Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-05-30
PREsBYTERIAVsM.
ITS FOUNDATION IN THE UNITED STATES
BY MAKEhlE .s alF,.
The First General Assembly and the First
Moderator.

| As having general interest for all G
our readers, just at this time, when tn
two great bodies of the Presbyterian
church of the North have united, W,
lay before our readers this morAin!
the following from the Pittsbur!
Presbyterian Banner, of the 26th inst
The early history of Presbyterian
ism in this country is intensely inter
esting. 1t has been truly said thai
''There is scarce a memorable even
in the history of Professionalism in the
] Old World that does not assist to elu-
cidate the character of its founders
1t inherits alike the memories of the
noble men who fell victims to the big
otry of Alya or Laud, or endured the
brutal cruelty of Lauderdale or JET
/ fries. In the annals of the Genevar
/ Republic, the heroiSm of the Neither.
lands, the sufferings of the Huguenots,
eliminating in the bloody St. Bar.
/ thoIomeW,-thest steRing conscientious
ness of the Puritans, and the unswer-
wing loyalty to Christ's crown and
covenant evinced BY the countrymen
of John Knox, may be discerned the
elements of that training which
/ shaped the views and characters Of its
! founders" But the two principal
| sources OF Presbyterianism in this
| land, were the Congregational settle
ments and emigration from Scotland
and Ireland. The Dutch, HuguenOts
and Welsh, were originally not insig-
nificant in numbers, but their foreign
language and name prevented them
from adding much to the aggressive
force of the ecclesiastical body.
The man who had the honor Of lay
ING the foundation of PresbyteTianism
in this country was Francis Mackenzie.
He was born near Rathmelton, Done
gal county, Ireland, was a student of
one of the Scotch Universities, and
was licensed to preach and ordained
as an evangelist by the Presbytery of
/ I,agpan. i'm 1861. The Presbyterian
Church of Snow Hill, Maryland, was
Organized by him in 1854. There has
been an attempt to make it appear
that the Church of Jamaica, l.. l., is
an older PresbyterianGChurch than
Snow Hill; but while it may be true
that it is an older Church, it is not so
old a Church considered as an integral
DOrIlOn Ol lllt lCSDN u Ian NiluiOii
in the United States, for it was or
ganized as an Independent Presby-
terrain Church," and remained such
MANY wears after the formal OTganiza-
ton of our ecclesiastical system in this
country. A claim in the way of an
tiduity has also been made in behalf
of a Church in Newcastle, Del, but
this Church, at the time of its Organi-
zation and long afterwards, was dis
tinctively Reformed or Dutch, and not
PRESBYTERIAN. There is every reason
to believe that Snow Hill was really
the first regularly organized Presby
terian Church on this continent.
Mackenzie was a man of untiring ener-
gV, of glowing piety, and of great
practical wisdom, the friend and cor
respondent of Cotton Mather, and of
some of the leading ministers of Eng
land, Ireland and Scotland.
The first Presbytery dates from l7O5
or I7O6, the time cannot be precisely
ascertained owing to the loss Of the
first leaf of the records. The original
Presbytery, according to the best in
formation now accessible, comprised
seven minister's: Francis Mackenzie,
John Hampton, George Macnish,
Samuel Davis, John Wilson, Jedediah
Andrews, and Nathaniel Taylor~The
first Synod met at Southampton, Long
Island, April IL, ,1717. The number OF
Presbyteries was then four-Long
Island, Philadelphia, New Castle and
Snow Hill. These PresbyterieS were
composed of only nineteen ministers,
scattered at wide distances along the
coast, from Virginia to the Eastern
part of Long Island. In 174l a schism
which had been in progress for some
time. rent the body into the SynOds of
of Philadelphia and New York. The
division was healed in 175S when both
Synods met in Philadelphia, and
united as the Synod Of New York
and Philadelphia.
The first General Assembly met in
Philadelphia on the third Thursday
of Nav, 17S9, and was opened with
sermon by that celebrated scholar, di-
vine. patriot, and statesman, the Rev.
John WitherspOOn, ID. 1t then
embraced four Synods, thirteen Pres
byteries, and less than one hundred
and fifty ministers. How wonderful
has been its growth? From this small
beginning have sprung, according to
the minutes of 1853, the Old School,
embracing 26 Synods, 142 Presbyte-
ries, 2737 churches, 1880 ministers;
the New School, embracing % Synods,
III Presbyteries, 1890 churches, 1900
ministers; the Southern Church, en-
bracing 10 Synods, 48 Presbyteries,
1906 churches, 837 ministers and licen-
tiates; together with the Declaration
and Testimony party and several
smaller ofshoots, to say nothing of
the Cumberland Presbyterian Church,
whose form of government agrees
with our own.
At the time of the meeting of this
Assembly, the first Congress, of the
United States under the present Con-
stitution was in session in New York:
!" so that the Federal Government of
the country and the present Constitu-
ton of the Presbyterian Church were
nearly contemporaneous, and went
into operation at the same time"
And it is worthy of notice that Drs.
Francis Allison and Samuel Stanhope
Smith, under the direction and by the
authority of the Assembly, prepared
an address to General Washington,
then President of the United States,
expressing the respect the Assembly
felt for his virtues, giving the sanction
of its approval to his conduct, and en-
couragfng him in the discharge of the
arduous duties to which he had been
called. Those who feel themselves so
terribly outraged because of the loyal
action of the General Assembly since
the beginning of the late war, should,
in order to be consistent, condemn the
conduct of the fathers of our Church
also, at the very organization of the
Church as now constituted.
After the sermon had been preached
by DIR. Witherspoon, the Rev. John
Rodgers, DID,, of New York, was
chosen Moderator. He had been a
student of the Rev. Samuel Blair, sr.,
at Fagg's Manor, where so many Pres
byterian ministers, more than one
hundred years ago, received their aca-
demical training. His instructor in
theology was Gilbert Tennent, and in
1749 he commenced his labors on that
early field of Presbyterian effort, the
Eastern Shore of Maryland. At one
time he accompanied Samuel Davies,
the great pulpit orator, to Virginia,
bIIt since E,niSp0naPv xTyac than fI1o IT,