Again, Presbyterians fostered and maintained popular representative government. It was the privilege of the American Presbyterian Church, through its General Synod, to be the first body, either ecclesiastical or political, to organize on the American continent a federal Republic. Sev eral of the early American colonies were sub stantially democracies, but they were independent each of the other. Until the meeting of the Con tinental Congress in 1774, the only body which exercised control in the majority of the Colonies, and which was a definite American bond of un ion, was the General Synod of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. This Church is the oldest of American Republics, and the federal principles which characterize its gov ernment are practically the same as those which control the government of the United States. In brief, it can be said with Bancroft, the historian, that "The Revolution of 1776, so far as it was affected by religion, was a Presbyterian measure. It was the natural outgrowth of the principles which the Presbyterianism of the Old World planted in her sons, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the Dutch Calvinists, and the Presbyterians of Ulster." This statement finds support in the claim that of the three millions of American Colonists in 1776, nine hundred thousand were of Scotch or Scotch Irish descent ; four hundred thousand were Ger man or Dutch Calvinists, and six hundred thou sand were English Puritans.
(3) The Several Presbyterian Churches in the United States. American Presbyterianism as a whole is as diverse in its origin as are the peoples who have blended to form the American nation. There are eleven important denominational Churches in the United States, whether designated as Presbyterian or Reformed, which stand for Presbyterian principles. Of these three are trace able to the influence of immigration from theCon tinent of Europe; the Reformed Dutch Church, and the Christian Reformed Church, both of which originated in Holland ; and the German Re formed Church whose beginningswere in Switzer land and Germany. Four Churches are directly connected with the Secession and Relief move ments in the Church of Scotland during the eighteenth century, viz., the United Presbyterian Church, the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, the General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and the Associate Reformed Synod of the South. Whatever of English Pres byterianism there was in the Colonies, and in ad dition the few French Protestant or Huguenot churches, combined at an early day with Scotch and Scotch-Irish elements to form the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the largest of the Churches. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church in the United States (South) are branches of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the first separating in 181o, and the second in 1861. The youngest of the Pres byterian Churches, the Welsh, originated in the Principality of Wales, where the denomination is known as the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church. However these Churches may differ in matters of practice and worship, they are sub stantially one in government, and with the ex ception of the Cumberland Presbyterian, main tain unmodified the principles of the Presbyterian System, as contained either in the Canons of the Synod of Dort, the Westminster Confession, or the Heidelberg Catechism. The largest of the American Presbyterian Churches is the Presby terian Church in the United States of America, and its history concisely stated, is given under the following heads: (4) The Period of Isolated Churches. The earliest American Presbyterian churches were es tablished in New England, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. John Robinson, the pastor of the Plymouth Pilgrims while in Holland. has left on record the following declaration of Church prin ciples—"Touching the ecclesiastical ministry, viz., of pastors for teaching, elders for ruling, deacons for distributing the church's contributions, we do wholly and in all points agree with the French Reformed Churches." The Virginia Puritans were driven out by persecution between 1642 and 1649. The English Presbyterian element in Mary land and the colonies to the northward was strengthened by the advent, from 166o to 169o, of a large element of Scotch Covenanters. The earliest Presbyterians in New York were the Dutch Calvinists, who founded a church in 1628; English-speaking Presbyterians being first found there in 1643, with the Rev. Francis Doughty as
their minister. In 168o, the Presbytery of Lag gan, Ireland, in response to a letter from William Stevens, a member of the Council of the Colony of Maryland, sent to the United States the Rev. Francis Makemie as a missionary. His arrival in 1683 was an epoch in the ecclesiastical history of the Colonies. Mr. Makemie became the apostle of American Presbyterianism, giving himself un reservedly to the work of ecclesiastical organiza tion, enduring persecution and daring imprison ment in behalf of the cause which he most worth ily represented, and at last succeeding in bringing into organic unity the scattered churches in the Colonies.
(5) The Colonial Presbyterian Church. The first Presbytery of the Church was organized in the year 1705 or 17o6. The exact date cannot be determined, owing to the loss of the first pages of the records. The ministers of the judicatory were six in number representing about twenty-two congregations, not including the Presbyterians of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The place of meeting was Freehold, N. J. The growth of the country, and especially the increasing number of immigrants from Ireland and Scotland, so added to the numbers of the churches, that in September, 1716, the Presbytery constituted itself into a Synod, with four Presbyteries. In 1729, this General Synod passed what is called the Adopting Act, by which it was agreed that all the ministers under its jurisdiction should de clare "their agreement in and approbation of the Confession of Faith, with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Assembly of divines at West minster," and also "adopt the said Confession as the Confession of their faith." In the same year the "Synod denied to the civil magistrate power over the Church." and also the "power to perse cute any for their religion." It was the Presby terian and not the Congregationalist who gave definite ecclesiastical form to the distinctively American and true doctrine of the independence of the Church from control by the state. In t745 questions of policy as to revivals and education, produced a division in the Church. The "Log College," founded by the Rev. William Tennent, Sr., for the training of ministers, was one of the causes of the contention, and his son, the Rev. Gilbert Tennent. with the celebrated evangelist, the Rev. George \Vhitefield, were prominent in the controversy. The parties were known as "Old Side" and "New Side," which terms are not in any manner equivalent to the terms "Old School" and "New School" in use a century later. In 1758 the divided bodies reunited upon the basis of the Westminster Standards pure and simple, and at the date of reunion, the Church consisted of nine ty-eight ministers, about two hundred congrega tions and some ten thousand communicants. It was during the period of this division that the "New Side" established the institution now known as Princeton University, for the purpose of secur ing an educated ministry. In 1768, John Wither spoon was called from Scotland and installed as president of Princeton, and also as Professor of Divinity. This remarkable man exercised an in creasing and powerful influence not only in the Presbyterian Church, but through the Middle and Southern colonies. Though Scotch of birth, he was American at heart, and never hesitated to do what he regarded as his duty in political as well as religious affairs. He was one of the lead ers in the joint movement of Presbyterians and Congregationalists, effected in 1766, to resist the establishment of the English Episcopal Church as the State Church of the Colonies. He was also a member of the Continental Congress, and the only clerical signer of the Declaration of Inde pendence. Religious forces were among the chief influences operating to secure separation from Great Britain, and the opening of the Revolution ary struggle found the Presbyterian Churches to a man on the side of the colonies. The General Synod called upon the churches to "uphold firmly the resolutions" of Congress, and let it be seen that they were "able to bring out the whole strength of this vast country to carry them into execution." At the close of the war, the Synod congratulated the churches on "The general and almost universal attachment of the Presbyterian body to the cause of liberty and the rights of mankind." No body of Christians has a more honorable record in the development of American institutions, or is more in sympathy with them, than the Presbyterian.