Franklin Footnotes

Notes and Footnotes

---

1 -- Melvin H. Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin and the Zealous Presbyterians (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1975), 93; Charles Hodge, The Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philadelphia: William S. Martien, 1839-1840), I:230; Records of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, edited by William H. Roberts (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work, 1904), 104-105, 109; Merton A. Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial: Deism Versus Presbyterian Orthodoxy," William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 10 11.5 (July 1953): 425.

---

2 -- Records of the Presbyterian Church, 109; Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 81; Robert Ellis Thompson, A History of the Presbyterian Churches in the United States (New York: The Christian Literature Co., 1895), 27-28; William S. Barker, "The Hemphill Case, Benjamin Franklin and Subscription to the Westminster Confession," American Presbyterians 69 (Winter 1991): 245; James Hastings Nichols, "Colonial Presbyterianism Adopts Its Standards," Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society 34 (March 1956): 60.

---

3 -- Benjamin Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings against the Rev. Mr. Hemphill; with a Vindication of His Sermons, in Vol. 2 of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1960), 38.

---

4 -- Benjamin Franklin, "Dialogue between Two Presbyterians," in Vol. 2 of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 27, Editor's Note; Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 39; Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 427, FN 13; Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 94; Richard Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, from Its Origin until the Year 1760 (Philadelphia: J. M. Wilson, 1857), 111; Barker, "The Hemphill Case," 246. Vance was questioned by the Presbytery of Strabane about his letter. He admitted to having written it, in response to "an inhabitant of America ... with a view to prevent the mischief which might accrue to that infant church by Mr. Hemphill's preaching" heretical doctrines. Vance's defense was that his accusations were true, to wit he produced several witnesses who attested to Hemphill's having preached a number of heretical points. Vance was vindicated, both by the Synod of Derry and the General Synod of Ulster, thought the latter questioned his not having made the charges before Hemphill was ordained. Marilyn J. Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity: Scots-Irish Piety and the Great Awakening, 1625-1760 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 158-159.

---

5 -- Carl Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1973), 131-132; Nichols, "Colonial Presbyterianism Adopts Its Standards," 61; Franklin, "Dialogue between Two Presbyterians," 27; Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trials," 424; Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 82.

---

6 -- In a letter to an unnamed Boston minister, dated, June 14th, Andrews wrote that "some leading men [not identified] not disaffected to the way of Deism so much as they should be," had imposed Hemphill on him and the congregation, and that soon thereafter "free thinkers, Deists, and nothings, getting a scent of him, flocked to him." Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 111; Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 40; Andrews' letter is included in Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 426; Records of the Presbyterian Church, 104-105.

---

7 -- Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1868; rpt. Garden City, NY: Dolphin Books, No Date Indicated), 169-170.

---

8 -- Wright, Franklin of Philadelphia, 50; Alfred Owen Aldridge, Benjamin Franklin and Nature's God (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1967), 8; Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 1.

---

9 -- Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 1; Aldridge, Benjamin Franklin, 101.

---

10 -- Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 424, 440; Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 1-2, 29; See also Wright, Franklin of Philadelphia, 6; Ormond Seavey, Becoming Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and the Life (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988), 156-157; and Elizabeth Dunn, "From a Bold Youth to a Reflective Sage: A Reevaluation of Benjamin Franklin's Religion," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 111 (October 1987): 502.

---

11 -- Wright, Franklin of Philadelphia, 14; Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, 10; Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 1, 5.

---

12 -- Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 95; Franklin, "Dialogue between Two Presbyterians," 28.

---

13 -- Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 95; Franklin, "Dialogue between Two Presbyterians," 29-30.

---

14 -- Franklin, "Dialogue between Two Presbyterians," 31-32.

---

15 -- Edward A. Dowey, A Commentary on the Confession of 1967 and An Introduction to the "Book of Confessions" (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1968), 216.

---

16 -- The Westminster Standards are reprinted in volume 3 of Philip Schaff's Creeds of Christendom (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1919).

---

17 -- Thompson, A History of the Presbyterian Churches in the United States, 26; Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity, 78.

---

18 -- Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity, 13, 80, 87; Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 97; Leonard J. Trinterud, The Forming of an American Tradition: A Re-examination of Colonial Presbyterianism (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1949), 41-42; Alexander Blaikie, A History of Presbyterianism in New England (Boston: Alexander Moore, 1881), 58; Thompson, A History of the Presbyterian Churches in the United States, 26.

---

19 -- Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity, 87-88.

---

20 -- Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity, 89, 91-92.

---

21 -- Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 98.

---

22 -- Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 99, 103; Trinterud, The Forming of an American Tradition, 42; Elizabeth I. Nybakken, "New Light on the Old Side: Irish Influences on Colonial Presbyterianism," The Journal of American History 68 (March 1982): 819; Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity, 89, 98.

---

23 -- Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972), 275-276; Maurice W. Armstrong, Lefferts A. Loetscher, and Charles A. Anderson, eds., The Presbyterian Enterprise: Sources of American Presbyterian History (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1956), 21; William Thomson Hanzsche, "New Jersey Moulders of the American Presbyterian Church," Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society 24 (June 1946): 74; John M. Barkley, "The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Part One," Journal of Presbyterian History 44 (December 1966): 265.

---

24 -- This movement of Scot and Ulster Scot Presbyterianism is explained in Trinterud, The Forming of an American Tradition, 15-37. See also: Henry H. Ford, The Scotch-Irish in America (New York: Peter Smith, 1944); and Wayland Dunaway, The Scotch-Irish of Colonial Pennsylvania (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1944); and Edwin Scott Gaustad, Historical Atlas of Religion in America,, rev. ed. (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1976), 3-4, Appendix B.

---

25 -- For a discussion of platforms and subscription in England and New England, see: C. Gordon Bolan, The English Presbyterians in New England (Boston: Alexander Moore, 1882); and Blaikie, A History of Presbyterianism in New England. Alan Heimert and Perry Miller, eds., The Great Awakening: Documents Illustrating the Crisis and Its Consequences (Indianapolis, IN: The Bobbs -Merrill Company, Inc., 1967), xxxii.

---

26 -- Hodge, The Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church, I:98-100, 130; Trinterud, The Forming of an American Tradition, 30.

---

27 -- See, for example, Records of the Presbyterian Church, 63, 65-67; Trinterud, The Forming of an American Tradition, 38; Lawrence E. Brynestad, "The Great Awakening in the New England and Middle Colonies," (Part 1) Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society, 14 (June 1930): 85; James Hastings Nichols, "Colonial Presbyterianism Adopts Its Standards," 56.

---

28 -- Included in Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 99-100.

---

29 -- Nichols, "Colonial Presbyterianism Adopts Its Standards," 56; Nybakken, "New Light on the Old Side," 815; David C. Harlan, "The Travail of Religious Moderation: Jonathan Dickinson and the Great Awakening," Journal of Presbyterian History 61 (Winter 1983): 412; Keith Jordan Hardman, "Jonathan Dickinson and the Course of American Presbyterianism, 1717-1747" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1971; Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity, 150.

---

30 -- Jonathan Dickinson, A Sermon Preached at the Opening of the Synod at Philadelphia, September 19, 1722. Wherein is Considered the Character of the Man of God, and his Furniture for the Exercise both of Doctrine and Discipline, With the True Boundaries of the Church's Power (Boston: T. Fleet, for S. Gerish, 1723), 2-3.

---

31 -- Dickinson, A Sermon Preached at the ... Synod ... [of] 1722, 18-19.

---

32 -- Dickinson, A Sermon Preached at the ... Synod ...[of] 1722, 22.

---

33 -- Dickinson, A Sermon Preached at the ... Synod ... [of] 1722, 22-23.

---

34 -- Records of the Presbyterian Church, 73-74.

---

35 -- The text of Thomson's proposal is not in the synod records. It is included in: John Thomson, An Overture Presented to the Synod (Philadelphia: Franklin and Meredith, 1729), 25-27, 31-32. See also: Charles Augustus Briggs, American Presbyterianism: Its Origins and Early History (New York: Charles Scribner's, 1885), 211; Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 103; "Records of the Presbytery of New Castle Upon Delaware (Part V)," Journal of the Presbyterian Historical Society 15 (December 1932): 178.

---

36 -- Thomson, An Overture Presented to the Synod, 3, 8, 15-18.

---

37 -- Thomson, An Overture Presented to the Synod, 13-18, 23.

---

38 -- Jonathan Dickinson, Remarks upon a Discourse Intitled an Overture Presented to the Reverend Synod of Dissenting Ministers Sitting in Philadelphia, in the Month of September 1728 (New York: J. Peter Zenger, 1729). Andrews' letter in included in Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 105-106.

---

39 -- Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 108; Hardman, "Jonathan Dickinson and the Course of American Presbyterianism," 62. Craighead's brother, Robert, had been moderator of the Irish synod that adopted the Pacific Acts in 1720. Nichols, "Colonial Presbyterianism Adopts Its Standards," 55.

---

40 -- Hardman, "Jonathan Dickinson and the Course of American Presbyterianism," 67; Records of the Presbyterian Church, 94.

---

41 -- Following the Samuel Hemphill affair, in 1736, the Synod of Philadelphia added a final clarification of the Adopting Act. Records of the Presbyterian Church, 94, 98, 105-107, 126-127; Hodge, The Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church, I:173-175, 185; Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 113. For a more complete discussion of the subscription controversy, see: Bryan Le Beau, "The Subscription Controversy and Jonathan Dickinson," Journal of Presbyterian History 54 (Fall 1976): 317-335.

---

42 -- Jedediah Andrews having disqualified himself, and Dickinson not being present, the remaining members of the originally appointed synod commission were James Anderson, John Thomson, George Gillespie, Robert Cross, John Pierson, Thomas Creaghead, and Ebenezer Pemberton. Joining them, as "correspondents," were David Evans, Richard Treat, Adam Boyd, Joseph Houston, Andrew Archbold, Robert Jamison, Thomas Evans, Alexander Hutchison, Robert Cathcart, Nathaniel Hubbel, Gilbert Tennent, William Tennent Sr., and William Tennent Jr. Barker, "The Hemphill Case," 246-247; Records of the Presbyterian Church, 107. Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 41-43.

---

43 -- Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 41-43.

---

44 -- Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 37; Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 430.

---

45 -- Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 43-44; Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 428-429; Webster, A History of the Presbyterian Church in America, 111.

---

46 -- Trinterud, The Forming of an American Tradition, 63; Nichols, "Colonial Presbyterianism Adopts Its Standards," 61.

---

47 -- Pemberton, A Sermon Preached before the Commission, 3; Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 430.

---

48 -- In May 1735, the commission printed an extract of its minutes, consisting almost exclusively of samples from Hemphill's sermons and its notes on how they were evidence of the charges brought against him. Testimony by Hemphill, or on his behalf, was not included. Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 46; Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 430; Barker, "The Hemphill Case," 247, Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 97.

---

49 -- At the same time that Franklin advertised Some Observations, he also announced publication of A Narrative of the Proceedings of Seven General Synods of the Northern Presbyteries in Ireland, with Relation to Their Differences in Judgment and Practice from the Year 1720 to 1726, in Which They Issued in a Synodical Breach; Containing the Occasion, Rise, True State, and Progress of the Difference, by Antrim Presbytery, with Hallyday's Reason Against the Imposition of Human Tests. Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 37, Editor's Note; 38. The Reverend Hallyday (Haliday), as we have seen, was often cited during the early years of the subscription controversy in the colonies as one who refused to submit to human tests of divine truths. Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 432; Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 97.

---

50 -- Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 432; Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 50-52.

---

51 -- Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 52-53.

---

52 -- Franklin, Some Observations on the Proceedings, 54-57.

---

53 -- Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 101; Jonathan Dickinson, A Vindication of the Reverend Commission of the Synod in Answer to Some Observations on Their Proceedings against the Reverend Mr. Hemphill (Philadelphia: Andrew Bradford, 1735), 3.

---

54 -- Dickinson, A Vindication of the Reverend Commission, 1-3.

---

55 -- Dickinson, A Vindication of the Reverend Commission, 4, 23-24.

---

56 -- Dickinson A Vindication of the Reverend Commission, 4-5.

---

57 -- Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 324, 433; Dickinson, A Vindication of the Reverend Commission, 6.

---

58 -- Records of the Presbyterian Church, 116-117. Despite the commission's having suspended him from the pulpit, Hemphill preached at least two sermons in Philadelphia on July 25, 1735. Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 432.

---

59 -- Benjamin Franklin, A Letter to a Friend in the Country, Containing the Substance of a Sermon Preached at Philadelphia, in the Congregation of the Reverend Mr. Hemphill, Concerning Terms of Christian and Ministerial Communion, in Vol. 2 of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 65, Editor's Note; Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 439.

---

60 -- Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 433, 439; See also Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 106.

---

61 -- Franklin, A Letter to a Friend in the Country, 66.

---

62 -- Franklin, A Letter to a Friend in the Country, 66-67; Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 106.

---

63 -- Franklin, A Defense of Mr. Hemphill's Observations, 90, Editor's Note, 94-95; Aldridge, Benjamin Franklin, 94; Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 432; Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 107, 109.

---

64 -- Dickinson, Remarks upon a Pamphlet, 2, 6.

---

65 -- Dickinson, Remarks upon a Pamphlet, 6.

---

66 -- Dickinson Remarks upon a Pamphlet, 14-15.

---

67 -- Dickinson, Remarks upon a Pamphlet, 28, 30.

---

68 -- Obadiah Jenkins, Remarks upon the Defense of the Reverend Mr. Hemphill's Observations: In a letter to a Friend. Wherein the Orthodoxy of His Principles, the Excellency and Meekness of his Temper, and the Justice of His Complaints, against the Rev. Commission, are briefly Considered; and Humbly Proposed to the View of His Admirers (Philadelphia: Andrew Bradford, 1735), 16, 19-21.

---

69 -- Franklin, Autobiography, 170; Franklin, A Defense of Mr. Hemphill's Observations, 91, Editor's Note; Aldridge, Benjamin Franklin, 99; Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 105; Wright, Franklin of Philadelphia, 49; Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, 132.

---

70 -- Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 113; Christensen, "Franklin on the Hemphill Trial," 433-434.

---

71 -- Martin Marty has suggested that his was Franklin's contribution to a "new American religion, or to what has become the nation's "public religion." Martin E. Marty, Pilgrims in Their Own Land: 500 Years of Religion in America (New York: Penguin Books, 1986), 156-157.

---

72 -- Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 98, 102. It might be noted that at the height of the Hemphill affair, George Gillespie published Treatise against the Deists, or Free Thinkers (Philadelphia: Andrew Bradford, 1735). Clearly, the problem was much larger than the individual case of Samuel Hemphill.

---

73 -- Buxbaum, Benjamin Franklin, 113.