Potter, Alonzo, D.D.. LL.D., bishop of the Prot- estant Episcopal Church, was born in the town ol Beek- man (now La Grange), Dim less t lounty, N. V.. duly 6,
sign his rectorship in 1831. No rector was ever more deeply loved h\ the people of his charge, or mourned with a deeper sorrow when he left them. Taken in all its aspects, his ministry in Boston w a- a marki d success. It gave an impetus to vital religion which is still felt and will extend to the distant future." In 1831 Dr. Potter accepted the chaii of moral and intellectual phi- losophy in Union College, which was urged upon him ass i as it was known that he would consent to sc\er
hi- pastoral relations. He at once identified himself
with the college as one who looked for nothing beyond it. He applied himself to study and instruction with the l heerful earnestness which was an attribute of his nature. I le was eminently an educator, calling out the power of thought and language in his pupils and exert- ing his own. lie was distinguished tor his rare power, of analysis, and his peculiar terseness and felicity of ex- pression. He had a wonderful power of impressing
bimsell upon those with whom he bad to do. lie trans- fused himself into their nature, look possession of their minds and wills, and imbued I hem with his own ideas
and principles of action. In 1838 In' was appointed vice-president of the college, and, with the advanced age of Dr. Nott.who had become his father-in-law, Dr.
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Potter naturally took a leading share in the administra- tion. He had an inborn aptitude for government, and. though more rigid and uncompromising in his measures than president Nott, understood the art of graciously blending suavity with decision. On the suspension of bishop H. IT. Underdonk (q. v.) in 1845, and after a pro- tracted balloting between the supporters of the Rev. Drs. Bowman and Tyng, Dr. Potter was elected bishop of Pennsylvania on May 23, and consecrated in the month of September of the same year. Henceforth his life is thoroughly identified with the interests of the Church he served. Says bishop Stevens :
" His idea of the office and work of a bishop was very high ; regarding him not merely as an ecclesiastical offi- cer, but. as one who, from his position and opportunities and influence, had vast means, within and around him, of guiding that Church and shaping great institutions of charity or learning, moulding the clergy and being a lead- er of the Israel of God in its attacks upon the stronghold of sin, Satan, and death. Few men cared less for the honors of the episcopate ; few used the office more as the instrument of largest good, and, as a necessary conse- quence following the divine law of God, who has said, 'Them that honor me I will honor,' lew men were more honored in their episcopate ; not by his own Church alone, but by all denominations of Christians, and by all the good and intelligent classes of the state. He made no show of power; it rather emanated from him than was wielded by him."— Funeral oration.
By his prudence and discretion he fused together ele- ments of strife that had long wrangled with each other. He inaugurated great schemes of Christian benevolence and education, and carried them forward to almost complete success. He was diligent in cultivating all portions of the diocese, laboring when he should have been resting, and not sparing himself when the providential warnings of God were calling to him to pause and recruit. Although endowed with an admirable physical constitution, he was at length compelled to ab- stain entirely from intellectual exertion, and decided to accept an invitation from the Pacific Steamship Co. to take passage in one of their vessels for San Francisco by the way of the Strait of Magellan. He arrived in the harbor of that city on the 1st of July, 1865, but was already prostrate with a fever which he had contracted by landing on the Isthmus and passing a night at Aspin- wall, and was too weak to be removed from the ship. He died July 4.
Sincerely attached to the Church in which he held a position of eminent honor and dignity, bishop Alonzo Potter was singularly free from ecclesiastical prejudice and narrowness. He was a man of no less conspicuous mark as a citizen than as a churchman. He was a friend of wholesome reforms, without the tenacious adherence to the past which dreads the progress of light in novel manifestations. He was a patriot of the purest type, a man of the antique virtue which seasoned our republic with salt in the days of her noblest development. In the darkest hours of our great national struggle he was always decided and hopeful. He took strong ground in behalf of the government, and never cherished a doubt of the justice or the success of the national cause. From his youth he took a lively interest in the welfare of the African race, and was ever ready to recognise the man- hood of the negro and his claims to advancement to a higher sphere, and he was forced to a public declaration of these principles in order to silence the pro-slavery assumptions of bishop Hopkins of Vermont. The zeal, however, which bishop Potter exhibited on these occa- sions for the extension of equal rights to all orders and conditions of men, was no sudden impulse of feeling, but a conviction which was formed in his early days, and strengthened by subsequent experience and reflection. His influence, which extended to a wide circle, was due, in a great measure, to his weight of character rather than to any extraordinary brilliancy of intellectual en- dowment. He possessed talents of a solid and mascu- line order. His mind was eminently discriminating, clear in its perceptions, and sound in its deductions. He had great powers of reasoning, his judgment was al-