GILMAN, Corresponding Secretary American Bible Society to Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, May 21, 1884

Mr. Gilman to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Sir: I have the honor of acknowledging your attention in submitting to us a memorandum relating to Mr. Schuyler’s dispatch No. 69.

We were aware that an appeal had been made to the American minister at Athens to exert his influence for the protection of our employés from maltreatment while engaged in lawful trade, and, knowing something of his success in removing the injunction of the Greek Government against the importation of American hams, we hoped he would be no less firm in the position that American citizens ought to be protected in carrying out their unselfish aims to give every inhabitant of Greece the opportunity to buy, if he will, the Holy Scriptures which are recognized as canonical throughout Christendom.

The attitude assumed on previous occasions by our ambassadors and those of Great Britain is believed to be in accordance with the profound convictions of the nation, that the lives and property of men who are engaged in the disinterested work of teaching a pure Christian morality have no less claim upon national protection than the lives and property of those who are engaged in commercial speculations, scientific research, or academic studies. And to meet any misunderstanding or suspicion among the Greeks as to missionary enterprises, Mr. Schuyler might well inform them that while the British and Foreign Bible Society is under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen of England, the Prince of Wales, and the Emperor of Germany, the American Bible Society also numbers among its officers some of the most eminent of American jurists and civilians, among whom it is not invidious to mention the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and one of the ex-Presidents of the United States.

So far as those societies are concerned, it is not any part of their object to make proselytes from the Greek Church, nor do they employ men to circulate other books than the Holy Scriptures. If that were the gravamen of the offense, we should have expected it to be made prominent, but, so far as I can learn, the objection has come from the holy synod that the Holy Scriptures ought not to be allowed to be circulated. The injustice of which we complain is that our employés have been deprived of property and forbidden to prosecute a business which the law allows.

I do not know what the opinion of the American minister may be in respect to the advantages which may accrue from the prosecution of this work, but whether it is favorable or not, we judge that our correspondents are entitled to his hearty sympathy and aid, while doing this work, as representatives of the Christian people of America, so long as they do not violate the letter or the spirit of the law; and we confidently hope that Mr. Schuyler will have instructions from the Department of State to give no less support to this work of pure philanthropy than he would to commercial enterprises conducted solely with a view to pecuniary profit.

With renewed thanks for the invitation given us to express an opinion on these points,

I remain, &c.,