Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-05-23
THE BRIGGS CASE ON
Preliminary Tilts in the Gen eral Presbyterian Assembly.
WAITING FOR THE JUDICIAL REPORT

It is Believed that the Appeal Will Re ' Entertained - The Moderator Makes
 Declaration that He Will Not Be In-
 timidated-Briggs Men Protest that the
 Chair Ignores Them.
 WASHINGTON, May 23-The Assembly is waiting in great expectancy for the re- Briggs case. It is understood that this committee will find the appeal, with its specifications of error, to be in order, and will recommend that it be entertained. This will bring the case to an issue and will confine the discussion to the sustain ing of the appeal.
 The Judicial Committee was organized Friday night in it's council rooms at the Fredonia. At that meeting the committee voted without division that the appeal was in order. It then developed that there was a misunderstanding on the part of four or five members as to what ''in order" meant. Some believed that it meant simply that the case was before the Assembly for dis cussion. The majority understood that it meant that the Prosecuting Committee had right to appeal the case to the Gen.
 eral Assembly and that it was mandatory
 on the part of the Assembly to receive and
 issue the case.
 It then became evident that it would be
 necessary to have @ report that would in
 form the Assembly exactly what was
 meant by ''inding the appeal in order. "
 That caused long discussion and during
 it the dissenting members on the commit
 tee dwindled down to two ministers and an elder. If this idea prevails in commit
 tee and is given headway in Assembly, 1t
 will shorten the agony in the Briggs case
 by at least two solid days.
 The question of entering the appeal in the Assembly does not involve the merits of the Briggs case. If the appeal is found to be in order, it is perfectly regular and in
 accordance with the book of discipline to entertain the appeal and issue the case. In doing this the Assembly would simply follow the rulings of previous assemblies and abide by the constitution. The Briggs men would have to show that, in this case, there were special reasons why the appeal
 should not take the regular course. These reasons would be reasons of expediency and purely personal.
 The constitutional questions could not
 be raised unless the court should take the position that more light was wanted on these questions than could be gathered from the decisions of previous assemblies. As these decisions were rendered in 1891 ' and 1892, it would be extraordinary for g 1. court of 1893 to take this course. u ! would be as if the Supreme Court of the United States should allow lawyers to talks up the time of the judges in arguments of constitutional points which had just been settled by its own decision.
 The present moderator is not the man to
 encourage such a proceeding. It may be said that friends of Dr. Briggs will have no opportunity to make & constitutional argument On this issue the members of New York Presbytery cannot be heard | The book forbids it.
 Dr. Birch, as chairman of the Prosecu | tion committee, will open the debate Ht will be followed by Col. John J. McCook | also of the Prosecution committee.