The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-14
CENTENARY OF STUART
 ROBINSON, ELOQUENT
 DEFENDER OF SLAVERY

among the southern cIergymen of half century ago there were many able defenders of thee institution Of slavery, which they upheld as being ulYlnely inspired and founded by Je- hovah. At an even earlier period if was one of the reproa,claes heapedl on Ine abohtion cause that it's supporters were mainly "infidels', and haretics and hardly respectable.' 7 In the North clerical sentiment in regard to slavery gradually changed, but in the south ern states, with very few exceptions negro slavery had the full aLpprovaIe c,f the churches and ministers of all de- nominations One of the few excep. lions was the late Dr. Moncures Daniel Conway. who, although a Methodist minister in the South and a natve of Virginia, became an ardent abolition- ist, at the same time Joining the JJ1i- tar1an church. Later in life Dr. Con- way attained fame as a minister in London, and as a Journalist and au- Lnor. ana Tor many years prior to his oeaen m 1907 he was a leader among the agnostics a nd secuIarists
 Today marks the centenary of the birth of one of the most e1oquerat and influential of the clerical defenders Of slavery. the Rev. Stuart Robinson. pr Robinson was a native of Ireland, and was born in Stuabane on Nov 14. 1874. He emigEated to America when a how and was educated at Amherst CsoIlege and at Princeton Theological Semi nary.
 When he entered the Presbyter1an ministry pr. Robinson held pastorates in Baltimore. and in Virginia and Kentucky, and become a conve4-t ta the southern attitude toward siave.-S In 1856 he became professor of ec-> clesiology at DanvfI1e Theological Seminary. Two years later he re mover to Louisville, where he assumed the editorial management ot the True Civil war, pr. Robinson consta.ntlv urged upon the readers of his paner the necessity of preserving the instft,I- uon or slavery at any cost. Kentucky was then middle ground, and it's people were divided in alIeksianca ha- tween the North and South The cIer- gyrnaR-editor was so outspoken in his denunc1atons of the North that he at tracted the attention of the JJnion the True Presbyterian. Later the plnb- aea1on was revived under the name Of The Free Christian CommonweaIt1,
 When the war divided the Chris ylis.- tians of the United States into warning camps the Kentucky Presbyterfans were at variance in their views as to which body to join, but the eIoouence. ana influence of the Irish clergyman at length prevailed, and the Kentuclzv synod cast it's fortunes with the sou- thern church.
 Rooinsons sermons and discourses were published in papers all over the South, and were widely read, and many of them were published in book form His literary reputation chiefly rests however, on the p1rblished lec- : ture entitled Slavery as Recognied by Mosaic Civil Law and as Recog- nized and Allowed by the Abrahannic. Mosaic and Christian Church. This volume. published in 1885, was an able n1arshaIling of all the theological and religious arguments in behalf of sIa- very.
 Dr. Robinson continued to be prom 1nent in the councils of the Southern Presbyterian church until his death. which occurred in Louisville in 1881. Although half a century has passed since the division of the Presbyterians Of the United States into northern and southern bodies, they still maintain seperate organizations. but the old hostility has died out and the day of complete reconciliation is doubtless anDTOachinR