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Description
Chase is disappointed in Bishop McIlvaine's "erroneous" address to the convention at Newark which gave Chase too much blame, he believes, for Kenyon's debts.
Date
2-1843
Keywords
Kenyon College, Charles McIlvaine, Philander Chase, Episcopal Recorder, finances, debts, Diocese of Ohio, Special Convention, Newark
Recommended Citation
Chase, Philander, "Reply of Bp. Chase concerning sale of "South Section" by Kenyon" (1843). Philander Chase Letters. 1176.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/chase_letters/1176
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Transcript
In reply to the question propounded by the Chronicle and other Periodicals of the Church concerning the Right of the present Trustees to sell the South Section (4000 acres) of land purchased as endowment to Kenyon College and on the perpetual tenure of which the Donations were made; Bishop Chase the Founder of that Institution is of opinion that they have no such Right; without incurring great forfeitures which would certainly be demanded the moment an acre was sold.
But Bishop Chase has better hopes than to see the South Section sold or Kenyon College come to [naught]. So bright a jewel in the crown with which God was pleased to bless the endeavours of his [?] Servant in the spread of the gospel, in primitive truth & order west of the Allegany [sic] mountains will not - must not - be suffered to be born [?] without a struggle to retain it.
But to be successful in any endeavours to retain it by paying off so large a Debt (more than $30000) it is obvious our first steps should be taken from Righteous grounds free from all mistakes or [?] calculated either to injure the innocents or screen the culpable.
Something of this nature is conceived to exist in the following sentence of Bishop McIlvaine’s [notes] address to his extra convention at Newark Ohio. It is published in the Episcopal Recorder of the 11th Feb. 1843, and may be seen on the 187 page in the following words “But for the interest which has had to the point [?] average debt of $20000 during the eleven years amounting to $15,000 the corporation would have had between $8 and $9,000 for the improvement of the several departments.
The term of time mentioned in the above extract is “eleven years” this brings it to the period about which Bishop Chase left the Institution. The Debt he then left was as stat[ed] in the said extract $20,000
The interest accruing to this time 15,000
Total $35,000
All, the fault of Bishop Chase! Alas who [shall] stand! … If such mistakes as these are to be [?] - [That] they are mistakes Bishop Chase has in his letter to Bishop McIlvaine clearly pointed out from unquestioned documents - - and he had hoped his letter would have reached that Prelate before any further publicity was given to his erroneous address. But in this hope he is disappointed and has no other way but to beg the public to suspend their judgment till the Bishop of Ohio himself should have rectified his mistakes, as undoubtedly he, being now better informed will most freely and honourably do.