Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1852-11-25

The time has come, when the M. E.
Church can no longer conceal from the
public gaze, the fact that she is as truly
involved in the crime Of slavery, as she ever
was The p7etensions that have been made
of her freedom from slavery, since the or
ganization of The Church s., which the
columns of the Wesleyan have exposed al
most weekly, years past, cannot longer have
the sickly shoW of error in those how
make them. As you, Mr. Editor, remark
ed to Rev. Mr.. Houts, at the recent Gen
eral Conference, we ".haye often had the
lie CHARGED upon us, and we have been
called siandcrs Of AR mother, for saying
that there were shareholders in the M. e,
Church" have long feared that there
was downright dishonesty in these details
when we have known.that shareholders were
as really IN the Nj. Il. Church. as they "e'S
in the nation. Aud to suppose the ministers
and members of the church were Ignorant
of this fact has been difficult to credit, and
yet, this has been the on y way to account
for these erroneous statements, and not
charge home distinct crmmalty. But we
! ste III lIllS GNU CI ouiliS as
we do in the great political parties, a clearer
and more distinct acknowledgment Of their
pro-sIavery connections And as the ru-
ling political bodies ia the land shall be-
come more open ia their support of this
heather system, may we look to see pro-
slavery churches following them. There
was fitness that the Bishops and member;
of the late NJ E. General Conference
should 90 TO hear Mr., Webster in Faneu
Hall, and be particularly addressed by the
apostle of the Fugitive Slave Law. Their
members are not only shareholders, and
avail themselves OF this law, as in the case
OF Gorsuch and Reese, but claim member.
ship as "right," says j. A. Collins
And this is true. To talk of their being
members of the M. Z. Church by " suffer
ance," as Rev, J. Porter affirmed, is all
assumption. Where is the rule in the M
Z. Discipline, prohibiting members living
even in Boston, owing plantation of slave,
I in Georgia? Where the rule to church q
Methodist in Baltimore, for hunting bis
slaves in any free State, and claiming them
and to cling them back to the prison house
There clearly is none-Hot the first word
| On this point, the Methodist Discipline is a
Thousand years back Of the law of Moses
They need not claim to be Christians here
until they have got as far advanced as
Moses indeed ] have met with a con.
siderable number OF these members who
have confessed they did not know thai there
was such passage as Deuteronomy xiii
Is, H.
lfMethodist Episcopal shareholders mem
bers hold their relation by SuGerdHce, oi
liberation, as Rev. ], Porter SAID on the
floor of the General Conference, why did
the New England Annual Conference, held
JUS. before the General Conference, propose
20 have a rule prepared TO exclude slave.
holders after a specified datel With the
history oc that church, and her discipline
as it Is, and has been for these many years,
! know not how Mr. Porter could allow
himself to make statement SO untrue as
the one asetibud to him doubt not bul
he feels an adherence Of slavery. ! have
heard him express this adherence myself.
But surely, he should not misIead others,
by representations moi founded in fact.
That the New England CONFERENCE viewed
this matter ust as it is here represented,
and that nothing but special rule could
exclude shareholders from the church, none
can doubt, after reading the following ex.
tract from an account of their proceedings,
taken from the National Era of May 6,
1862
The writer says
"fhe dicussons on the subject of slavery
we're very interesting No one look upon the
system but with the feeling of pure hatred
There might have been some slight differences
of opinion, but there was N evidence of the
existence of a tracking tme-server nor tepe-
factions conservative in the whole BODY. In re
ference to the contemplated action of the ap
preaching General Conference in Boston, the
following resolutions were passed with great
unanimltv:
81. ReSolUed, That it is the sense of this
Conference that rule should be inserted in the
Discipline of the M f. Church. prohibiting the
reception of voluntary shareholders into the