PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The history of Presbyterianism in the United States is closely interwoven with that of the country at large. The early colonists were, for the most part, those who bad crossed the ocean to find a home in the New World, in order to en joy religious freedom. They came for con science's sake, rather than for the advancement of their fortunes. They claimed the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences and to govern themselves in the administration of church order and dis cipline. They were bitterly opposed to the claims of prelacy. Alike among the Congrega tionalists of New England, the Dutch of New York, the Scotch-Irish of Pennsylvania and the Huguenots of the Carolinas, the Calvinistic or Reformed system of doctrine was the prevail ing belief. The Shorter Catechism of the West minster Assembly, embodied in the New Eng land Primer, had a more profound influence in the training of successive generations than any other book of that period, except the Bible. It was the working creed of the men who laid the foundations of free institutions in America. The organization of the church among the colonists was determined largely by, their pre vious associations in the Old World. The New England colonists were mostly of English-Puri tan extraction and favored the Congregational polity. There were, however, two parties among them; one zealously favoring Independ ency, the other leaning toward the Presby terian polity. The former belonged to the school called Brownists, the latter to Barrow ism. A strictly Presbyterian colony was estab lished in Salem, Massachusetts Bay, under Roger Conant in 1625. Among those who held to Presbyterian views was Rev. Richard Den ton, who came from England in 1630, and set tled in Watertown, Mass. Driven out by oppo sition to his views, he removed in 1644, with some of his congregation, to Hempstead, Long Island, where a church was organized in ac cordance with the Presbyterian form. The earliest organization of Presbyterianism in the New World was made in the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, in New York, in 1628. It was a Reformed Dutch church and the first Protestant church in America. Other churches of this denomination were organized at an early date among the Dutch settlements. (See RE FORMED DUTCH). While the Presbyterian ele ment was found in all of the colonies from New England to Georgia, circumstances pre vented its separate organization. In New Eng land the prevailing form of government was Independency or Congregational; in New York Presbyterianism was of the Dutch type and only Episcopacy was allowed among the English. In Virginia, Episcopacy was established by law and was intolerant toward all forms of dis sent. Conditions were more favorable to Pres byterianism in the provinces of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. To these colonies came a large number of emigrants from the North of Ireland and from Scotland. The religious intolerance prevailing under the reign of Charles II led them to seek refuge from it in the New World. It was among these emigrants that Presbyterianism took its organ ized form. In answer to a request from one of the scattered groups of Presbyterians, the Pres bytery of Laggan, Ireland, sent as its mission ary, Rev. Francis Makamie, in 1683. He jour
neyed in his missionary work as far south as the Georgias, and as far north as New York. He finally settled in Rehoboth, in eastern Mary land, where he organized the churches of Reho both and Snow Hill. In 1704 he returned to London, seeking aid for his work, returning in 1705, and bringing with him two additional ministers.
There was also, before the opening of the 18th century, a Presbyterian church in Phil adelphia. Rev. Jedediah Andrews was its pas tor, in 1701. In 1705 seven ministers, Maka mie, Davis, Wilson, Andrews, Taylor, Mac Mish and Hampton, met by appointment in the city of Philadelphia and organized a Presbytery. It was the first Presbytery in America and the beginning of the American Presbyterian Church in its organized form. The original minutes of this Presbytery are in the archives of the Pres byterian Historical Society in Philadelphia. This Presbytery was subsequently divided into three, which were included in a Synod. The Synod held its first meeting 17 Sept. 1717, in Philadelphia. In 1741 a division occurred in the Synod resulting, not from doctrinal differ ences, but from those ecclesiastical passions and unregulated zeal which have so often disturbed the church. One party under the leadership of the Tennents, father and son, and greatly helped by the minister of the renowned evangelist, Whitfield, was earnestly solicitous for a revival in the church, charging it with formalism and world conformity. The other party, the con servative, resisted the charge, and sought to re strain by ecclesiastical action what they consid ered the immoderate zeal of the revivalists. The parties were known respectively as the New Side and the Old Side. The result of these controversies was the establishment of two independent synods, the Synod of New York, composed mainly of those favoring the New Side, and the Synod of Philadelphia, favoring the Old Side. Both synods unanimously af firmed their adherence to the Westminster Standards. This division lasted 17 years and was healed by the reunion of the two synods in 1758, under the name of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia. With the reunion came renewed effort and enlarged prosperity. Churches were organized in the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Western Pennsylvania. This enlargement of the Presbyterian Church had an important bear ing on the subsequent efforts of the colonies to secure their independence. The Presbyterians everywhere were foremost in resisting civil and religious oppression and when the period of the Revolution came, were unanimously in favor of independence and the establishment of a government on republican principles. Thirteen months before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in Philadelphia, the Presby terians of Mecklenburg County, North Caro lina, had drawn up and signed a Declaration of Independence from England and also framed a system of local government. The Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in Western Pennsylvania declared for independence in May 1776. The Presby terian element was everywhere a determining factor in the War of Independence.