inauguration of George Washington. Potter's sermon gave him "a national reputation." He became "recognized throughout the country as a man of wisdom to understand the times, and of courage to express the convictions based on that understanding." Potter possessed a combination of "oratorical skill, episcopal status and social acceptability." These characteristics made him one of the Protestant preachers, along with Henry Ward Beecher and Lyman Abbott, most often called upon for "major public functions." Personal life By 1898, Potter had been bishop of New York fourteen years. People turned to Potter "not as the bishop, but the man," whose "words were heard with attention" and whose "acts were of interest to the public." He became known as "the first citizen of New York." Two noted Americans wrote Potter expressing their admiration for him. One was Henry Martyn Field, owner and editor of the Evangelist, who wrote this letter: My dear Bishop Potter, you are the best man in the world. You always say the right word and do the right thing, but how you find the time to do it all is a mystery. Your influence goes far beyond your own Episcopal Church, large and powerful as that is, and you are equally at home among the rich and poor. I have been looking to you to solve some of the social problems that perplex us all. For my part, I am groping in the dark, but God give us light. May you live far into the next century, and help greatly to make the world purer, sweeter and happier than it now is. The other letter came from the American author Henry van Dyke, who wrote, "I want to say to you, beneficent prelate, that there is not a preacher nor a church of any order in New York that does not reap a substantial benefit from the fact that you are the bishop of this diocese, and therefore we are all, in our several modes and manners, gratefully yours." Assessing the Philippines and Hawaiian Islands In May 1898, after the United States defeated the Spanish fleet in the Philippines, the United States had two colonies in the Pacific: the Philippines by conquest, the Hawaiian Islands by annexation. By action of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church of 1898, Potter and the Rev. Percy Stickney Grant were appointed to visit these two colonies and assess their missionary potential.