16 May
1861 A.D. Gardiner Spring Resolutions: Political Issues Split
Presbyterian Old School Assembly
Archivist. “May 16: The Garndiner Spring Resolutions
(1861). This Day in Presbyterian History. 16 May 2014. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2014/05/may-16-the-gardiner-spring-resolutions/.
16 May 2014.
May 16: The Gardiner Spring Resolutions (1861)
A Political Issue Divides the Old School General Assembly
With the
Old School General Assembly meeting on May 16, 1861, the unity of
the nation was at stake. Fort Sumter in Charleston, South
Carolina has been attacked and captured. Southern states had already
seceded from the Union. The slavery issue, which had been debated in
previous assemblies, became secondary to the important matter of preserving the
union. Thus, Rev. Gardiner Spring, the pastor of Brick
Presbyterian Church in New York City, New York suggested that a committee be
formed to consider the following resolutions before the assembled elders.
“Resolved, 1. That in view of the present agitated and unhappy condition
of this country, the first day of July next be hereby set apart as a day of
prayer throughout our bounds; and that on this day ministers and people are
called on humbly to confess our national sins; to offer our thanks to the
Father of light for his abundant and undeserved goodness towards us as a
nation; to seek his guidance and blessing upon our rulers, and
their counsels, as well as on the Congress of the United States about to
assembly; and to implore him, in the name of Jesus Christ, the great High
Priest of the Christian profession, to turn away his anger from us, and
speedily restore to us the blessings of an honorable peace.
Resolved, 2 That this General Assembly, in the spirit of that Christian
patriotism . . . do hereby acknowledge and declare our obligations to promote
and perpetuate . . . the integrity of the United States, and to strengthen,
uphold, and encourage the Federal Government in the exercise of all its functions
under our noble Constitution: and to this Constitution, . . . we profess our
unabated loyalty.”
Interestingly,
some of the main opposition to this resolution came from Dr. Charles Hodge, of
Princeton Theological Seminary. He protested that the General Assembly
had no right to decide to what government the allegiance of Presbyterians is
due, that it was neither North nor South. His alternate resolutions lost
before the assembly. When the issue came to a vote, with an
amendment offered by John Witherspoon II, the Spring Resolutions, as they
were known in church history, passed by 156 to 66. Tragically, they also
brought about the schism between Old School Presbyterians, dividing North and
South.
To
read a full account of what came to be called the Gardiner Spring Resolutions,click
here. http://www.pcahistory.org/documents/gardinerspring.html/
Words to Live By: There is a reason why the Confessional Fathers in chapter
31:3 specifically stated that “Synods and councils are to handle, or conclude
nothing, but that which is ecclesiastical; and are not to intermeddle with
civil affairs which concern the commonwealth, unless by way of humble petition
in cases extraordinary; or, by way of advice, for satisfaction of conscience,
if they be thereunto required by the civil magistrate.”
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