Southern Bishops.
Editor of the Dispatch: My attention has been recently called to an article which appeared some ten days ago in your paper, in relation to the sanction given by Bishops
Atkinson of
North Carolina and
Otey of
Tennessee, to the usual circular notice sent to all the States on the ordination of
Bishop Stevens; and as it seems designed to call in question the loyalty of the gentlemen to whom it refers, I deem it my duty, as the son of one of them, to take some notice of it.
The facts, I presume, to be simply these: By the canons of the ‘"Protestant Episcopal Church in the
United States,"’ each
Bishop is required to consent to the consecration of every newly elected
Bishop before the same can be lawfully done.
As no general convention of the
Church in the
Confederate States has been held since the withdrawal of the
Southern States from the old Union, there has consequently, as yet, been no change in this law — and until the assembly of some such body having authority to make laws for that portion of the church residing in the
Confederate States, the canons of the general church are deemed to be binding upon her clergy — if not in conflict with the allegiance they owe their Government.
The Rev. Dr. Stevens having been elected assistant
Bishop of
Pennsylvania, Bishops Atkinson and Otey were politely notified of the fact, and their consent to his consecration asked.
The political condition of the two countries had nothing whatever to do with the question, which was purely a canonical one.
As gentlemen who had been politely addressed upon a subject entirely unconnected with politics, and as those too, having respect for the existing laws of their church, these bishops deemed it their duty to reply.
Their having done so, seems to have made them liable to misconstruction on the part of those who neither know these gentlemen themselves nor the facts of the case as above stated.
The influence which seems to have been drawn by such is most unwarranted from the facts and is utterly unjust as the friends of these bishops are well aware.
Both
Bishop Atkinson and
Bishop Otey have spent their whole lives in the
South, being both
Virginians by birth, and each has furnished from his own family, soldiers, who are now in the field, fighting the battles of our beloved country, against the insolent and barbarous Northern foe.
John Wilder Atkinson,
Capt. Co. A, 15th Regt. Va. Vols.
