New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-07
The Methodist Episcopal Church in the
Southern states.
BY REV. L. C. MATLACK, d. d

The Methodist Episcopal Church in the
Southern states.
BY REV. L. C. MATLACK, d. D.
Methodism. in its primitive form, in
America had MANY societies organized
within the present limits of the Southern
States prior to the Revolutionary war. I'm
fuediately after its organization as an Ep!s-
copal Church, in tl7S4, societies were rapidly
multiplied throughout the South. and seve-
raj annual conferences were held there pc
fore the wear 1870. FROM this date for, tif-
tv-tive years the Methodist Episcopal
Church exercised unquestioned jurisdiction
within all the States and Territories Of the
nation
The year 1915 inaugurated new epoch.
A revolution had been precipitated upon
the Church, which resulted in the Organlza-
ton of new denomination which assumed
Jurisdiction over nearly all the Methodist
societies within the limits OF the Southern
States. Thereafter, the Methodist Episco-
nal Church was supposed to be bounded on
the south by an imaginary line somewhere
adjacent to mason and DiXon's line"
No adjustment of boundaries was ever
made between the rival organizations. An
attempt to do it was unsuccessful. 1t has
not been renewed since 1878. For more
than twenty-five years the Methodist Epis-
coDal Church and the Methodist Episcopal
such portions of the United States as their
inclinatlons and opportunities allowed. The
expansion of the first named church south
ward was verv slow however, until after
the extirpation of slavery and the close OF
the civil war.
These events made freemen of millions of
slaves, and also made poor men OF multi
fudes who had been rich shareholders. The
Southern churches generally, and most OF
II all 'httv.
suffered sadly from the exhaustion and I'M
poverishment which followed the devasta-
lions of war; so that the support OF their
most important churches was as much as
thew could at once provide for. Many OF
their churches were unsupplied, ana others
were wholly broken up and scattered. Be
sides, their missionary treasury was our
dened with heavy debt, and missionary
work. even to the extent to which that had
been sustained before the war, was now in
possible And that work had suddenly eX-
banded to proportions of immense magni-
tude.
A nation had been born in a day. whose
pressing necessities. intellectual and spirit
ral, could only be supplied by an immediate
outlay of millions of money, and the earnest
labors of thousands OF devoted men ana
women as preachers and teachers. mil
lion of children clamOred for the knowledge
begged for the privilege OF learning to read
Gods word.
The money needed to provide school
houses. and support teachers for the freed
men. to supply pastors for destitute tiocks,
TO build houses Of worship for the poor. the
South did dot have. The work to be done
was despised and rejected by the Southern
people generally. Public sentiment tiercely
antagonized it, The Freedmen's Bureau
made
"a Missing and a curse INDECENT women
of the South, competent and ANXIOUS to
teach. We're prevented from doing so be
cause threatened with ostraclsm Ii they
dared to teach negro children or take
Yankee pay" Thus a necessity for inter
ventiOn was created by the Southern peo'
pie themselves. TWAS promptly and amply
met by the government and the churches OF
the North.
The national treasury was opened. Va
rious denominations domiciled at the North
contributed large sums OF money. Hun
dreds Of teachers and scores of ministers
went South as missionaries. Small pay,
hard work, constant privation, social ostra
cism, and frequent exposure to deadly
peril. tested their sincerity and heroism
and also guaranteed their success. Among
those lab0rers were found more members
of the Methodist Church than Of any other
claimed to be meritoriouS Ii was rather q
partial index OF the greater obligation OF Sc
large Il body Of Christians.
The school house. the Sunday school, thu
Church. are all closely related everywhere
In the South there was an immediate out
Growth from the first to the second and tn
third. A demand was realized IN man.
new places for houses OF worship. In
wants of freedmen were greater than wa
", hatD I'm slaves
,a,hin Worship of plantation hands was no
suited to the case Of american citizens c
African descent" The former suffice
when attendance on worship, and eve
membership in the Church, was dependen
on the will of the master. But when "a
were at liberty to attend, there was hC
room enough to contain them.
Providentialy, the missionary treasqr
Of the Methodist Episcopal Church had
surplus OF funds on hand. Seventy thol
sand dollars were appropriated to III
Southern mission field tor the purpose
building churches. Many small house
were erected, at a cost OF only few hui
frcd dollars each. Subsequently th
Church Extension .SJciety carried torwar
this particular work. And the Freedmen
Aid Society supplemented both the othei
by very generous and judlclonS approprli
lions for the educational work, commence
1uIer Secretary Walden, and prosecute
more extensively by his successor, DR.. Rus
The aggre gate outlay by all the beneyolei
societies OF the Methodist Episcopal Churc
during six years largely exceeded one mi
lion Of dollars. This vast sum of none
was mostly paid for the support of hui
dreds of preachers and teachers, emplooye
over an area Of territory embracing hun
dreds Of thousands OF square miles. Nc
among freedmen only did they labor, *
i. cd Ia
them. who else had been uncared for an
unsaved.
This general statement is introduced her
as preliminary to two inquiries: would
mot have been criminaliy selfish to hav
withheld this aid from these needy souls
and would it not have been very unwise
have made careless strangers the almonel
of this bounty!
Other considerations remain to be men