Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-04-23
For the Green Mountain Freeman.
Methodist +. Church and Slavery
MeSS1S Editors :

.ueSSTS Editors:
The position is taken by many that the NJ e..
Church free from the sin of Slavery, and among the
number are found some ministers OF that denomna-
ton. How such assertion be made as some make,
and not know them to be untrue, cannot see, unless
they close their eyes to what their own periodicals de-
clare as well as to other information. wish to no.
tce some points, which to me sets forth this position
in clear light.
l. There is large number Of shareholders in her
pale. These comprise many in the free states, who
own slaves in the South, and some thousands living IN
slaveholdng States connected with the border Conner
ences which have voted to remain North. This the
General Conference provided for in of DIVISION
They have no rule by which to eXpe them nor do they
promise to make any while the world stands.
3. The list of official acts of that Church were a.
gainst abolition and in favor of slavery AT the last
General Conference they passed no resolution decar
ing it to be sinful, though numerous petitions were
presented making that request. The committee on
that subject refused to report, and the Conference
threw it aside and went their way. On Bishop An
drew's case have dwelt in another article to which
the reader is referred.
In repeating the black law they delivered it into the
hands of the Annual Conferences and there they may
saw mans word who has black skin shall not be
TAKEN and it is considered no crime We must 60 back
to 1910. at which time they approved Of the Minutes
of the Baltimore Conference, declaring that the guilt
was not i'll slavery but in the abuse of it, that OF Geor
ola Con. in which it was Resolved, That it is the
sense of Georgia Annual Conference that slavery as
it exists in the United States, is not moral evil; and
that of South Carolina Con. which was explained at
the time of its passage to mean the same.
In approving of these Minutes they adopted the SEN
timent with their eyes wide open, for resolution was
presented Disappearing but it was moved and carried
to lay it on the table, after which the minutes were
approved by direct vote. This was in keeping with
what they did four years Previous at which time after
censuring two of its members for attending an abo-
ton meeting and speaking, they Resolved, By the
Delegates of the Annual Conferences in General Con-
ference assembled that they are decidedly opposed to
modern abotonism and wholly disclaim any right,
wish, or intention to interfere in the civil and political
relation between master and slave, exists in the
slaveholding States of this Union" These never hav-
ing been rescinded either by disapproval opposite
action remain with all the force they had the day af
ter their adoption, and it is much their language.
8 There is at the present time a strong proslavery
spirit in the NJ E. Church. The general cry peace
Let us not be disturbed. The New York Con. has
rule prohibiting the agitation of abolitionsm and at
its last session man who was highly recommended
by distinguished men of the Con- was rejected in con-
sequence of it being made to appear that he was an
abotonist and would not give apledge not to agitate
In every direction are those who oppose the abolition
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS for Shareholders, and in some in
stances close the doors of their meeting houses against
abolition lectures. Yet these men to save the Church
will cry out about their being free from this sim fear
not to hazard the assertion that there is more fellow
ship among them for the Church South than for who
havee in consequence other pro-savery characerand
this is the ground taken by the editor of their official
organ in late number. There are individual excep-
tons is true, but while there are others who talk Of
it a Bible institution, and of the apostles receiving
Shareholders into the Church as brethren beloved.
4. The division under the present circumstances,
does not free them from the responsibility of the sla-
very in the Church South. LIST, they we're not cut Oft
any measure taken to do so, but the North held on
to them as long as they could, and since have made
vigorous efforts to have reunion, and if not to retain
all that can be- shareholders or not and no distinction
made between them.
@ The manner of their settling the boundary line,