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Isaac M. See (1829-1902) was the youngest of three sons who were all Reformed or Presbyterian ministers in New York state and suburban New Jersey. They were all grandsons of Dr. John See of New York City, whose letters to his teacher William Wilson appear here. Isaac's eldest son John (b. 1856) was also a clergyman. His lineage was Isaac McBride^7 See, Isaac^6, John^5, Peter^4, Isaac^3, Jacob^2
The New York Times printed at least a dozen articles about Isaac's troubles between 1876 and 1878, ranging in length from one-paragraph squibs to a column and a half, the length of the first editorial.
Most of the articles are excerpted here rather than quoted in full. I could not find nearly half of the stories where the index said they were supposed to be. Either the index is wrong, or there's something I still don't know about the complicated referencing system. The missing articles must wait until a future update.
The titles on the index entries for the missing articles show that Mr. See was pressured to resign his post, but delayed as long as possible. A certain Mr. Cohn in his congregation was the ringleader in his ouster.
Editorial
CORINTH AND NEWARK.
Rev. Mr. SEE, a Presbyterian minister of the City of Newark, is now undergoing an ecclesiastical trial for the alleged crime of permitting a woman to preach in his pulpit. Mr. SEE denies the charge, but admits the specifications thereof, and hence renders it rather difficult for us to decide whether he considers himself guilty or not...
The defense offered by the accused minister is interesting because of its novelty, and important because it establishes a new canon of Scriptural interpretation. He concedes that St. PAUL ordered that women should keep silence in the churches, but he asks where the command in question is found? His accusers reply that it is found in an Epistle to the Corinthians; whereupon Mr. SEE takes the impregnable ground that Newarkians are not Corinthians, and hence argues that what St. PAUL may have said to the latter does not necessarily concern the former....
The argument is susceptible of a very wide use. If what St. PAUL said to the Corinthians is not binding upon the people of Newark, neither is what St. PAUL, or any contemporary saint, may have said to the people of other Asiatic or European cities. Mr. SEE and the members of his Newark congregation are not Galatians, nor Thessalonians of the first or second variety, nor yet Hebrews, Colossians, Romans, or Ephesians. They have, consequently, nothing whatever to do with the rules which St. PAUL laid down for the guidance of those ancient communities, and can thus emancipate themselves from the burden of nearly one-half of the New Testament... By rigidly applying this new rule of interpretation to the New Testament, Mr. SEE will find that only the Gospels, the Acts, the Apocalypse, and the General Epistles have any authority in Newark, while the Old Testament, being unquestionably addressed to the Jews, is of importance only to such Newarkians as are engaged in the retail clothing business.
Having thus refused to admit the jurisdiction of St. PAUL in Newark unless it can first be shown that he has written an especial epistle to the Newarkians, Mr. See might easily have rested his case. He had, however, two other new and powerful arguments. He quoted a passage in Acts in which it is said that "your sons and your daughters shall prophecy," and claimed first, that to prophesy is the same thing as to preach, and second, that the passage in question is a command to women to indulge in that exercise. It would, perhaps, have been better if Mr. SEE had demonstrated the trust of his assertion that prophesying and preaching are synonymous. Still, we ought, doubtless, to accept the unsupported assertions of so skillful a master of exegesis, without a skeptical murmur. It is, however, reasonably certain that Mr. SEE's opponents will insist upon calling his attention to the rest of the passage in Acts,, which says "your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams." If the daughters of Newark are really commanded to prophesy, the young men of that city are likewise under obligation to see visions, and the old gentlemen to dream dreams. Very probably Mr. SEE has the courage of his opinions, and will promptly detail half a dozen of the young men of his congregation to see immediate and miscellaneous visions, and will put the elder members into comfortable pews provided with head-rests, and request them to proceed to dream with such vigor as their years may permit....
(Isaac See's honorific was corrected to "Dr." for the next editorial)
New York Times, Monday, January 22, 1877
Editorial
PAUL AND PLYMOUTH
Recently the Rev. Dr. SEE, a Presbyterian minister residing in Newark, was tried for the offense of permitting a woman to preach in his pulpit; and although he defended himself by the plea that the New Testament prohibition of female preaching was contained in St. PAUL's epistle to the Corinthians, and hence was not binding upon the Newarkians, to whom St. PAUL notoriously never wrote anything, he was finally found guilty by the fellow-ministers. If SEE felt hurt by this verdict, he has since been abundantly consoled. Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER, and the learned and pious Mr. SHEARMAN, have both rushed to Dr. SEE's defense, and if this fact does not convince him that he was right, he must be strangely lacking in respect for those two eminent men.
Last Friday night, Mr. BEECHER, after having exhausted the question of the divinity of Christ, by announcing that in his opinion "very little is settled," and "very little ever will be settled," as to that question, proceeded to express his indignation at seeing "a pack of fools over in New-Jersey debating whether Dr. SEE did right or wrong in permitting a woman to preach, and attempting to prove him wrong by the New Testament." ... When Mr. BEECHER sees a body of Presbyterian ministers actually appealing to the New Testament as an authority upon matters of morality and religion, it is no wonder that he becomes indignant. He has been preaching and practicing a gospel of large liberality during a long and busy lifetime, and yet here is an entire New-Jersey Presbytery which still believes the supreme authority of the New Testament. ...
To suppose that an assembly of ministers whom Mr. BEECHER has openly called a pack of fools can survive so withering a denunciation by so eminent a man, would be folly. Members of other Presbyteries should take warning by their fate, and hasten to disavow all belief in the New Testament as a rule of action lest they too incur Mr. BEECHER's displeasure, and are crushed at some future Plymouth prayer-meeting.
NEW-JERSEY
Rev. Dr. Isaac M. See, of the Wickliffe-Street Presbyterian Church, Newark, has resigned his pastorate, and will preach his farewell sermon on the first Sunday in October. Dr. See's trial before the Newark Presbytery on a charge of having broken the Church law by permitting two women to occupy his pulpit two years ago, first brought him into prominence. He has since been reading Swedenborg's writings, and his become much infatuated with them.
MR. SEE LEAVES THE PRESBYTERY
At the meeting of Newark Presbytery, yesterday, Rev. M.F. Hollister was elected Moderator. Rev. Mr. See, Pastor of the Wickliffe-Street Presbyterian Church, who recently announced his intention of resigning, was given a hearing. He read a paper in which he said that it had been announced that he was a Swedenborgian. He read from the Sunny Mount an article written by himself on the "New Church." in which he holds that it is not a denomination, but a congregation of Christians from all sects. He praised the Swedenborgian Church. He now proposed to leave the Presbytery, not because of a departure from the faith, but because a change had taken place in the terms of his theology. Henceforward he proposed to be independent. He could not leave the ministry or go to any other body. The document was referred to a Committee.
MR. SEE BECOMES INDEPENDENT
... Rev. Dr. Mellvaine said that the case could be simplified if Mr. See would withdraw the paper and make a simply request that his name be stricken from the rolls. That was done ... [W]hile the Presbytery regarded the views expressed by Mr. See as inconsistent with the standards of the Presbyterian Church, they did not necessarily involve the adoption in his case of fundamental heresy; therefore it thought that the request should be granted. The minute was adopted unanimously.
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