m, was
adopted 1820 at Hagerstown as the Constitution (_Grundverfassung_) of
the General Synod. At the first regular convention of the new body, held
at Frederick (Fredericktown, Friedrichstadt), Md., in October, 1821,
twenty delegates were present, representing the synods of Pennsylvania,
North Carolina, and Maryland-Virginia. It was a beginning fraught with
discouragements. Owing to religious indifference, the rationalistic New
York Ministerium had immediately permitted its connection to lapse, till
resumed in 1837. The Tennessee Synod violently condemned the new body as
hierarchical, and because its constitution did not so much as mention
the Bible and the Augsburg Confession. The Ohio Synod, which, in 1819,
after a discussion of the _Planentwurf_, had approved of the formation
of a General Synod, now stood aloof, because a number of her ministers
denounced its Constitution, not for confessional reasons, but because of
its alleged hierarchical features. (Graebner, _Geschichte_ 1, 701.) In
1823 the Pennsylvania Synod declared her withdrawal on account of the
union planned with the Reformed, and because some of her congregations,
fearing infringements of their liberties, protested against the
connection. It was due chiefly to the exertions of S. S. Schmucker, then
but twenty-five years of age, that the second regular convention, 1823,
in Frederick, was held, the newly organized West Pennsylvania Synod
forming the third body required by the constitution.

12. From the Early Proceedings.--The report of 1823 closes as follows:
"On bended knees, and with hearts filled with holy emotion, the brethren
then united with the Rev. J. G. Schmucker in a most impressive address
to the mercy-seat of Christ, in an acknowledgment of the gratitude for
the past blessing of the great Head of the Church, and in humble
supplication for the future guidance of His Holy Spirit. And when they
had sung an hymn, they separated to return to their several abodes."
(8.) Regarding the withdrawal of the Pennsylvania Synod, the resolution
was adopted: "Resolved, That it is with feelings of deepest regret that
we learn from the minutes of the Synod of Pennsylvania that they were
induced by peculiar circumstances, for the present, to recede from an
institution which they aided in establishing, and which they still
profess to regard as proper and highly beneficial to the interests of
the Church; but that this Synod entertain the highest confidence in
the