Landrith v. Hudgins

Decision Date19 November 1907
Citation120 S.W. 783
PartiesLANDRITH et al. v. HUDGINS et al.
CourtTennessee Supreme Court

John J. Vertrees, J. M. Gaut, Parks, Bell & Montgomery, Geo. T. Hughes, and Jno. H. De Witt, for appellants. W. C. Caldwell, J. H. Zarecor, J. J. McClellan, Carter, Lamb & Lamb, J. E. Routt, Albert W. Biggs, and J. H. Fussell, for appellees.

NEIL, J.

The controversy in the present case arises out of certain transactions had between the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, for the purpose of effecting a union between the two organizations.

The proceedings for union began in 1903, by a report of the committee of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to the Assembly. A committee was appointed at that meeting to consider the subject of union with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. This committee made a report to the Assembly of 1904, in which it submitted what was termed a "Joint Report on Union," containing a Basis of Union. This report was received and spread upon the minutes, and the Basis of Union was by vote of the Assembly — 162 to 74 — recommended to the presbyteries of the church for their approval or disapproval. At the Assembly of 1905, a committee was appointed to canvass the returns from the presbyteries and report the result. The majority reported that 60 presbyteries of the 114 had voted approval, and 51 had voted disapproval, the remaining presbyteries not voting, and recommended that the Assembly find and declare that a constitutional majority of the presbyteries had voted approval of the union, and that the basis of the union had been constitutionally adopted. There was a minority report. This report, while conceding that the presbyteries had voted in the manner just stated, made a summary of the vote, with the result that it appeared 691 ministers and 649 elders, making a total of 1340, voted for approval, and that 470 ministers and 1007 elders, total, 1,477, voted against approval. These same figures were also shown by Exhibit B to the majority report, and must be taken as true, These facts, however, could not, of course, change the result of the vote of the presbyteries as organized bodies. Still, they show how deep and extended was the division of opinion in the church, upon the subject of union. The minority report also expressed an opinion adverse to the power of the Assembly to enter into or confirm the union, and that such action was violative of the constitution of the church and therefore void. The majority report was adopted by a vote of 139 to 111. Thereupon 91 members of the Assembly filed a protest to the action taken. In this protest they attacked the proceedings of the Assemblies of 1903 and 1904 as being unconstitutional, and charged that the Basis of Union contemplated the adoption of the Confession of Faith and ecclesiastical standards of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and that the constitutional provision for this action of the church was not followed in the general reference; and that the Confession of Faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church could not be brought into harmony with the Westminster Confession of Faith adhered to by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America by any method of construction; further, that the consummation of the union on such basis would not be in fact a union, but simply the merging of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church into the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and the extinguishment of the name and doctrines of the former.

The committee on fraternity and union was continued and enlarged, and was instructed to confer with a similar committee on the part of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America with reference to adjusting the details of the union.

This committee reported to the Assembly of 1906, sitting at Decatur, Ill. This report, after reciting the history of the movement for union during the sessions of 1903. 1904, and 1905, and the action taken in the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America concerning the same matter, suggested the following resolutions, viz.: That the effect of what had transpired was that the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, as revised in 1903, and its other doctrinal and ecclesiastical standards, had been adopted by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in accordance with its constitution and in conformity with the Basis of Union; that the joint report, including the Basis of Union, and concurrent declarations and recommendations therein contained, had been adopted by the constituted authorities, and in accordance with the organic laws of both churches, and that the union so reached was binding, and would become fully effective after a certain declaration presently to be mentioned, should be made; that immediately after the making of the declaration, the Confession of Faith, and other doctrinal and ecclesiastical standards of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, should become "effective and operative as to all the ministers, elders, deacons, officers, particular churches, judicatories, boards, committees, and all other ecclesiastical organizations, institutions, and agencies of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church"; that at the next election thereafter of delegates or commissioners, by the presbyteries — that is, for the year 1907they should elect to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, according to the Form of Government of that church; and that all boards, committees, trustees, and other ecclesiastical agencies formerly required to report to the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church should thereafter report to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

The declaration referred to was contained in the fourteenth section of the report, and was, in substance, that upon the adoption of the joint report, including its recitals and resolutions, by the General Assembly of each church, and upon reception of telegraphic notice of such adoption in each Assembly from the other (one sitting at Decatur, Ill., and the other at Des Moines, Iowa), it would be the duty of the Moderator of each Assembly in behalf of his General Assembly and church to declare, and publicly announce in open session of said Assembly, the full consummation of the union in the following words: "The joint report of the two committees on reunion and union, and the recitals and resolutions therein contained and recommended for adoption, having been adopted by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and official notice of such adoption having been received by each of said General Assemblies from the other, I do solemnly declare, and here publicly announce, that the Basis of Reunion and Union is now in full force and effect, and that the Cumberland Presbyterian Church is now reunited with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America as one church, and that the official records of the two churches during the period of separation shall be preserved and held as making up the history of the one church;" that after the making of this public declaration in the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, no business in that General Assembly should be in order, except a motion to adjourn sine die, as a separate Assembly.

This report was adopted by a report of 165 to 91; but the record sets out the names of 12 other commissioners who were absent when the vote was taken, and who would have voted in the negative had they been present, making 103 dissentients.

Upon the adoption of the report a protest was filed, signed by 100 commissioners, making the following objections, viz.: That the Assembly had no power to declare the Cumberland Presbyterian Church as a separate organization at an end, and to transfer the allegiance of the ministers, elders, deacons, officers, particular churches, judicatories, boards, and committees to another organization of churches, and make them amenable to another church creed and constitution; that it had no power to declare that the Confession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America as revised in 1903, and its other doctrinal and ecclesiastical standards had been adopted in accordance with its constitution; that it had no power to direct the presbyteries of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church to send representatives to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

After the filing of this protest, it was ordered, on motion, that a message by wire should be sent to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, in session at Des Moines, giving notice of the action taken on the report; and this was done and an adjournment had to 2:30 p. m. The General Assembly of the latter church then sent a message that it had made the declaration above referred to. Thereupon a similar declaration was made in the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. An adjourment sine die was then taken, pursuant to the terms of section 14, supra, of the report.

The following appears in the record under the caption:

"From Supplemental Minutes General Assembly Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Afternoon Session, May 24, 1906.

"Minutes.

"Decatur, Ill., May 24, 1906, 1:30 p. m.

"The Assembly having been in session since it convened on Thursday, 17th inst., and having in that time adopted the Joint Report of the Committee on Fraternity and Union between our Church and the...

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22 cases
  • Barkley v. Hayes
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri
    • August 16, 1913
    ...bodies, the will of the whole church was spoken. ' Sanders v. Baggerly, 96 Ark. 117, 129, 130, 131 S.W. 49, 54, 55. See, also, Landrith v. Hudgins, supra; Fussell v. 134 Ill.App. 634; Committee of Missions v. Pacific Synod of the Presbyterian Church, etc., 157 Cal. 105, 106 P. 395. But it i......
  • Boyles v. Roberts
    • United States
    • Missouri Supreme Court
    • June 8, 1909
    ...learned opinion of Neil, J., of the Tennessee Supreme Court, in case of Landrith et al. v. Hudgins et al. (not yet officially reported) 120 S. W. 783. To shorten expression, we shall speak of one church as the Presbyterian and the other as the Cumberland. Under the head of "God's Decree" th......
  • Wolf v. Sundquist
    • United States
    • Tennessee Court of Appeals
    • April 23, 1997
    ..."[t]he law of intellectual and spiritual life is not the higher law, but must yield to the law of the land." Landrith v. Hudgins, 121 Tenn. 556, 658, 120 S.W. 783, 809 (1908) (quoting In re Schnorr's Appeal, 67 Pa. 138, 146-47 The struggle for religious liberty through the centuries has bee......
  • Carothers v. Moseley
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • June 12, 1911
    ...Committeee v. Pacific Synod (Cal.), 106 P. 395; Wallace v. Hughes (Ky.), 115 S.W. 684; and has been held invalid in Landrith v. Hudgins (Tenn.), 120 S.W. 783; Boyles v. Roberts, 222 Mo. 613; Ramsey v. (Ind. App.), 89 N.E. 597; General Assembly of Free Church of Scotland v. Lord Overtoun, La......
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