The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1868-11-18
Presbytery Of N Orleans on the Minutes
Of the Northern Old School Assembly.

The following Report upon the Minutes of
the Northern Old School Assembly was unan.
imousy adopted at the stated Fall meeting.
and copy was ordered to be forwarded to the
Stated Clerk of that Assembly.
The Committee to whom was referred the
statement in the Minutes Of the Northern
Old School Assembly for 1868, and found on
page 642 in which the ecclesiastical relations of
this Presbytery are misrepresented, present
the following Minute
The General Assembly of the Old School
North, at their sessions in the city of Albany,
N. Y, in the month of May last, adopted Ger.
| tan resolutions touching the Southern Church,
OF which the preamble is in these terms:
Whereas, the Synods of Alabama, Ar.
kansas, Georgia, Memphis, Mississippi North
Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia,
with the several Presbyteries under their care,
have, ioith the exception of the Presbyterg of
Ne,o Orleans; an the Synod of Mississippi,
voluntarily withdrawn from our connection and
organized themselves into separate church.
therefore Resolved, &C."
The statement, by all the laws of interpre-
tation to which language is subject, defines no
other ecclesiastical body but this; and is there
fore in every particular a false statement, which
we are bound in justice to ourselves fully to
expose.
In the first place, the withdrawal here spoken
of from the jurisdiction of the Northern AS.
sembly, was accomplished A. D., 1861. at
which time there existed no other Presbytery
of New Orleans but our own: and so far is it
from being true that it was an exception
among the Southern Presbyteries, it was one
of the first of those Presbyteries to dissolve
its connection with the General Assembly,
North--was active in the formation of the
General Assembly OF the separate church
and one Of its members was the first Modera-
tor chosen to preside over that venerable
Court.
In the second place, the Presbytery Of New
Orleans, designated BY this statement, is "the.
Presbytery of New Orleans, in the Synod of
Mississippi" and it is the Presbytery of New
Orleans under the care of this Synod which
is declared not to have withdrawn itself Now,
the fact is, that we are the only Presbytery Of
New Orleans that has ever been in the Synod
OF Mississippi, or under its care. There is
no other Presbytery of New Orleans to which
the descriptive terms of the Assembly's state
ment can attach yet this Presbytery which is
now and always has been, component part
of the Synod of Mississippi, did Oithdraw It,
SELF with its sister Presbyteries-as already
shown-cOntrary to the declaration which is
formally and definitely made in their published
Minute.
If the Northern Assembly had been content,
simply to recognize certain Presbytery, called
the Presbytery of New Orleans, formed since
the war, and subject to its jurisdiction-and
had proceeded in the exercise of their undis-
puted authority, to attach that body to the
Synod of Nashville, no offence would have
been given, and no trespass upon the truth
would have been committed. But the terms
Of their description apply to no other Presby.
terry but our own-de6ning it as an exceptional
Presbytery among all those that belonged to
the Southern Synods at the time of their with
drawal-and declaring that the Presbytery
they referred to, was the Presbytery of New
Orleans, which was "in the Synod of Missis.
sippi, and under its care.
We have nothing to do with the motives of