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The Rt. Rev. Daniel Corrigan

September 19, 1963
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ed in negotiable securities, the Episcopal Church would probably today
rank first in membership in the State of Texas. Polk's actions and his
letters clearly indicate that he would have bought property for churches,
and would have founded schools, and would have paid the salaries of
clergymen from his own means. He did not accept a salary for fifteen
years after he became bishop. For Polk to have done with his slaves
what today seems logical, he would have to be a cruel and heart-
less man, unconcerned with the fears, apprehensions, and even suffer-
ing of his black wards. His great friend Bishop Stephen Elliott, you
know, was an advocate of the "exportation" movement to send slaves
back to Africa. This movement collapsed not merely because of the
excessive cost, but it was virtually impossible to find volunteers for
the return voyage. Polk considered forcible deportation to be in human.
In this respect I would say that Polk is a man whom history has made
to look bad. My private opinion is that Polk today would be a leader in
the desegregation movement in the South, just as nearly all of our present
bishops are.

Polk's entry into the military service also must be consid-
ered in the context of the times. In 1861, when he accepted his com-
mission as major general, the South's cause was a holy war. The
history of Western Europe was filled with instances in which both sides
were fighting for God. The South, his homeland, was being invaded,
and the leader of the invasion, Abraham Lincoln, was not at all the
Abraham Lincoln now known to us in history. In 1861 Lincoln was an
able man but hardly a great one. His tremendous magnanimity, his
courage, and his selfless devotion to the preserving of the nation all
emerged in 1862, 1863, and 1864.

When after making allowances for these two "mistakes" one
looks at the rest of the life of Leonidas Polk, it is found to be virtually
blameless. I would say that Polk's message for us today is simply this.
He wanted the very best for the Episcopal Church. With only thirty
thousand members in the entire South, distinctly a minor denomination,
he was willing to envision, plan, and actually launch an educational
institution wich was at least twenty years ahead of its time and possibly