April i, 1847. 
 Right Reverend and dear Sir : I owe it to you and to myself 
 to state to you some of the doubts that have been pressing upon 
 me, and to ask your friendly advice. 
 23 
 
266 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 The schismatic aspect of the controversies that have been for 
 some time agitating our Church, and the apparent need of an infal- 
 lible Rule of Faith — or if the Sacred Scriptures- be assumed as such, 
 of an infallible interpreter of Scripture — led me to examine, so far 
 as I had the means, the claims of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
 and the antagonist claims of the Church of Rome to such Infalli- 
 bility, and to fear that the authority of her councils was rather of 
 human than of Divine origin. And under these doubts I have felt 
 that I ought in good faith to withdraw my name from the list of 
 Candidates for Holy Orders, preferring to live if possible as an un- 
 observed Layman, and thereby not hazard the souls of others, than 
 under a cloud of doubts to assume the fearful responsibility of a 
 Priest at the altar. 
 
 I knew my situation as a teacher left me little strength or leisure 
 to pursue this subject as its importance demands, and that I might 
 do so, I have resigned it and come here to await your counsel and 
 advice. 
 
 I hardly need say to you that I have no partiality for what is 
 peculiar to the Church of Rome. I only desire simple truth, pure 
 and undefiled, — to build my hopes of salvation on the Rock of Ages, 
 and to act in all things in the fear of God, and in what is left me 
 of life to be the humble instrument of doing good in whatever field 
 my Master may employ me. I would not knowingly do wrong or 
 lead others wrong, and desire to be in " the right way. ' ' 
 
 Will you please point me to such helps as I need ? and be assured 
 that your counsel and advice will be most gratefully received by 
 
 Ever gratefully yours, 
 
 * H= * * 
 
 To this the Bishop made answer : 
 
 Philadelphia, April 7, 1847. 
 My dear Sir : Your letter reached me when I was much occu- 
 pied with the duties and cares of Passion Week, and since its close 
 I have hardly had a leisure moment on my hands. I avail myself 
 of the earliest opportunity to express my regret that you find your- 
 self so seriously perplexed with the question respecting the Rule of 
 Faith, and my approval of your determination to suspend your ap- 
 
THE RULE OF FAITH. 267 
 
 plication for orders till these difficulties can be obviated. They are 
 difficulties which I have not experienced in any great degree myself; 
 but I can well understand how a certain course of reading and 
 thinking would induce them, and I need not say that in your own 
 case they consist, I doubt not, with entire integrity of purpose and 
 feeling. For myself, I am frank to say that I cannot conceive my- 
 self authorized to expect any infallible living expositor of the 
 Divine Rule of Faith, no such expositor appearing to me either 
 necessary or in accordance with analogy. I cannot regard it as 
 necessary since experience has shown that, with respect to certain 
 great fundamental truths, there has been a substantial agreement 
 among nearly all who have called themselves Christians, and to 
 multiply greatly Xht fundamental articles of faith seems to me as un- 
 favorable to unity as it is inconsistent with Scripture. Nor can I 
 regard such an infallible interpreter as being in conformity with 
 the general system of God's Providence, which makes liability to 
 error as well as sin, an essential part of our probation, and the effort 
 necessary in order to avoid it a most salutary part of our moral dis- 
 cipline. The views to be found in Butler's Analogy on this point 
 seem to me to be unanswerable. 
 
 But whatever may be thought of the abstract desirableness of a 
 living and infallible interpreter of Holy Writ, I cannot see how 
 the Church of Rome makes good her claims to be regarded as such 
 an interpreter. When she addresses a Protestant she must assume 
 the right of private judgment to belong to him; otherwise, he would 
 have no right to reason on the subject or to hear her pretensions 
 enforced by argument. He retains the right of private judgment so 
 long as he is only rejecting doctrines opposed to hers, but parts with it 
 the moment he becomes one of her members and would entertain the 
 question of the lawfulness of her rites or the Divine authority of her 
 doctrines. 
 
 Is it not well too to consider how far the history of the Latin 
 Church goes to establish her claims to Infallibility ? Has not a 
 Pope anathematized the very claim to supremacy which is now made 
 by all Bishops of that Church who sit at Rome ? Councils have 
 decided against councils, and parties formed .within the Church on 
 doctrinal questions have persecuted each other even to death. Its 
 
268 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Articles of Faith have been gradually but greatly enlarged, so that, 
 should submission to the decrees of Trent have been required of a 
 member of that Church in the fifth or sixth century, hardly any one 
 well read in ecclesiastical history can doubt that the requisition 
 would have been regarded as strange and monstrous. 
 
 There is, as it seems to me, a lurking and mischievous assump- 
 tion pervading every Latin or Roman Catholic work that I have 
 seen on the Unity and Authority of the Church Catholic. It is the 
 assumption that there must be among the nominal Churches of 
 Christendom one, which is alone Catholic and Apostolic. But this is 
 begging the whole question, What is a true Church? By what 
 marks may she be known ? These, as it seems to me, are the pri- 
 mary questions which, once settled, prepare us for the great issuj 
 between Rome and other Churches. But those questions cannot 
 be settled without an appeal to Sacred Scriptures, which would 
 involve the admission both of their paramount authority and of the 
 right of the human mind to interpret them independent of the Church. 
 To borrow the language of a writer who wrote in reply to Cardinal 
 Bellarmine, "If the Scriptures be not intelligible to honest and 
 diligent readers, I desire to know how we shall find out the 
 Church, for certainly the Church has no charter but what is in the 
 Scriptures, and then, if we must believe the Church before we 
 can believe or understand the Scriptures, we must believe the 
 Church before we can possibly know whether there be a Church or 
 not.'' 
 
 Scripture cannot be known without the Church nor the 
 Church without the Scripture, and yet one of these must be known 
 first. 
 
 It is said that it is only within the Church that we can learn which 
 are canonical or Divine Scriptures, and of course only through the 
 Church that we can learn what they mean. I answer that to me 
 the conclusion by no means seems to follow from the premises, and 
 that the premise itself is untenable. We know which are the Scrip- 
 tures, and are certified of their credibility and divine origin, not by 
 the voice of the Church proper (inasmuch as thus far, i. e., in the 
 preliminary investigation of the evidence, we know not whether 
 there be a Church), but by the consentient testimony of a great num- 
 
THE RULE OF FAITH. 269 
 
 ber of Christians who gave each his testimony, not in his ecclesias- 
 tical, but in his individual, capacity. 
 
 But I ought to apologize for running on at this length. I did 
 not intend to enter into any discussion, and of course have only 
 been suggesting difficulties in the way of a certain hypothesis with- 
 out attempting any exposition of what I consider the true Catholic 
 theory. I need hardly add that to my mind there is a clear via 
 media between licentious private judgment on one hand and abso- 
 lute authority on the other — a line which secures both the right to 
 think and the obligation to think reverently and dutifully. But on 
 this I cannot enlarge. 
 
 I will only express my regret that you have thought it necessary 
 to abandon your business in order to prosecute inquiries which can 
 be carried on with a clearer and more unbiased mind (I think) 
 when they do not constitute the one all-absorbing subject of thought. 
 The mind seems to me more likely to reach a safe and sound con- 
 clusion when it breathes alternately the air of different studies and 
 feels the awakening influence of different classes of companions. 
 
 Have you read Barrow on the Pope's Supremacy, or Chilling- 
 worth on the Rule of Faith ? I send a tract on the latter subject 
 which I happen to have before me. 
 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 How far this letter was effectual in dispelling the doubts 
 which called it forth it would be presumptuous in the present 
 writer to aver. Thus much he can record, that the perplexed 
 student did not withdraw from the list of Candidates, but pro- 
 ceeded with his theological course, and in due time was or- 
 dained to the Ministry of our Church ; and for the few years of 
 his devoted and holy life was a faithful and honored preacher 
 of the Gospel of Christ, " as this Church hath received the 
 same." The young inquirer and the wise counselor have 
 both passed beyond the veil where all doubts are dissipated, 
 and both bask in the full light of that truth, in the earthly dawn 
 of which they walked heavenward and led others in the 
 way. 
 
 23* 
 
270 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 EFFECTS OF BAPTISM. 
 
 It is not known that Bishop Potter has left any elaborate 
 essay or discourse on this question, which is now exciting more 
 than usual interest in the Church. He was not a theological 
 schoolman. His almost lifelong position as a Professor of 
 Moral Philosophy and Ethics made him familiar with those 
 principles which lie at the foundation of revealed religion. 
 He was eminently qualified to grapple with the Infidel or the 
 Deist. He was a Christian philosopher of no mean attain- 
 ments or insignificant power. But the demands of his truly 
 practical life did not constrain him to pursue very far that line 
 of study which would have made him an adept in the niceties 
 of speculative theology. For only five years of his manhood 
 before he became a Bishop was he free from the cares and 
 "studies of a College life; and while he was in parochial charge, 
 being not yet thirty years of age, he was so pressed with the 
 high requirements of the pulpit in the literary metropolis of 
 New England, where. Lyman Beecher and William E. Channing 
 were then in their glory, that he had little opportunity left for 
 the investigation of those intricacies of theological lore on 
 which recluse students love to lavish their time and strength. 
 Still, he was too thoughtful a man to be without opinions on 
 any substantial question which concerned his faith as a Chris- 
 tian or his teaching as a Minister of the Gospel. And for his 
 opinions his masculine intellect could not abide without rea- 
 sons. Indeed, it is sometimes refreshing to get the inartificial 
 thoughts of a great mind on topics which professional school- 
 men have obscured with scientific words. Mr. President Lin- 
 coln's messages in the crisis of our country's history were 
 marked by a plain, unhackneyed common sense and a direct 
 Saxon of homely language which made them oracles to the 
 people and clothed them with a power, of which long experi- 
 ence in political life and in diplomatic style of expression 
 would have despoiled them. 
 
 There is a fragment of a letter in hand in which Bishop 
 
EFFECTS OF BAPTISM. 27 1 
 
 Potter has left brief record of his views on the moral results 
 of baptism, and which they who revere his wisdom are en- 
 titled to peruse. It was written and probably sent to one of 
 his Clergy who, having listened to one of his addresses at a 
 time of Confirmation, wished to assure himself of the form 
 of expression which the Bishop had employed, and to know 
 precisely the thought which he had intended to convey. The 
 copy of the letter before me is without date, but it is believed 
 on some internal evidences that it was written in one of the 
 earlier years of his Episcopate. 
 
 In regard to the language I used in my Ante-Confirmation ad- 
 dress you are, I believe, not very wide of the mark. Wishing to 
 set forth the relative use of baptism, confirmation and communion, 
 I did, after stating the truths and obligations which are symbolized 
 in baptism, say in substance that "baptism duly given and duly 
 received brings with it the grace of conversion. ' ' I confess that I 
 would not be tenacious of this phraseology, nor of almost any 
 other, — for I find it very difficult to frame language in regard to the 
 sacraments which shall duly express their nature and importance, 
 and yet not seem to countenance great error. I abhor the o^us 
 operatum theory, and yet I dare not say that in the case of the 
 infant no moral and spiritual influence is applied to the mind, if the 
 ordinance is duly administered (i. e. , with the heart as well as with 
 official regularity) and duly received— i. e., with humble, earnest 
 faith and prayer on the part of parents and sponsors. In the case 
 of an adult, I cannot be assured of his conversion until he receives 
 or is willing to receive baptism, for it is in submitting to this ordi- 
 nance of God that he manifests outwardly a turning from the world 
 and willingness to obey the positive as well as moral institutions of 
 Christ ; and you know it is not unusual to say that which indicates 
 or denotes a change produces it. If to this you add the promise of 
 pardon and peace which is made to those who repent and are bap- 
 tized, you will not be so much surprised that I should connect 
 baptism and a moral change in the convert 
 
 We think it is evident from this extract, that Bishop Potter 
 
2/2 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 was not averse to the phraseology of our Baptismal office, but 
 that he predicated the propriety of its use on the presumed 
 earnestness and veracity of all who take part in the prayers 
 and vows with which the rite is accompanied. He would give 
 God credit for keeping his covenant, and responding with his 
 benediction, when his appointed Minister has with all faithful- 
 ness administered his appointed sacrament, and legitimate 
 representatives of one of Christ's redeemed who has com- 
 mitted no actual transgressions, have truthfully pledged him 
 to duty and earnestly implored for him the baptism of the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 MAY UNBAPTIZED PERSONS ACT AS SPONSORS FOR THOSE TO 
 BE BAPTIZED? 
 
 A Clergyman, Rector of a church in one of the rural dis- 
 tricts of Philadelphia, under date of June 6, 1864, addressed 
 to the Bishop the following letter : 
 
 Right Reverend and dear Sir : Ought any one not baptized to 
 be admitted as sponsor? I can find no legislation on the subject in 
 any of the books at my command. A case in point has arisen in 
 my Parish. A lady educated as a Friend, whose family are Friends, 
 but who is now a full member of the Church, much desires to have 
 one of her family, unbaptized, stand as sponsor for her infant son. 
 
 I told her that I deemed it inconsistent even in the case of an 
 unbaptized parent (which the Rubric seems to allow), but that I 
 would refer the case to you. 
 
 Very respectfully and truly yours. 
 
 To this the Bishop replied : 
 
 My dear Mr. H. : The question you present is new to me, and 
 I am just now so hurried to get my family ready to leave town that 
 I cannot consider it fully. 
 
 Where there are other sponsors the law and consistency of the 
 Church are "preserved," and the presence of the unbaptized 
 person would not vitiate the ordinance; and if he is a serious 
 
POLICY OF SMALL DIOCESES. 273 
 
 person some additional security for the proper training of the child 
 may be hoped for. His or her consistency in occupying such a 
 position is not our concern. Observe that I speak of a case in 
 which there are other sponsors. 
 
 Yours faithfully, A. P. 
 
 POLICY OF SMALL DIOCESES, AND THE SUBDIVISION OF LARGE 
 
 ONES. 
 
 Bishop Potter, in his address to the Diocesan Convention 
 of 1855, delivered and put on record his sentiments in the 
 following terms. Like all his opinions, they were shaped in 
 view of general principles, and not with mere reference to 
 present expediency. Therefore they have a permanent value. 
 
 The reduction of Dioceses to what has been called the primitive 
 standard is with many a favorite idea. By the Constitution of 
 our ' American Church as it now reads, no new Diocese can be 
 formed out of existing Dioceses, if it contains less than eight 
 thousand square miles of territory, or has less than thirty Presby- 
 ters canonically resident therein, and regularly settled in a Parish 
 or congregation. It was proposed in the general Convention of 
 1850 that both these restrictions should be withdrawn, and that 
 with the consent of the Bishop and Convention more immediately 
 interested, and that of the general Convention, new Dioceses 
 should be formed without any limitation as to territorial extent or 
 clerical force. At the Convention of 1853 this proposition received 
 the unanimous consent of the house of Clerical and Lay Deputies, 
 but was non-concurred in by the Bishops by a vote of seventeen to 
 nine. As this action of the Bishops has been made the occasion 
 of reproach — ambitious motives having been freely imputed to 
 them — and as it was on my motion that the vote of non-concur- 
 rence was adopted, it may be proper to assign some of the reasons 
 which induced it, and also to develop some of the principles which 
 in my judgment ought to govern the future policy of the Church 
 on this important subject. I was myself the more free to move in 
 this matter, on the occasion referred to, because under the law as 
 it now stands the Diocese of Pennsylvania might at once be divided 
 
274 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 into three, if not four, Dioceses, each having the required number 
 of Presbyters and square miles. As no relaxation, therefore, of 
 these requirements would be likely to affect my personal position, 
 I felt that I could deal with the subject simply on general prin- 
 ciples, and without the obloquy to which some of my brethren 
 under different circumstances might be exposed. 
 
 The resolution of non-concurrence adopted by the Bishops was 
 in these words : 
 
 "Resolved, That this House non-concur in the proposed amend- 
 ment to the seventh Article of the Constitution for the reason that 
 it would not, in their judgment, be wise to dispense with all restric- 
 lions as to the number of Presbyters and extent of territory." 
 
 They followed their non-concurrence with the proposal to the 
 lower House (through a Committee of conference) to dispense with 
 all territorial restriction, except that not more than one Diocese be 
 formed in the same city, simply requiring that to entitle a new 
 Diocese to be established it must have a certain number of self- 
 supporting Parishes and settled Presbyters (fifteen of each), and 
 must leave not less than thirty self-supporting Parishes and twenty 
 Presbyters in the parent Diocese. That overture was accepted by 
 the House of Deputies, and if ratified at the next General Con- 
 vention becomes thenceforth a part of the organic law of our 
 Church. It leaves the matter as open as can well be required, 
 while it secures that no strong Diocese shall set off an insignificant 
 fraction of its territory and churches to be a feeble and sickly 
 body, and provides, on the other hand, that any part of an existing 
 Diocese which seeks to be independent shall give, in its number 
 of Clergy and self-sustaining Parishes, some pledge that it has 
 within itself the elements of life and growth. Western New York, 
 when formed into a Diocese, had seventy-six Clergymen. The 
 Church in each State, it must be remembered, is entitled already 
 to erect itself into an independent Diocese, and but six Parishes and 
 ■six Presbyters are necessary to entitle such Diocese to elect its own 
 Bishop. Without the boundaries of States having this small num- 
 ber of Parishes and Presbyters, we must rely, of course, on Mis- - 
 sionary and Provisional Bishops ; and as our territory expands of 
 late even faster than our population, it is evident that for some 
 
PRIMITIVE DIOCESES. 275 
 
 time to come such Bishops, in common with some of our Dio- 
 cesans, must labor over large tracts of country, and rely for sup- 
 port either on Parishes which they hold as Rectors or on their 
 brethren of older and richer Dioceses. There is here, brethren, a 
 field for pur liberality and fraternal co-operation which we shall 
 never, I trust, overlook. 
 
 When we come to regulate the subdivision of older Dioceses we 
 encounter questions which deserve thorough discussion, and which 
 will be resolved in different ways, according to the view which we 
 take of the Episcopal office and of the functions proper to it in 
 this country. In the early. Church the jurisdiction of a Bishop was 
 naturally coextensive with a principal city and its adjacent villages 
 and territory. Its territorial extent, however, was often much 
 greater than is commonly represented. The African Dioceses (ac- 
 cording to Bingham) embraced on an average three or four score 
 towns and villages, besides the principal city. Hippo, the Diocese 
 of St. Augustine, was more than forty miles long, which, if esti- 
 mated by the time required to traverse it, would be equivalent at 
 present, in most of the older Dioceses, to two hundred miles. 
 Carthage is said to have had five hundred Clergymen subject in 
 the fourth century to the same Bishop ; and Hooker adduces the 
 authority of Chrysostom and Theophilus of Alexandria to prove 
 that "ample jurisdiction" was the rule rather than the exception. 
 
 But to my mind a more weighty consideration is to be found 
 in the great difference which may be observed between the position 
 of a modern Bishop in a Reformed communion and that of the 
 • ancient Episcopate. The conception formed under the Roman 
 empire of almost every local authority was naturally modeled after 
 that which, to a Roman mind, was then the ideal of executive 
 power — a centralized monarchy. For a long time Presbyters, 
 instead of being Rectors of independent Parishes, were mere As- 
 sistants or Curates of their Bishop, who was Pastor of the principal 
 church in the Diocese. They were attached to the principal or 
 parent church, and served the Bishop both as his council of advice 
 and as his subordinates in preaching and ministering the sacra- 
 ments and in Missionary labor throughout the surrounding villages 
 and districts. I need hardly indicate the vast difference between 
 
2/6 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 such a Bishop and one invested with the supervision of an Ameri- 
 can Diocese, where Episcopalians form a small minority of those 
 who profess and call themselves Christians, and where Parishes and 
 their Rectors have not only a certain independent existence, but 
 are, in one .respect, the fountains of our legislation and indeed of 
 all Church authority. 
 
 Such a Diocesan Episcopacy, being the only one adapted to the 
 habits and genius of our people, is the only one likely to gain a 
 footing among American Protestants. A monarchical Episcopate 
 which would transform each Bishop into an autocrat, his Presbyters 
 into drill-sergeants and the people into spiritual serfs is, among the 
 children of the Reformation in this land, simply an impossibility; 
 and we ought, it seems to me, to thank God for it. A Bishop of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States who is wise 
 will be as jealous of the rights of his Clergy and of their people 
 as of his own. He will hold in highest estimation those of his 
 administrative functions which are merely advisory and preventive, 
 and will count it more a pleasure and a privilege to foresee, and by 
 friendly private counsel avert evil and promote good, than to exer- 
 cise the lordliest rule over God's heritage. 
 
 But if. such are the functions of a Bishop, if in his cure eg,ch 
 Presbyter has an independent authority and jurisdiction of his own, 
 the labors that pertained to the Episcopal office during the first five 
 centuries have been greatly abridged, and the sphere in which he 
 applies them "will admit, in the same proportion, of being geo- 
 graphically enlarged. If he is to strengthen the position and 
 increase the proper influence of the Clergy, he should not be too 
 much among their people, so as to be tempted to supersede' them in 
 their proper functions or to open his ears too readily to the com- 
 plaints of the discontented. While he will be easy of access and 
 have a ready "mind and will" for all kindly offices, he will avoid 
 the familiarity that breeds contempt. He will put such. an interval 
 between his official visits that the anticipation of them will rouse 
 the slumbering energies of the Parish, inciting the Pastor to more 
 than usual zeal and diligence in preaching both publicly and from 
 house to house, and animating the Laity to greater carefulness for 
 the interests of the Church of God. 
 
SUPPORT OF THE EPISCOPATE. 277 
 
 And then as to the support of the Episcopate. If the efficiency 
 of the office is to be greatly increased in the older States, it must 
 be through arrangements which will leave to a Diocese full freedom 
 to select the best man for its peculiar wants, and to a Bishop full 
 opportunity to devote all his time and energies to the duties proper 
 to his office. Neither of these conditions can be so well attained 
 as when this support is furnished by the Diocese at large, as contra- 
 distinguished from any particular Parish on the one hand and from 
 private sources on the other. If it be a condition of his election 
 that he hold the care of a large and wealthy Parish as the means of 
 his support, then the exigencies or tastes of that Parish, rather than 
 the wants of the Diocese, will have to be consulted, not only in his 
 selection, but also in the disposal of his time and strength. On 
 the same principle he should be the stipendiary of no one portion 
 of his flock to the neglect or exclusion of the rest. If on the other 
 hand he is to be sustained out of his own private property, not only 
 will his sense of accountability to his Diocese be impaired, but the 
 preference given to him over other candidates for the office will 
 run the chance of being governed by the very last consideration 
 which ought to rule in a question touching so closely the dearest 
 interests of Christ's Church. There is no danger that wealth should 
 not be held in sufficiently high estimation in this country and in 
 our branch of the Christian world. It will bode only evil if 
 it shall ever come to be considered as a necessary qualification for 
 the highest office and honors of a Diocese. Disqtaalification it 
 surely ought not to be. But all the Church's Ministers will, as it 
 seems to me, best serve and most honor her when they are exam- 
 ples and patterns of simplicity and frugality in all their habits, and 
 such they can hardly be expected to be if they are preferred before 
 others mainly on the ground of personal affluence. 
 
 These few suggestions may render it evident why the Bishops de- 
 sired to engraft on the Constitution some security that, in the crea- 
 tion of her Dioceses, there should be at least the promise that they 
 shall at no distant day be self-supporting as it respects both a cer- 
 tain number of Parishes and the Episcopal office. In establishing 
 Parishes we consider this a wise provision. Can it be less wise in 
 the formation of new Dioceses out of those now existing? .... 
 24 
 
278 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 In our anxious desire to promote the growth and efficiency of our 
 conamunion we are apt to anticipate too much from some one un- 
 tried expedient, instead of laboring to develop all its means of ac- 
 tion. Among the fondest visions with which I contemplate the 
 future is the hope that, should a few years more of active labor be 
 vouchsafed to me, they may be subsidiary to a twofold, threefold, 
 or even fourfold division of this Diocese. But a somewhat careful 
 examination of the statistics of our American Church for twenty or 
 thirty years past admonishes me not to expect from such a measure 
 any great or sudden enlargement of our numbers or our capacity 
 for usefulness. The only State in which this course has been taken 
 does not exhibit, during the last twenty years, much greater collec- 
 tive growth by our Church in the ratio of the growth of popula- 
 tion than has taken place during the same period in Pennsylvania. 
 The new Diocese set off has enjoyed the active oversight of a 
 Bishop surpassed by few in qualities which illustrate and recom- 
 mend the Episcopal office or give effect to Episcopal supervision ; 
 and yet, if we are to judge from the increase of the Clergy, we 
 should infer that its progress during the last twelve years had been 
 behind that of a majority of Eastern Dioceses. And when we 
 compare the whole of New York *ith the whole of Virginia, or 
 of Connecticut, where the policy of Assistant Bishops has prevailed, 
 we find that when the rate at which population has increased is 
 compared with the increase of our Clergy, Virginia, from 1834 to 
 1854, made progress quite equal to that of New York. I refer to 
 these facts neither to recommend the practice of unnecessarily 
 multiplying Assistant Bishops, which I do not approve ; nor to dispar- 
 age the policy of dividing Dioceses, but to indicate that there are 
 other causes more powerful than the mere increase of the Episco- 
 pate which affect the progress and prosperity of our Church. In 
 some States, from the peculiar character of the immigrant popula- 
 tion, or from the prevalence of emigration, or from the force of 
 hereditary antipathies, that degree of advancement is impossible, 
 even with the best appliances, which elsewhere is accomplished 
 easily. In Pennsylvania all these causes continue to cripple our 
 exertions, 'and nothing . can overcome them but the earnest co- 
 operation of all orders of Clergy and people. That an increase 
 
SUBDIVISION OF DIOCESES. 279 
 
 of Episcopal force is expedient, and all but necessary, I have 
 already avowed as my conviction, but experience proves that it 
 does not necessarilyproduce a corresponding increase in the num- 
 ber and efficiency of the Clergy, nor in the zeal and liberality of 
 the Laity. More prayer for an unction from the Holy One, more 
 strenuous effort to glorify God and do good to all men as oppor- 
 tunity offers, more co-operation of Laity and Clergy in making 
 aggressions on the kingdom of darkness and debasement imme-, 
 diately around them, more special preparation on the part of all, 
 and especially on the part of the Clergy, for the peculiar work 
 which devolves upon us in this age and land,^ — here is the work 
 which it most behooves us to do, arid to do with our might. 
 
 In his address of 1 864 the Bishop expressed himself further 
 upon the same topic in this wise : 
 
 There is but one other topic to which I need refer : it is one 
 which occupies to some extent the thought of the whole Church, 
 both here and in the mother country, and which is of immediate 
 interest to us in this Diocese. It is the multiplication of Dioceses 
 b;^ the division and subdivision of those which are older and 
 stronger. On this, as on most other questions of civil or ecclesi- 
 astical administration, there are two extremes, neither of which 
 commends itself to impartial judgment. Some persons seem to 
 hold that the division of any Diocese which is coterminous with 
 the civil boundaries of a State would, under our Federal Govern- 
 ment, be an evil involving loss of unity and strength, and threaten- 
 ing serious embarrassment in matters touching the legislation or 
 adjudication of the civil authority of such State. Of these diffi- 
 culties, the one seems to be imaginary, the other admits of obvious 
 remedy by confederating the several. Dioceses which are formed in 
 any large State by some bond which will render concert and co- 
 operation easy. In this respect, the suggestion of the Committee 
 appointed last year, whose printed report is on your table, appears 
 to me timely and wise. The different parts of a State and Dio- 
 cese which have been long accustomed to work together for secular 
 and religious purposes 3,cquire habits and tastes which would render 
 
280 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 such confederation easy and would make it productive of many- 
 useful results. 
 
 On the other hand are those who suppose that in our communion 
 everything should originate with, or be made to rest upon, the 
 Bishop ; and that therefore the multiplication of Dioceses or Sees, 
 with their cathedral churches, schools and charities, is the one 
 desideratum which will reinstate the regirhen, and with it revive the 
 prosperity, of primitive ages. Such a theory overlooks the essential 
 difference in the state of society and of the Church which distin- 
 guishes our age and country from those of ancient Christianity, as 
 well as the other independent agencies which must concur with the 
 EpiscojDate in conducting our n^ission, whether at home or abroad. 
 
 Nine years ago I discussed at some length this question of the 
 normal size of Dioceses, and having seen no reason to change the 
 views then expressed, I will not detain you by any lengthened 
 discussion. 
 
 HINTS TO A POPULAR CITY RECTOR, 
 
 Addressed to one in whom the Bishop felt a deep personal 
 interest : 
 
 Chester, Sept. 5, i860. 
 
 I intended when I left you at Schenectady, in July, to write you 
 on two or three points, but postponed it till I should see you, and 
 then suffered the opportunity to pass. As they are matters which 
 bear directly upon your usefulness and happiness, you will bear 
 with me while I very briefly advert to them. 
 
 Your ministry in seems to have been, humanly speaking, 
 
 a success. Your congregation appears to be growing and united 
 and your position in the community very popular. This affords a 
 great opportunity for usefulness in the true sense, and it also creates 
 many temptations. I fancy there are few greater spiritual snares 
 than popularity to a city Clergyman. The temptation to look for 
 secular rather than spiritual results, to be satisfied if our services 
 win applause and draw a congregation ; the tendency to lose sight 
 of our personal defects and needs, in the ever-recurring round of 
 public and social offices; the insidious approach of self-compla- 
 cency and love of approbation, and an omission of the humbling 
 
HINTS TO A POPULAR RECTOR. 28 1 
 
 but most necessary work of self-examination and earnest religion, 
 and self-culture in private, — all these are dangers which surround 
 Ministerial success and popularity. Let me, then, exhort you to 
 be on the watch against them, to remember that one may draw 
 hearers without being instrumental in blessing them, and that noth- 
 ing less than a deep work in the heart and life of those who hear 
 should satisfy. Generally, the spiritual state of one's people will 
 answer (as face to face) to that of his own heart before God. In 
 proportion as his cares increase and his temporal success rises, in 
 the same proportion should he be jealous of himself and watch and 
 pray. 
 
 Another point on which I feel some solicitude is your studies. 
 You have considerable facility and aptness in writing. The current 
 literature ha^ many attractions, parochial and other calls multiply, 
 and without Stern resolution one's habits of study become unset- 
 tled. A Ministry cannot grow in power and edification without 
 systematic study of the Bible, of Theology and of Moral Philos- 
 ophy. That there is so little of this study now among our Minis- 
 ters is one great reason why so few of them improve after the first 
 few years. One cannot keep the fountain which is being con- 
 stantly, drawn irom. full and fresh, except it be constantly fed from 
 living streams, and there are no such streams but thought and sys- 
 tematic reading. Your preaching is very good, but judging from 
 what I have heard of it, I should fear it might run in one vein too 
 much. To be various, rich and soul-saving it should have a deep, 
 firm foundation of doctrine ; and this doctrine should ramify into 
 all the spiritual necessities of those whom you address, uncon- 
 verted and converted. Be careful, then, of too much light and 
 merely miscellaneous reading, of too much sleep and of too much 
 idle talk and visiting. 
 
 Another matter which occurred to me was that of expense. There 
 are few things which add so much to the comfort of life as to be 
 not only out of debt, but forehanded, as the phrase is. One never 
 knows when sickness or disability may come, or some other reverse 
 which cuts off our professional income ; then it is most desirable to 
 have a store to fall back upon. It is well, too, by saving ourselves 
 little expenses, to cultivate self-control as well as frugality ; and ex- 
 24* 
 
282 MEMOIR OP ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 perience shows that if professional, men ever form habits of econo- 
 my and accumulate anything considerable, they must begin early, 
 it being vastly more easy, as we grow older, to increase than to 
 lessen our expenses, the necessity of some increase being almost 
 unavoidable. Were I in your place, I would resolutely set aside 
 something (if it be not more than one hundred dollars) each year. 
 May these hasty hints excite you to reflection, and may God, 
 whose Spirit, I think, moved you to take upon you the Ministry of 
 his dear Son, make you a valiant and wise soldier of his cross ! 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INCIDENTS OF TH£ YEARS OF HIS EPISCOPATE RESUMED 
 IN THEIR ORDER. 
 
 HAVING now unfolded Bishop Potter's principles of ad- 
 ministration, his opinions and deportment on certain 
 great subjects of interest in Church and State, and thus, as I 
 trust, commemorated that interior of the man which is of far 
 more concern to those who live after him, than are the incidents 
 of his comparatively uneventful career, let us return to take 
 up in brief the narrative of his years of Episcopal life and labor. 
 In the first year of the Bishop's official life in Philadelphia, 
 he had the great pleasure of laying th6 corner-stone of a me- 
 morial chapel with which the revered name of Bishop White 
 should be linked. The idea was conceived by an Association 
 of Christian ladies, mostly of Christ Church, by whose perse- 
 vering efforts the plan was matured and the necessary funds 
 collected. Bishop Potter was called upon to deliver an ad- 
 dress on the occasion. It was unwritten, but the report of 
 it is still extant, and is well worthy of preservation. It is a 
 beautiful portraiture of the father of our American Episcopate ; 
 and, as a tribute from one who succeeded him in his great Dio- 
 cese and in some marked features of chai-acter resembled him, 
 it cannot fail to interest those who love the Church of which 
 these illustrious men were in their day and generation faithful 
 servants and shining lights. The day selected for this cere- 
 mony was that (April 4) which one hundred and three years 
 before had given birth to William White, the most eminent 
 native citizen, perhaps, that Philadelphia had produced. The 
 Bishop said : 
 
 283 
 
284 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 For nearly ninety years Bishop White had been one of her in- 
 habitants, and had been identified most closely during his whole 
 life with her highest interests. He had also associated his name 
 with memorable events and personages belonging to our political 
 and ecclesiastical history. A patriot of the Revolution, one of the 
 earliest chaplains of Congress, at one time the friend and Pastor of 
 Washington, for more than fifty years Rector of the two principal 
 congregations in the Diocese of Pennsylvania, the first Bishop of 
 that Diocese, and for nearly half a century the senior Bishop of the 
 American Episcopal Church, — his career had been alike conspicu- 
 ous and eventful. 
 
 When such a man, bearing so many offices and sustaining rela- 
 tions so high and responsible, passed through more than fourscore 
 years with an unspotted name in the fearless discharge of every 
 duty, and when the same man, called by Providence to take a lead- 
 •ing part in measures which were calculated to give cast and charac- 
 ter through all time to a large and important branch of the Church 
 universal, had been enabled to fill the post with surpassing wisdom 
 and success, — it was not too much to say that his memory deserved 
 to be cherished with the fondest veneration. To allow it to be for- 
 gotten would be treason to every sentiment with which Nature calls 
 us to honor departed excellence. It would be most unthankful to 
 the God who had bequeathed to us the legacy of such services and 
 such a name, and it would be robbing the young and inquiring of 
 future generations of an example peculiarly fitted to incite to worthy 
 deeds of piety and philanthropy. Let this humble monument rise, 
 then, on the banks of his own Delaware, in sight of the spire be- 
 neath which he had published for more than sixty years the riches 
 of Christ, and let it proclaim to every beholder that "the memory 
 of the just is blessed ! ' ' 
 
 A shaft higher than the highest pyramid of Egypt is now rising 
 at the Capital of our Union, and is to perpetuate, at the expense of 
 thousands of grateful Americans, the fame and achievements of the 
 Father of his country. 
 
 Is it not well that here, in this city of his birth, in this State that 
 had his loyal affection, in the midst of churches which he did so 
 much to plant, in the presence of Protestant Episcopalians through- 
 
CHARACTER OF BISHOP WHITE. 285 
 
 out the land and in the sight of all good men, we should build a 
 humble but lasting memorial where the poor may be welcomed to 
 the Banquet Supper of the Lamb, and where the name and services 
 of this father of our American Church shall be embalmed and 
 treasured up ? 
 
 Bishop White's was a character eminently worthy of study. He 
 was without the salient points that most strike the eye of the casual 
 observer, and he had not the splendor of genius which too often 
 dazzles the world without essentially serving it. His was that har- 
 monious development of moral and intellectual qualities which 
 makes the best and most useful men. 
 
 With a happy natural disposition, with a noble person and fine 
 health, he combined from early youth a conscientiousness and a 
 spirit of religious self-culture which crowned the gifts of nature 
 with the graces of piety. No man ever passed through a course so 
 long and eventful more universally beloved for kindness and gen- 
 tleness or more honored for purity and unyielding integrity. 
 
 To this claim to the affection and respect of men he added a 
 claim not less strong to their abiding and active co-operation, for 
 he was firm of purpose, patient in dealing with obstacles, loyal 
 through good and evil report to his convictions of duty, fearless 
 of danger to life, person and reputation, and yet eminently prudent 
 and conciliatory. His intellectual powers were not less worthy of 
 honor. Gifted by nature with a sound judgment and with a truth- 
 loving spirit, he cultivated habits of calm and profound reflection, 
 and looked before and after with large discourse of reason. Though 
 he passed his life in the midst of various and distracting cares, yet 
 systematic industry, combined with a tenacious memory, made him 
 master of a large variety of learning, and as a theologian he reached 
 an eminence which is not yet acknowledged, and which, measured 
 by the standard of attainment then prevalent and by the manifold 
 disadvantages under which Ministers of our Church everywhere 
 labored, merits the highest praise. If his rhetorical powers had 
 equaled his erudition and his capacity for thought, — and had we 
 been ready to honor as we ought the writers of our own country, — 
 the name of White had now stood side by side with those of Seeker 
 and Porteus, of Horsley and Home. 
 
286 .MEmomroF ALONZO potter. 
 
 There were' those, present who could bear ampler testimony than- 
 the speaker to his virtues as a man, to his public spirit as a citizen,, 
 to his deivotion as a Pastor arid his graces as a Christian Bishop. 
 There was one capacity, however, in which his name and charac- 
 ter belonged especially to history, and to which history has not yet 
 done justice. His own modesty, sometimes too fastidious, pre- 
 vented him from doing it in his " Memoirs of the Church," and it 
 was not to be expected that in a work emanating from a dignitary 
 of the English Church (the present Bishop of Oxford*) the motives 
 which governed him or the obstacles with which he was called to 
 struggle could be adequately set forth. As little was it to be expected 
 that in such a quarter the characteristic merits of the American Epis- 
 copal Church, as resting for pecuniary support on the voluntary offer- 
 ings of the people and as recognizing largely the right of the Laity 
 to share in government, should be appreciated. The time is com- 
 ing, however, when Bishop White will be' recognized as alike the 
 founder and wise master-builder of a systeiri of ecclesiastical polity 
 which, though not faultless, was as perfect as the condition of things 
 then admitted, and of which the essential excellence is likely to be 
 demonstrated by the progress of events. 
 
 The War of Independence nearly completed the ruin which for a 
 long time previous seemed impending over the Church in America. 
 The want of Episcopal supervision had been all but fatal to her dis- 
 cipline and to the proper supply of an educated and exemplary 
 Ministry. During the seven dark years of that war many of her 
 best Clergymen and Laymen had been expatriated, and the peace 
 of 1783 found her hedges broken down and her few husbandmen 
 almost in despair. Her members, scattered sparsely from Maine to 
 Georgia, were without habits of co-operation and were much di- 
 vided in opinion. To combine elements so scattered and hetero- 
 geneous, to reduce to oirder and inspire with hope those who knew 
 no superior and were sunk in despondence, was a task which could 
 only have been achieved by a man of care, discernment and of 
 great practical efficiency. It was necessary that his motives should 
 be above suspicion. His urbanity must conciliate regard. On one 
 side his loyalty to his own country must be unquestionable, and on 
 •Author of a work on the Episcopal Church in America. 
 
CHARACTER OF BISHOP WHITE. 287 
 
 the other he must be esteemed for the strength of his attachment to 
 the Episcopal regimen and to the doctrines and worship which 
 prevailed in the Mother Church of England. He must have a tem- 
 per so modest and principles so catholic that he could mediate be- 
 tween extreme opinions which from the East and the South threat- 
 ened to come into hostile collision ; he must be able to foresee and 
 provide for the inevitable difficulties which had been occasioned by 
 old prejudices on the one hand and by new fears and aversions, the 
 result of a protracted civil war, on the other ; and he must possess 
 in a large measure the twofold wisdom which can devise the best 
 measures, and yet yield, when necessity requires it, to others which 
 are not the best. 
 
 When such men are needed we may consider it a singular boon 
 of Providence if they are permitted to appear. It is this which 
 invests the career of Washington with so much that moves to relig- 
 ious gratitude and admiration. For the singular adaptation of his" 
 talents and disposition, his early training and his subsequent expe- 
 rience, to the great work he was called to perform, we can account 
 on no human principle. It was the same with him who was called 
 like another Moses to lead our Church out of her long captivity 
 and through a wilderness of suffering and humiliation. He was 
 sent of God. He had a name against which reproach did not 
 venture to whisper. He had a calmness and candor of mind and 
 a strength of judgment which made him the rallying-point of all 
 who desired unity and reorganization. His mind was clear in its 
 own conceptions and settled in the conclusions to which it had been 
 carried, yet he was always ready, when he could do so without 
 serious dereliction, to defer to the judgment and wishes of others. 
 He had both prudence and courage, and he was gifted, in larger 
 measure than almost any man of his day, with a clear and far-reach- 
 ing foresight. 
 
 The peace of 1783 had not been concluded before he had sketched 
 out, in a pamphlet entitled "The Case of the Episcopal Churches 
 Considered," a plan for the organization of our infant communion, 
 which shows the comprehensive skill of a statesman, and which 
 ultimately commended itself to general acceptance. The essential 
 unity of the whole American Church as a national Church, its inde- 
 pendence of any foreign jurisdiction, the entire separation of the 
 
288 ' MEMOIR dF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 spiritual and temporal authority, the participation of the Laity in 
 the legislation and government of the Church and in the election 
 of its Ministers of every grade, the equality of all Parishes and a 
 threefold organization (Diocesan, Provincial and General), were 
 fundamental principles in his plan, as they were in that which was 
 finally adopted. 
 
 To conceive such a plan, however, was much easier than to secure 
 its adoption. The difficulties which had to be encountered were 
 such as might well have appalled any spirit less calm and patient, 
 less resolute and trustful, than his own. This is not the place, nor 
 is now the time, in which to set forth the unyielding serenity of soul, 
 the unfailing courtesy and kindness, the true modesty and self-for- 
 getfulness, the calm sobriety of judgment,' the independence of 
 personal considerations and the straightforward honesty and zeal 
 which gradually won to him the confidence of all hearts, and which 
 enabled him at length to secure the cordial acceptance of every im- 
 portant feature in his original plan. To develop these services in 
 full will be the duty of the future historian, and upon that historian 
 will devolve the grateful task of showing how his steady hand 
 guided the system as it went into operation, and how, through the 
 gracious goodness of God, he was permitted for more than forty 
 years to be in every emergency its most honored and trusted 
 administrator. 
 
 No monument of stone or brass can worthily commemorate the 
 services of such a man. No care, however pious or affectionate, 
 can guard his memory or honor his services too well. Thanks then 
 to the godly women who, in all meekness, but with indomitable 
 patience, have striven through five long years to provide here a 
 lasting and most appropriate memorial ! In a church the seats of 
 which are to be always free, and which is to open its doors alike to 
 poor and rich, they would remember the destitute and needy and 
 him who through all his useful life was distinguished by devotion to 
 their wants. The sick, the indigent, the vicious, the ignorant and 
 neglecterf, the prisoner in his cell and those bereaved from birth of 
 the most important organs and faculties, ever found in William 
 White a friend and benefactor. May the mantle of his benevolence 
 and meek wisdom descend on those who survive or follow him ! 
 
AUTUMN OF 1846— /r^ OCCUPATIONS. 289 
 
 may the example of pious zeal and gratitude to his memory which 
 our sisters have given us be gladly imitated ! may we take shame 
 to ourselves that this good work has been so long delayed ! and may 
 we resolve — and may this resolution be adopted by every household 
 in our communion in this city — may we resolve that we will each 
 of us bear some part, however humble, in its early consummation ! 
 
 During a visitation in the western part of the Diocese in 
 September of 1846 the Bishop attended a meeting of the 
 first Convocation organized in his Diocese. The meeting was 
 held at St. Andrew's Church, Pittsburg. In his address to 
 the Convention in May following he thus adverted to that 
 occasion : 
 
 Such meetings among the Clergy, if connected with frequent 
 public service, with much private prayer and with abstinence from 
 unprofitable and irritating controversies, must conduce to strengthen 
 the bonds of mutual affection and confidence, and to induce that 
 spirit of general and cordial co-operation so essential to the growth 
 of our Church and of true religion. They prove most profitable, 
 it is believed, when they involve systematic efforts for the strength- 
 ening of weak Parishes, for the formation of new ones in destitute 
 places, and for providing occasional services for the scattered mem- 
 bers of our fold. These were objects kept steadily in view in the 
 Convocation at Pittsburg. 
 
 In the months of October and November following he 
 remained at home, devoting himself through the secular days 
 of the week to the correspondence and other oiifice-business 
 incident to his position. On the Sundays he commenced a 
 practice pursued ever after throughout his Episcopate, when 
 not on duty in the performance of his special functions. He 
 thus reported it to the Convention of 1847: 
 
 I also availed myself of the opportunity kindly afforded me at 
 
 this time by the Rectors of the Parishes in the vicinity to officiate 
 
 ' by preaching and otherwise in their Churches, by addressing the 
 
 Sunday-schools, catechising the children and rendering such other 
 
 25 T 
 
290 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 services as might be called for. These informal visits, made with- 
 out previous notice and not involving the performance of offices 
 strictly Episcopal, I regard as useful alike to a Bishop and to the 
 people of his charge. They afford occasions for intercourse with 
 the Laity both more frequent and more unrestrained than can be 
 enjoyed at regular visitations ; they exhibit the Parishes in their 
 ordinary working condition, and they afford to the Clergy and 
 the Bishop additional opportunities for conference and for a fra- 
 ternal interchange of their views and feelings. 
 
 Later in the same address the Bishop said : 
 
 During ray visitation of the churches lying on the north and 
 west branches of the Susquehanna, which terminated on the 28th 
 of April, I held a second Convocation at Williamsport, which was 
 well attended and productive of much interest among the Clergy 
 
 and people In addition to other advantages which are 
 
 likely to flow from these Convocations, properly conducted, will be 
 the gradual preparation of the remoter parts of this State to be 
 formed into one or more separate Dioceses. To render the meas- 
 ure a safe and beneficial one the Parishes within the territory pro- 
 posed for a new Diocese should be able not only to sustain them- 
 selves, but to bear the increased burden which will be occasioned 
 by the support of the Episcopate and by church extension within 
 their own limits. 
 
 So early in his Episcopate did Bishop Potter foresee the 
 necessity for a division of his vast jurisdiction ; so long before 
 did he pre-monish the people that he would esteem a demon- 
 strated ability to provide for the maintenance of the Bishop 
 and to meet the other expenses incident to the organization 
 of a new^ Diocese a condition precedent to the propriety of 
 separation. 
 
 In the beginning of 1847 a distressing famine prevailed 
 throughout a large part of Europe. At that period not a 
 little ill-feeling had been existing betvs^een the people of Great 
 Britain and those of this country, occasioned by that never- 
 to-be-adjusted source of trouble, the boundary question be- 
 
RELIEF OF SUFFERERS BY FAMINE. 2gl 
 
 tween these expanding and arrogant States and the outlying 
 American Colonies of the British Crown. 
 
 It seemed to be an occasion (said Bishop Potter, in the same 
 address) as rare as it was providential — an occasion where, by a 
 prompt and united effort to administer relief, made in this far-off 
 land, we could testify not merely our love for Christ and our com- 
 miseration for those for whom Christ died, but could also warm 
 the somewhat alienated hearts of our kindred across the water 
 toward us, and thus contribute to allay the bitterness of inter- 
 national jealousy and calm the waters of religious strife. Im- 
 pressed with these considerations, and hoping that an appeal to the 
 Churches of this Diocese might operate in strengthening even 
 within our borders the deep feeling of sympathy which was begin- 
 ning to exhibit itself, and might also help to concentrate and sys- 
 tematize efforts in many of the less populous districts, I issued a 
 Pastoral Letter on the 7th of February to the Clergy and congre- 
 gations of the Diocese, asking them to make contributions toward 
 the relief of the sufferers. The appeal was nobly responded to. 
 
 Besides all that was contributed by Episcopalians of Phila- 
 delphia through other channels for the famishing thousands 
 of Ireland and Scotland, the offerings of the churches which 
 acceded to the Bishop's recommendation amounted to ^9000. 
 This was expended by a judicious Committee in procuring sup- 
 plies, which were forwarded, under letters from Bishop Potter 
 to the Archbishops of Ireland and to the Primus of the 
 Episcopal Church in Scotland, for distribution under their 
 order " among the most destitute, without reference to their 
 religious faith or professions." 
 
 This incident at the beginning of Bishop Potter's adminis- 
 tration has been thought worthy of mention because it is one of 
 the early items in that system of training by which he brought 
 up the Church in Pennsylvania to a larger liberality. It was 
 an occasfon of renewed intercourse with Dr. Whately, then 
 Archbishop of Dublin, for whom, on his first visit to Europe, 
 
292 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 in 1838, he had learned to cherish a very cordial respect and 
 regard. 
 
 In this address of 1847 the Bishop reports the consecra- 
 tion of two churches that "stand, and I trust will for ever 
 stand, free of debt." He was one of the first among the 
 Bishops who instituted the practice of refusing to consecrate 
 a church edifice while any pecuniary encumbrance remained 
 upon it. In his address of 1848 he mentions four others, of 
 which he says : 
 
 The consecration of these churches has been attended by circum- 
 stances of unusual interest and of the happiest promise. In the 
 first place, they have been free from debt. No tax has been left to 
 be discharged by posterity. No sanction has been given to the 
 criminal practice of incurring pecuniary responsibilities without a 
 clear prospect of being able to meet and discharge them, and no 
 hazard has been incurred that places once set apart for the per- 
 formance of religious ofiSces shall be wrested from their sacred pur- 
 pose by the violent though righteous hand of the law. And it is 
 due to five other Parishes which have completed church edifices 
 within the last year to state that, not having discharged as yet all 
 their liabilities, they have not asked that these edifices should be 
 devoted to the exclusive possession and service of the Most High. 
 
 Thanks to this manly and Christian spirit ! It is shared also by 
 several of our older Parishes which have long been pressed down 
 by the incubus of debts, and which are now employed in strenuous 
 efforts to disengage themselves. The Diocese is thus engaged in 
 the twofold work of erecting new churches and of discharging the 
 pecuniary obligations resting on old ones. The work, though ardu- 
 ous, is advancing with much spirit, and I look forward with con- 
 fidence to the day not far distant when we can point to all the con- 
 secrated edifices of the church in this Diocese as free from the re- 
 proach of indebtedness. 
 
 This earnest wish of the Bishop was well nigh realized be- 
 fore his Episcopate was closed. In his address of 1850 "he 
 records with gratitude that the good work is progressing, from 
 
STIMULANTS TO LIBERALITY. 293 
 
 fifty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars having been 
 raised within eight months toward the removal of debts on a 
 few of the churches in Philadelphia." 
 
 In his address of 1851 the Bishop reports : 
 
 In my desire to increase interest throughout the Diocese in the 
 propagation of the Gospel, and in my perhaps over-sanguine hope 
 that an appeal from me might prompt our Clergy and congregations 
 to introduce more of system and vigor into their operations, I 
 issued in January last a Pastoral Letter on the whole subject of con- 
 tributions to Church objects other than those which are simply 
 parochial. It is a subject in which I share with my brethren of the 
 Clergy and Laity a common responsibility. As the responsibility, 
 however, in my case is greater, and as I feel a natural ambition 
 that this Diocese should come behind in no gift or grace that 
 adorns a Christian communion, I may be forgiven if I press the 
 adoption of measures which will result not only in increasing the 
 amount of our contributions and the regularity with which they 
 are made, but also in drawing them more from those in every con- 
 dition in life, so that on all may descend the blessing which awaits 
 them who give cheerfully, whether of their abundance or their 
 penury. This letter was received with the kindness which had 
 awaited all efforts that I have made for the good of the Diocese. 
 
 In his address to the Diocesan Convention of 1852 the 
 Bishop, after acknowledging with gratitude the growth of the 
 Church in the Diocese and the increased activity with which 
 the peculiar appliances of our communion were being em- 
 ployed by our people, gave the following admirable resume 
 of the difficulties to be encountered, and suggestions for the 
 systematic organization of the forces in every Parish by which 
 a large increase of numbers might be effected, and the Church 
 become a fount of blessing to surrounding multitudes. It is 
 hoped that the following extract will not be regarded as too 
 long to merit a perusal, nor the time too late to put to ex- 
 periment the Bishop's propositions : 
 
 To ourselves and to our Divine Master we owe large arrears on 
 
 25* 
 
294 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 account of past unfaithfulness or inefficiency. We reach directly, 
 through our own services, but an insignificant part of the popula- 
 tion of this great Commonwealth — not more, probably, than one in 
 twenty. We see abundant proofs at the same time that there are 
 multitudes, both in town and country, who are reached by no re- 
 ligious instruction and influence likely to be of permanent advan- 
 tage to them. The voluntary system for sustaining and propagating 
 the Gospel has thus far worked quite as well as any system with 
 which it is usually compared. But in its practical working here it 
 must be admitted that at present it appeals too much to the prin- 
 ciple of competition among different religious bodies, and directs 
 its course somewhat too exclusively toward those who have pecu- 
 niary support to offer. In traveling over this State one is often 
 saddened to see with what intense and ungenerous efforts those of 
 different religious names sometimes struggle for ascendency in our 
 small towns, and how in this ignoble strife ministrations and places 
 of worship are multiplied as much beyond the proper wants of the 
 population as beyond its ability to support them. On the other 
 hand, in the rural districts there are large numbers of people who 
 are left without the service of any properly qualified Ministry, and 
 there are many who have the services of no Minister at all. In our 
 cities and larger towns the evil takes a somewhat different shape. 
 Congregations there being gathered mainly through the attractions of 
 the pulpit, and being composed almost exclusively of those who are 
 able and willing to pay for sittings, we are in danger of overlook- 
 ing the most important part of our mission. 
 
 What, in truth, do many of our largest and seemingly most 
 flourishing churches do for those who never attend worship, or for 
 those again who are unable to appreciate and enjoy a scholar-like 
 oratory, or for those again who are besotted by vice and ignorance? 
 Beneath the very shadow of an edifice thronged on the Lord's day 
 by admiring worshipers, may fester a mass of wickedness and im- 
 piety sufficient to make every thoughtful man tremble.' Christians 
 little consider the extent of this evil, nor the perils with which it 
 invests our social condition and prospects. These neglected classes 
 are dangerous classes, and in proportion as they become large and 
 are clothed by law with political power and authority, they threaten 
 
CALL TO CHRISTIAN ACTIVITY. 295 
 
 our dearest and most sacred interests. Has not the time come, 
 then, when the Ministers and members of our communion should 
 address themselves earnestly and resolutely to this neglected duty? 
 That we may be enabled to discharge it we need not so much an 
 increase of pecuniary contributions or Clerical strength as a better 
 organization and a more active use of existing resources. 
 
 It must be apparent to every observing person that too many of 
 our people remain passive under the ministrations of the sanctuary. 
 Even communicants who profess to know that their duty is to do 
 good to all men as they have opportunity, are slow to adopt perma- 
 nent and systematic plans of beneficence, through which they can 
 reduce the lessons of the pulpit and the impressions received in 
 reading or conversation to daily practice. Quite too much of our 
 current Christianity is occupied in hearing or talking or reading 
 about religion, too little in striving to becoming doers of the 
 Word. I am well aware that there are persons who can find full 
 employment for their active charities at home, and in the discharge 
 of their daily duties. But there are others who have the ability, and 
 who are not without inclination, to go out into the highways and 
 hedges and compel the destitute and forsaken to come in. They 
 need, however, the direction of those who are clothed with proper 
 authority, and who have also skill and experience in respect to the 
 best modes of doing good. They need encouragement too, when 
 they meet with disheartening difficulties, and constantly do they 
 need to be reminded that a true Christian life requires more than 
 occasional paroxysms of benevolence. It requires that always 
 while we are in the body, we should be about our Master's 
 business, always wise to win souls, always instant in season and 
 out of season in ministering to suffering bodies and diseased 
 minds. 
 
 What then might not be accomplished if each Parish were in 
 fact what it is declared to be in theory, a Missionary association — 
 an association whose members really feel that their personal efforts 
 and prayers are to be joined with their regular pecuniary offerings, 
 in order to seek and to save them that are lost. At least one-third 
 of all the sittings in the churches of this Diocese are unoccupied 
 every Lord's day, so that without increasing our church accommo- 
 
296 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 dation or our Clerical force, we might to that extent at least increase 
 at once the number of those who attend our ministrations. And 
 what a blessing would inevitably accrue to those who should make 
 strenuous and judicious aggression upon the vice and irreligiori 
 that surround them ! It is an effort which always brings with it 
 its own reward. Many whose hearts now yearn for occupation, or 
 whose consciences admonish them that they are doing too little for 
 the world and for God, would here find a sphere of activity as 
 delightful as it would be improving. And for the Church, what a 
 noble enterprise to embody her communicants in each congrega- 
 tion into an active recruiting agency among the neglected poor, and 
 among the neglected and irreligious who are not poor ! Why, with 
 a proper Lay agency and a more earnest Missionary spirit, should 
 she not, within five years, double the number of those who, in this 
 Diocese, are looking to her for spiritual instruction and consola- 
 tion? Let her remember the young whom she is not laboring to 
 train in Christian ways. Let her remember friendless immigrants, 
 destitute orphans, the neglected, helpless sick, and sinners who 
 have no man to care for their souls. 
 
 In the same address the Bishop gratefully acknowledges an 
 increased provision for his own support, and makes it the 
 occasion of pleading for a more generous maintenance of his 
 parochial Clergy by their respective congregations. Indeed, 
 he never neglected, an opportunity to plead for those who, dis- 
 pensing the riches of the Gospel, were themselves scarce sup- 
 plied with the bare necessaries of life. It will be found, by 
 any who will review his annual addresses to the Convention 
 of his Diocese, that in nearly every year of his Episcopate he 
 made the proper support of the Clergy one of his cardinal 
 themes of counsel, embodying the suggestion of various 
 devices for affording the needed relief. 
 
 This tender care for the Clergy was no indirect way of 
 securing a more liberal provision for himself. He had a truly 
 Apostolic repugnance to the thought of being "burdensome" 
 to those for whom he ministered. " Seeking first the kingdom 
 
INSTANCES OF HIS UNSELFISHNESS. 297 
 
 of God and his righteousness," he seems to have had an 
 implicit and child-like confidence that all things needful for 
 the body should be added unto him. He adopted for himself 
 a very simple style of living, and did not desire the means to 
 live more luxuriantly. His self-abnegation was a marked 
 feature of his personal character. 
 
 In 1854 a project was on foot for the purchase of an Epis- 
 copal residence. The following is a copy of a letter addressed 
 by him to the chairman of the Committee having the enter- 
 prise on hand : 
 
 146 Walnut Street, Jan. 4, 1854. 
 
 My dear Mr. R : I believe you are chairman of a Commit- 
 tee which has been charged with the subject of an Episcopal resi- 
 dence. If the matter had been one that pertained to me personally, 
 I might have felt at liberty long before this to request your kind 
 interposition to arrest the further agitation of the scheme. It 
 involved, however, the rights, and perhaps the comfort, of my suc- 
 cessors, and therefore, while I could not but feel that my position 
 was embarrassing and might to others appear equivocal, I felt that 
 it became me to abstain from interfering with a measure which was 
 Diocesan in its character, and which, as I had no responsibility in 
 any way in originating it, might be allowed to proceed without my 
 co-operation, or even knowledge. I have accordingly remained 
 passive during a year and a half, have rarely heard the subject 
 alluded to, and have probably known less of its progress or pros- 
 pects than any other active Churchman in Philadelphia. 
 
 The state of things is now changed. I receive communications 
 from country Parishes, from which I perceive that they have been 
 appealed to in behalf of this object, and that they feel it necessary 
 to justify to me their declining to co-operate in a measure for my 
 benefit. I think this is a position which no friend of mine or of 
 my office will be willing to have me occupy, and from which I 
 cannot too prompdy or decidedly withdraw. May I beg you then 
 to express to your associates my earnest desire that the whole sub- 
 ject may be allowed to subside, and that during my life it may not 
 be revived? I am well content with what the Diocese has already 
 done for my support, and shall never cease to cherish a grateful 
 
298 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 remembrance of the many acts of unmerited kindness of which I 
 have been the object since I became a resident of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Ever, ray dear sir, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 A. Potter. 
 
 In one of those financial crises which come with almost de- 
 cennial regularity (we cannot say whether in '47 or '57, for the 
 copy has no date), the Bishop wrote to the treasurer of the 
 Episcopal fund, who was also an intimate personal friend, as 
 follows : 
 
 My dear Mr. W : In the sad times upon which we have 
 
 fallen I desire to do something to, lighten the burdens which will 
 rest upon our people, and I ask your advice as to the mode in which 
 I shall do it. At first I thought that I would simply relinquish five 
 hundred dollars per annum of my salary. It then occurred to me 
 that I might thereby do some injustice to my successors, and that what 
 was thus saved to the Diocese in one way would be lost in another. 
 I write, therefore, to say that if there is any deficit in the contribu- 
 tions of the Parishes, so that your receipts do not equal the charges 
 upon the fund, you will consider me pledged to the extent above 
 named per annum toward making up that deficit. If there is no 
 present deficit, perhaps the best use I can make of anything I can 
 possibly spare will be to eke out the income of some of our 
 straitened Missionaries and other Clergy. I will thank you for your 
 frank information and advice on the subject. 
 
 In the winter of 1853-4, at the instance of Bishop Potter, a 
 course of Sunday-evening lectures on the Evidences of Religion 
 was delivered in the churches of Philadelphia. Bishops and 
 Presbyters were invited from different parts of the country to 
 take part in it. In his address to the Convention in May fol- 
 lowing the Bishop referred to this series in the following 
 terms : 
 
 The discourses, marked by great, and in several instances by pre- 
 eminent, ability, were directed more especially to relieve the diffi- 
 culties of thoughtful young men, whose minds, to an extent much 
 
SERMONS TO MEDICAL STUDENTS. 299 
 
 to be deplored, are in danger of being infected with a specious but 
 hollow skepticism, which shelters itself under the abused names of 
 science and philosophy. The result of this experiment has been 
 to exalt the estimation in which our Clergy are held for learning 
 and mental power, and to demonstrate how utterly disproportioned 
 are the arrogant pretensions of speculative unbelief to its actual 
 resources. 
 
 Most of these sermons were under Bishop Potter's auspices 
 gathered into a volume, and published under the title of " Phil- 
 adelphia Lectures " on the Evidences. Pre-eminent among 
 them for power and earnestness is one by the Bishop himself. 
 
 In the previous winter, at the Bishop's solicitation, arrange- 
 ments were made for a series of Sunday-evening sermons to 
 the hundreds of Medical students who resort to Philadelphia 
 for instruction. This is believed to have been the first system- 
 atic effort to reach these professional sojourners in the city, 
 who are to be scattered all over the land and invested with 
 great responsibilities and wide consequent influence. The 
 attendance at these services was very large and the apparent 
 interest of the students great. The effort was renewed in sub- 
 sequent winters, but a zeal to do good in the same way was 
 awakened among so many of our ministering brethren of 
 other Christian bodies that the congregations in attendance 
 were divided and subdivided, until the vitality seemed to have 
 been taken put of the whole movement, and the enterprise 
 died among us and them. 
 
 The following letter was in December, 1854, addressed to a 
 Clergyman of Philadelphia through whom the Bishop had 
 made some anxious inquiries respecting the tone of Church 
 sentiment existing, and, as it was feared, encouraged, at the 
 Theological Seminary in which the Rev. Dr. May was then a 
 Professor. 
 
 The letter is a just and beautiful tribute to a holy man of 
 God now gone to his rest, and at the same time an earnest 
 protest against that indiscretion (to call it by a gentle name) 
 
300 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 which some fervent Christian men commit, in speaking with dis- 
 paragement of the order and worship of our Church, appa- 
 rently distorted in mind with the conceit that no true appre- 
 ciation of the jewel of the Gospel can consist with a loving 
 regard for the casket in which the Lord saw fit to deposit it : 
 
 146 Walnut Street, Monday, A. m. 
 
 My dear Doctor: I return you Dr. May's letters, which I have read 
 with the greatest pleasure. What an admirable spirit ! Would that 
 I had it in larger measure, and that it could be infused into all our 
 Candidates for orders ! You and I as old teachers know how diffi- 
 cult it is to imbue young men with a docile spirit, and how very 
 possible it is that Professors may perseveringly and earnestly make 
 war with an evil without curing it. The same spirit working in an 
 opposite direction was the curse of the New York Seminary a few 
 years ago. 
 
 I fear that writing hastily I may have expressed myself in terms 
 stronger than was becoming. I should do infinite injustice to my 
 own feelings if I should seem wanting in respect and admiration 
 for such men as those who are connected with the Alexandria Sem- 
 inary. But I have felt profoundly the wonderful opening which 
 Providence is presenting just now for the growth of a truly catholic 
 and evangelical Churchmanship, combining honest, earnest loyalty 
 to the peculiarities of our communion with a loyalty still more 
 earnest to the peculiarities of the Gospel ; and I must confess to 
 some vexation and impatience when I see the golden opportunity 
 endangered by men whose mission in the world seems to be to find 
 fault with the ecclesiastical lot which they inherit from their fathers, 
 or to set their brethren by the ears. Our Laymen, as a general 
 rule, will have Churchmanship. They want that of a generous and 
 tolerant type — tolerant toward those within as well as without. 
 If they can't get it, many t)f them will take the Churchmanship 
 and let the toleration go, and our friends will put themselves where 
 hitherto they always have been— in a minority which deprives them 
 of the power of directing the legislation or policy of the Church. 
 
 But a truce to all this. ... I am anxious to serve Mr. . I wish 
 
 {inter nos) he had a higher character for energy and industry. I 
 
FIRST ALLUSION TO IMPAIRED HEALTH. 3OI 
 
 am told he preaches over old sermons and visits but little. Most 
 of our Parishes cannot any longer be sustained by such Ministers. 
 Every year it grows more difficult to get them Parishes, or to keep 
 them in possession of those they* have. There is a vacancy oppo- 
 site N , a good parsonage, six hundred or eight hundred dollars 
 
 a year, and but one service on Sunday. Still, even there, a man 
 
 who sleeps will soon find himself adrift 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 In 1855 the Bishop, in addressing the Convention, first 
 alluded to impaired health and the impending possibility that 
 he might need relief, either by the appointment of an Assist- 
 ant or the division of the Diocese. He then expressed him- 
 self in reference to those labors in which it had been his habit 
 to engage for the improvement of society in its general 
 character and condition, declaring it to be his conviction that 
 all efforts of that sort befit the office of a Bishop and enure to 
 the advantage of the Church, provided they do not hinder him 
 from the fulfillment of the special duties which the Lord has 
 imposed upon him. He declared his purpose to withdraw 
 himself at the time and to the extent, which his reduced 
 physical ability might indicate to be proper. 
 
 At the Convention of 1855 Bishop Potter reviewed the 
 labors and results of the ten years since his election to the 
 Episcopate. He prefaced the recital of the statistics by the 
 modest suggestion. 
 
 In instituting a comparison between the present and the past 
 condition of the Diocese we should remember that figures are at 
 best but an imperfect index of its actual state. There may be 
 increase of churches and Clergymen, a material addition of wor- 
 shipers and communicants, and yet the aggregate moral and 
 spiritual power of the Diocese be stationary, or even retrograde. 
 
 Whatever abatement it may be just to make in view of the 
 possibly erroneous impression sometimes conveyed by figures, 
 
 26 
 
302 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 yet the record is one highly honorable to the administration 
 under whose regime the facts transpired, and demanding a 
 grateful recognition of the Providence by whose blessing the 
 results were bestowed. 
 
 During the last ten years (less four months which elapsed between 
 my election and consecration), said the Bishop, I have officiated in 
 public on two thousand two hundred and eighty-four occasions, on 
 one thousand and two of which the rite of Confirmation was 
 administered. The whole number of persons confirmed during 
 this period is eight thousand six hundred. 
 
 I have also during the same period consecrated fifty churches, 
 admitted sixty-five Candidates to the Diaconate and sixty-one 
 Deacons to the Priesthood, preached seventeen hundred sermons, 
 baptized one hundred and fifty-four infants and adults, and admin- 
 istered the Holy Communion two hundred and nineteen times. 
 
 .... In much larger proportion than formerly our rural and 
 suburban Parishes are coming to be self-supporting, and throughout 
 the Diocese, with a few exceptions, the erection of Parsonages, the 
 separation of Parishes which were formerly held jointly by the 
 same Clergyman and the increase of Clerical compensation indicate 
 progress. The number of our Sunday-school scholars is larger 
 than in any of our sister Dioceses. Some provision has been 
 made for the support at schools of the sons, and yet more for that 
 of the daughters, of the Clergy. Academies of the highest order 
 have been opened, in this city and elsewhere, under the immediate 
 auspices of the Church, in which a large number of the young of 
 both sexes have been educated gratuitously. Hospitals have been 
 founded for the sick, for the aged and infirm and for orphans, and 
 measures are in progress, especially in this city, to enlarge mate- 
 rially our sphere of operations in this department. 
 
 In 1845 the number of Clergymen reported as belonging to this 
 Diocese was 121; in 1855 it is 167. In 1845 the number of Par- 
 ishes reported was 119, but the actual number that had more than 
 a name to live was less than 100, and of these more than one-half 
 received material assistance from without. In 1855 the number of 
 Parishes is ostensibly 172, but actually not more than 156, of which 
 
TEN YEARS- IN THE EPISCOPATE. 303 
 
 not less than 80 are self-supporting; indicating an increase of 56 
 in the number of congregations and of 46 in the number of the 
 Clergy. In 1844 the number of communicants reported to the 
 General Convention as belonging to this Diocese was 8865 ; in 
 1853, nine years later, it was 12,600. In 1844 the number of 
 Sunday-school scholars reported was 9305; in 1853 it was 15,004. 
 
 During the ten years just ended fifty-four churches have been 
 erected and occupied, and seven more are now in progress. Be- 
 tween twenty and thirty churches have also been materially enlarged 
 and improved ; twenty-three Parsonage houses have been erected 
 or purchased ; and I rejoice to add that there are very few places 
 of worship in the Diocese which during the same period have not 
 been to some extent renovated and adorned. In the City of Phil- 
 adelphia alone eighteen new churches have been built for new con- 
 gregations, nine have been enlarged and nearly all repaired and 
 improved. 
 
 There is one feature in the operations of the Diocese during this 
 period to which we may recur, I think, with special satisfaction, for 
 it seems to promise the approach of a time when we shall be able 
 to command greatly-increased means for church extension. I refer 
 to the reduction, and in a large measure the entire liquidation, of 
 church debts. During the last ten years this work has absorbed 
 our resources to an extent much greater than is usually supposed. 
 The sum devoted to this object in the city and county of Philadel- 
 phia alone, within the last eight years, cannot have been less than 
 two hundred thousand dollars.* 
 
 The Episcopal address of the following year (1856) was 
 opened with the statement that the Bishojp had been absent 
 from the Diocese for more than three months in pursuit of 
 health. His "kck of service," to use his own expression, 
 had been supplied by Bishops A.. Lee, Johns and Upfold. 
 The last paragraph of that address began as follows : 
 
 * During the last ten years, nearly four hundred thousand dollars have been 
 paid in Philadelphia on account of new church buildings. Parsonages, etc. ; in 
 the Diocese out of Philadelphia, the amount paid for the same object has been 
 over two hundred thousand dollars. 
 
304 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 In closing this address I need but refer to the subject of dividing 
 the Diocese or electing an Assistant Bishop, which was introduced 
 to your notice last year. I intimated at that time that I would 
 bring the subject formally before you so soon as I could determine 
 whether the emergency which requires an Assistant Bishop was 
 likely to arise, or there was sufficient evidence that a division of 
 the Diocese could be effected advantageously. As I then proposed, 
 I have during the past year studiously declined all but official en- 
 gagements, and have sought by rest and recreation to recuperate 
 powers which seem to have been materially shattered. The suc- 
 cess with which this course has been attended cannot be clearly 
 ascertained at present, as I have but just returned from a somewhat 
 protracted journey, which brought with it almost entire exemption 
 from customary cares and labors. I cannot say that I am sanguine 
 in respect to the future. I shall neglect nothing in the way of rest 
 which may be at all consistent with the proper discharge of duty, 
 and I shall not feel .authorized to apply for an Assistant unless in 
 my own judgment and that of my medical advisers such a measure 
 is urgently required. In the mean time the whole subject might be 
 allowed, I should suppose, to rest. 
 
 The journey to which allusion is made in the foregoing ex- 
 tract had taken him through the Southern States and to the 
 Island of Cuba. The health of Mrs. Potter had begun to 
 manifest those tokens of decline against w^hich her strong con- 
 stitution and resolute purpose made resistance for eight suc- 
 ceeding years. Her brother, Dr. Benedict, having tendencies 
 to pulmonary disease and finding the winter climate of Florida 
 salutary for him, had determined to establish there a comfort- 
 able place of sojourn for invalids, where the advantages of. a 
 favoring climate and medical care could both be enjoyed. It 
 had not been long opened at a locality called "Magnolia" 
 when in the winter of 1855-6 Bishop and Mrs. Potter resorted 
 thither for a short stay. The following letter from the Bishop 
 to one of his sons gives some record of that journey: 
 
LETTER FROM FLORIDA. 305 
 
 Alabama River, 100 miles above Mobile, 1 
 February 12, 1856. 
 
 ILE,-1 
 5. / 
 
 My dear H : I fear you may not hear from your mother, as she 
 
 is kept very busy and has not been very well. I, therefore, write a 
 line to let you know her whereabouts and my own. She is still at 
 Magnolia, not inclining to join me on a trip to New Orleans, Cuba, 
 etc. I left there on the 4th, a week ago yesterday, spent part of 
 two days at Savannah, and have been the rest of the time on the 
 road and river. From Montgomery, in Alabama, where the rail- 
 road terminates, is something over four hundred miles to Mobile, 
 whence you go to New Orleans . by steam in some fourteen hours. 
 This being the time for moving cottoji to the seaboard, and the 
 boats relying on freight rather than passengers, they stop every mile 
 or two at plantations, and sometimes take three or four hours in 
 getting in one crop or the bales accumulated at one spot. No ma- 
 chinery is used except negro arms, and of course the operation is 
 of the slowest. The Atlantic steamers would make one thousand 
 miles while we are on the trip. It is now the fourth day since we 
 left Montgomery. 
 
 At New Orleans I may stay a week, as, in addition to Bishop 
 Polk, I should probably meet there Bishops Otey, Cobbs, and per- 
 haps Green. From thence I propose to run over to Cuba for ten 
 or twelve days. I did hope to make Jamaica and some of the other 
 British West India Islands^ as I am very anxious to see the state of 
 Jamaica with my own eyes. The prospect of accomplishing this is, 
 however, just now very dubious. I have partly arranged an ex; 
 change with Bishop Elliott for March, which, if effected, will re- 
 quire me to be in Savannah soon after the first proximo. 
 
 Matters seem to be moving on very well at Magnolia, bating the 
 irregularities consequent upon a new and imperfect organization. 
 . If Dr. B. lives and has no unforeseen difficulties, he will make a 
 very complete establishment — much the most desirable at the South. 
 Indeed, it is so n'ow. The climate has been to me very pleasant, 
 though almost unexampled (they say) for rain and cold. Ice formed 
 but two or three times while I was there, which was all but a month. 
 The air is so soft and genial that even in a rain or high wind you 
 walk with pleasure in the pine woods which cover the whole coun- 
 try. Florida, especially the peninsula (usually known as East Flor- 
 
 26* u 
 
306 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 ida), is a great sand beach, divided by the St. John's River, which is 
 a chain of lakes, or an estuary from the sea, and nothing can well be 
 more monotonous than its aspect so far as I saw it. It is, however, 
 very unique, and will repay a visit, while to an invalid it is prob- 
 ably the most desirable retreat in the world. 
 
 I hope my winter will not be lost. But "vita brevis, ars longa." 
 I seem to have so much work and so short a time to live that I can 
 poorly afford so long a vacation. It will not be lost, however, if I 
 can renew my labors with recruited powers — above all, if I can en- 
 gage in them again with a profounder sense of my own insufficiency, 
 and with a more generous and holy purpose to labor in the strength 
 of the Most High. Give me your prayers, my dear son, that I 
 may not only be strengthened in body, but greatly invigorated in 
 faith, hope and charity, and that for the brief remainder of my days 
 I may work more holily, unblamably and unreprovably than ever. 
 Write to your mother when you can make time, and take care of 
 your health and seek daily and hourly the good gifts of the Spirit. 
 With kindest regards to Doctors May and Sparrow, 
 
 Ever affectionately your father, A. P. 
 
 The relief from cares and toils afforded by this winter vaca- 
 tion, and a brief sojourn at the seaside in the following sum- 
 mer, invigorated the Bishop for a time, so that he resumed full 
 duty, and to the Convention of 1857 made report of "labors 
 more abundant," with no mention of impaired health. 
 
 On his first entrance to the House of Bishops in 1847, 
 Bishop Potter met a recognition of his ability and was accorded 
 a measure, of influence which to most men is the accumulation 
 of years of experience. Yet the records of that session show 
 that with characteristic modesty he refrained from the intro- 
 duction of new measures and contented himself with joining 
 in the support, or otherwise, of those which were submitted 
 by his seniors in that venerable body. 
 
 At the General Convention of 1850, Bishop Polter introduced 
 into the House of Bishops the subject of Lay .co-operation 
 with a view to some organic arrangement which should secure 
 
HIS MEASURES IN THE HOUSE OF BISHOPS. 307 
 
 proper instruction to those devoted to good works, and pro- 
 vide for some continuous and associate use of their services. 
 His resolution was in these words : 
 
 Resolved, That a Cominittee of five Bishops — Brownell, Doane, 
 Henshaw, Chase and Potter — be appointed to consider and report 
 to this House at the next session of the General Convention whether 
 some plan cannot be proposed by which, consistently with the prin- 
 ciples of our Reformed Communion, the services of intelligent and 
 pious persons of both sexes may be secured to the Church to a 
 greater extent in the education of the young, the relief of the sick 
 and destitute, the care of orphans and friendless immigrants and 
 the reformation of the vicious. 
 
 Resolved, That in case the Committee are able to fix upon a plan 
 which in their estimation is consistent with the sound principles of 
 our Protestant Church, they have leave to print the same for the use 
 of the Bishops and the several Standing Committees of this Church. 
 
 In the Convention of 1853, besides the prominent part 
 which he took in favoring the objects sought by the Rev. Dr. 
 Muhlenberg and others in their memorial — to wit, the freer 
 use of our Liturgy and a more liberal dispensation of the gifts 
 of the Church, to effect thereby a nearer approach to visible 
 unity in the Church catholic of Christ — besides these measures, 
 the Bishop offered and supported the following Resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That be a Committee to consider whether any, 
 
 and, if any, what, additions might be advantageously made in the 
 occasional prayers and thanksgivings, or in the Litany or otherwise 
 — to give more full expression to the wants of the whole Church or 
 of any particular Diocese or Congregation, in respect to a more 
 adequate supply of Pastors and Missionaries. 
 
 All these projects, though they were not accomplished in 
 the forms and to the extent which Bishop Potter conceived 
 and desired, have yet wrought great and beneficent changes in 
 the spirit and practice of the Church, and their issues are still 
 developing as the years roll on. Thus we drop a weight of 
 
308 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 ¥ 
 
 influence into the great deep of human forces, and it seems 
 sometimes to sink before our eyes and to leave the surface 
 placid as before. But the circling eddies are moving on to 
 effect results afar off. 
 
 In the autumn of 1856 the General Convention held its 
 session in Philadelphia, and Bishop Potter was then for the 
 first time the host of that large and venerable body. It was a 
 Convention of unusual interest and importance. The com- 
 mittee on the memorial of Dr. Muhlenberg and others, asking 
 for more freedom in the use of the book of Common Prayer, 
 and for some consideration of the expediency and practica- 
 bility of measures for the promotion of church unity, then 
 made its. elaborate report, in the preparation and defence of 
 which Bishop Potter took a prominent part. At that^Conven- 
 tion the creation of an appellate court, by which the decisions 
 of local ecclesiastical tribunals might be revised, was attempted. 
 In that measure Bishop Potter, habitually jealous for the' rights 
 of Dioceses and adverse to any stretch of legislative power by 
 the General Convention, was deeply interested. He esteemed 
 it an eminently proper occasion for interposition by the Church 
 at large. Besides these great matters of universal interest, 
 there were questions of great personal concern to two of his 
 brethren in the House of Bishops on which that body sat in 
 council, and with the discussion of which Bishop Potter had 
 much to do. One of these was the restoration of his prede- 
 cessor, then under sentence of suspension from the functions 
 of his high office. A feeble endeavor to effect that measure 
 of clemency had been first made at the General Convention of 
 1847; it was renewed more vigorously in 1850. The relations 
 of Bishop Potter to this question were of course delicate in the 
 extreme and difficult to be sustained with due regard alike to 
 considerations of prudence and charity. A less noble and 
 generous nature might have been swayed by fears of divided 
 interest in the Diocese, resulting ppssibly in attempts to effect 
 its disintegration. For that man of power to whose work he 
 
TRIBUTE TO BISHOP ONDERDONK. 3O9 
 
 * 
 
 had succeeded did not go in and out among the churches dis- 
 pensing the gifts of his ApostoHc office through seventeen 
 years without gaining to himself ardent friends. But Bishop 
 Potter had sufficient self-respect not to be concerned for the 
 retention of whatever honor might be his due, a heart of fra- 
 ternal sympathy for one in adversity, and a supreme regard 
 for right which rendered him fearless of its personal conse- 
 quences. He neither resisted the measure, as some would 
 have done, nor sat in significant silence, as many more would 
 have done, but from the beginning took a manly and honor- 
 able part. He avowed, when the measure was first proposed, 
 that it would be most grateful to his own feelings, and in a 
 paper which he submitted to the Council in 1850 paid a 
 tribute 1» his deprived brother in the Episcopate which, after 
 this lapse of time, it cannot be improper to bring to light : 
 
 When unexpectedly summoned to the charge of the Diocese of 
 Pennsylvania I had, and could have, but one feeling toward my 
 predecessor in office. The most pleasant personal relations had 
 subsisted between us. He had recently been invited, at my sug- 
 gestion, to solemnize my marriage. 
 
 His acute, vigorous and eminently just mind had always been to 
 me the object of the most cordial admiration, and a crisis seemed 
 to have arrived in the history of our Church when the moderation 
 of his views, the clearness and force and boldness with which he 
 proclaimed them, appeared likely J:o exert a most benign and heal- 
 ing influence upon tendencies then but too apparent, though now 
 more fully developed 
 
 When I found that I was aJbout to become a resident of Phila- 
 delphia and the successor in office of our suspended brother, duty 
 seemed to disclose but one course : it was that of delicate and 
 tender consideration for his feelings and character, and for the 
 peace and purity of the Church. Hence, after reaching Philadel- 
 phia, I took the earliest opportunity of waiting upon him. I was 
 kindly received. The relations between us have always, as far as 
 I know, been entirely fraternal, and it is but simple justice to 
 
3IO MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 declare, that on all occasions where he could serve me by informa- 
 tion or advice he has been prompt to do it. 
 
 In reporting to the Convention of 1859 the death and burial 
 of Bishop Onderdonk (at vsrhich service, in the absence of 
 Bishop Potter, he had officiated), Assistant Bishop Bovv^man 
 said of him : 
 
 Courteous and fair in the discharge of his perplexing duties, sin- 
 gularly cautious and restrained in speaking of those who were 
 opposed to him, indefatigable in his laborious office, eloquent in the 
 pulpit and irrefutable in his defence of the Church, — we may well 
 rejoice that such a man's sun went calmly down, and that his life 
 and labors ended together. 
 
 In this result no one, I know, rejoices more than our own hon- 
 ored Diocesan, to whose effective eloquence in the House of Bish- 
 ops this happy result is largely due. 
 
 At that Convention of 1856, when Bishop Onderdonk was 
 restored. Bishop Potter, although no longer in • fullness of 
 strength, attained to his consummate influence in the Upper 
 House. The peculiar structure of his mind was such as to 
 ensure to him a commanding power in any deliberative assem- 
 bly of which he might be a member. He had a quick and 
 penetrating perception, discerning at a glance the state and 
 relations of any question ; he had an intuitive forecast which 
 revealed to him results and consequences afar off; he had a 
 remarkable terseness, clearness and force of expression which 
 rendered his thought in the very type in which he conceived it 
 to those whom he addressed ; he had a royal independence of 
 all partisan bonds which permitted him to see truth in its real 
 aspects, and to plead for it with an unfaltering earnestness ; he 
 had an evangelic love of peace which moved him to interpose 
 at the moment when the zeal of men was degenerating into 
 passion, and conflict must be hopeless and perpetual, or result 
 in the angry and humiliating defeat of the contestants on one 
 side ; he had a sagacity of spirit and an adroitness of method 
 
PREMONITIONS AND CAUSES OF DECLINE. 311 
 
 by which in such crises of debate he could devise some inter- 
 mediate measure or form of procedure to which all, by his 
 calm and persuasive ingenuity of presentation, could be 
 brought. It would be invidious to say that he was the fore- 
 most man in the Episcopal College when it was assembled for 
 legislative or judicial purposes. He certainly had no supe- 
 rior, and if the suffrages of his peers could have been given 
 then on the question of individual precedence, common report 
 avers they would have accorded the place to him. It would 
 be interesting to trace in the Journals of the House of Bish- 
 ops the measures which were originated by him, and the many 
 others to which he gave a modifying touch before they were 
 adopted. One creditable chapter of his history that would 
 be, which should disclose to her members his part in the 
 legislative action of the Church. 
 
 Bishop Potter's prominence in the Convention of 1856 (the 
 result but not the object of his unsparing use of his powers) 
 was dearly purchased. It cost more labor than he was then 
 able to bestow. His manly and vigorous frame began to show 
 signs of weakness under the stress of mental activity that 
 dwelt and wrought within it. In the autumn of the following 
 year, being in the City of New York, he'had some alarming 
 symptoms, indicating a tendency to paralysis, which neither 
 he nor his friends were willing to recognize, and- of which very 
 little was said outside the family circle. 
 
 Other burdens besides those which belonged to his office 
 were then pressing upon Bishop Potter. It was a memorable 
 year in the business world, in which there was a universal 
 prostration of credit, and men who before had accounted 
 themselves rich made shipwreck of fortune. The general 
 calamity of course affected the resources of the Church. All 
 enterprises for its extension were for the time arrested, and, 
 besides, the Clergy in the smaller Parishes and Mission sta- 
 tions suffered delay, if not failure, in the payment of their 
 salaries. The Bishop's sympathies were severely taxed. 
 
312 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Moreover, national affairs were getting more and more com- 
 plicated. The mal-administration or inefficiency of govern- 
 ment in Kansas was giving place to outrages that inflamed the 
 South and exasperated the North — ominous presages of that 
 conflict which at length involved the whole land in misery. 
 The Bishop was much wrought upon by these premonitions, 
 and then, besides his own conscious decline, he had ever before 
 him the sure wasting of one whose remarkable efficiency in 
 the care of the household and in many other spheres of 
 Christian effort made her a true helpmeet to him who had 
 " the care of all the churches.'' These heavy burdens upon 
 the spirit enforced the weight that broke him down. 
 
 Under date of Philadelphia, November 2i, 1857, he wrote 
 to his friend, Mr. William Appleton : 
 
 My dear Mr. Appleton : I thank you for your letter and also 
 for the copy of our friend Wells' Report, a document which I 
 always read with special gusto. 
 
 Mrs. Potter is not well, but on the whole is rather gaining 
 ground. She may be compelled to go South, though we hope 
 otherwise 
 
 If your weather is cold in proportion to ours, your climate must 
 be wintry to-day. It is very sharp here. With our unemployed 
 and our usual poor we have of course enough to do, and the pros- 
 pect of a long, cold winter adds greatly to the anxieties of 
 all. God is laying a heavy hand upon the people, but they have 
 deserved it ; and if it only makes us wiser and less prodigal and 
 less reckless, we shall have abundant reason to thank him. . . . 
 
 Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 An efficient arrangement was made, under the supervision 
 of the Bishop, in the succeeding winter for the relief of such 
 among the deserving poor as had any special claim upon the 
 Episcopal Church and yet had formed no connection with any 
 Parish in the city. A central office was opened under the 
 
SERIOUS ILLNESS AT GREENSBURG. 313 
 
 immediate charge of an experienced and judicious Clergy- 
 man, and local visitors were employed in every district. 
 
 The moment of utmost tension at length arrived. His 
 strength could withstand no more, and the stroke of a fell 
 disease, from the end of which there may be respite, but no 
 recovery, came upon him. 
 
 From the eloquent " Memorial Discourse" of Bishop Ste- 
 vens is drawn the following account of Bishop Potter's first 
 serious illness : 
 
 On February 10, 1858, in Christ Church, Greensburg — of which 
 his son Henry was then Rector — the Bishop admitted to Deacon's 
 orders Professor Richard Henry Lee of Washington College. The 
 wife of this Candidate was sick, and it was necessary that he should 
 return to Pittsburg by the first train westward. In order to facili- 
 tate this. Bishop Potter read most of the service himself and 
 preached himself, though he had intended that another should do 
 it. "His address," writes his son, "was without notes and of 
 uncommon power and glow ; but before it was ended I saw the 
 premonition of what proved to be in a few hours an attack of 
 paralysis. He was able, however, to complete the service, though 
 once or twice he faltered, and in the distribution of the elements 
 slightly stumbled. During the drive from the church to my house 
 he was silent, and went at once to his room and laid down. He 
 was called twice before he was aroused, but at length went down to 
 dinner, said grace and took his seat. In a few moments he became 
 very ill, and rising and excusing himself to the assembled Clergy 
 with singular gentleness, he walked, or rather staggered, with my 
 assistg,nce, to his room, and at once the attack was on him. Medi- 
 cal aid from the town and from Pittsburg was at once summoned, 
 and by the next morning he had rallied. In a week, though still 
 feeble, he was on his way to Philadelphia. His sickness was an 
 exhibition of gentleness and patience which amazed even those 
 nearest to him. Said a domestic who was much about his bedside, 
 ' I used almost to be afraid of the Bishop, but I shall always love 
 him now, he was so gentle and grateful.' He shrank from believ- 
 ing that his attack was paralysis, for he had a dread of living on 
 27 
 
SH MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 after his ability to work was gone, and he preferred to believe that 
 what had assailed him was apoplexy, which commonly terminates 
 soon and fatally." 
 
 It was a great mercy that, though he was in the remote section 
 of his Diocese, the disease arrested him not among strangers, but 
 in the family of a beloved son, where filial love and tenderness 
 could .at once minister to a father's necessities. His friends and 
 the Diocese urged him to lay aside, for a time, his duties, and go 
 to Europe. He did so. A large body of the Clergy accompanied 
 him to the ship in which he sailed from this port, and many were 
 the prayers which then and afterward went up to God for the health 
 and return of our beloved Diocesan. 
 
 The Bishop embarked on one of the noble packet-ships of 
 the Messrs. Cope from the port of Philadelphia. One of the 
 proprietors, bent on the same errand, the search of health for 
 one of his family, was his companion on the long voyage. 
 
 Before the Bishop left the country he gave notice to the 
 Diocese that he would, at the ensuing Convention in May, 
 submit a proposal for the election of an Assistant Bishop. 
 
 Bishop Potter set sail on the 30th of April, accompanied by 
 Mrs. P., a lady friend, three of his boys, and a female attend- 
 ant. On the voyage he addressed a letter to Dr. Nott, from 
 which we make some brief extracts. It was dated 
 
 At sea, 14 DAYS FROM PHILADELPHIA, May I3. 
 
 What the effect of the sea upon my health will be cannot now be 
 judged. I get along quite as well as I expected, and it will take 
 some time after reaching shore to develop the full results. The 
 quiet of our cabin, with the absence 9f all work and care, is very 
 pleasant, and, if the reactive powers of my system are not much re- 
 duced, ought to materially, help me. I feel the need of exercise, 
 having just before I left had so much. 
 
 In Mrs. Potter, whose restoration was one main object with, me 
 in overcoming my own deep repugnance to this trip, I do not yet 
 see the improvement I had hoped. But there is yet time, and God 
 is very gracious, and to me has been abundantly kind and indul- 
 gent in the past. We therefore look hopefully to the future, though 
 
VOYAGE TO EUROPE— LETTERS AT SEA. 315 
 
 wishing above all that we may be completely resigned to a wisdom 
 above our own. 
 
 May 21 — 21 DAYS AT SEA. 
 
 We last night made the light off Cape Clear, .on the South-west- 
 ern coast of Ireland, and are now making our" way up the Irish Sea 
 
 at an encouraging rate I cannot report much improvement 
 
 in our ladies. My wife is very weak, but I trust if she once gets 
 to land her appetite will revive. For myself, I almost dread ex- 
 changing the quiet and entire leisure of this life at sea for the an- 
 noyances of travel. Our plans are not at all fixed. I have so much 
 of the remains of my last attack, that unless it disappears very soon 
 after I get to land, I shall abstain both from travel and excitement, 
 and settle down quietly. Mr. Cope, one of the proprietors of the 
 ship, is with us. He was out last summer, and left his wife and 
 son (both invalids) at a water-cure establishment at Malvern, in 
 the west of England, a morning's ride from Liverpool. We shall 
 probably take it on our way to London, and, if it promises as well 
 as he represents, may establish ourselves there for a while. 
 
 Saturday, 22, noon. — We have a fine run up the channel, and if 
 things continue favorable, we hope to reach Liverpool by six to-mor- 
 row A. M., which is Sunday, and we look with great pleasure to 
 the prospect of passing Whitsunday on land. Our Sundays have 
 been stormy, so that nothing could be done for the proper improve- 
 ment of the day among the steerage passengers (of whom we have 
 one hundred on board, most of them Irish, going over to visit 
 friends), except through tracts. 
 
 Writing to one of his Presbyters under date of " Malvern 
 (Gloucestershire), June 3, 1858," he said in reference to the 
 choice of an Assistant Bishop, which he supposed had been 
 accomplished : 
 
 .... On this last point I am astonished at myself at the little 
 of carking care and anxiety I have felt. I trust I have not lived to 
 see fifty summers without having a very mortifying sense of my own 
 want of sagacity and ability to take care of God's cause; and there- 
 fore I hope it is, that my paramount desire has been that his Provi- 
 dence and Spirit might be left to determine that question. I fondly 
 
3l6 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 hope it has not been begot of indifference, and yet I have some- 
 times feared that this might be one cause of my equanimity. I 
 have felt, however, that there were many better men than myself 
 earnestly praying to be guided aright in this most important mat- 
 ter ; and it has been a great comfort to know that such men would 
 be likely to have influence with their brethren, and that I was prov- 
 identially excused from attempting to direct their counsels. Indeed, 
 one of my great comforts since I have been in Pennsylvania has 
 been the confidence with which I could repose on the integrity and 
 singleness of purpose of the Clergy and Laity. I never knew, on 
 the whole, so large a body so worthy of confidence, and never can 
 I cease to cherish the remembrance of their kindness to me per- 
 sonally. 
 
 I cannot yet say that I am materially better. For the last two 
 months I have stuck at about the same point. In a way which I 
 hardly know I was led to this place, which I never thought of visit- 
 ing. Here I am in my own hired house or apartments, and here, 
 after indulging my party (he was accompanied by Mrs. Potter, one 
 or two of his children and an attendant) in a look at London and 
 Oxford, I think I shall pass most of the summer. I divide a house 
 with Mr. Alfred Cope, who came over in the ship with us, and 
 whose wife and child have been under medical treatment nearly 
 a year. * The spot is most beautiful : behind, a mass of hills equal 
 to some of the mountains of Wales ; before, a glorious sweep of the 
 rural beauty of England, revealing Worcester, eight miles off, Chel- 
 tenham, twenty-four miles, and an interesting landscape, which one 
 can see nowhere off this island. The doctor here thinks I will 
 get well, without any medical treatment, through rest ; but thinks 
 that six weeks of his bathing, rubbing, etc., might accelerate the 
 process. I may let him try, though I am persuaded rest is the main 
 remedy I need. My present trouble, however, is the culmination 
 of twenty years' suffering, and I much doubt if it be not past the 
 skill of doctors and the virtue of rest. God's will be mine ! 
 
 As I write very little, let my friends know privately of my where- 
 abouts, and give them all my best love 
 
 Ever affectionately, your friend and brother,' 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
LETTERS TO DR. NOTT FROM PAU. 317 
 
 The Bishop tarried the whole summer at Malvern, making 
 in the course of it a brief visit to Oxford, where he met, and 
 in a very quiet and passive way enjoyed the society of, some 
 of its most eminent scholars. He made no material advance 
 in the condition of his health during this sojourn among the 
 hills. . In the autumn he proceeded to London, and. Parlia- 
 ment being in session, he had the opportunity to meet many 
 of England's dignitaries in Church. and State. The winter, it 
 was his purpose to pass in the south of France. On his way 
 to that destination he made a short sojourn in Paris, for who 
 could pass through its splendors without pausing to look at 
 them? 
 
 Under date of January i, 1859, he wrote from " Pau, Lower 
 Pyrenees, France," to his father-in-law, as follows : 
 
 My dear Dr. Nott : We reached here last evening from Paris, 
 after a Journey of parts of three days. It is in the south-west of 
 France, not far from the Bay of Biscay and immediately at the foot 
 of the Pyrenees. It is much resorted to by English and Americans 
 as a quiet place, without winds, of great beauty, and, as compared 
 with other places in Europe, of peculiar mildness. To my wife's 
 case it is said to be admirably adapted. We came to Paris expect- 
 ing to go to Cannes, in the south-east of France, where Lord 
 Brougham resides part of each winter, but our friends were so im- 
 portunate that we should try Pau that we yielded to their persuasion. 
 For the congested slate of my arterial system it is probably unfa- 
 vorable, and when R comes here I shall probably accompany 
 
 him on a little tour along the Mediterranean, unless I feel that I 
 
 am doing well We found the Paris weather deplorable 
 
 and the living very bad for Mrs. P. Unless her digestion can 
 be kept in order she loses ground, and that is possible only under 
 the simplest and steadiest regimen. Everything we have seen 
 warns against taking such cases — indeed most cases of chronic dis- 
 ease — to large cities. Our . experience does not much encourage 
 the hope, either, that Europe has any climate for the consumptive, 
 better or even as good as Florida. People who are merely over- 
 worked, but not seriously '■ nattered, get great benefit from the rest, 
 
3l8 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 change and exhilaration of sight-seeing ; not so those who have 
 any serious organic disturbance. 
 
 We find here several New York families, one or two from Phila- 
 delphia and so on. Immediately opposite we have one of the 
 
 A s, who is full of kindness and who occupies a'large place, 
 
 and adjoining him is another New York family. Looking in the 
 same direction, but farther, the Pyrenees rise in all their glory and 
 make one feel as if he were somewhere on the North River. Great 
 and glorious as they are, they can hardly surpass what I saw from 
 
 Mrs. G n's at my last visit, looking toward the Catskills. 
 
 Those who see what she sees and live as she lives have ever of the 
 best that this world gives. This, if nothing more, we can learn by 
 traveling. 
 
 We begin a new year far from home, and we know not where its 
 end may find us. Little did I think a year ago that we should be 
 here ; much less that so large a part of the intervening time would 
 be spent as an exile in idleness. But I believe I greatly needed 
 such discipline — no trial to men of fortune and leisure, but a 
 severe one to those who love work, to whom work has become 
 their main pleasure and amusement and who rely on it for their 
 bread. I have too often forgotteii the highest end of work in its 
 exhilaration, and am now taught the necessity of cultivating by 
 prayer and self-inspection a higher style of devotion. May I 
 learn the lesson effectually ! That I should get well in health is 
 not very important to anybody ; that I should be better in heart is 
 greatly needed by me for my soul's welfare and for God's honor; 
 and for this, above all, may my friends pray. I see very little 
 substantial amendment in my health since I left America, and my 
 wife's case is less encouraging than it was two months ago. Still, 
 she is full of courage and hope. I felt very reluctant to bring the 
 children, but events may be impending that will demonstrate its 
 wisdom. God's ways are not our ways, and all the experience of 
 life shows us that a Father's unerring and tender hand guides 
 
 us. His will be done I have been much encouraged by 
 
 all I hear of the prospects of the Graduates' Hall and of the con- 
 dition of the College. May your life be spared to see that and 
 other plans completed ! The more the Graduates can be rallied 
 
BISHOP POTTER IN EUROPE. 319 
 
 during your life, the better for the future of the College. Tell Mr. 
 Delavan I have not forgotten his kind interest a year ago, and that 
 I hear with great pleasure that his cabinet meets all expectations. 
 Would that another Delavan could be found to take hold of the 
 library ! 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 A. Potter. 
 
 Under date " Pau, April 1 1, 1859," the Bishop wrote to one 
 of his sons : 
 
 .... I am just leaving here to try the effect of traveling as far 
 
 as Marseilles, and perhaps to Rome We are in health pretty 
 
 much statu quo. In some respect your mother's case wears a better 
 aspect, and she is certainly not worse than when she left America. 
 My own case does not appear encouraging, though the doctor 
 insists that I have improved since I came to Pau. I feel excess- 
 ively the need of occupation ; and though not ignorant of the 
 hazard of returning to it with my habits and temperament, I yet 
 feel that if I get through June without falling back materially it 
 will be safe for me, as well for your mother, and better for the boys 
 to be at home. When the bad weather of winter returns we have 
 Florida to take refuge in, and there is no better climate on this 
 side, the Atlantic 
 
 P. S. — I shall (if I live to return) put the boys to a good school 
 for a year. If they are very studious, I shall hope to continue 
 them. Otherwise, I shall desire to set them at work. 
 
 Almost immediately after the writing of this letter the 
 Bishop visited Rome. The chaplain to the American Em- 
 bassy there, conducted Divine worship every Lord's day in 
 an apartment of the Ministers residence, where a congrega- 
 tion of Americans and others were wont to assemble. On 
 Bishop Potter's arrival a class was made ready for confirma- 
 tion, and he administered that Apostolic rite after the primi- 
 tive method within the walls of Rome — a solemnity which 
 had not been witnessed in that city for many centuries before.* 
 
 * It is believed that the veritable " laying on of hands " no longer is observed 
 in the Church of Rome. 
 
320 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 He very soon rejoined his family at Pau, and with them 
 took passage by steamship foe home. On reaching Philadel- 
 phia, he arranged to meet the Clergy for worship and thanks- 
 giving to Almighty God, and for participation of the sacred 
 pledges of Christian communion, in old " Christ Church," 
 where lingered so many touching memories of his religious 
 and official life. 
 
 With saddened hearts his sons in the Ministry observed that 
 his noble form was still wan and shrunken, and his step un- 
 equal and slightly halting after more than a year of rest and 
 the use of every available means of restoration. He resumed 
 his position as head of the Diocese, his skill of administration 
 unabated, his brain possessed of every wonted power except that 
 of perpetual effort. The flesh was weak, and therefore the 
 spirit sooner felt weary. 
 
 We recur for a moment to the election of an Assistant 
 Bishop. 
 
 Bishop Hopkins, having at the request of the Diocesan 
 since his disability made an extensive visitation to the 
 Churches, was providentially present at the Diocesan Conven- 
 tion of 1858, and made the report of his Episcopal acts in per- 
 son. In closing it he paid a graceful tribute to the brother in 
 whose place he was standing, honorable both to its subject 
 and its author, and due to these pages as a memento of their 
 personal relations through many years : 
 
 And now, my beloved brethren, I commend you all to the 
 guidance and favor of Almighty God in the important work of your 
 Convention. You are called by his wise Providence and by the 
 request of your venerated Diocesan, to the urgent duty of electing 
 an Assistant Bishop, and I doubt not that you are all deeply im- 
 pressed with the solemn responsibility of your position. The Lord 
 in his merciful goodness has set over your Diocese a man of emi- 
 nent and rare endowments; whose high capacity, rich intellect, 
 indefatigable zeal, sterling piety and ■ practical wisdom you have 
 long regarded with universal confidence and admiration. Broken 
 
ELECTION OF BISHOP BOWMAN. 32 1 
 
 down by a press of labors which no ordinary constitution could 
 endure, he has been compelled for z, season to seek a period of rest 
 and relaxation. And I unite most fervently my humble prayers 
 with yours, that he may be enabled to return to his devoted Diocese 
 restored and strengthened for his work to the utmost limits of a 
 green old age. * 
 
 The Diocese proceeded, in conformity with Bishop Potter's 
 request, to make choice of an Assistant Bishop. Few men 
 in the Episcopal office ever had it more in their power to 
 procure the appointment of a favorite candidate than he ; few 
 ever had more skill to use that power in a way which its subjects 
 would scarce realize. But he felt it his duty to refrain from 
 the exercise of any such influence. " I forbore," he wrote to one 
 of his Presbyters just after getting intelligence of the election — 
 
 I forbore to mix in the question, and wished it understood that 
 the Diocese was to be left- unfettered by any deference for me. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Samuel Bowman, Rector of St. James' Church, 
 Lancaster, one of the oldest and most revered Presbyters of 
 the Diocese, who, before Bishop Potter's accession to the 
 Episcopate, had received the suffrages of a majority of the 
 Clergy of the Diocese for that office, had now been the 
 chosen of both orders to assist, and at length to succeed, the 
 declining Bishop. 
 
 Bishop Potter, in the brief letter which he addressed to the 
 Convention of 1858 requesting the appointment of an Assist- 
 ant, said : 
 
 Two years since I was almost prepared to prefer the request 
 which I now make, but was restrained in a good degree by the absence 
 of all provision for the support of an Assistant Bishop. I do not 
 hesitate to refer to this matter now, as one which will require the 
 early and earnest attention of the churches throughout the Diocese. 
 Instead of leaving the burden to be borne by a few, it should be 
 gladly divided among all who are to be served and benefited by the 
 arrangement. On this principle I shall claim the liberty of bearing 
 
 V 
 
322 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 my proportion of it. Having placed with the treasurer of the 
 Episcopal fund a statement of my wishes on this point, with the 
 request that he will, when the proper time arrives, communicate it 
 to the Convention, I need not enlarge upon the subject here. 
 
 As the Bishop's salary was then only four thousand dollars, 
 the Convention would not dishonor itself by accepting the 
 renunciation of any portion of that sum toward the provision 
 for an Assistant, whose salary they proceeded to fix at thirty- 
 five hundred dollars. 
 
 The relations of Bishop Potter with Dr. Bowman had always 
 been those of cordial respect and regard, though from the re- 
 moteness of their respective residences not of the closest 
 intimacy. Associated in the work of the ■ Episcopate, they 
 wrought together with perfect unanimity of counsel, the Senior 
 bearing for the most part the burden of administration, the 
 Assistant fulfilling the duties of visitation and other labors 
 requiring much physical effort. Together, for the first, and as 
 it proved, only not the last time, they stood before the Con- 
 vention of 1 860. In their addresses to the Convention neither 
 of them indulged in adulatory allusions to his associate. In 
 his primary message (when Bishop Potter was abroad in 1859) 
 Bishop Bowman had twice adverted to him as " our honored 
 Diocesan," and before the Convention of i860 the Bishop re- 
 ferred to him only in the expression, " the burdens so well 
 borne by the Assistant Bishop." They were kindred spirits ; 
 as in other traits, so especially in that they were men of affairs, 
 who felt that life was so real and earnest, and the work of the 
 Lord of such transcendent importance, that there was little 
 time for the language of mere compliment, and that the true 
 worker neither needs it for the recognition of his doings nor 
 desires it for his own gratification. When, in August of 1 86 1, 
 Bishop Potter received intelligence of Bishop Bowman's fear- 
 fully sudden death, he wrote to his son Henry in the follow- 
 ing terms : 
 
TRIBUTE TO BISHOP BOWMAN. 323 
 
 News of this most sudden and monitory event did not reach 
 me till the funeral was all over. Considering the great heat, it was 
 perhaps providential, as I should at once, if I had gotten the intel- 
 ligence, have hastened on where, considering the large attendance 
 and judicious arrangements, I was scarcely needed. A thoroughly 
 upnght and good man has been taken, to his great gain, but sadly 
 to the loss of the Church and the World. In his short Episcopate 
 he has won almost all hearts, and was doing his work most assidu- 
 ously, unostentatiously and usefully. Honored be his name and 
 memory ! 
 
 When, in the autumn of 1861, a special Convention of the 
 Diocese was assembled to elect a successor to the lamented 
 Bowman, Bishop Potter paid a tribute to his worth honorable 
 alike to the departed and the survivor. This was his lan- 
 guage : 
 
 His worth has been attested by more than customary tributes, of 
 respect and esteem. The sombre drapery of our churches, the re- 
 solutions of affectionate regret passed over his lifeless remains, the 
 shock of grief and amazement which thrilled throughout the State 
 as the tidings of his death were spread, were but poor and inadequate 
 utterances of our sorrow over such a bereavement. In the bosom 
 of his own household, in the Parish and city where he ministered 
 for more than thirty years, in this Diocese, which for three years 
 past he has served with singular simplicity and zeal, there is that 
 which tells of the loss of a true, devoted and loving soul, of one 
 of nature's noblemen made more noble by the grace of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. I had occasion sixteen years since, when elected to 
 the Episcopate of Pennsylvania, to learn, by a communication from 
 him,, whom I had not then seen or known, the greatness of his 
 moral nature, and the modesty of his self-appreciation. I mourn 
 him as a friend beloved, an associate honored. May God sustain 
 us under his great loss, send us one equally unselfish and pure to 
 bear his office, and enable each of us in our walk and conversation 
 to follow him as he followed Christ ! 
 
 At the general Convention held in Richmond, Virginia, in 
 
324 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 October, 1859, the autumn after Bishop Bowman's election, 
 Bishop Potter was present, but in a condition of bodily feeble- 
 ness which it was sorrowful to behold. He seemed more de- 
 pressed in spirits than ever before or after, in his period of de- 
 clining health. It derogates nothing from the unselfishn,^ss 
 and simple devotedness of his character to surmise that he as 
 well as others was conscious of the abatement of his power 
 to lead in the councils of the Church, and that he was sad- 
 dened by a sense of the change which the past three years 
 had wrought in him. A reference, however, to the Journal of 
 the House of Bishops even at that Convention will show that 
 he was not a mere looker-on in the Conclave, nor only a par- 
 ticipant in other men's measures. But he took no conspicuous 
 part in the business, and in the social circle was taciturn and 
 inanimate to a degree very unusual with him. On his return 
 to his Diocese he applied himself to such of the duties of his 
 office as the state of his health would allow. During the 
 winter, besides those public ministrations in and around the 
 city which it was suitable for him to render, he gave lectures 
 twice in a week on Moral Science and the Evidences of Re- 
 ligion to a class of Divinity students who were under the 
 more immediate charge of the Rev. Dr. Hare, who at that 
 time held an appointment as teacher of Divinity from the 
 Trustees of the Protestant Episcopal Academy. The interests 
 of the Episcopal Hospital also occupied much of his attention, 
 he co-operating very efficiently by conversation and corre- 
 spondence with liberal men, in the effort of the Trustees to ob- 
 tain the requisite funds for the erection of the noble pile that 
 now crowns the site of that institution. It was his pleasure 
 to lay the corner-stone of that building during the session of 
 the Diocesan Convention of i860. In referring to that 
 auspicious undertaking in his annual address, he took occasion 
 to foreshadow the other refuges for the stricken and sorrowful 
 which in due time the Church would be called upon to cluster 
 around this hospital for the sick in body and soul. 
 
SYMPATHY WITH THE SICK AND SAD. 325 
 
 The hospital is . but one of a system of Church charities which 
 was projected more than ten years since, and which was intended 
 to embrace orphan homes, widows' asylums, penitentiaries for 
 abandoned females, a house of employment, etc. Already a 
 Church home for children has been established. The Christ Church 
 Hospital, "for poor and distressed women" of our communion, 
 has been enabled, by the appreciation of its property, to erect, west 
 of the Schuylkill, a stately edifice which, when finished, will ac- 
 commodate more than one hundred inmates ; — and the late Mrs. 
 Burd has left a munificent sum to found, under the supervision of 
 the Rector, wardens and vestry of St. Stephen's Church, a home 
 for female orphans. Thus the Church is coming up slowly to 
 its work. Let us thank God and take courage. To the poor 
 our debt as a communion can be discharged only when, in addition 
 to the charities of individuals, we add the systematic and well di- 
 rected efforts of institutions, administered on religious principles, 
 in connection with our own services and instructions, and in such 
 way as to effect with the least means the greatest amount of good. 
 
 Had it pleased God to extend Bishop Potter's life and vigor 
 to the full measure of human existence, it can scarcely be 
 doubted that his visions of these constellated charities shed- 
 ding the light of Christian solace and guidance upon every 
 shade of darkness and misery would have been more fully 
 realized. 
 
 His sympathy with the sick and sorrowful was quickened 
 rather than paralyzed by his own sufferings and feebleness. 
 Less generous natures are often made selfish by sickness. 
 
 To Mr. Appleton he wrote under date of 
 
 Philadelphia, January 10, i860. 
 My dear Mr. Appleton : Yours of the seventh was most wel- 
 come as containing evidence that you had not forgotten us, though 
 saddening from the account of Mrs. Appleton's long confinement 
 and sufferings. I hoped to have seen you at Richmond. [To the 
 
 general Convention which sat there Mr. A had been appointed 
 
 a Deputy.] I did not apprehend from what I heard of the cause 
 of your absence that there was anything serious. I rejoice to find 
 
 28 
 
3^6 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 that she is so much better, and will trust and pray that she may still 
 continue to improve. Sickness and sorrow are inseparable from 
 life in this world. They are not without their present alleviations 
 in the kindness of friends, and the appliances of physicians, and 
 the many comforts which property commands ; they gradually 
 loosen the ties that bind us to things seen and present, and if they 
 lead us to look thankfully at the many blessings we have had in 
 times past, as well as to those we still have, and induce us to "cast 
 all our care ' ' upon Him who careth for us, and who can, if we 
 serve and trust him heartily, supply all our needs here and here- 
 after, in such case we shall certainly never regret that our gracious 
 Master has subjected us to the discipline, painful though it for the 
 present must be. 
 
 Mrs. Potter and I both continue invalids. She, however, is 
 better than when we reached this country in June. I remain much 
 the same, suffering from occasional pull-backs, but having so many 
 mercies and comforts that I have ground only for gratitude and 
 praise. 
 
 I rejoice to hear that you like your new Rector, and augur so 
 
 favorably of hi? usefulness and success with you. Dr. V is 
 
 doing a noble work here, and seems to find himself at home. 
 
 Remember us most affectionately to Mrs. A , and assure her 
 
 of our sympathy in her sufferings and our prayers for her relief 
 and spiritual consolation, and accept for yourself, with kind greet- 
 ing to all your circle, our best wishes for the New Year. Believe me, 
 Ever faithfully your friend, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 Again, under date of 
 
 Philadelphia, Aug. 13, i860. 
 
 My dear Mr. Appleton : Many thanks for your kind invitation. 
 I fear we shall not be able to get to Newport this summer. In- 
 deed, former experiments show that the air is not congenial with 
 Mrs. Potter, and as I am obliged now in all my movements to 
 have respect to her, it is the less likely that we can accej)t, as I 
 should much like to, the hospitalities of our friends. 
 
 If you see Mr. J. A. Lowell, will you ask him whether it would 
 comport with his views that the printing of my Lowell Lectures 
 
TO HIS FRIEND ELECTED TO CONGRESS. 327 
 
 should take place in Philadelphia ? I ask merely that I might have 
 the opportunity of revising the proofs. The MS. is in a state of 
 considerable forwardness. With much love to all your flock, 
 Ever affectionately your friend, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 Much is it to be regretted that a series of discourses on 
 vital subjects which afforded so much instruction and pleasure 
 to such great assemblies of cultivated people at the time of 
 their delivery, and which the Bishop, burdened with many 
 cares and broken with sickness, was at the pains to prepare 
 for the public eye, has never yet been committed to the 
 press. 
 
 Mr. Appleton was in 1 860 chosen as a Representative from 
 the City of Boston in the United States Congress. It was a 
 juncture at which wise and calm and high-principled men 
 were wanted there. Men of Mr. Appleton's stamp in the 
 high places of power would even then have averted the war 
 which was just impending. Bishop Potter expressed his 
 gratification at the election of his friend in the following 
 letter : 
 
 Philadelphia, Dec. 4, i860. 
 
 My dear Mr. Appleton : I have been intending for some time 
 to congratulate you on your recent triumph and the opportunity 
 which is thus opened to you for throwing oil over the troubled 
 waters. Matters look very dark, certainly, yet I cannot but hope 
 and trust that the gracious Being who has so often helped us in our 
 extremity will again deliver us by means not now discoverable. 
 
 I meant also to have asked your attention to a method of giving 
 relief to the poor people in Southern Kansas by affording them 
 work, thus saving them from the degradation of living on alms, and 
 at the same time securing the completion of the building known as 
 "Lawrence University" and the benefits of Mr. A. A. Lawrence's 
 generous endowment to the cause of education in our Church. Dr. 
 M lias gone to Boston, and will have seen you in all proba- 
 bility before this. It is a way of doing good which I think will 
 commend itself to your sagacious mind. 
 
328 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 I hear that the miscreant Montgomery has control of two of the 
 most populous counties in Southern Kansas, so that contributions 
 that go to the General Relief Fund, and from thence to the County 
 Committees, will in part fall into his hands and help him to main- 
 tain his reckless course 
 
 With kindest regards to all your family, 
 
 Ever affectionately and faithfully yours, 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 Allusion has been made on a previous page to an apparent 
 depression of spirits which affected the Bishop, when more than 
 a year's release from the cares and labors of his ofiSce returned 
 him to the Diocese 'without material improvement in his 
 physical condition. It was a sadness not to be attributed to 
 any impatience of the Divine allotment. Enough has been 
 quoted from his letters and addresses written after the hand 
 of God was laid upon him, to show that he accepted his dis- 
 ability as a loving chastisement intended for his good, and, 
 under the help of the gracious Spirit, convertible into a bless- 
 ing. No more trying discipline could have been applied to a 
 man of Bishop Potter's temperament, than that to which he 
 was subjected. Had he been afflicted with excruciating pains, 
 his heroism, would have risen to the emergency, and he would 
 have met it with the unflinching calmness of a martyr. But 
 just to sit still in comparative ease of body, to have all his 
 perceptions awake to the wants of the Church and of the 
 world, to realize the vast responsibilities of his office, to dis- 
 cern with a comprehension which few men share what ought 
 to be done by a leader in the hosts of God, and yet, by phys- 
 ical feebleness, to be debarred from attempting many things, 
 and to falter and become exhausted ere the accomplishment 
 of others, — this was a trial of faith and patience which only an 
 indwelling and all-sufficient Saviour could enable him to bear. 
 The cloud that for a while rested on his spirit was unquestion- 
 ably the dread of a protracted life of uselessness, a gradual 
 but slow reduction of his faculties which would leave him to 
 
PENSIVE THOUGHTS ON A CLOSING LIFE. 329 
 
 be a burden, whose ideal of life it was, to be an every-day 
 blessing to the world. It was in that period of his impaired 
 health, when the dread of more grievous disability was hang- 
 ing over him, that a Clergyman of Philadelphia who enjoyed 
 relations of peculiar intimacy with the Bishop visited him at 
 the " Episcopal Rooms ;" and having recently met in a foreign 
 magazine the following lines, which had struck him as pos- 
 sessing a chastened beauty of sentiment not without felicity 
 of diction and music of rhythm, he read them aloud to the 
 Bishop, not realizing at the moment that there was anything 
 in them which could awaken any painful emotion. 
 
 Why do I sigh to find 
 
 Life's evening shadows gathered round my way, 
 The keen eye dimming, and the buoyant mind 
 
 Unliinging day by day ? 
 
 Is it the natural dread 
 
 Of that stern lot which all must see ? 
 The worm, the clay, the dark and narrow bed, 
 
 Have they such awe for me ? 
 
 No ! 'tis the thought that I— 
 
 My lamp so low, my sun so nearly set — 
 Have lived so useless, so unmissed should die, 
 
 'Tis this I now regret. 
 
 I would not be the wave 
 
 That swells and ripples up to yonder shore. 
 That drives impulsive on, the wild wind's slave, 
 
 And breaks and is no more ! 
 
 I would not be the breeze 
 
 That murmurs by me in its viewless play. 
 Bends the light grass and flutters in the trees, 
 
 And sighs and flits away ! 
 
 Not like the wave or wind 
 
 Be my career across the earthly scene ; 
 To come and go, and leave no trace behind 
 
 To say that I have been. 
 28* 
 
330 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 I want not vulgar fame ; 
 
 I seek not to survive in brass or.stone ; 
 Hearts may not kindle when they hear my name. 
 
 Nor tears my value own ; 
 
 But might I leave behind 
 
 Some blessing for my fellows, some fair trust 
 To guide, to cheer, to elevate my kind 
 
 When I were in the dust ; 
 
 Within my narrow bed 
 
 Might I not wholly mute or useless be, 
 But hope that they who trampled o'er my head 
 
 Drew still some good from me ; 
 
 Might my poor lyre but give 
 
 Some simple strain, some spirit-moving lay, 
 Some sparklet of the soul that still might live 
 
 When I had passed to clay ; 
 
 Might verse of mine inspire 
 
 One virtuous aim, one high resolve impart; 
 Light in one drooping soul a hallowed fire. 
 
 Or bind one broken heart ; — 
 
 Death would be sweeter then — 
 
 More calm my slumber 'neath the silent sod. 
 
 Might I thus live to bless my fellow-men 
 Or glorify my God. 
 
 Why do we ever lose. 
 
 As judgment ripens, our diviner powers? 
 Why do we only learn our gifts to use 
 
 When they no more are ours ? 
 
 • O Thou whose touch can lend 
 
 Life to the dead, thy quickning grace supply ; 
 And grant me, swan-like, my last breath to spend 
 In song that may not die ! 
 
 " The only time I ever saw Bishop Potter weep," writes the 
 friend who relates this incident, "was when I read to him 
 these lines. He was much affected, and his eyes overran 
 with tears." 
 
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE WAR. 33 1 
 
 In the opening of his address to the Convention of 1861, 
 Bishop Potter reported : * 
 
 I have been able to increase my labors somewhat during the past 
 year, but I am constantly admonished of my precarious and shat- 
 tered condition, and have to proceed, especially with regard to 
 public services, with much circumspection. 
 
 The war, which had been threatened for many months, had 
 now broken forth in very deed. In the close of his brief 
 address the Bishop adverted to it in the following character- 
 istic terms : 
 
 The dire necessity of appealing to arms to withstand the forcible 
 disintegration of our Republic, and to maintain within proper 
 limits the supremacy of the National will, seems to be laid upon us. 
 But the necessity is dreadful, and, when we consider the character 
 of many men who have given rise to it, must fill every pious and 
 reflecting heart with grief and with dismay. One suspects at such 
 times his own judgment, and feels called on to exercise the largest 
 charity toward others. It is a time which must try, as by fire, our 
 faith in God, our devotion to the public zeal, our love for those 
 whom we regard as in error, our readiness to endure and suffer 
 long. Let us pray for ourselves that we may be wanting in none 
 of the characteristics of good and loyal citizens, and, above all, 
 that we may abound in the graces of patience, meekness and faith. 
 Let us implore, in behalf of all who are in civil or military 
 authority, the heavenly wisdom and long-suffering which they so 
 much need. Let us deprecate before the God of mercy and com- 
 passion the horrors of war. Let us guard anxiously against all 
 bitterness and wrath and anger and revenge. 
 
 In the same spirit of loyalty to the right and charity to 
 those in error were conceived the prayers for our country and 
 her defenders, which the Bishop immediately set forth for use 
 in the churches of his Diocese. They are models of Christian 
 sentiment and of Liturgical style. Strange that the various 
 newspapers of the South should have disseminated through 
 
332 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 all that region the idea that Bishop Potter was one of the 
 most truculent and implacfable ecclesiastics in all the 
 North. 
 
 Good Bishop Bowman, at the same Convention, spoke in 
 more impassioned and very eloquent language of the iniquity 
 of the conflict in which the nation was just involved. It was 
 one of the most thrilling passages which ever fell from his 
 graceful pen and commanding voice. It was the last time 
 that he was heard in the Diocesan Convention of Pennsyl- 
 vania, where his noble form and beneficent influence had been 
 familiar for many years. What secret influence was it — a free 
 sentiment of his own, or a prompting from Him " in whose 
 hands our breath is ?" — which moved him to close that address 
 with the ominous words of the apostle — " Brethren, the time 
 is short ; it remaineth that they that weep be as though they 
 wept 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" ? 
 
 In the autumn of 1861 the provision for a class of theo- 
 logical students in Philadelphia, which had been sustained 
 principally for several years under the admirable instruction 
 of the Rev. Dr. George Emlen Hare, was much extended 
 under a full staff of teachers, most of whom rendered gratui- 
 tous services. The Philadelphia Divinity School then attained 
 a recognized existence, and in the following winter received a 
 charter from the Legislature of the State. Bishop Potter in 
 the closing years of his life employed his influence largely in 
 obtaining for this Institution and for the Episcopal Hospital 
 suitable endowments, and was eminently successful, especially 
 in his efforts for the Divinity School. He lived to see two 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars secured for it, and more 
 than as much more for the Hospital. It would be injustice 
 to others to create the impression that all this half million 
 of dollars was obtained by the Bishop's immediate agency. 
 
PHILADELPHIA DIVINITY SCHOOL. 333 
 
 He had noble fellow-workers in counsel and in action ; all of 
 whom would have been forward- to acknowledge (what Bishop 
 Potter would have been the last to assert) that he was the 
 animating soul and in a large measure the directing mjnd of 
 the whole enterprise, and in many cases the efficient hand by 
 whom the work was done. 
 
 Bishop Stevens in his " Memorial Discourse" has truly said 
 of this school of the Prophets : 
 
 Never in the history of our Theological Seminaries has an insti- 
 tution so speedily been put in full working order with such liberal 
 endowments and such ample instrumentalities of present and pros- 
 pective usefulness. Bishop Potter bent himself to this work with 
 untiring energy. He planned, in conjunction with otlifrs, its cur- 
 riculum of studies, shaped out its statutes and by-laws, sent forth 
 his almost winged letters to bear his messages asking for help or 
 counsel far and wide, threw the whole weight of his personal and 
 official influence into the measure, and more than any other laid 
 the foundation, moulded the structure, directed the equipment and 
 shaped out the course of this noble institution. His long experi- 
 ence in College duties ; his complete mastery of the great educa- 
 tional problems of the day ; his intimate knowledge of the habits 
 of thought and modes of expression of the- popular mind ; his 
 thorough appreciation of the high duties and solemn responsibili- 
 ties of the Ministry in this age, this land, and this Church, quali- 
 fied him to lead in the enterprise, and the hearts and minds of his 
 co-workers delighted to follow in the footsteps of so wise and safe 
 a guide. The Divinity School of Philadelphia stands near the 
 banks of the Schuylkill, as the Hospital of the Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church does near the banks of the Delaware, two monu- 
 ments that will ever bear the name of the Bishop to far-off ages. 
 
 By the blessing of God the Bishop regained in a degree 
 the strength which had been so suddenly and so entirely 
 prostrated in 1857. The report of his official acts to the 
 Convention of 1862 contained a larger record of public min- 
 istrations than in any previous year since that calamity. In- 
 
334 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 deed, his Episcopal address of that year is characterized by the 
 same breadth of views, the same cogent thought and perspic- 
 uous language, which distinguished his official papers of pre- 
 vious years ; evincing that in his most enfeebled state only the 
 body, its instrument, not the mind itself, had been weakened. 
 Referring in it to a series of lectures by Clergymen and others 
 on Sunday-schools, which had been in course of delivery in 
 Philadelphia through the months of spring — the last of which 
 was delivered on the first evening of the Convention (the 
 whole having been prepared and spoken at the Bishop's 
 instance and by his appointment) — he took the occasion to 
 discuss the character, position and influence of the Sunday- 
 schools in our ecclesiastical system, and gave utterance to 
 thoughts concerning the imperfections and dangers to which 
 this branch of our parochial mechanism is liable, of which 
 every day's experience illustrates the wisdom. 
 
 During the Convention the chapel of the Protestant Epis- 
 copal Hospital, a beautiful Gothic structure sufficiently large 
 for a rural Parish church, the gift of a Christian lady, was 
 consecrated. The Bishop, informing the Convention of his 
 purpose to perform that solemn rite on the following day, 
 mentioned also the near c'ompletion of the west pavilion of 
 the hospital itself, the consequent enlargement of its accom- 
 modations and the need of a greatly increased income, with 
 practical suggestions of measures for securing it. This led 
 him to advert to one of the collateral uses of the hospital — 
 to wit, " the instruction and training of suitable persons for the 
 duties of nursing the sick!' Under this head fell some hints 
 respecting Christian sisterhoods — which, as they were some- 
 what in advance of the common sentiments of the Church 
 then, and in a direction in which the tendencies of some in 
 the Church now indicate that they incline to go much farther, 
 it may be well to reproduce — to promote the moderate and 
 rational use of agencies which in excess would be a reproach 
 and detriment to the Church. Bishop Potter's ideas in brief 
 
THE WAR— CHAPLAINS IN THE AHMY. 335 
 
 of Protestant sisterhoods are given in another part of this 
 Memoir. 
 
 In the autumn of 1861 the Diocese at a special Convention 
 had appointed the Rev. Dr. William Bacon Stevens to succeed 
 the lamented Dr. Bowman as Assistant Bishop, who immedi- 
 ately on his consecration (the 2d of January, 1862) entered 
 with great activity and acceptableness upon the duties of his 
 office; Bishop Potter, in his last annual address in May, 
 1864, recognized the measure of the appointment of an As- 
 sistant Bishop as one which had " doubtless prolonged his life 
 and his ability to serve the Diocese." The relief in each 
 instance he had probably felt the more, in that the Presbyters 
 selected were men familiar with the Diocese by long and 
 active residence in it, and by cordial co-operation with the 
 Bishop in his effectual plans for its increase and prosperity. 
 Bishop Stevens, "as a son with the father, served with him in 
 the Gospel," accepting all his plans with filial deference and 
 prosecuting them with vigorous effort. 
 
 The war at that time was in full progress, and Pennsylvania 
 was sending forth her hosts, regiment after regiment, to the 
 aid of the Government. For each of these a chaplain was 
 required, and the Episcopal Church did her share in supplying 
 them. Bishop Potter took the most earnest interest in their 
 work, and gave much thought to the instrumentalities for good 
 which were at their command. The following letter to a young 
 Clergyman in the Army of the East may serve to illustrate his 
 concern for the religious welfare of the soldiers, and the pater- 
 nal solicitude with which he followed his sons in the Ministry 
 who took upon them this office and ministration : 
 
 My dear Mr. E : You will I know not be sorry to hear 
 
 from Philadelphia or from me. We follow you with many anxious 
 and affectionate thoughts, and with earnest prayers for a blessing 
 on your labors. I know no Ministerial post which affords such a 
 noble opportunity for doing good, and there are few which offer 
 
33^ MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 more temptations to an indolent, cold and perfunctory spirit. To 
 reach the men effectually and rouse them to hear with their under- 
 standings and hearts and to think deeply on their ways, requires 
 much private intercourse and especially kindness when they are 
 sick or in any trouble. There are doubtless some serious men in 
 the regiment — among the privates, if not among the ofiScers — some 
 who are members of the different Churches, and others whose minds 
 are more or less touched and softened. Would it not be well to get 
 the aid of one or two of these in finding out the rest, and to collect 
 them occasionally in your tent for conversation and prayer ? Could 
 not one or two Bible-classes be formed ? Cannot something be 
 done through your influence with the officers, in checking such vices 
 as gaming, profane swearing, drunkenness, etc. ? Your regiment is 
 a model, it is said, in equipments, drift and soldierly bearing. May 
 it be a model also for temperance, virtue and the fear of the Lord ! 
 
 I am naturally anxious that the chaplains who have gone from 
 this Diocese shall be honored for their zeal and devotion to their 
 work, and that they should win a rich harvest of souls. You will 
 therefore, appreciate my motives in writing. 
 
 Pray let me hear from you. Mr. O of the Thirtieth Penn- 
 sylvania Volunteers, Mr. H of the Independent Rifles (Wild 
 
 cats), Mr. G of Bucks County, Colonel Davis' Regiment 
 
 Mr. E of Colonel Chorman's, and some others of our Clergy, 
 
 are not far (I think) from you. I hope you will find them out, and 
 that you will attend the meetings of the chaplains which are occa- 
 sionally held. 
 
 Ever yours faithfully, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 Philadelphia, January ii, 1862. 
 
 One of the most interesting and suggestive Episcopal ad 
 dresses ever delivered by Bishop Potter w^as made to the 
 Diocesan Convention of 1863. Indeed, a more comprehensive 
 and condensed " manual of practice " for a Bishop could not 
 easily be prepared than vsrould be had in a reprint of his official 
 messEME to his Diocese through the tw^enty years of his 
 Episcopate. In 1863 he was able to announce : 
 
SICK AND WOUNDED SOLDIERS IN THE HOSPITAL. 337 
 
 The Divinity School of which I spoke in the last report as 
 established permanently in Philadelphia has given instruction to 
 some twenty- five young men. It is supplied with a full and able 
 Faculty. Annual subscriptions and endowments have been given to 
 an encouraging extent. Several scholarships have been founded ; 
 the library has received valuable donations ; real estate and an 
 ample building in a fine position in West Philadelphia have been 
 procured. Everything gives assurance that under God the institu- 
 tion will be enduring and useful. 
 
 The state of war had at that time fearfully enhanced the cost 
 of living. The Bishop did not forget (he rarely ever did) to 
 plead for the poor Clergy. .The new hospital had been com- 
 pleted in the preceding year, and was almost immediately occu- 
 pied, under arrangement with the government, by sick and 
 wounded soldiers. In the seven months in which it was thus 
 used, it became a refuge for about seven hundred suffering 
 men : to many of them it proved the " House of God and the 
 Gate of Heaven." 
 
 This providential occupation of the building afforded a most 
 favorable occasion for calling out that personal gratuitous 
 ministration to the sick and afflicted, on the part of Christian 
 men and women, which the Bishop desired so much to culti- 
 vate — a service which was attended with unspeakable comfort 
 and benefit to the suffering, great development in those who 
 rendered it, of that most excellent gift of charity, and tuition in 
 a department of Christian beneficence of which the hospital, in 
 its normal and permanent use, has ever since enjoyed the 
 advantage. 
 
 In the Convention of 1864 the first positive step toward 
 the division of the Diocese was made, by the Bishop declaring 
 in his address that he was prepared to assent to it — if the readi- 
 ness of the portion proposed to be set off to meet the respon- 
 sibilities which would accrue should be made apparent; acd by 
 the presentation of a carefully prepared report of a Coramittee 
 appointed by the Convention of the previous year, in which 
 29 w 
 
338 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the limits, strength and capabilities of the several parts were 
 fully discussed. The report did not at that time lead to favor- 
 able action, but in the following year became the basis of the 
 division which was made. It is due to the Bishop's memory 
 that the conclusion of his remarks on the subject of division 
 should be here incorporated. 
 
 Speaking for himself and his Assistant, he said : 
 
 We are, I trust,, deeply sensible of the inadequacy of our labors, 
 and shall gladly hail the day when any portion of the Common- 
 wealth shall demonstrate its readiness to be erected into a separate 
 Diocese. What constitutes such "readiness" will doubdess be 
 differently judged by different minds. I cannot but hold to the 
 opinion, expressed nearly twenty years since, that, to make it safe 
 and prudent to set off a new Diocese from one like ours,, it should 
 be reasonably certain that the means of supporting the Bishop and 
 of extending the Church should be in hand or in near prospect. 
 In the creation of new colonial Dioceses in the mother country, 
 the previous endowment of the Episcopate has been considered an 
 indispensable pre-requisite. In every case a principal sum has been 
 funded, the income of which would afford the whole, or nearly the 
 whole, of the Bishop's support. No one who has seen the severe 
 privations and the humiliating dependence of some of our Western 
 Bishops can wish to see them repeated in Pennsylvania. Any dis- 
 trict which will be set off here will be more than sufficient to 
 occupy most of a Bishop's time, and what remains should not be 
 engrossed by the care of a Parish, but rather in such studies as will 
 better qualify him for his manifold duties. My life is precarious, 
 and no great importance need be attached to my convictions and 
 determinations ; but I should be wanting in frankness toward this 
 Convention and toward those who may meditate measures for form- 
 ing a new Diocese — I should be unfaithful, as I conceive, to the 
 brethren who may be called to preside over it, and to the best wel- 
 fare of Christ's Church — if I did not state in advance that my con- 
 sent, if-then acting, to a division of the Diocese will be withheld 
 till I have evidence that a principal sum of not less than twenty- 
 five to thirty thousand dollars is paid in and safely invested. The 
 
ENDOWMENT OF NEW EPISCOPATE EXACTED. 339 
 
 additional income which will be necessary for a frugal but respect- 
 able support [of the Diocese in its Missionary and other wants] 
 will constitute as heavy a tax as the churches and people will be 
 able to bear. 
 
 This communication of his purposes by the Bishop was at 
 the time charged by some of the zealous friends of division 
 with untimeliness and in fact impertinence, and was made the 
 occasion of a po.sthumous attack upon hiiri, of which it is to 
 be regretted that there is any record. 
 
 The concurrence of three co-ordinate parties, it is well 
 understood, is necessary to accomplish the division of a Dio- 
 cese — the Convention thereof, — the Bishop — and the General 
 Convention. Each party has a perfect right under the canons 
 to express its will absolutely and without declared reasons. 
 There was nothing in the statute which required, certainly 
 nothing which forbade. Bishop Potter at that stage of the pro- 
 ceedings to inform the Converition under what circumstances 
 he would or would not consent to the division. He might 
 have kept his own counsels, and after the adjournment of the 
 Convention have simply said, " I refuse my consent," giving 
 or not, at his own option, his reasons ; but what a furore of 
 excitement among the friends of the measure such a revela- 
 tion would have created after the Convention had agreed to a 
 division ! The Bishop took the more generous course of dis- 
 closing beforehand that certain preliminaries must have been 
 arranged before his consent could be had. As an act of grace, 
 to facilitate and not to obstruct the division, he notified all 
 parties concerned, at a period at which there was ample time 
 to meet the condition, that before his consent could be had a 
 certain endowment must be secured. 
 
 Whether that was a wise position for him to assume, whe- 
 ther any pecuniary consideration should in such a matter 
 sway a Bishop's judgment, is a question on which there is 
 room for difference of opinion. Other Bishops have since, in 
 
340 MEMblR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 like circumstances, made similar conditions without rebuke. 
 He probably knew, or thought he knew, the ability and 
 resources of the Church in any supposable portion of the 
 Diocese which could be set apart for a new jurisdiction. We 
 believe it has been proved that he did not misjudge in this 
 case. However that may be, it was his right to make his 
 consent dependent on that condition, and, intending so to do, 
 it was a kindness, and not an act of oppression, to give early 
 notice of his intention. 
 
 Reference has already been made to the declining health 
 of Mrs. Potter. Her illness was very protracted; and although 
 there was now and again a temporary rally, and to her as often 
 a renewal of hope that she might fully regain her health 
 and- strength, yet they who watched with deepest solicitude 
 every change were compelled to realize that there was all the 
 while a certain and fatal decay. The crisis came in the begin- 
 ning of 1864. Of her character her husband, shortly after 
 her removal, made the following record : 
 
 Her practical capacity was most varied and prompt ; her flow of 
 spirits exuberant and even ; her courtesy and kindness unfailing, 
 and her judgment in all departments of life and in letters and relig- 
 ion just and vigorous. With this she joined a passionate love for 
 flowers and all natural beauty, and great susceptibility to kindness. 
 Like all strong natures, her convictions were profound, and her 
 mode of expressing them, where there was meanness or criminality, 
 was sometimes vehement. But the fervor of her heart was so tem- 
 pered by prudence and charity, and her mastery over her tongue 
 so complete, that she rarely offended, and often kindled in slower 
 or duller natures congenial fires. ^' She opened her mouth with 
 wisdom, and in her tongue was the law of kindness. She looked 
 well to the ways of her household, and ate not the bread of idleness. 
 The heart of her husband did safely trust in her, so that he had no 
 need of spoil. She did him good and not evil all the days of her life. 
 Favor is deceitful and beauty vain, but a woman that feareth the 
 Lord, she shall be praised.^' 
 
 About ten years ago her robust frame showed signs of disease. 
 
AFFECTING CEREMONY. 34I 
 
 She was ordered to the South in the spring of 1854, and spent some 
 time in the family of her husband's friend, Bishop Elliott, of Sa- 
 vannah. Again, in 1855, she was ordered in the same direction, 
 and spent some months in Florida and neighboring States. In 
 1858, her health still declining, she joined her husband, then an 
 invalid, with three children, and went for a year to England and 
 the south of France. She returned in 1859 without material ben- 
 efit, and has since slowly declined, till, January 29, 1864, she 
 peacefully resigned her spirit to Him who gave it. 
 
 During these years of languor and disease she displayed in a 
 most striking manner the native force and the sterling virtues of her 
 character. Nothing could depress her courage or exhaust her lov- 
 ing care for her friends, her husband or her children, or weary her 
 active sympathy in the distresses of the needy, or dull her ear to 
 the claims of her country or her Church. Up to the last her 
 fingers were busy with some work of taste or fancy by which she 
 could please z, friend or win money for some good work. 
 
 In December of 1863 there had been witnessed in the 
 Bishop's parlor, by a small circle of friends, a scene of pecu- 
 liar interest and solemnity. It was the marriage of his nephew 
 to the sister of Mrs. Potter. This lady had for several years 
 been a member pf the Bishop's family, and in the feeble con- 
 dition of his wife, had been to him — in the care of his house- 
 hold, and in attention to his personal wants (for he was a 
 shattered man and needed the vigilant care and gentle minis- 
 tries of a loving friend) she had been to him a sister indeed. 
 
 Mrs. Potter, whose energy disease could not subdue, re- 
 clined upon a lounge, attired as in health. The visible finger 
 of death was upon her, and in little more than a month stilled 
 her languid pulse and laboring breath. The Bishop stood near 
 her to conduct the ceremony. He was a man of marvelous 
 self-control, but the associations of that hour were too much 
 for him. The memories of the past, and the foreshadowings 
 of the near future, filled his heart, suffused his eyes and almost 
 choked his utterance. By a resolute effort he accomplished 
 
 29* 
 
342 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the performance of the entire service; but the whole aspect and 
 atmosphere of the place were so full of sadness, though it were 
 chastened with Christian resignation and hope, that when the 
 little company dispersed, the emotions which they carried 
 with them were rather such as are excited at a funeral than 
 those which are ordinarily kindled at a wedding. 
 
 The point of the incident as connected with these Memoirs 
 is, that he who was by many thought so impassive (because 
 he had attained by discipline complete self-mastery) knew 
 and in this instance revealed the deepest and tenderest sensi- 
 bilities of our nature. 
 
 The tone of Bishop Potter's piety must have already been 
 inferred, from the record of his life thus far unfolded and the 
 character developed thereby. It was not veiy demonstrative. 
 He was not addicted to intense and hyperbolical forms of ex- 
 pression on any theme. His temperament was calm, and it gave 
 fashion to his religious as well as his social life. Some per- 
 sons, therefore, would have said that his piety was not fervent. 
 However that may have been, it was deep and living. A 
 more profound and pervasive conscientiousness than he had, 
 seldom marks the character of man. Not assuming before 
 his fellows, he was truly humble before God. He was self- 
 abased under a sense of sin, and rightly estimated the pre- 
 ciousness of the grace that is in Christ Jesus. His hope was 
 the hope of salvation, not merely the expectation of bliss in 
 the future world. His devotion of his powers to the service 
 of God was complete and unreserved; his interest in the good 
 of man almost became a passion, it was so intense and all- 
 engrossing. His intellectual training rendered his procla- 
 mations of the truth philosophical rather than emotional or 
 hortatory. But as he advanced in age and the vigor of his 
 physical nature became somewhat unstrung, and especially as 
 the rod of affliction was laid upon him, the tenderness of his 
 sympathies grew more apparent, his Christian affections and 
 experience seemed to deepen, his appeals for Christ and his 
 
RENEWED LABORS. 343 
 
 Church were more personal and heart-stirring. The time 
 drew nearer when he would depart and be with Christ, and so 
 his spiritual vision appeared to rest on Christ, with a clearer 
 and more immediate perception ; and they who enjoyed the 
 fullest and most intimate communion with him realized that 
 they were in the Mount of God, and saw the reflected lustre 
 of the Divine Presence in the beamings of his sanctified spirit 
 and even in the softened and Christlike expression of his 
 countenance. 
 
 It has already been remarked that there was a gradual and 
 partial recuperation of the Bishop's strength after i86b. It 
 was observable in his freer and more vigorous movements, as 
 well as in the greater amount of public duty which he under- 
 took, and the more extended and sustained official documents 
 which he issued. Fired with a holy ambition to do all his 
 work, he quickened his speed just as the Divine Hand which 
 had checked him loosened the rein. He never presumed 
 that it was in the plan of the Almighty Arbiter to restore him 
 to fullness of health. The wasting of his manly and once well- 
 developed form and the fallen aspect of his strong and expres- 
 sive features, observed of course by him who wore them, must 
 have dissipated any such conceit. The silver cord was loosed, 
 and no hand so skillful as to restore its tension and recall its 
 harmonies. 
 
 His thoughts were much occupied at this period upon the 
 internal economy of the Divinity School and of the Church 
 Hospital. They were both somewhat peculiar in their design — 
 the one in that it contemplated practical training as well as in- 
 struction, and the other in that it was his desire to make it a 
 centre of beneficent influence, not only upon its inmates, but 
 upon the people residing in its neighborhood. So to adjust 
 these novel features as to make them efficient, and yet to con- 
 serve the paramount purposes for which the respective institu- 
 tions were founded, was a task of no little difficulty and de- 
 manding the wisdom of an experienced organizer. Bishop 
 
344 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Potter was solicitous to get these arrangements into full and 
 smooth operation while the school and the hospital were 
 young, and trial could be made upon small numbers of plans 
 which it might be more difficult to introduce, when many with 
 fixed habits and assumed prescriptive rights were to be en- 
 countered. In 1 864 the Bishop wrote to the Resident Chap- 
 lain of the hospital a letter containing many suggestions of 
 permanent value, some of which demand a record in this 
 volume : 
 
 At present I think it wiser to concentrate our efforts upon organ- 
 izing the various works in and about the hospital and giving them 
 their utmost efficiency. The more your attention can be given 
 personally to the sick in their beds, to the dispensary patients, to 
 the attendants at the various meetings, the more the grand object 
 we are now working for will be promoted. The services of the 
 ladies will be most valuable, but will be greatly aided by your 
 personal co-operation. In dealing with the irreligious and often 
 ignorant, a course of private instruction and training is (I think) 
 much more important than mere public or social exercises 
 
 Our habits as Parish Clergymen lead us to deal with masses of 
 people and to depend on social services, but I think experience 
 shows that those who are much alienated from public worship and 
 from religious influences need to be dealt with individually, and 
 by special and various methods, and that much pains should be 
 given to carry on those who have been impressed, till they gain 
 clearer understanding and more settled purpose and practice. I 
 speak on the general subject with some diffidence, especially to one 
 who has had so much experience in parochial work. But our work 
 at and about the hospital just now is so varied and novel ; and is 
 charged with such heavy responsibility as a model work, not only 
 in connection with such institutions, but for home missions gene- 
 rally, that I am anxious that the maximum attention should be con- 
 centrated upon it, that if it fails, the fault may be inherent in the 
 system, and not in the working of it. Ladies and unordained per- 
 sons may do much, but their services will be valuable and effective 
 in proportion as they are guided and assisted by competent Clerical 
 authority 
 
LETTER TO THE HOSPITAL CHAPLAIjy. . 345 
 
 I ought to add that until the physicians, superintendent and man- 
 agers get more used to the Christian and mixed character of the in- 
 stitution, it seems very important that we should avoid what may 
 cross their views and habits. I have strong hopes that through Mr. 
 
 W 's agency, things will be brought into full working accord 
 
 in time, and that greatly increased vigor will be induced through 
 the labors of all of you. Meanwhile, it-seems specially desirable 
 that the chaplain should keep aloof from what may excite discon- 
 tent in any of these parties. One cannot use too much abstinence 
 in conversing about physicians and others with whom we are co- 
 operating Those accustomed to routine or traditionary ar- 
 rangements are, you know, very sensitive to criticism 
 
 I need not say anything of the delicacy of our relations to the 
 neighboring Clergy and Parishes. The chapel cannot be regarded 
 as an ordinary Parish church, and all that we do there of a mis- 
 sionary sort must be accounted as provisional and temporary. I 
 have great hopes that the work may provoke many Parishes and 
 Clergymen to emulate the spirit and the manner of it, but that result 
 can hardly be hoped for unless the most scrupulous regard is man- 
 ifested for the feelings (even though hardly reasonable) of those 
 about us. 
 
 I advert to all these points by way of caution. Your ministra- 
 tions have been signally blessed to the sick and the poor, and you 
 have kindled additional zeal for the institution, for which I give 
 
 God thanks I know things are not perfect there, but where 
 
 can we find it ? It seems to be our lot and part in life to form high 
 ideals and struggle slowly and painfully toward them. Yet we 
 can never reach them, for as our performance improves our ideals 
 rise, and it is well that it should be so. Else, our ideal attained, 
 we should be content, and effort would cease. Rest is for the future. 
 Pascal says, ' ' We shall rest in the grave. ' ' 
 
 .... With regard tp chronic patients the hospital was founded 
 for recent and curable cases, and all others must of necessity be 
 exceptional. I have in former years dreamed of living long enough 
 to see a separate institution for chronic cases. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
346 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 On the 17th of January, 1865, the remains of the venera- 
 ble Bishop Brownell, of Connecticut, and for more than ten 
 years presiding Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 
 the United States, were committed to the tomb. In consid- 
 eration of the intimate personal relations subsisting for a long 
 period between him and the subject of this memoir. Bishop 
 Potter was specially invited to be present at his funeral and 
 to make a commemorative address on the occasion. 
 
 The Bishop's affection and respect for the departed prompted 
 him at once to accede to this request, and he prepared some 
 notes of the tribute which he designed to pay. But when the 
 day for his journey to Hartford (the place of the burial) ar- 
 rived, the weather was too inclement for one in his enfeebled 
 condition to venture North, and he was constrained to forego 
 his melancholy errand. 
 
 The sketch which Bishop Potter had prepared, and which, 
 though incomplete, is yet beautiful, is here subjoined : 
 
 It is now nearly fifty years since I knew Thomas Church Brow- 
 nell. On a bright September morning in the year 1815 I entered, 
 a strange stripling, the beautiful site on which stand the main build- 
 ings of Union College (Schenectady, N. Y.). I was a Candidate 
 for admission to one of its classes. On my way to the North Col- 
 lege I was met by a gentleman rather under middle age, of manly 
 and graceful figure and of evident refinement of manner. By a 
 friend who was with my father and myself we were introduced, and 
 though the meeting was casual and very brief, it lives before me at 
 this moment. All the dignity and urbanity, all the gentleness and 
 modesty, which made him ever attractive, were obvious at once and 
 left an impression not to be effaced. 
 
 After that for three years I met him almost daily in the classes 
 of rhetoric, logic and chemistry. He was never loud or vehe- 
 ment, rarely excited to enthusiasm, never ruffled by anger. There 
 was that about him which might have repressed disorder through 
 fear, if it had not been charmed away by affection and respect. In 
 his display of learning, of intellectual power and of moral quali- 
 
SKETCH OF BISHOP BROWNELL. 347 
 
 ties, there was evidence of reserved force which inspired esteem 
 and awakened expectation. There was a poise of character which 
 gave assurance of self-discipline, while it awakened trust and in- 
 spired respect. His exercises and occasional remarks were not dis- 
 tinguished by great depth or strength, and yet they left traces on 
 the memory, and often on the heart, not easily effaced. 
 
 It was during these three years that Professor Brownell received 
 orders. I heard him preach his first sermon. Like everything 
 about him, his preaching and reading of the Liturgy were marked 
 by elegant solidity, and were not without touches of force and elo- 
 quence. During our senior year, while we were pursuing the study 
 of chemistry under him, his frame gave signs 'of pulmonary dis- 
 ease, and late in the autumn he started on a journey to the South. 
 His health rapidly improved, and in many circles where he was a 
 welcome and cherished guest, he laid the foundations of a lively 
 interest in the Church and in its General Seminary for the training 
 of Ministers, then contemplated. On his return- through New 
 York in the spring of 1818, his preaching attracted the attention 
 of Trinity Church, then in quest of a successor to the Rev. Dr. 
 How, and he was chosen its Assistant Minister. During that 
 summer I graduated, and, being in feeble health, received from 
 him and his wife an invitation to become their guest for some time. 
 
 It was just before the family broke up to move to New York. It 
 will not surprise you to know that I learned to love all the mem- 
 bers of the household. But one of three children then living now 
 survives. The wife and mother, so rich in noble character, thoughts 
 and impulses — so inexhaustible in spirits and in humor — so careless 
 of what the world most adores and so considerate of what that 
 world is apt to forget or despise — still lives, loved and honored by 
 her children, her dependents and her friends. But her earthly 
 light is put out. Henceforth she will count herself a stranger. 
 
 Of her husband after he was advanced to the Episcopate there 
 are many who can speak more circumstantially. I have regarded 
 his friendship and the friendship of his family as one of my bless- 
 ings. I have looked with admiring gratitude at the favoring smiles 
 of Providence upon a house which has been ever open to the 
 friendless and the stranger. I have considered our departed friend 
 
348 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 as specially blessed of God, and specially a blessing to his genera- 
 tion and to his Church. Do you ask why? 
 
 I answer : ist. On account of his manners — urbane, polished, 
 kindly, condescending. This is a boon — never to have spoken 
 harsh words, never done rude acts, never to have inflicted design- 
 edly a pang on those near and dear to us, given no shock to deli- 
 cacy, no failure in the benevolence which regards even trifles, is 
 what few of us can claim. Yet, at the close of his fourscore years 
 can those who have observed him most narrowly recall any instance 
 in which he failed : — or one in which he failed to shed a benignant 
 light over the circle in which he lived or entered? His very 
 silence seemed to speak only of kindliness and to breathe a sweet, 
 placid spirit ; and was not this being a blessing to his family, to 
 his neighborhood and to the Church ? 
 
 2. On account of his disposition. His manners were not the 
 offspring of polite culture or refined association merely. They 
 were not the varnish which the beau monde puts on merely to facili- 
 tate its pleasures or to hide the coarseness and selfishness of its 
 spirit. They were the simple utterance of the inner man, the 
 reflection of his innate or acquired nature. He was a lover of 
 children, a lover of the weak and dependent of every age, a dis- 
 penser of the cheap yet precious charities which make home and 
 every stopping-place in the journey of life a sort of paradise. His 
 was a heart slow to take offence, slow to think evil of enemy or 
 friend, slow to vaunt itself or to behave itself unseemly. There was 
 a self-oblivion which put others forward and never challenged 
 attention or applause. There was a modesty which to the last 
 could mantle the face with blushes, and which kept him from 
 
 all approach to indelicacy of speech or act 
 
 There was a quick sympathy which 
 
 put him in accord with all distresses and embarrassments, and 
 made him by look or word the helper and comforter ; which put 
 him in accord too with all innocent gayeties and all deeper joys. 
 "He rejoiced with all them that did rejoice, and wept with them 
 that wept." His was a sweetness of natural disposition which had 
 been invigorated by self-discipline and hallowed by divine grace ; 
 a native innocence which made him a stranger to the grosser tastes 
 
SKETCH OF BISHOP BROWNELL. • 349 
 
 and propensities, and a native benevolence which rendered him 
 proof against the ordinary temptations to "malice and envy and 
 evil speaking;" and yet no resting on these natural traits or ac- 
 quired virtues — "none but Christ." Was not such a man blessed? 
 Was not such a man pre-eminently a blessing ? Amidst the cold- 
 ness and hardness of too many who call themselves Christians, 
 amidst the feuds and animosities which distract and embitter so- 
 ciety, what a benefactor does he seem ; whose voice in the house 
 and by the wayside is always for charity and long-suffering, whose 
 example is on the side of justice and charity ! 
 
 3. The wisdom of his life. He only has a guarantee for a 
 serene and happy life, as well as for a useful and ' influential one, 
 who is moderate in his desires, simple in his tastes, calm and 
 patient in seeking the truth, whether in action or in thought, and 
 sensible of the infirmities which pertain to our nature. A man 
 who has inordinate love of pleasure or intense desire for riches or 
 honor may be a marked man ; he may win the goal which he has 
 chosen before all competitors, but he wins only to find the vanity 
 of all that for which he has striven and the unsatisfying character 
 of all ambitious longings. In the pursuit he is tortured by a rest- 
 less and resistless appetite for that which he has not ; in the pos- 
 session he discovers that "vanity of vanities" is registered against 
 the most splendid successes, if they are of the "earth, earthy." 
 
 So with the formation of opinions and the choice of lines of 
 action. It is evidence of a wide mind and a large soul if disputed 
 points of opinion and practice are held with some reserve and 
 acted upon with assured conviction, but yet without presumptuous 
 confidence or intolerant devotion. A mind that leaps to its con- 
 clusions and adopts them with passionate zeal is not only impatient 
 of opposition or dissent, but blinds itself unconsciously to much 
 that would qualify or materially alter its judgments. 
 
 In all these respects our friend was a wise man. He did not 
 depreciate the pleasures of sense or of taste ; he did not under- 
 value wealth gotten by legitimate means, or distinction if pur- 
 chased without disloyalty to self-respect and by the exercise of 
 useful powers and faculties ; but his desires in these respects were 
 always bounded. He had no lust, whether for sensuality, for 
 
 30 
 
35° MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 riches or for honor. He lived most of his days on a bare compe- 
 tence. He had more than enough of the prizes that are within the 
 reach of ecclesiastics or scholars. His ambition seemed to be to 
 walk everywhere in the golden mean. In theological and philo- 
 sophical controversies he had definite opinions, but they were held 
 as personal — as subject to correction from future meditation and 
 reading, and with a profound apprehension of the disturbing force 
 of prejudice, pride, education and interest, in his own case as well 
 as in that of others. 
 
 In his efforts for the good of the Church or the world, he was free 
 from all ostentation and from all morbid desire for applause. Those 
 works by which he will be known the longest and with the most 
 favor were merely compilations, like his "Commentary on the 
 Prayer-book" and his "Religion of the Heart and Life." His 
 efforts for theological education at the beginning of his Episcopate 
 were apparently a failure ; and yet to impartial observers, intimately 
 cognizant of the facts, they will be likely to form a noble monu- 
 ment to his sagacity and moderation. Few will deny now that 
 had the General Seminary removed out of New York and away 
 from the overshadowing influence of that Diocese, it might have 
 been better for the science of Theology among us, and better for 
 the moral and spiritual health of those trained within its walls. 
 Trinity College is his child, and as long as it shall send forth edu- 
 cated minds to bless and elevate society and the Church of Christ, 
 so long will each one be an evidence of its founder's labors. 
 
 About a year after the death of Mrs. Potter, the Bishop, 
 being alone in his chamber, fell prostrate upon the floor, and 
 lay insensible until discovered by some member of his house- 
 hold. It was probably a recurrence of that paralytic affection 
 with which he had been stricken in 1858. Less severe it 
 probably was, for it occasioned but a brief interruption of his 
 public services. It however filled his family and friends with 
 alarm, lest in some hour of solitude the hand of death should 
 be laid upon him, as lately upon one whom the Church had 
 called to bear with him the -burden of the Episcopate. Ar- 
 rangements were made a few months after for the Bishop, 
 
CONTEMPLA TED VO YAGE. 351, 
 
 accompanied by a few congenial fellow-voyagers, to take a 
 long sea voyage, — remote from the ordinary routes of travel, — 
 cut off from the possibility of loading himself with his cus- 
 tomary cares, — and relieved of every-day knowledge of the 
 momentous occurrences which were determining the destiny 
 of our country, and indeed the hopes of mankind. It was 
 believed that in such a rest, amid changing scenes that would 
 interest him by their novelty, was to be found the most 
 promising possibility of repairing his shattered constitution 
 and prolonging his life. 
 
 A few days before his embarkation came the announcement 
 of the Bishop's marriage in New York to Miss Frances Sea- 
 ton. Only to a very limited circle had it been known that 
 such an event was likely to occur. The lady to whom he 
 became thus allied had been a friend for many years of the 
 Bishop and his family. They who knew him best and loved 
 him most truly, rejoiced that he was not to go " alone " on his 
 long and perilous voyage. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 CLOSE OF BISHOP POTTER'S CAREER. 
 
 AFTER the serious illness above referred to, the Bishop's 
 physicians required him to cease wholly from his work, 
 and try the effect of entire change. 
 
 About this time he was invited by the Pacific Steamship Co. 
 to go as their guest to California by the way of the Straits of 
 Magellan, to stop at Rio de Janeiro, Callao, Panama and other 
 places. This proposition held out unusual attractions. The 
 steamship Colorado (by which the voyage was to be made) 
 was new, beautifully finished and furnished in all its appoint- 
 ments. It carried no passengers, only guests of the Com- 
 pany, the greater part of whom were Professor Agassiz and 
 his scientific corps of young men, who went to investigate the 
 natural history of Brazil and other neighboring countries on 
 the Amazon. Thus there was offered a circle of refined and 
 cultivated associates, and appliances of comfort and luxury 
 seldom combined on a sea voyage. These advantages, coupled 
 with the other requisites of rest and change, induced the 
 Bishop to decide upon accepting so agreeable a proposal. He 
 sailed from the harbor of New York on Saturday, April i, 
 1865, with bright hopes in the happy results of the voyage. 
 
 Before taking ship he prepared and left for presentation to 
 the ensuing Convention of his Diocese a brief Episcopal 
 address, which, besides the usual report of his labors, con- 
 tained the following review of the Church's progress in the 
 whole period of his administration. It betrays a conscious- 
 
 352 
 
LAST MESSAGE TO THE CONVENT/ON. 353 
 
 ness that he had closed the last decade of service which had 
 been allotted to him ; and, interpreted by events, seems almost 
 prophetic of the close of life then just impending. 
 
 This Convention brings us to the twentieth anniversary, since my 
 election to the care of this Diocese. It forces upon me a review 
 of what has been done, or attempted, during that time for the 
 Master, and for those to whom he sends u§. It can give to your 
 Bishop no ground for self-applause. Too little fervency of spirit ; 
 prayers too feeble and too few ; occasions neglected of speaking 
 good words or putting forth righteous effort, — all these rise up to 
 kindle shame rather than inspire self-complacency. But he cannot 
 forget the faithful men and women, many of whom are fallen 
 asleep, that have labored with undaunted zeal and heroic constancy 
 in the work of our Parishes and Missions. 
 
 He cannot forget the untiring earnestness and activity of the 
 beloved coadjutor in the Episcopal ofitice, who from the midst of 
 his labors was called suddenly to his rest ; nor his cordial and 
 devoted assiduity who was summoned by this Diocese to be his 
 successor. He cannot forget the generous hands that have been 
 always open when any cause demanded support or pecuniary suc- 
 ,cor. As memory travels back over these years, it welcomes an 
 increase of Ministers and congregations which about doubles the 
 number we had in the Diocese in 1845. I' traces with delight the 
 fact that our communicants and members confirmed and our 
 Sunday classes multiply still more rapidly. And what is yet more 
 encouraging, that these have increased in a ratio about one-third 
 greater than the population of the Commonwealth. 
 
 May we not point, too, to the Clergy, to their greater force and 
 intelligence and zeal ; to the Laity, who in such large numbers and 
 with such self-denying activity work for Christ ; to the size and 
 structure of our church buildings, and to the increased accommo- 
 dation they afford ; and to our Sunday-schools and Bible-classes, as 
 an evidence tlmt we are not falling behind those who have gone 
 before ? The Church charities of this Diocese of the last twenty or 
 even of the last ten years are something for which we ought de- 
 voutly to bless God. More than three hundred thousand dollars 
 raised for our hospital by the free-will offerings of Churchmen 
 30* X 
 
354 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 throughout the Diocese, though mainly of Philadelphia ; an equal 
 or greater sum contributed to the Divinity School, which, though 
 not an institution of this Diocese in its structure or government, 
 still owes to our people more than two-thirds of all its endowments ; 
 the Burd Orphan Asylum founded by a godly woman of St. Ste- 
 phen's Church with half a million of dollars; the Church Home 
 for children, — -these ar^ bift a few of the efforts which have been made 
 throughout the Diocese to honor God with the substance which 
 he has given to his people. And then, the high-hearted enthusiasm 
 which during the last four years has animated the Ministers and 
 members of our communion in this Commonwealth on behalf of 
 our bleeding and sorely afflicted country, and in behalf of the noble 
 cause to which it has freely given its sons, this will form a page in 
 our history never to be forgotten. 
 
 God be praised for all that he has enabled us to do in these 
 respects, and may his spirit touch our hearts with compunction that 
 we have done so little and that little so coldly ! 
 
 And when from the past we turn to the future, on whom should 
 we place our confidence ? Man is not only mortal, he is weak in 
 power, erring in wisdom and often recreant to high duty 
 
 .... Whatsoever may be the appointments of the Most High 
 in regard to any human life, I feel an abiding, yea, a strong con- 
 fidence, brethren, that if you look to God, your Parishes and this 
 Diocese will be visited with larger and yet larger manifestations ot 
 his favor. Institutions which are now in their infancy will gather 
 might from year to year. Their foundations will be deepened and 
 consolidated, their structures shall widen and mount upward. 
 Kindred institutions ' of different names shall rise to attest your 
 thoughtful zeal and your unstinted and unresting liberality. The 
 benediction of the sanctifying spirit and of a gracious Providence 
 shall rest upon your persons and your families, and you shall own 
 that God, even our God, is your refuge and strength. 
 
 These were the last words addressed by Alonzo Potter to 
 the Convention whose deliberations he had aided, and to the 
 Diocese whose destinies he had fashioned by his dominant 
 influence through twenty years. 
 
BISHOP STEVENS TO THE CONVENTION OF 1865. 355 
 
 Bishop Stevens, in his official address to the Convention, 
 adverted to the absence of Bishop Potter in the following 
 words, of just eulogy and filial affection : 
 
 We meet to-day, brethren of the Clergy and Laity, under pecu- 
 liar circumstances. Our beloved Diocesan, again stricken down in 
 the midst of his labors, has been compelled to seek rest by a long 
 voyage around .South America to California. Nothing has been 
 heard from him since his departure, but our earnest prayer is that 
 God may bless him in his body and soul, and give him such a 
 measure of health as will enable him to return to us abl.e to dis- 
 charge his duties to the comfort and edification of us all. It is 
 twenty years since he was in this Church elected your Bishop. 
 Those twenty years are full of the memorials of his wise administra- 
 tion, his untiring zeal, his large-minded plans, his whole-hearted 
 consecration to the service of the Church. Under his Episcopate 
 the Diocese, long held in check by untoward events, seemed to 
 spring forward with a bound, and he has led it onward with a wis- 
 dom and an energy which have called out universal admiration. 
 By his prudence and discretion he has fused together elements of 
 strife that had long wrangled with each other. He has inaugurated 
 great schemes of Christian benevolence and education, and carried 
 them forward to almost complete success. He was diligent in cul- 
 tivating all portions of his Diocese, laboring when he should have 
 been resting, and not sparing himself when the providential warn- 
 ings of God were calling him to pause and rest. 
 
 His twenty years' Episcopate may challenge comparison with any 
 other in the Atlantic States, and should he never labor among us 
 again would constitute a memorial of his intellectual, moral and 
 administrative powers which would at once and by common con- 
 sent place him in the front rank of the Bishops of the American 
 Church. We hope, however, that his work here is not done, that 
 years of usefulness may yet be meted out to him, and that the 
 Diocese which has so signally flourished under his wise fostering 
 may long enjoy his fatherly love and pastoral care. 
 
 Resolutions of gratitude, benediction and hope were adopted 
 with much feeling by the Convention which received his 
 
356 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Message, when he from whom it came was in another hemi- 
 sphere passing, amid scenery " wild and weird beyond descrip- 
 tion " (such is the expression in his journal), through the 
 Straits of Magellan. 
 
 In the following notes of the Bishop's voyage (by which he 
 went unconscious to the gates of the Holy City) the writer 
 has the help of a brief diary kept by the Bishop, and of some 
 reminiscences recorded by one of his party. 
 
 On Sunday the second of April, being the day following 
 that on which they weighed anchor, he conducted the first 
 of those services which were never omitted throughout the 
 three months' journey. They were always held in the large 
 saloon of the steamer, and at them the officers, crew and 
 cabin passengers were present. His preaching was extempo- 
 raneous ; and the Gospel for the day afforded always the sub- 
 ject of discourse. 
 
 The outlines of these sermons were on Mondays following 
 their delivery written., out in his diary. Until the ship's 
 arrival in Brazil — the destination of Professor Agassiz and his 
 scientific corps — it is noticeable that the Bishop in every one 
 of his discourses (simple enough to be understood by the 
 rudest sailor) drew his illustrations from nature or the walks 
 of science, and adduced the testimony or example of men of 
 letters and arts. He followed in this the example of the 
 great Apostle to the Gentiles: he "became all things to all 
 men, that by all means he might win some." The tenor of 
 all these Sunday morning lectures on shipboard was eminently 
 practical, direct and earnest; they would be particularly valu- 
 able to young Clergymen and Candidates for orders as helps 
 in extemporaneous preaching. 
 
 As evening approached of that first Lord's day the Bishop 
 entered on his diary: 
 
 Off Petersburg, Virginia ; see a great and peculiar smoke, which 
 may be from a great battle that seemed impending, by the papers 
 
ARRIVAL AT RIO. 357 
 
 of yesterday. Toward evening saw Cape Hatteras, and bore away 
 south-east, striking the Gulf Stream at right angles. 
 
 Professor Agassiz and his assistants observed the temperature of 
 water in the Gulf Stream at intervals of ten minutes for six hours. 
 •Sudden rise of several degrees on entering, then occasionally a 
 sudden fall ; highest was seventy-eight Fahrenheit. 
 
 On the following days made rapid progress ; began before long 
 to see the sea-weed which marks the approach to what Columbus 
 named the Saragossa Sea. Professor Agassiz lectures daily to his 
 party on their contemplated work — on the Gulf Stream, — the sea- 
 weeds and the animals that live in it (Hydroids, etc.), and on dif- 
 ferent branches of Zoology — very interesting and instructive. 
 
 From the loth to the 21st the Bishop notes: 
 
 Exceeding beauty of sunsets, — softness and peculiar grouping of 
 the clouds on the western horizon, indeed all around — the apparent 
 openings to other masses back, — the delicate haze along the horizon, 
 as if a line of sea-beach, — the Aurora Australis of rays of blue and 
 rose-tints radiates from the setting sun. 
 
 On Easter Sunday, April i6th, the Bishop had ministered 
 the Sacrament of the Holy Communion in the same little 
 state-room where daily family prayer was offered, and from 
 whence it was appointed that afterward his sanctified spirit 
 should pass to its rest. One who was present reports : 
 " Both Professor and Mrs. Agassiz, with many others, par- 
 took." 
 
 April 21, before light, passed Cape Frio, and at about half past 
 eleven o'clock anchored in the beautiful Bay of Rio de Janeiro. 
 
 On the Sunday after his arrival at Rio, the Bishop preached 
 at the English chapel. During his stay he baptized four 
 children and performed the marriage ceremony once. His 
 health had greatly improved. He enjoyed all the new and 
 varied scenes through which he was passing. He made the 
 
3S8 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 ascent of the Corcovado and Fejuca Mountains in the vicinity 
 of Rio, visited the Botanical Gardens seven miles from Rio, of 
 which he notes in his diary, "curious, very beautiful and grand 
 from surrounding scenery." 
 
 2(>th. — Went in the evening at six to have a private audience with 
 the Emperor of Brazil, introduced by Rev. M. Fletcher, wore offi- 
 cial costume, was graciously received and detained in a private 
 conversation for an hour ; very intelligent and inquiring. 
 
 2?>th. — On board the Colorado, our steamer, receiving a visit from 
 the Emperor and his suite. He stayed to lunch. 
 
 Of this monarch, in a resolution drawn by Bishop Potter, 
 and adopted by the party who accompanied him in the ship, 
 they all said : 
 
 We express our admiration for the personal and political cha- 
 racter of him who presides over this vast empire, and who may 
 well be held forth to all rulers as a model of intelligence, virtue 
 and lihe'ral devotion to the public weal. 
 
 The Americans at Rio showed the Bishop every attention, 
 and his visit there left on him a pleasant impression, notwith- 
 standing that the heat of the place was very oppressive. 
 
 In his diary he records, loth of May : 
 
 We left the harbor of Rio this a. m., and had two delightful 
 days toward the Straits. Gradually the weather became colder and 
 more boisterous. 
 
 The scientific corps, with their distinguished chief, were no 
 longer on board ; the field of their intended explorations was 
 Brazil, and they pursued the voyage no farther. One of Pro- 
 fessor Agassiz' party writes of the Bishop : 
 
 Apparently he enjoyed the voyage very much, always being at 
 meals, and attending, I think, without even one exception, all Pro- 
 fessor Agassiz' lectures, which he gave us nearly every day 
 
 The Bishop had made himself very much beloved by all on 
 
BISHOP POTTER AND THE NATURALISTS. 3 59 
 
 board, by his very quiet and sweet manners and by his truly re- 
 ligious character. 
 
 It seemed like a providential ordering that the Bishop was 
 thrown into such a circle, when he turned his back upon 
 home and attempted to release himself from the cares of office. 
 Among these scientists he had pleasurable occupation for his 
 mind, entirely diverse in its character from that which had be- 
 fore so wholly engrossed it, and yet not so foreign from all his 
 pursuits and studies, as to be distracting or -unintelligible. Hav- 
 ing never doffed the gown of an academician until he took on the 
 robe of a Bishop, he was not a novice in science ; and thus to 
 meet upon the sea — the great mystery of Nature — her devotee 
 and interpreter, must have been to him a real refreshment. How 
 replete with interest their communings — -when the skilled natu- 
 ralist brought out of his treasures the phenomena of science, 
 and the Christian philosopher arranged these in their divine 
 order, and made them testify of His character and plans who 
 "lends its lustre to an insect's wing, and wheels his throne upon 
 the rolling worlds !" At the Bishop's instance, before the party 
 of Professor Agassiz left the ship, they who would remain on 
 board passed a series of resolutions (in which the facile pen 
 of Bishop Potter is easily recognized) thanking Professor 
 Agassiz for his entertaining and instructive lectures, invoking 
 the protection and blessing of Heaven upon him and upon his 
 attendants, commending the government for its aid to such an 
 enterprise in time of war, and regarding it as a harbinger of 
 that advanced civilization which will "refer all questions in 
 dispute among nations to a peaceful arbitrament, rather than to 
 one of violence and bloodshed." 
 
 The, sense of deprivation felt at the loss of such society was 
 much relieved, by the novelty and interest of the new scenes 
 which every day appeared, as the ship sped on her way through 
 southern seas. 
 
 On the 20th of May the Bishop wrote in his diary : 
 
360 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 This afternoon, at six, passed Cape Virgin and entered the 
 Straits. 
 
 zist (fifth Sunday after Easter). — The scenery from §andy Point 
 to Port Gallant so imposing and unique that we postponed service 
 till evening. 
 
 22d. — Passed out of Straits of Magellan into Smyth's Channel; 
 got sight of Cape Pillar, thirty miles off, and, for the first time in 
 my life, of the Pacific, ^scenery wild and weird beyond description. 
 
 The new climate, and almost the new world, seemed to fascinate 
 him (writes one who was with him). The snow-covered hills — the 
 glaciers — the icebergs, and now and then one of the quiet harbors 
 studded with green islands, he was never tired of admiring, 'and 
 more than once exclaimed, " There is no end of His greatness." 
 
 On Whitsunday, the 4th of June, the Bishop made a brief 
 address adapted to the festival, and for the last time adminis- 
 tered and received the blessed sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 
 unapprised that he would no more drink of that cup until it 
 should be given him anew^ in the kingdom of God. On this 
 occasion he arranged to administer the Holy Commtinion not 
 as before, in private vi^ith two or three who gathered there to 
 eat and drink with him ; but in public, before the officers and 
 crew of the vessel, thinking that they might be impressed 
 more by its solemn ceremonial than by spoken words. 
 
 He received at Callao, on the Sth of June, the first news 
 from home. Momentous events had transpired since he set 
 foot on shipboard. The Southern Rebellion had collapsed, — 
 the tempest of war was over, — and the President who had 
 guided the ship of State through the storm had been assassin- 
 ated ! 
 
 Early in the morn of our arrival at Callao (writes a fellow-voy- 
 ager) a small boat was pulled off from an English man-of-war in 
 the harbor, and brought the astonishing news of the great events 
 that had rushed over our land, while we had been quietly sailing 
 across the sea. Truly a mourning band went up to Lima to receive 
 
EULOGY ON PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 361 
 
 from the American Minister the files of papers, which it gave us 
 full occupation for the succeeding week to digest. 
 
 At Lima, (he entered in his diary) saw Mr. Robinson and Mr. 
 Pope, Minister and Secretary of Legation ; Mr. Eldridge and Mr. 
 Hobson ; enter the Cathedral, Public Gardens, Museum, Church 
 
 of San Pedro, etc. At 7 p. m. got under weigh for Panama 
 
 Passed on the 8th in sight of the Andes, and on the morning of the 
 1 2th arrived in Panama Bay. 
 
 On the day before — Trinity Sunday, June nth — the Bishop 
 made in his diary this minute : 
 
 Off New Granada, South America ; five days ago heard at the 
 same instant of the victory of our armies and of the assassination 
 of our President. Tried to preach on the Ecclesiastical day, but 
 out of the abundance of the heart — the mouth spoke of the great 
 day for our country and mankind. 
 
 One who was present writes : 
 
 Our dear Bishop delivered one of the most eloquent, forcible 
 and graceful tributes to the memory of Mr. Lincoln which has 
 appeared. Truly could it be said of him on this occasion, "His 
 natural force was not abated." 
 
 They who remember the extraordinary accuracy and beauty 
 of Bishop Potter's extemporaneous composition, can appreciate 
 how much is lost of the power of that discourse, through the 
 preservation of only the outline of what he said. Yet it 
 affords so just an analysis of the character of Mr. Lincoln, 
 and reveals so well the Bishop's power to estimate a man in 
 whatever sphere of life, that justice to them both seems to 
 demand its reproduction in these pages : 
 
 I. I pronounce no eulogy; it is written upon the hearts of 
 almost all at home and abroad. He who came unknown, mis- 
 trusted, ridiculed, abused as without parts or graces or virtues, 
 has in the short space of four years, in the midst of the most ter- 
 rible civil war that the world has seen, won from all men the earnest 
 
 31 
 
362" MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 recognition of a forbearance, a patience, a kindliness, an unfalter- 
 ing purpose for his country, a sagacity, a stern and unbending 
 honesty, such as the world has rarely if ever seen. .An obscure 
 lawyer from a western town of a border State has become the fore- 
 most man of all our times Such an end of such a man 
 
 calls us to study his character, now become historic through all 
 time, and of special significance to our people. 
 
 ****** 
 
 Consider then, i. His patience and moderation and firmness. 
 Most laborious, most vigilant and conscientious, he yet waited — 
 waited — to the vexation often of his rasher or more impetuous 
 friends, to the encouragement of his blinder enemies — ^but for 
 what ? Not from fear, not from want of a rightepus and benevo- 
 lent purpose, but (a) for signs from Providence, (3) for that ripen- 
 ing of public opinion and determination without which a ruler in 
 this land, is without strength, C^) for the means of full and effective 
 success in arms, in counsel, etc. But, having decided, who was 
 ever more immovable ? Calm and kind, but resolute and inflexible 
 — both rare qualities, both deserving of our imitation as men and 
 as citizens. How many hasty judgments and irrevocable errors in 
 action might thus be saved ! How much uncharitableness of speech 
 and conduct toward those in authority at critical and most trying 
 seasons ! How much want of unity and co-operation ! 
 
 2. His unfailing and almost angelic charity. This is a virtue 
 hard to practice or even appreciate. Taught by our religion as 
 the noblest of graces and the most indispensable of duties, it yet 
 fails to win from individuals, and, above all, from nations, the full 
 award of praise, how rarely the tribute of imitation ! Yet not 
 only is it the highest of virtues, it is the most regal of powers. 
 "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Every- 
 where we see proofs of this sublime verity — in the house and family, 
 in the reformatory, in the prison, in the asylum. What do we find ? 
 That when stripes fail to shake the stout heart of wickedness — 
 when bars and bolts, fetters and hardness of fare and labors — 
 when transportation to some inhospitable shore is tried in vain, 
 only hardening and making more defiant, — then the voice of 
 sympathy, the look of tender affection, the tear of brotherly pity, 
 
EULOGY ON PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 363 
 
 kind deeds even the most insignificant, if proffered in a kindly 
 way, these — like the gentle droppings of the dew and rain — soften 
 and refresh, .and from a soil dry and hopeless call forth living 
 green and fruits of blessed repentance and amendment. 
 
 This power can be used as well by nations as by individuals. It 
 was applied with wonderful effect by him we mourn. We see its 
 might in winning many a desperate insurgent. We see now what 
 impression it had made upon the better portion of the whole South, 
 and with what disposition it has fitted them to yield. He may in 
 some cases have carried it to the borders of excess, and have failed 
 to impress the enemy with a proper sense of the majesty of violated 
 law, but it was an error on mercy's side ; and when his intense 
 hatred of wrong and his fixed resolve to subdue the giant sin are 
 considered, no question of his motive remains. 
 
 But now we are in danger — a danger always impending over frail 
 man — of substituting retaliation and revenge for righteous retribu- 
 tion, of getting gradually a taste for blood. Rebels have set us a 
 terrible example, infectious as well. Look at Paris in her dark 
 days, at Lyons, at Marseilles. May we take warning in time ! 
 May we not forget that Justice is never so awful to the world nor 
 so terrible to the offender, as when its frown is softened by pity, and 
 when it relaxes at the right moment the stern voice of condemnation 
 'into the heavenly tones of Him who said, "Go and sin no more." 
 
 Indifference to life prevails in this country. It indicates the 
 want of a feeling of its sacredness. Let it not degenerate into a 
 thirst for blood. Rather let us by greater care of it on our roads 
 and steamers, in our mines and factories, etc., show that we know 
 its worth. 
 
 But the charity of Abraham Lincoln was not confined to his 
 enemies and the enemies of his country. To the poor, the weak, 
 the forsaken, the downcast, how tender and how loving was his 
 heart ! — above all to the negro ! That race with unerring instinct 
 read his nature and his sublime deeds in their behalf Their grati- 
 tude was boundless, their mourning for his death most poignant. 
 May his mantle fall upon the nation ! May they conquer their 
 prejudices and antipathies ! May they remember that iron may 
 enter the soul and fetters bind the mind and heart of him who is 
 
364 , MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 no more called a slave ! What bars have we of the free North 
 reared in the way of the poor African ! — at the doors of our schools 
 and churches, of our cars and professions, bidding them back and 
 down from all aspirations after larger knowledge, or social sympa- 
 thy, or higher devotion, and to be content as the lowest pariahs of 
 a system of unalterable caste. We need not invite them to our 
 dining-tables or our parlors, though we leave them free to attain 
 whatever God has qualified them to reach. 
 
 The fate of millions of that race in our land and of almost un- 
 reckoned millions in other lands waits on us. If we can rise to 
 the height, the grandeur of the occasion, they may be gradually 
 raised and saved; if not, if we persist in forgetting "the opportu- 
 nity" and in denying help either to become citizens here or men 
 and Christians in another hemisphere, then they must decline and 
 disappear from our soil. They may still grovel in other lands. 
 May God rouse us to our task in the love of it ! 
 
 3. His trustful nature — trust in the ultimate triumph of the 
 right and true, — trust in his countrymen, especially of that great 
 class from which he had sprung ; above all, trust in the good provi- 
 dence of his heavenly Father. 
 
 And here may we catch his spirit ! May we have no faith in 
 policies or principles, in men or measures, that ignore the right ! 
 
 May we not distrust the masses of our countrymen, but appeal 
 to their reason and their conscience — not their passions or pride 
 or sordid interests ! 
 
 May we above all not forget the God over all, that unseen and 
 in one sense unknown quantity which rules our every equation, and 
 which cannot be neglected if a solution is sought or hoped . for ! 
 We are tempted to trust in mein, in the power of the people, in 
 ultimate destiny. Vain hope ! It has proved the stumbling-block 
 and the ruin of nations and of communities and associations with- 
 out number. 
 
 In his diary is written : 
 
 jl^ne 12th, 12 M. — ^Anchored at Panama Bay; found many let- 
 ters from New York. Thanks be to God for all his goodness ; 
 learned that all my family were well except my son Robert,"" who 
 * Major-General Robert E. Potter. 
 
CONSECRATION OF THE CHURCH AT ASPINWALL. 365 
 
 had been wounded in taking a fort before Petersburg, April 2. His 
 wound at first was supposed mortal, but through God's great 
 goodness he has been spared and seemed to be doing well. Laus 
 Deo! 
 
 i^tk. — Went with Mr. Corwin and a party about the beautiful 
 bay, stopping at the Island of Toboga, where there was a marvel- 
 ous exhibition of tropical fruits — a sad one of the inhabitants. 
 
 1.4th. — At the house of D. M. Corwin, Esq., confirmed, Miss 
 
 C. S. S , in feeble health; p. m., went to Aspinwall with Col. 
 
 Totten and Mr. Parker, representatives of the Panama Railroad 
 Company, and was their guest. 
 
 i^th. — Consecrated Christ Church, a beautiful building erected 
 by the Company; preached, etc.; also confirmed Miss J. M. 
 
 L , daughter of Rev. Mr. Saul, who assisted in the services of 
 
 the day. Returned at 7 p. m. to the Colorado. 
 
 By the measure of activity here exerted, — and displayed 
 also at Callao and Lima (as we have learned by extracts from 
 his diary given above), it appears that the Bishop must have 
 gained greatly in vigor since he set sail from New York. He 
 was not impulsive and presumptuous. He did not rush with 
 foolhardy zeal upon certain destruction. He knew the value 
 of his life, and encountered no fatigue which he did not sup- 
 pose himself able to bear. As in all his previous life, he was 
 still disposed to be about his Father's business and to do what 
 his hand found to do with his might. 
 
 Almost immediately on his arrival at Panama he was in- 
 formed that in expectation of his coming a day had been 
 appointed for the consecration of the new church at Aspin- 
 wall, and that printed notices of the service had been issued. 
 Notwithstanding the heat and fatigue attending a ride across 
 the Isthmus, he at once decided to fulfill the arrangements 
 which had been made. It was thought best that, to avoid 
 excessive weariness, the Bishop should go over to Aspinwall 
 on the afternoon of the fourteenth. He reached there at 
 6 p. M., and occupied "one of the cottages, assigned to the 
 31 » 
 
366 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 ofificers of the Railroad Company. It is situated directly on 
 the beach, the waves dashing up under the windows. 
 
 The new church is very beautiful in its architectural design, 
 built of greenish, moss-tinted stone. The most conspicuous 
 object on the approach to the coast — its whole appearance is 
 very striking and picturesque. It is the first American Epis- 
 copal church in the Southern Continent. 
 
 The Bishop was assisted in the services of the consecration 
 by the Rev. Mr. Saul, the English Resident Missionary at 
 Panama, upon whose daughter, upon this occasion, he laid his 
 hands in the ordinance of confirmation, the last person of the 
 thousands to whom he administered that Apostolic rite. The 
 text of the consecration sermon (extended notes of which- 
 were afterward entered in his diary) was Ps. Ixix. 9 : " The 
 zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." 
 
 The Bishop returned to Panama the same evening, and 
 reached the vessel at about 7 p. m., complaining, not of fatigue, 
 but only of the heat, which was overpowering. 
 
 It will appear in the sequel that the effort and exposure of 
 that occasion was the proximate cause of the Bishop's death. 
 Little did he or his auditors realize that, in pronouncing his 
 text, he was declaring out of the oracles of God the truth 
 concerning himself Strange coincidence, that with those 
 syllables upon his lips, he was making just that measure of 
 exertion " for the house of our God and the offices thereof," 
 which he had not the strength to bear, and with his own voice 
 was uttering his truthful eulogy. 
 
 At half past three p. M. of the following day, June 16, they 
 weighed anchor, and with pleasant anticipations the Bishop 
 and his fellow-voyagers went on their way toward their long 
 talked-of haven, San Francisco. 
 
 On the 1 8th, Sunday, the Bishop conducted Divine service 
 as usual, and preached on the Gospel for the day. 
 
 On Saturday, the 24th, at Acapulco, he went on shore, and 
 
CLOSE OF LAST SERMON. 367 
 
 for the last time set his foot upon the land. At 6 p. m. the 
 ship was again put on her course. 
 
 The following day Bishop Potter met his little congregation, 
 as usual, in the saloon of the steamer, guided their devotions 
 after the familiar and beloved forms of the Church, and 
 expounded the Gospel for the day (the 2d Sunday after 
 Trinity) — the Parable of the Great Supper. 
 
 The concluding portion, as preserved in his synopsis of this 
 discourse, from lips which never again bore the message of 
 the King, gave the keynote of the Bishop's life, the principles 
 and programme of his whole career. This is the record 
 of it: 
 
 On the whole, the lesson taught by this parable is, that we have 
 nothing which we did not receive from the great Giver, diat every . 
 gift which has been bestowed upon us is a trust, and we, as recip- 
 ients, are trustees. It is to be used according to instructions — not 
 for selfish purposes, but to enlarge the sphere of happiness and 
 virtue around us, to lift our hearts and others' nearer and nearer 
 to the great Source of all good. The time is hastening when they 
 who have been faithful over a few things will be crowned with im- 
 mortal honors. 
 
 To the ears of those who knew him that spoke them, and 
 remember that they were his latest utterances as a Minister 
 of God, these closing words sound like an echo of that which 
 the Apostle Paul said in the end of his last Epistle : " I am 
 now ready to be offered. Henceforth there is laid up for me 
 a crown of glory which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will 
 give me in that day, and not to me only, but unto all them 
 that love his appearing." 
 
 Bishop Potter's interests and sympathies were ever greatly 
 with the sailors, whom he regarded as a much tempted and 
 little helped set of men. On taking leave of the crew of the 
 Colorado in this his last sermon (for he expected to arrive at 
 his destination before the next Sunday) he spoke very earn- 
 
368 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 estly and touchingly. After the services were closed and his 
 final benediction had been pronounced, he told them he had 
 brought a number of Prayer-books, which he would like to 
 present, as a manual that would be to all, of whatever denom- 
 ination, who acknowledge a Saviour, a solace and a guide in 
 the hour of danger and temptation. Wishing their acceptance 
 of these books to be a purely voluntary act, he would not 
 distribute them with his own hand, but, retiring, leave them 
 upon the table, to be taken by whomsoever would be pleased 
 to have them. The men, one by one, passed by, leaving the 
 books untouched, and they were returned to his state-room 
 without a remark. About half an hour afterward a timid 
 knock was heard at the door. A man had come to ask for 
 one of the " Bishop's little books." The ice was broken ; 
 another came, then another, until many had followed in suc- 
 cession. To each a pleasant word was spoken, the sailor's 
 name was written, "With the kind regards of Alonzo Potter," 
 on every cover. The receivers went their way, and those 
 humble and now scattered men are carrying with them the 
 last earthly tokens that those gracious hands ever bestowed. 
 
 On Monday, the twenty-sixth, the Bishop dictated as usual, 
 for record, the outline of his discourse of the previous day. 
 Throughout the day he occupied himself with reading and 
 other customary diversions, not seeming more languid than 
 the long-continued heat might account for. The first symp- 
 toms of illness appeared that night. When the surgeon of the 
 ship saw the Bishop the next morning, he advised only rest 
 and quiet. Nothing alarming occurred until Thursday, when 
 his pulse suddenly sunk so low, and that without apparent 
 cause, that its beat could scarcely be perceived. 
 
 "The change was so marked," writes the doctor, who watched 
 him with constant vigilance, "that I entertained but little hopes 
 of his recovery. He was partially unconsciou|^ had no pulse at 
 either wrist, and his hands were cold. I immediately gave him 
 stimulants, and in the course of a short time could perceive a slight 
 
ARRIVAL AT SAN FRANCISCO. 369 
 
 improvement, his pulse becoming perceptible at the wrist and his 
 hands . warmer, but his unconsciousness remained the same.. 
 He slowly improved during the night, sO that by the next morning 
 consciousness was in a great measure restored. Throughout Fri- 
 day, June 30, his condition in every respect seemed more hopeful, 
 so that by six p. m. he conversed in a perfectly rational manner. 
 On visiting him about midnight I found everything going on so 
 well that I suspended his medicines entirely, but ordered his nour- 
 ishing diet to be continued. He was very restless during the re- 
 mainder of the night, and on Saturday morning was not doing so 
 well." 
 
 At twelve m. the steamer arrived in San Francisco, and the 
 medical care of the failing patient was transferred at his desire 
 to one of another school of medicine to whom the Bishop had 
 letters of introduction from l^jTew York. Of Dr. W. F. Cush- 
 man, the surgeon of the ship, who had treated his case thus 
 far, one who had opportunity of observation wrote, " He is an 
 intelligent man, and has been as kind and attentive as a son." 
 
 The change of treatment apparently produced a temporary 
 relief. On the afternoon of Sunday the Bishop desired the 
 one hundred and third Psalm to be read, and the " Thanksgiving 
 for the beginning of recovery" to be used. 
 
 He was too weak to be removed from the ship. Greater 
 quietness and a cooler temperature were enjoyed on board the 
 .Colorado than could have been secured at a hotel. None 
 of his acquaintances were permitted to come unto him, nor 
 even &e names of visitors told him, perfect quiet being 
 absolutely required. His disease assumed many aspects, and 
 from the first it had been difficult to determine its nature ; but 
 the conclusion was finally reached that it was the result of 
 change of climate and of sleeping a night at Aspinwall — in 
 fact, that it was " Panama fever." 
 
 The rally on Sunday was the last flickering up of the lamp 
 of life. Toward evening the pulse rapidly increased, and on 
 Monday the physician, Dr. Ober, pronounced on the malignant 
 
 Y 
 
 i 
 
370 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 character of the disease, but would not yet say that it was 
 desperate. 
 
 Other eyes saw the dread shadow sitting by his side. Only 
 heavy-labored breathing was the sign of life that night. On the 
 morning of Tuesday the fourth of July, 1865, at seventeen minutes 
 before ten, he fell asleep and " was not, for God took him." 
 
 When, with boom of cannon and peal of bells, th^ people 
 of the land from ocean to ocean were exulting in their liberty, 
 his enfranchised spirit first heard the song of angels, and from 
 the shore of the broad Pacific entered the Golden Gate of the 
 glorious land and stood by the margin of the sea of glass — the 
 still, transparent and fathomless ocean of eternal peace ! 
 
 The Clergy and Churchmen of San Francisco, who had long 
 looked with cordial interest for the Bishop's arrival, anticipat- 
 ing that the presence of so good and wise a counselor would 
 in some way redound to the advantage of the Church on the 
 Pacific coast, came in happy ignorance of his condition to wel- 
 come his arrival. They would gladly have done service by 
 his bed of sickness, but his extreme illness forbade the ministry 
 of any save one gentle hand. , When the end came and his 
 precious relics were to be ca;-ed for, they who had come to do 
 him honor in life bore him tenderly to Grace Church Cathe- 
 dral, where he lay in state after embalmment, and was watched 
 day and night by relays of the younger Clergy until the 
 steamer was ready for departure in which his remains were to 
 be embarked for his far-off home. Before the embarkation a 
 commemorative service was held, at which Bishop Scott of 
 Oregon presided (the Bishop of California being absent in 
 Europe). 
 
 On that occasion the following record was prepared and 
 adopted, and having been forwarded to its destination was read 
 in Philadelphia as a part of the funeral solemnities : 
 
 It hath pleased Almighty God, in his wise Providence, to remove 
 
EULOGY OF CALIFORNIA CHURCHMEN. 37 1 
 
 to that rest which remaineth for the people of God the soul of the 
 Right Rev. Alonzo Potter, Bishop of Pennsylvania. And now, 
 assembled for "the solemn committal of this venerated Father in 
 God, before his remains are conveyed from us, amid perils of the 
 deep, to a bereaved family and Church East, we, the Right Rev. 
 .Thomas Fielding Scott, of Oregon, and the Clergy and Laity of 
 California, cannot allow this occasion to pass without placing on 
 record an expression of our sorrow for the death of this eminent 
 Prelate, and for the great loss sustained by his family, his Diocese 
 and the whole American Church. 
 
 In the Bishop of Pennsylvania we recognized an apostle whose 
 influence could not be restricted to the limits of one Diocese ; by 
 his large sympathies and vast energies, exerted for the past quarter 
 of a century upon all the great interests of our branch of the 
 catholic Church, through her councils, local and general, and 
 through her benevolent and Missionary institutions, he had become 
 our possession and the possession of every American Diocese, as 
 well as of that of Pennsylvania. 
 
 In him we recognized one who for the third of a century past 
 has stood before the whole country pre-eminent for his weight of 
 character and personal influence ; distinguished for his scientific 
 and literary attainments j his breadth of knowledge, his readiness, 
 fluency and cogency in debate ; his ability and dignity as a pre- 
 siding officer, and his zealous and successful advocacy of the cause 
 of universal education and liberal learning. 
 
 In him we recognized the private Christian, an exemplar of the 
 manifold graces of the blessed Spirit ; humble, though gifted with 
 the greatest intellectual powers and attainments, and honored with 
 the highest distinctions which the Church Militant can confer; 
 gentle, though with a natural decision and energy of will over 
 which no enemy but death could triumph, and with a heart warm 
 and beating in sympathy with every interest of the universal bro- 
 therhood. 
 
 In him we recognized a Bishop in the Church of God richly en- 
 dowed with the most exalted gifts of the Apostolic ofSce, with a 
 zeal for the salvation of men wherever found, with an enlightened 
 and practical charity organizing itself in schools, asylums and hos- 
 
372 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 pitals; a Bishop "blameless," having "a good report of them 
 which are without," and with a purity of character so' exalted and 
 so universally recognized that there was not even a suspicion found 
 that dared to open its lips in reproach ; an able and eloquent de- 
 fender of the Christian faith against attacks of modern skepticism ; 
 discriminating, wise and powerful in the councils of the Church, 
 comprehensive and far-reaching in policy, and exhibiting at all 
 times and in all places that high character of a Christian Bishop 
 given by inspiration; "in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, 
 sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, a pattern of 
 good works, looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing 
 of the great God, even our Saviour, Jesus Christ." 
 
 From the time it was announced that the honored Bishop of 
 Pennsylvania had taken passage for our remote borders, hearts all 
 through our State were glad, and have since anxiously anticipated 
 the benefit of his godly conversation, counsel and oificial acts. 
 He was coming to devoted friends, and where could he have gone 
 and found thetn not? He came, and our hands were raised to 
 welcome him; he died, and we were more than sorely disappointed; 
 we were shocked, and long must we sorrow in common with a be- 
 reaved Church throughout the country. 
 
 During his long , passage there were, doubtless, many hearts 
 throughout his own beloved Diocese going up in prayer to the 
 eternal God to conduct their Bishop in safety to the haven where 
 he would be. Shielded by that Providence from the dangers of the 
 sea, and so preserved from sickness that all the way he fulfilled the 
 office of a Missionary, preaching every Sunday, administering the 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, distributing tracts and books on 
 shipboard, and on land consecrating a church, he was in answer to 
 prayer conducted to the haven where he would be ; and from that 
 haven, without being permitted to set his feet upon the soil of our 
 sunny land, he was conducted to that other haven where he would 
 be with a far more grateful sense of Divine mercies through Christ 
 our Lord. 
 
 During the long passage to our shores there was one circumstance 
 specially worthy of note. We are most credibly informed that he 
 frequently gave utterance to his great desire of being present at the 
 
DEPUTATION TO HIS FUNERAL. 373 
 
 ensuing general Convention of the Church, to be held in the City 
 of Philadelphia October next, as he considered it one of the most 
 important Church Councils ever convened upon this continent, in 
 view of the restoration to ecclesiastical and brotherly union of 
 Christians unhappily separated by civil war. And when we con- 
 sider the charity, wisdom and force of reason, as well as weight of 
 character and personal iniluence, of the Bishop of Pennsylvania, 
 we feel that the Church and the nation have common cause to de- 
 plore tiie death which deprives so influential a Council of so em- 
 inent a member. 
 
 We will now close our record. In the death of the Right Rev. 
 Alonzo Potter, D.D., LL.D., having lost an illustrious friend and 
 patron ; the country an enlightened and devoted patriot ; the world 
 an accomplished scholar, a Christian gentleman and large-hearted 
 philanthropist; the Church an exemplary Christian, a beloved, 
 venerated and Apostolic Bishop. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of this record be communicated to Mrs. 
 Potter, to the Right Rev. Father in God of the Diocese of New 
 York, and the rest of the family of the deceased, with assurances 
 of our tender sympathy with them in their great affliction. 
 
 Resolved, That a copy of this record be also communicated to 
 the loving and beloved Clergy and Laity of the departed, and to 
 his esteemed coadjutor in the Episcopate, with the assurances of 
 our prayers that they may be so endowed with wisdom, prudence 
 and zeal that the Diocese of Pennsylvania may continue its career 
 of stability, growth and harmony. 
 
 These same thoughtful and devoted friends caused a cast to 
 be taken of his head, and from' it a bust to be made by a dis- 
 tinguished sculptor, which in due time was forwarded and pre- 
 sented to the Diocese of Pennsylvania. A Committee, Clerical 
 and I^ay, attended the Bishop's remains on their homeward 
 journey, and only relinquished their sacred charge in the City 
 of New York to his grateful sons. 
 
 The Rev. F. M. McAllister, who had accompanied the 
 relics from San Francisco, came with them also to Philadel- 
 phia on the ninth of September, where for two days they were 
 
 32 
 
374 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 reposited at the Bishop's late residence. At the door of the 
 church at which the funeral rites were to be celebrated, Mr. 
 McAllister gave the sacred dust into the charge of the Clergy 
 of the bereft Diocese. 
 
 To the representatives of the Diocese of California, who 
 from first to last paid such unwonted honors to the relics of a 
 Bishop whom most of them knew only by reputation, they 
 who loved him can never express their obligations. Had he 
 been their own Diocesan, they could not have more tenderly 
 and fitly paid tribute to his memory and worth. May God 
 comfort them in sorrow and bestow the honors of a reverent 
 remembrance on them when they die ! 
 
 The report of the death of Bishop Potter when it reached 
 the East, and especially the metropolis of his own Diocese, 
 produced a profound sensation. No citizen could have been 
 removed whose loss would be more universally regretted. 
 He had identified himself with all the best interests of society, 
 and good men of every name felt that a beneficent power was 
 withdrawn when Alonzo Potter " spake with us on earth no 
 more." 
 
 The funeral solemnities were conducted in Christ Church, 
 Philadelphia, the mother-church of the Diocese. It was on 
 th^ afternoon of Sept. 1 1 . He lay upon his bier only a few 
 steps distant from the spot where twenty years before he had 
 taken the vows and assumed the labors and responsibilities of 
 the Episcopate. But for those labors from which he would 
 allow himself no rest, and those responsibilities the vastness 
 and sacredness of which he never forgot, few that remember 
 his stalwart frame will doubt that he might have reached a 
 vigorous and prolonged old age. 
 
 After the appropriate introit, Bishop Stevens introduced the 
 Rev. Mr. McAllister, who was the bearer of a letter of condo- 
 lence from the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Cali- 
 fornia to the Christian brethren of the Diocese of Pennsyl- 
 
FUNERAL OBSEQUIES. 375 
 
 vania. To this communication the Bishop made this brief 
 and touching response : 
 
 As the official representative of the Diocese of Pennsylvania I 
 receive at your hands the precious remains of our dear Bishop, and 
 in the name of the Church of the Diocese I thank you, and through 
 you the Clergy of the Diocese of California, for your words of love 
 and that tender solicitude with which you have taken care of these 
 beloved remains. It is sad to us that he died so far distant, and 
 that not one of his sons in the Gospel could be with him to min- 
 ister to him in his last hours. But we thank God that he was 
 nevertheless surrounded by kind and loving friends ifi your midst. 
 Tell our brethren in the far West how our hearts go out toward 
 them for their .affectionate ministrations. 
 
 In the course of the impressive exercises conducted at the 
 church, brief commemorative addresses were made by Bishop 
 Lee of Delavi^are and Dr. Howe of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Bishop Lee's tribute is extant only in the memories of some 
 who heard it. Its felicity of expression, its pathos of senti- 
 ment cannot now be reproduced. We can recall only such 
 heads of discourse as will convey the estimate which the 
 Bishop of Delaware, living for twenty years in constant official 
 and personal intimacy with the deceased, had formed of the 
 character of the man. 
 
 It was the effort of the speaker to relieve the sense of 
 bereavement and desolation which the loss of such a father in 
 the Church might naturally engender, by thoughts of gratitude 
 for blessings enjoyed in and through him. 
 
 I. God be thanked, he said, for such a man, of whom it is difficult 
 to speak in measured terms. Gifted with a strong, capacious intel- 
 lect, enriched with various endowments, his mind perfectly disci- 
 plined, having all its powers at command, of extraordinary 
 understanding, ready perception and clear penetration into men 
 and things. 
 
 A man of an excellent spirit; his heart generous and sympa- 
 
376 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 thizing; loyal to Christ, loyal to truth; a man who lived not for 
 himself, always seeking what to do for his Master. 
 
 2. Praised be God, who disposes our lot, that such a man was 
 placed in such a position ; the work and the workman admirably 
 suited ; scope given for the exercise of his great powers ; placed 
 among a people who could appreciate his worth — hold up his 
 hands — who had the wealth and ability to carry out his plans and 
 the heart to respond. 
 
 Many great and noble men, burning with zeal and abundantly 
 qualified to inform and bless their fellows, have worked in fetters ; 
 moral Galileos have struggled in vain against the narrow-minded- 
 ness, bigotry and prejudice of those among whom they labored. It 
 was the felicity of this departed prince and leader to be surrounded 
 by warm-hearted, liberal-minded, appreciative Clergy and Laity. 
 
 3. Blessed be God that he was carried through his course with 
 so much honor — nothing to mar the estimate or dim the lustre of 
 his character ! 
 
 How often regret is felt that some eminent man had not sooner 
 died! 
 
 Men of great parts and noble characters may survive their use- 
 fulness and influence; or a long and infirm old age may cast a 
 melancholy shadow over life's close. But our lamented father 
 pursued a course of growing honor and usefulness to the end,; his 
 last days were his best days; his last work perhaps his greatest 
 work; "the path of the just as the shining light." He became 
 year by year matured, not only in experience and wisdom, but in 
 grace, growing mellow and tender and spiritual and ripe for a 
 nobler Ministry and a better world; no envious cloud, no sad 
 eclipse. 
 
 4. God be thanked not only that such a man hath lived, but 
 that such a man can never die. " He was not born to die." As 
 a believer he shares in Christ's great victory over death. 
 
 As a friend and father in Israel, a philanthropist, a patriot, a 
 master-builder of the Church, he will continue to live in this com- 
 munity, in the Diocese, the Church, the country. 
 
 The name of Alonzo Potter will be pronounced with reverence 
 and admiration after all of us have finished our course ; his mem- 
 
FUNERAL OBSEQUIES. ^'J'J 
 
 cry precious, his counsels dear and treasured, his example a power 
 for good ! 
 
 On the occasion of his obsequies, though many of those 
 who had known and revered him were yet away on their 
 summer holidays, the church, its aisles and all its approaches 
 were thronged with a sorrowing multitude ; and as the funeral 
 train passed through the streets of the city toward his place 
 of sepulture, the sidewalks were lined for a long distance by 
 persons who paused to pay a tribute of respect to the memory 
 of one whom all men delighted to honor. The cortege reached 
 Laurel Hill just as the sun went down. The long train of 
 niourners alighted from their carriages and wound through 
 the shaded avenues of that city of the dead. The shadows 
 were long and dark as they fell on the grass and the monu- 
 mental stones of the place. A heavier shadow was on every 
 heart, that stretched forward and backward from that shrouded 
 bier. On the crest of the hill that looks down upon the placid 
 waters of the Schuylkill, and over upon the green slopes and 
 copses of the opposite bank, was the open grave waiting to 
 receive the sacred deposit brought by hearts of faith and 
 hands of love, to be entrusted to its keeping until the Great 
 Day. None who stood there while the last burial rites were 
 said, in tremulous accents, by his loving friend and successor 
 in- the Episcopate will forget how, as the casket which enclosed 
 all that was left on earth of our precious treasure was lowered 
 in the deep recess, the darkness hid it from the view before 
 the " dust to dust and ashes to ashes" had fallen to cover it. 
 In the hush of the evening and by the torch of memory we 
 committed our dear departed to the consecrated ground and 
 to the guardianship of the holy angels, and, with prayers for 
 grace and consolation, turned away and left the worn-out 
 laborer to his rest. 
 
 It would . require a special volume were we to attempt to 
 append to this Memoir all the resolutions of respect and 
 
 32 » 
 
378 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 sorrow that were adopted by various bodies, ecclesiastical, 
 benevolent and literary, in reference to the death of Bishop 
 Potter, or to reproduce the eulogies with which the public 
 prints of that time commemorated his name. 
 
 We subjoin but two out of the many obituary tributes 
 which his death called forth, selected not only because they 
 are specially appreciative of the Bishop's remarkable gifts and 
 graces, but because they are both from sources not liable to 
 the suspicion of partiality. 
 
 (From the "New York Independent.") 
 THE RIGHT REV. ALONZO POTTER, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 In the death of this eminent Prelate the Episcopal Church has 
 lost one of her best and greatest Bishops, the country a fearless 
 patriot and every good cause a friend. 
 
 For several years it has been painfully evident that his strength 
 was slowly giving way under his multiplied and growing labors ; 
 and from this solicitude came the election of a coadjutor — Bishop 
 Bowman — in 1858, and, after his decease, of Bishop Stevens, in 
 1862, who is now Bishop of Pennsylvania. 
 
 It is difficult for those who knew Bishop Potter to speak at the 
 same time temperately and justly of him. So many various and 
 rarely associated qualities and powers are remembered — such unex- 
 pected disclosures of resources and accomplishments, so wise, so 
 strong, so good — the simplest account of his life and work must 
 wear the color of eulogy. 
 
 We shall not get a proportionate estimate of his real stature 
 among his contemporaries, until the Church and society have time to 
 find in how many labors and offices his place will remain unfilled. 
 
 Formed in academic life, with the retiring and exclusive tastes 
 of a scholar, he was not found wanting in a masterly knowledge of 
 men and situations when he succeeded the lamented Episcopate of 
 Henry Ustic Onderdonk in Pennsylvania. In his College and in 
 his Diocese alike he was the informing will. His learning and 
 reading were various and exhaustive, yet no man had a firmer hand 
 for routine and business, a healthier common sense of practical 
 matters. Identified with the history of the Church through hei 
 
TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 379 
 
 most trying times, the first man, too, in new and unpalatable reform 
 movements, it is doubtful whether he ever had a personal enemy. 
 
 The intimate friend and companion of the most learned men 
 both at home and abroad, he knew by name all the members of his 
 great flock, even in the remotest Parishes. It was touching to wit- 
 ness the love of all his people for him, the richest and poorest 
 together. He knew all the children and servants — kept in mind 
 who had died, married or moved away. He was the loved and 
 trusted counselor of his Clergy. Especially did the unfortunate, 
 the untried and the struggling Clergy find quick approach to his 
 heart. 
 
 Whether viewed - closely and personally, or as the great man 
 shaping great affairs, Bishop Potter never disappointed. 
 
 He did more than any other man in it, during his ecclesiastical 
 career, to popularize the Episcopal Church and bring it into living, 
 active sympathy with the surrounding community, and make it 
 felt as a recognized power and energy in all catholic movements 
 for the general good ; and to-day, while he sleeps in glorious hope, 
 his great Diocese is quickened through and through with the leaven 
 of his rich life and labors, that shall work for ever to the good of 
 men and the praise of God. 
 
 A Pastor of the flock he was indeed — breaking bread in all 
 places — whose field was the world. Too wise for a bigot, he was 
 yet a conservative and devoted Bishop of his Church. Conserv- 
 ative in all that touched the integrity of the faith, his great heart 
 yearned toward all his kind. 
 
 Earnest, convincing and eloquent beyond most men in the great 
 work of the Christian Ministry, he was a pioneer of the lecture- 
 room in the early days. 
 
 The cause of popular education in this country owes more to 
 him than almost any other man. His memorable lectures on "The 
 Drinking Usages of Society ' ' gave early and strong impulse to the 
 temperance movement. 
 
 His published writings are not voluminous, for he was never a 
 man of literary leisure, but his "Charges and Discourses," 
 " Hand-book for Readers and Students" and "Philadelphia Lec- 
 tures," which he organized, and to all which he contributed lib- 
 erally, give some measure of his intellectual and spiritual force. 
 
380 MEMOIR OF ALONZO P OTTER. 
 
 It is a cause of thanksgiving that Bishop Potter lived long enough 
 to witness the overthrow of rebellion and the triumph of the cause 
 he had so near at heart ; and that the rising splendor of our national 
 regeneration fell full and hopefully over his last days. 
 
 (From the "Church Journal.") 
 
 The late Bishop of Pennsylvania was certainly one of the leading 
 figures in our House of Bishops, and one who was strong not only 
 as the head of the second Diocese in the country for numbers, 
 wealth and influence, but strong by the weight of his own personal 
 
 character also He was brought constantly into contact with 
 
 the popular streams of thought and action in this heterogeneous 
 country of ours, and thus had a lively sense of the wants of the day 
 and of the hour, which was to him a steady mainspring of action. 
 Sometimes, indeed, this sensibility to the atmosphere of the present 
 carried him too far ; but at this moment, when good men every- 
 where are laboring for a general amnesty among the living, it were 
 a strange charity which should refuse a considerate silence to the 
 dead. 
 
 In manner. Bishop Alonzo Potter was rather cold than cordial, 
 but the coolness was that not of indifference, but of watchful self- 
 control and caution. He was deliberate and slow in reaching 
 conclusions or in determining to act ; but, the determination once 
 reached, his patient and steady endurance could always be depended 
 on. He was a man of thorough business habits, remarkable com- 
 mon sense, and well up to all the advances of the day in scientific, 
 commercial and financial matters; and the science of Political 
 Economy had been one of the subjects of his special attention 
 during his collegiate career. The result of all this was, that dur- 
 ing his whole Episcopate he was winning the accumulating confi- 
 dence of the active and liberal Laity of his Diocese, so that toward 
 the last there was hardly any limit to their readiness to respond to 
 calls made upon them by their Bishop. He had never led them 
 astray. He had never started them on visionary enterprises. He 
 had never taxed them beyond their strength. And thus, within 
 five or six years past, and while civil war was for the greater part 
 of the time straining the utmost energies of the nation, the Church- 
 men of Philadelphia and the vicinity have done two such great 
 
TRIBUTES TO HIS MEMORY. 38 1 
 
 things as establishing the splendid Church Hospital and the new 
 Divinity School — the two having already cost a long way over half 
 a million of money. And these were only the two chief enter- 
 prises, the same influence being felt in many more of less magni- 
 tude. 
 
 He was one of the best presiding officers whom we have ever 
 seen in a deliberative body. Quick, quiet, prompt and fearless, 
 he never for an instant lost control of the body or missed the 
 thread of its business. He was capable of making an error now 
 and then, and capable of correcting it voluntarily and handsomely 
 before the House, in such a way as only enhanced his authority in 
 the minds and hearts of all. Seldom speaking during the course 
 of business, he was irresistible when he felt it his duty to express 
 his views upon any point. When he was one of the deliberative 
 body himself, there was none less likely to take the lead in the be- 
 ginning of a debate, none more sure to hear all that was said on 
 both sides, none more likely to propose a substitute toward the end 
 which contained just enough of the flavor of both to pass by gen- 
 eral consent. Yet though generally undemonstrative, he was a 
 truly powerful extemporaneous speaker — fluent, manly, earnest, 
 strong and clear, and carrying conviction by the moral weight as 
 - much as by the intellectual strength of what he said. 
 
 With such a character and such a record, it is no wonder that 
 Bishop Alonzo Potter should have gained and retained a powerful 
 hold upon the solid respect and deep affection of his people, or that 
 he has established for himself an enduring reputation as one of the 
 wisest and most successful Bishops of the Church of America. 
 
 It devolved gf course upon Bishop Stevens, the chosen As- 
 sociate and successor of Bishop Potter, to prepare a " Memorial 
 Discourse " for delivery in the metropolis of the bereaved 
 Diocese. Arrangements had been made for the Triennial 
 Meeting of the General Convention of the Protestant Episco- 
 pal Church to be held in the City of Philadelphia on the first 
 Wednesday of October then ensuing. After an interval of 
 little more than a month from the day of the funeral — to wit. 
 
382 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 on the nineteenth of October — the Bishop was prepared, and 
 in the presence of the assembled Bishops and the representa- 
 tives of all the Dioceses of the Church, pronounced his beau- 
 tiful and eloquent eulogy upon his predecessor. The amount 
 of biographical information condensed in it, the just and 
 affectionate portraiture of the character of the departed, the 
 beauty of diction and affluence of imagery with which it was 
 illustrated, made the discourse "a wonder and a delight to those 
 who listened, and stamped it as a specimen of commemorative 
 panegyric such as the American pulpit does not often pro- 
 duce. Large extracts from it will enrich the close of these 
 Memoirs. 
 
 The Diocese of Pennsylvania at the Annual Session of its 
 Convention in May, 1 866, made its record of the worth it had 
 lost, and of the precious legacy of great achievement and 
 loving remembrance and bright example which were left to it, 
 in the following Minute and Resolutions adopted and entered 
 on the Journal : 
 
 The Committee to whom was referred the duty of preparing an 
 appropriate record of the death of our late revered Diocesan recog- 
 nize the propriety of placing such a document in the forepart of 
 our proceedings. At the first session of the Convention, and on 
 the first day of that session which is convened after his death, it is 
 meet and right that before its members address themselves to other 
 duties, they should stand together around the tomb of their vener- 
 ated father in God, and recall his virtues, and speak forth their 
 filial praises ; and in view of his example of calm, earnest, sleepless 
 consecration to his God and Saviour, and in solemn realization of 
 the truth that the night cometh in which no work can be done, 
 dedicate themselves anew to God and resolve to follow him as he 
 followed Christ. The lapse of time does but enhance our estimate 
 of his singularly pure and wise and lofty character, and we seem, by 
 being removed from it a little space, the more perfectly and in a 
 better light to see its just proportion and its simple majesty. Now 
 that we know him no more after the flesh, his soul seems to come 
 
RECORD OF PENNSYLVANIA CONVENTION. 383 
 
 forth unveiled to our apprehension, and we see that there was more 
 reason than we knew when he was living to love and revere him as 
 we did. The history, civil and ecclesiastical, of the country, will 
 enter his name upon her scrolls of honor ; as a Christian scholar, 
 abreast with the foremost men of the age in high intelligence and 
 general culture ; as a Christian patriot distinctively and enthusiasti- 
 cally American and republican in tastes and principle ; as a Chris- 
 tian philanthropist with sympathies as wide as human suffering ; as 
 a theologian, large without laxity and comprehensive without in- 
 difference; and as an administrator of General Institutions and 
 Diocesan interests, of unsurpassed energy, skill and wisdom ; but 
 we here and now can think of him only or chiefly as our venerated 
 father, our wise counselor, our gentle monitor, our sympathizing 
 friend. If the records of his personal kindness to his Clergy, which 
 are now among their most valued treasures, could be here brought 
 forth and read, if his tender sympathy with them in personal sor- 
 row, his affectionate warnings to those who are burdened with 
 many labors to spare themselves, written in moments caught from 
 toils by which his own life was exhausted and consumed, and his 
 faithful fatherly admonitions when they were needed, — if these pre- 
 cious records could be produced, then would it be seen how out of 
 the strong came forth sweetness, and then would this Convention 
 be suffused anew with a glow of gratitude that he was once with us 
 and with sorrow that he is here no more ! 
 
 The Committee, by the direction that they shall prepare "an 
 appropriate record of the death of our late revered Diocesan," do 
 not understand that the task is imposed upon them of attempting 
 to give a full expression of the feelings of the Diocese, or of pre- 
 senting an adequate estimate of the character of their late beloved 
 and venerated Bishop. This task, from which under any circum- 
 stances they would shrink, and which it would be impossible for 
 them, in the limited time allotted to them, to undertake, was well 
 performed upon the occasion of the impressive funeral services of 
 the Bishop, and by the subsequent elaborate memorial discourse of 
 his successor. They feel that the duty required of them contem- 
 plates no more than the expression by the Convention, as the repre- 
 sentative of the Church in this Diocese, of its profound reverence 
 
384 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 for the memory of their departed Bishop, and of its purpose, by 
 the grace of God, to emulate his zeal for Christ and his Church, to 
 imitate his graces and to follow his paternal teachings and admoni- 
 tions. In accordance with this view of the duty assigned to them, 
 they beg leave to present the following Resolutions : 
 
 Resolved, That this Convention, on its first gathering since the 
 death of the venerated Bishop of the Diocese, desire to place on 
 record the emphatic expression of its high estimate of his character 
 and worth as a man, a citizen, a Christian and a Bishop ; its pro- 
 found gratitude to God for his long, peaceful and prosperous Epis- 
 copate, and of its deep and reverent sorrow that we shall see his 
 face no more. 
 
 Resolved, That we tender anew to the family of our departed 
 Bishop the expression of our renewed sympathy with them in sor- 
 row for a loss the magnitude of which as time does the more re- 
 veal, so does it the more present consolation for, in the contempla- 
 tion of a life so nobly spent, and of a death so surrounded with 
 Christian reverence and affection. 
 
 Resolved, That we extend to our present beloved and honored 
 Diocesan the expression of our high and grateful appreciation of 
 the energy and zeal with which he entered upon the enormous 
 duties which the undivided Episcopate devolved upon him, our 
 deep sympathy with him in the loss of health which has ensued 
 from these labors in behalf of the interests of the Diocese, our 
 assurance that our hearts are with him in his enforced absence 
 from his home and Diocese and country, and that our earnest prayers 
 ascend for his complete restoration, and our affectionate solicitude 
 that he should not allow his anxiety for the welfare of the Diocese 
 to hasten the resumption of his arduous duties until such time as he 
 shall feel fully equal to their discharge. 
 
 In reviewing these memoirs, they are found to be especially 
 lacking in that they have afforded no portraiture of the do- 
 mestic life of the departed Bishop. In fact, ierfj men in family 
 ties have given less time to the enjoyments of home, than he 
 reserved to himself after becoming a chief shepherd in the 
 flock of Christ. His friends other than his kindred saw him 
 
TH^ BISHOP IN HIS FAMIL Y. 385 
 
 scarcely ever, when some interest of the Church was not the 
 subject of conference. But whenever he was found with his 
 family at his own fireside, there was a quiet benignity and gen- 
 tleness of demeanor, a not undignified abandon of thought 
 and manner, which at once adjusted him to the home circle, 
 and made his participation in its playful and desultory talk en- 
 tirely natural and companionable. 
 
 The family prayers at evening were said before any had 
 risen from the tea-table. A Bible was at the Bishop's hand, 
 and when after the repast he had read a brief portion, all, 
 parents, children and guests, knelt where they had been sitting 
 at the social board, and he offered up the evening oblation of 
 the household. At such a service, very homelike and simple 
 and impressive, the present writer more than once had the priv- 
 ilege of being present; and he can never forget how with easy 
 flow the language of the Liturgy came to the Bishop's lips, 
 while, apparently untrammeled by any attempt to use it in its 
 order, he poured out the desires which the conscious needs of 
 the circle kindled in his heart. They were such unwritten 
 prayers as only one imbued with our Book of Common Prayer 
 can make. 
 
 Anxious to obtain, before closing this volume, some contri- 
 bution descriptive of the Bishop's home-life, the writer solicited 
 of the Rector of Grace Church, New York, such reminiscences 
 as he might think it proper to afford for publication ; and re- 
 ceived the following prompt and interesting reply : 
 
 Grace Church Rectory, New York, ■. 
 November 18, 1870. / 
 
 My dear Dr. H. : You ask of me " a sketch of my father in 
 his fireside character." It is not very easy even for his children to 
 give one, least of all for me, whose boyhood was covered by the 
 most active period of his Episcopate. From the year 1845 to the 
 year 185-8 — nearly all of them the years of my minority — h.^ was 
 absent from home during a large part of the year, and when he re- 
 turned to it was confronted by a mass of correspondence and an 
 33 Z 
 
386 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 accumulation of Diocesan duties wliich gave him scarce time to 
 meet his household at the family board. Yet even then he man- 
 aged to be a good deal in the company of his family, and I can 
 remember that he usually brought his work in the evenings from 
 his own study to the large table in the dining-room, around which 
 three or four boys were generally buzzing over their Latin and 
 Greek exercises, or conning their more difficult lessons for the 
 morrow. Amid these distractions he seemed to have no difficulty 
 in abstracting himself, and I can very vividly remember the youthful 
 wonder with which, while my eyes were seemingly intent upon my 
 book, I used to listen to the ceaseless scratching of his pen, as for 
 hour after hour he wrote on, without a pause for a word, or an in- 
 stant's hesitation over the arrangement of a sentence. It was our 
 custom on these occasions to interrupt him without hesitation ; and 
 no question of ours, whether it related to a problem in mathematics 
 or to the construction of a.- line in a Greek play, was ever kept 
 waiting for an answer. 
 
 My father always encouraged his children to talk freely, and 
 notwithstanding that awe of him which I thank God I never out- 
 grew, and which was born of our mingled love and reverence for 
 the rare and majestic trails of his character, we were wont to dis- 
 cuss all sorts of questions in the family in his presence- with much 
 warmth and with entire unreserve. He rarely sided strongly with 
 either party in such discussions, seeming to prefer that those who 
 were engaged in them should draw on their own stores and put 
 their faculties to fullest use ; but if a younger child was being over- 
 borne by an older one, and he saw an eagerness for victory which 
 was neither quite courteous nor generous, he was wont to interfere 
 with a few words in behalf of the weaker side, which, though they 
 were uttered rather suggestively than oracularly, would, in a mo- 
 ment, put a new face upon the whole question. He never talked 
 "down " to his children, and their interest was thus often aroused 
 in regard to matters concerning which they had been comparatively 
 indifferent, simply because he seemed to take it for granted that 
 they would share his own interest in them. During his College 
 life, as a Professor at Schenectady, it was his custom to read aloud 
 to the assembled household for an hour or more after the late din- 
 
THE BISHOP IN HIS FAMILY. 387 
 
 ner at the close of the day. These readings, as I remember them, 
 were generally from Shakespeare, and were interspersed, here and 
 there, with brief comments which showed how keen was his enjoy- 
 ment of, and how profound his insight into, the works of the great 
 dramatist. His children felt honored in being privileged to be 
 present on these occasions, and when, as frequently happened, they 
 were diversified by the presence of some distinguished personage 
 in Church or State with whom the converse ran on for hours, I 
 have sat with some of my older brothers until near midnight 
 listening to a table-talk which, always conspicuous for its observ- 
 ance of Southey's rule ("Why don't you talk of things, not 
 people?"), was so rich in its treatment of current events, so far- 
 seeing in its discernment of even their remotest tendencies, and sc 
 discriminating in its rare allusions to individuals, as to make im- 
 pressions never to be effaced. 
 
 The discipline of my father's household was firm and decided, 
 and yet, withal, singularly tender and forbearing. It had its pen- 
 alties, which were not to be evaded, and which he did not shrink 
 from administering with his own hand. But they were matters of 
 last resort, and I doubt whether any one of his children, even when 
 submitting to them, ever seriously questioned that they were emi- 
 nently deserved. On the other hand, his praise was without stint 
 when he thought it had been fairly earned, and his " nobly done, 
 my son," after some boyish effort crowned with an ' unwonted 
 measure of success, will ring in my ears as long as I live. 
 
 My father's somewhat reserved habit of speech, especially in 
 regard to matters of religion, led him to say less, perhaps, to his 
 children on that subject than some more impulsive men would 
 have done. But what he did not say by word of mouth he said, 
 with pre-eminent tenderness and directness, with his pen; and 
 always in his conduct of the family devotions he seemed intuitively 
 to divine the weaknesses, the temptations, the childish needs and 
 faults and longings that waited to be remembered at the mercy- 
 seat. His prayers, eminently rich in their flavor of the prayers 
 of the Church, so braided together the several petitions of the 
 various Collects and Occasional Services as to be a very mosaic of 
 simple and scriptural petitions. They were always fresh, heartfelt 
 
388 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 and comprehensive, and yet never extravagant, sentimental, sensa- 
 tional or (as is too often the case) irreverently familiar. When he 
 did converse with one of his children on religious subjects, nothing 
 was more touching than the way in which he put himself upon a 
 level with the most timid beginner in the Christian life, and 
 cheered and helped him by a sympathy which seemed to enter 
 completely into every feeling of discouragement or weakness which 
 was then confessed to him. 
 
 My father had been early thrown upon his 'own resources, and 
 he recognized very clearly the value of a training which educated 
 the young to self-reliance and self-help. His children were given 
 to understand that their education was their capital for the business 
 of life, and that when they reached their majority, they must 
 assume the responsibilities of independent manhood along with its 
 privileges. He had a hearty scorn for a dainty sybaritism, and 
 if he saw any symptoms of it in his children he was wont to 
 express his opinion of it without much reserve. He was so in- 
 tensely in earnest himself that he had but scant sympathy for 
 loungers, idlers or the mere "social ornaments" of a community, 
 and in his own household this contempt lighted with withering 
 effect upon any and every youthful tendency in that direction. 
 
 Bishop Potter was sometimes called a cold man, and that by 
 those who were very well aware of the absorbing personal devotion 
 with which multitudes of people loved him. Under such circum- 
 stances such a judgment was curiously unreflecting or unintelligent. 
 His heart was as large as his brain, and his affections increasingly 
 deep and tender as years went on. As his children, grown to 
 manhood, passed out from the shelter of the paternal roof, they 
 knew that they carried with them his ceaseless and anxious affec- 
 tion ; and when they came back again from time to. time to the 
 domestic fireside, they found there a loving warmth of welcome, 
 an ever-mellowing benignity of aspect, a large-hearted affection- 
 ateness of interest, which will live a fragrant memory for ever. 
 
 What he was to his children, he was in every other most sacred 
 and tender domestic relation. Not boisterously demonstrative, 
 there was yet a deep, wide tide of loving gentleness and attention 
 characterizing all his intercourse with those most dear to him. 
 
THE BISHOP IN HIS FAMIL Y. 389 
 
 When sickness came and the feebleness of those nearest to him 
 demanded his more particular and personal attention, it was given 
 with a steadfast devotion which made everything else yield to it. 
 His children have no more pathetic memory of his closing years 
 than is associated with his unceasing care and anxiety for their 
 mother in her failing health, at a time when he himself was shat- 
 tered and enfeebled by attacks of illness which had shaken the 
 strong citadel to its foundation. 
 
 I might say more, but not without invading the sacredness of 
 relations too delicate and tender to be made matters even of filial 
 reminiscence. In laying down my pen, however, I find myself 
 prompted to give expression to the feeling so often uppermost in 
 the hearts of those nearest to my father — viz., that the world but 
 very imperfectly understood the depth and tenderness of his affec- 
 tionate nature. The granite massiveness of his public character, 
 his comprehensive interest and absorption in everything that ap- 
 pealed to his intellectual and moral sympathies, seemed to many 
 persons to preclude the cultivation or exhibition of those domestic 
 affections which appeared to be more conspicuous in others less 
 engrossed than he. None knew so well as those who were closest 
 to him how mistaken and superficial that impression was. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 The Rev. Dr. H. Henry C. Potter. 
 
 We cannot forbear the remark that, if there were no other 
 evidence concerning the domestic life and influence of Bishop 
 Potter, the fact that his ten children, all still living and en- 
 gaged in divers pursuits in the world — two of them honored 
 Clergymen of the Church which he adorned — occupy a social 
 position and have a repute among men of which no father 
 would be ashamed, — had been a sufficient testimony. How 
 unusual is the rearing of such a numerous family, nine of 
 them boys, among whom -is no one unworthy of a distin- 
 guished parentage ! Bishop Potter's public engagements pre- 
 cluded as constant attention to his household as most fathers 
 reckon needful for the proper training of their offspring. How 
 judicious and how impressive must those parental counsels 
 33* 
 
S90 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 and influences have been, which have been crowned with such 
 unusually happy results ! 
 
 This imperfect and fragmentary record of the earthly course 
 of Bishop Alonzo Potter and of the honors paid to his mem- 
 ory draws to a close. The events of his personal pilgrimage, 
 so far as known to the writer, are all told. Nothing remains 
 but to collate in a few brief paragraphs the impressions of the 
 man and his work which the Memoirs already rehearsed leave 
 upon the writer's mind. 
 
 The reader may here incline to arrest the hand that would 
 close the tale, and, recalling that none but words of commen- 
 dation have been written, demand also the disclosure of the 
 subject's faults, alleging truly, " There is no man that liveth 
 and sinneth not." Faults he doubtless had. They who knew 
 him in the privacies of his home may have seen them. In 
 any case he was profoundly conscious of them himself, and 
 humbly confessed them before God. His watchfulness and 
 self-discipline were untiring. He did not speak unadvisedly 
 with his lips, nor suffer any passion of anger or jealousy or 
 contempt to reveal itself in his countenance or deeds ; and 
 therefore, one who was honored with his friendship for twenty 
 years, and had the privilege of almost daily intercourse with 
 him through all that period, remembers nothing in his de- 
 meanor and conversation, and — in all the documents which in 
 the preparation of this volume have passed under his eye — 
 has seen note of nothing over which the hand of love would 
 drop the veil of oblivion. 
 
 To the reader's candor and judgment the following resume^ 
 being in substance the portraiture which the writer sketched 
 in the first gush of affectionate sorrow when intelligence came 
 of the Bishop's death, and which in a calmer hour he is not 
 inclined to modify — is submitted, in the confident belief that 
 the facts recorded in these pages justify every laudatoiy 
 word. 
 
REVIEW OF HIS CHARACTER AND WORK. 39 1 
 
 Never did a public servant so identify himself with his work, 
 and live in it and for it. And to this circumstance, as much 
 perhaps as to his singular fitness for his place, it is due that 
 his influence was so thoroug-hly pervasive and almost supreme. 
 Here has been realized the old adage, " Ecclesia in Episcopo," 
 not because Bishop Potter everywhere asserted his authority, 
 but because in all its departments the Church sought to him 
 as to an oracle, and found ready sympathy, and wise counsel, 
 and prosperous guidance. He died before " the days of our age " 
 were completed, not for lack of constitutional vigor, for he was 
 a model of manly strength and development, but because in 
 his zeal for the house of our God and the offices thereof, he 
 gave himself no rest and wore out before his time. Would 
 that he could have realized, as his Diocese did, that to have 
 retained the benefit of his counsels the Church could have well 
 afforded to dispense with his active services ; especially since, 
 in the good Providence of God, and to forefend his loss, she 
 had called to his aid once and again men who have been eager 
 to spare him in all the more exhausting toils of the Episcopal 
 office. But he had adopted his habits of indefatigable industry 
 in the days of his physical vigor, and he could not remit them. 
 When an Assistant was given him, at a time of alarming pros- 
 tration, he accepted relief until his strength had rallied a little, 
 and then he seemed to rise up with the feeling that this great 
 Diocese had need of the unstinted services of two apostles, 
 who, like those of old, should go " everywhere preaching the 
 Word." I think he was morbidly apprehensive lest by his 
 example any minister of the Church should take encourage- 
 ment to apply less than all his powers to the doing of the 
 Master's work. He was not backward to speak a fatherly 
 word of admonition where he believed it was needed, and was 
 always careful that nothing should be seen in his own ways to 
 weaken the force of his precepts. And so he wrought on 
 when his condition required repose, and every heart that loved 
 and revered him longed to see him rest. His life has been 
 
392 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 the eventual sacrifice. To him we might fitly apply Byron's 
 Apostrophe to Kirk White : 
 
 " 'Twas thine own genius gave the final blow, 
 
 And helped to plant the wound that laid thee low.'' 
 
 It may be accounted one of the choice blessings of a man's 
 earthly lot, when he finds by the good Providence of God the 
 sphere for which his faculties best qualify him. Many of the 
 failures and much of the unhappiness that are in the world 
 result from men's being forced into positions for which they 
 have no natural taste or aptness. They struggle on in pur- 
 suits against which their whole souls revolt, and have no 
 pleasure and no prosperity ; and then wonder that other men 
 succeed without travail, and murmur that " the Lord's ways 
 are not equal." To find one's niche is half the secret of suc- 
 cess and happiness in life. 
 
 No one who knew Bishop Potter in his official character 
 can doubt for a moment that he was born to be a Bishop. He 
 was, as has been lately said of another great man for whom 
 the civilized world mourns, " a true-born king of men." His 
 transparent honesty and earnestness were among the elements 
 of this power. He never commended to his fellow-men inter- 
 ests or objects to which he was not ready according to his 
 ability and opportunity to devote himself Another trait 
 which contributed largely to his influence was his freedom 
 from passionate impulse. He was always calm and self-con- 
 tained. He never espoused a cause so warmly as to seem 
 overwrought or even enthusiastic. He impressed those with 
 whom he conversed not with his own fervor, but with the in- 
 trinsic merit of his cause. 
 
 His comprehension of mind to discern the great interests 
 of the Church and to devise and set on foot plans for its 
 future upbuilding was another eminent characteristic of our 
 departed Bishop. Some devoted and laborious men in high 
 places just address themselves to the duties that are immedi- 
 
REVIEW OF HIS CHARACTER AND WORK. 393 
 
 ately before them, aiming at nothing beyond the faithful per- 
 formance of their official functions. Some are visionary, 
 devising wild and impracticable schemes, and wasting upon 
 them time which is due to daily recurring offices. Bishop 
 • Potter learned what is wanting for the future, by realizing the 
 lack of it in his careful and assiduous attention to the claims 
 of the present. He had a genius for originating plans, but it 
 was qualified and kept within bounds by the practical element 
 of his mind. He knew that for the execution of great schemes 
 co-op'eration is needed. It was a part of his wisdom to put 
 himself at the standpoint of other men, and to contemplate 
 his plans as it were with their faculties, that he might propose 
 nothing which would not be sure to command approval. This 
 served to inspire universal confidence in the calmness and 
 accuracy of his judgment. Whatever he ventured to propose 
 others were slow to reject. His faculty of enlisting men to 
 help in his beneficent designs was marvelous. 
 
 Moreover, he never broached his plans prematurely ; he had 
 well considered all the pros and cons of his schemes before he 
 offered them, and was fully prepared to present them with 
 force and to answer objections. He had a marvelous skill in 
 selecting and calling to his aid, when his plans for good were 
 matured, just the men who were capable of promoting them, 
 and assigning to each the particular portion of the work for 
 which he was best adapted. He let others seem to originate 
 ideas to' which in fact his own suggestions gave birth, and so 
 conferred on his fellow-workers the pleasure and the stimulus 
 which are derived from the sense of putting into execution 
 one's own devices. 
 
 He was never impatient for instant fruition of his beneficent 
 purposes, but waited with a manly, I had almost said Divine, 
 serenity of patience, for other men who were needed instru- 
 ments to understand and appreciate his designs. 
 
 As a presiding officer in the Conventions of his Diocese, 
 and in qther deliberative bodies, he possessed at all times a 
 
394 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 perfectly clear apprehension of the state and involutions of 
 every subject of debate. With majestic honor, impartiality 
 and calmness, he accorded to every member his rights on the 
 floor; and while he never disguised, he never obtruded, his 
 own opinions in a way to forestall discussion, and carry 
 measures by the constraint of official influence, rather than the 
 slower process of rational conviction. He was master of the 
 assembly, not because he assumed prelatical authority, but 
 because he was always, with well nigh unerring certainty, him- 
 self the servant of truth and right. He had a wonderful adroit- 
 ness in disentangling a vexed question, in which, as other 
 men's blunders made it more intricate, their passions became 
 more antagonistic and excited. How often, by a private word 
 or a scrap of paper given to a member on the floor, has there 
 proceeded unsuspected from the Chair a suggestion, which has 
 cleared the whole subject and given rise to a fair and intelligi- 
 ble proposal that has commanded the assent of a vast majority! 
 His spirit was so placid, his judgment so cool and thought- 
 ful, his manner so uniformly calm, that more impulsive and 
 demonstrative persons have at times thought him cold and 
 unfeeling. Bishop Potter did not, indeed, shed many tears or 
 utter many lamentations or words of condolence. But few 
 men survive him who have taken a more active part in estab- 
 lishing and sustaining the eleemosynary institutions of his 
 neighborhood. The Hospital of the Church in Philadelphia 
 is his memorial; the "Clergy Daughters' Fund" was his cre- 
 ation ; the " Institution for Feeble-minded Children " had no 
 more constant and useful manager. Hospitals and asylums 
 were his peculiar care. And, besides these public tokens of 
 his compassionate spirit, what multitudes of private persons 
 could now testify how he has listened to them in their distress 
 — how he has procured employment for the able, and given or 
 obtained alms for the sick and suffering — how he has cheered 
 and restored to manliness and hope the faint-hearted and the 
 desperate ! The Clergy who had hard fields of labor and a 
 
REVIEW OF HIS CHARACTER AND WORK. 395 
 
 pitiful recompense for their toils can tell whether he had a 
 father's heart to sympathize with their sorrows and a Bishop's 
 wisdom and influence to plan and obtain relief His compas- 
 sionate love was " not in word and in tongue, but in deed and 
 in truth." There was nothing sensational in his whole deport- 
 ment. He said nothing and did nothing for mere immediate 
 effect, and was not drawn toward any one who did. All the 
 outgoings of his mind and heart were efficient forces engaged 
 to accomplish something for the glory of Christ and the good 
 of man. 
 
 In his administration of his Diocese, which had been 
 depressed by a recent calamity and distracted by party strife, 
 he displayed a faculty for goveri;ment which would have 
 adorned any office, civil or ecclesiastical, and under any cir- 
 cumstances of embarrassment or peril. He was known, when 
 elected, as a theologian of strictly orthodox principles, and as 
 a Churchman of moderate yet conservative views. From this 
 character he never faltered. His opinions on these matters he 
 never disguised and never obtruded upon others. By his 
 consistency and toleration he won them not only to himself, 
 but to his sentiments. He proscribed nobody; in every 
 earnest man he found some good faculty which could be' em- 
 ployed for the service of the Church, and by appreciating it 
 and invoking its exertion, he threw his less useful character- 
 istics into the shade, won the respect and affection of the most 
 eccentric, and developed into efficient servants of Christ, here 
 one and there another, who had else been known only as ex- 
 tremists or oddities. He was Bishop of the entire Diocese, 
 and not of any party or faction in it — the impartial friend and 
 counselor of every good man in the Church. Thus the Dio- 
 cese grew into harmony — fraternal relations were established 
 between all the Clergy ; party spirit was dispelled ; and if there 
 were not entire unanimity of opinion among all, men learned 
 from him to tolerate and respect each other's differences, and 
 to realize that they who cannot pronounce Shibboleth alike 
 
396 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 may yet all belong to the House of Israel. He got rid of 
 theological and ecclesiastical differences, not by a proscription 
 of such as differed from him, not by an ex cathedra rescript or 
 bull, but by engaging men who had distrusted one another in 
 joint labors for God and man, and so their differences were 
 forgotten, overshadowed or obliterated by their agreements. 
 He instituted a standard of Ministerial labor, and exemplified 
 it too, which left no room for solemn trifling, which made 
 drones uncomfortable in the universal stir, and which directly 
 and indirectly produced a spirit of mutual toleration, honorable 
 to all and eminently conducive to peace. He never gossiped 
 about his Clergy, censuring one for the entertainment of 
 another, but with paternal jealousy cared for the good name 
 of all. The Diocese grew immensely under his care, and for 
 any good enterprise he could wield it all as a great chieftain 
 wields an army. In intercourse with men we have never 
 known one whose judgment commanded such universal defer- 
 ence. It was always so careful, so dispassionate, so unselfish, 
 so applied to the principles of things, so clear of side issues • 
 and petty prejudices, that men accepted its utterances as a 
 revelation, and bowed to it with reverence and. gratitude. 
 
 Bishop Potter was remarkable as for his influence over 
 men, so -also for his sagacity in devising and bringing before 
 the Church at propitious times projects for the establishment 
 of those institutions by which she is to bless the world and 
 glorify its Saviour. When he came to the Diocese, the Pro- 
 testant Episcopal Academy had a corporate existence, but the 
 school was and had for a long period been suspended. Its 
 charter and a small endowment were all that was left of it 
 The Bishop at once put it in action. What good it has done 
 in the last twenty years ! How many youths it has educated 
 in scholastic learning and in the doctrine and worship of the 
 Church ! Behold it now with its imposing collegiate building 
 and for numbers and reputation second to none in the city. 
 Twelve years ago, at the instance of the Bishop, the Trustees 
 
REVIEW OF HIS CHARACTER AND WORK. 297 
 
 of the Academy appointed a Professor of Divinity and gave 
 him the use of one of its apartments and a nominal salary. 
 That was the germ of the " Philadelphia Divinity School," and 
 doubtless was intended to be in the mind of its far-seeing and 
 patient projector. Who else but Bishop Potter could, in four 
 years from the date of its incorporation, have established s^ich 
 a school of the Prophets as this, with its five endowed Profes- 
 sorships, its commodious buildings, its excellent library, its 
 scholarships and other endowments (to the amount altogether 
 of three hundred thousand dollars), its forty students, its repu- 
 tation bringing every year large accessions to its numbers ? 
 Simultaneously with these foundations of sound learning in 
 letters and Divinity, he was enlisting the liberal and benevo- 
 lent of his Diocese in building and endowing the " Episcopal 
 Hospital," the completest establishment of the kind in. this 
 country, with its spacious wards, its airy corridors, its exquisite 
 chapel, its fine dispensary, its magnificent buildings, an orna- 
 ment and an honor to the city ; a monument to him (in whose 
 heart and brain it was reared before the hammer of the work- 
 man was heard) on which is emblazoned to posterity the record 
 of his great heart, his liberal mind, his mighty influence. 
 From the gifts of the living and the bequests of the dead this 
 noble charity had before his death already received three hun- 
 dred thousand dollars ! A man capable of such things could 
 not be kept as the exclusive property of any one of the families 
 of believers into which the Church catholic of Christ is now 
 unhappily divided. I think he has been for years the acknow- 
 ledged head of the religious community in this great city, and 
 that almost any settled Minister here of any name would be 
 likely to speak of him as Dr. Sharp of Boston, a celebrated 
 Baptist divine, spoke of Bishop Griswold in a funeral sermon 
 as " our Bishop." No common enterprise designed to promote 
 the social, literary or moral welfare of the city has been set on 
 foot, that his counsel has not been solicited in its inauguration, 
 and the sanction of his name desired to give it favor with the 
 
 Si 
 
398 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 public. He was known as a man who loved " all that love 
 our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," and all such loved and 
 honored him. Born of Quaker parents, he always maintained 
 great simplicity of manners, and yet he never compromised 
 the dignity of his high and holy office. There was a natural, 
 unaffected majesty about him of which men who did not 
 know or recognize his station at once felt the power. 
 
 There was a time when some ardent members of our Church 
 felt that the Bishop was expending too much of his strength 
 in the furtherance of objects of general interest, and not ex- 
 clusively under the management of our own household of 
 faith. That was surely a narrow conceit. What service could 
 be more useful to religion, than that the world should be made 
 to see and feel that the best and most reliable friends and 
 agents of its progress in all that is good, are to be found in the • 
 high places of the Church ? What could be of greater ad- 
 vantage to our communion than that the common prejudice 
 now existing among other bodies of Christians that our Church 
 is narrow and exclusive, and out of sympathy with whatever 
 good enterprise we do not conduct, should be confronted and 
 made ashamed by such an ecclesiastic as Bishop Potter, who, 
 in every circle of good men combining to do good, found his 
 legitimate place at their head, a Bishop by Divine right ? 
 
 Bishop Potter was so discreet and prudent, and so often 
 perceived the wisdom of waiting for things to come about 
 peaceably, which other men would secure at once by conflict 
 and maintain, despite constant opposition and heart-burning, 
 that the hasty and pugnacious thought him timid and com- 
 promising. What a misapprehension of his whole character ! 
 He realized that the world is wide enough to give room for 
 difference of opinion on minor matters. He knew how to dis- 
 criminate between his impressions and his principles, and to 
 hold those subject to modification, while these were fixed as 
 the everlasting hills. For absolute right he was one of the 
 most heroic of men. I once heard him say in a public address 
 
REVIEW OF HIS CHARACTER AND WORK. 399 
 
 that he was never disposed to make issue with other men on 
 small occasions, and enjoyed the concord and favor of his 
 fellows as much as any ; but that there were great social and 
 moral questions on which, clearly perceiving the right, he 
 could afford to stand alone if need be, and to bear obloquy 
 and reproach until that period, certain to arrive, when public 
 sentiment, freed from the shackles of prejudice, would approve 
 his position and come to his support. And here I cannot for- 
 bear to recall the manly courage with which our departed 
 Bishop always came forth as the friend and advocate of the 
 oppressed and downtrodden. Never did he shrink from the 
 odium of vindicating the claim of every race to the immunities 
 of men and citizens in a free republic, and to the common 
 privileges of membership in a Christian Church. These are 
 now accepted views of truth and righteousness, but the time 
 has been, and that not long ago, when he who held them held 
 them at his peril, and was denounced in high places as a 
 fanatic and a disorganizes And no man lacked heroism, in 
 whatever else he may have been deficient, who then, himself 
 in a post of honor, wounded the pride of society by claiming 
 for the underlings, on whom it asserted a vested right to 
 trample, enrollment with men on earth and inheritance with 
 saints in heaven. 
 
 As a preacher. Bishop Potter had the qualities which best 
 become his office. He was grave and thoughtful and instruc- 
 tive, not flashy and superficial and verbose. Without affec- 
 tation of fine rhetoric, his style was pure and simple and terse. 
 Men listened to him as to a father rather than an orator, and 
 went away impressed with the force of truth instead of the 
 splendor of the man. In unwritten discourse he was peculiarly 
 happy, his thoughts always well arranged and suited to the 
 occasion with admirable taste and expressed in choice language. 
 His long training in scholastic pursuits not only replenished 
 his mind with knowledge, but gave him facile and reliable use 
 of alt his powers. While his experience as a Parish Priest in 
 
400 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 St. Paul's, Boston, gave him the skill to apply all to that 
 Divine science of which the Lord called him to be a teacher, 
 and to that more extended pastorship to which in his riper 
 years he was consecrated. 
 
 Bishop Potter never discoursed at much length on theoretical 
 Churchmanship ; he was a practical Churchrnan with whose 
 doings in that regard it was hard for any to find fault. When 
 he was in Massachusetts he was Bishop Griswold's chosen 
 adviser and confidential friend, and an avowed upholder of his 
 policy. When he came to Pennsylvania he declared himself 
 to be on Bishop White's platform and desirous to emulate the 
 spirit of his administration. His Churchmanship was never in 
 either direction more apparent than his religion. Call it High 
 or call it Low, it was of a sort which drew to the Church the 
 favorable regard of the community, and contributed to the 
 great increase of its numbers and the promotion of its useful- 
 ness among men. If it could be well replenished with mem- 
 bers of like opinions and demeanor toward other Christians 
 on the right hand and on the left, men would flock to the 
 Church of our love as doves to their windows. Bishop Potter 
 surrendered nothing which is distinctive of our faith or order, 
 nor yet so protruded the angles of our conformation as to 
 make them irritating to our neighbors. He was constitution- 
 ally as well as by conviction, averse to everything which is 
 meretricious in worship or significant of human mediatorship 
 in doctrine ; but he did not in recoil from these, disparage our 
 chaste and decent formularies, nor disown a Ministry ordained 
 by Christ himself with high and holy functions, and perpet- 
 uated through the centuries for the edification and oversight 
 of his household. 
 
 No one could have borne himself so wisely, so unblame- 
 ably, so usefully, through so many years, who did not live 
 near to God and find constant supplies of grace at his mercy- 
 seat. There was a savor of holiness about him, affecting his 
 deportment and conversation, which could have been acquired 
 
BISHOP STEVENS' VIEW OF HIS CHARACTER. 4OI 
 
 only where the sweet incense of prayer was rising ever before 
 the Ark of the Covenant. In the years of his impaired health 
 they who knew the Bishop most intimately realized most that 
 his sense of eternal things was growing more vivid. The 
 preciousness of Christ and of his great salvation was more 
 feelingly set forth in his public addresses and in his fireside 
 conversation. 
 
 None can be more sensible than is the writer, of the insuf- 
 ficiency of this attempted portraiture of one whose measure 
 few are great enough to take. It is but a shadowy outline, 
 which the memory of some can to a certain extent fill up, and 
 which to others who never knew the original, may serve to 
 afford a partial conception of the moral and intellectual stature 
 of the man. Imperfect though it be, it is an offering of grati- 
 tude and love, a chaplet of amaranth fragrant to me of precious 
 memories, which with trembling hand I lay upon a father's 
 grave. 
 
 The defects of this analysis of Bishop Potter's character we 
 are happy to supplement by extracts from the concluding 
 pages of Bishop Stevens' eloquent and appreciative " Memo- 
 rial Discourse : " 
 
 As an educationist, Bishop Potter held a commanding position. 
 I refer not merely to the fact that more than twenty years of the 
 very pith of his life was passed as a tutor and Prafessor in College, 
 where he was enabled to aid in moulding hundreds of minds, and 
 by which his influence through his pupils is still felt in the Church 
 and in the State. I refer more particularly to the efforts which he 
 made in early manhood to elevate the common school system of 
 the land, and to awaken the people to a consideration of their duty 
 to provide sound and liberal education for the rising generation. 
 * ' * * * * * * 
 
 He thoroughly comprehended the great importance of devising 
 and carrying out a wise system of common schools as the basis of 
 the intellectual growth and culture of the whole American mind. 
 
 Though himself a well-drilled classical student and well versed in 
 34* 2 A 
 
402 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 Belles -Lettres studies, yet he felt that our youth in this land of wrest- 
 ling activities and marvelous developments, required an education 
 more in accordance with the demands of the times and the country ; 
 that they needed training, theoretical and practical, in the physical 
 sciences ; and that they should be taught to handle and wield the 
 powers of nature through a knowledge of nature's laws, and be 
 ready to urge forward the mineral, agricultural, commercial and 
 industrial developments which were cropping out all around us. 
 
 His views on all educational subjects were broad, well weighed, 
 boldly uttered and firmly maintained. He set in motion other 
 minds and gave birth to wide schemes which are yet operative for 
 good. His position as Vice President of Union College, his 
 writings so thorough and comprehensive, his personal influence so 
 weighty and his large and strongly put views made him one of the 
 recognized leaders in every educational movement. 
 
 As a parochial Minister, Bishop Potter was known to the public 
 only during his Rectorship of St. Paul's, Boston, a period of less 
 than five years. They were five years of hard, valuable, effective 
 
 work His experience as a Parish Minister in St. Paul's was 
 
 an important part of his education for the Episcopate. He would 
 not have been qualified for this work without it. No man can be 
 a true Bishop over Pastors who has not himself been the Pastor of 
 z. flock, mingling with the people in their every-day life and varied 
 household and domestic experiences, and probing and prescribing 
 for, like a spiritual physician, the moral necessities of the sin-sick 
 and afflicted of his congregation. He needs the discipline and the 
 whole practical teaching of this under-shepherd life, that he may 
 know how to sympathize with the people in their relation to the 
 Clergy, and with the Clergy in the trials and pleasures of parochial 
 care 
 
 As a legislator in the Church, he was ever regarded as wise and 
 progressive. Before his election as Bishop he sat but in one gen- 
 eral Convention, that which assembled in Philadelphia in 1829, 
 when he represented in part the Diocese of Massachusetts. In the 
 Massachusetts Conventions he took a prominent part. In the New 
 York Conventions his views were always such as to command 
 respect and shape opinion. In the Board of Missions he was an 
 
BISHOP STEVENS' VIEtV OF HIS CHARACTER. 403 
 
 elected member for several years, and worked in it with ardent 
 zeal. When he entered the House of Bishops his commanding 
 mind was at once felt ; and it is not too much to say that no one 
 member of that House exercised a wider or more beneficial influ- 
 ence in its legislation than he Had he been in the halls of 
 
 civil legislation, he would have stood among the foremost there, for 
 the qualities of mind which gave him prominence in the Church 
 Councils would have made him a prince at the bar or in the 
 Senate. 
 
 His Church legislation was broad, not restricted to his own 
 Diocese, or the present time, or the emergency that gave birth to 
 special canons. He was an ecclesiastical statesman ; a man who 
 rose above his localities, his prejudice's, his age, and, casting a bold 
 out-look into the future, sought to control that future through 
 present legislation, and to lift that legislation high above party 
 tactics and out-cropping exigencies, and place it on the foundation 
 of the great principle of Liturgical and ecclesiastical law. Par- 
 ticularly was this breadth of view displayed in the discussions of 
 the so-called "Memorial movement" of 1853. He gave to that 
 subject deep thought and great research. He studied it in its 
 several bearings, and then took his position firmly on the side of 
 liberty and Church expansiveness. In the paper which he sub- 
 mitted to the Commission of Bishops, he placed himself on ground 
 which I yet believe the Church must occupy if it would do its full 
 duty, and bring to bear all its capabilities to do the work of the 
 Lord in this land and in this age. He took a more prominent 
 part in this Memorial movement than any other Bishop. He 
 edited the volume of papers which it called out from various 
 sources ; he stood up as its champion, not the champion of every- 
 thing which the Memorial asked for or suggested, but for that wise 
 liberty which is compatible with law, and that comprehensiveness 
 which goes hand in hand with unity amidst diversity — a central 
 heart, but a body of many members, many organs, many functions, 
 but all obeying the one will and nourished by the one blood. He 
 was no broad Churchman in a sense that would cast down all walls 
 of partition, and let the Church lie unenclosed like an open com- 
 mon as to Ministry and worship. He was no broad Churchman as 
 
404 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 to articles of faith, making it only necessary to hold to the Church 
 catholic by the ligament of a single creed, and ready to receive all 
 who can adopt that creed, ignoring alike doctrine and discipline, 
 the Thirty-nine Articles and the Code of Canons ; but he was a 
 broad Churchman in his desire to make our Liturgy more flexible, 
 so that it could be adapted to all classes and conditions of men; in 
 his aim to take away certain bars and hindrances which have 
 deterred many really noble men from entering our Ministry ; in his 
 seeking to bring out the working power of the Church and apply 
 it directly and practically to the people ; in his wish to make the 
 Church leaven the popular mass, guide the popular mind, lift up 
 the low and the outcast, and subsidize all proper agencies and wield 
 all proper instrumentalities to do Christ's work on earth. In this 
 sense he was a broad Churchman — as broad as the commission 
 given to him by his Divine Master, " Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature ; " as broad as the Liturgy of 
 his Prayer-book, which is "common prayer," compassing all 
 sorts and conditions of men ; as broad as the eucharistic invitation, 
 which invites all who truly repent and are in neighborly charity to 
 draw near in faith ; as broad as the great Head of the Church 
 would make it in his intercessory prayer when he pleads "that 
 they all may be one." 
 
 This was his broad Churchmanship — a Churchmanship that dealt 
 not with questions of anise and mint and cummin, concerning the 
 letter of a Rubric, or the posture in the Ritual, or the tapestry of 
 the chancel, but that grasped the very life issues of the Church, its 
 duly to surrounding denominations of Christians, its duty to sur- 
 rounding ignorance, want, crime and sickness, its duty to blatant 
 infidelity and priestly neology and boastful philosophy and char- 
 latan science, — that whole circumference of duty which, springing 
 from the Cross on which the Church was born, sweeps upward to 
 the throne of God, downward to the lowest of the human race, 
 outward to the verge of time, and returns again to the point from 
 which it started, the heart of the Crucified 
 
 As a philosopher, it can be safely said that few men had studied 
 more than he the theory, history, definitions and criticism of the 
 great schools of philosophy. There was scarcely a leading dogma 
 
BISHOP STEVENS' VIEW OF HIS CHARACTER. 40S 
 
 in the Oriental, Greek, Scholastic, German, French, Scotch or 
 English philosophy, from the academic school of Plato down to 
 the school of Kant and Hegel and Hamilton, which he had not 
 mastered. Yet he enrolled himself as the disciple of no one mas- 
 ter. His mind was so well ballasted with common sense that he 
 was eminently eclectic and discriminating, seeking the good and 
 the true wherever it could be found, irrespective of names, nations 
 or schools. "Philosophers," said Lord Bacon, "may be divided 
 into two classes, the empirics and the dogmatists. The empiric, 
 like the ant, is content to amass and then consume his provisions. 
 The dogmatic, like the spider, spins webs the materials of which 
 are extracted from his own substance, admirable for the delicacy 
 of their workmanship, but without solidity or use. The bee keeps 
 a middle course 5 she draws her matter from flowers and gardens, 
 then by art peculiar to her she labors and digests it. True Philos- 
 ophy," he adds, "does something like this." Such was Bishop 
 Potter as a philosopher — a gatherer from many sources, a storer-up 
 of his wide-culled treasures and a practical user of the materials 
 which he stored. 
 
 ****** 
 
 As a philanthropist, he had broad, deep and well-defined views. 
 Early in life he took hold of the temperance movement and threw 
 the weight of his example and writing into the effort to overcome 
 the far-spreading evils of intemperance, and these principles he 
 maintained through life 
 
 In all matters pertaining to the relief of the sick, the poor, the 
 
 infirm, he was ever ready to aid by his counsel and efforts 
 
 His large mind had devised large plans for Christian and Churchly 
 effort. He fully appreciated the necessity of bringing the Church 
 into contact with all forms of misery and all classes of the people, 
 as the only real healer and soother of human woes and sorrows. 
 He felt the force of the position which every reflecting man must 
 take, that it is by and through the Church, and not by the unbap- 
 tized and creedless instrumentality of mere earth-born philosophy, 
 that true and lasting relief must come. 
 
 His idea was, that all the needed agencies for the relief or miti- 
 gation of human suffering should go forth from the Church, should 
 
406 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 be administered by the Church, and should thus redound* to the 
 praise of the Church's glorious Head. This is sound Bible truth, 
 and the Church has not begun to comprehend the full measure of 
 her duty until she plants not merely churches and schools, but hos- 
 pitals, asylums, refuges, homes, until she meets the laborer, the 
 mechanic, the soldier, the storekeeper, the degraded poor and the 
 virtuous poor, and puts her loving arms aroimd each, and, bringing 
 all to her bosom, makes them feel the palpitating heart of Christ 
 beneath. 
 
 How much he did to infuse this spirit into the Church many of 
 you know, but you do not know that what he was enabled to ac- 
 complish was but a tithe of what he aimed to do, and that in the 
 foundation of institutions already laid he has shown us by example 
 in what field to work, and how to make practical and individual 
 what too many regard as the mere abstractions of religion. 
 
 He loved his race, his whole race. He recognized in every 
 human being a soul for whom Christ died, and consequently one 
 to whom the Church should minister ; an"d he actively co-operated 
 in every effort for the lifting up of the poor, the relief of the suf- 
 fering, the enlightening of the ignorant and the setting at liberty 
 them that are bound. 
 
 As a patriot he stood in a foremost position. When the fearful 
 civil evils of the land culminated in civil war. Bishop Potter took 
 strong ground in behalf of the constituted authorities of the land 
 and upheld them by all the means in his power. The prayers 
 which he put forth during this fiery ordeal were in most respects 
 models of blended patriotism and religion. His efforts in behalf 
 of the spiritual welfare of the soldiers were not limited to words, 
 but extended to acts of marked influence for good. He loved his 
 country with his whole heart fervently, and was ready to peril all 
 for its safety and perpetuity. 
 
 ****** 
 
 Lastly, he stands before us a Bishop. Twenty years he stood 
 thus before us, and we had an opportunity to gauge his mind, his 
 ability and his influence. Twice had he shunned the office of a 
 Bishop, when the providence of God, speaking through the almost 
 unanimous voice of this Diocese, called him to it, and he obeyed 
 
BISHOP STEVENS' VIEW OF HIS CHARACTER. 407 
 
 the call. His idea of the office and work of a Bishop was very- 
 high. He regarded him not merely as an ecclesiastical officer, but 
 as one who, from his position and opportunities and influence, had 
 vast means within and around him of guiding the Church, shaping 
 great institutions of charity or learning, moulding the Clergy, and 
 of being a leader of the Israel of God in its attacks upon the 
 strongholds of sin, Satan and death. Few men cared less for the 
 honors of the Episcopate ; few used the office more as an instru- 
 ment of largest good ; and, as a necessary consequence, following 
 the Divine law of God, who has said, "Them that honor me, I 
 will honor," few men were more honored in their Episcopate, not 
 by his own Church alone, but by all denominations of Christians, 
 and by all the good and intelligent classes of the State. He made 
 no show of power : it rather emanated from him than was wielded 
 by him. In disentangling complex questions, in adjusting paro- 
 chial and Ministerial differences, in settling disputed questions of 
 Rubrics and Ritual, in harmonizing opposing classes, in drawing 
 out what was in men- and in subsidizing them for his several 
 schemes of work and agencies of usefulness, he was pre-eminent ; 
 and in all he displayed a quiet but effective power (the more effec- 
 tive because quiet) which enabled him to administer this Diocese, 
 in periods of great Church excitement and of political excitement, 
 in times of pecuniary depression and in times of prosperity, with 
 a wisdom which has been endorsed by glorious results, and with a 
 blandness which has left no room for harshness of discipline, while 
 yet discipline was maintained and the dignity of the Church 
 upheld 
 
 The result of such forth-puttings of intellectual and moral power 
 through the pulpit, through the press, oflScially and unofficially, 
 were signal evidences that God was working in and by him, and 
 that he was a noble steward in one of the noblest stewardships ever 
 committed to man. 
 
 Of the sacred inner life of the Bishop it does not become me to 
 speak ; it is a solemn secret between each soul and God. I can 
 and will say, however, that his piety was deep and true. It was 
 not a glossy veneer to hide unsightly material, but it interpene- 
 trated his whole life and mingled itself as a governing element in 
 
408 MEMOIR OF ALONZO POTTER. 
 
 his private, social and official duties. He was a Christian on prin- 
 ciple and of principle, ever seeking to advance the glory of God, 
 the Church of Christ, the regeneration of men.. Devout, with- 
 out ostentation, and earnest, without enthusiasm, he pursued a 
 godly and consistent walk — a walk which those who lived near him 
 knew to be one of self-renunciation, self-distrust, deep humility, 
 and of true and daily repentance toward God and faith in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. His natural reserve and almost rigidity of character 
 made his piety appear to the distant beholder somewhat austere 
 and cold, lacking in softness and sunniness and winningness ; but 
 during the last decade of his life this reserve began to disappear, 
 and give place to a more sympathetic manifestation of personal 
 religion. 
 
 There was a very marked and gradually deepening mellowness 
 in his views and feelings. His mind dwelt less on the doctrinal 
 than on the practical. His heart was no longer held in reserve, 
 like a fountain sealed, but began to overflow ; his personal interest 
 in the Lord Jesus as his Saviour and his only hope became 
 stronger, and was more freely expressed ; and as Christ rose higher 
 and higher in his heart he became humbler, more child-like, 
 prayerful, patient, ready to do or suffer God's will. The last few 
 years, wherein God's hand was laid upon him in such sore personal 
 and domestic affliction, were to him spiritually precious ; they were 
 ripening years for heaven ; they were sanctifying years of grace ; 
 and laid aside partly from his work in the Church below, he was 
 by the aid of the Holy Ghost being prepared thereby for the 
 higher and eternal Ministry which he was soon to be called to 
 exercise when he should be made a king and a priest unto God. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 NOTES OF BISHOP BURGESS. 
 
 TO the hands of the late Right Rev. George Burgess, 
 Bishop of the Diocese of Maine, was first committed 
 the work of writing a Memoir of Bishop Alonzo Potter. 
 None better quaHfied could have been found among mert. 
 They were congenial spirits ; they had been brought into inti- 
 mate relations in the House of Bishops ; they entertained 
 kindred views of Church doctrine and polity ; they were both 
 calm, dispassionate, heroic men, who, gentle and considerate 
 of the rights of others, would yet, in time of necessity, " earn- 
 estly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints ;" and, 
 in fine. Bishop Burgess was a ripe scholar and a man of 
 exquisite literary taste, and thereby specially fitted to appre- 
 ciate the liberal culture and fully developed powers of Bishop 
 Potter. 
 
 The melancholy frustration of the arrangement which had 
 designated him as the biographer of his departed friend and 
 brother is known and lamented throughout the Church. In 
 nine months afi:er the intelligence came that Bishop Potter 
 had breathed his last on shipboard in distant waters, there 
 followed the sad tidings that Bishop Burgess, also an invalid, 
 seeking restoration in tropical seas, had been found by God's 
 angel, and from his pallet on a vessel's deck, led upward 
 through the shining gate to " the rest of the people of God." 
 
 35 409 
 
4IO APPENDIX. 
 
 Like " Saul and Jonathan, they were lovely and pleasant in 
 their lives, and in their death they were not divided." A few 
 brief fragmentary jottings, intended to be wrought into a nar- 
 rative which was never begun, are all that remain — as they 
 are all that was ever written — :of Bishop Burgess's Memoir of 
 Alonzo Potter. 
 
 Such of them as convey his impressions of the man and of 
 the specific influences by which his character was developed 
 and moulded are here appended. 
 
 The first entry in this note-book of ideas which the author 
 designed to introduce and expand in his projected volume is 
 the following : 
 
 1. In the life of Dr. Alonzo Potter, third Protestant Bishop of 
 Pennsylvania, a noble mind is seen, from the first charmed by 
 knowledge, and early expanding its powers and gifts under dili- 
 gent and conscientious exercise. Study ripens into scholarship, 
 and scholarship into learning, and learning into wisdom. The 
 renewing grace of God sanctifies that wisdom to be the highest of 
 all. The providence of God assigns places, duties and opportuni- 
 ties. At length over the Church and over society that one charac- 
 ter throws a light at once so strong and so pure, that all who have 
 felt the influence feel also that they suffer if it be not as long as 
 possible prolonged through every just memorial 
 
 2. The period of his. childhood and youth coincided with the 
 Presidencies of Jefferson and Madison and with the struggle be- 
 tween Europe and Napoleon. Whatever might have been the 
 political tendencies of his family, it was not possible that an intel- 
 ligent and ingenuous youth should not learn, in those times of 
 foreign conflict and domestic dispute, a warmer love for his own 
 country. He carried it with him till his death, and never as an 
 ecclesiastic divested himself of the consciousness, the responsibili- 
 ties or the glory of his citizenship. 
 
 The events of the life of Bishop Potter stand in such close rela- 
 tion to those of the career of President Nott that regard for the 
 venerated and extreme age of the still surviving patriarch [this was 
 
NOTES OF BISHOP BURGESS. 4 1 1 
 
 written in 1865] must not restrain the freedom of the biographer. 
 Eliphalet Nott, born in 17 — , during the War of the Revolution, 
 grew up while the nation was becoming settled into its history, 
 mould and organization. He owed his own education to no Col- 
 lege. A Missionary in the interior, he became distinguished by 
 his energy, eloquence and power. 
 
 The following refers to a momentous incident in the life of 
 young Potter which occurred shortly after he completed his 
 College course : 
 
 3. It was at St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, and at the hands 
 of Bishop White that he received his baptism. Neither the 
 already venerable patriarch nor the now de'dicated youth could 
 dream of the meaning of that hour for the Church in Pennsylvania. 
 But if the purposes of God had been disclosed to any prophet, the 
 scene might have brought • back the image of Augustine kneeling 
 before Ambrose at Milan. Augustine never succeeded to that see, 
 but the transmission of principles and a spirit might be as clearly 
 witnessed in the course of both histories as if it had been depend- 
 ent on the sacramental chain which bound the younger to the 
 elder. 
 
 At the age of twenty-five he was induced to change his 
 position as Professor of Mathematics at Union College for 
 that of Rector of St. Paul's Church, Boston. Of that under- 
 taking Bishop Burgess made the following notes : 
 
 4. The Episcopal Church in Boston was weaker than before the 
 separation from Great Britain. It had lost the presence and influ- 
 ence of a numerous company, composed of the officers of royal 
 appointment, their kindred and dependents, and it had found as 
 yet no balancing gain. The beginning of Unitarianism had stolen 
 from it its oldest and noblest temple. Trinity Church, next in 
 order, preserved almost a kind of independency under the long 
 Ministry of an accomplished but eccentric scholar. Christ Church 
 had a local and humble sphere, 'in which its candlestick shone 
 feebly. But about the year 1820 several persons of intelligence 
 
412 APPENDIX. 
 
 and worth — either Churchmen desiring some advancement of their 
 own cause as the cause of truth and godliness, or men of Unitarian 
 connection, who shrank from the full development of the meaning 
 of that long-suppressed strife which had now sundered the Congre- 
 gationalism of Massachusetts — associated themselves in the organ- 
 ization of St. Paul's Church, and prosecuted the design with vigor 
 and at large expense. 
 
 5. His Ministry at Boston was always remembered with an ad- 
 miring veneration. His successors have been the very foremost 
 preachers in whom the Episcopal Church in the United States has 
 rejoiced, yet the memory of his day was that of a golden age. 
 
 6. The first thought of the Diocese of Massachusetts turned always 
 to Dr. Potter when it was proposed at any time to elect an Assist- 
 ant to Bishop Griswold. 
 
 In reference to repeated opportunities afforded him to assume 
 the duties and vv^ear the honors of the Episcopal office. Bishop 
 Burgess says of him : 
 
 Dr. Potter certainly did not yield to the sentiment that the call 
 of a Diocese should be at once accepted, as the order of that 
 Supreme Commander whose knightly soldiers all Christians are, 
 and at whose word each one of them is to take his office and sta- 
 tion in the field. He would have withdrawn from no such obliga- 
 tion had it been the law of his service, or had it, failing of such 
 authority, approved itself to his judgment. 
 
 After five years of Pastoral service he returned to Union 
 College as Professor of Moral Philosophy, etc., and so con- 
 tinued until his elevation to the Episcopate. 
 
 7. It was in this long College life that he practiced himself in the 
 knowledge of mankind, as represented by the most intelligent 
 minds, at the age when candor is natural or disguise is difficult. 
 He caught the habit of singling out the person for the place or duty 
 to which he was equal. He saw what each could become as well 
 as what he was. He trained his own mind not to the professional 
 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 413 
 
 routine which cannot be sustained too long without some danger, 
 but to the practice of grasping every subject which he apprehended, 
 with the same clearness and fullness which would be required if it 
 were made the matter of his instructions. 
 
 It was in any event that providential training through which the 
 wisdom of God prepared him for the duties which he and no other 
 was to accomplish in the successive places that awaited his approach. 
 He was found equal to all. His early experience laid a foundation 
 which educated men always recognized with respect. 
 
 8. Throughout his life, though blessed with a frame of apparent 
 robustness, he was yet compelled to watch exactly over his own 
 health, for his childreri's sake as well as for his own. 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES. 
 
 The Hon. Wm. Tracy returned the following reply to a re- 
 quest for reminiscences of Professor Potter's College adminis- 
 tration : 
 
 March 8, 1867. 
 
 Dear Sir : I received your note of the 2d inst. requesting re- 
 miniscences and correspondence of the late Bishop Potter. It 
 would gratify me very much to aid at all in your endeavor to pre- 
 sent his portraiture to his friends. I fear, however, that I cannot 
 add to what is very generally known. I became acquainted with 
 him when he was Professor of Mathematics and I a member of his 
 class, in 1824. An attachment to him then commenced which has 
 never cooled. 
 
 After Dr. Potter's return from Boston to assume the Vice Presi- 
 dency, he was constantly occupied in labor to elevate the condition 
 of primary education in the State. No exertion tired him in this 
 enterprise. Whenever the school laws created any difficulty, he 
 was the person detailed by the Superintendent to smooth over their 
 roughness, and very largely is the present condition of our com- 
 mon schools indebted to his exertions. 
 
 I had occasional correspondence with Dr. Potter, but have no 
 letters which would be of public interest. It was chiefly in relation 
 to educational matters 
 
 35* 
 
414 APPENDIX. 
 
 I never knew one who had so thoroughly cultivated all the 
 talents with which he had been endowed, and it is delightful to re- 
 member how entirely he surrendered them all to the Service of 
 humanity and God. 
 
 Dr. Thos. C. Reed, who was a Professor in " Union College " 
 in the same period with Dr. Potter, gave the following testi- 
 mony : 
 
 Geneva, March 4, 1867. 
 My dear Sir : Your letter requesting me to send you reminis- 
 cences of the late Bishop Potter is just received. I was on terms 
 of the closest intimacy with the Bishop for many years, but who- 
 ever knew him knew that there was very little in the way of anec- 
 dote to be told of him. His industry, energy, tact and extraor- 
 dinary training power carried him along successfully and impres- 
 sively through his College life — as through that which followed — 
 but during my very close intercourse with him, I cannot recall a 
 salient, extraordinary, uncommon expression. In this respect he 
 was the farthest possible remove from his father-in-law. Dr. Nott, 
 with whom he worked side by side in the College. It was always 
 very interesting to me to contrast the characters and results of 
 those men in the same position, — the brilliant, original, elegant 
 sallies of the one, and the quiet, firm, persevering and prodigiously 
 effective course of the other. The Bishop was the most efficient 
 man I ever knew. His greatness was in the possession of those 
 qualities which tell on the interests around him. And they told 
 powerfully and always beneficently. As an example of self-knowl- 
 edge and self-control, of courageous contest with difficulties, of 
 wisdom and legitimate success, I have not known his superior. 
 
 Professor Charles Davies, applied to for information, re- 
 turned the following brief but earnest tribute : 
 
 I was, it is true, well acquainted with the late Bishop Potter for 
 many years, and shared with others very largely in that high ap- 
 preciation of him to which his nobility of character so justly en- 
 titled him. We were somewhat associated in organizing the sys- 
 tems of instruction in this State, to which he gave so much time 
 
FRAGMENTS. 415 
 
 and valuable labor. But I was not much with him and about 
 him, and could not, were I to attempt a Memoir of him with my 
 present information, say much, except what is already known to 
 the public. 
 
 A mind so able and rich in all noble purposes, a life so active, 
 pure and useful, certainly deserve a place in history, and I am very 
 glad that a record is to be made of them. 
 
 THE PRESIDENCY OF A COLLEGE. 
 
 Bishop Potter gave the following hints, in 1863,10 a Clerical 
 friend called to the Presidency of a College : 
 
 The Presidency of a College is a pleasant place if a man is 
 thoroughly fitted for it by temperament and habit, and if his asso- 
 ciates in authority do not fetter and consciously or unconsciously 
 obstruct him ; otherwise it is miserable. There is so much detail 
 and such manifold littles that only stern purpose can secure a man 
 from degenerating into a mere man of business or an idler. And 
 for a Clergyman it is not friendly to spiritual culture unless he 
 adopts the highest ideal of a Christian Pastor and father to , his 
 pupils, and keeps resolutely to it 
 
 As a place where one might retire for a few years, and with 
 strong effort at study and teaching enlarge and deepen his know- 
 ledge and his views of moral science, history and English litera- 
 ture, it is very inviting. And it offers of course great opportunities 
 for serving your Master and serving his Church, your Country and 
 Race. 
 
 EDUCATION SOCIETIES, THEIR TREATMENT OF BENEFICIARIES. 
 
 In 1 864 the Bishop wrote to one of the officials of a society 
 for aiding young men in preparation for the Ministry : 
 
 I agree with you entirely on the necessity of a liberal policy with 
 respect to young men who are very poor and very meritorious, and 
 
41 6 APPENDIX. 
 
 I think that a generous confidence and affectionate sympathy should 
 always mark the outset of all relations toward any who come before 
 us as- applicants for pecuniary aid. Such application is in itself 
 very trying to a sensitive mind, and a soothing, friendly manner on 
 the part of those who dispense the aid not only is a comfort, but 
 excites to higher endeavor. 
 
 I know there aire young men without this delicacy, and some who 
 want but 'little encouragement. When such are discovered, let 
 them be dealt with kindly, but firmly, as duty demands. But I 
 deprecate greatly anything in the manner which seems to assume 
 that such young men are not to be trusted, and that a rigid espionage 
 must be applied to their past and to their circumstances, pecuniary 
 or otherwise. It is not only humiliating and souring, it is to many 
 
 a great discouragement and hindrance. I believe D was quite 
 
 right in his statement, though of course care must be taken that the 
 recipients of aid practice rigid economy, and that they are not 
 treated as if it was their right to have generous assistance without 
 any obligation to remember, or if easy, to repay it. 
 
 BISHOP POTTER DEPRECATES PROFUSE PRAISE. 
 
 The following characteristic letter to a Presbyter engaged 
 in the conduct of a paper was overlooked in making up the 
 text of this volume : 
 
 As your voice in the management of an important press is to be 
 potential hereafter, you will excuse me for reminding you that I 
 court the shade, and that you will oblige me by being as chary of 
 commendations as may be. I say "as maybe," fori know that 
 you must take some notice of passing events, but where I am con- 
 cerned I hope it will be brief and as general as possible I 
 
 am sincere in the belief that the efficiency of my labors as well as 
 the simplicity of my own character will be in proportion to the 
 quietness with which I can work. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ! 
 
 Academy, Episcopal, revival of, 167. 
 
 Address of Alonzo Potter before Penn- 
 sylvania Convention of 1847, IS9- 
 
 Administration, wise principles of 
 Alonzo Potter's, 187. 
 
 Affecting marriage ceremony, 341. 
 
 African Dioceses, 275. 
 
 African race, early interest in, 21 ; gath- 
 ers congregation of, 21 ; position in 
 the Church, 231. 
 
 Agassiz, Professor L., 356; his daily 
 lecture, 357. 
 
 Alexandria Theological Seminary, Vir- 
 ginia, 227. 
 
 American citizen, Alonzo Potter as an, 
 
 235- 
 American Episcopacy, 276. 
 American Sunday-School Union, Alonzo 
 
 Potter's views of, 201. 
 American Tract Society, Alonzo Potter's 
 
 views of, 201. 
 Analysis of Alonzo Potter's character, 
 
 391-401. 
 Analysis, Alonzo Potter's power of, 55. 
 Ancestry of Alonzo Potter, 14. 
 Appendix to Memoirs, 409-416. 
 Appleton, William, correspondence with, 
 
 91 ; letter from, 82 ; letters to, 44, 47, 
 
 4$, S3, 82, 84, 91, III, 126, 135, 312, 
 
 325 ; after election to Congress, 327. 
 Application of science to the useful arts, 
 
 work on, 64. 
 
 2 
 
 Aspinwall, consecration of the church 
 
 at, 365 ; contracting fatal illness, 365. 
 Associations of Clergy in Connecticut, 
 
 146 ; in Maryland, 146. 
 "Associations" of Maryland, 149, 154; 
 
 advantages and disadvantages of, 150, 
 
 151. 
 Assistant Bishops, 303 ; asks for election 
 
 of one, 314, 321 ; in Eastern Diocese, 
 
 81, 82. 
 Atlee, Dr. John L., iii. 
 Aurora Australis, 357. 
 
 "Banner of the Cross," 133, 263. 
 
 Baptism, effects of, 270, 271. 
 
 Barnes, Master, Alonzo Potter in acad- 
 emy of, 17. 
 
 Bedell, Rev. Dr., 133. 
 
 Beecher, Rev. Dr., 24. 
 
 Beekman, now La Grange, birth-place 
 of Alonzo Potter, 15. 
 
 Benedict, Dr., 304 ; Miss Sarah, in 
 charge of motherless children, 98; 
 married to Alonzo Potter, 98. 
 
 Beneficiaries of education societies, 415. 
 
 Bible Society, Alonzo Potter's approval 
 of, 200. 
 
 Binney, Hon. Horace, 126. 
 
 Bishop, Alonzo Potter as a, 406. 
 
 Bishops as Parish Rectors, 277. 
 
 Board of Missions, organization of the, 
 
 31. 35- 
 B ilT 
 
4i8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Books for the people, 67. 
 
 Boston, Episcopal Church after Revo- 
 lutionary War in, 411; schemes to 
 win Alonzo Potter back to, 97. 
 
 Boston Common, 25. 
 
 Bowman, Bishop Samuel, 104, 105 ; 
 election as Assistant Bishop of Penn- 
 sylvania, 320 ; fraternal relations with 
 Alonzo Potter, 322 ; sudden death of, 
 322 ; tribute to, 323 ; loyalty of, 332 ; 
 his tribute to memory of Bishop On- 
 derdonk, 310. 
 
 Brazil, arrival at, 356. 
 
 Broad Churchmanship, 403. 
 
 Brougham, Lord Henry, industry of, 65. 
 
 Brpwnell, Bishop T. C, 18, 146, 346; 
 ordains Alonzo Potter to Priesthood, 
 19; sketch of, 347-349; his "Com- 
 mentary on the Prayer-Book," 350. 
 
 Bull, Rev. Dr. Levi, correspondence 
 with, 106, 138, 139, 190 ; Alonzo Pot- 
 ter's reply to admonitory hints from, 
 
 139- 
 
 Burd Orphan Asylum, 325. 
 
 Burgess, Bishop George, letter from, 
 146-149 ; his "Notes of Alonzo Pot- 
 ter's Life,'" 408-412. 
 
 Bust of Alonzo Potter taken after death. 
 373- 
 
 'California, voyage to, 352 ; eulogy by 
 Churchmen of, 371 ; deputation to 
 funeral, 373. 
 
 •Calendar of Lessons, Alonzo Potter on 
 revision of, 256. 
 
 Callao, Peru, momentous news of end 
 of civil war, 360. 
 
 Calvary (Monumental) Church, Phila- 
 delphia, corner-stone laying, 283. 
 
 Campan, anecdote of Madam, 65. 
 
 Candidates for Orders taught in Epis- 
 copal Academy, 1 72 ; lectures to, by 
 Alonzo Potter, 172 ; training for, 175 ; 
 lay work of, 177 ; lectures to, 178. 
 
 " Case of the Episcopal Churches con- 
 sidered," by Bishop White, 287. 
 
 Catechists, instruction to Candidates, 
 employed as, 174, 175. 
 
 Chambers, Judge, 102. 
 
 Chancel, proper arrangement of, 251. 
 
 Channing, Rev. Dr., 24. 
 
 Chaplain of Episcopal Hospital, letter 
 to, 344. 
 
 Chaplain in Army, letter to, 335. 
 
 Character of Alonzo Potter, 56 ; by co- 
 Professors, 414. 
 
 Chase, Presiding Bishop Philander, con- 
 secrator of Alonzo Potter, 126. 
 
 Childhood of Alonzo Potter, 16. 
 
 Children of Alonzo Potter, 389. 
 
 Christ Church, Aspinwall, consecration 
 of, 365. 
 
 Christ Church, Boston, 4JI. 
 
 Christ Church, Philadelphia, confirmed 
 in, 18; consecrated in, 123, 320; 
 funeral ceremonies in, 374; Ladies' 
 Association of, 283.' 
 
 Christ Church Hospital, 325. 
 
 Christian Activity, call to, 295. 
 
 Christian Unity, 246. 
 
 Christian Women, organized services 
 of, 215, 259, 334. 
 
 Church of the Crucifixion, Philadelphia, 
 231-234. 
 
 Church of the Nativity, Philadelphia, 
 Alonzo Potter's first Episcopal act,i32. 
 
 Church Comprehension and Church 
 Unity, essay on, 244. 
 
 Church Pklifices, structure and arrange- 
 ment, 251. 
 
 Church Extension, plans for, 137. 
 
 Church, remarks on the, 245. 
 
 Church Themes vs. Church Practice, 
 
 245- 
 Church Unity, Commission on, 244. 
 Churchmanship of Alonzo Potter, 33 ; 
 
 practical, not theoretical, 400, 404. 
 Churchmanship desired by the Laity, 
 
 300. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 419 
 
 Church Newspapers, efforts to mollify 
 rival, 133, 134, 263, 416. 
 
 Church Schools, importance of, 169, 170. 
 
 Cities, Church work in, 294. 
 
 City Rector, hints to a, 280. 
 
 Civil War, increased cost of livmg, 337. 
 
 Clark, Bishop T. M., 62, in. 
 
 Clergy, discontented, 196 ; ex-Rector, 
 195 ; incompetent, 194 ; poorly bene- 
 ficed, 296, 337 ; popular, 280 ; slothful, 
 300 ; sympathy with, 188, 190, 197, 
 199; uneducated, 186. 
 
 Clergymen's Children, provision for 
 education of, 198. 
 
 Clergy Daughters' Fund, 170; income 
 of, 171. 
 
 Clergymen's Wives, 230; circumspec- 
 tion needful, 230. 
 
 " Clerical Associations " of Connecticut, 
 147. 
 
 Close of Alonzo Potter's Career, 352. 
 
 College Discipline, Alonzo Potter's ad- 
 ministration 'of, 59. 
 
 College Life of Alonzo Potter, effects of, 
 412. 
 
 Colorado, voyage in steamship, 352; 
 dies on board of, 370. 
 
 Colored Church, its representation in 
 Pennsylvania Convention, 233. 
 
 Colporteurs, Candidates employed as, 
 
 174, 175- 
 Comfort of the Clergy, suggestions for 
 
 the, 197. 
 I "Commentary on the Prayer-Book," 
 Bishop Brownell's, 350. 
 
 Common Schools, Alonzo Potter's in- 
 terest in, 69, 71, 72 ; Diocesan address 
 on, 72 ; interest in the New York 
 system of, 168. 
 
 Confirmation, not rightly administered 
 in Church of Rome, 319, note. 
 
 Consecration of Alonzo Potter, 123. 
 
 Congress, letter to a friend elected to, 327. 
 
 Consecration of churches refused until 
 free of debt, 292. 
 
 Consociations, 154. 
 
 Convocations, 145, 149, 154, 157-162 ; 
 first organized in Pennsylvania, 289, 
 290; Alonzo Potter's views of, 158- 
 162 ; in Rhode Island, 155 ; Canon of 
 Rhode Island, 155 ; missionary, 156. 
 
 Cobbs, Bishop N. H., 305. 
 
 Cope, Messrs., 314; Mr. Alfred, 316. 
 
 Corcovado, Ascent of the, 358. 
 
 Corwin, Mr. D. M., 365. 
 
 Cottage Meetings, 247. 
 
 Cotton, labor in the South, 305. 
 
 Cowell, Rev. Mr., 157. 
 
 Cox, Dr., 87. 
 
 Criticism, Alonzo Potter submits to, and 
 criticises, 143. 
 
 Crozier, John P., 201. 
 
 Cuba, voyage to island of, 304. 
 
 D. 
 
 Davies, Professor Charles, reminis- 
 cences of Alonzo Potter, 414. 
 
 Deacons, training for, 172, 180-187. 
 
 Deaconesses, 214, 258. 
 
 Death of Alonzo Potter, 369. 
 
 De Lancey, Bishop W. H;, 86, 278. 
 
 Delavan, Edward C, active in temper- 
 ance reform, 74 ; letter concerning 
 Alonzo Potter, 74. 
 
 Deprecation of profuse praise, 416. 
 
 Diary of Alonzo Potter, 356. 
 
 Dioceses, subdivision of large, 273, 279. 
 
 Discontented Clergyman, letter to a, 196. 
 
 Divinity Students, counsels to, 221 ; 
 oversight of, 221 ; treatment of in- 
 tractable, 221, 222. 
 
 Division of Dioceses, 85, 273, 279 ; 
 Bishop Whittingham on, 154; divi- 
 sion of Diocese of Pennsylvania, 290 ; 
 first allusion to, 301, 337. 
 
 Doane, Bishop George W., 18, 45, 100, 
 127. 
 
 Drinking Usages of Society, Alonzo 
 Potter dissents from, 75 ; Lecture on 
 the, 76. 
 
420 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ducachet, Rev. Dr. H. W., letter from, 
 
 1 08. 
 Dunn, James C, letter to, 50. 
 
 Early Education of Alonzo Potter, 16- 
 18. 
 
 Eastburn, Bishop Manton, election of, 99. 
 
 Eastern Diocese, Alonzo Potter elected 
 bishop of the, 79 ; election approved 
 by General Convention, 84. 
 
 Ecclesiastical position of Alonzo Pot- 
 ter, 1 1 J, 
 
 Ecclesiastical Difficulties, Dr. Nott's 
 advice as to settlement of, 127-131. 
 
 Education Societies, their treatment of 
 beneficiaries, 415. 
 
 Educationist, Alonzo Potter as an, 401. 
 
 Elliott, Bishop Stephen, 305. 
 
 Emerson, George B., associated with 
 Alonzo Potter in preparation of the 
 " School and the Schoolmaster," 70. 
 
 Emperor of Brazil, interviews with the, 
 
 358. 
 
 Endowment of new Episcopate of Pitts- 
 burg exacted, 339. 
 
 Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia, re- 
 vival of, 137, 172, 396. 
 
 Episcopal Aid Society of Philadelphia, 
 312. 
 
 Episcopal Fund of Pennsylvania, 126 ; 
 Bishop's stipend, 126. 
 
 Episcopal Hospital, 206-217, 324, 325, 
 332, 343. 394. 397 ; inception of, 207 ; 
 sick and wounded soldiers in, 217, 
 337; consecration of chapel, 334; let- 
 ter to chaplain, 344. 
 
 "Episcopal Recorder," 116,133,201,263. 
 
 Episcopal Residence, Alonzo Potter de- 
 clines any, 297. 
 
 Episcopate, functions of, 276 ; support 
 of, 277. 
 
 Erben, Rev. Washington E., letter to, 
 
 335- 
 Europe, voyage to, 314 ; travels in, 319. 
 
 Evening Prayer, 60. 
 
 Evidences of Christianity, Sunday even- 
 ing lectures on, 60. 
 
 Evidences of Religion, sermons on, 298. 
 
 Ex- Rector, letter of advice to an, 195. 
 
 Extemporizing Abilities of Alonzo Pot- 
 ter, 122. 
 
 Extempore Prayer, 158. 
 
 Extra-Episcopal labors of Alonzo Pot- 
 ter, 398. 
 
 Extra-parochial contributions, 293. 
 
 Extreme Ecclesiasticism, Tendencies 
 of, 249. 
 
 Family, Alonzo Potter in his own, 385- 
 
 389. 
 
 Family prayer on shipboard, 357. 
 
 Famine in Ireland and Scotland, relief 
 of sufferers, 291. 
 
 Federal Street Theatre, Boston, 122. 
 
 Feeble-minded and Idiotic Children, 
 Alonzo Potter's interest in Institution 
 for, 202. 
 
 Fellowship in Universities, advantage 
 of, 204. 
 
 Female Episcopal Institute in Phila- 
 delphia, origin, progress and end of, 
 168. 
 
 Financial Crises, Alonzo Potter's un- 
 selfishness during, 298. . 
 
 Fireside character of Alonzo Potter, by 
 his son, 385-389. 
 
 First Impressions of Diocese of Penn- 
 sylvania, 135. 
 
 Fletcher, Rev. Mr., 358. 
 
 Florida, letter from, 305 ; remarks on 
 East Florida, 305 ; climate for con- 
 sumptives, 317. 
 
 Fonts, position of, 251. 
 
 Foreign Missions, Alonzo Potter's in- 
 terest in, 34 ; favors voluntary or- 
 ganizations, 36, 37; sermon, "Pot- 
 ter's Plea for Foreign Missions," 37- 
 44 ; letter, 45. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 421 
 
 Foster, John, 87. 
 
 Fragments, 416. 
 
 Free Schools, the Bible in, 68, 69. 
 
 FUneral of Alonzo Potter, 375. 
 
 Gardiner, Rev. Dr., 25. 
 
 General Conventions of 1844, loi ; 
 1856,308-311; 1865,381. 
 
 General Theological Seminary, Alonzo 
 Potter offered professorship in, 61 ; 
 letter of declination, 61, 347. 
 
 Geneva, n<rw Hobart, College, elected 
 president of, 23. 
 
 Good Works, Alonzo Potter a recog- 
 nized leader in public, 205. 
 
 Grace Church, Boston, Alonzo Potter 
 called to, 62 ; end of, 62. 
 
 Grace Church Cathedral, San Fran- 
 cisco, Alonzo Potter's body laid in 
 state in, 370. 
 
 Green, Bishop W. M., 305. 
 
 Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Alonzo Pot- 
 ter's first alarming illness at, 313. 
 
 Griswold, Bishop A. V., letter by, 52, 
 
 79. 99- 
 
 Gulf Stream, observations in, 357. 
 
 H. 
 
 " Hand- Book for Readers and Stu- 
 dents," by Alonzo Potter, 67. 
 
 Hare, Rev. Dr. George Emlen, 137 ; 
 training Candidates, 172, 324, 332. 
 
 Harvard University, confers degree of 
 LL.D. on Alonzo Potter, 98. 
 
 Health of Alonzo Potter, 84, 88; first 
 allusion to impaired, 301 ; decline of, 
 
 311.313- 
 Henry, Professor, 69. 
 Henshaw, Bishop J. P. K., 102, 146 ; 
 
 letter from, 155. 
 Hobart, Bishop John Henry, ordains 
 
 Alonzo Potter to Diaconate, 19. 
 Home Element in education of the 
 
 young, 260. 
 36 
 
 Hopkins, Bishop John Henry, preaches 
 sermon at Alonzo Potter's consecra- 
 tion, 127 ; remarks before Pennsyl- 
 vania Convention, 320. 
 
 House of Bishops, Alonzo Potter's 
 measures in, 307. 
 
 Hovve, Rev. Dr. M. A. De Wolfe, 81 ; 
 at funeral of Alonzo Potter, 375 ; re- 
 sume of Alonzo Potter's character by, 
 391-401. 
 
 I. 
 
 Incompetent Clergyman, letter to an, 
 194. 
 
 Indolent Clergyman, Alonzo Potter's 
 opinion of an, 300. 
 
 Industry of Alonzo Potter, 65. 
 
 Informal visits to Parishes and Sunday- 
 schools by Alonzo Potter, 289. 
 
 Ingersoll, Hon. Joseph R., 126; letter 
 to, 202, 209. 
 
 Inner Life of Alonzo Potter, 407. 
 
 Instruction, effective methods of, 57. 
 
 "Intermissions" in Maryland, 152. 
 
 "Irrepressible Conflict," the, 234. 
 
 J- 
 
 Jarvis, Rev. Dr. Samuel Farmar, 24. 
 Johns, Bishop John, 303. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kansas, political troubles in, 312, 327. 
 Kenyon College, confers degree of D.D. 
 
 on Alonzo Potter, 98. 
 King's Chapel, Boston, 91. 
 
 L. 
 
 Laiiies' Association of Christ Church, 
 Philadelphia, 283. 
 
 Landscape Scenery of England, 316. 
 
 Last Message of Alonzo Potter to Penn- 
 sylvania Convention, 353. 
 
 Last Sermon of Alonzo Potter, 365 ; 
 close of, 367. 
 
 Laurel Hill Cemetery, interment in, 377. 
 
 Lawrence, A. A., generous endowment 
 to church education, 327. 
 
422 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Lawrence University, Kansas, 327. 
 Lay Co-operation, 217-220; measures 
 of Alonzo Potter in House of Bishops, 
 
 3°6. 307- 
 Layman, letters to a, 191, 192. 
 Lay Reader, Alonzo Potter acts as a, 
 
 23. 
 Leamy Mansion, 213. 
 Lectures on Evidences of Christianity, 
 
 60. 
 Lee, Bishop Alfred, 127, 303 ; eulogy 
 
 of Alonzo Potter at funeral, 374, 376. 
 Lee, Rev. Richard Henry, 313. 
 Legislator in the Church, Alonzo Potter 
 
 as a, 402. 
 Letters, general character of Alonzo 
 
 Potter's, 91 ; accepting Episcopate, 
 
 113. "7- 
 
 Liberality, stimulants to, 293. 
 
 Libraries for Parish Rectors, 198. 
 
 Life Insurance of Rector by Parish, 
 198. 
 
 Lincoln, President Abraham, style of 
 messages, 270 ; assassination of, 360 ; 
 Alonzo Potter's eulogy of, 361-363. 
 
 Liturgical Revision, view of, 307. 
 
 Logarithms, Alonzo Potter writes trac- 
 tate on, 18. 
 
 Lowell, Mr. John, I2i ; John A., 326. 
 
 Lowell Institute, Boston, 120. 
 
 "Lowell Lectures," Alonzo Potter en- 
 gaged for, 121 ; delivered after conse- 
 cration, 123 ; printing of, 326. 
 
 Loyalty of Alonzo Potter, 331. 
 
 M. 
 
 Magellan, Straits of, 352, 356, 360. 
 Magnolia, Florida, 304. 
 Malvern, England, letter from, 315. 
 Manual of Practice for Bishops, 336. 
 Marriage of Alonzo Potter, first, 20 ; 
 
 second, 98 ; third, 351. 
 Massachusetts, Diocesan agitation in, 
 
 52, 53 ; Alonzo Potter spoken of for 
 
 Assistant Bishop of, 412. 
 
 "Maury's Principles of Eloquence," 
 edited by Alonzo Potter, 67. 
 
 May, Rev. Dr. James, 299, 300, 306. 
 
 McAllister, Rev. F. M., accompanies ■ 
 remains of Alonzo Potter to Philadel- 
 phia, 373. 
 
 Meade, Bishop William, 104. 
 
 Mechanics, how they may gain culture, 
 65. 
 
 Mechanics and Apprentices, Alonzo 
 Potter's interest in, 63 ; addresses to, 
 
 63- 
 Medical Students, sermons to, 299. 
 Memorial Discourse on Alonzo Potter 
 
 by Bishop Stevens, 313, 333. 401-408. 
 Memorial House, some account of, 215. 
 "Memorial" Movement, 241, 307, 30S; 
 
 importance of, 243 ; fruits of, 244, 
 
 247 ; Bishop Stevens' remarks on, 
 
 403- 
 
 " Memorial Papers," edited by Alonzo 
 Potter, 245. 
 
 Memorial Sketch of Alonzo Potter's 
 character by Rev. Dr. Howe, 391- 
 ,401. 
 
 Mental Culture may be gained by me- 
 chanics, 66. 
 
 Ministerial Support, 197-199. 
 
 Ministry, Studies of the, 281. 
 
 Missionary Association, each Parish a, 
 295. 
 
 " Missionary Association for the West," 
 
 31- 
 
 Mixed Societies, Alonzo Potter opposed 
 to, 201. 
 
 Moral Reforms, Alonzo Potter's interest 
 in, 73. 
 
 Morris, Dr. Caspar, interest in Episco- 
 pal Hospital, 206, 207. 
 
 Morton, Rev. Dr. H. J., 1 1 1 ; letter 
 from, 116. 
 
 Muhlenberg, Rev. Dr. Wm. A., 259. 
 
 Muhlenberg Memorial, 241, 244, •507, 
 308. 
 
 Music of the Church, 262. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 423 
 
 N. 
 
 Naturalists, Alonzo Potter and the, 
 
 359- 
 Negro Race, position in the Church, 
 
 231. 
 New Diocese, pre-endowment exacted, 
 
 338. 
 
 Newman, Rev. J. H., 248. 
 
 New Orleans, 305. 
 
 " New York Tribune," 230. 
 
 Notman, John, architect of Episcopal 
 Academy, 137. 
 
 Nott, Miss Sarah Maria, married to 
 Alonzo Potter, 20 ; death of, 89 ; cha- 
 racl'er, 89, 93-96. 
 
 Nott, Rev. Dr. Eliphalet, 17; Alonzo Pot- 
 ter's intimate relations with, 58 ; let- 
 ters, III, 236, 317, 410; advice on 
 settlement of Ecclesiastical difficul- 
 ties, 127-131. 
 
 O. 
 
 Obituaries, "New York Independent," 
 378 ; " Church Journal," 380. 
 
 Obsequies, 375. 
 
 " Odeon," Boston, 122. 
 
 Onderdonk, Bishop H. U., 104 ; election 
 of, 106; Alonzo Potter seeks the ad- 
 vice of, 132 ; daughter confirmed by 
 Alonzo Potter, 133, 308 ; friendly re- 
 lations with Alonzo Potter, 309 ; trib- 
 ute to memory of by Bishop Bow- 
 man, 310. 
 
 Open Universities, 203. 
 
 Ordination of Alonzo Potter as Deacon, 
 19; as Priest, 19. 
 
 Otey, Bishop J. H., 305. 
 
 Oxford, Alonzo Potter visits, 317. 
 
 Oxford, Bishop of, ungracious criticism 
 on Bishop White, 286. 
 
 "Oxford Tracts," 118, 248, 252. 
 
 Pacific Steamship Company, Alonzo 
 Potter guest of, 352. 
 
 Pacification, Alonzo Potter's efforts for 
 during rebellion, 241. 
 
 Panama, Bay of, 361. 
 
 Paris, living in, 317. 
 
 Panic of 1857, 311. 
 
 Paralysis, premonition of, 311. 
 
 Parish Minister, Alonzo Potter as a, 
 402 ; parochial labors of Alonzo Pot- 
 ter, 124. 
 
 Parish Schools, 71, 72. 
 
 Parsonages, erection of, 197. 
 
 Parting with Clergy on shipboard, 314. 
 
 Pastoral troubles, Alonzo Potter's me- 
 diation in, 191. 
 
 Pastoral visits of Alonzo Potter, 30. 
 
 Patience of Alonzo Potter, 393. 
 
 Patriotism of Alonzo Potter, 236, 238, 
 241, 406. 
 
 Pau, France, letters written at, 317, 319. 
 
 Pennsylvania, Diocese of, 103 ; equal 
 strength of church parties, 104 ; 
 party feeling in, 127; election of 
 Alonzo Potter, 104 ; antecedents to 
 election, 105 ; letters, 107 ; obstacles 
 to Alonzo Potter's acceptance of Epis- 
 copate, 109; acceptance, 113; first 
 visit to Convention of, 141 ; Division 
 
 , of, 290, 301, 337 ; resolution after 
 Alonzo Potter's death, 382-384. 
 
 Pensive Thoughts on a closing life, 329. 
 
 Personal Reminiscences of Alonzo Pot- 
 ter, 413. 
 
 Perversions to Rome, remarks on dis- 
 placement of a pervert, 249, 253-257- 
 
 Philadelphia before consolidation, row- 
 dyism in, 163. 
 
 Philadelphia Divinity School, 179; in- 
 ception of, 332; course of studies, 
 
 333. 337. 343. 397- 
 " Philadelphia Lectures," 299. 
 Philadelphia Training-School, 324. 
 Philanthropist, Alonzo Potter as a, 405. 
 Philosopher, Alonzo Potter as a, 404. 
 Pittsburg, Diocese of, 338* 
 Poem read to Alonzo Potter, 329. 
 
424 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Policy of Alonzo Potter as Bishop, 145. 
 
 Politics, caution to clergy on civil, 239. 
 
 Political Economy, Alonzo Potter's 
 work on, 64. 
 
 Polk, Bishop Leonidas, 305. 
 
 Poorly Beneficed Clergy, Alonzo Pot- 
 ter's plea in behalf of, 296, 337. 
 
 Popular City Rector, hints to a, 280. 
 
 Popular Education, Alonzo Potter's in- 
 terest in, 125. 
 
 Positive Teaching of -the Church, 256. 
 
 PoTiER, Alonzo. 
 1800.— Birth, 15. 
 1800-1814. — Early life and education, 
 
 13-17- 
 
 1815. — Enters Union College, 17. 
 
 1819. — In Philadelphia, 18 ; baptized, 
 18; confirmed, 18; devotes him- 
 self to the Ministry, 18. 
 
 1820.— Tutor in Union College, 18; 
 lay-reader in St. George's Church, 
 Schenectady, 23. 
 
 1821. — Professor of Mathematics and 
 Natural Philosophy in Union Col- 
 lege, 18. 
 
 1823. — Writes tractate on I-oga- 
 rithms, 18. 
 
 1824. — Ordained Deacon, 19 ; or- 
 dained Priest, 19 ; first marriage, 20. 
 
 1825. — Publishes "Descriptive Geom- 
 etry," 24. 
 
 1826.— Rector of St. Paul's Church, 
 Boston, 24. 
 
 1831. — Resigns Rectorship, 33. 
 
 1832. — Professor in Union College 
 again, 46. 
 
 1838. — Elected Vice-President of 
 Union College, 59, 62. 
 
 1841. — Second marriage, 98. 
 
 1842. — Publishes "Hand-Book for 
 Readers and Students," and " Prin- 
 ciples of Science Applied," 67 ; 
 edits " Maury's Principles of Elo- 
 quence," and " Michelet's Modern 
 History," 67. 
 
 1843. — Publishes " School and the 
 Schoolmaster," 70; Member of 
 Executive Committee of New York 
 State Schools, 70. 
 1845. — Elected Bishop of Pennsyl- 
 vania, 106 ; consecration in Phila- 
 delphia, 123. 
 1865. — Third marriage, 351 ; voyage 
 to California, 352 ; death at San 
 Francisco harbor, ' 370 ; Funeral 
 ceremonies in Philadelphia, 374. 
 Potter Family, the, 15. 
 Potter, Joseph, father of Alonzo Pot- 
 ter, 15 ; in New York Legislature, 17. 
 Potter, Anna, mother of Alonzo Potter, 
 
 15- 
 
 Potter, Bishop Horatio, business life of, 
 19. 
 
 Potter, Sheldon, 18. 
 
 Potter, Rev. Dr. Henry C, letters to, 
 226, 229, 305 ; sketch of Alonzo Pot- 
 ter by, 385-389. 
 
 Potter, Mrs. (Sarah Maria), 20; death 
 of, 89 ; tribute to, 93 ; memorials, 95 ; 
 (Sarah), 98, 304, 314, 317 ; character, 
 340; death, 341; (Frances), 351. 
 
 Prayer Book, free use of the, 247. 
 
 Preaching Abilities of Alonzo Potter, 
 
 399- 
 
 Presbyters, originally assistants to Bish- 
 ops, 275 ; American, 276. 
 
 Presidency of a College, hints by Alonzo 
 Potter concerning, 415. 
 
 Presiding Officer, Alonzo Potter as a, 
 
 393- 
 
 Primary Address to Peimsylvania Con- 
 vention, 140. 
 
 Primitive Deacons, 180-187. 
 
 Primitive Dioceses, 275. 
 
 Professor, Alonzo Potter's ability as a, 
 56. 
 
 Protest against defence of American 
 Slavery, 240. 
 
 Protestant Sisterhoods, 214,' 258, 259. 
 
 Pulpit, use of a, 251. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 425 
 
 Quakers, their respect for Alonzo Pot- 
 ter, 206. 
 Quakerism, benevolent influence of, 20. 
 
 Reading Desk, use of a, 251. 
 Rebellion, Alonzo Potter's views of the, 
 
 236, 239 ; collapse of the, 360. 
 Reed, Dr. Thos. C, reminiscences of 
 
 Alonzo Potter, 414. 
 " Religion of the Heart and Life," by 
 
 Bishop Brownell, 350. 
 Reluctance of Alonzo Potter to change 
 
 pursuits, 123. 
 Renewed Labors, 343. 
 Republican Principles of Alonzo Potter, 
 
 67. 
 Review of Alonzo Potter's character and 
 
 work, 393-399. 
 Revolutionary War, effects on Episcopal 
 
 Church in Boston, 24 ; in United 
 
 States, 287, 411. 
 Richmond, Va., General Convention at, 
 
 323- 
 
 Rio de Janeiro, arrival at, 357. 
 
 Ritual of the Church, 262. 
 
 Robins, Thomas, III. 
 
 "Robinson Crusoe," Alonzo Potter 
 reads, 16. 
 
 Rome, Alonzo Potter visits, 319 ; ad- 
 ministers confirmation in, 319. 
 
 Romanism, remarks concerning, 173, 
 267 ; perversions to, 249, 255-257. 
 
 Rule of Faith, 265-269. 
 
 Rural Deaneries and Chapters, 153. 
 
 Rural Districts, church-work in, 294. 
 
 Sailors, Alonzo Potter's interest in, 
 
 367,368. 
 San Francisco, arrival at, 369; memo- 
 rial record of Clergy and Churchmen 
 
 of, 370-373- 
 Saragossa Sea, 357. 
 
 Saul, Rev. Mr., 365. 
 
 Scientific Acquirements of Alonzo Pot- 
 ter, 32. 
 
 Scott, Bishop T. F., commemoration 
 services in San Francisco by, 370. 
 
 Sea, letters written at, 315. 
 
 Seaton, Miss Frances, married to Alonzo 
 Potter, 351. 
 
 Semi -Popery leads to perversions, 253. 
 
 Senior, Nassau W., 87. 
 
 Sermons, 28 ; writing, 30 ; first pub- 
 lished, 34 ; criticism on a student's, 
 223-225 ; maxims for writing, 229 ; on 
 Evidences of Religion, 298 ; to medi- 
 cal students, 299 ; written out after 
 delivery, 356. 
 
 Services on shipboard, 356. 
 
 Seward, Hon. Wm. H., 18. 
 
 Sharp, Dr., 397. 
 
 Sitgreaves, Mr., fellow-pupil of Alonzo 
 Potter, 114. 
 
 Small Dioceses, policy of, 273. 
 
 Smith, Miss Rebecca, 207 ; Miss W., 
 207. 
 
 Social Habits of Alonzo Potter, 136. 
 
 Soldiers, sick and wounded, in Episco- 
 pal Hospital, 217, 337. 
 
 Son, Alonzo Potter's letter to a, 227. 
 
 Southern States, journey through the, 
 
 304. 
 
 Sparrow, Rev. Dr., 306. 
 
 Spear, Rev. Dr. W. W., fi5. 
 
 Special Prayers during the Rebellion, 
 23S. 
 
 Sponsors, opinion concerning unbap- 
 tized, 272. 
 
 Stevens, Bishop Wm. Bacon, 213 ; elec- 
 tion as Assistant Bishop of Pennsyl- 
 vania, 335 ; address' to Convention of 
 1865, 355; at funeral of Alonzo Pot- 
 ter, 374 ; Memorial Discourse before 
 General Conv6ntion,333, 381, 401-408. 
 
 Stone, Rev. Dr. John S., 18 ; succeeds 
 Alonzo Potter in St. Paul's Church, 
 52; letters, 53, 80, 81, 108, 109. 
 
426 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 St. Andrew's Church, Pittsburg, 289. 
 
 St. George's Church, Schenectady.Alon- 
 zo Potter lay-reader in, 23 ; supplies 
 pulpit of, 91 ; letter to vestry, 23 ; 
 Rector's eulogium of Mrs. Potter, 94. 
 
 St. James' Church, Lancaster, 321. 
 
 St. James' Church, Philadelphia, mis- 
 sionary sermon in, 34. 
 
 St. Mark's Church, Frankford, lay-work 
 in, 218. 
 
 St. Luke's Church Hospital, New York, 
 259. 
 
 St. Paul's Church, Boston, origin of, 24 ; 
 depressed condition, 25 ; Alonzo Pot- 
 ter called to, 26; Ministry in, 27-33 5 
 resigns, 46 ; reasons for leaving, 49 ; 
 services after resignation, 50; receives 
 present from, 50, 411. 
 
 St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia, Alonzo 
 Potter baptized in, 18. 
 
 Stott, Mrs., bequest to Clergy Daugh- 
 ters' Fund, 171. 
 
 Students of Divinity, counsels to, 221. 
 
 Student-Life of Alonzo Potter, 17. 
 
 Studies of the Ministry, remarks upon 
 the, 281. 
 
 Suddards, Rev. Dr. William, nominates 
 Alonzo Potter in Pennsylvania Con- 
 vention, 106 ; letters to, 133, 143. 
 
 Sunday-Schools, Alonzo Potter's in- 
 formal visits to, 289. 
 
 Sympathy of' Alonzo Potter with his 
 Clergy practical, not sentimental, 188, 
 190, 197, 199 ; with the sick and sad, 
 
 325- 
 Systematic Contributions, 293. 
 
 Table-Talk of Alonzo Potter, 387. 
 
 Temperance Reform, Alonzo Potter en- 
 gaged in the, 73 ; takes the Pledge, 75. 
 
 Ten Years in the Episcopate, Review 
 of Alonzo Potter's first, 301-303. 
 
 Thompson, Mr., Alonzo Potter's first 
 school teacher, 16. 
 
 Toboga, Island of, 365. 
 
 " Tracts for the Times," loi ; contro- 
 versy raised by, 118, 248, 252. 
 
 Tract No. 90, 248. 
 
 Tracy, Hon. Wm., reminiscences of 
 Alonzo Potter, 413. 
 
 Training for Candidates, 174-180. 
 
 Training-Schools, 171-176; in Phila- 
 delphia, 178, 397. 
 
 Tributes to memory of Alonzo Potter, 
 379-381. 
 
 Trinity Church, Boston, 25. 
 
 Turner, Rev. Dr. Samuel H., theological 
 studies under, 18, 113 ; letter to, 114. 
 
 Tyng, Rev. Dr. Stephen H., 104. 
 
 U. 
 
 Uneducated Clergy, i86. 
 
 Union College, Schenectady, Alonzo 
 Potter Freshman in, 17 ; tutor in, 18 ; 
 professor in, 18, 52 ; zeal for, 55 ; 
 Alonzo Potter, Vice-President of, 59 ; 
 plans for advantage of, 59 ; confers 
 degree of LL.D. on Alonzo Potter, 
 98 ; facts respecting, 99 ; semi-cen- 
 tenary of, 99, 100 ; address of Alonzo 
 Potter, 100, loi ; resigns professor- 
 .ship, 119; resolution of trustees, 120, 
 318, 412, 414. 
 
 Unitarian Controversy, 24. 
 
 University Education, Alonzo Potter's 
 views concerning, 202-205. 
 
 University of Pennsylvania, 201, 202. 
 
 Unselfishness of Alonzo Potter, instance 
 6f, 297. 
 
 Upfold, Bishop George, 157, 303. 
 
 V. 
 
 Value of American Union, letter of 
 Alonzo Potter, 237. 
 
 Vaughn, Rev. Dr. John A., 168. 
 
 Vestryman, letter of rebuke to a, 193. 
 
 Vinton, Rev. Dr. Alexander H., 326. 
 
 Vivacious Clergyman, letter to a, 195. 
 
 Voluntary'Principle in supporting Par- 
 ishes, 294. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 427 
 
 W. 
 
 Wadsworth, James, defrays, expense 
 of work on Common Schools, 70. 
 
 War, opening of the Civil, 331. 
 
 Warren, Dr. John C, 26. 
 
 Washington, General, character of, 143 ; 
 benevolence of, 211 ; as a Church- 
 man, 284. 
 
 Wayland, Rev. Dr. Francis, 18; Alonzo 
 Potter's intimate friendship with, 24 ; 
 influence of, 26 ; letters to, 87, 89. 
 
 Welsh, John, efficient manager of Epis- 
 copal Hospital, 208. 
 
 Welsh, William, letter from, 163, 215, 
 220. 
 
 Wesley, Rev. John, habits of, 66. 
 
 Western New York, new Diocese erect- 
 ed, 85 ; Alonzo Potter mentioned for 
 Episcopate of, 86 ; comparative church 
 growth, 278. 
 
 Wexford, Ireland, letter written at, 83. 
 
 Wharton, Hon. George M., 209. 
 
 Whately, Archbishop, Alonzo Potter's 
 intercourse with, 87, 291. 
 
 Wheeler, Rev. Charles H., 168. 
 
 White, Bishop William, baptizes and 
 confirms Alonzo Potter, 18; in Con- 
 vention of 1819, 141 ; inaugurates 
 Episcopal Academy, 136 ; a voter at 
 
 civil elections, 236; memorial church 
 to, 283 ; Alonzo Potter's address on 
 character of, 283-289 ; Bishop of 
 Oxford's criticism on, 286 ; " Case of 
 the Episcopal Churches considered," 
 287. 
 
 Whitsunday, Alonzo Potter's last recep- 
 tion of Holy Communion on, 360. 
 
 Whittingham, Bishop William R., 127 ; 
 letter from, 149 ; on division of Dio- 
 ceses, 149-154. 
 
 Wine banished from Alonzo Potter's 
 table, 75. 
 
 " Wistar Parties," account of, 139. 
 
 Wives of Clergymen, remarks concern- 
 ing, 230. 
 
 Women, organized labors of Christian, 
 
 259- 
 Wright, Governor, 120. 
 
 Young, Home Element in education of 
 the, 260; religious training of the, 
 165-170. 
 
 Young Men's Associations, Alonzo Pot- 
 ter's interest in organization of, 67. 
 
 Young Men's Institutes in Philadelphia, 
 inauguration by Alonzo Potter, 63 ; 
 erection and endowment of, 162-164. 
 
 THE END.