Daily Richmond times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1849-1850, 1850-06-21

All Sides called exercise far greater degree of
fofbearance and moderation, il we mean to transmit to
the next generation the blessings enjoyed by this
shall do all can to warn the country against the
dangers OF this intestine strife to call both the South
and the North back sense of their true duties and
their true interests And if cannot aay the evil |
shall at least do nothing promote it. shall do moth
ing to cause jealousy, heart-burning and luminosity,
among those whose country is one whose interests
one, and whose destiny, whatever any OF them may
think OF It, Is, in my opinion, one one now, and
| hereafter.
| 1t surprises us, that the mind which is engaged
In such noble reflections as these, should follow
them up with the assertion, that if he believed in
the necessity of a law to exclude slavery from the
Territories, he should, of course, support such
law. BY taking this position, Mr. Webster avows
his willingness to allay sectional strife only when
the controversy is de mininais. He has himself
described the Wilmot Provso as a taunt and an
insult to the South. So long he processes his
readiness TO give that insult if it be necessary in
order to exclude slavery from Territory, the COM
mon property of the Union, he must not expect
the South to exhibit very cordial approval of his
character as a Pacfcator. As he is willing,
however, 10 do justice to the South in respect to
all our present Territories, it will not quarrel with
him, until the case arises in which he would act
differently.
| The bill, which Mr.. Webster has prepared with
so much deliberations for the osensibe purpose of
securing the recapture of fugitive slaves, is very
| far from carrying out the sentiments he has ut
| tered on that subject He proposes to test the
question of slavery by jury trial in the State to
which the slave escapes-which is but giving the
form of law to those illicit means now so effectually
| employed in most Northern communities, to pre-
vent the recovery of the fugitive.
"The Southern Press takes ground decided
| ly against the Compromise, and, in tssecond num-
Der, evnces the serious difficulty which must at
tend the management of such Journal by con-
| tending that Virginia is bound by her pledges to
| resist the Senate bill. Here it raisesa question at
| once with large majority of the truest Southern
| men in the Old Dominion, and consrans them to
| make argument against its position. The main
feature of the Compromise which, it is urged, that
| Virginia has committed herself against, is the adj
| mission of California. Now we repeat the fact,
| that this question was fully before the public when
the last Legislature passed its resolutions on the
subject of slavery, and the admission of Califor-
MIA, with the boundaries proposed in her constitu-
ton, was designedIy omitted in the enumeration of
| Congressional acts which the State would resist
No argument from previous resolutions, asserting
the general right of the citizens of all the States
to equal participation in the public Territories, can
obviae the force of this fact. California had
| framed her constitution months before Congress
was in session with her application before it, yet
the Legislature deliberately declined to say that
Virginia would regard its success as wrong at
which she would take umbrage.
| The Methodist Church in Alexandria.
| The Alexandria Gazette publishes the decision
of Judge Tyler in the suit between the adherents
Of the Northern and Southern Divisions of the
Methodist Church for the church property in AL
exandria The main facts of the case were these:
A lot of land was conveyed, in 1903, by VIM.
I1arshorne, to certain individuals as trustees for
the use of the M. e. Church in Alexandria,
| These trustees all dying, Phineas Janney, VIM.
Fowe and Anthony G. Cazenove were appointed,
in l849, under an act of the Legislature passed
in 1912. When the division took place in the
| Methodist Church, the second trustees determined
to hold the property until the conflicting claims of
| the two parties in the congregation should
be adjusted, but offered them the alternate
use of it, which being declined, they closed
the church. Thereupon, Benoni Wheat and
others, as members of the congregation, Cad
herring to the Northern church, petitioned
the Court to compel delivery of the property by
the trustees, who made their answer, as defen-
dants, setting forth the facts The cause was thus
made up and set for hearing. Then came John
L. Pascoe and others, (adherents of the Southern
Church, petitionng to be made parties to the suit,
and claiming that they had lost none of their
rights to the church property by seeking an asy-
um in the Southern division of the Church.
The Court was of opinion that under the act of
Assembly these petitioners could not be made
parties to the cause, relying upon the provision of
the act-"Ihat any one more of the members
OF any religious congregation shall be allowed in
their own names, on behalf of their congregation,
to commence and prosecute suits in equity, touch
ing said trusts, against their trustees, lothom
anahlng any members Of the congregation parties
defendants" The Judge held that Messrs. Pas
coe and others could not be made parties for these
reasons
Il ness petitioners must be made either plaintiffs or
defendants. That they cannot be made plaintiffs they
admit because the rights and interests which they assert
are adverse and hostile to the parties plaintiffs in this
cause And that they ought not to be made defendants
ls manifest. Because the OF lS47 under which this
proceeding is indebtedness that suits Instituted as this
has been, shall be comm enced and prosecuted without
making any members OF the congregation, parties de-
fendan so that the Court cannot in the proper discharge
OF its duty, suffer the petitioners be made parties to
this cause. 1t was said in the argument that the
GLIDING part OF the statute would let in the petit
10
testify erroneous. That portion OF the act directs
that these suits which shall be commenced and
prosecuted without making any of the members
OF the congregation parties defendants, " shall be
proceeded in, heard and determined in like and
on like principles as other suits in equity" meaning
thereby nothing more than that pleas, answers and
demurrers may be put in, the peadings made up, the
cause set Tor hearing DEGREES pronounced and like pro-
ceedings had as in other suits in equity The law