ground of his color or his race." Even if suffrage may not be universal, let it at least be impartial.

2. In case such impartial suffrage is not conceded, that we may still reap the legitimate fruits of our national victory over secession and slavery, and that freason and rebellion may not enure to the direct political advantage of the guilty, we judge it to be a simple act of justice, that the constitutional basis of representation in Congress should be so far altered as to meet the exigencies growing out of the abolition of slavery; and we likewise hold it to be the solemn duty of our National Executive and Congress to adopt only such methods of reconstruction as shall effectually protect all loyal persons in the States lately in revolt.

3. As loyalty is the highest civic virtue, and treason the highest civic crime, so it is necessary for the due vindication and satisfaction of national justice that the chief fomenters and representatives of the rebellion should, by due course and process of law, be visited with condign punishment.

4. The Christian religion being the underlying source of all our power, prosperity, freedom and national unity, we earnestly exhort all our ministers and churches to constant and earnest prayer for the President of the United States and his constitutional counselors; for the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled; for the Judges in our National Courts; for those who bear rule in our army and navy; and for all persons intrusted with authority, that they may be endued with heavenly wisdom and rule in the fear of the Lord, and so administer their high trusts, without self-seeking or partiality, that this great republic, being delivered from its enemies, may renew its youth, and put forth all its strength in the ways of truth and righteousness, for the good of our own land and the welfare of mankind.

5. And we further exhort and admonish the members of our churches to diligent and personal efforts for the safety and prosperity of the nation, to set aside all partisan and sectional aims and low ambitions, and to do their full duty as Christian freemen, to the end that our Christian and Protestant civilization may maintain its legitimate ascendancy, and that we become not the prey of any form of infidelity, or subject to any foreign priestly domination; that the sacred interests of civil and religious freedom, of human rights and justice to all, of national loyalty and national unity, may be enlarged and perpetuated, making our Christian Commonwealth a praise among the nations of the earth, exemplifying and speeding the progress of the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Resolved. That a copy of the foregoing report be sent to the President of the United States, through the Secretary of State, to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

INTEMPERANCE.-The following declaration in relation to intemperance was adopted:

In view of the general prevalence and great increase of intemperance in this country, this General Assembly bears the following testimony:

1. That we rejoice in the renewed diligence shown by the Church in arresting the progress of this great evil.

2. That total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks, as a beverage, is demanded from every Christian by the condition of society, the purity of the Church and the Word of God.

3. We recommend that on the last Sabbath in June next ministers in our connection preach on the subject of intemperance.

4. The General Assembly having heard the statements made touching the National Temperance Society, lately organized in the city of New York, and

believing its spirit and policy to be in harmony with our utterances for upward of fifty years past; therefore,

Resolved, That we regard the new National Temperance Society with favor, as well adapted in form, vigor and scope of its organization, to grapple with the great national sin of intemperance, and as such commend it to the faithful prayers, liberal support and earnest co-operation of our churches.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.-The following letter was received from the Free Church of Scotland, and ordered to be published in the Minutes:

DEAR CHRISTIAN BRETHREN:-We take advantage of the meeting of our General Assembly, at present convened, to greet you cordially in the name of the Lord. We feel constrained to do so in consequence of the singularly momentous character of recent events in your country, and of their mighty influence on your respective churches. It may be premature to say much, as the echoes of war have scarce yet died away, and the future may be, in other ways, as eventful as these four years of conflict; but, without anticipating Providence, we have a plain Christian duty to discharge in consequence of what falls already within the province of history.

God has assuredly been speaking to your country by terrible things in righteousness. The ploughshare of war has gone deep into the soul of your people. You have been long familiar with scenes of bloodshed, such as the world never saw before, and we pray God, if consistent with his holy will, it may never witness again. But, even in this respect, good has come out of evil, for the agony and ruin of war have opened up to you many new fields of Christian philanthropy. We refer in particular to the work of your "Christian Commission," with its rich provision for the temporal and spiritual wants of your soldiers and sailors; and we hope that all churches shall profit by this noble exhibition of Christian love in a singularly arduous and self-sacrificing sphere of labor.

We have special pleasure in referring to the sympathy lately awakened on behalf of America among all classes in Britain, by the assassination of your great and good President, and we adore the Most High, who has thus turned one of the blackest crimes of our age into a means of softening down asperities of feeling, of correcting grave misunderstandings, of fusing the hearts of nations in love; above all, of calling forth in full measure the prayers of Christ's people on this side of the Atlantic on behalf of your sorely-stricken land. We rejoice that your country is to have rest from war, and that the restoration of peace is to be followed by the abolition of slavery. No words could better express our views than those of your lamented President, written in April, 1864: "I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not what either party or any man devised or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new causes to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God." The divergence of sentiment and action formerly existing between you and us as to this question thus ceases, and we give the glory to Him who is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. As there is really nothing now to prevent a complete and cordial understanding between the British and the American Churches, we take the earliest possible opportunity of giving utterance to this conviction and desire

of our hearts. Our prayers shall rise with yours to the throne of grace, in asking, for your rulers and your people, all heavenly wisdom in dealing with one of the weightiest social problems ever presented to any country for solution. We shall watch with the liveliest interest the future history of the negro race within your borders; and you have our best wishes for the success of every scheme bearing on their temporal or spiritual welfare. We are by no means forgetful of our former share of national guilt as to negro slavery, and it would ill become us to judge you harshly or unadvisedly. But it is right and proper that we should encourage you by our British experience, for the abolition of slavery in our West India islands removed a great stumbling-block out of our path; it led to a marked quickening of the public conscience; it gave our country a far higher Christian place among the nations, and it enabled all the churches to proclaim with fullness and sincerity the gospel of salvation through Him who came to undo the heavy burdens and to break every yoke. We have no doubt that your churches will be ready to follow where Providence now points the way.

As the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, we have every cause to reciprocate sentiments of brotherly kindness and charity toward members of the same Presbyterian family with ourselves. We must all feel the necessity for closer fellowship between Churches that have a common language, a common ancestry, a common faith. Presbyterianism would thereby become vastly more influential for good. It would bulk more largely in the eye of Christendom, and every section of our ecclesiastical commonwealth would get enlargement of heart, by partaking of the heritage of truth and grace common to all. We beg to add that the greatest advantage would follow from the occasional visits of accredited deputies from your Churches to us, and from us to you. We have much to learn from your varied schemes of Christian usefulness in dealing with a state of society so different from ours; and we know, from the testimony of Dr. Duff and many others, that in the field of heathenism there are no missionaries of more truly apostolic spirit than those sent forth by the Churches of America. You on your part might also find it not unprofitable to study the working of Presbyterianism in Scotland, fragrant as our beloved country is with the memories of the martyrs, and earnestly contending, as it still does, for the faith once delivered to the saints. We must not forget, however, that there are other Churches beyond the circle of Presbyterianism, with which we desire to cultivate a spirit of concord, and from the field of whose experience we seek to gather like precious fruit. Let us provoke one another to love and to good works. Let us strive, as in the fire, to prevent at any subsequent time the possibility of estrangement between our respective nations. Let us pray that the same blessed Spirit poured down so largely on your land during the period of your revival may become the living bond of unity and peace between us. And let us ever realize the solemn fact that, humanly speaking, the Christian interests of the world hang mainly on the efforts put forth by Christ's people in Great Britain and America.

And now, dear brethren, we beseech the God of all grace to overrule these shakings of the nations for the upbuilding of that kingdom which cannot be moved; and we affectionately commend you to Him who will give strength to his people and who will bless his people with peace. For of him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Signed in name and by authority of the Free Church of Scotland, at Edinburgh, Scotland, May 30, 1865. JAMES BEGG, D.D., Moderator.

In accordance with previous invitation, the Rev. JAMES MCCOSH, LL.D., addressed the Assembly in reference to the condition of the Nonconformist Presbyterian Churches of Great Britain.

THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.-HENRY B. SMITH, D.D., Chairman, made the following report, which was adopted:

The General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, in a letter bearing date May 30, 1865, having proposed to us a closer fellowship by "the occasional visits of accredited deputies" from our respective Churches; and the same proposal having been confirmed in the address of the Rev. JAMES McCoSH, LL.D.; therefore,

Resolved, That this Assembly cordially accede to this proposal for an interchange of deputies, on such specific terms as may hereafter be designated; and that two deputies be appointed to represent our Church at the next General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, in Edinburgh, May, 1867. Resolved, That the committee having in charge the correspondence with the Free Church of Scotland be authorized to make these appointments in the name of this General Assembly.

Resolved, That we tender to the Rev. James McCosh, LL.D., our sincere thanks for the able and eloquent manner in which he has discharged his office as the virtual, if not technical, representative of the Free Church of Scotland; that we offer him the assurance of our personal honor and regard; and that we pray for his continued and increasing success and influence in the great and useful labors to which his life is devoted.

Resolved, That copies of this minute be sent to the Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, and to the Rev. Dr. McCosh.

The committee appointed to answer the letter addressed to our Church by the Free Church of Scotland propose to the Assembly the following draft of a reply:

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (N. s.), in session at the First Presbyterian Church in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, May 28, 1866, to the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, greeting:

DEAR BRETHREN :-The most welcome letter of your venerable Assembly, bearing date Edinburgh, May 30, 1865, and subscribed by your Moderator, the Rev. James Begg, D.D., has been received by our Assembly with heartfelt gratitude and approval. We warmly reciprocate your affectionate Christian salutations, and respond with lively emotions to your expressions of sympathy and confidence, and to your proposals for a closer fellowship. Though separated by the broad ocean, we are bound together by no ordinary ties. No Church of another land has a stronger hold than yours upon our love and honor. The one Reformed faith is our common heritage. We express that faith in the same symbols; we have in essence the same Presbyterian polity; and we are equally engaged in kindred evangelical labors at home and abroad. There are also between us many ties of a common ancestry. And we venerate the names of your early Reformers; our ministry is still instructed by the writings of your great divines; our faith is strengthened by the bright example of your heroic martyrs, who fought a good fight for religious and civil liberty; and in your especial conflicts and sacrifices for a Free Church you have had, these twenty years, our constant and warmest sympathy, We honor the high wisdom and extraordinary liberality which have made you prosperous and strong, and the new testimony you have

given to the self-sustaining power of the Christian Church when contending for its righteous liberties. It is a good thing that the sacred fire kindled by the old Covenanters is still burning in the heart of Scotland, and that their flaming torches have been handed down from sire to son. In all these things, dear brethren, we do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

It is, then, with no ordinary satisfaction that we have received your proposal for an interchange of "accredited deputies" between our Churches, as occasion may serve. As you will see by an accompanying minute, this Assembly has unanimously resolved to appoint two such deputies to represent us before your venerable body in May, 1867. They will in due time be named and commissioned, and we bespeak for them a fraternal welcome. We also invite you to send deputies to the General Assembly of our own Church at its next sessions, in the city of Rochester, in the State of New York, May, 1867, assuring them a most cordial reception.

We have this year been favored with an address, made in your behalf, by the Rev. JAMES MCCOSH, LL.D., of Belfast, Ireland, who came to us with ample testimonials from several of the honored ministers of your Church. Already known to us by his elaborate and thoughtful works, so important in relation to the great conflict between Christianity and some forms of modern infidelity, he hardly needed any external recommendation to insure him an attentive hearing. His eloquent and sympathetic words have drawn us to you by the cords of a common faith and love.

The sympathy you express in the calamities and sufferings brought upon us by our recent war, in the assassination of our beloved and venerated President Lincoln-a martyr to the cause of human freedom-and your fervent congratulations upon the abolition of slavery throughout our States, as well as your wise suggestions, derived in part from your British experience, in respect to the future condition of the negro race, call for our grateful recognition. These things have weighed, and still weigh, upon the mind and conscience of this nation. God has guided us by his wonder-working Providence, bringing good out of evil. He has sorely chastised us for our national sins, and we bow in penitence, yet in trust, beneath his mighty hand. He has indeed caused the wrath of man to promote his own high purposes of grace and wisdom. And in the difficulties and perplexities that still beset our path, in the vast social and political, as well as religious, problems that we are called upon to solve, we humbly invoke and rely upon his wisdom and grace. Here too we feel assured that your prayers will mingle with ours.

You say that "the divergence of sentiment and action formerly existing between us" on the question of slavery has now ceased;" and as there is really nothing now to prevent a complete and cordial understanding between the British and the American Churches, we take the earliest possible opportunity of giving utterance to this conviction and desire of our hearts," We thank you for these words; we unite with you in the petition for the removal of all estrangements, and the establishment not only of our old, but even of a better and nearer, fellowship. And because of this our common wish and purpose, we are emboldened to say to you, with the utmost Christian frankness as well as affection, that during the progress of our recent and terrible struggle for the very life of our nation, involving as it did by a vital necessity the emancipation of the slaves, we have at times been deeply pained and grieved, by the apparent indifference of the British Churches to the great principles and the manifest moral issues that were here at stake. From the beginning of the great rebellion our American Churches, as with one voice, proclaimed the real nature of the contest. Our own Assembly never faltered or wavered in the declarations that it was essentially a conflict be