Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1861-07-24

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| some form been asked ever since. The gen.
erai rule prohibiting the 'sbuying and selling
| OF men, women and children, with an inten-
| tIon to enSave them,' has had place in the
| Book since 1889; yet with such sentiments as
| these-sentiments which forbade the slave
| traffic and looked to the extirpation of the
system altogether, and by which every minis
ter and member of the Church was pledged to
seek its overthrow, the NJ. E. Church was re.
| ceived with hearty welcome into the very
| heart of the South; even South Carolina re-
Joiced in the labors of the itinerant messenger
OF God with his open Discipline and constiiu-
! tional opposition to slavery. So large, indeed,
was the proportionate influence of Methodism
in the South that for the first half of the whole
period of her existence her General Confer
ences, with a single exception, were held with
| In the bounds of slave territory. For forty
| years she was the child of the South, and her
Discipline was the true exponent of the pub
| lie mind upon the subject of slavery. The
Book remains unchanged no more opposed
TO slavery now than then yet in the South it
is now book of treason, and the man that
would openly avow its sentiments would be
hanged upon the nearest tree. Side by side
with him, too, would swing the man that would
dare to avow the doctrine of the Declaration
OF Observation-Disclosures to maintain W hich
southern blood was shed upon the field of bat
tie, but which now finds no place in the hearts
Of their degenerate sons.
Long begging for an existence, cringng for
place among it's betters, tolerated only upon
the grounds of expediency, slavery increased
in arrogance as she increased in strength, un-
til, like true daughter of the old serpent,
she would swallow everything that would cross
her path. Once she was subject to law !; now
she gives laws to the nation. Her motto is,
Rule Ruin, and the terms of her giving
are, sucbumb or die. Poisonous as the upas
tree, the very atmosphere she breathes is
death like the vampire, she sucks the hearts
blood of her friends, and, Amnon-Iike, she
feigns sickness that she may dehower those
who would minister to her wants.
Slavery has divided the NJ. E. Church and
the Protestant Episcopal Church; it has sew
cred the Democratic party; it has rent the
Stars and Stripes and trailed in the dust the
insignia Of our nations glory, and kindled the
fires of dissolution among the ranks of the
staid, conserv ative Presbyterans. Methodism
fell first, because she was foremost in the
fight, aud the first to succumb to slavery die
tation The suspension of the rule making
non-slavehoding a term of membership, in
1885, was the death-knell of her national char
acter; 1t was the opening of The hood-gates
of slavery aggression. From that hour sla-
very never ceased to.demand, nor the Church
to yield, until 1874, when firm determination
not to submit, in violation of the express rule
of Discipline, to the supervision of slave
holding bishop resulted in the secession of
the southern conferences and the division of
the Church. Statesmen of the first order,
such as Henry Clay, deplored the separation
OF the NJ. E. Church as the opening wedge of
the nations dissolution. Seventeen years
have fulfilled the prophetic statement; the
nation now is moved to its very foundation,
and seems to be tottering for the fall. In all
this was Methodism to blame? She indeed
ought not to have yielded at all. The conces-
sion of 1885 made way for the imperous de-
mands of 1874. Grown strong, slavery gave
her terms, Succumb, or die. The Church
could have maintained her integrity by sub
mitting to slavery dictaton at the expense of
further degradation Of her moral character.
This she could not do. She feared God rath-
er than slavery. The South seeded, and in
troduced the first chapter of INSTRUMENTATION
and treason.
Next.in the category of her victims is the
Democracy of these United States. The par
ty honored with that name. and the early ex-
ponents of the doctrine, dates back to the ad-
ministration of Washington. Thomas Jeffer-
son, the author of the Declation of Indepen-
dence, was its earliest head, and his election
to the presidential chair its first great
victory. Between democracy and slavery
there is no natural sympathy they are essen
tally antagonistic. There is charm in the
very name Democracy that falls like sweetest
music upon the ear and hearts of all the des-
pot-ridden SOhs of Europe. This party, we'll
organized, well disciplined, and time ehonored,
embracing many of the best names of the
nation, seemed as if it wonld live forever.
Its very existence was pledge of national
stability to us and to our children for all time
to come. Yet. strange to say, it has been
through the agency Of that party that the
slavery orshiping aristocrats of the South
have controlled the destinies of the United
States. AS early as 1872 John G. Calhoun
said in conversation with Charles Stewart,
ssI admit your conclusion in respect to us
southerners; that we are essentially aristo- |
cratic cannot deny but we can and do yield |
much to democraicy. This is our sectional
policy; We from necessity thrown upon |
and solemnly welded to that party, however
1t may occasionally clash with our feelings, |
for the conservation of our interests. 1t is |
through our utilization with that party in the |
middle and western States we control, under |
the Constitution, the governing of these u |
nleed States but when we cease thus to con-
troll this nation, through disjointed democ-
racy, or any material obstacle in that party
which shall tend to throw out of that rule
and control, we shall then resort to the dis
solution of the Union" The year 1860 |
brought about the specified condition the
northern Democrats, who never did enter into
the reasonable purposes of the South, by re-
fusing at the Charleston convention to sacri-
ice themselves upon the altar of slavery,
broke the arm of southern deSpotism but the
South, in turn, by boiling from the Cincinnati
platform, broke the back OF the party she had
so long controlled and their subsequent defeat
was the sgnalfor the dissolution of the Union.
Regardless of the honor of their northern
friends, with whom they had been so long
associated, from the hour of their defeat, se-
cession, thieving and misrule became the or
Ter of the day, and the most glorious govern
nent the sun ever shone upon is now at the
iagger's point contending for an existence.
The Democratic party could have avoided
division only by submitting to be enslaved,