Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-06-12
THE UNIFICATION OF NORTHERN AM
SOUTHERN METHODISTS
BY MRS. ". +

|
was made the target for discussion on the
slavery issue.
saw good deal Of Bishop Andrew. I
went to school with his daughter, Octavia, in
| Oxford, Ga. We were in the same class
! both less than ten years old. / heard the
| bishop preach In Oxford, also in Decatur
Ga, many times. l was too young to UNI
derstand the why and wherefore of the re-
lection of Bishop Andrew because he owned
some negro slaves but like all the people
who owned slaves in the south, I grew up
in the belief that slavery right and prop
er, ETC., etc.
I am satisfied that the south made
! mistake in leaving the Federal union to fight
for slavery. | am also satisfied that we
should have put it up to congress to pay
for the slaves and then We should also have
coloniZed them here because it physi-
cally impossible to send them to Liberia.
There were only three things possible in that
emergency, namely: colonization in Africa,
or colonization in or near Mexico or ex-
termination as We exterminated the Amer
lean Indian. The latter was impossible, and
| the southern leaders determined to hold on
to slavery as the least of all these difficult
ties and finally decided to secede, to set up
another union which was called the Southern
Confederacy.
I was familiar with the dispute, for
was twenty-four years old when the presi-
Dental campaign of 1860 began. A good
many others also familiar who are still
living, and averse to change at this time.
The slavery question lies dormant at this
writing, but 1t is alive-not dead by any
means. Whatever may have been the errors
and evils of African slavery, the Methodist
church north was the first church organiZa-
ton to attack it, and [ feel sure that the
peaceful separation in 1874 had a great deal
to do with the secession Of the southern
states in 1851. If the churches could d-
vide without recourse to arms and get along
with a quiet division, why not the southern
states? Except in California, the M. E.
Church, South, did not enter any abolition
state to build churches or hold annual con-
ferences. There was only one Southern
Methodist church in Washington City in the
early '70s but the Northern church crossed
| the line and organized churches in Georgia,
and acquired legal church property among
us. number of Georgia preachers went
! over to the Northern church and gave many
| reasons why, but frank, outspoken
! Georgia preacher explained, every reason
meant dolar' The division was main
tanned, and although there was much fric-
I ton for a time the militants Of the North
ern church quieted down as the years rolled
on and peace or quiet prevailed on the out
| side, at least in Methodist circles.
Those who have decided to unity at this
/ time in newcomers. Those of
us who tasted the full dregs of Civil war
| are not ready to venture into waters
| that may become a roaring in unexpected
! places, or maybe a general whirlpool, and
| thus engulf the unified church in a fierce
political combat, from Maine to California
and wake up everything that should be
| 1igiously restrained and kept out of the
churches, both North and South, to conserve
| Christian peace with brotherly love. And
| do not hesitate to say that the race ques-
| ton will automatically push to the front
1t has been a push button" in national pol
| ltics since Appomattox. We know that po-
ltical ambition Gin both north and SOUTH
| has made the question hobby horse"
| in Georgia for nearly sixty years. In the
south we have solidified against the negro
| in politics because found the north using
the negro in their political campaigns The
good negroes in the south have been badly
! dealt with because bad negroes were en-
couraged to hate the whites in the southern
sections as their natural enemies, and rabid
politicians in the south have famed these
! antagonisms into blazing fury to keep the
south solid in, sectional politics. and elect
| themselves to all the Offices, state and ma
tional in the aforetme Confederate states.
Doing well is hard to beat" says the old
adage. 1t is manfestly truesm in religion
as we'll as material things, and long
| the two branches of Wesleyan Methodsm can
visit and drink cup of tea together without
meddling in the inside affairs of either house
! hold, we may keep down unpleasant mem
cries of by-gone days, that are not only dan
gerous but deadly when churches are showed
into the cesspools of dirty politics.
The time is certainly coming when the
| representation in national legislation will be
based on the voting population. No country
can long exist half slave and half free. A
republic will sink into a militarsm or an au-
tocracy Of tyranny.
l would remind the general reader that the
entry of the colored soldier into the late
worlds has enlisted but little criticism
| in the public prints. Nevertheless, an equal
| iZation scheme has prevailed, which estab-
| fishes the national Importance of the colored
colder, and which also entities the colOred
soldier, conscripted were all soldiers in
| the United States, white black, to every
| privilege benefit pension bonus that
the white soldier can ever obtain, under ma
| tional legislation.
1t was southern president who, as com
mander-in-chief of the army and navy,
| gineered that plan Of equalization for the
| colored race in this republic. This step can
never be turned backward. 1t will grow with
| it's growth and spread to the Philippines and
| Honolulu. The Jap exclusion, hurried to
| July l, 1924, only question of color.
The souths contention on the slavery Ques-
! tion was always a question of color.
Without further explanation, or criticism,
/ or argument, in no position to unity
/ with even a branch of Wesleyan Methodism
| where the color question separated us in
1914, and which deluged this republic in
/ bloody slaughter of the white men of Ameri-
ca in the early SOS, to maintain the color
line here. Friends and fellow-readers of cur
rent events, We will be wise to ''let well
| enough alone at this crisis in our countrys
situation.
If there had been no slaves there would
/ have been no Civil war. Ten thousand com
/ mentators of transcendent ability cannot
| alter this conclusion. When the learned
commentators rise up to tell you that