“The Presbyterians who came early to America brought a deep and profound respect for the values of education. In an effort to establish religion firmly on the rational basis of knowledge and thought, the church logically evinced great zeal for education; where education was at a low ebb, the church suffered. A learned ministry with a classical education was deemed absolutely essential to Presbyterian standards.” — Walter Brownlow Posey, The Presbyterian Church in the Old Southwest, 1778-1838 (1952), p. 49