titude of uninformed members of the Lutheran Church.
The mass of all influential, well-meaning members, preachers as well as
laymen, whatever their views may otherwise be, are indignant at
Schmucker, Kurtz, _Observer_, and the whole Platform affair. I would not
be astonished if the matter should lead to a breach between us and the
General Synod. The consequence will be that involuntarily we shall be
brought closer to the strict Lutheranism, all the more so as the
Missourians of late seem to become milder." But Dr. Mann was rudely
awakened from his optimism when, in the following year, his "Lutheranism
in America: an essay on the present condition of the Lutheran Church in
the United States," was severely criticized even by Charles Philip
Krauth, in the _Evangelical Review_. And the result? "I have no desire
at all to make any further concessions to Old Lutheranism," Mann meekly
declared in a letter of April 15, 1857, in which he referred to the cold
reception and stern rebuke which his book had received by the press
within the General Synod. (Spaeth, 179 f.) Thus even the most
conservative men within the General Synod rendered the cause of true
Lutheranism but little service in the Platform emergency. Being in the
minority and without a clear insight into the nature of Lutheranism,
also without an organ, except, in part, the _Evangelical Review_, they
lacked the courage and seriousness to take a determined and open stand
against the corrupters and assailants of Lutheranism. They favored a
policy of silent, watchful waiting. H. I. Schmidt, who, in the
_Evangelical Review_, had defended the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's
Supper, wrote in a letter dated February 4, 1853: "We Lutherans had
better keep perfectly quiet at the next General Synod, and say nothing
at all about 'Doctrinal Basis.' ... If all open conflict is avoided, our
cause will continue silently and surely to gain ground, and thus the
character of the General Synod will gradually be changed and righted."
(Spaeth, 1, 349.)

61. "Pacific Overture."--The storm caused by the Platform was hardly
brewing, when Old and New School men united in pouring oil on the
troubled waters. Instead of holding Schmucker to strict accountability,
41 prominent ministers and laymen published in the _Observer_ of
February 15, 1856, a "Pacific Overture," in which they "deprecate the
further prosecution of this controversy, and hereby agree to unite and
abide on the doctrinal basis of