RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Presbyterians
1768. The theological seminaries were established as follows: Princeton (at Princeton, N. J.), 1812; Auburn (at Auburn, N. Y.), 1819; Western (at Allegheny, Pa.), 1827; Lane (at Cincinnati, O.), 1829; McCormick (at Chicago, 111.), 1830; Lebanon (at Lebanon, Tenn.), 1852; Danville (at Danville, Ky.), 1853; German (at Dubuque, la.), 1856; Biddle (for colored students, at Charlotte, N. C), 1868; German (Bloomfield, N. J.), 1869; San Francisco (at San Francisco, Cal.), 1871; Lincoln (for colored students at Lincoln University, Pa.), 1871. The Union Theological Seminary at Richmond, Va., established in 1824, and the Columbia Seminary, Columbia, S. C, established in 1831, have been in connection since 1861 with the Presbyterian Church. [For the data respecting Union Theological Seminary, New York City, founded 1836, see under Theological Seminaries.] The statistics of the seminaries for 1909 are as follows: professors, 89; other teachers, 48; students, 709; books in the libraries, 265,476; total endowments, $10,672,142. The church reports, for 1909, 36 synods, 291 presbyteries, 9,023 ministers, 227 licentiates, 1,066 candidates for the ministry, 38,364 elders, 9,997 churches, 1,321,386 communicants, and contributions for all purposes, $21,664,756. General publications are the records of the general presbytery, 1706-16, of the general synod, 1717-88, and of the general assembly 1789-1909, each in printed form. They are the most complete ecclesiastical record in America. The Minutes of the general assembly and the Reports of the Missionary and Benevolent Boards are issued annually. The home missions of the church have been continuously upon the frontier of the advancing civilization of the American people. Its ministers and congregations have been essential factors in securing the moral and spiritual as well as the material welfare of the republic. Its influence has been decided upon the political interests of the land, for both the church and the nation are direct products of the same great reformation. The church has furnished both Revolutionary leaders, such as John Witherspoon, and also Presidents of the United States, such as Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Harrison, and Grover Cleveland. In heathen lands the church has exerted a quiet but mighty influence in elevating the standards of morality, in sanctifying the family relation, in introducing the element of fraternity into social relations, and above all in bringing to bear upon great masses of men and women the divine power which accompanies the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Whether at home or abroad, the church has been in all the relations in which human beings stand each to the other, and in all the aspirations of humanity, both for this world and the world to come, a savor of life unto life. W H. Roberts.
2. Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern Presbyterian Church) : This church roots itself in the work of Francis Makemie (q.v. ; also see above, VIII., 1, §§ 2-4) . In Makemie's time there began a steady immigration of Presbyterians from the north of Ireland. These immigrants, entering the port of Philadelphia, spread in great numbers southward, settling in Virginia, North Carolina, and the upper portions of South Carolina.
They formed the principal element in the southern section of the church which dates from Makemie. Among them were some Scotch, Engground°and lish' and Dutch Presbyterians, and, in Origin. ^e lower part of South Carolina, a considerable number of Huguenots. On the division of the Presbyterian Church in 1837 (see above, VIII., 1, § 6), nearly the whole of what is now the Southern Presbyterian Church adhered to the Old School branch. This connection continued until 1861. When the Old School assembly met in Philadelphia in May, 1861, several southern states had already seceded from the Union. The majority of the assembly, thinking that the duty of patriotism demanded a profession of loyalty to the Federal government, by resolution pledged the whole constituency of the church to the support of the Federal sovereignty as against the seceded states. Charles Hodge (q.v.), for himself and fifty-seven others, protested against this action of the assembly as unconstitutional in that it assumed " to decide a political question, and to make that decision a test of membership in the church." The Presbyterians living in the South could not fulfil the pledge of loyalty to the Federal government without proving traitors to the government under which they were living at the time. The southern presbyteries and synods regarded the deliverance of the assembly as virtually an exscinding act, and at their next meetings formally renounced all connection with the Old School assembly. Commissioners from forty-seven of these presbyteries met in Augusta, Ga., Dec. 4, 1861, and organized a new assembly.
Thus the Southern Presbyterian Church began its separate existence just when the greatest civil war of history was getting well under way. During the next four years the territory cov- 3. Period ofere(j foy ^e church was overrun by 6 r\^r' contending armies, and the church was Accretions am3Cted by the general effects of the ' war in the south in the destruction of the industrial system, the impoverishment of the people, and the general demoralization of society. The work of the church was interrupted, its development retarded, and its future overshadowed. It maintained, however, in the midst of all discouragements, a vigorous life, furnishing chaplains for the army, and caring for the congregations committed to its trust. It gave constant and earnest attention to the religious instruction of the colored people, devoting to this work some of its finest pulpit talent. It was also privileged to do some effective mission work among the Indians. The growth of the church both during and immediately after the war was chiefly by the absorption of other religious bodies. The Independent Presbyterian Church, a small brotherhood in North and South Carolina, was brought into the Southern Assembly in 1863. The same year a union was effected with the United Synod of the Presbyterian Church. This synod had been organized in 1858 out of the southern contingent of the New School church as a practical protest against the deliverances of the New School Assembly on the subject of slavery. While this synod went with the New School in the division of 1837, this was not due to sympathy with
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