Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1860-06-22
JOHN KENNEY

-
of Your Friend, i ...
y, JOHN KINNEY.
Il, From the Rockingham, Register
| MEssRs EDlroRs The time seems at
length to have arrived when a member Of
the NJ g. Church in Virginia can speak his
sentiments, freely and full ?, upon the sub.
ject. which, most Of all. others, has engrossed
our attention. and wounded our hoarts for
period Of eight or ten years, ST. mean the
subject of slavery ID our church. Some
four months ago, when few of us, actua-
ted by no other good than the good of Meth
odism, and the peace of communities, sought
by the most loyal petitions, the interference
of the Conference to save us from the inev-
table ruin which seems to await us as a
church; we were thought by many to be
precipitate, and unduly anxious to plunge
the church into new sea of trouble. Some
Of our best friends fromnsd upon US for SYM
pathiaing with the petitioners ;.others treated
us as disloyal to the interests of our Confer
ence. and people, while in .fas7, instances
we were coolly advised to migrate from a
cline which seemed SO. little congenial to
our tastes and sentiments. 4,
:. notwithstanding all these things, we felt
we were right. and felt, too, that as citi-
gen of Virginia. we had as much, right to
our opinion, legitimately expressed, as .anJ
other man in the church We were then
of the opinion, as we are still. that we knew
abolitionists-knew them quite as well as
many who cherished far higher opinions of
them than we did ourselves We had lived
six years in free territory, and knew that
the abolitionists hated slavery as they hated
the gates of Hades. We believed then that
the hope of some of our brethren that re-
action would come on speedily. and that
the church would yet survive the inroads of
these fanatics. were based on no sure foun-
aation. We had seen this abolition tide
rising niger and higher until like the great
swell of an ocean, it was ready to engulph
our border churches in ruin. We had felt
sarely the pressure thus created, and had
more than once lamented the cruel destiny
which seemed to be ours. Divided from
our neighbors; exhalsting our feeble ener-
gies in trying to crush those whom we have
felt it a duty to benefit; overwhelmed with
an agitation purely pclitisal;;i with convic-
ton forcing itself upon US that the higher
forms of piety were being attained by
few with a saddening picture of decline all
around us; our preachers poorly paid; our
churches half empty; our schools With no
students and hopelessly in debt; our people
Unwilling to invest any more money in
church enterprises until they knew more Of
the coming events which were casting their
shadows before II say, with all these things
before u.s.. we felt that true loyalty to Meth
odism required an immediate emancipation
from all such cruel trammels, arbitraly inn
posed by those whox knew nothing of our
condition, and endured, on our part, in vim
dication of no principle of morality or .reli-
gion. However, we felt as much gratifed
as some others were chagrined at the result
Of the petitions to which we have alluded. /
The action Of the Conference, to us at least,
was quite satisfactory -. We held tip our
head, and again with energy entered upon
our prescribed duties. Still we had an omi-
nous foreboding Of the future. That future
has come, and with it all our most sanguine
fears have been realized. 4 body ceiling
itself the General Conference of the M. E.
Church, but mchs. appropriately styled the
great Northern Abolition Society, "a branch
of which seems to ramify Queen Victoria's
realm, recently thetat Buffalo. N. "
The work Of church disorganization immune
diately began, and in less than lunar Pc
Rod, in answer, tosthe ever-recurring ques-
ton" what shall be done for the extirpa-
ton of the evil of slavery ?''-we are told,
1--WE declare that we are as much as ever
convinced of the great evil Of slavery. We
believe that the 5agiay, selling, or HOLDING
human beings as chattels, is inconsistent
with the golden rule. and with that rule in
our Discipline which requires all who de-
sire to continue among us to do no harm,
and to avoid evil of every kind; we there
fore affectionately admonish our preachers
and people to keep themselves pure from
this great evil, and to seek ITS ertirpotion
by all lagfM. ard chnistian means b.
A resolution is offered 50 to amend this
as to make it simply advisory, and not stat
utory. This is lost BY an overwhelming
majority. Tbs chapter IS changed. The
next day a Jesuit offers the following:
Resolved, That the said amendment aas
rejected by this body, because we regard
the chapter in itself so clearly deczaratiue
and advisory as not to require any such ex-
PLANTATION" 81. !
Marx the adrcitness we will not wore
the chapter so as to make it bear upon ITS
face simply an advisory character; we might
want to .construe it differently hereafter, and
then such wording would be to our disad-
vantage. We simply say aoe so understand
it, and as,we are progress've body, we
can easily progress from this advisory sense
to the statutory sense. Besides, if others
choose to understand the chapter as statu-
tory; all well-we are. mot accountable for
that--we have only made the chapter capa-
BILE of that Interpretation for the
sake of retaining the border, we are willing
to say that we understand the chapter to
mean what we know it don't mean, and
what we do not expect to try to- persuade
any Of our; abolition friends to believe. In