APPENDIX. No. 1. Page 79. Communication with the Court of Denmark. Copy of a Letter from John Adams, Esq. to the President of Congress, dated the Hague, April 22, 1784. SIR, I received, some time since, a letter from an American gentleman now in London, a candidate for orders, desiring to know, if American candidates might have orders from Protestant bishops on the continent, and complaining that he had been refused by the bishop of London, unless he would take the oaths of allegiance, &c. Meeting soon afterwards the Danish minister, I had the curiosity to inquire of him, whether ordination might be had in Denmark. He answered nie, that he knew not, but would soon inform himself. I heard no more of it until today, when the secretary of his embassy, Mr. De Rosencrantz, made me a visit, and delivered me the papers, copies of which are enclosed. Thus, it seems, that what I meant as current conversation only, has been made the subject of the deliberation of the government of Denmark and their faculty of theology; which makes it necessary for me to transmit it to congress. I am happy to find the decision so liberal. I have the honour to be, &c. J. ADAMS. (Signed,) Translation of a Communication of Mr. de St. Saphorin, to Mr. John Adams, dated the Hague, April 21, 1784. Mr. de St. Saphorin has the honour to communicate to Mr. Adams the answer he has received from his excellency the Count de Rosencrone, privy counsellor and secretary of state for foreign affairs of his Danish majesty, relative to what Mr. Adams desired to know. He shall be happy if this answer should be agreeable to him, as well as to his superiors, and useful to his fellow-citizens. He has the honour to assure him of his respect. (Signed, &c.) Translation of the Copy of an Extract of a Letter from his Excellency the Count de Rosencrone, Privy Counsellor of his Majesty the King of Denmark, to Mr. de St. Saphorin, Envoy Extraordinary from his Majesty to the States General. The opinion of the theological faculty having been taken on the question made to your excellency by Mr. Adams, if the American ministers of the Church of England can be consecrated here by a bishop of the Danish Church? I am ordered by the king to authorize you to answer, that such an act can take place according to the Danish rites; but for the convenience of the Americans who are supposed not to know the Danish language, the Latin language will be made use of on the occasion; for the rest, nothing will be exacted from the candidates, but a profession conformable to the articles of the English Church, omitting the oath called test, which prevents their being ordained by the English bishops. SIR, Secretary's Office, 6th April, 1785. Copies of the enclosed letters from Mr. John Adams and Mr. de St. Saphorin, upon the subject of conferring holy orders agreeably to the principles of the Church of England, were this day received by council; who have been pleased to direct that they should be communicated to you. I must beg that they be returned to this office, as soon as you may find it convenient, and am, Sir, with the greatest respect, Your most obedient, Humble servant, (Signed,) Rev. Dr. Wm. White. J. ARMSTRONG, Jur. Answer. SIR, I request you to present to the honourable council, my grateful sentiments of their polite attention to the interests of the Episcopal Church, in your communication of this morning. Their condescension will be an apology for my troubling them with the perusal of an act of the British parliament, having the same operation with the liberal and brotherly proceeding of the Danish government and clergy. And the liberty I have taken may hereafter exempt some of my brethren from the suspicion of having entered into obligations inconsistent with their duty to their country. But, sir, it would be injustice to the Episcopal Church, were I to neglect to inform the honourable board, that I take it to be a general sentiment, not to depend on any foreign authority for the ordination of ministers, or for any other matter appertaining to religion. As the light in which we shall hereafter be viewed by our fellow-citizens must depend on an adherence to the above mentioned principle, I take the liberty to submit to the honourable council two printed accounts of proceedings held in this city and in New-York. With my most dutiful thanks to the honourable board, and with all due submission, I am, sir, Their and your very humble servant, Communication of the Clergy of Connecticut, to the Archbishop of York. MY LORD, New-York, April 21, 1783. The clergy of Connecticut, deeply impressed with anxious apprehension of what may be the fate of the Church in America, under the present changes of empire and policy, beg leave to embrace the earliest moment in their power to address your grace on that important subject. This part of America is at length dismembered from the British empire; but, notwithstanding the dissolution of our civil connexion with the parent state, we still hope to retain the religious polity; the primitive and evangelical doctrine and discipline, which, at the reformation, were restored and established in the Church of England. To render that polity complete, and to provide for its perpetuity in this country, by the establishment of an American Episcopate, has long been an object of anxious concern to us, and to many of our brethren in other parts of this continent. The attainment of this object appears to have been hitherto obstructed by considerations of a political nature, which we conceive were founded in groundless jealousies and misapprehensions that can no longer be supposed to exist: and therefore, whatever may be the effect of independency on this country, in other respects, we presume it will be allowed to open a door for renewing an application to the spiritual governors of the Church on this head; an application which we consider as not only seasonable, but more than ever necessary at this time; because, if it be now any longer neglected, there is reason to apprehend that a plan of a very extraordinary nature, lately formed and published in Philadelphia, may be carried into execution. This plan is, in brief, to constitute a nominal Episcopate by the united suffrages of presbyters and laymen. The peculiar situation of the Episcopal churches in America, and the necessity of adopting some speedy remedy for the want of a regular Episcopate, are offered, in the publication here alluded to, as reasons fully sufficient to justify the scheme. Whatever influence this project may have on the minds of the ignorant or unprincipled part of the laity, or however it may, possibly, be countenanced by some of the clergy in other parts of the country, we think it our duty to reject such a spurious substitute for Episcopacy, and, as far as may be in our power, to prevent its taking effect. To lay the foundation, therefore, for a valid and regular Episcopate in America, we earnestly entreat your grace, that, in your archiepiscopal character, you will espouse the cause of our sinking Church, and, at this important crisis, afford her that relief on which her very existence depends, by consecrating a bishop for Connecticut. The person whom we have prevailed upon to offer himself to your grace, for that purpose, is the reverend Doctor Samuel Seabury, who has been the society's worthy missionary for many years. He was born and educated in Connecticut-he is |