The original draught of the letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury
places the election and the recognition of the difficulties
attending it beyond all doubt, by a passage, which, when Leaming
declined the undertaking, was, of course, omitted. These are the
words: "His age and infirmities, we confess, were objections on
his part we felt the force of. His yielding to our desires, to
encounter the fatigues and dangers of such a voyage, which (free
from all motives for personal ambition, for which in our situation
there is very little temptation) nothing but a zeal almost
primitive would lead him to do, much the more endears him to us.
He is indeed a tried servant of the Church, and bears about him in
a degree the marks of a Confessor." [Footnote: That Leaming was
the first choice of the clergy at Woodbury has been questioned.
But three things put it beyond doubt: (1) The original letter
quoted in the text; (2) Bishop Jarvis's sermon, preached before a
Special Convention, May 5, 1796, called to elect a successor to
Bishop Seabury, in which the fact is distinctly asserted; (3)
Bishop Seabury's letter to Dr. Morice, Secretary of the Venerable
Society, under date Feb. 27, 1785, which, when read in the light
thrown on it by the original letter and the sermon, can admit of
only one interpretation.]

Leaming was not there to speak for himself; and the contingency of
his declining to accept the burden was too pressing not to be
provided against. Wherefore another was designated, one whose name
is forever shrined in the deep love and reverence of this Diocese,
and held in grateful remembrance in this Church, the Rev. Dr.
Samuel Seabury. Who doubts that in this two-fold designation
earnest prayer was made to Him "Who knoweth the hearts of all
men"? Who doubts that though no lots were cast, it was left to the