Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1845-07-03
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON
ORGANIZATION.
(Cos.tinued. }

That this law, this great compromise
conservative arrangement, which had
been looked to as the only reliable bond
of jurisdictional union between the
North and the South for nearly half
century, was practically disregarded
and abandoned by the last General
Conference, in the memorable cases of
Harding and Andrew, both by judicial
construction and virtual legislation,
manifestly inconsistent with its provis-
ions and purposes, and subversive of
the great object of its enactment, has
been too fearfully demonstrated by va
rious forms Of proof, to require more
than brief notice in this report. The
actual position ofthe Church was sud-
denly reversed, and its long establish
ed policy entirely changed. The whole
law of the Church and the most impor-
tant adjudications had upon it, were
treated as null and obsolete, and that
body proceeded TO claim Of right and
course of action amounting to virtual
repeal of all law and new and capricioas
legislation on the most difficult and de-
licate question ever introduced into the
councils of the Church or named upon
its statute book.
BY no fair construction of the law of
slavery as given above, could the
Church be brought in conflict with CT
vii legislation on the subject. tits true,
as demanded by the convictions and
opinions of the Church, testimony was
borne against the evil of slavery, but it
was done without conflicting with the
policy and laws of any portion of the
country. No law, for example, affec-
ted the apprenticeship of the Church
with regard to slave-holding; the
Church gave its full permission that the
private members of the Church might
own and hold slaves at discretion; and
the inference is indubitable, that the
Church did not consider simple slave
holding as moral eril, personally at
sxtaching to the mere fact of being the
10wner or holder of slaves. The evil
charged upon slavery must of necessi-
ty have been understood of other as
poets of the subject, and could not i'm
ply moral obliquity, without impeach-
ing the integrity and virtue of the
Church. Moreover, where the laws
precluded emancipation, the ministry
were subjected to no disabilities of airy
kind, and the requirements of the
Church, in relation to slavery, were not
at least in anything like direct conflict
with civil law. In contravention, how
ever, of the plain and long established
law ofthe Church, the action of the Ge-
neral Conference of 1914, in the well
known instances cited, brought The
Church into a state of direct and vio-
lent antagonism with the civil authority
and the rights ofcltizenship, throughout
allthe slaveholding States. This was
not done blythe repeal Of existing law,
or additional Legislation by direct en-
actment, but in a much more dangerous
form, by the simple process Of resolu-
ton by an irresponsible majority, re-
curing Southern ministers as slayehol.
ders, in order to Church eligibility and
equality Of right with nom slaveholding
ministers Of the Church, to Go what
cannot be done without violation o.
the laws Of The States III which they
reside, and is not required OF contem.
Il