CHAPTER XLIV.

The Louisville Convention-First General Conference-Book Agency-New Hymn-book-Bishops Capers and Paine-Troubles with the Plan in the North -Fraternal Delegate and Business Commissioners-Rejected-Appealing Unto Cæsar-Supreme Court Declares the Plan of Separation Valid, and Enforces it -Southern Methodist Publishing House-Separation-Peace-Prosperity.

T midnight, June 10th, the General Conference adjourned; next day the Southern delegates met, before leaving for home, and deliberated on what was best to be done. Letters and newspapers received from the South indicated great excitement. To prevent undue haste in action, and to forestall divided counsels, the delegates suggested to their constituents that nothing be done till all the Conferences represented could meet in a general convention, and "submitted" to their "consideration" that May 1, 1845, would be a suitable time, and Louisville, Kentucky, a fit place, for such a convention; and that their delegates-chosen in a certain ratio-be instructed "on the points on which action is contemplated; " the instructions conforming, as far as possible, "to the opinions and wishes of the members of the Church."

They also issued a brief "Address to the Ministers and Members" of their Conferences, conveying authentic information of the provisional Plan of Separation, under which relief in a regular way could be obtained from Northern jurisdiction, if they judged it necessary. "It affords us pleasure," they say, "to state that there were those found among the majority who met this proposition with every manifestation of justice and liberality; and should a similar spirit be exhibited by the Annual Conferences in the North," when an opportunity to manifest justice and liberality is submitted to them by a vote on the Restrictive Article, as provided for in the Plan itself, "there will remain no legal impediment to its peaceful consummation."

They deprecated all excitement, and advised that the question be approached and disposed of with candor and forbearance.

This wise prevision was of great worth. Southern Methodism, though excited within and pressed upon from without, was kept together and found expression of feeling and purpose in regular methods. Not only Quarterly and Annual Conferences spoke out, but stations and circuits met and considered the matter (641)

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Says one who took part in these proceedings, and had opportunity of wide observation: "Those who will take the trouble to read the utterances of these Conferences will find that the history of the world does not offer a parallel to the unanimity of sentiment, thought, and purpose, which they exhibited on a subject of so momentous consequence. Their course was taken reluc

tantly, sadly, but firmly, for the glory of God."*

May 1, 1845, a convention of delegates from Conferences in the slave-holding States met in Louisville, Kentucky, and continued through twenty days. A Committee on Organization was appointed to canvass the acts of the several Annual Conferences; to consider the propriety and the necessity of a Southern orgaLization, according to the "Plan of Separation;" and also to inquire if any thing had taken place during the year to render it possible to maintain the unity of Methodism under one General Conference jurisdiction, without the ruin of Southern Methodism.

On the 15th of May this committee reported these conclusions: That the General Conference of 1844 gave full and exclusive authority to "the Annual Conferences in the slave-holding States" to decide upon the necessity of organizing a separate ecclesiastical Connection in the South; that sixteen such Conferences were here represented; that it is in evidence that the ministry and membership in the South-nearly five hundred thousand-in the proportion of about ninety-five in the hundred, deem a division of jurisdiction indispensable; that unless this is effected, about a million of slaves, now hearing the gospel from our ministers, will be withdrawn from their care; and that, while thus taking their position, the Southern Conferences are ready and most willing to treat with the Northern division of the Church at any time, in view of adjusting the difficulties of this controversy upon terms and principles that may be satisfactory to both. And then these delegates did solemnly declare the jurisdiction hitherto exercised over the Annual Conferences represented in the convention, by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, entirely dissolved; and that said Annual Conferences "are hereby constituted a separate ecclesiastical Connection," based upon the Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, "and comprehending the doctrines and entire moral, ecclesiastical, and economical rules and regulations of said

*Dr. Myers, on the Disruption of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

First General Conference.

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Discipline, except only in so far as verbal alterations may be necessary to a distinct organization, and to be known by the style and title of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South."

The First General Conference met in Petersburg, May 1, 1846. The body numbered eighty-seven members. On the first day Rev. John Early presided, until the arrival of Bishop Andrew. On the second day the senior Superintendent of American Methodism formally announced his adherence:

PETERSBURG, May 2, 1846.

Reverend and Dear Brethren: I consider your body, as now organized, the consummation of the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in conformity to the "Plan of Separation," adopted by the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1844. It is therefore in strict agreement with the provisions of that body that you are vested with full power to transact all business appropriate to a Methodist General Conference.

I view this organization as having been commenced in the "Declaration" of the delegates of the Conferences in the slave-holding States, made at New York, in 1844; and as having advanced in its several stages in the "Protest," the "Plan of Separation," the appointment of delegates to the Louisville convention, in the action of that body, in the subsequent action of the Annual Conferences, approv ing the acts of their delegates at the convention, and in the appointment of delegates to this General Conference.

The organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, being thus com. pleted in the organization of the General Conference with a constitutional president, the time has arrived when it is proper for me to announce my position. Sustaining no relation to one Annual Conference which I did not sustain to every other, and considering the General Conference as the proper judicatory to which my communication should be made, I have declined making this announcement until the present time. And now, acting with strict regard to the Plan of Separation, and under a solemn conviction of duty, I formally declare my adherence to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. And if the Conference receive me in my present relation to the Church, I am ready to serve them according to the best of my ability. In conclusion, I indulge the joyful assurance that although separated from our Northern brethren by a distinct Conference jurisdiction, we shall never cease to treat them as "brethren beloved," and cultivate those principles and affections which constitute the essential unity of the Church of Christ.

JOSHUA SOULE.

On motion of Benjamin M. Drake it was unanimously resolved, by a rising vote, that Bishop Soule be received as one of the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

At first it was resolved to have a Book Concern in two divisions-one in Richmond and one in Louisville; but this arrangement gave place to another better suited to the times: "That an agent be appointed, whose duty it shall be to provide for the

supply of books, by contracting where they can be obtained by him on the best terms; and that he shall cause such books to be déposited at Louisville, Charleston, and Richmond, subject to the orders of the itinerant preachers in the Methodist Episcopal - Church, South." John Early was elected Agent, and the editors of the Christian Advocates at Charleston, Richmond, and Louisville were made his assistants, and subject to his direction in depository matters. A Quarterly Review was ordered to be published at Louisville, Dr. Bascom editor. A constitution for a Church Missionary Society was agreed on, and the Bishops were authorized to enter the foreign field by appointing two missionaries to China.* E. W. Sehon having declined, Edward Stevenson was elected Missionary Secretary. To Thomas O. Summers was assigned the editorship of the proposed Sunday-school paper, and the principal labor of preparing a revised edition of the Hymn-book. It was ordered that three commissioners be appointed in accordance with the "Plan of Separation,” to act in concert with the commissioners appointed for the other Church, "concerning our interest in the Book Concern." By ballot H. B. Bascom, A. L. P. Green, and S. A. Latta were elected such commissioners, and they were instructed to notify the commissioners and Book Agents at New York and Cincinnati of their appointment, and of their readiness to settle; and should no settlement be effected before 1848, said commissioners shall have authority "to attend the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to settle and adjust all questions involving property or funds, which may be pending between the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and should the commissioners appointed by this General Conference, after proper effort, fail to effect a settlement as above, then they are authorized to take such measures as may best secure the just and equitable claims of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to the property and funds aforesaid."

May 7th, on the second balloting, Dr. William Capers and Dr.

*At the next General Conference the Episcopal Address announced the appointment and the arrival out of "the Revs. Charles Taylor, M.D., and Benjamin Jenkins, of the South Carolina Conference, to that empire. On looking over the whole field open to us in that far-off region, it was judged that the city of Shanghai presented the most favorable point at which to commence operations; accordingly, your missionaries were directed to make that their field of labor, till they should be otherwise instructed."

Bishops Capers and Paine.

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Robert Paine were duly elected bishops, and on May 14 they were ordained by Bishops Soule and Andrew, assisted by Dr. Lovick Pierce and Rev. John Early.

The Conference adjourned May 23, but not without taking this action: "Resolved, by a rising and unanimous vote, That Dr. Lovck Pierce be, and is hereby, delegated to visit the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to be held in Pittsburg, May 1, 1848, to tender to that body the Christian regards and fraternal salutations of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South."

It was suggested by some to expunge or to qualify the old section of the Discipline on slavery, but the Conference was satisfied to reäffirm the deliverances of 1836 and of 1840 as the true and proper exposition of that section. The Pastoral Address congratulates the Church:

The changes in the Discipline, if such they can be called, are as few and unimportant as the fact and circumstance of a separate ecclesiastical jurisdiction would permit. No recognized principle of the Methodism of our fathers has been in any way affected by these changes. All the doctrines, duties, and usages -the entire creed and ritual of the Church before the separation, remain without change of any kind. And when we reflect that during no period of its history has Methodism been the result of preëxisting plans and arrangements, but always and everywhere a system of moral agency, within the limits of Scripture authority and precedent, adapting itself, in mere matters of form and modes of operation, to the suggestive force of circumstances and the exigence of the times, it is indeed matter not less of gratitude than surprise that God, in the gracious, and we believe special, providence extended to us, has strangely withheld us from the necessity of greater changes; for they have been fewer in number and less important than those of any General Conference since

1792.

While all was going well in the South, the Northern delegates, on their return, found their constituents divided; some were displeased that the South had been put under the necessity of seeking separation; others, perhaps a larger number, disapproved of the terms of separation agreed on, as too liberal; and both parties, in the end, were offended more or less because the South took advantage of the compact to depart, by departing. When the Conferences acted upon the recommendation to change the sixth Restrictive Rule, a numerical majority, but not three fourths, voted for concurrence. The result is stated thus: For concurrence, Northern Conferences, 1,164; Southern, 971; total. 2,135. For non-concurrence, 1,070.