Delegates to Congress . Letters of delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, Volume 25, March 1788-July 1789, With Supplement
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Thomas Tudor Tucker to To: St. George Tucker

New York Apl. 17th. 1788.

   I am now, my dear St George, at liberty to write to you on a Subject which for some time past has given me much Disturbance & Perplexity of Mind. For Heaven's sake, what do you make of the Letters of our dear Nl.(1) In September last I received a long one from him containing such Matter as fill'd me with Astonishment & Anxiety. Agitated betwixt Wonder & Uneasiness I scann'd it as well as my Understanding wou'd enable me & found a perfect Connexion of Ideas throughout the whole, which gave me some Relief. But as he had been uncertain whether his Letter wou'd find me alive or not, he avoided entering into Explanations & left me totally in the Dark with respect to the Sources of his extraordinary Information. He concluded with desiring Me to think of what he had written but to communicate it to no one. Thus was I deprived of the Liberty of making any Inquiry either of your self or any of the rest of our Friends, for I knew not whether he had mention'd it to any. I attended to every Expression contain'd in my Letters from Bermuda, to endeavour to find out whether or not they were under the same Uneasiness, but nothing occurr'd that afforded me any Light on the Subject. In this State of anxious Uncertainty, I wrote to him in the most pressing Terms to releive me from my Suspence by writing to me immediately the fullest Explanation he


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Portrait of Thomas Tudor Tucker




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felt himself at liberty to give of these wonderful Discoveries, with the Source from whence they were derived. But I cou'd not venture to express a Doubt of the reality of every thing he asserted. In all my sober Moments I acknowledge the Superintendance of a Divine Power, & suppose that he acts by general Laws contrived to effect the Happiness of all sentient Beings. How far these general Laws may in the Moral as in the physical World produce Phoenomena that to our Understandings seem irregular & not resulting from the general principle, & therefore often term'd miraculous, I am not qualified to determine. A general propensity to Religion in Mankind, I have consider'd as Evidence of the Deity's Existence. The Tenets of all the different Sects appear to me to abound with Absurdities, as far as I have Knowledge of them. Not because I cannot explain every thing, but because many things seem to be contradictory to that Reason which has been given by God for our Guide. He cou'd not give us Reason & then take pains (if I may so express myself) to confound it's Operation.

   June 13th. I know not how I have been prevented from continuing the Subject. I was going to add many other Observations, but shall rather proceed to Facts. I reced a very long Letter from N. in Answer, with a full Account of what had happen'd to him, & accompanied with several of Swedenborg's Books which I have not been able yet to read with Attention. I find he has sent them also to you & to our Friends in Bermuda. Our dear Sister B. sent them also to me by Mr. D. Tucker, without many remarks upon them, but N. says she reads them with Intelligence & Conviction. He is impatient to hear from you, & is also so earnest with me that I am perfectly at a loss how to write to him. Pray, help me out, if you can. Perhaps you have read those Books, & can form a better Judgment of them than I can. I shou'd be glad to have your Sentiments as fully as possible upon this very extraordinary Change. I must confess I was for some time even afraid to enquire about him, but am now happy to find that he goes on with his Business, & with rather better Prospects than formerly. Heaven bless you, my dear St. George. Yrs. most truly & sincerely, Thos. Tud. Tucker


Note:

   RC (ViW: Tucker-Coleman Papers).



1 That is, their brother Nathaniel, a Charleston physician, who was exploring the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a proponent of a "new Christianity" of gradual redemption through the personal regulation of spiritual states.