JOHN FORSYTH - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 06/24/1837 - HFSID 23145

JOHN FORSYTH
2-page letter to an official of the Missionary Board, concerned about his church's representation on it, and anxious to learn if he has been removed from the Board of Directors without his knowledge.
Autograph Letter signed: "Jno Forsyth Dr.", 2 page, 8x10. Philadelphia, 1837 June 24. Addressed on integral leaf to Walter Lowry, Brick Church Chapel, New York. In full: "I expect to be in New York in the course of the coming week and shall endeavor to get a meeting of our Board of Foreign Missions either in New York or Newburgh. I wish you would give me an official account of the actions of your committee on the proposed plan of cooperation between our Board and your Society, that I may lay it before our Board at the first meeting. And I would also thank you to prepare for me a written statement of the terms in which our Synod can become an integral part of the Society - the number of Directors the Synod would in that case be entitled to appoint. As the seat of operations is now removed to New York I have no doubt that our Synod would prefer to become an integral part of the Society, if placed on the same footing in relation to it with the Gen. Assembly and have the right of appointing our proper proportion of the members of the Board. I would therefore be much obliged to you for a statement on this subject which may be laid before our Board and incorporated in our Report to Synod. It is but proper that I should add that if it is not intended that the platform of the Society shall be so broad as to admit all orthodox Presbyterian churches standing on it, equal in all respects but mere numbers, and if in future your Society is to be considered as sustaining the same relations to the Assembly that the Board of Home Missions and Education at the present, any further negotiation between our Board and yours will be unnecessary. Of this I am convinced from the sentiments expressed by the members at the last meeting of our Board. In looking over the appendix to your last Report, I was very much surprised to find my name among the Honorary Members, having a Certificate of my being an Honorary Director. If this change has been made designedly I should certainly be pleased to know the reason for it as it is the first instance it has ever come under my notice of a Director for Life undergoing such a change. I would thank you to have the statements above mentioned ready for me by Tuesday afternoon when if permitted to reach New York I will call for them. In the meantime I remain Yours truly". John Forsyth (1810-1886), a minister of the Reformed Church of America, was also a classical scholar, teaching Latin, Hebrew, archaeology and English Literature at Rutgers and the College of New Jersey (Princeton). From 1871 to 1881, he was Chaplain at the US Military Academy, and also an instructor in history and geography there. He should not be confused with US Senator and Secretary of State John Forsyth (1780-1841). Torn at edges, large tears at center. Creased and toned. Otherwise, fine condition.