Middletown transcript., 1903-11-14
Mr.. Blake said.


Mr.. Elwood here resumed his objec
tions and declared that the Presbyter,
had no right to censure him until he had
trial. He wanted the Presbytery to &C
straight and denied that he had ever ex
hibited blood stained leaves from his pull
pit on the night of his sermon. lie
wanted this stricken from the report oi
the committee.
: Rev. ]. L. Vallandigham, one Of the
J Oldest members of the Presbytery, re.
marked: "We should express our dis
approval OF the sermon. 1t is the plain
duty of ministers of the Gospel to lead
} sinners to Christ; not to stir up rioting
and bloodshed. We should admonish
our younger clergymen to be careful how
they handle political or secular subjects
} in the pulpit"
Rev. Joseph Brown Turner read from
the book of discipline that errors of
weakmindedness or misjudgment must be
dealt with cautiously, and with due pru-
dence. This spurred Mr.. Elwood to re-
! ply that he was not weakminded.
DR.. McCurdy here asked if he meant to
say that he did not have the leaves in
any form and Mr.. Elwood replied that
they were not exhibited as the preamble
alleged. Accordingly, the Presbytery
ordered that portion of the document
stricken out. Mr.. Elwood also wanted
the words "alleged murderer" substituted
by the words "self confessed murderer"
but the Presbytery refused to grant this.
DR.. McCurdy here declared that he
thought it was out of place for one in the
position of Mr.. Elwood to dictate to tine
body, but Mr.. Elwood contended that he
had the right to object as the document
was supposed to be statement of facts.
He said:
l do object to the language of the re-
solution as the Presbytery places as a
censure on me. If the resolution should
be adopted, censure will be placed on
me, and the Presbytery has no right to
do this without placing me on trial."
| Mr.. Elwood was here asked what his
idea was in preaching his sermon. DR..
Moore said he had read in the Philadel-
phia Ledger letter from Mr.. Elwood to
the editor, and his impression was that
Mr.. Elwood stated in that letter that his
object in preaching the sermon was to
urge the judges to give the accused
speedy trial, to which Mr.. Elwood re-
piled: "That was the thought that was in
my mind"
A prolonged discussion relative to what
recommendation to accept followed and
DIR. McCurdy addressed the body in
which he referred to the fact that there
is strong feeling in the Presbytery over
the sermon. 1t was the first time, he
said when a minister of the Presbytery
arraigned the courts, and he believed
that if the body adopted recommends
tion which did nothing more than express
disapproval the Synod would not accept
it.
Mr.. Elwood had been asked to express
regret that he had preached the sermon
and refused to do go. He was requested
to speak in his own behalf, and going
forward to the front of the church he
said:
"When 1 reached Wilmington on June
18th, after having been away for some
time, was informed through the press
| of the horrible crime which had been
committed and that the request for a
speedy trial had been refused by the
courts. 1t was on Friday night when
reached Wilmington, and soon realized
by the feeling of the people that unless a
speedy trial was given, the man would
| be lynched.
"There having been one attempt made
to lynch the murderer thought that the
only way to prevent repetition was
to appeal to the citizens to respect the
law and to appeal to the courts to grant
speedy trial. therefore decided upon
this sermon and advertised it, as I al
ways do, using the newspapers as an ad
vertising medium. The subject of the
sermon thought would attract attention
and that could get chance to advise
the people to abide by the law. l ap-
peaed to them to live within the law
and pressed it home to the judges to
give the man speedy trial. 1t has been
said by the Chief Justice that preached
to an infuriated mob. Some of the per-
SONS who listened to my sermon have
since told me that they had made up
their minds to assist in the lynching, but |
decided not to go after hearing my SER
mon. II
$50 So f1efp me Coo, I believed every #eEd
of that sermon and I believe it to God,
and I stand before You as I hope to stand |
before my maker. cannot say that am
sorry, for am not. You ask me to re-
tract, which cannot
The discussion was resumed and in
the midst of the discussion DR.. Moore
representing the women of Forest Church |
announced that the hour for luncheon
had arrived.
Accordingly, recess was taken from
1890 to 2.30 o'clock and luncheon was
served in room over the post Office
building.
The afternoon session was resumed BY
Mr.. Perry declaring that Mr.. Elwood
should acknowledge his mistake and
make statement expressing his sorrow.
Mr.. Blake stoutly objected to this and
said that inasmuch as Mr.. Elwood had
declared that he believed he was doing
right when he preached the sermon il
would be wrong to ask such. Mr.. Gilfil-
Ian did not think it was right to put
a definite phrase in anyone's mouth.
Seeing that the discussion threatened
to be prolonged for sometime the Presby-
terry decided to name special committee
to formulate new statement of facts
from fragments Of the reports previously