Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1857-06-11
Address.
To the Ministers and Churches in connec-
ton wih the General assembly of the
Presbyterian Church ~

ton Nth the General assembly of the
Presbyterian Church -
DEAR BRETHREN-The undersigned,
members of the General Assembly now in
session in Cleveland, Ohio, are constrained
to address you with reference to the State
of our beloved Chu ch, and to indicate the
course which should be pursued by all who
adhere to the principles of our Constitution,
as interpreted by its trainers, and is practi-
cally acknowledged during the almost en-
tire period of our history as a church.
The action of the present Assembly on
the subject ofSlavery, especially when con-
sidered in connection with the spirit and
manifest purpose of several of the Western
Synods, has impressed us with the belief
that peace end harmony can no longer
prevail amongst us-that the Assembly,
as at the present constituted, instead of be-
ing a bond of union between different sec
tions of the church, will continue TO be the
theatre of strife and discord; and that the
glory of God, the welfare of our churches, and
the good of the country demand a separa-
ton of the discordant elements, and the ex-
istence of another Assembly in which the
agitation of the slavery question will be uI-
known.
We had hoped that our brethren who
have been disposed to introduce this sub
ject into the General Assembly would ere
this have been convinced that no good
could result to the church from this agita-
tion-that it was alternating brethren of a
common Christian faith, and was calcula
ted to render the condition of the slave
more undesirable, and to sunder the ties
hat bind our union together. In this re-
gard we have been sadly Disappointed
In consequence of the political sgitation of
the subject, and of the pressure brought
to bear upon them by Congregational
Churches holding the most ultra abolition
sentiments, many of our Western Presby-
teries have become more urgent in demand
ing progressive action of the Assembly
They have not been satisfied with the
past declarations of the Assembly. They
have desired the Assembly to express its
views of the sin of slaveholdlng so clearly
that they can be made the basis of discip-
line by the courts of the Church. This &C
ton has now been virtually taken by the
Assembly. 1t was avowed that the rela-
ton of master and servant-which neces-
sariIy involves the idea of property in the
of the latter-is a sin in the sight
of God, and an offence in the sense in which
the term is used in the Constitution of the
Church. This declaration has been made,
although confessedly there is not the most
%allusion to ~slaveholding in our stand
ards, and also with the knowledge of the
fact that when our constitution was adopt
ed, twelve out Of the thirteen States were
slaveholding States, and many of those
who composed the Assembly of 1889, if
not shareholders themselves, were the rep
resentatives of Presbyteries in which were
churches whose members wee Shareholders.
regard this action of the General As
as a ~palpable violation of the spirit
and letter of the constitution of the church.
The principle involved in it, if carried in
to practice, would convert the highest ju-
of the church into a ecclesiastical
iespotism as ~tyrannical as that which has
distinguished the Church of Rome. 1t
makes the Assembly not only the interprc-
ter of law in an irregular way, but also the
supreme legislature of the church-a posi-
Jon which has been always repudiated by
he Presbyterian Church.
Apart, therefore, from the disastrous con-
sequence resulting from the agitation of the
of Slavery in the General Assem-
oly-destroying, as it does, Jul peace, keep
ing US in q state of excitement unfnvorable
spiritual growth, and paralyzing our eff
to advance the cause of the Redeemer
the channel of our admirable sys-
of Government-we consider that the
Assembly has SO far departed from the
Constitution of the Church rs to render
,ur adherence to it undesirable and imposi-