Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-12
MENDING LAME LAWS.
The Constitution Committee of the
NJ. E. Conference Disagree.
A MAJORITY REPORT SUBMITTED.
Illegality of the Acts Passed in 1872 Causes
All the Trouble.
FOUR NEW BIsHOPR.CS ASKED FOR

OMAHA, NEB., May 1.-Bishop Joyce
occupied the chair in the Methodist
Episcopal General Conference to-day. DR..
E. j. Gray, of Pennsylvania, introduced a
resolution to change the rules SO as to give
different boards authority to elect the
official editors, superintendents of the Book
Concern and other offices usually elected by
the General Conference. DR.. Gray also in
troduced resolution calling upon the Com
mittee on Episcopacy to consider the ad-
visibility of districting the whole territory
of the Church into as many districts as
there are effective bishops, and to assign to
each bishop, except the senior bishop, a
prescribed district for the term of four
years, instead of leaving the bishops to
divide the work as they do at present Both
resolutions were referred.
At the juncture Bishop Joyce introduced
Rev. DR.. Teggert, fraternal delegate from
the Methodist Church South. A ringing
resolution was offered, calling for an earnest
effort to unite the two branches of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in the United
States 1t was referred to the Committee
on the State of the Church amid applause.
The Constitution Committee Divided.
The Conference now took up the consid-
Grafton of the report of the Constitution
Committee. Bishop Merrill said he would
be glad if he could represent the commit
tee as unit, but it had not been. The re-
port was the opinion and conclusion of the
majority.
81 shall not argue before you as to whether
ann nj, ,,cin .irrtDf
said Bishop Merrill. 81 simply ex-
plain our conclusions and leave you to de-
eide" Bishop Merrill continued:
That portion of the constitution put in unlaw-
fully was not put in at ALL in reality. The con-
stitution really should remain as it was in 1868.
with the exception of those changes which were
Of That wheh wen in n
out ana those parts not out at all. though
they may seem to be.
Bishop Merrill said he would like to vim
dicate the action of the Conference OF 1872,
but the trouble lay in the fact that the Con-
ference of 1868 failed to confer the power
upon the Conference of 1872, which the lat
ter Conference assumed. The Conference
of 1868 provided for the clothing of the Con-
ference OF 1872 with power to change the re-
strictions then in existence: but the Confer
ence of 1872 went further and made addi-
tions to the restrictive rules. There was
the milk in the cocoanut. This assumed au-
thority ought to have been corrected long
ago, but never had been.
The Bishop said there are Methodists still
living who imagine the six restrictive rules
form the whole of the constitution of the
General Conference. The committee held
that all the fundamental rules that govern
the General Conference were a part of the
An Important Amendment Offered.
Dr. Hammond then offered an amendment
to the report to make all those acts constitu-
tional which had been supported by a two
Iii dc Nf fln
with the restrictive rules, but all other
parts should not be considered part of the
DR.. j. NJ. Hamilton said this was a look
backward. There was no use to find great
fault with anybody. The Conference should
look at the whole situation under the light
of the present day. He objected to the long
preamble that the committee had present.
ed. The Conference, he thought, should also
decide what was meant by laymen. Did it
mean only men, as DR.. Buckley held, or did
the word laymen mean both men and wom-
en-? This should be made definite by this
if possible, before the women
themselves got into the Conference to debate
the question: tApplause.l
The Committee on Episcopacy has decided
to recommend that four new bishops be
created in defiance of the official action of
the Episcopal Board, which was against in.
creasing its members. This, it is said, was
brought about by the candidates them
selves. The most prominent candidates for
Bishop are DR.. Peck, Cincinnati: Hamilton,
Boston; McCabe, New York; Leonard, Ohio;
Whitcf1eld, Iowa: Payne. New York; Bristol,
Neelv, Philadelphia. Swindell,
King, New York; Partzell,
New Orleans.
The Committee on Episcopacy had red
not meeting this afternoon on the question |
Of changing the episcopal residences now
located 1T Buffalo, Topeka, Fort Worth
and Cincinnati, and giving a Bishop each to |
Detroit. Seattle, Europe and Japan. No con- |
,lusion was reached, and the comynittee ad- |
ourned till Friday. |