362 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [1/92 



system, wliich in that year was brought into being, first completely 

 moved, and yet continues so to move. In every act of one we see 

 the hands of Hamilton, Ellsworth and Gouverneur Morris; in the 

 other the hands of Seabury, White and Smith. The convention 

 of 1792 was therefore less important than the convention of 1789. 

 Nevertheless, important legislation was made at it. One of the 

 most important was an act for supporting missionaries to preach 

 the Gospel on the frontiers of the United States. This act recom- 

 mended to all the ministers of the church to preach annually a 

 sermon and to collect money, in order to carry out the charitable 

 design. Treasurers were to be established in each State, and a 

 general treasurer and secretary for all the States. The appoint- 

 ment of these last was placed with the Bishop of Pennsylvania, 

 and a standing committee to manage the charity. This committee 

 consisted of Bishop White, Dr. Smith, Dr. Magaw, Dr. Andrews, 

 Dr. Blackwell, Samuel Powell and John Wood, Esqs., and these 

 were directed to frame an address to the members of the church, 

 recommending this charitable design to their particular attention, 

 which address was directed to be read by every minister on the 

 day appointed for the collection.* Accordingly an address was 

 made by the Bishop and Standing Committee. The address was 

 sent forth in April, 1793. I am not able to affirm by what pen it 

 was prepared. I have seen it attributed to Dr. Smith, but it bears 

 no strong marks of his style, though the sentiments were un- 

 doubtedly such as might have well come from his mind. I cannot 

 affirm it to be from the pen of Bishop White. The style, like his 

 in the ma'n, strikes me as not quite like in particulars; nor is it 

 like Dr. Magaw, whose compositions were always elegant, but 

 usually somewhat artificial. It may come from the pen of Dr. 

 Blackwell or of Dr. Andrews. I give the address, from whose- 

 ever pen it came, or whether it be, as it may well be, a composi- 

 tion in which more than one pen participated: 



When the congregations of our communion, a few years ago, by a 



*I am not well informed of the subsequent history of this society. In the autumn 

 of 1816 "The Episco])aI Missionary .Society of Philadelphia" was made, Bishop 

 White being its president, and his particular friends its officers. It carried its work 

 into Ohio, Kentucky and the western region, and was the germ of " The Domestic and 

 Foreign Missionary Society" of the Church, established by the General Convention of 

 1S20; this last being succeeded, if I remember, by the Board of Missions in 1835. 



