Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/471

 METHODISM 457 1874 give the following figures : bishops, 13 ; annual conferences, 80 ; itinerant minis- ters, 10,845 ; local preachers, 12,706 ; members, 1,345,089 ; probationists, 218,432 ; Sunday schools, 18,958 ; officers and teachers, 203,409 ; scholars, 1,383,227; value of churches and par- sonages, $78,516,693. 2. Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Methodism was firmly estab- lished in the southern states at an early day. It embraced alike in its membership slaves and slaveholders, and slaveholders were found in its ministry. The subject of slavery occu- pied the attention of the American Methodists even prior to their organization into a distinct church. The members were at first advised to emancipate their slaves. Their local preach- ers were warned, and suspension and expul- sion threatened in case they failed to manumit their slaves, or bought slaves for the purpose of holding them. On the organization of the church in 1784, provision was made for the spiritual care of the blacks, and slavery was declared to be contrary to the law of God and every principle of the revolution. A method was likewise adopted for the extirpation of what was affirmed to be an " abomination." It was determined that persons who should buy, sell, or give away slaves should be im- mediately expelled, unless they bought them with the purpose to free them. In 1796 the disciplinary question read: " What regulations shall be made for the extirpation of the crying evil of American slavery ? " In the answer recommendation was made to the " yearly con- ferences, quarterly meetings, and to those who have oversight of districts and circuits, to be exceedingly cautious what persons they admit to official stations in our church ; and in the case of future admission to official stations, to require such security of those who hold slaves for their emancipation, immediately or gradu- ally, as the laws of the states respectively and the circumstances of the case will admit." The church was requested to consider the sub- ject of negro slavery with deep attention till the ensuing general conference, " in order to take further steps in eradicating this enormous evil from that part of the church of God to which we are united." One of the discipli- nary provisions of 1804 was that a travelling preacher, the owner of slaves, should forfeit his ministerial character in case of failure to emancipate them where the laws might permit. The church was advised to forward through appointed channels addresses and petitions to state legislatures to secure the gradual emanci- pation of the blacks. In 1808 it was declared that no slaveholder should be eligible to the office of elder, where the laws will admit of emancipation. In 1812 each annual conference was authorized to make its own regulations relative to buying and selling slaves. The con- ference of 1816 substantially reaffirmed the regulation of 1808, but extended the ineligi- bility to all official members. The disciplinary statements were changed from time to time, ever maintaining a distinct protest against the evil of slavery, but guarding the rights of mem- bers and ministers in those states where the laws did not admit of the manumission of slaves. The general conference of 1840 de- clared that " mere ownership of slave property, in states or territories where the laws do not admit of emancipation and permit the liberated slave to enjoy freedom, constitutes no legal barrier to election or ordination of ministers to the various grades of office known in the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church." At the general conference of 1844, the appeal of the Kev. Francis A. Harding from the de- cision of the Baltimore conference, suspending him from the ministry for failure to manumit slaves obtained by marriage, was argued, and the decision confirmed, it being held that the laws of Maryland allowed manumission. The case of James O. Andrew, a bishop of the church, who had come into the possession of slaves subsequently to his election, also came before the conference for examination. A resolution " that it is the sense of the general conference that he desist from the exercise of his office, so long as this impediment (slave- holding) remain," was passed by a vote of 111 to 69. After many attempts at reconciliation, the delegates from 13 annual conferences pre- sented a declaration that this action of the conference " must produce a state of things in the south which renders a continuance of the jurisdiction of the general conference over these conferences inconsistent with the success of the ministry in the slaveholding states." This was referred to a committee of nine, who re- ported a plan in which provision was made for a separation, in case such a contingency should arise. It provided for the peaceful adjustment of boundary lines, and an equitable division of property. The next day after the adjourn- ment of the conference, the southern delegates published a call for a convention of the slave- holding conferences to meet in Louisville, Ky., May 1, 1845. This convention declared the conferences there represented to be a distinct connection under the name of " The Methodist Episcopal Church, South." It also provided for its first general conference, which met at Petersburg, Va., in May, 1846. By a decision of the supreme court of the United States, the property was divided with the southern church in accordance with the provisions of the plan. This church now consists of 37 annual con- ferences, composed of travelling ministers and lay delegates, four of the latter from each dis- trict. The general conference is composed of an equal number of clerical and lay members. In economy and doctrine it is very similar to the Methodist Episcopal church. It has a pub- lishing house at Nashville, Tenn., and a pros- perous missionary society. Previous to the civil war it had 21 colleges for males, and 55 collegiate and academic institutions for fe- males. It published one quarterly, two month- ly, and eight weekly periodicals. Its mis-