73. The Fort Wayne Rupture.--The last and, by far, severest blow, the separation of the synods which afterwards organized as the General Council, came as an aftermath of the admission of the Franckean Synod and the consequent withdrawal of the Pennsylvania delegation, in 1864, which the General Synod construed as the act of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania. However, since the Ministerium, reassured by the adoption of the York Amendment and Resolution, had already resolved to maintain its connection and to send a delegation to the next convention of the General Synod, the Fort Wayne schism could have been averted. And probably the break would have been avoided if the hasty establishment of the Philadelphia Seminary (as such, an act altogether justified, especially in the interest of the growing German element) had not caused suspicion and chagrin within the General Synod. As it was, the resolution of the Pennsylvania Synod, May 25, 1864, at Pottstown, to establish a new seminary at Philadelphia, and the subsequent election, on July 27, of Drs. C.F. Schaeffer of Gettysburg, W.J. Mann, and C.P. Krauth as the first faculty, was generally viewed as the first actual step toward a breach. According to Dr. Jacobs both the establishment of the Philadelphia Seminary and the subsequent disruption of the General Synod would probably have been avoided, "if the chair at Gettysburg, vacated by the resignation of Dr. S.S. Schmucker, had been filled by his [Charles Porterfield Krauth's instead of J.A. Brown's] election." (462.) Howbeit, at its convention in Fort Wayne, May, 1866, President S. Sprecher ruled that Synod could recognize the Pennsylvania delegation only after receiving the report of an act on the part of the Pennsylvania Synod reestablishing its relation to the General Synod. In spite of vigorous protests on the part of the Pennsylvania and other delegates, the chair in its ruling was supported by the majority of the convention. After a good deal of parliamentary fencing and quibbling, Synod adopted, with a vote of 77 to 32, as the "ultimate resolution": "Resolved, That after hearing the response of the delegates of the Pennsylvania Synod, we cannot conscientiously recede from the action adopted by this body, believing, after full and careful deliberation, said action to have been regular and constitutional; but that we reaffirm our readiness to receive the delegates of said Synod as soon as they present their credentials in due form." (_Proceedings_ 1866, 3. 5. 9. 12. 25 ff.) Of the alternatives, either practically applying for readmission or withdrawing from the convention, the Pennsylvania delegation chose the latter course. At the same time they stated "that in retiring, as they now do, they distinctly declare that this their act in no sense or degree affects the relations of the Pennsylvania Synod to the General Synod." (28.) President A.J. Brown replied in behalf of the General Synod: "This body has not decided at any time that the