Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1845-06-26

of the church, and all other branches or
or powers of the government, but lief
the method of official determination
and the mode of action, in the exercise
or assertion of the right, to the free and
! untrammeled discretion of the Confer.
ences interested. These Conferences,
thus accredited by the General Confer
ences, to judge and act for themselves,
conilded the right and trust of decision
and action, In the premises, to delegates
chosen by these bodies respectively,
upon uniform principle and fixed ra-
tho OF representation, previously agreed
| upon BY each, in constitutional ses~
sion, and directed them to meet in ge-
neral convention, in the city Of Louis
vile, May, 1916, for this and other
purposes, authorised by the General
Conference, at the same time and in
the same way. All the right and pow
er. therefore, of the General Confer
ence, IN any way connected with the
important decision in question, were du-
ly and formally transferred to the can
nual Conferences in the slave holding
States" and exclusively invested in
them. And as this investment was
obviously for the purpose, that such
right and power, might be exercised by
them, IN any mode they might prefer,
not inconsistent with the terms and con-
dl.lons of the investment, the delegates
thus chosen, one hundred IN number.
and representing sixteen Annual Con-
lerences, under commission of the &C.
neral Conference, here and now assem-
bled in Convention, have not only all
the right & power of the General Con-
ference, as transferred to ''the Annual
Conferences in the slave holding
States," but in addition, al! the right
and power of necessity inherent in
these bodies, as constituent parties,
giving birth and power to the General
Conference itself, as the common Fed
eral Council of the Church. 1t follows
hence, that for all the purposes specii-
ed and understood, in this preliminary
view Of the subject, the Convention
possesses all the right and power both
of the General Conference and the six
teen "Annual Conferences in the slave
holding States" jointly and severally
considered. The ecclesiastical and
Conventional right therefore, of this
body, to act in the premises, and act
conclusively, irrespective of the whole
Church-and all its powers of govern
ment beside, is clear and undounted.
AS the moral right however, to act as
proposed, in the General Conference
plan of jurisdictional separation, rests
upon entirely different grounds, and
will perhaps be considered, as furnish
ing the only allowable warrant of action,
Notwithstanding constitutional right, it
may be necessary at least to glance at
the grave moral reasons, creating the
necessity, the high moral compulsion,
by which the Southern Conferences &
Church, have been impelled to the
course of action, which it is the inten.
ton of this Report to explain and vim
dictate, as not only right and reasona-
bic, but indispensable to the character
and welfare of Southern Methodism.
The preceding statements and reas-
oning, present no new principle or form
of action in the history of the Church.
Numerous instances might be
cited, in the constitutional history of
Church polity, in which high moral me-
cessity, in the absence of any recognis
ed conventional right, has furnised the
only and yet sufficient warrant for &C.
clesiastical movements and arrange
ments, precisely similar in character
with that contemplated in the plan Of
a separate Southern Connection of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, adopted
by the late Gen. Conference. Wesley
an Methodism, in all its phases and as
poets, is most pertinent Illustration of
the truth we assume, and the fitness
and force ofthe example must go far to
preclude the necessity of any other
proof. 1t was on the specific basis of
such necessity, without conventional
right, that the great Wesleyan Connec-
ton arose in England. 1t was upon
the same basis, as avowed by Wesley,
that the American Connection became
separate ano independent, and this
Connection again avows the same prin-
ciple of action, in the separation and
Establishment Of Mthodist Episcopal
Church in Canada, whose organization
took place by permission and direction
ofthe same authority, under which this
Convention is now acting for similar
purpose.
Should it appear in the premises of
thsaction proposed, that high, NOR