OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ла BY THE REV. EH GILLETT, D.D.. Author of "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN HUSS," "THE MORAL SYSTEM,” "GOD IN HUMAN THOUGHT,” ETC., ETC. REVISED EDITION. VOL. I. PHILADELPHIA : PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION No. 1334 CHESTNUT STREET. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by the PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. THE reunion of the two branches of the Presbyterian Church in this country, happily effected in 1869 after a division of more than thirty years, has called for the revision of a work prepared during the period of their separation. It has not been thought necessary to add to it the record of the steps which led to the reunion, as these are embodied in the volume entitled "Presbyterian Reunion Memorial," published in 1870; but in order to do impartial justice to the position and views of the two parties from the time when they first appeared, certain changes and modifications of statement have been deemed necessary, and these have been embodied in this revised edition. So far as most of the statements of facts are concerned, very little change has been required, but what before was asserted without qualification as to the relation and action of the two parties has been so modified that the party by whom such assertion was regarded as historically true or just is alone made responsible for it. In other words, the historian has allowed each party to speak for itself, representing its own views, while the reader is left at liberty to draw his own conclusions. No other course than this was possible in the circumstances. The position and sentiments of each branch of the Church have become historical, and to exclude or ignore them would have betrayed at once an unworthy V timidity and distrust of the solid basis of reunion, and a faithlessness to the claims which demand an impartial statement of all the facts material to a proper historic record. Moreover, the history of a denomination, like that of a State, has its lessons; and if lessons of warning against dangers which are liable to recur, they can be gathered only from the study of many things which, if truth would suffer it, we might prefer to leave unrecorded. But if good men, and even wise men, have erred, their errors may prove only less instructive than their virtues ; and while we jealously vindicate their just fame and their conceded merits, we are not at liberty to conceal their failings when these must be known in order to form an impartial judgment of events in which many others besides themselves were equally interested. To render the revision as perfect as possible, and to remove whatever could be fairly considered as objectionable, competent aid has been sought from those most familiar with the subject and best qualified to suggest emendations.1 It is believed that the work in its present form will prove acceptable to the reunited Church, furnishing it with information concerning its origin and progress that can be found nowhere else in the same compass. E. H. GILLETT. 1I feel myself under special obligations to the Rev. S. J. M. Eaton, D. D., whose "History of the Presbytery of Erie" ranks with the very best of our local church histories; as also to Rev. J. H. Martin, D. D., of Tennessee, Rev. Wm. Aikman, D. D., of Detroit, and others of whose communications I have availed myself in this revision. NOTE. Ar the request of Dr. Dulles, on behalf of the Board of Publication, as well as of Dr. Gillett, the author, I read over carefully the volumes of this History, with a view to suggest alterations which the late reunion has made proper. It is a pleasure to state that both these brethren, the author and the editor, have manifested the utmost readiness to expunge anything like a partisan tinge, and to render the work unexceptionable to the whole Church. Of course it could not be re-edited without a substantial identification with the original imprint. We could not consistently wish it to be otherwise and retain the truth of history as it lies in the mind of the author. But I am happy in testifying that candor, amity and a truth-loving heart have conceded everything that "Old School" men could reasonably ask in this revision. ALEX. T. MCGILL. PRINCETON, August 20, 1873. FROM THE PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION. MORE than seventy years have elapsed since the attention of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States was called to the subject of preparing a history of the denomination in this country. In 1791, Rev. Drs. Wither |