PRESBYTERIANS. 



623 



i-o wat called for November 



15th, but did i. Tho editor <.f tin- M. 



no of the committee 



liicll was tO COIlliiiuiii, :![..- 

 1 brethren and ur;re their at- 

 lli- coiit'e^ed that lie had m-ither 

 to perform the duty im- 

 posed upon him. Tho leaders of the i. 



up their minds to join the 

 yuri.m Church ns soon ns 

 1 S .ber -'',<], the seccders from 

 -embly in Maryland organized a 

 . to be known as the Presby- 

 : the I'atapsco. Four ministers and three 

 ruling elders were present. Dr. Bullock, of 

 uoro, stated that a church movement was 

 Pennsylvania, to meet this effort to 

 maintain the standard of the church pure and 

 unstained, and that union would be made with 

 all who stood by the Presbyterian doctrine un- 

 sullied. 



While the Church thus lost part of her terri- 

 tory in Kentucky, Missouri, and other border 

 s was made, on the other 

 hand, in reconstituting presbyteries in the late 

 lerate States. The first act of this kind 

 r^unization of IJolston Presbytery, 

 :messee, which took place on the 23d 

 of AutriM. The new presbytery numbered at 

 the time of its constitution, four ministers and 

 five churches. Subsequently another presby- 

 tery was reconstituted in New Orleans, and 

 another in North Carolina (the Presbytery of 

 Catau 



If. AK/- School Presbyterians. The statistics 

 of the New School Presbyterians, ns reported 

 in May, 18GG, were as follows: 



The New School Presbyterian General met 

 simultaneously with the Olil School General 



Assembly, at St. Lonta, on the 17th of May. 

 1'rot'. Hopkins, of Auburn, New York, was 

 moderator. Two hundred and one 

 were present. On May 26th, 

 the Assembly provided, through a scries of res- 

 olutions, lor the appointment of a committee 

 of fifteen, to consult with a similar committee 

 from the Old School Assembly, on the subject 

 of an organic rettnion. On Friday, May 25th, the 

 New School Assembly adopted, unanimously, 

 the report of the committee on the state of the 

 country. The report, after expressing at con- 

 t-iderable length the Assembly's gratitude to 

 God for delivering the nation from civil war, 

 for freeing it from the sin of slavery, making 

 tho people recognize more fully the reality of 

 Divine Providence, and watching over the 

 churches, concludes by bearing testimony in 

 respect to our urgent needs and duties as a na- 

 tion, in view of the new era upon which we 

 are now entering. It said : 



1. Our most solemn national trust concerns that 

 patient race, so long held in unrighteous bondage. 

 Only as we are just to them can we live in peace and 

 safety. Freed by the national army, they must be 

 protected in all their civil rights by the national 

 power. And, as promoting this end, which far tran- 

 scends any political or party object, we rejoice that 

 the active (unctions of the Freedmen's Bureau are 

 still continued, and especially that the Civil Rights 

 bill has become the law of the land. In respect to 

 the concession of the right of suffrage to the colored 

 race, this Assembly adheres to the resolution passed 

 by our Assembly of 1865 (Minutes, page <i~2) : " That 

 the colored man should, in this country, enjoy the 

 rights of suffrage, in connection with all other men, 

 is but a simple dictate of justice. The Assembly can 

 not perceive any good reason why be should be 

 deprived of this right, on the ground of his color or 

 his race." Even it suffrage may not be' universal, let 

 it at least be impartial. 



2. In case such impartial suffrage is not conceded, 

 that \ve may still reap the legitimate fruits of our 

 national victory over secession and slavery, and that 

 treason and rebellion may not inure to the direct 

 political advantage of the guilty, we judge it to be a 

 simple act of justice that the constitutional basis of 

 representation in Congress should be so far altered 

 as to meet the exigencies growing out of the aboli- 

 tion of slavery ; and we likewise hold it to be the 

 solemn duty of our national Executive and Congress, 

 to adopt only such measures of reconstruction as 

 shall effectually protect all loyal persons in the States 

 lately in revolt. 



8. As loyalty is the highest civic virtue, and trea- 

 son is the highest civil crime, so it is necessary, for 

 the due vindication and satisfaction of national jus- 

 tice, that the chief fomenters and representatives of 

 the rebellion should, by due course and process of 

 law, be visited with condign punishment. 



A motion to strike oat the word section was 



A resolution that the testimony be read 

 in. all the churches of tho denomination was 

 adopted. On May 28th, the Assembly voted to 



120,000 next year, for homo missions; 

 that the catechism be taught in all Sabbath- 

 schools; adopted a fraternal letter to the Scotch 



. teriaii Church; iv.-pomled to a letter 

 from the Reformed Dutch Church, professing a 



union ; adopted an able report on tem- 

 perancc, and a deeply-interesting narrative of 

 the state of religion. The year has been one 



