ring capricious in the eyes of the Reverend Body, and less
diligent in our efforts for churchly unity, we beg leave to declare it
again as our conviction that Free Conferences, such as are separated
from officially organized conventions of ecclesiastical bodies, on the
basis of the symbols of our Church, as contained in the Book of Concord
of 1580, are the only proper means for an exchange of such convictions
as are still divergent, and which, by the grace of God, may lead to a
unity on the basis of our beloved Confession." At Fort Wayne, in
November, 1867, the General Council renewed the resolution "that we
sincerely respect the honest preferences of our brethren [Missouri] in
regard to the best means of uniting our Church, and that we are willing
to set apart a time, during the future sessions of this body, when it
will meet them simply as a Free Conference." And, no answer having been
received, the Council, at Pittsburgh, 1868, instructed its secretaries
to bring the Fort Wayne action again to the attention of the Missouri
Synod. In the following year Missouri answered that it was not its
desire to deal with the General Council as such and during the sessions
of the same; that by such a side-dealing justice could not be done the
matter; that they desired and regarded Free Conferences as the proper
means to reach the end contemplated. (Ochsenford, _Doc. History_, 152
ff.) Thus, from the very beginning, Missouri, in the interest of real
unity as a prerequisite of union, urged free conferences and doctrinal
discussions, while the General Council offered discussions "in regard to
the best means of uniting our Church," at the same time insisting on a
mode which involved a recognition of the unionistic procedure adopted in
organizing the General Council. Considering the facts that some of the
synods, uniting in 1866 and 1867 with the General Council, had several
months before belonged to the General Synod; that ostensibly they had
severed their connection on technical grounds; that all along they had
been committed, more or less, not only to a false confessional basis,
but also to Reformed doctrines and un-Lutheran practise, etc., the
Missouri Synod, without sacrificing its anti-unionistic principles,
could hardly have taken a different course of action than it did.
Moreover, the subsequent history of the General Council, down to the
Merger in 1918, has proved conclusively that Missouri's original
evaluation of the General C