OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION.
15
In June following, Mr. W. went to Baltimore, and was there ordained by Mr. De Charms, contrary to.his repeated, express and solemn declarations given by him to me, freely and unsolicited, just before he left New York. Some weeks after his return—I cannot say how many—he called at my house, and then, for the first time, said he did not wish to receive that broadcloth of me as a present—he wished I would allow him to pay me for it. This surprised and grieved me. I remonstrated with him; told him it had been freely given by me, and as freely received by him some time before; and that, notwithstanding the course he had pursued about his ordination, had surprised me a good deal after all his solemn pledges, (not one of which had ever been solicited) I still wished to remain on friendly and brotherly terms with him; and begged that he would not now insist on my doing an act which was so repugnant to my feelings, and which would look as if he did not feel towards me as I wished him to feel—did not feel friendly. He still insisted on my allowing him to pay me for the cloth—said his friends were not satisfied to have him accept it as a present from me. He mentioned the name of Mr. Yan Nortwick, and I think, remarked that Mr. Y. said he would rather pay me for the cloth himself, and would willingly do so, rather than he should be indebted to me for it. I told him he need not consider himself indebted to me in the least for anything I had given him, or done for him; that I had merely done what I had felt prompted by the Divine Being to do, and therefore, merely my duty. After saying all that I knew how to say—and the conversation was a long, but not an excited or impassioned one—against receiving pay for that which I had originally parted with as a free gift to him, Mr. Wilks still insisted that he would not receive it as a present. I then told him I would take the cloth back—that it was a present to me, and I could not think of receiving pay for it, or of selling it. This—and it struck me as very strange at the time, but I now see through it—this, Mr. W. was unwilling that I should do; said that he wanted the cloth, but was not able to pay me for it then, but would do so by and by. At last I was forced by his importunities, to say, as I did: "Well, Mr. Wilks, for the sake of peace and good fellowship, I will do in this case, whatever will be most satisfactory to you. If you insist on paying me for the cloth, reluctant as I am to have you do so, I will, to satisfy you, consider it henceforth as a debt.” These are the words I used, as near as I can now remember. With this, Mr. W. expressed himself satisfied. He then asked me the price of the cloth. I told him I did not know, as it was given to me, but I supposed it was worth about $8. To this, Mr. W. assented, and we parted with perfectly friendly feelings on my part, and with a strong desire to remain still on friendly terms with Mr. W., if he would permit me to do so; although I confess that his singular course about that piece of cloth—the determined manner in which he insisted on paying me for it, after having received it thankfully as a gift, six months before, had deeply wounded my feelings. But from that moment, I regarded the cloth no longer as a gift, but as a debt—and this, because I promised him that I would so regard it—the only thing with which he would be satisfied. I regarded the debt as much more sacred too, than I should have done, had I sold him the cloth originally, because of the severe struggle which
