Such was the substance of Dr. Chandler’s temperate “Appeal,”—an appeal which embodied the general views and feelings of the clergy and members of the Church of England in America. Considerable excitement existed previous to its publication; but now the subject became one of the great controversies of the day. An American writer affirms that “it had more to do with the American Revolution than is generally supposed.”[572] The American Whig, a weekly newspaper, stoutly opposed the scheme of Dr. Chandler. So also did the Philadelphia Centinél. Their articles on the subject were reprinted in several of the colonies; and a general agitation followed. The chief opponent, however, was Dr. Chauncy, minister in Boston, who, more than twenty years before, had made a vigorous onslaught upon Whitefield and his co-revivalists. The general apprehension was, that the taxation of the colonies, and the proposal to send them bishops, were parts of the same system, the object of which was to infringe upon the political and religious privileges of the people. Chauncy and his friends were afraid, and perhaps not without reason, that the power and influence of the government were beingused to give ascendancy to the Episcopal Church. They were angry with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts for sending so many of their clergy to New England, where they were not wanted. At this time, there were at least five hundred and fifty educated ministers in the province, and not a town, unless just settled, without a pastor. Besides, the clergy thus sent were arrogant. They spoke of all the inhabitants of the town, in which they lived, as their parishioners, and as bound both by the law of God and the state to be in communion with the Church of England. Other churches were represented as mere excrescences or fungosities, and their ministers were declared to be unauthorised, and their ordinances invalid. All this naturally created opposition among the non-episcopal churches. And, further, though Dr. Chandler professed that the bishops to be sent would be no burden to the population, the people feared it would be otherwise. Already the support of the episcopal clergy had been thrown upon the community in South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland; and it was thought to be possible and probable that the bishops, if sent, would have to be sustained, at least in part, by the public taxes.
Amid this state of things, Whitefield commenced a correspondence with the Archbishop of Canterbury, respecting the conversion of his Orphanage into a College; and a remembrance of the facts just noticed will help to a better understanding of some parts of that correspondence. The letters are too long to be inserted in extenso, but their substance shall be given. They were first published in the month of May, 1768, with the title, “A Letter to his Excellency Governor Wright, giving an Account of the Steps taken relative to the converting the Georgia Orphan House into a College; together with the Literary Correspondence that passed upon that Subject between his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Reverend Mr. Whitefield. To which also is annexed the Plan and Elevation of the present and intended Buildings,[574] and Orphan House Lands adjacent,By G. Whitefield, A.M., late of Pembroke College, Oxford, and Chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon. London, 1768.” (8vo. 31 pp.)
In his letter to “Governor Wright,” Whitefield mentions the deep interest which his Excellency and the Council of Georgia had taken in the scheme to convert the Orphan House into a College. He relates that, since his return to England, in 1765, he had exerted his utmost efforts to accomplish this; but various circumstances had impeded the fulfilment of his plan. He had “delivered a memorial into the hands of the late Clerk of his Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council.” The memorial had been “transmitted to the Lord President;” and the Lord President had submitted it “to the consideration of his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury.” He (Whitefield) had had “a literary correspondence” with his Grace; but the correspondence, and the negotiations, were now ended. He, therefore, wished to lay an account of the whole transactions before his Excellency, and the Council and Assembly of Georgia, and also before “all the other American colonists, and the public in general.”
Whitefield commenced his correspondence with the Archbishop on June 17, 1767, and terminated it on February 12, 1768, within six months of his Grace’s death.
He begins by reminding the Primate that the Lord President had submitted his memorial to his Grace’s consideration, and that the Earl of Dartmouth had put into his hands a copy of the intended charter for the College. The Archbishop had made “judicious corrections,” and had suggested that the charter should provide that the president of the College should be a member or minister of the Church of England. In reply to this, Whitefield writes:—
“I cannot in honour and conscience oblige the master of the Georgia College to be a member or minister of the Church of England. Such an obligation has greatly retarded the progress of the College of New York; as, on the contrary, the letter signed by your Grace, Proprietor Penn, and the late Dr. Chandler, engaging that the College of Philadelphia shall be continued on a broad bottom, has promoted the growth of that institution.The trustees of that seminary (as your Grace is pleased to observe) have agreed ‘That their provost shall always be a minister of the Established Church.’ But they are not thereto enjoined by their charter. That is entirely silent concerning this matter. Their agreement is purely voluntary. The wardens of the College of Georgia will not be prohibited by charter from following the example of the trustees of the College of Philadelphia,” if they choose.
“The first master will assuredly be a clergyman of the Church of England. By far the majority of the intended wardens are, and always will be, members of that communion; and, consequently, the choice of a master will always run in that channel. I also desire that some worthy duly qualified minister of that Church may be always found for this office. But, as persons of all denominations have been contributors, I dare not confine or fetter the future electors. The monies for the erecting a college in New York were given by persons of all religious persuasions, in confidence that the college would be founded on an enlarged basis; and great numbers think themselves injured by its being confined within its present contracted boundary. Hence, many fine promising youths are sent from the college in their native city to that of New Jersey. I dread giving the same occasion of offence, and, therefore, am determined to avoid it in the wording of the Georgia College charter.”
The Archbishop had further suggested that the charter should provide for the daily use of the liturgy of the Church of England in the College, and that the doctrines to be taught in it should be specified. Whitefield objected to these suggestions, and wrote:—
“For the same reasons, I dare not enjoin the daily use of our Church liturgy. I myself love to use it. I have fallen a martyr, in respect to bodily health, to the frequent reading it in Tottenham Court chapel. It has, also, been constantly read twice every Sunday in the Orphan House, from its first institution to this very day. The wardens, likewise, when the power is devolved upon them, may determine this point as they please. But I cannot enjoin it by charter; and have, therefore, in the accompanying draught, not only omitted the paragraph concerning public prayer, but also that concerning doctrinal articles.
“Your Grace further wisely observes, ‘His Majesty should be well advised, whom he names for the first master.’ I trust he will be so. I believe the Earl of Dartmouth will be so good as to present the first master to your Grace’s approbation; but, in the meanwhile, you may be assured the lot will not fall upon me. My shoulders are too weak for such an academical burden. My capacity is by no means extensive enough for such a scholastic trust. To be a Presbyter at large is the station which Divine Providence has called me to for near thirty years past. During that space, I trust my eye has been single, and my views disinterested; and my highest, my only ambition is that the last glimmerings of anexpiring taper may be blessed to guide some wandering sinners to the practical knowledge of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls.