CONGREGATIONALISTS. 



203 



dent's pardon remit the forfeiture of rebel prop- 

 erty, and reinstate the rebel in all his rights 

 thereto?" 



On the reorganization of the Southern States 

 proceedings in cases of confiscation were sus- 

 pended, and in Florida the decree was recon- 

 sidered in cases not closed, and the defendant 

 allowed a rehearing, with the liberty of pleading 

 the President's pardon. 



CONGREGATIONALISMS. The most im- 

 portant event in the recent history of American 

 Congregrationalisin is the National Council, 

 which met, according to appointment, at Bos- 

 ton, on June 14th. The Council organized by 

 electing Governor Buckingham, of Connecticut, 

 Moderator. Among the prominent men at- 

 tending the Convention were Dr. Edward 

 Beecher and his brothers, Henry Ward and 

 Charles ; Rev. Dr. Patten, of Chicago ; Rev. 

 Dr. B. P. Stone, of Concord, K II.; Dr. 

 Labaree, President of Middlebury College, Vt. ; 

 Judge Parish, of Ohio; Senator Pomeroy, 

 of Kansas ; Gov. Smith, of Vermont ; Presi- 

 dent Hopkins, of "Williams College ; Prof. Park, 

 of Andover Seminary ; and from abroad, Rev. 

 Dr. Yaughan, editor of the " British Quar- 

 terly ;" Rev. Dr. Raleigh, an eloquent Scotch- 

 man ; Rev. Dr. George Smith, Secretary of the 

 British Congregational Union; and Rev. Mr. 

 Monod, son of a distinguished French divine. 



The different states of the Union were repre- 

 sented among the delegates to the Convention 

 as follows : 



One of the first acts of the Council was to 

 adopt (on June loth) the following address to 

 President Johnson : 



The National Congregational Council, now in ses- 

 sion in Boston, representing nearly 3,000 churches 

 in all sections of the country, desire to present you 

 their Christian salutations, to assure you of their pro- 

 found sympathy in your great and trying labors, to 

 promise you their loval support and their prayers, 

 and express their solemn conviction that the hun- 

 dreds of thousands embraced as worshippers in our 

 churches will most heartily cooperate with you in 

 extending the institution of civil and religious liberty 

 throughout the land. 



WILLIAM A. BUCKINGHAM, Moderatrr. 



The reply of the . President to this address 

 was as follows : 



"WASHINGTON, June 19. 



To Gov. Win. A, Buckingham, Moderator of the Na- 

 tional Council of Congregational Churches, Boston : 

 I received with profound thanks the despatch of 

 your Council. In the arduous and embarrassing 

 duties devolved upon me I feel the need of the co6p- 

 eration and sympathy of the people, and of the assist- 

 ance of the Great Ruler of the universe. These 

 duties I shall endeavor to discharge honestly and to 



the best of my judgment, with the conviction that 

 the best interests of civil and religious liberty 

 throughout the world will be preserved and promoted 

 by the success and permanency of our country. Let 

 us all labor to that end, and the mission upon which 

 this people have been sent among the nations of the 

 world will be accomplished. 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 



On June 19th the Rev. Dr. Post, -Chairman of 

 the Committee on the State of the Country, re- 

 ported a series of resolutions, ascribing thanks- 

 giving to Almighty God for the victory over 

 rebellion and the results of that triumph, giving 

 praise to the army and navy, and expressing 

 sympathy for the Mends of the fallen ; express- 

 ing deep indignation at the assassination of the 

 late President Lincoln, and extending to his 

 successor assurances of sympathy and coopera- 

 tion ; denouncing the rebellion as transcending 

 the enormities of treason recorded, in the his- 

 tory of any other country ; urging the Govern- 

 ment, while blending mercy with justice, to 

 deal with the traitors in such a manner that 

 the greatness of their crime will be forever 

 recognized ; regarding the late war as a judg- 

 ment on slavery, and on the complicity of the 

 nation with it ; enjoining just dealing with the 

 freedmen, and favoring, protecting, and fortify- 

 ing them in their new status by bestowing upon 

 them the elective franchise and all the rights of 

 citizenship ; speaking of the wide field for re- 

 ligious work opened by the termination of the 

 war ; regarding the present time as a crisis de- 

 manding the most effectual means of education 

 and evangelization, and the religious faith of 

 the forefathers as the most effective for the 

 work ; stating it to be the duty of the churches 

 represented in the Council to diffuse their faith 

 in this new field ; offering renewed thanks- 

 giving for the past, and expressing faith in the 

 future support of the Almighty. After some 

 discussion, the resolutions were unanimously 

 adopted. 



On June 22d the members and delegates of 

 the Council, with about an equal number of 

 invited guests, made an excursion to Plymouth 

 to visit " Forefathers' Rock." A business session 

 was held on Burial Hill, at which a new Decla- 

 ration of Faith, embodying the substance of 

 one previously presented to the Council, with 

 some modifications of portions of the same, was 

 adopted. The following is the new Declaration 

 of Faith : 



"We, in common with all Christian believers, con- 

 fess our faith in God, the Father, the Son, and the 

 Holy Ghost, the only living and true God ; in Jesus 

 Christ, the incarnate Word, who is exalted to be our 

 Redeemer and King; and in the Holy Comforter, 

 who is present in the Church to regenerate and sanc- 

 tify the soul. 



'"With the whole Church, we confess the common 

 sinfulness and ruin of our race, and acknowledgo 

 that it is only through the work accomplished by the 

 life and expiatory death of Christ that we are justi- 

 fied before God, and receive the remission of sins ; 

 and that it is through the presence and grace of the 

 Holy Comforter alone that we hope to be delivered 

 from the power of sin and to be perfected in holi- 

 ness. 



