The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-16

DY nature 10 bccs l hOA hASHAA
 class MT. Sinnott belongs.
 It was by the barest accident that we came into possession of this circular
 and as soon as we saw that we were being
 deceived in the matter, and that an at- tempt to pack synod against us was III
 process, we immediately took steps to pro-
 tect ourselves. We drew up circular iet-
 ter which we addressed not only To the members of the Tuscaloosa presoytery,
 but to every minister and to the cierk
 of every session in the synod O. Alabama,
 and in this circular we gave full notice
 that we proposed to go in force to the
 meeting of synod on the 18th or April
 and press the matter of the location Of the college to a final conclusion. In addition
 to this, when Dr. McIlwaine visited our
 city on the Monday following, we told him of our determination to take this ac~ | ton and urged him, if possible. to get
 full representation of synod. That he
 did this is evidenced by a telegram which
 Dr. McIlwaine states in letter written since the meeting of synod that he sent
 "to every minister in North Alabama presbytery and East Alabama presbytery where there was telegraph station, with the exception of such men as Anderson and Patterson, whom learned had been
 fully informed in regard to the meeting of synod"
 
 Birmingham, Ala, April 26, 1904. Things have changed. Come to synod | and bring elder with you if possible. (signed1 .'w. F. NfILwAINE." To claim in the face of this as some of them did on the floor of synod that the clties of Montgomery, Anniston and Flor
 ence did not have the proper notice is ao- solutely absurd
 In the meantime we took active steps lA. At,a ltf olnfnntinn which
 be urged against the vote being taken
 at this meeting of the synod. namely, that the Mobile Presbytery could not be pres ent We arranged with the superinten- dent of the Louisville and Nashville rail-
 road here for transportation Of members of the Mobile Presbytery who were In
 session at Monroeville on freight tram
 which was brought into Selma in time to
 catch the Southern train by way of Akron
 for Tuscaloosa. This was done and rep
 resentatives from the Presbytery Of Mo-
 bile reached Tuscaloosa in time to par
 ticipate in the final vote on the night or Thursday, the 2tSh of April, and It was
 done without any knowledge on our part
 as to the views of those delegates to-
 wards the location of the college, but
 simply to insure their presence at synod.
 When the synod was organized in Tus- caloosa it was found to contain as many
 representatives as had ever assembled at A meeting of the synod of Alabama, and these representatives came from
 every Presbytery of Alabama, except the
 Mobile Presbytery which arrived the
 same night.
 The first thing to come before the synod
 was the overture from the Presbytery Of
 East Alabama which has been mentioned in the circular letter above, requesting
 the synod to postpone action in the mat ter of locating the college until It's fall meeting. which, bear in mind was to be held in Anniston in November. A motlon was made to refer this to the committee
 on hills and overtures of which Rev A.
 A. Little of Selma was chairman. Rev.
 J. w. Stagg of Birmingham moved that it be not referred to this committed De-
 cause MT. Little is chairman of the com mittee and I want to keep him honest.
 Tn doing this he ignored the fact that
 he was placing the appointment or the
 committee in the hands Of the actlhB
 moderator, who was the prime instigator
 of the overture from East Alabama ana
 who was actively interested in the loca-
 ton of the college at Montgomery, ana
 he either had less regard for the honesty
 of the moderator than for that or MT.
 Little or he thought he was above sus-
 nicion No question of any kind was
 proposed as to this committee having
 held over from the regular to the caileo
 meeting of the synod, but 1t was merely
 a question of whether the Rev. MT. Little
 would be biased in his opinion that he
 would not be able to do justice on the
 floor of the committee, When this was
 mt to a vote the supporters of Selma
 were 46 to 40 against, and l claim that
 this was a fair test of the strength of
 Selma's vote.
 When the committee met 1t was shown
 that the objection in regard to the Pres-
 bytery of Mobile not being present had
 been removed. The letter which had been
 circulated throughout the East Alabama
 Presbytery in its endeavor to pack the synod was brought out before that com mittee, as was also the fact that the synod was committed by It's own publish ed call to take action as soon as 1t was practicable. It was also shown to the committee that the Mobile Presbytery by a virtually unanimous vote had declined to ask the synod to postpone the selec-
 ton of the college so that the Presbytery of East Alabama was asking a courtesy for the Mobile Presbytery which that
 Presbytery did not ask for itself
 After delberating fully on this matter and in view of all the facts that were presented the committee made a unani-
 nous report declining to concur in the
 overture of the Presbytery of East Ala bama This report was submitted 10 the synod at few minutes after o'clock In the afternoon and as soon as motion
 was made to adopte the report the pas for of the church at Tuscaloosa, who was the host of the synod, saw fit on the nlea of convenience to the good matrons of Tuscaloosa to move and adjourn for
 three hours until o'clock that night. This was a crucial moment in which Selma forcibly demonstrated her perfect | fairness to the competing cities by not | opposing this motion to adjourn, although we antic,nated what 1t meant and the re- suit was exactly as we had foreseen. When the synod reassembled at o'clock 1 that night 1t was moved as a substitute | fot the report of the committee on piils 1 and overtures that the synod snould ad7 | iourn to meet on the 9th day or June, and on this substitute motion the hnai l fight occurred.
 In speaking to this motion, Dr. Stagg I of Rirningham said, Brethren. we recog- nize that you have the advantage and that if YOU press the matter now, we are at your mercy, but inasmuch as con fusion has arisen and there has been
 doubt as to whether any action would
 be taken as to the location of the col lege now, and for this reason some cities nre not represented here as they would | have been otherwise, we throw ourselves upon your forbearance and, your mag nanimity and ask you not to press your l advantage now" | Dr. McIlwaine urged us not to take snap judgment on the synod at this l time.
 If this Is not confession that Selma would have won the victory if the matter had come to a vote. I don't understand 1 the English language.