NEW SCHOOL AND OLD SCHOOL PRESBYTERIANS, formerly the names of two great parties, and, 1838-70, of the two principal divisions in the Presbyterian church of the United States. The parties were produced, and the rending of the church was caused chiefly by three forces having unequal degrees of strength, but all tending to one result, These may be here named without being fully discussed: 1. Differences in theological views. The Presbyterian church in the United States was, at the beginning, composed in a great degree of emigrants from Scotland and Ireland, and in its growth continued to receive fresh accessions from those lands. These brought with them and long retained theological opinions and practices which, while they may be spoken of in general terms as Calvinistic, had manifest traits peculiar to themselves. Yet they did not escape entirely the modifications to which opinions of every kind have been subjected by the isolation, conflicts, and liberty of discussion and action, that have given character to American government, churches, and institutions of every kind. During this time. theology and practical religion were among the chief factors in devel oping the New England colonies and stales. Doctrines furnished themes for thought and discussion among ministers and people in a degree scarcely equaled, unless among the early Greek Christians and the reformers of the 16th century. No wonder, there fore, that important modifications were produced and embraced. And as many ministers and other members of churches went from New England to the other colonies, and afterward to the new states, these modifications entered into Preskirterian churches, accelerating and changes there. Many too, from these churches, obtained their in New England schools and colleges, a part of them Chris !tans there. Andover theological seminary, preceding that at Princeton by 6 years, instructed a portion of Presbyterian students as well as many from New England who became Presbyterian ministers. This brief statement may show how it was that in the American Presbyterian church, there arose the terms, first of "new side," and " old side," with the division they occasioned, and afterward of "new school " and " old school." 2._ Differences of opinion concerning church polity and extension. The early churches of New England were independent and congregational in government, yet were connected together by mutual conference, and, some of them, by associations grad ually formed, and having different degrees of strength. But when Congregational ministers and members removed to other colonies, they generally, until comparatively recent years, became pastors and members of Presbyterian churches already established, or united with Presbyterians in forming new ones. The churches of Newark and vicin ity, founded by a Connecticut colony, were at first Congregational, but soon 'became Presbyterian. In 1501 a plan of union was unanimously proposed by the Presbyterian general assembly to the general association of Connecticut, by whom it was unanimously is adopted, with a view on both sides "to prevent alienation, and promote union and harmony in those new settlements which are composed of inhabitants from these bodies."
This plan was not only adopted unanimously by the general assembly, but was also for a long time cordially approved by the most eminent ministers in the Presbyterian church. ljnder the operation of it, and of union with Congregationalists generally, hundreds of the best Presbyterian churches in the land were formed and built up. Yet the polity resulting from the union, like the doctrine embraced, was a Presbyterianism some what modified in its usages and forms. This modification entered gradually into the forces which produced the new school and the old school parties. Its chief power, how ever, was in an element more general than any difference between Presbyterians and Congregationalists alone could have supplied. This was the use of " voluntary socie ties" in benevolent and missionary work. The country passed through a period, during which many such agencies were formed, chiefly from the necessity for ,sited effort, and partly front want of experience in the work. But as experience and denominational strength increased, conflict between voluntary and more strictly church agencies arose. This conflict entered largely into the development of party spirit betwiien new school and old school Presbyterians.
3. Differences of opinion and practice concerning slavery and concerning the manner in which it should be treated by Christian churches. The origin and growth of this differ ence need not here be traced. It is sufficient to say that it was by fay the most pow erful of the influences which intensified the party spirit; and that as the region where slavery most prevailed was, because of it, the less subjected to the modifying influences already described, it came to pass that the modified doctrine and polity were found mainly united with opposition to slavery, forming generally new school Presbyterians; and the unmodified doctrine and polity were, in a like degree, united with adherence to slavery, or with silence concerning t. forming generally old school Presbyterians. Without the influence, direct and indirect, of slavery, neither of the other causes, nor both of them combined, would have been strong enough to divide the Presbyterian church; probably not to have caused even a serious attempt to divide it. Reasons for this opinion are found in the fact that after the division the new school part of the church safely outgrew the use of voluntary societies; that before the reunion the old school portion accented, as substantially orthodox, the declaration of doctrine made by the new school portion just after the division; that slavery, without auxiliary causes, divided the strong organization of the Methodist Episcopal church; that in the spring of 1861, it divided the old school portion of the church when in "a state of almost unprecedented doctrinal homogeneity;" that it was prevented from rending the national Union itself, only by one of the mightiest conflicts the world has ever known; and that when its power was removed, the process of reuniting new school and old school. Presbyterians at once began. At the reunion, agreed to in 1869, and organically effected in 1870, some of the chief statistics were: