Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-05-30

country and of the NJ. E. Church, South
has passed away" To which the Southern
| bishops replied
ave cannot think you mean to often,
ss when you speak of our having sepa
! rated from you, and put us in the same cat
egory with small body of schismatics VIII,
are always an acknowledged secession. Al
low rs in all kindness, brethren, to fefains
you and keep the important fact Of histor,
prominent, that we separated from YOU il
no sense In which you did not separat,
from us. The separation was hy cotnpac
and mutuaE and nearer approaches to each
other can be conducted with hopes of st6
cessful issue only on this basis.n
A deputation visited our General Con
ference of 1870, at Memphis, proposing tc
treat with us in the name of the NJ. E.
Church on the subject of union. They were
received and heard with great respect. But
it appeared, upon due inquiry, that they
were not commissioned to us by their Gen
eral Conference.-The only body with which
we can treat on correctional interests.
Nevertheless, the General Conference re.
ferred their communication to a committee
whose report, unanimously adopted, con-
tanned these resolutions:
'EResolved, thai the action of our Bishops,
in their last annual meeting in st. Louis,
inresponse to the message from the Bishops
OF the Methodist Episcopal Church, has the
full Endorsement Of this General Conference,
and accurately defines our position in re-
ference to any oyertures which may proceed
from that Church, having in them an Off
cial and proper recognition Of this body.
"Resolyed, NOR, over, that if this dis
tinguished commission were fully clothed
with authority to treat with us for union il
Is the judgment of this Conference that the
true interests of the Church of Christ re-
quire and demand the maintenance of our
separate and distinct organization.
''ResOlved, that we tender to the Rev.
Bishop Z. 5. james and the Rev. w. l..
Harris, ID. D., the members of the commits.
sion now with us, our high regards as breth-
rem beloved in the Lord, and express our
desire that the day may soon come when
proper Christian sentiments and fraternal
relations between the two great branches of
Northern and Southern Methodism shall be
permanently established"
linus stood the case when the distin-
guished delegates of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, duly authorized by their Gen
eral Conference of 1872, brought us their
fraternal greetings. We hail them with
pleasure, and welcome the opportunity, at
length offered US, of entering into negotia-
tons to secure tranquility and fellowship
10 our allenated cOmmuniOns upon perm
anent basis, and alike honorable to all.
We deem it proper for the attainment of
the object sought TO guard against all mis-
apprehension. Organic union is not in
voived in fraternity. In our view of the
subject, the reasons for the separate exist
ence of these two branches of Methodism
are such as to make corporate union I'M
desirable and impracticable. The events
and experiences of the last thirty wears
have confirmed us in the conviction that
such a consummation is demanded by
neither reason nor charity. We believe
that each Church can do its work and full
fill its mission most effectively by MAIN
tanning an independent organization. The
causes which led to the division in 1874,
upon a plan of separation mutually agreed
upon, have not disappeared. Some of them
exist in their original form and force, and
others have been modified but not dimin-
ished.
The size of the connection, and the ex-
tent of territory covered by it, had pro-
duced on some thoughtful minds before
the events of 1874 the impression that
separation would be convenient and other
wise advantageous. The General Confer
ence, upon any proper basis of representa-
ton, was becoming too unwieldy for the
ends originally designed. If this reason
was of force then, it is more conclusive
now. The membership of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, exceeds six hun
dred thousand. Our Northern brethren
have more than twice that number. Our
General Conference is now composed OF
nearly three hundred ministers and laymen;
theirs is proportionally larger.
1t will be remembered that the last for
NAL deliverance of the Southern represen-
tatiyes, in the united General Conference,
was protest against the power claimed
of the Church. The Northern members,
who were a controlling majority, claimed
for it prerogatives which seemed to us both
dangerous and unconstitutional.
In their view the General Conference is
supreme. Although restricted in the eX-
erciSe Of its powers by a constitution, it is
the judge Of the restrictions, and thus
practically unlimited. In our view the
General Conference is a body Of limited
powers. 1t cannot absorb the functions of
other coordinate branches of the Church
government, and there are methods by
which all constitutional questions may be
brought to a satisfactory issue. Each
Church still retains its own construction of
these fundamental questions. They are
not theoretical, merely, but very practical
in their bearing. Were the two Method
isms Organically united it would lead to
serious collisions, and expose the minority
to harassing legislation, if not oppression.
The existence of slavery in the Southern
States furnished an occasion, with its con-
nected questions, fruitful of disturbance;
and to this the division has been mainly at
tributed. The position of Southern Method
ism on that point was Scriptural. Our
opinions have undergone no change. We
held ourselves in readiness to carry the
Gospel to the bond and free. Missions to
the slaves constituted large part Of our
work. Many of our ministers labored in
this field, aud much of our means was ex-
pended on it. These labOrs were emf
nently owned Of God. At the beginning
Of the late war quarter of a million of
negroes were in the communion of our
Church, and thousands of their children
Were receiving Catechetical instruction.
The societies organized in the Southern
States during the last ten years by our
Northern brethren, and the members of
which swell their statistics, are made up
largely of those who, in slavery, had been
converted by our instrumentality. The
cOlOred preachers, eXhorters and class-lead-
ers by whom they have principally carried
on their Southern work, and some of whom
have been counted worthy of seats in their
annual and general conferences, were
chriStianized and trained under our minis
try in other days. Following the lndica-
tons of Providence We have, without aban-
dOning this work, adapted our methods to
the changed conditions of the descendants
of the African race in the midst of us.
Many of them had been drawn away from
us by appliances that we were not prepared
to counterfeit; but a remnant remained.
At their request we have set off our cOlored
members into an Independent ecclesiastical
body, with our own creed and pOlity. We
have turned over to them the titles and
possession of the church property formerly
held by us for their use and benefit, and we
propose to continue TO them such moral and
material aid as we are able to give.
This method has met with encouraging