the spirit and terms of their exclusion from all Church judicatories (the session excepted) until the next Assembly, and the contingent dissolution of Presbyteries, as needlessly harsh measures, pregnant with evil to the Church. And we fortify this conclusion by the fact, fully established in debate and controverted by no one, that one of the Presbyteries now represented in this House, and even one or more of the members of this very Assembly, had used language and performed acts quite as pregnant with rebellion towards the Assembly without being subjected to the slightest censure. 5. We protest against these measures because they will inevitably tend, as we believe, to foment strife and alienation. The Church needs repose. Rent asunder by the war, and agitated with conflicting passions, it requires to be soothed and cemented and comforted. The final action of the Assembly, as connected with the previous measures and debates (for the whole must be taken together), can hardly fail to bring about another secession or separation; to divide congregations; to instigate law-suits; to diffuse and prolong a bitter but hitherto local controversy; to create widespread dissatisfaction with the deliverances of the Assembly, and to alienate many of the best friends of our institutions. With one accord our several Boards have appeared before us, deploring the falling off in their receipts and the decay of sympathy in their operations. We greatly fear that the measures against which we protest will aggravate these evils. 6. We believe that the interests of the Church and of the country are identified, and thus believing, we protest against these proceedings as adapted to impair the capacity of the Church for its legitimate and beneficent work, and to increase and perpetuate the jealousies and animosities which still vex the land. 7. And, finally, we protest against these ordinances, because they are likely to defer, if not prevent, that Christian co-operation between the Presbyterian Churches, North and South, which is so needful to the evangelizing of our people, and especially to the religious instruction of four millions of freedmen, most of them now as sheep without a shepherd. In General Assembly, at St. Louis, Mo., June 2, 1866. MINISTERS. Boardman, D.D., H. A. RULING ELDers. Marshall, C. A. McClellan, J. S. EXPULSION OF A MEMBER OF THE ASSEMBLY.-On Thursday morning, May 31, 1867, SAMUEL GALLOWAY, Ruling Elder of Columbus Presbytery, read the following article from The Ohio Statesman :* "The debate in the Assembly ran higher to-day, or rather lower, than ever. It was reserved for Mr. Galloway, of Ohio, to cap the climax of vulgarity and demagogism. He certainly outdid himself in low allusions, false assumptions, bitter invective, personal abuse, and in every other mean thing that could characterize an orator who appeared to be at the same time both a fool and a fiend! "I grant this is strong language, but not a whit more so than the truth will warrant. His manner was monstrous! A dancing monkey's motions were graceful to it. Indeed it was awful! Sublimely ridiculous! His twistings and bodily contortions, could they have been photographed, would have furnished comic almanac-makers with an almost limitless number of grotesque samples for all time to come. Besides his disgusting egotism, his self-righteous laudations, his canting use of Scripture, his boasting, dirty insinua *The Ohio Statesman is a newspaper published at Columbus, Ohio. This article is only referred to in the Minutes of the Assembly, pp. 58-95, but not entered on the records. tions; in a word, his scurrility and blackguardism, exceeded anything of the kind it was ever my painful misfortune to hear. "The fact is, he disgraced himself, his Presbytery, his Church, this Assembly and religion generally, by his long, vile, illogical and most wickedly impassioned harangue. It brought a tinge of shame on the cheek of his best friends. Some who had no personal acquaintance with him thought he had a 'Highland gill' in his cheek. But it is declared that he is a radical temperance man. This most unfortunate exhibition of vulgarity and malignity was called forth by a resolution of Dr. Boardman, on yesterday, on the unwarranted and wicked course being pursued by the majority of the Assembly in regard to Governor Wickliffe, Dr. Stuart Robinson and Dr. Wilson, delegates from the Presbytery of Louisville, because said Presbytery did publish to the world a strong statement on the illegal procedure of the General Assembly of last year in Pittsburg. Mr. G. boldly affirmed that a word spoken against the Assembly was treason and the speaker a traitor: that Dr. Boardman was a traitor, and his speech yesterday treason, and till he washed his hands of the blood of this hellish crime, he (Mr. G.) would never sit down with him at the Lord's table.' These were his words. His speech, as published in the Democrat, may be bad enough; but as that sheet is exceedingly radical, and the only one that pretends to give verbatim reports phonographically taken, and as Mr. G.'s friends were shocked at the outlandish indecencies and fallacies of this unfortunate affair, some of the more vulgar and blasphemous parts may be omitted. ་ "But I weary you. Mr. Galloway surely forgot himself to-day. He has disgraced himself for ever in the estimation not only of Christian gentlemen, but in the opinion of the ungodly world. Why he did so no one can tell. It was unprovoked and unexpected. He was not called to order by either member or Moderator, as the latter requested the Assembly to permit 'great latitude' of discussion. It was as good as a monkey-show to the populace;some of them hissed, others cheered! Thus we go-go to pieces as a Church of Christ. It is alarming to witness how rapidly and superficially the legitimate business of the Assembly is passed over, and how eager many are to take up the unfinished business' relating to Louisville Presbytery, &c. It is painful to say it, but many think and say that this Assembly has done more, far more, against the interests of true religion in this city since it convened last week than the big horse-races that have been in progress here for some time! What a curse radicalism is! "But I weary you. So, for the present I close, sorry that the great State of Ohio has been disgraced by the only two really unsufferably radical and disgustingly vulgar speeches in this Assembly so far.' On reading the article, Mr. Galloway said he attributed it to Rev. W. M. Ferguson, of Zanesville Presbytery. John M. Krebs, D.D., of New York Presbytery, offered the following: Resolved, That unless the Rev. William M. Ferguson forthwith retract the offensive publication, and make an ample apology to the satisfaction of this House, he be immediately expelled. Mr. Ferguson made an explanation, whereupon Robert McKnight, of Allegheny City Presbytery, offered the following as an amendment: Resolved, That the Rev. William M. Ferguson, a commissioner to this General Assembly, because of a gross, abusive, and scandalous libel, published in the Ohio Statesman, on members of this body, which he has now qualified in the presence of the Assembly, is entitled to, and does hereby, receive the grave censure of this Assembly. Various resolutions to substitute, to amend, and to commit, were proposed, which were all laid upon the table in order that, by general consent, Dr. Krebs might offer the following resolution, viz. : Resolved, That whereas the Rev. W. M. Ferguson, a commissioner to this General Assembly from Zanesville Presbytery, is, by his own acknowledgment, guilty of writing and publishing in the Ohio Statesman, a gross, abusive, scandalous, and slanderous libel against members of this Assembly, and against this Assembly itself, and although he has qualified it in the presence of this Assembly, this morning, his explanation is not deemed satisfactory; therefore, Resolved, That the Rev. William M. Ferguson be forthwith expelled as a member of this House. On these resolutions the previous question was called for, and the call was sustained. The main question was then put, and the resolutions were adopted, when the Moderator announced that the Rev. W. M. Ferguson, a commissioner from the Presbytery of Zanesville, had been expelled from membership in this General Assembly. On motion of Dr. Krebs, it was Resolved, That a copy of the article written for the Ohio Statesman by the Rev. William Ferguson, reflecting upon the Hon. Samuel Galloway and this General Assembly, be procured by the Clerk and kept on file among the papers of the Assembly. PASTORAL LETTER.-On motion of Thomas E. Thomas, D.D., a committee of six be appointed, of which the Moderator shall be chairman, to prepare a Pastoral Letter to the Churches. The Moderator appointed P. D. Gurley, D.D., T. E. Thomas, D.D., J. M. Krebs, D.D., and Messrs. G. T. Green, J. M. Ray and Henry Day. They reported the following Pastoral Letter: The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America, in session in St. Louis, Mo., A.D. 1866, to the churches and people under its care: BELOVED BRETHREN :-Under a sense of the solemn responsibilities which rest upon us as ministers and elders composing this highest judicatory of the Presbyterian Church, we greet you in the bonds of Christian followship. The circumstances under which are met, the state of the Church at large which we represent, the important business which has come before us, the results which we have reached, and the duty we owe to all the churches and people under our care, as well as to the world without, combine to render it incumbent on us, at the close of an Assembly whose sessions have been unusually protracted, to lay before you our views upon certain matters of great moment to the welfare of Christ's kingdom. The position of the Presbyterian Church towards our brethren in the South who were formerly in the same ecclesiastical connection with us is one of the subjects demanding special attention. That position has been misapprehended by some, and by others perverted. The General Assembly of 1865 met a few weeks after the last battles of a gigantic civil war which had continued four years. That war originated in rebellion against the government of the United States. During its progress the Church of our fathers became divided, and in December, 1861, some ten Synods and forty-four Presbyteries, with the churches under their care, organized a separate Church under another General Assembly. Four General Assemblies-namely, those of 1861, 1862, 1863 and 1864-had deliberately and solemnly pronounced this rebellion a heinous offence in the light of both human and Divine law, and had enjoined upon the people under their care the duty of upholding the government against which the rebellion was waged. When, therefore, the Assembly of 1865 convened, recognizing these doctrines upon rebellion and loyalty as true, and recognizing the wellknown fact that many persons lately of our ecclesiastical household, some of them ministers and elders, had been prominently concerned in instigating and aiding the rebellion, that body simply designed to apply, as a logical and righteous necessity, the principles laid down by the four preceding Assemblies. As they had successively declared the rebellion to be a sin and gross offence, the last Assembly made provision that those in the Southern Church who had been guilty of willingly aiding the rebellion should acknowledge their sin and profess repentance as a condition precedent, provided they should wish to return to their former relations with us. It is impossible to see what could have been done less than this, without, on the one hand, totally ignoring the solemn deliverances of the four previous Assemblies, and in effect treating their doctrines upon the rebellion and loyalty as erroneous, or, on the other hand, while admitting these doctrines to be true, allowing the men who had been guilty of setting them at naught to come back into our fellowship without inquiry into their conduct, and thus making us partakers of their sins. We regard it as completely within the province of the General Assembly to make these provisions Rebellion against lawful civil authority is a gross sin by the word of God, and is so declared, in terms, by our standards. These standards also make it the duty of the General Assembly to "bear testimony against error in doctrine and immorality in practice in any church, Presbytery, or Synod." Four Assemblies had borne testimony against the "immorality" of the rebellion; the fifth simply enjoined upon Sessions, Presbyteries, and Synods the duty of requiring repentance of the "immorality" in any who might apply for admission who had willingly aided the rebellion. In this, the last Assembly but called the attention of the lower courts to what was their obvious duty, without any injunction; but such injunction became necessary for two reasons: first, because some Presbyteries were in doubt as to their duty, and had overtured that Assembly for direction; and, secondly, because it was feared that in some portions of the Church the lower courts would not act, except under an express injunction of the Assembly. Beyond this it was manifestly essential that there should be a uniform rule of procedure for all the courts, touching the offence of rebellion, applicable to all who should apply for admission from the Southern Church. Such rule the last Assembly provided. In this provision there was nothing new. It was but a direction to deal with gross offenders, should they seek to join the Church from which they had separated. If they should not make application, they would not be disturbed. Not only our standards, but those of every Church in Christendom, deem rebellion against lawful authority an offence cognizable by church courts. The Presbyterian Church of Scotland has many times deposed from the ministry those who have been guilty of rebellion; and it was the unanimous opinion of the members of the General Assembly of our Church, in 1864, that disloyalty to the "powers that be" in our civil war was an ecclesiastical offence. It is thus too clear to admit of doubt that the Assembly of 1865 was not only fully competent to make the provisions in question, but that, had it failed to do so, it would have fallen short of its duty. The only feature in these provisions which can be called new arises from the fact that the Presbyterian Church in this country had never before been called to deal with such an offence. While, therefore, the last Assembly but fulfilled its duty in issuing these injunctions, it left their application to the persons concerned entirely to the lower courts. In its directions to them it showed that it was actuated by conciliation and kindness. It "gave counsel to the several church courts' that, in "discharging the duties enjoined, due regard be paid to the circumstances of the case, and that justice be tempered with mercy." It directed that "tenderness" should be exercised especially towards the young who had been led astray by "unprincipled and ambitious leaders;" and it expressed the hope that by kind and faithful instruction and admonition, and by the presence of the Holy Spirit, most of them would be reclaimed from the error of their ways, and become loyal citizens and valuable members of the Church." The injunctions and counsels of the last Assembly were thus kind and fraternal towards those who were guilty of having willingly aided the rebellion. Any concession touching the offences of such persons would have been the height of unkindness. It would have been a connivance at their sin, and would have brought down upon them, and upon us alike, the displeasure of God. In regard to our brethren throughout the South who did not aid the rebellion, or who aided it from the force of circumstances or under protest of conscience, the General Assembly has ever felt the deepest concern. That of 1862 spake to such as follows: "To those in like circumstances who are not chargeable with the sins which have brought such calamities upon the land, but who have chosen, in the exercise of their Christian liberty, to stand in their lot and suffer, we address words of affectionate sympathy, praying God to bring them off conquerors. To those in like circumstances, who have taken their lives in their hands and risked all for their country and for conscience' sake, we say, we love such with all our hearts, and bless God such witnesses were found in the time of thick darkness." The Assembly of 1863 thus said to the same class: "We tender our kind sympathies to those who are overtaken by troubles they could not avoid, and who mourn and weep in secret places, not unseen by the Father's eye.' The present Assembly, in a paper adopted with entire unanimity, says of the same persons, that we still cherish a kindly and fraternal regard for them, and whenever any of them shall desire to return to their former connection with us, they will receive a cordial welcome." And the present Assembly further says: "In regard to those who have voluntarily aided and countenanced the said rebellion and separation, this Assembly disclaims all vindictive feelings and all disposition to exercise an undue severity, and reiterates it readiness to receive them back whenever they shall have complied with the conditions laid down by the last General Assembly on page 563 of its printed Minutes. It thus appears that six General Assemblies in succession, including the present, have, with remarkable unanimity, maintained the same position concerning the rebellion and concerning those engaged in it. After carefully reviewing the whole course of these years of strife and alienation, we find nothing to recall or modify in the deliverances which have been made. We have taken our position upon the clearest principles of the word of God, as set forth in our standards. We have aimed to reclaim offenders by demanding only what Christ requires of us as rulers in his house. We have repeatedly expressed our solemn judgment regarding their offences, but we have uniformly done it in faithfulness and kindness only, as our duty required. While to these our brethren who have thus offended against the law of Christ we would reiterate the language of the Assembly of 1862, and earnestly address words of exhortation and rebuke,' we still extend to them the hand of kindness, and desire that our former ecclesiastical fellow |