Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-06-05

it TO purppse. In all the elaborate discuss.
ions ofthat period, there was not, as far as
remember, a single intimation of any iu-
tention 10 depart from the position of the
church from the beginning, by disturbing
the relation of slavchOldidg in the mem
bcrship. On the contrary, the uvuwtI Was
repeatedly made, without correction or re-
hukc, that the relation did exist. and that
| the church had no purpose TO interfere
with it. On the platform ''of the book''
rs it was. and is, thus interpreted our
| people, in many instances, adhered to YOU.
You willingly, even gladly, stretched out
your arms to embrace them In addition
to the Old Border Conferences, you formed
III l94S, two m0re-thr Western Virginia
and Missouri. In 1852 you formed the
Kentucky and Arkansas Conferences. In
lS4s there was but Il single petition on
| slavery. In 1852 there was but seventeen.
In all that period, you were so far from
exhibiting any purpose to expel slavehOld-
eFs from the Church. that you seemed only
anxious, even greedy to take them in
Of the preachers then laboring in that
part of your work which was formed
into the Western Virginia Conference,
doubt if there we-e five who either ex-
pectcd or desired that the Conference
should be then formed. But they remain
which you yourselves gave that sclf-sacri-
fcing band of lnhorers, they have fear
Iessly unfurIed, and in the face of our
records, which we have regularly rendered
to your free inspection, in the face of these
venerable men who have presided in our
councils, say it proudly. but humbly,
that banner never has been dshonored.-
And now, sir, a,hot hare tee done, that
brethren, having themselves thrust US into
the post of danger, not content with hurl-
ing after US, year by year, from their Sc
cure homes, accusation and taunt, and
with bringing quadrennially upon our
whole work the pnralyzing dread of some
great peril, should now by mere force of
numbers, come between evey pledge from
you to us, and from to our people p
What have we done that the testimony of
our whole lives is to he fllsilicd, aud the
fields of our hard earned toll, are to DC
handed over to the stranger and destroyer,
who even now intently and hopefully waits
to grasp them2
The whole church, where alone this rule
will have any application, is unitedly and
decidedly opposed to its enactment. OF
the twenty-five thousand Methodists in my
there are not to exceed fifty
OF the nearly four thousand
in my present field of labor ]
know of but four nominal slnvchOlders.-
Of the one thousand McthOdists in the city
where reside, there is not a single slave
holder. In that city and among that
arc to be found men ardently
some might say even extremely, devoted
TO the several political parties of the day,
Including that one which II few days since
net in council west of this. And yet sir.
p all that membership, and among all
shades Of political beliefs, from the most
'taid to the most extreme, l have yet to
meet with the first man, woman or child
II Virginia, who does-nnt rao?:a ! ~, -. we,
lCtmcnt of such II measure as Is mere Pto-
posed. ..,.-.
AS touching the value of testimony
ike this, there fell the other day. rom
he lips Of :, distinguished speaker, some
,nntrncrs which / was panied to hear. III
one of those sentences were the words
mormon" 'polygamy," "tavors." Sir,
there are many men among my brethren
At home. who like myself never owned IL
slave. and who have no ancestral or tra-
ditional connections with the system IN
the past, nor any expectations from 1t IN
the future; and it is not fair to ask as ana
the brother, "whctheF Western New YORK
knows as much of slavery as Eastern
New York;" but whether Methodists OF
Western New York know more OF slavery
and its proper remedy than other Memo
dists, every way their peers, IN Mester"
Observation-Disclosures in word the KnoMl-
edge of an evil increases directly as tne
square of the distance from it. 10 cooIy
assume all this, is to take an altitHue oI
complacency almost sublime IN us u"rlh9'
md it NAV account to us why 1t Is that
bv the time this knowledge reaches Eng
lind il starts hitherward an ''aval"nche"
of indignant sympathy, which has never
thcless no bowels of compassion for tue
millions of wrctched at home. lap
But thousands of petitioners are here
osl;inn for this change. They have been
treated. trust, with all possible courtesy,
ms they should be On question OF mere
prudential arrangement, numbers may
safely enough give control; but OH Tue
question of fixing terms OF communion
in Christ's Church, numbers and mnJorltleS
have absolutely no authority whnteNer'
So Methodism has taught from the oeGIh-
ning-so she teaches to-day "hen am
asked, standing in this solemn place, .o Mno
may. or who may not, come into Christ
Cbnrch. / must go not to the people. Int
10 Christ: and my non-mimistcri"l brother,
were he standing by my side and charged
with the same functiOu,-as probably nc
eoon NAV be.-must look in the same dl-
What. then, ought it to avail though
there were twice forty thousand pcuuon-
crs here? What arc Conference instr"c-
tions if they ask us to do what the MHStcF
word forbids us to do? Show me rom
that word that must refuse siaVehoiuers, ;,
ms such. admission into the Church' or
subject them to judicial trial when Ih'
aud l will vote it and do it, though the
rOO fflfe