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Polk to Otey 24 April 1861

Bishop Polk to Bishop Otey.
Shreveport, Lousiana, April 24, 1861

My dear Bishop,

Your friendly letter on the subject of my Pastoral, after
following me for some time, was received by me; and my apology for not
replying to it long ago is that I had planned a very thorough vis-
itation of my Diocese, in the midst of which I have been ever since
its receipt. I have not had an hour which I could devote to it
before, and regret that I have not now time to write as fully as I
Should like. On reading your letter, I saw at once that you ahd
mistaken my position and purposes. That position I have since
stated somewhat more fully in another letter which I have publish-
ed in answer to our friends of the General Missionary Society. I
have directed a copy to be sent to you which I hope you have re-
ceived. I take it that if the Church in the United States, as it
was before our present troubles, had fallen into heresy at the very
outset of its independent existence, or at any time since, although
it had no Constitutional Bond binding it to the Cathloic Church or
to any of its parts, would nevertheless have been subject to decis-
ions of that Church, and would have been bound by those decisions.
It could have been branded for its heresy and cast off from Cath-
olic Communion; and I take it, too that the absence of such a
constitutional bond could not have been pleaded in bar of such ac-
tion. A constitutional bond, binding the Dioceses of Christ's