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Chapter 15. The General Conference of 1840 · Part 3

“Of your general superintendents, six in number, three are enfeebled by labor, age, and infirmity. We are of one heart and one mind, acknowledging our obligation according to our ability, and to the utmost extent of it, to serve the Church of God in that highly responsible office which you have committed to us; but, in view of our own weakness and the arduous work intrusted to us, with fear and much trembling, we have cause to exclaim, ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ There are now twenty-eight annual conferences represented in this body, and in all probability the number will be considerably increased during your present session. These embrace a country extending from New Brunswick to Texas on the Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico, and from the sea-board to the vast northern lakes, and to the territories on the upper Mississippi and Missouri. The general superintendents sustain the same relation to all these conferences; and our system requires that we should be annually visited. Between three and four thousand traveling preachers are to be appointed every year to their fields of ministerial labor. These appointments must be made with due regard to the qualifications, age, infirmities, and domestic circumstances of this vast body of ministers, and with the same regard to the condition and wants of the millions of people to whom they are sent. To minds capable of grasping this vast machinery of our itinerant system, it will readily appear that an effective itinerant superintendency is indispensably necessary to keep it in regular, energetic, and successful operation. It must be effective, not imbecile; general, not sectional; itinerant, not local. Destitute of either of these prerequisites, the probable result would be a disorganization of the system, and weakness and inefficiency in all its parts. In the relation we sustain to you as the highest judicatory of the Church, and to the whole itinerant connection, it becomes us to be cautious and unassuming in presenting you with our sentiments on a subject like this, in which it may be supposed we have a special individual interest. We will only suggest two points for your consideration, which we are confident will appear to you in the same light in which we view them. ‘The first is to preserve a sufficient number of effective superintendents to secure to the conferences their regular annual visits, taking into view the number of conferences, and their relative locations. And, second, that there be no greater number than is strictly necessary to accomplish this work, carefully guarding against the increase of the numbers of laborers beyond the proportionate increase of the work, bearing in mind that, if we would have laboring preachers, we must have laboring superintendents. As the number of annual conferences increases, and the work extends in the states and territories, it becomes necessary to strengthen the general superintendency in due proportion. But, as you will doubtless have an able committee to examine and report on this important subject, we forbear any further remarks in relation to it.

“Our missionary operations among the Indians, and in foreign countries, especially on the continent of Africa, are recommended to your special attention. The condition of the Indian tribes located on the western boundary line of Arkansas and Missouri, and the territories on the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers, calls aloud for united and vigorous efforts to disperse among them the light of the gospel, and the blessings of civilization. We are encouraged to such effort by the circumstance that there is an increasing disposition among most of the tribes to encourage the labors of our missionaries, and improve their condition by the establishment of schools for the instruction of their children in the knowledge of our language, and in agriculture and mechanical arts.

“Since your last session, a plan has been devised, with the approbation of the officers and board of managers of the Parent Missionary Society, to establish a central Indian manual labor school, with the design of collecting and teaching the native children of the several adjacent tribes. The plan has been submitted to the executive department of the national government having the superintendence of Indian affairs, and has met with a favorable and encouraging consideration; and we are much indebted to officers and agents of the civil government in, and adjacent to, the Indian country, for the extensive aid they have given in the establishment of the institution, both by employing their influence in recommending it to the Indians, and advising in its structure and organization. This school is already, to a considerable extent, in successful operation. Native children, from five different tribes, are collected; and men from these tribes have visited the institution, and have very generally been satisfied with its government and objects. We cannot but regard this establishment as full of promise of lasting benefits to the Indian race. But as a detailed report of its organization, designs, and prospects, will come before you, we will only add our earnest recommendation of the plan to your deliberate consideration, with regard to the present condition and wants of the Indians, and its adaptation to the great objects it is designed to accomplish — the conversion of the Indians to the Christian faith, and their improvement in all the arts and habits of civilized life. And we would further recommend an inquiry into the expediency of establishing one or more institutions, at suitable locations in the Indian country, on the same plan, and for the same purposes.

To Africa we look with the deepest solicitude. Our sympathies, prayers, and efforts mingle on her coasts. In our missionary enterprise commenced at Liberia, we aim at the conversion of a continent to God. The handful of precious seed which has been sown in that infant colony, and watered by the tears and prayers of the missionaries and the Church, shall spring up and ripen to be sown again with a hundred-fold increase, till Africa shall become one fruitful field, cultivated in righteousness. Although a number of faithful and devoted missionaries have fallen in that field of labors we should by no means be discouraged in the prosecution of so great a work. They have fallen asleep, but they sleep in the Lord. And being dead they still speak; and the voice from their tombs is a call to the church of Christ on the American continent to emulate their holy zeal, and fill up the ranks from which they have been removed. We have no doubt but you will be disposed to take some efficient measures for the constitutional organization of the Liberia annual conference, and to provide for the ordination of ministers in their own country, that the infant African church may be duly and regularly supplied, not only with the ministry of the word, but also with the holy sacraments.

“The character which the Oregon mission has recently assumed, is well calculated to invite your particular attention to that extensive and important field of missionary enterprise. We can have little doubt that, with the blessing of God attending our efforts, the time will arrive, when the interests of the missionary colony, and the success of the work among the aboriginal tribes, will call for the organization of an annual conference in that vast territory. And our grand object should be to preserve one harmonious compact, in the unity of the Spirit, and the bonds of peace, and that Methodism may be one on either side of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and on all the islands of the sea;

‘And mountains rise and oceans roll To sever us in vain.’

“It was doubtless a wise and safe provision, that copies of the records of the proceedings of the annual conferences should be forwarded to the General Conference for examination. By this means the General Conference may obtain the knowledge of the official acts of those bodies, from evidence which cannot be disputed or contravened, and consequently they may correct errors in their proceedings, if found to exist, on the simple authority of official records. We regret to say that, in our opinion, this judicious provision has not been sufficiently regarded, either on the part of the annual conferences, in forwarding copies of these records, or on the part of the General Conference in a careful inspection of them. As these records contain, not only the official transactions of the conferences, having an important connection with the government and general interests of the Church, but also frequently embrace the opinions of the superintendents on questions of law, and the administration of discipline; and as it is the constitutional prerogative of this body to correct what is erroneous in these transactions and opinions, with an earnest desire that all things may be done in every official department of the Church in strict conformity to her constitution and Discipline, we recommend a careful examination of these records at your present session.

“Finally, brethren, we commend you and ourselves, and the ministers and people connected with us in the bonds of the gospel of Christ, to the guidance and protection of the great Head of the church, whose we are and whom we serve; sincerely and ardently praying that your deliberations, with all their results, may be under the influence of that wisdom which is from above; which is pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated; full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality or hypocrisy.

“We are, dear brethren, sincerely and affectionately yours, in the unity and fellowship of the gospel of Christ,

“R. R. Roberts, “Joshua Soule, “Elijah Hedding, “James O. Andrew, “B. Waugh, “Thomas A. Morris, “Baltimore, May 4,1840.”

The several subjects adverted to in this very able address were referred to appropriate committees; and so far as their reports were adopted by the conference, they will be noticed in the proper places. After the address of the bishops was received and disposed of, Mr. Newton presented the following address from the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, which was read by the seminary, and referred to a committee of three to consider and report thereon:

“Address of the British Conference to the Bishops and Members of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America

“Very Dear Brethren, — We gratefully avail ourselves of this opportunity to renew the tokens of our fraternal intercourse with you; and, while we unfeignedly rejoice in all the blessings with which it has pleased Almighty God to accompany your cares and labors, we devoutly pray that ‘mercy unto you, and peace, and love’ may be yet more abundantly ‘multiplied, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.’

“It has afforded us great satisfaction to hear from different quarters of your continued prosperity, and especially to receive the personal communications which have been made to us at this conference by the Rev. Dr. Olin. We are thankful that, notwithstanding the languor of indisposition, this esteemed minister in your Church, and our beloved brother, has been able to attend several of the sittings of the conference, and to address us, at considerable length, on topics which are more than usually gratifying to our best affections. Most sincerely do we hope that God will, in his goodness, more fully restore his health, and prepare him, by an increase of vigor, and of every spiritual gift, long to occupy the important station which, to speak according to the views and feelings of frail mortality, has been so prematurely left vacant by the decease of the excellent and lamented Dr. Fisk.

From a wish to perpetuate a free and familiar interchange of kindly offices with you, in the way which we doubt not is most agreeable to you as well as to ourselves, we have requested our dear friend and brother, the Rev. Robert Newton, to visit you at your next General Conference. To enlarge on the high regard which we entertain for our honored messenger — a regard which he has justly merited by his unweariable and faithful services in every province of our work, and by the exemplary manner in which he has, at two different times, sustained the most momentous office in our body — would be a welcome task to us; for it is pleasant to speak of those whom we love but it is, on the present occasion, perfectly unnecessary. You are not unacquainted with the character which he bears in this country; and yon will receive him as a chosen representative of the British Conference, and as one in whose views and principles we repose entire confidence.

The subject which has this year engrossed no small portion of our attention, cannot fail to awaken the deepest interest in every part of the Wesleyan community throughout the globe. You will anticipate our reference to the close of the first century of our existence as an organized religious society. On a review of the hundred years which have now reached their termination, we humbly acknowledge and adore the mercy of God, who marvelously raised up our ever-revered fathers as the instruments, in his hands, of so extensive a revival of primitive Christianity; who has preserved us, as a connection, in the midst of many conflicts and changes; and who has granted us, at this time, so cordial a sense of attachment, which we trust that nothing shall ever be permitted to abate, to the doctrines, spirit; and usages of those venerated men who now rest in eternal peace. May the Lord God of our fore-elders, and of all who fear his most holy name, bestow upon us a larger measure of his Spirit’s grace, and grant that the second century of the Wesleyan Society may be marked by still more illustrious displays of his power and love in the church universal, and in the world!

“But while we freely indulge in sentiments such as these, we cannot forget that on one subject especially — the subject of American slavery — you, our beloved brethren, are placed in circumstances of painful trial and perplexity. We enter, with brotherly sympathy, into the peculiar situation which you are now called to occupy. But, on this question, we beg to refer you to what occurs in our address to you from the conference of 1836, a proper copy of which will be handed to you by our representative as also to the contents of our preceding letter of 1835. To the principles which we have affectionately but honestly declared in these two documents we still adhere, with a full conviction of their Christian truth and justice.

“The time which has elapsed, and the events which have taken place, since the preparation of the above-mentioned papers, serve only to confirm us yet more in our views of the moral evil of slavery. Far be it from us to advocate violent and ill-considered measures. We are, however, strongly and unequivocally of opinion that it is, at this time, the paramount Christian duty of the ministers of our most merciful Lord in your country to maintain the principle of opposition to slavery with earnest zeal, and unflinching firmness. May we not also be allowed, with the heart-felt solicitude of fraternal love, to entreat that you will not omit or qualify the noble testimony which we have extracted, in a note to our address, from your Book of Discipline, but that you will continue to insert it there in its primitive and unimpaired integrity.

And now, very dear brethren, we commend you to the protection and mercies of the ‘only wise God, our Saviour,’ with united prayers that you, and all who labor with you in the word and doctrine, with the multitudes who are happily brought to share in your Christian fellowship, may enjoy a richer effusion of the Holy Spirit’s promised unction, and may at last be ‘presented faultless before the presence of our common Saviour’s glory.’ To Him be ‘glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.’

Signed, by order of the conference,

“Theophilus Lessey, President. “Liverpool August 16, 1839.”

The following is the answer which the conference returned to the above address of the Wesleyan Conference: —

“Answer of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church — To the Reverend the President and Members of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference in Great Britain

“Honored and Very Dear Brethren, — We acknowledge with grateful emotions the reception of your letters at the hand of your excellent representative, our honored and esteemed brother, the Rev. Robert Newton, whose visit, as your messenger, we esteem the best and kindest proof you could have given of your love for us, and desire to promote our blessed unity. His bright example of love and courtesy, simplicity and dignity in conference, and of pure essential Methodism, full of faith and charity, abounding in hope, rejoicing only in Christ Jesus, and knowing no respite from labor, in his public ministry, has been alike edifying and refreshing to us; while also, we have felt our hearts warmed thereby, and drawn closely to you in affection, partakers of the same spirit with you, walking by the same rule, minding the same thing, one people, and our name one in the Lord Jesus.

“And it will not be unwelcome to you that we add, further, an expression of the gratification it has afforded us to be favored with the presence of our beloved and endeared brother Mr. Harvard, and our friend Mr. Richie, of the district of Lower Canada, and of Mr. President Stinson, and the excellent brethren, John and Edgerton Ryerson, representatives of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Upper Canada. May the God of our common fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, and bless you, that from you the word of the Lord may sound out unto all people as unto us at the beginning, and the fruits of your labors be multiplied in all the earth, to the glory of God, by the power of the holy Ghost, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“We fully unite with you, dear brethren, in the expression you give of your cordial and even jealous attachment to the principles, doctrines, and usages of Methodism, as established under the heaven-directed ministry of our venerated fathers. Those principles, doctrines, and usages we have especially felt that we were called to review, (and reviewing them, have taken, we trust, still closer to our hearts,) on the great occasion of our first centennial jubilee. This has been a joyful time with us, even as with you, our whole communion joining in extraordinary acts of devotion and offerings to the Lord, giving grateful evidence of our common character the world over, and covenanting to keep Methodism still unworldly and spiritual, abounding in charity, a work of righteousness and peace, rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.

“We greatly rejoice, and give thanks unto the Lord for all your prosperity, brethren, and especially for your peaceful state, and the success of your missions. Missionary zeal, founded in love, is the vital pulse of Methodism, the purity and fruitfulness of which, in its home department, depend on the active sympathy there with the work abroad. Methodism, indeed, might not so much as exist in a narrower parish than the world, nor act on any other than her own gospel principle of equal duty to all tongues and kindreds. Actuated by this principle, we have labored to carry the gospel into every part of our great country; and now into Texas, the territory of Oregon, South America, and Africa at the entrance of Liberia on the western coast. But, alas, how feeble and insufficient are our efforts to accomplish, to any considerable degree, the great work of evangelizing mankind! We long for the salvation of God to become universal.

“The unusual and unwelcome fact of a decrease in our numbers the year previous to our last General Conference, and to which you so kindly and piously allude in your letter of August following, induced much searching of heart, both among our preachers and people; and through God’s abounding grace, we have not been afflicted since on a like account. At that time our numbers were — of traveling preachers, 2,781, and of members, 650,678. And in September last they were, of traveling preachers 3,296, and members 740,459; showing an increase of 515 traveling preachers, and 89,781 members since our last General Conference. We record it with thanksgiving, though we reckon not our strength by numbers.

“We have considered, with affectionate respect and confidence, your brotherly suggestions concerning slavery, and most cheerfully return an unreserved answer to them. And we do so the rather, brethren, because of the numerous prejudicial statements which have been put forth in certain quarters to the wounding of the Church. We assure you then, brethren, that we have adopted no new principle or rule of discipline respecting slavery since the time of our apostolic Asbury; neither do we mean to adopt any. In our General Rules, (called the ‘General Rules of the United Societies,’ and which are of constitutional authority in our Church,) ‘the buying and selling of men, women, and children, with an intention to enslave them,’ is expressly prohibited; and in the same words, substantially, which have been used for the rule since 1792. And the extract of part ii, section 10, of our Book of Discipline, which you quote with approbation, and denominate ‘a noble testimony,’ is still of force to the same extent that it has been for many years; nor do we entertain any purpose to omit or qualify this section, or any part thereof. For while we should regard it a sore evil to divert Methodism from her proper work of ’spreading Scripture holiness over these lands,’ to questions of temporal import, involving the rights of Caesar, yet are we not the less minded on that account to promote and set forward all humane and generous actions, or to prevent, to the utmost of our power, such as are evil and unchristian. It is our first desire, after piety toward God, to be merciful after our power; as we have opportunity, doing good of every possible sort, and as far as possible to all men, ‘to their bodies,’ but especially, and above all, ‘to their souls.’

“Of these United States, (to the government and laws of which, ‘according to the division of power made to them by the constitution of the Union, and the constitutions of the several states,’ we owe, and delight to render, a sincere and patriotic loyalty,) there are several which do not allow of slavery. There are others in which it is allowed, and there are slaves; but the tendency of the laws, and the minds of the majority of the people, are in favor of emancipation. But there are others in which slavery exists so universally, and is so closely interwoven with their civil institutions, that both do the laws disallow of emancipation, and the great body of the people (the source of laws with us) hold it to be treasonable to set forth any thing, by word or deed, tending that way. Each one of all these states is independent of the rest and sovereign, with respect to its internal government, (as much so as if there existed no confederation among them for ends of common interest,) and therefore it is impossible to frame a rule on slavery proper for our people in all the states alike. But our march is extended through all the states, and as it would be wrong and unscriptural to enact a rule of discipline in opposition to the constitution and laws of the state on this subject, so also would it not be equitable or Scriptural to confound the positions of our ministers and people (so different as they are in different states) with respect to the moral question which slavery involves.

“Under the administration of the venerated Dr. Coke, this plain distinction was once overlooked, and it was attempted to urge emancipation in all the states; but the attempt proved almost ruinous, and was soon abandoned by the doctor himself. While, therefore, the Church has encouraged emancipation in those states where the laws permit it, and allowed the freed-man to enjoy freedom, we have refrained, for conscience’ sake, from all intermeddling with the subject in those other states where the laws make it criminal. And such a course we think agreeable to the Scriptures, and indicated by St. Paul’s inspired instruction to servants in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. vii, ver. 20,21. For if servants were not to care for their servitude when they might not be free, though if they might be free they should use it rather; so, neither should masters be condemned for not setting them free when they might not do so, though if they might they should do so rather. The question of the evil of slavery, abstractedly considered, you will readily perceive, brethren, is a very different matter from a principle or rule of Church discipline to be executed contrary to, and in defiance of, the law of the land. Methodism has always been (except perhaps in the single instance above) eminently loyal and promotive of good order; and so we desire it may ever continue to be, both in Europe and America. With this sentiment we confide the subject, adding only the corroborating language of your noble Missionary Society, by the revered and lamented Watson, in their instructions to missionaries, published in the report of 1833, as follows: —

“‘As in the colonies in which you are called to labor a great proportion of the inhabitants are in a state of slavery, the committee most strongly call to your remembrance what was so fully stated to you when yon were accepted as a missionary to the West Indies, that your only business is to promote the moral and religious improvement of the slaves to whom you may have access, without in the least degree, in public or private, interfering with their civil condition.’

“We have judged it necessary, for the preservation of the children of our people from irreligious or unMethodistical principles while pursuing their education at a distance from home, and for the maintenance of a due proportion of influence in this great country, to encourage the establishment of schools and colleges under the control of our annual conferences, at which a liberal education should be afforded in intimate and graceful connection with Christian training. Accordingly we have now twelve collegiate and twenty-one academic institutions thus established, which, though not as amply endowed as they require to be, are doing well, and we hope will continue to do well.

Permit us, reverend and dear brethren, to refer you to our most honored and beloved brother, Mr. Newton, for any further information you may desire on the above subject, or the present state of our affairs in general. And again we thank you for having sent him to us, whose name had long been known as that of one whose noble efforts in the cause of Christ had placed him with our Bensons, Watsons, Clarkes, and Buntings, men who have lived for the whole world, and for Methodism in all the world. And we pray for his safe return to you, and that it may please God our heavenly Father to make him more and more useful among you, even to old age. If it shall please God that our venerated and beloved Bishop Some shall be in health to do so, and the work can possibly allow it, we expect him to make it convenient to visit your conference two years hence; and we have appointed one of our body to accompany him to you, or if the bishop cannot go, to represent us fully at that time. And we solicit, brethren, a continuation of this so pleasant and profitable interchange, at our next General Conference.

“Finally, brethren, we commend you to God’s most gracious blessing, praying for you in the love of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, (as you also do for us,) that you may be enriched with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, and abound in good works, to the glory of God, among all people, and for evermore.

“Signed in behalf of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, held in Baltimore, Md., May, 1840.

“R. R. Roberts, “Joshua Soule, “Elijah Hedding, “James O. Andrew, “Beverly Waugh, “Thomas A. Morris “John A. Collins, Secretary.”

An address was also received from the Canada Conference, full of tender expressions of fraternal regard, and of a determination to maintain with us an indissoluble union in doctrine, moral discipline, and brotherly affection. This was referred to the same committee, and an answer was returned reciprocating the same sentiments and feelings, and pledging the conference to the inviolate preservation of the doctrines and usages of Methodism.

The managers of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church presented the following, expressive of their feelings and views in relation to the great cause in which they were engaged.

“Address of the Managers of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church to the General Conference, to be held in Baltimore, May 1, 1840

“Dear Fathers and Brethren, — We gladly embrace the present opportunity to present for your consideration and adoption, if you shall concur with us in their propriety, some amendments to the constitution of our society, which have been suggested by the experience and practice of another four years. The most important of these relate to the appointment of n assistant corresponding secretary; the enabling the managers to provide for those superannuated missionaries, their wives, widows, and children, who, being on foreign missions, are not provided for by the ordinary funds of the annual conferences; and that which was recommended by the last General Conference, to empower the society to make any alterations in the constitution in future which may be recommended by the General Conference. Should therefore your experience of the practical workings of the system enable you to detect any defect in the provisions of the constitution, or perceive the necessity of any amendment by which its objects may be more readily accomplished, by pointing them out they will be considered, it is hoped, with that calmness and respectful deference which is due to the collected wisdom and long experience of Your venerable body.