1849 ADONIRAM JUDSON. Correction Regarding Erroneous Statements Regarding His Missionary Departure.

A very finely preserved little item related to a controversy that involved the initial departure of Adoniram Judson and Samuel Newell for Burmah in 1812. Shortly before the issue of the present tractate by friend of Judson and original member of the Missionary Committee, Samuel M. Worcester, a work by John Dowling entitled The Judson Offering went through several printings in quick succession. In the work, Dowling gives a rather detailed account of the departure of Adoniram Judson and Samuel Newell in February of 1812. As if out of thin air, Dowling gives a vivid description of Judson and Newell being abandoned by the Missionary Society at the docks with no one to bid them farewell. He paints the Society in particular and the church in general as uncaring and unsupportive of the missionaries. One can suppose that he painted the touching scene in order to garner support for missionaries of his time, i.e. the 1840's and 1850's. Even so, he did so at the expense of the reputation of the M