OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. PRESIDENT: The Hon. WM. STRONG, United States Supreme Court VICE-PRESIDENTS:* His Excellency, JAMES M. HARVEY, Governor of Kansas. His Excellency, SETH PADELFORD, Governor of Rhode Island. The Hon. J. W. MCCLURG, ex-Governor of Missouri. The Hon. W. H. CUMBACK, Lieutenant Governor of Indiana. The Hon. Wм. MURRAY, Supreme Court of New York. The Hon. M. B. HAGANS, Superior Court of Cincinnati. FELIX R. BRUNOT, Esq., Board of Indian Commissioners, Pittsburg, Pa. JOHN ALEXANDER, Esq., Philadelphia, Pa. THOS. W. BICKNELL, Esq., Commissioner Public Schools, Rhode Island. JAMES W. TAYLOR, Esq., Newburgh, New York. Prof. TAYLER LEWIS, LL.D., Union College, New York. EDWARD S. TOBEY, Esq., Boston. RUSSELL STURGIS, jr., Esq., Boston. The Right Rev. MANTON EASTBURN, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts. The Right Rev. G. T. BEDELL, D. D., Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Ohio. The Right Rev. G. D. CUMMINS, D. D., Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Kentucky. The Rev. C. S. FINNEY, D. D., formerly President of Oberlin College, Oberlin, O. The Rev. F. MERRICK, D. D., LL. D., President of the Ohio University, Delaware, Ohio. The Rev. JOSEPH CUMMINGS, D. D., LL. D., President of the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. The Rev. A. D. MAYO, D. D., Cincinnati. The Rev. T. A. MORRIS, D. D., Bishop of the M. E. Church, Springfield, Ohio. The Rev. J. H. McILVAINE, D. D., Newark, N.J. Prof. O. N. STODDARD, LL. D., Wooster University, Ohio. The Rev. M. SIMPSON, D. D., Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Rev. J. BLANCHARD, D. D., President of Wheaton College, Ill. JOHN S. HART, LL. D., Princeton College, N. J. The Right Rev. JOHN B. KERFOOT, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburg. The Right Rev. F. D. HUNTINGTON, D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Central New York. The Rev. T. L. CUYLER, D. D., Brooklyn. The Rev. LEVI SCOTT, D. D., Bishop of the M. E. Church, Delaware. Prof. JULIUS H. SEELYE, D. D., Amherst College, Mass. The Right Rev. CHARLES P. McILVAINE, D. D., LL. D., D. C. L., Bishop of the Diocese of Ohio. The Rev. A. A. MINER, D. D., President of Tuft's College, Mass. The Rev. JONATHAN EDWARDS, D. D., Peoria, Ill. GENERAL SECRETARY The Rev. D. MCALLISTER, 410 West Forty-third street, New York. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY: The Rev. T. P. STEVENSON, 1405 North Eighteenth Street, Philadelphia. *The name of Governor WASHBURN, of Massachusetts, was included by the Convention in the list of Vice Presidents, as appears in the Proceedings. In view of the statement which is published on pages 70-71 of this report, it is thought proper to omit it in this connection. OF THE NATIONAL CONVENTION TO SECURE THE RELIGIOUS AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. [HELD IN CINCINNATI JAN. 31 & FEB. 1, 1872.] With an account of the Origin and Progress of the Movement. PHILADELPHIA: JAMES B. RODGERS Co., PRINTERS. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION-The Origin and Progress of the Movement to PAGE Report of the Executive Committee of the National Association.... Resolutions Adopted by the Convention......... ADDRESSES BEFORE THE CONVENTION: .............. BY THE HON. M. B. HAGANS, President of the Convention....... 9-13 17-24 Protest of MR. ABBOT-and DR. MAYO's Reply................ 33-37 Paper by PROF. TAYLER LEWIS-Impossibility of State Neu- 39-49 AUG 2 2 1927 342.73 72125 ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE MOVEMENT TO SECURE THE RELIGIOUS AMENDMENT OF THE CON STITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. BY T. P. STEVENSON, Corresponding Secretary of the National Association. THAT there is no acknowledgment of God or of the Christian religion in the Constitution of the United States, has been deplored by many devout and thoughtful men ever since that otherwise admirable political instrument was framed. In the early part of the present century the eminent Dr. John M. MASON, of New York, employed these words: One would imagine that no occasion of making a pointed and public acknowledgment of the divine benignity could have presented itself so obviously as the framing an instrument of government which, in the nature of things, must be closely allied to our happiness or our ruin; and yet that very Constitution which the singular goodness of God enabled us to establish, does not so much as recognize his being." In the admirable treatise on "The Oath," by the Rev. D. X. JUNKIN, D. D., published in 1845, the writer says: "The oath of the President of the United States could as well be taken by a pagan or a Mohammedan as by the Chief Magistrate of a Christian people: it excludes the name of the Supreme Being. Indeed it is negatively atheistical, for no God is appealed to at all. In framing many of our public formularies, greater care seems to have been taken to adapt them to the prejudices of the infidel few than to the consciences of the Christian millions. In these things the minority in our country, has hitherto managed to govern the majority. ** We look on the designed omission of it the name of God in the oath] as an attempt to exclude from civil affairs him who is the Governor among the nations." These views have been intelligently and publicly maintained by a portion of the American people at all times since the adoption of the Constitution. The contrast, in this respect, between the Constitution of the nation and the Constitutions of nearly all the States did not escape observation, and it was remembered that, before the national Constitution, no similar instrument of government had been framed by any portion of the American people without an explicit acknowledgment of Almighty God and the Christian religion. No public or united effort however was made to secure an amendment which should suitably express the religious sentiment of the nation until the year 1863. The civil war in which the nation was then engaged was almost universally felt to be an expression of the Divine displeasure against the nation. The public conscience was prepared to welcome any measure which proposed in a suitable and becoming way to give honor to the God whom we had offended 1050970 |