Editing Cyrus McCormick (section)

==Activism==
McCormick had always been a devout [[Presbyterian Church (USA)|Presbyterian]], as well as advocate of [[Christianity|Christian]] unity. He also valued and demonstrated in his life the [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] traits of self-denial, sobriety, thriftiness, efficiency, and morality. He believed feeding the world, made easier by the reaper, was part of his religious mission in life.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

A lifelong Democrat, before the [[American Civil War]], McCormick had published editorials in his newspapers, ''[[The Chicago Times]]'' and ''[[Chicago Herald (1881–95)|Herald]]'', calling for reconciliation between the national sections. His views, however, were unpopular in his adopted home town. Although his invention helped feed Union troops, McCormick believed the Confederacy would not be defeated and he and his wife traveled extensively in Europe during the war. McCormick unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat for [[Illinois's 2nd congressional district]] with a peace-now platform in 1864, and was soundly defeated by Republican [[John Wentworth (Illinois politician)|John Wentworth]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ostewig |first1=Kinnie A. |title=The sage of Sinnissippi: Being a brief sketch of the life of Congressman Frank Orren Lowden, of Oregon, Illinois, brief sketches of his rivals in political battles, a short article relating to his availability as a presidential candidate for 1908, and an official and authentic account of state elections in Illinois, statistically, combined with a roll of honor of the nation, the state, the county, and the village, the home of the author ... |date=1907 |publisher=Press of J.A. Nolen |page=211 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P2IfAQAAMAAJ |access-date=17 May 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=casson/> He also proposed a peace plan to include a Board of Arbitration.<ref name=casson>{{cite book |last1=Casson |first1=Herbert Newton |title=Cyrus Hall McCormick His Life and Work |date=2005 |publisher=Cosimo, Inc. |isbn=9781596051201 |page=167 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9oultaqE-vUC&pg=PA167 |access-date=30 September 2018 |language=en}}</ref>  After the war, McCormick helped found the Mississippi Valley Society, with a mission to promote New Orleans and Mississippi ports for European trade. He also supported efforts to annex the [[Dominican Republic]] as a territory of the United States.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}} Beginning in 1872, McCormick served a four-year term on the Illinois Democratic Party's Central Committee.{{cn|date=August 2022}} McCormick later proposed an international mechanism to control food production and distribution.

McCormick also became the principal benefactor and a trustee of what had been the Theological Seminary of the Northwest, which moved to Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood in 1859, a year in which he endowed four professorships. The institution was renamed [[McCormick Theological Seminary]] in 1886, after his death, although it moved to Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood in 1975 and began sharing facilities with the [[Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago]].

In 1869, McCormick donated $10,000 to help [[Dwight L. Moody]] start [[YMCA]], and his son Cyrus Jr. would become the first chairman of the [[Moody Bible Institute]].<ref name="liberty-virtue-independence.blogspot.com"/>

McCormick and later his widow, Nettie Day McCormick, also donated significant sums to [[Tusculum College]], a Presbyterian institution in Tennessee, as well as to establish churches and Sunday Schools in the South after the war, even though that region was slow to adopt his farm machinery and improved practices. Also, in 1872, McCormick purchased a religious newspaper, the ''Interior'', which he renamed the ''Continent'' and became a leading Presbyterian periodical.{{cn|date=August 2022}}

For the last 20 years of his life, McCormick was a benefactor and member of the board of trustees at [[Washington and Lee University]] in his native Virginia.<ref>{{cite web |title= Historical Benefactions Support Washington and Lee University |url= http://www.wlu.edu/x51099.xml |publisher= Washington and Lee University |access-date= December 31, 2012 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120218101417/http://www.wlu.edu/x51099.xml |archive-date= February 18, 2012 }}</ref> His brother Leander also donated funds to build an observatory on [[Mount Jefferson (Virginia)|Mount Jefferson]], operated by the [[University of Virginia]] and named the [[McCormick Observatory]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K4M9AQAAIAAJ|title=Scientific American|date=1884-05-24|publisher=Munn & Company|pages=321|language=en}}</ref>