Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1860-05-26
THE DISPUTE IN THE METHODIST
CHURCH.


There has been a rule in the Methodist E2isco
pal Church, from the time of Wesley, forbidding
tho traGio in human beings with the purpose Of
e~nslaging them, The following is the substance
Of the regulations, as found in the book Of discip-
line Members are prohibited from becoming
shareholders; no stakeholder shall be eligible to
any ofici4l station in the Church, when the laws of
the state in which he lives admit of emancipation;
whenever an itinerant preacher becomes an owner
of slaves, he shall forfeit his ministerial character
unless he emancipates thom; all preachers shall
enforce upon the members the necessity of tea3h-
Ing, their slaves to read the Bible, and OF allowing.
them to attend public worship on the Sabbath.
These rules appear to have been imperative for q
long time, when the resuscitation Of them, few
years since, caused the severance of the Church;
but there still remains a large number Of slave.
holders in the Church North. The rules are SO
interpreted now as not to exclude persons from
membership on account of the mere possession OR
ownership of slaves. Almost the entire Church
North, outside of the slave states, is opposed to
the admission of Shareholders Gs members, no mat.
ter how they came in possession of the slaves. By
the constitution, no change can be made in the
discipline unless the proposition ON es from the
General Conference to the Annual Conferences, or
from tho Annual Conferences to the General Con.
ference, TO be endorsed by a threc-fOurthe vote Of
the Annual Conferences, OF, ns the case might be,
by q two-thirds vote Of the General Conference.
Tie representation in the conferences from the
slayeholding states is sufficient to preyend the
required majoTidos. 1t is now proposed to pro-
cure such an authoritative definition Of the matters
in dispute by the General Conference now in
session at Buffalo, as will exclude Shareholders Of
every description from church membership. Four
years ago the General Conference submitted these
propositions to the Annual Conferences, known as
the Erie, Providence and Cincinnati propositions,
The Erie proposition opposes slayeholding by
church members the Providence proposition
declares the traffic in men, women and children
inconsistent with Christianity; the Cincinnati
proposition forbids She buying OF selling of men,
women or children, or holding them with an inten-
ton to use them as slaves Fourteen out of forty
seven of the conferences were opposed to any
change in the rules, five Of them on the ground
that the true construction of them, as they stand,
excludes shareholders from the church. Twenty
nine werelin favor of a change in the rules SO as to
settle the question definitely in favor of exclusion.
The whole matter is before a committee of the
Buffalo General Conference, and the report has
Deen looked for with great interest Tor a number
of days. 4 The Buffalo Commercial Advertiser of
Friday evening says the committee have partially
agreed to report the Cincinnati proposition. The
conference now in session has been flooded with
petitions on this subject. Some six hundred have
been presented, oRso which not more than thirty
are against a change Of the rules. The Rev, IL.
Mattison, of this state, has q monster petition in
favor Of a change ready to present, containing
sixty thousand signatures. Fifty have been re-
ceived from the %various Wesleyan bodies in
England, the tenor of which may be judged from
the following extracts. OAo Of them closes as fol-
lows;
W beseecb you, let no apparent difficulties
dotor you from purifying our American Zion from
the sin and shame of being in any way involved
in this terrible domination. Wipe away at once
and forever, we entreat you, this reproach from
the otherwise fair esoutoheen of Wesleyan Method
ism. Not only condemn with 0 certain and un-
mistakable sound the practice of slayeholdi1g buy
ing, selling and breeding, but we. earnestly ex-
hort you no longer to retain ministers and men,
bers who hold slaves, or who are engaged in hu-
mo4 traffic, exhibiting thereby a practical deelara-
ton that slavery is not inconsistent with the Cos
pel.'
Another concludes in the words Of Wesley
- 2 s5-5a a nTrEi sos rJl-r Z
*Report will be found in another column.