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Ward assures Chase that he believes in his innocence, and vows to do anything he can to help him with the improvement of Gilead. He criticizes republicanism as he believes it led to Chase's downfall as president of Kenyon; he believes Chase needs to give himself more absolute power in his future endeavors. Finally, he mourns Bishop Ravenscroft.
Date
7-22-1834
Keywords
Kenyon College, Gilead, John Bowdler, Lady Rosse, Lord Kenyon, Diocese of Ohio, Mary Caroline Ward, William Jones, Bishop Ravenscroft, Earl of Ripon
Recommended Citation
Ward, Rev. W., "Letter to Philander Chase" (1834). Philander Chase Letters. 957.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/chase_letters/957
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Transcript
23. Wilton Crescent
July 22. 1834
My ever dearly beloved Friend & Brother -
Your explanatory and defensive letter to your Successor in the Diocese of Ohio & Kenyon College may be of importance to your character in the world and to all who do not know you so well as we do but it was not necessary to convince us of your innocence and persecution or of the base ingratitude of your oppressors & persecutors. We have never varied in our opinion of your integrity and piety and zeal and labour in the service of your Lord & Master if our & love be any consolation to you in your exile in the wilderness or can bring balm in Gilead you may rest assured of it, and you may be assured that hundreds here will feel the same interest in the erection of Gilead Church and schoolhouse as they did in the foundation of Kenyon College, and if I can stir up a Bowdler or a Lady Ross to go over and help you, or to dedicate a little of their riches to the honour of God on the lands of Gilead, I shall be as happy, as if I obtained some good for King William’s College, Isle of Mann.
You were born a republican and yet by the Constitution you framed in Kenyon College you seemed to be ignorant of the republican spirit. It was the republican spirit and nothing else that supplanted and rebelled against the Father & Founder of Kenyon College, for what is republicanism, it is the conspiracy of the worst of the people against their legitimate rulers and governors. A republican is a rebel and a despot at heart. He rebels against his lawful King and rules with a rod of iron when invested with his usurped power; he cannot endure either kings or priests or patriarchs or Bishops. I know I am speaking high treason, but I know to whom I am speaking. I am sure the conduct of the trustees and professors of Kenyon College justify me in forming this opinion of republican principles. (Should you ever have to frame a Constitution of a College in Gilead frame it upon the original platform of the original of all Government that of a Father over his Children. Keep the power in your own hands and commit it unimpaired to the hands of your successors. You may like to hear Lord Kenyon’s sentiments in a note to me accompanied by your pamphlet - “Our venerated Friend is surely quite right in his judgement that the Theological Seminary was the primary object of our attachment. I thoroughly well remember how much value I thought might be obtained by his Diocese of Ohio from his having a College connected with the Theological Seminary, [but] that Seminary itself as being the nucleus for sound Episcopal Protestant Theological principles was the substance which in my mind gave the value to the College to which he was pleased to affix the name I unworthily represent. I am clearly of opinion he is entitled to retain good Mr. Bowdler’s Communion Plate [&] Articles for his life, and should he be blessed with the means of establishing a Church in the far West I cannot doubt that good John Bowdler could he express his wish, would say he wished the Church last possessed by Bp. Chase, should possess the plate.” Here then you have the sentiments of one of the most enlightened, honourable and upright noblemen in the Peerage of England which is united with mine & will I am sure be followed by the same opinion of all your Friends here who will read your pamphlet. I wish we had more of them. It is fit that all your Friends should be made acquainted with the true state of the case). You will be glad to hear that we are all still in the land of the living, my Sons & Daughters enjoying good health except your Mary who was always delicate & has lately changed her name from Mary Ohio to Mary Gilead. She has travelled faithfully with you I assure you through all the vicissitudes of your pilgrimage & will never forsake you. I know not what is become of the heresiarch West. Poor wretch. We should pray for him. I have just got two volumes of the life & works of the late Bp. Ravenscroft. If old William Jones of Nayland were alive he would make a pilgrimage to his tomb in North Carolina. They were kindred spirits, warm Champions of Apostolical Succession. We want thousands of the same spirit to revive primitive Christianity & put down schism.
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Your ever affecte. & faithful Brother W. Sodor & Man
Always enclose under cover to the Earl of Ripon Carlton Gardens London-