The Ecclesiastical Disruption of 1861 [pp. 321-351]

310 TflE ECCLESIASTI~AL DISRUPTION OF i86t. [ApnI)
The Southern Address of i86i finds fault with the Northern
Assembly of that year for" handling a political topic." It says
A political theory was propounded," etc. " NVhat we maint<tin is," that the church "transcended her sphere and usurpe(L
ti~e duties of the State." ~" These are points which the church
lias no commission to adjudicate." So, also, the Southern As~~mbly of i865: " The rightfulness of these several authorities~
()r to which of them, the allegiance of our people, as citizens,
was or is primarily due, are matters upon which ajudicatory of
tl~e church has no right to pronounce judgment." "These are
(tuestions which the Church of Christ has no commission to decide." So, also, the Baltimore Southern Committee, in their
second letter, say: "It is suitable to represent freely and fully
to the brethren of your committee that this kind of political
arntion, begun in i86i, and carried on in successive Assemblies
through i866, constitutes at once a most weighty grievance to
bS, because much of it was aimed at our people; but constittites also a serious hi~drance to establishing fraternal relationsr
because they are lamentab~e departures from some of the fundamental principles laid down in those noble standards, which,
a you truly observe, we hold in common.
Now let the reader call to mind what we have already quoted
from the pulpit discourses of Drs. Thornwell and Palmer, urging
tlie peopJe to secession. Dr. Thornwell further says, in the
same Fast-day sermon in i86o: "The rights of Congress ar~
ol~ly the concessions of the sovereign States." " The Constit~ition of the United States, in its grants of power to Congressr
is only a device by which a general description is given in adv<4nce, of the kind of legislation that each State will allow to be
obligatory on its own people." N~~~Te think Dr. Thornwell, in
t10i5 passage, has fairly won his title of "the Calhoun of the
church," for this doctrine is nothing less than sheer "nullification;" but then it was merely an utterance from the pulpit. So
Dr. Palmer, in his Thanksgiving discourse of 1 86o, declares: "It
is just this impertinence of human legislation, setting bounds
t~ what God only can regulate, that the South is called this
d~~ to resent and resist." "Let the people in all the Southern
States in solemn council assembled, reclaim the powers they
Ii ave delegated." "Let them, further, take all the necessary
steps looking to separate and independent existence, and initi