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near the seminary. He wrote Dr. McIlvaine of all he
was doing, of the "little meetings in the neighborhood"
and the "neat brick chapel" to be built for these serv-
ices. To his father he wrote of attending the annual
meeting of the American Colonization Society in
Washington. The Society was busily engaged in ob-
taining freedom for Negro slaves and encouraging their
resettlement in Africa. Polk spoke of the flourishing
state of the Society in Virginia and expressed confi-
dence that "in the course of not many years one State
after another will be willing to abolish slavery. This is
proved by the state of things in Maryland and Virginia,
the slave States farthest north."

CONSUMMATION OF A DESIGN

On April 9, 1830, Polk was ordained deacon in Rich-
mond by the Rt. Rev. Richard Channing Moore. "Thus
has been consummated the design," the young deacon
wrote, "which I humbly trust was formed with an
eye single to my duty as a servant of Christ." A month
later he married Miss Devereux at Raleigh (her fam-
ily, like his, were long time members of Christ Church)
and entered on his first ministerial charge, that of assis-
tant to Bishop Moore at Monumental Church, Rich-
mond. That summer, in the Bishop's absence, he had
the entire responsibility of the parish. Although keenly
conscious of his youth and inexperience, he reflected
that "all power is of God" and persevered. So unspar-
ing was he of himself that by the end of the summer he
had worked himself into a serious illness.

Scarcely recovered, he went in September to be
with his brother Hamilton who had come home from
Yale College with a fatal sickness. He cared for his

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