Civil War

Lincoln, NYAPC, and the Civil War

As the years prior to and during the Civil War were pivotal for our nation, so were those years a pivotal period in the history of The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. The NYAPC, as currently constituted, came into existence in 1859 through the merger of the previously separate F Street Presbyterian Church and Second Presbyterian Church.

The union of these two churches was approved by votes of their respective sessions in July and September of that year. On October 14, 1859, the Presbytery of Potomac approved a motion to establish “The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church” as the name of the united church.

The F Street church was located on property which faced on F Street NW, just west of 14th Street NW, and would ultimately be purchased by the Willard family for use in connection with the Willard Hotel. The Second Presbyterian Church was located on the current site of the NYAPC. The united church chose to make the current site its home. The united congregation decided to build a new church, which was to be “a large and commodious house of worship on New York Avenue.” The new church was dedicated on October 14, 1860.

Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, who had been pastor of the F Street Presbyterian Church, became pastor of the NYAPC. Dr. Gurley was widely regarded as an excellent preacher and a true Christian gentleman. He was a graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary and stood squarely in the American Old School Presbyterian understanding of reformed theology, which emphasized God as the primary actor in history and human beings who, despite their sinfulness, were called to be instruments of divine purpose.

Dr. Gurley would have a strong relationship with President Lincoln during the years of the Civil War and his preaching would have a profound influence on the President. It has been said that Dr. Gurley “is an overlooked figure in the Lincoln story.”

The Lincoln family had attended the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Illinois. Shortly after President Lincoln’s inauguration in Washington, Mrs. Lincoln sent for the plan of the NYAPC which showed the seating arrangements and chose a pew for the Lincoln family. The first Sunday after their occupancy of the White House, the Lincoln family attended services in their pew at The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Throughout the years of the war, the President and his family continued to be regular attendees at the Sunday services of the church. When asked about Gurley and his sermons, the President is said to have retorted, “I like Gurley….when I go to church, I like to hear the Gospel.” The President also frequently attended a mid-week prayer meeting at the church. In addition, Dr. Gurley noted that he had had frequent and intimate conversations with the President on the subject of the Bible and the Christian religion.

The President’s participation at the NYAPC coincided with his deepening struggles to understand the meaning of God’s activity during the maelstrom of war. The President heard Dr. Gurley preach sermons that accented the theme of providence. Dr. Gurley acknowledged the perplexity of God’s providence, calling it “a mysterious dealing.” And yet he also asserted that, “He accomplishes His fixed and eternal purpose through the instrumentality of free, and accountable, and even wicked agents.” The President consulted with Dr. Gurley on the draft of the Emancipation Proclamation and there is considerable evidence that some of Dr. Gurley’s suggestions were incorporated in the final document.

Dr. Gurley helped the Lincoln family through difficult times. He presided at the funeral of the Lincoln’s son, Willie, in 1862. He delivered the final prayer at the time of the President’s death at the Peterson House on the morning of April 15, 1865, after which Secretary of War Edwin Stanton uttered his famous phrase, “…and now he belongs to the ages.” Dr. Gurley presided at the President’s funeral in the White House and accompanied the funeral train on its journey back to Springfield, retracing the President’s 1861 route to Washington. He delivered remarks to the vast crowds at each stop along the way and at the President’s interment service in Springfield.

Today’s New York Avenue Presbyterian Church includes many reminders of the role of the church during the Civil War. The Lincoln Parlor, on the first floor of the current building, houses the original draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. This document was given to the church in 1951 by Barney Balaban, president of Paramount Pictures Corporation.

In his dedicating remarks, Mr. Balaban indicated that this church is a uniquely appropriate home for this document because “its pastor played an influential role in the evolution of the final proclamation.” And because “the Emancipation Proclamation was born out of deep religious convictions. Its origins are rooted in a basic Judaic-Christian concept – the integrity of the individual human personality. This concept and slavery are utterly incompatible.”

The church’s chimes reside in the Lincoln Memorial Tower, which was a gift of the Robert Todd Lincoln family in 1928 and was reconstructed in 1951. The chimes were the gift of Mary Lincoln Isham, granddaughter of Abraham Lincoln. To this day, services at The New York Avenue Presbyterian Church start with the ringing of the Lincoln Chimes.

The Lincoln pew occupies the same relative position in the current sanctuary as it did in the church as it existed in 1861. This is the same pew which Mrs. Lincoln selected when the Lincoln family first arrived in Washington for the inauguration of President Lincoln in 1861. Visitors to the church are welcome to sit in the Lincoln pew.

References:
Frank E, Edgington, The History of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, 1962.
Ronald C. White Jr., Lincoln’s Greatest Speech, New York, 2002.