A LETTER BY THE REV. S. S. LAWS, LL.D., TO THE SYNOD OF MISSOURI (O.S.), WHICH MET AT COLUMBIA, MISSOURI, OCTOBER 8, 1872.
St. Louis: Southwestern Book & Publishing Co., 1872. At head of title: "[For The Old School Presbyterian.]" 102pp. Disbound, else Very Good.
In 1837 the Slavery dispute ruptured the Presbyterian Church in the United States. During the 1850s and the Secession Crisis further divisions appeared. "Both groups continued to call themselves the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., but one group, located primarily in the North, added 'New School' and the other added 'Old School.' Both groups continued to grow, but, during the Civil War, the Old School Presbyterians in the South seceded and formed the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America. After the war the North-South groups of the two churches could not agree to reunite" [Britannica essay on the Presbyterian Church].
Laws was a Virginian, southern sympathizer, and Old School Presbyterian minister. He had been arrested for refusing to acknowledge that he owed his primary civil loyalty to the United States Government. His Letter is an unusually thorough essay on the history and incidents of the schism before, during, and after the War.
OCLC records eight locations under two accession numbers as of January 2025. Item #40650
Price: $350.00