“Reopen Warszawiak Case.” New York Times, November 21, 1899, page 3.

REOPEN WARSZAWIAK CASE

Presbytery Members Sustain Fifth Avenue Church Opposition.

MAY AFFECT THE PASTORSHIP

Warszawiak Says His Friends Will Warn the Rev. G. Campbell Morgan — Commission to Decide.

The new trouble in the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, caused by the recent action of the majority of the Session in reinstating Herman Warszawiak to membership, final action in the case being by appeal and complaint transferred to the Presbytery, was complicated yesterday when the matter came up for adjudication in the adjourned meeting of that body from the preceding Monday. The affair, instead of being settled, fell into a deeper mire than ever, and besides admittedly setting the Presbytery by the ears, developed strong possibilities for an eventual reopening of the case in a new trial, with the inevitable outcome, as alleged, of splitting wider than ever the factional fight between the members of Dr. Hall's old charge. More than this, as stated, the Warszawiak case is directly involved with the selection of a new pastor and may yet have an adverse bearing on the coming of the Rev. G. Campbell Morgan, recommended by the Pulpit Committee at its prolonged sittings on Sunday.

The members of the Presbytery who dislike newspaper comment on their doings were more than ever strenuous in their efforts yesterday to keep their doings secret. It was even reported that any member of the body discovered giving information would be severely dealt with by the Presbytery itself. The bare result of the meeting as given out by Stated Clerk Birch is as follows: “The papers in the appeal and two complaints of the minority of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Session from the action of the majority in reinstating Herman Warszawiak were decided to be in regular order, and the result was that the case was referred to a commission with full power to act.”

Dr. Duffield, the Moderator, was not present yesterday, and the commission will not be appointed for several days to come.

The controversy, as it now stands, resolves itself into a question, it is stated, as to whether or not the commission will sustain the action of the majority of the Session and declare its action legal. The possibility that it will not is causing, it is admitted, gloomy forebodings of the future. The decision of yesterday, according to Dr. Birch, absolves the Presbytery from any further responsibility in the case, and the commission's decision, he added, would be final so far as that body is immediately concerned. Many members of the Presbytery, however, viewed with apprehension and alarm the future discord that the controversy may give rise to.

Mr. Warszawiak and his counsel, the Rev. Dr. J. G. Patterson, were present. Dr. Patterson's presence, it was said, gave rise to numerous sharp passages at arms among the members. He made a strong stand for his client, maintaining that the question was now as to the legality of the session's action. Mr. Warszawiak, he declared, was by virtue of his reinstatement a member of the Fifth Avenue Church, and that now he had personally “no case” before the Presbytery. In the course of his numerous debates with the anti-Warszawiaks, so it was stated, Dr. Patterson caused the blood to mount to the foreheads of several of the members, implying that they had attempted to take certain advantages during the hearing of the case last Fall. Dr. Patterson afterward qualified his remarks. Dr. Patterson held that Mr. Brownell's office as prosecutor had died with the General Assembly of 1899.

At the beginning of the meeting the Judicial Committee appointed at the sitting of the preceding Monday, and of which the Rev. Dr. Howard Agnew Johnston was made Chairman, made a report to the effect that, inasmuch as the Synod referred the case back to the General Assembly for further instructions, the committee could not find the prosecutor's appeal and the two complaints in order, and it therefore recommended a “stay of all actions taken in any court since the beginning of 1899.”

A motion was made that the recommendation of the committee be adopted. Several amendments followed. These were the cause of a long and stormy debate. The result was that the Presbytery held the papers to be regular, washed its hands for the time being of the affair, and threw it into the hands of a commission, practically, therefore, it is held, sustaining the protest of Mr. Brownell.

After the meeting adjourned the Rev. Dr. Patterson was asked what he thought of the decision.

“I have a very decided opinion,” said he, warmly. “By the bringing up of these complaints and the appeal it has been made manifest `who the trouble in Israel is,' to wit, the prosecutor, Silas B. Brownell, who now stands against his own Session and arraigns them before the Presbytery for doing that which they had a perfect constitutional right to do, and which they felt themselves in all good conscience bound to do for the sake of the welfare and peace of one of the most important churches of the Presbytery.”

At this point Mr. Warszawiak interrupted Dr. Patterson and said:

“If I had been born a Gentile instead of a Jew, these flimsy charges against me would have been easily and quickly dismissed. But they wanted a scapegoat, and therefore selected a Jew as that scapegoat.

“This affair has affected the selection of a pastor of the church. I believe I had something to do with the refusal of the Rev. Alexander Connell to come here. I have friends here and abroad, and they apprised him of the trouble in the charge and all about these charges against me. My friends will also apprise Mr. Morgan of the action of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in this matter.”

Mr. Warszawiak afterward added that he does not believe Mr. Morgan will accept.

The petition of the young men of the Fifth Avenue Church which was to have been presented to the Presbytery yesterday afternoon, asking that the Session be removed because it had done nothing to fill the pulpit, was withdrawn. In view of the recommendation of the committee, the signers agreed among themselves to allow the matter to drop.