Page:A short account of the rise and progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America.djvu/38



On Sunday night the 16th of July, 1820, the Elder, William M. Stilwell, who had the charge of Zion and Asbury Churches, came to the Rose Street Academy, a little before the conclusion of Divine Worship, and when the service was ended he informed the official brethren, as many as were present, that he and several hundred of his (white) brethren had that day withdrawn from the Methodist Episcopal Church, in consequence of some resolutions of their preachers in Conference, which they thought were improper measures for preachers of the Gospel to resort to, and which would be injurious to the temporal concerns of the church—the chief resolution was to petition the Legislature of the State of New York for a special Act of Incorporation, in order to give the preachers more power over the Trustees, in regard particularly to the temporalities of the churches under their government in this State. This information was somewhat alarming; for the Trustees and the other official members of our church had been several times threatened and spoken to unkindly by Elders having charge of the circuit and of 4*