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Missions and the Presbyterian Schism of 1837

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Earl R. MacCormac
Affiliation:
Davidson College

Extract

Professor Kenneth Scott Latourette has long maintained that church historians must take into account the role that missions have played in ecclesiastical history. His point is especially well taken in considering the Presbyterian Schism of 1837.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1963

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References

1. Smith, Elwyn A., “The Role of the South in the Presbyterian Schism of 1837–38,” Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, Vol. XXIX, No. 1 (03, 1960) pp. 44ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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3. Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Church in the USA, 1789-), 1837, p. 419.Google Scholar

4. The General Assembly of 1836 repudiated the action of the 1835 Assembly by upholding Barnes, Albert (Minutes of the General Assembly, 1836, pp. 268269)Google Scholar; by not abolishing the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia (pp. 277–279); and by rejecting the transfer of the Western Foreign Missionary Society (pp. 278–279).

5. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1837, p. 452.Google Scholar

6. Records of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1841), p. 8.Google Scholar

7. Ibid., p. 145.

8. Ibid., pp. 194, 196, 204, 209.

9. In 1791, the Synods of Virginia and Carolinas received permission from the General Assembly to conduct their own missionary work. (Minutes of the General Assembly, 1791, pp. 35, 38).Google Scholar The Synods of Virginia and North Carolina later formed the Central Board of Foreign Missions, and the Synods of Georgia and Tennessee formed the Southern Board of Foreign Missions. [Green, Ashbel, Presbyterian Missions (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co., 1893), pp. 7172Google Scholar]. The Synods of Ohio and Kentucky also followed suit by establishing their own missionary organizations. (Minutes of the General Assembly, 1817, p. 9).Google Scholar

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13. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1816, pp. 297298.Google Scholar In a “Narrative on the State of Religion,” the formation of the American Bible Society was approved which was tantamount to recommendation.

14. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1823, p. 416Google Scholar; 1831, p. 208; 1832, p. 343.

15. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1829, p. 416Google Scholar; 1831; p. 208; 1832, p. 343.

16. Elebree, , Rise of the Missionary Spirit in America, p. 70.Google Scholar

17. Presbyterians also participated in the United Foreign Missionary Society and the United Domestic Missionary Society. These will not be discussed in detail except as they affect Presbyterian attitudes and missionary theory.

18. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1812, pp. 491, 514515.Google Scholar

19. Ibid., pp. 514–515.

20. First Ten Annual Reports of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, (Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1834)Google Scholar, “Minutes of the Third Annual Meeting,” p. 30.

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23. Sixth Report of the United Foreign Missionary Society, (New York: Fanshaw, 1823), p. 74.Google Scholar

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25. Ibid., pp. 50–51.

26. The Missionary Herald (Boston: A.B.C.F.M., 1825) Vol. XXI (10. 1825), p. 333.Google Scholar

27. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1826, p. 20.Google Scholar

28. Green, , Presbyterian Missions, pp. 54ff.Google Scholar

29. Ibid., p. 65.

30. Ibid., pp. 14–16.

31. Christian Advocate, A. Green, ed. (Philadelphia: A. Finley, 18231834), Vol. IV (1826), p. 137.Google Scholar

32. The A.H.M.S. superseded the United Domestic Missionary Society founded in 1822. For a complete account see Goodykoontz, Colin Brummitt, Home Missions on the American Frontier (Caidwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd., 1939) pp. 174ff.Google Scholar

33. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1827, pp. 148, 155Google Scholar; First Report of the American Home Missionary Society (New York: American Home Missionary Society, 1827), pp. 42, 55.Google Scholar

34. In 1817 the Synod of Philadelphia's action of calling to account its ministers suspected of being Hopkinsians was declared to be offensive to other denominations by the General Assembly. (Minutes of the General Assembly, 1817, p. 653.)Google Scholar

35. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1827, pp. 156157.Google Scholar

36. Ibid., p. 131.

37. Drury, Clifford, Presbyterian Panorama: One Hundred and Fifty Years of National Missions History (Philadelphia: Board of Christian Education, 1952), p. 79.Google Scholar

38. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1952), p. 79.Google Scholar

39. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1828, pp. 234235Google Scholar.

40. Ibid., p. 242.

41. Ibid.

42. Green, , Presbyterian Missions, p. 20.Google Scholar

43. The Fourteenth Annual Report of the Board of Missions of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (Philadelphia: Board of Missions, 1830), p. 48.Google Scholar

44. Letter in the Christian Advocate, Vol. VI, p. 473Google Scholar; as quoted in Baird, Samuel, A History of the New School (Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, 1868), pp. 315316.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., pp. 316ff.

46. Fourth Report of the American Home Missionary Society, pp. 55–56.

48. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1831, p. 187Google Scholar; note that the Home Missionary Society also tried to control the membership of the Board of Missions, see Minutes, 1831, p. 183Google Scholar and Baird, , History of New School, pp. 378ff.Google Scholar For the action of the Synods see Minutes of the Convention of Delegates to the Cinoinnati Convention (Lexington, Kentucky, 1831), p. 14.Google Scholar (Located at Presbyterian Historical Society.) See also, Baird, , History of the New School, p. 386.Google Scholar For the position of the minority see A Report of the Minority in the Convention of Domestic Missions (Cincinnati, 1831).Google Scholar (Located at Presbyterian Historical Society.)

49. See A Brief Answer to an Official Reply of the Board of Missions of the General Assembly to the Six Letters of the Rev. Absolom Peters Entitled Wilson's Four Propositions Sustained against the Claims of the American Home Missionary Society with an Appendix (New York: Clayton and Van Norden, 1831).Google Scholar (Located at Presbyterian Historical Society.)

50. Brown, Isaac V., A Historical Vindication of the Abrogation of the Plan of Union by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (Philadelphia: William S. and Alfred Martien, 1855), p. 188.Google Scholar See also Four Propositions Sustained against the American Home Missionary Society, excerpts published in The Standard, 03 30, 1832,Google Scholar as quoted in Hightower, R. L., “Joshua L. Wilson; Frontier Controversalist,” Ph.D. Thesis. University of Chicago, 1933, p. 166Google Scholar, as cited by Sweet, William Warren, Religion on the American Frontier: The Presbyterians, 17831840 (New York: Harper & Bros., 1936) P. 104.Google Scholar

51. Peter's Reply to Wilson's Four Propositions, loc. cit.

52. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1831, p. 173.Google Scholar Copies of this overture are to be found in Maxwell, William, A Memoir of the Rev. John Holt Rice (Philadelphia: J. Whetham, 1835), pp. 388. 390Google Scholar and in Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society (Philadelphia: Presterian Church in the U.S.A.), Vol. XXXVI, No. 2 (06. 1958), pp. 9295.Google Scholar Although Maxwell claims that Rice's overture was sent to Charles Hodge in Princeton, the copy of the original letter in the Journal shows that it was sent to Francis Herron.

53. Letter to Rev. B. B. Wiener, November 22, 1828, in Maxwell, , Memair of Rice, pp. 378ff.Google Scholar

54. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1831, p. 179.Google Scholar

55. Minutes of the Synod of Pittsburgh, 1831, pp. 384ff.Google Scholar as quoted in Brown, Arthur Judson, One Hundred Years (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1936), pp. 2122.Google Scholar

56. “Circular Letter,” November, 1831, facsimile in Kelso, James A., ed., The Centennial of the Western Foreign Missionary Society 1831–1931 (Pittsburgh Presbytery on Centennial of the Western Foreign Missionary Society, 1831), p. 115.Google Scholar

57. See above page 33.

58. Beman, Nathan S. S., Review and Vin dication (New York: Daniel Appleton, 1831)Google Scholar, bound in Kingsley Theological Miscellany, Vol. XII, Yale University Library.Google Scholar

59. Breckinridge, John, “On Christian Missions,” in The Spruce Street Lectures, Winchester, Samuel G., ed. (Philadelphia: Russell & Martien, 1833), p. 265.Google Scholar

60. Ibid., p. 273.

61. Sweet, William Warren, Religion on the American Frontier: The Presbyterians 1783–1840 (New York: Harper & Bros., 1936), pp. 834838.Google Scholar

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63. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1834, p. 26.Google Scholar

64. Brown, , Historical Vindication, pp. 149155.Google Scholar

65. Ibid., pp. 154–155.

66. “Act and Testimony,” Christian Spectator (New Haven: Howe and Spaiding, 1819- ), 03, 1835, pp. 154ff.Google Scholar

67. Brown, , Historical Vindication, pp. 190. 191.Google Scholar See also “To the Convention of Presbyterian Ministers and Elders, to meet in Pittsburgh, on the 2nd Thursday of May, 1835” in Baird, History of the New School; “Preebytory of Indianapolis to the Convention of 1835,” pp. 59–64; as quoted in Sweet, , Religion on the American Frontier: The Presbyterians, pp. 838840.Google Scholar

68. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1835, p. 16.Google Scholar

69. Ibid., pp. 27–30.

70. Ibid., p. 29. Voluntary Associations were also admonished not to send forth missionaries “known to hold sentiments contrary to the word of God, and to the Standards of Presbyterian Church.”

71. Ibid., p. 31.

72. Ibid., p. 33.

73. Minutes of the General Assembly, 1836, p. 243.Google Scholar

74. Ibid., pp. 278–279.

75. Ibid., p. 280.

76. Ibid., pp. 291–292.

77. “Extract from the Minutes of the Presbytery of New Brunswick,” October 4, 1836, as quoted in Brown, , Historical Vindication, p. 180.Google Scholar

78. “The General Assembly of 1836,” Hodge, Charles, Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review (Philadelphia: James A. Peabody, 1822- ). 06, 1836, pp. 415ff.Google Scholar That Hodge was the author of this article was confirmed by Hodge, A. A., Life of Charles Hodge, pp. 260261.Google Scholar

79. Peters, Absalom, A Plea for Voluntary Societies and A Defence of the Decisions of the General Assembly of 1836 against the Strictures of the Princeton Reviewers and Others (New York: John S. Taylor, 1837).Google Scholar

80. Ibid., p. 21.

81. Ibid., p. 23.

82. Ibid.

83. Ibid., p. 24.

84. Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review, Vol. XIII, pp. 101–102 (01, 1837).Google Scholar

85. Brown, . Historical Vindication, p. 216.Google Scholar

86. Minutes of the General Assembly. p. 216.

87. Ibid.