the readiness with which they had granted the loan of the original letters, and for the facilities offered for the making of transcripts from their records. The hearty thanks of the Synod were also given to Mr. Brodhead for his agency in procuring the same. The documents were received in good order in the latter part of September, 1842.1 The exact number then received is not known. The Synod has now about a thousand documents and letters, with a list of about twelve hundred. Besides the bound volume alluded to, there were seven bundles' of the original filed letters, two of which related to the German Churches in Pennsylvania. Says Dr. DeWitt concerning these filed letters: "They are particularly useful as to the earlier period of our Church, concerning which there is an almost entire dearth of information among ourselves. . . . It is desirable that these original documents should be in the permanent possession of the General Synod, if the Classis of Amsterdam can be induced to part with them. If they cannot be retained, the most important of them should be copied before their return to Holland."' The Synod at this same session resolved to open a correspondence with the Classis of Amsterdam, and appointed the Classis of New York as its committee to conduct it.4

In 1846 Dr. DeWitt proposed a visit to Europe to attend the first meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, which was about to be held in London. He informed the Synod of

1 Minutes of Synod, Sept., 1843, 273. >/6id., 1843, 274.

* It seems remarkable that these loaned letters were not arranged and copied in a volume at once. Now not a few of them are lost. The originals should never have been taken away from the archives in Amsterdam. That Classis now regrets their loss.

4 Minutes of Synod, 1843, 257. The Classis of New York requested Dr. DeWitt to write the letter. This he did. It is dated March 9, 1844. In the following October the Classis of Amsterdam responded. See this letter in Minutes of Synod, 1845, 425, 519-522. It refers to the visit of Mr. Brodhead; to the modifications in their church government caused by the wars of Napoleon; it deprecates the recent secession of members from the State Church (the nucleus of the emigration to Michigan). The letter breathes a sweet evangelical spirit. The correspondence did not continue.

his intention to visit Holland while abroad, and again referred to the original letters which had been loaned to the Synod for four years. This period had now expired. He again emphasized the desirability of the Synod's owning these letters permanently. The Synod now cordially commended Dr. DeWitt to the confidence and affection of the brethren and the judicatories of the parent Church, and commissioned him to express the Synod's regard and desire to cultivate Christian fellowship by renewed correspondence, and appointed him to act as the Synod's delegate1 in any of their judicatories if consistent with their rules. He was also requested to obtain, if possible, from the Classis of Amsterdam, the permanent possession of those documents which had been loaned to the Synod for a limited period, and was authorized to offer a reasonable consideration for them, if required.

Dr. DeWitt sailed on June 7, 1846, and was in Holland during the latter half of July. The shortness of his stay, with news of domestic affliction' at home, prevented him from making any special investigations. The Classis having previously heard of the desire of the Synod to retain the loaned documents, had already assigned the permanent ownership of them to the Synod." The Classis would take no compensation for them, but if Dr. DeWitt should choose

1 He was the only delegate sent to the Church of Holland by the Dutch Church in America during the first fifty years of the Church's complete independence. Minutes of Synod, 1846, 7, 28.

* Ibid., 1847, 133, 134. He heard of the death of his son while abroad. He simply mentioned the matter one morning at the breakfast table to Dr. A. B. Van Zandt, who was with him, saying, "Tommy is dead; do not speak of it again." He attended a meeting of the Netherlands Missionaigr Society, but the General Synod had adjourned before he reached the Hague. He met several prominent ministers with whom he had corresponded, and with whose evangelical conversation he was edified. He also had an interview with Rev. Mr. Prins, the Stated Clerk of the Classis. He heard of the rising spirit of emigration to America among the seceders from the Established Church, and had a short interview with one of them, Rev. Mr. Scholte of Utrecht, who was about to proceed to America. Two colonies of Hollanders expected shortly to go to Michigan.

3 Dr. DeWitt no doubt referred to this desire in his letter of March 9, 1844, to the Classis, but we have not seen it.

to make a donation to the Widow's Fund, it would be gladly received. He accordingly gave to the Classis twenty gold willems for the Widows' Fund.1

EARLY USE MADE OF THIS CORRESPONDENCE.

There is then no further allusion to this material in the Minutes of the General Synod for nineteen years, or until 1866, but in the meantime it was being diligently used by several parties.

Mr. Brodhead at once availed himself of it in the preparation of his invaluable history of the State of New York, but he only lived to publish two volumes, which brought the work down to 1691." Dr. De Witt had been asked by the General Synod about the time of Mr. Brodhead's departure for Europe in 1841," to write a short sketch of the history of the Church, with a general statement of its doctrines and government; and, at his convenience, a more elaborate history. He prepared a Succinct History, which was issued in 1848. He attempted by a circular letter* to gain more particular information from all parts of the Church, but was disappointed in the results. In the meantime this material from Holland arrived, and he determined from it to write

1 The General Synod also sent two complete (?) sets of their Minutes, bound in six volumes, to Holland, one for the Classis of Amsterdam, and one for the General Synod of Holland, and received one set of their Minutes (1816-45) in return. Minutes of General Synod, 1845, 487; 1847, 143, 144.

s Volume one was issued in 1853, and volume two in 1871. Volume three was about ready for the press, when Mr. Brodhead died. This third volume would have brought the history down to 1705, covering a most important period, including the so-called Ministry Act of 1693, and the Charters of the Dutch Church, 1696, and of Trinity Church, 1697, and the important civil legislation connected with the latter, especially in 1704. This volume ought yet to be recovered, edited by a competent hand, and issued. See vol. viii., 64-128 of American Church History Series, which partly covers this period; and Dr. E. B. Coe's Address at the Bicentenary of the Charter of Reformed Dutch Church in New York, 1896.

* Minutes of Synod, 1841, 49], 492, 493. The Particular Synod of New York suggested this request. Minutes of Particular Synod, 1841, 28.

* Ibid., 1843, 271-7. This Circular was also published in Christian Intelligencer.

a somewhat elaborate history down to the Revolution. But while engaged in the study of this material, in connection with his pastoral and pulpit work, he experienced one or more slight paralytic strokes, which disabled him temporarily, and ultimately prevented him from carrying out his design. He translated a number of the letters of the Amsterdam Correspondence, some of which were printed in the Documentary History of Neiv York, and others in the Christian Intelligencer. A number of fugitive articles of his on historical topics remain,' chiefly in the periodicals of the day. He constructed also the first approximately complete list of the ministers of the Dutch Church in America down to the year 1800. This is printed in an appendix to a Historical Discourse delivered by him in 1856, at the reopening of the Fulton Street Church after extensive repairs.

The New York Historical Society also printed a few of these letters as well as several articles founded on them, in the volumes of their Proceedings.'

The Hon. Henry C. Murphy also used some of this material in his unique volume entitled The Anthology of New Netherland, a limited edition of which was printed by the Bradford Club in 1865. It was Mr. Murphy, also, who brought to light in 1858 the elaborate letter3 of Jonas Michaelius, 1628, the first minister of the Dutch Church in -America, whose name had been entirely lost.

And, finally, Rev. Henry Harbaugh seems to have used that part of this material which related to the German ministers in Pennsylvania, in the preparation of his very interesting volumes, The Fathers of the Reformed Church in

1 See list of his publications on page 241 of the Manual, 1879.

2 On Feb. 20, 1878, George H. Moore, Librarian of the Lenox Library, writes that he had some years before tried to obtain the Amsterdam Correspondence for the use of the Historical Society. He says it was then in the custody of Mr. Brodhead. He also refers to Mr. Murphy's use of some of the letters relating to Selyns. He adds that, no doubt, the Historical Society would be glad to print such letters as were of historical interest.

3 Printed in Manual oi 1879, pp. 3-10. A fac-simile of this letter and a revised translation was printed by the Collegiate Church of New York in their Year-Book, 1896. Mr. Murphy also brought several other documents to light. Europe and America, which were issued in 1857, as well as in his Life of Rev. Michael Schlatter. During all this time, and, indeed, down to 1870, a period of twenty-eight years, these documents were in possession of Dr. De Witt and Mr. Brodhead.1

In the meantime, however, others had been at work on the history of the Church, although without the direct use of these documents. In 1856 Rev. Dr. David D. Demarest issued the first edition of his work, entitled The History and Characteristics of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. In 1859 Rev. E. T. Corwin issued the first edition of The Manual of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. Shortly after" the Minutes of the Coetus, 1737,1747—1753, and Conferentie (1755-67) were published, with some of the Correspondence of that period, so far as it was recorded in these minutes; together with the Minutes of the old Provisional Synod, 1771-1792, and of the General Synod, 1794-1812. There were also included in this volume the minutes of the original Particular Synod of the whole Church, 1793-1799. All these publications were found very interesting, and stimulated the desire to write the histories of local churches, and such histories began to multiply.

Considerable desire, therefore, began now to be expressed that the Amsterdam Correspondence should be made accessible to all historical inquirers. Accordingly, in 1866,* resolutions were introduced in the General Synod appointing a committee to suggest a plan for the collection and preserva

1 Several of these letters have been printed in recent publications.

'Rev. Wra. Demarest was engaged by the Synod in 1857 to translate the Dutch Minutes of the Provisional Synod, from 1770-1792. This translation, before its publication, was used in the preparation of the first edition of the Manual. Dr. T. W. Chambers then translated the Minutes of the Coetus and Conferentie, so far as possessed, and prefixed them to Rev. Wm. Demarest's translation. The Minutes of the General Synod, already in English, from 1794-1812, were added to this volume, and the whole was printed, and is known as Volume One of Minutes of General Synod. There is considerable error in the arrangement of the material and in the editing of this volume. The Minutes of 1793 belong to those of the original Particular Synod; and its session of Oct., 1799, is entirely missed.

3 Minutes of Synod, 1866, 112, 113; 1869, 677.