CHAPTER IV.
Division of the Church in 1844—Slavery only the Occasion—Action of the General Conference in 1836—Slavery in the Church in 1796 and in 1836—No Change of its Moral Aspects in 1844—Facts Perverted—Constitutional Powers of the Church—Bishop Andrew, a Scapegoat—Protest of the Southern Conferences—Resolution and Plan of Separation—Dr. Elliott and Schism—The Vote—The Question in the South—Louisville Convention in 1845—Division—The Bishops of the M. E. Church Accept the Division the following July—Failure to Change the Sixth Restrictive Rule—General Conference of 1848 Pronounce the Whole Proceedings Null and Void—Dr. Lovick Pierce Rejected—Fraternization Denied—Responsibility of Non-Fraternization—Northern Church Refuse to Make any Division of Property—Appeal to the Civil Courts—Decision of the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York—Justice McLean—United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of Ohio—Judge Leavitt’s Decision—Supreme Court of the United States—Points Decided—The Decision of the Supreme Court in Full.
It is due to the uninformed that a true statement be made here of the causes, conditions, plan and immediate results of the great division, in 1844, of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. This is made the more necessary by the misrepresentation of the facts made by the press and pulpit of the Northern wing of the Church, and the political and other uses a perversion of the facts was made to subserve in Missouri.
1. Slavery was not, in any proper sense, thecauseof division, but was made, incidentally, theoccasiononly. American slavery had existed in the Church for sixty years in the same form, and under the same civil and religious sanctions that authorized and covered it in1844. If it was the “sum of all evils” in 1844, it was the same in 1796; and the moral character of the institution was not changed in 1836, when the General Conference in Cincinnati, by a vote of 120 to 14, adopted the followingpreambleand resolutions:
“Whereas, Great excitement has prevailed in this country on the subject of modern abolitionism, which is reported to have been increased in this city recently by the unjustifiable conduct of two members of the General Conference, in lecturing upon and in favor of that agitating subject; and, whereas, such a course on the part of any of its members is calculated to bring upon this body the suspicions and distrust of the community, and to misrepresent its sentiments in regard to the points at issue; and, whereas, in this aspect of the case, a duo regard for its own character, as well as a just concern for the interests of the Church confided to its care, demand a full, decided and unequivocal expression of the ideas of the General Conference in the premises; therefore,
“Resolved, By the delegates of the Annual Conferences in General Conference assembled, that they disapprove, in the most unqualified sense, the conduct of two members of the General Conference, who are reported to have lectured in this city recently upon and in favor of modern abolitionism.
“Resolved, That they are decidedly opposed to modern abolitionism, and wholly disdain any right, wish or intention to interfere in the civil and political relation between master and slave as it exists in the slaveholding States of this Union.”—Bangs’ History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, vol. 4, pp. 245, 246.
This is rather strong language, but not more so than the pastoral address issued by the same General Conference. In that address the following language is used: “It can not be unknown to you that the question of slavery in these United States, by the constitutional compact which binds us together as a nation, is left to be regulated by the several State legislatures themselves, and thereby is put beyond the control of the general governmentas well as that of all ecclesiastical bodies, it being manifest that in the slaveholding States themselves the entire responsibility of its existence or non-existence rests with those State legislatures; and such is the aspect of affairs in reference to this question that whatever else might tend to ameliorate the condition of the slave, it is evident to us, from what we have witnessed of abolition movements, that these are the least likely to do him good.” Reasons are given amply sufficient to prove that abolition speeches and publications all “tend injuriously to affect his temporal and spiritual condition, by hedging up the way of the missionary who is sent to preach to him Jesus and the resurrection, and thereby abridging his civil and religious privileges.”
“These facts,” the address continues, “which are only mentioned here as reasons for the friendly admonition which we wish to give you, constrain us, as your pastors, who are called to watch over your souls, as they who must give an account, to exhort you to abstain from all abolition movements and associations, and to refrain from patronizing any of their publications, and especially from those of that inflammatory character which denounce in unmeasured terms thoseof the brethren who take the liberty to dissent from them.” * * * * “From every view of the subject which we have been able to take, and from the most calm and dispassionate survey of the whole ground, we have come to the solemn conviction that the onlysafe,scripturalandprudentway for us, both as ministers and people, to take, is wholly to refrain from this agitating subject which is now convulsing the country, and consequently the Church, from end to end, by calling forth inflammatory speeches, papers and pamphlets. While we cheerfully accord to such all the sincerity they ask for their belief and motives, we can not but disapprove of their measures as alike destructive to the peace of the Church and the happiness of the slave.”—Bangs’ History of the M. E. Church, vol. 4, pp. 258, 260.
It is patent to every candid observer that the Church in 1836 did not consider the subject of slavery as the “sum of all evils,” and therefore to be extirpated at whatever cost to Church and State, but rather that the danger to the peace of the Church and country was not in slavery itself, but in the “abolition movements,” “speeches and papers” that were “convulsing the country and Church from end to end,” and “that the onlysafe,scripturalandprudentway for both ministers and people was wholly to refrain from this agitating subject.” Slavery was, according to this address, “beyond the control of all ecclesiastical bodies,” and it would have been fortunate for the peace and welfare of both the Church and the country had it remained beyond their control, and had the teachings and deliverances of all ecclesiastical bodies upon this subject remained just as this General Conference expressed it in 1836.Slavery remained unchanged; and if it was “safe, scriptural and prudent” for the Church in ’36 to let it alone, and leave it under the “control of the State legislatures,” where “the constitutional compact which binds us together as a nation placed it,” why was it not “safe, scriptural and prudent” to do the same in ’44? Did slavery, as a domestic, moral or civil institution present any new aspects in 1844? What civil or moral questions were applicable to slavery in 1844 that did not equally apply in 1836 or 1796? Had slavery just been admitted into the Church for the first time, then those who contend that it was the cause of division would have some show of reason. If slavery was the “sum of all villainy” in 1844 it was in 1798, unless time can change the character of “villainy,” for itdid notchange the character of slavery. If a slaveholder was “a thief, a robber, a murderer and a sinner above all others” in 1844, he was the same in 1836. Nathan Bangs, George Peck, Charles Elliott, Orange Scott, and many others were members of the General Conference of 1836, but they did not discover such mighty man-defrauding, God-defying wrongs in slavery and slaveholders then. Their optics were different when, in 1844, the effort to make the institution of slavery a proper subject for ecclesiastical legislation, by deposing Bishop James O. Andrew from the Episcopal office because his wife had inherited slaves, revealed the dangerous advances the Church had made toward the control of civil questions.
In this case “certain constructions of the constitutional powers and prerogatives of the General Conference were assumed and acted on, which were oppressiveand destructive of the rights of the numerical minority represented in that highest judicatory of the Church.” It was upon the “construction of the constitutional powers of the church” that they differed, and in the discussions and decisions that followed “certain principles were developed in relation to the political aspects of slavery, involving the right of ecclesiastical bodies to handle and determine matters lying wholly outside of their proper jurisdiction.”
No candid man who will study the philosophy of that memorable Conference in the light of the plain facts can believe that slavery was more than the occasion for the separation.
When men willfully pervert the facts of history, or misrepresent the connection and bearing of these facts, they must have a motive, and candid men are justified in suspecting an end that can not be reached by straightforward, honorable means.
Northern Methodist preachers had become fanatical on the subject of the abolition of slavery—had recently discovered great moral wrong in the “peculiar institution,” and commenced a war upon everything that favored the existing relations of master and slave. All at once it was discovered that all the resolutions and pastoral address of 1836 were in sympathy with the “sum of all villainies,” and for that reason should be disregarded. It was discovered that ministers of the gospel were slaveholders—which had been the case from the beginning—and the most noted instance then existing was James O. Andrew, a man of unblemished character, unswerving integrity and singular purity of heart and life. Why not take him for a scapegoat?They needed one, for many of them had been connected with the same institution in one way or another. But how could they reach his case? Did the law of the Church cover the case? Did the constitution of the Church confer upon the General Conference the power to depose a Bishop because his wife had inherited a slave, and the laws of the State would not admit of emancipation? Could not a majority of the General Conference so interpret and construe the law that the case could be reached, and the “abolition movement” that had been unequivocally condemned eight years before be just as unequivocally indorsed now and greatly advanced by the great Methodist Church in the United States? And what if this assumption of constitutional power should be rejected? Aye, there was the rub.This was the cause.Admit the authority of the General Conference to depose a man from office for incidental or even positive complicity with slavery, and with it the right is established to depose a man from the ministry for complicity with democracy, republicanism, or any thing else purely political. The same authority extends to the ballotbox and all the distinctive privileges of citizenship.
There were other questions incidentally brought out at the Conference of 1844 which tested theanimusof the delegates from the North, and disclosed the construction placed by their leaders upon the constitutional prerogatives of the college of Bishops.
Any one at all acquainted with ecclesiastical government can readily see how these questions could divide the Church whether slavery had an existence or not.The same questions have produced division in ecclesiastical bodies since slavery was abolished.
It was not the three cents a pound upon tea that caused the American revolution of 1776, but the right to tax tea to that amount involved the right to make every man in the British colonies a slave; and the right to depose Bishop Andrew implied the right to depose every man from the ministry who differed from the numerical majority upon any political question whatever.
To all sober, unbiased, right-thinking, candid men this position will be undeniable—unanswerable. To others it will be like “casting pearls before swine.”
2. Theplanof division provided a remedy for thecauseof division. The one stands in the light of the other. When the action in the case of Bishop Andrew was taken in the General Conference of 1844 the delegates from thirteen Annual Conferences, making fifty-one in all, drew up a declaration in which they set forth the fact that in the slaveholding States the objects and purposes of the ministry would be defeated by it. Upon this protest the General Conference raised a committee of nine, six from the Northern Conferences and three from the Southern Conferences, to whom the declaration was referred. After deliberation they submitted what is known in history and in law as the “Plan of Separation.”
It begins thus:
“Whereas, A declaration has been presented to this Conference, with the signatures of fifty-one delegates of the body from thirteen Annual Conferences in theslaveholding States, representing that, for various reasons enumerated, the objects and purposes of the Christian ministry and church organizations can not be successfully accomplished by them under the jurisdiction of the General Conference as now constituted; and,
“Whereas, In the event of a separation, a contingency to which the declaration asks attention as not improbable, we esteem it the duty of this General Conference to meet the contingency with Christian kindness and the strictest equity; therefore,
“Resolved 1, Provided that should the Annual Conferences in the slaveholding States find it necessary to unite in a distinct ecclesiastical connection, all the societies, stations and Conferences bordering on the line of division, adhering by vote of a majority of the members of the society, station or Conference to either the Church in the South or the M. E. Church, shall remain under the unmolested pastoral care of the church to which they do adhere.”
The rule was not to apply to interior charges, which shall, in all cases, be left to the care of that church within whose territory they are situated.
It should be observed that the Plan of Separation was thus agreed upon by the General Conference: “Should the Annual Conferences in the slaveholding States find it necessary to unite in a distinct ecclesiastical connection.” They were to be the sole judges of thenecessityof such “distinct ecclesiastical connection.” The “plan” also provided for “ministers of every grade and office” adhering either North or South, “without blame,” and for a change of the sixth restrictive rule by a constitutional vote of all the Annual Conferences, so that inthe event of separation an equitablepro ratadivision of the Book Concerns at New York and Cincinnati, and the Chartered Fund at Philadelphia, could be made. It provided, also, for the division of the property by a joint commission, in which N. Bangs, S. Peck and J. B. Finly were to represent the Church North; and the ninth resolution was as follows:
“Resolved 9, That all the property of the Methodist Episcopal Church in meeting-houses, parsonages, colleges, schools, conference funds, cemeteries, and of every kind within the limits of the Southern organization, shall be forever free from any claim set up on the part of the Methodist Episcopal Church, so far as this resolution can be of force in the premises.”
It is pertinent to the case to state here that on the day the “committee of nine” was raised, and before it was formed or announced, the following resolution was passed, without debate:
“Resolved, That the committee appointed to take into consideration the communication of the delegates from the Southern Conferences be instructed—provided they can not, in their judgment, devise a plan for the amicable adjustment of the difficulties now existing in the Church on the subject of slavery—to devise, if possible, a constitutional plan for a mutual and friendly division of the Church.”
The adoption of this resolution, without debate, embodied and announced the decision of the General Conference upon the constitutional powers of the body to divide the Church.
An effort was made to strike the word “constitutional” from the resolution, but it failed, and the resolutionas passed forms a part of the history of the division, bearing directly upon the constitutional prerogatives of the General Conference.
Dr. Charles Elliott, who subsequently made himself notorious by denouncing the Church, South, as a secession, and by making war upon the “Plan of Separation” and all that it accomplished, was the first man in the General Conference to move the adoption of the report of the committee of nine, and in a long speech he urged, with many arguments, the practicability, the propriety, the necessity and the expediency of a division of the Church, avowing distinctly that “were the present difficulty out of the way there would be good reason for passing the resolutions contained in the report. The body was too large to do business advantageously. The measure contemplated wasnot schism, but separation for their mutual convenience and prosperity.
After much debate and a full and free discussion of every possible point that could be raised by that able body of men, amongst whom were many of the best constitutional lawyers of the Church, the report was adopted; the vote on the several resolutions varying from 135 to 153 in the affirmative, and from 22 to 12 in the negative. These were certainly very large majorities, and show plainly theanimusof the General Conference of 1844.
With implicit confidence in the sincerity and good faith of this action, the Southern Conferences proceeded to ascertain whether there existed a necessity in the Southern States for the separation thus provided for.
The Southern Conferences were to be thesole judgesof the necessity for such action as would make this provisionalseparation a real one; and that in their judgment such necessity did exist, the history is in proof. However greatly the opinions and purposes of men may change, the facts of history that have gone to official record can not change. Upon such facts intelligent judgment alone can rest, and to such facts an honest public will always make a final appeal.
“The Annual Conferences in the slaveholding States”did“find it necessary to unite in a distinct ecclesiastical connection,” and for that purpose met in convention, in Louisville, Ky., in 1845, and reduced the possible contingency to fact. In the organization of a “distinct ecclesiastical connection” the Louisville convention adhered strictly to the plan adopted by the General Conference of 1844. The division of the church into two distinct co-ordinate branches, which was considered a contingency, and, as such, provided for in 1844, was, by the action of the “Annual Conferences in the slaveholding States” represented in the convention at Louisville, made an accomplished fact in 1845. After this convention erected the “Annual Conferences in the slaveholding States” into a “distinct ecclesiastical connection” the Bishops of the M. E. Church (North) met in New York, July, 1845, and passed, among others, the following resolution:
“Resolved, That the plan adopted in regard to a distinct ecclesiastical connection, should such a course be found necessary by the Annual Conferences of the slaveholding States, is regarded by us as of binding obligation in the premises, so far as our administration is concerned.”
They also gave instructions respecting the voting of“those societies bordering on the line of division, to decide for themselves whether they would adhere to the Church North or South.” And they further declared that they did not feel justified in presiding over the Conferences South, and struck them from their plan of Episcopal visitation. Thus the Bishops of the Church, North, quietly and gracefully resigned their jurisdiction over the Southern Conferences, because they considered the “Plan of Separation” adopted in 1844 of “binding obligation.”
The division of the Church was recognized by the Bishops of the North as an accomplished fact, and the “Plan of Separation” as of “binding obligation.” And it may fairly be assumed that, had there been no property interests to be divided according to that plan,pro rata, there would have been “a mutual and friendly division of the Church.” But after the separation had been accomplished and recognized as legitimate and of “binding obligation,” the Northern wing of the Church discovered that the required vote of the Annual Conferences to change the sixth restrictive rule was not obtained, and the pretext was furnished them to refuse apro rataor any other division of the property that was held by the Northern Church, which consisted of a Book Concern in New York, what was known as a Chartered Fund in Philadelphia, and a Book Concern in Cincinnati.
To ignore and set aside the claims of the Church, South, to the common property it was necessary to pronounce the General Conference of 1844 incompetent to divide the Church, and to declare the “Plan of Separation null and void,” so that “there should exist noobligations to observe its provisions.” This was done by the Northern General Conference of 1848, after the separation had been acknowledged by their Bishops as an accomplished fact, and the “Plan of Separation” as of “binding obligation.”
Dr. Lovick Pierce, father of Bishop Pierce, and the noblest Roman of all, was duly accredited to this General Conference of 1848 as the fraternal messenger of the Church, South, to express to that body the Christian regards and fraternal salutations of his Church. Upon the reception of his credentials the General Conference “Resolved, That as there are serious questions and difficulties existing between the two bodies it is not proper at present to enter into fraternal relations with the M. E. Church, South.”
Fraternal intercourse was declined by official action. The door was shut, and the fraternal messenger of the Church, South, stood without, feeling most keenly the unchristian rejection. That he felt the dishonor, the humiliation, the insult thus offered to his Church most sensibly the closing words of his communication to that body, upon being notified of his rejection, is in evidence: “You will now regard this communication asfinalon the part of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. She can never renew the offer of fraternal relations between the two great bodies of Wesleyan Methodism in the United States. But the proposition can be renewed at any time, either now or hereafter, by the Methodist Episcopal Church; and if ever made, upon the basis of the Plan of Separation as adopted by the General Conference of 1844, the Church, South, will cordially entertain the proposition.”
His language to the General Conference of the Church, South, in submitting his report to that body, was worthy of the great cause he was delegated to serve, worthy of his Church, and worthy of himself. One single sentence of that report illustrates the whole, and reflects the highest honor on his head and heart: “Thus ended the well-intended commission from your body. Upon this noble effort I verily believe the smile of Divine approbation will rest when the heavenly bodies themselves have ceased to shine. We did affectionately endeavor to make and preserve peace, but our offer was rejected as of no deserving.”
He returned home and, with his entire Church, had to accept the situation thus decreed by the M. E. Church, North. And with the responsibility of non-fraternization rests the shame and disgrace of the fact, in the estimation of the enlightened Christian world, as well as all the damaging results.
But the Church, North, knowing that the Church, South, could not be divested of her legal rights to the property otherwise, proceeded to set aside the Plan of Separation, to pronounce the Church, South, a schism, and to decline all fraternal intercourse. Thus cut off as illegitimate, as schismatics and as secessionists, by an action whollyex parte, all claim upon the common Church property was denied, and all the authority of commissions to settle with the Church, South, was revoked.
An appeal to the civil courts was thus made necessary, and the strong arm of the civil law was evoked to force the unwilling conscience of the Northern Church, and to become “a judge and a divider over us.”
It is unnecessary to give in detail the history of these civil suits. Suffice it to say, that the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York and the Supreme Court of the United States both recognized and affirmed the authority of the General Conference to divide the Church, pronounced that body competent to provide a plan of separation, fix a boundary line, determine thestatusof ministers, adjust the rights of property, and erect two separate and distinct ecclesiastical bodies, of co-ordinate existence and authority, out of the M. E. Church of the United States. These highest judicial tribunals of the country did affirm the validity of the “Plan of Separation” adopted by the General Conference of 1844 to be of “binding obligation” in every part and particular; and, notwithstanding the failure of the sixth restrictive rule, the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York caused a decree to be entered, November 26th, 1851, ordering apro ratashare of the property of the New York Book Concern, including both capital and produce, to be transferred to the agents of the M. E. Church, South, and it was referred to the Clerk of the Court to ascertain the amount and value of the property. When he reported, exceptions were filed, the Court could not agree upon some points, and the case was certified to the Supreme Court of the United States for decision.
Judge McLean, a leading member of the M. E. Church, and at the time one of the Justices of the United States Supreme Court, induced the Commissioners of the two parties to come together in New York. The result of this interview was an agreement between them aboutdividing the property of the New York Book Concern, which agreement was afterward made a part of the decree of the U. S. Circuit Court, December 8th, 1852. By this decree the property of the New York Book Concern was settled, of which the Church, South, obtained about $191,000.
It may not be out of place to insert here a part of the decision of the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, Justice Nelson and Judge Betts presiding. The former delivered the opinion of the Court.
After analyzing the Plan of Separation, the decision of the Court goes on to say: “Now, it will be seen from this analysis of the Plan of Separation that the only condition or contingency upon which an absolute division of the Church organization was made to depend was the action of the several Annual Conferences in the slaveholding States. If these should find it necessary to unite in favor of a distinct organization, by the very terms of the Plan the separation was to take place according to the boundary designated. It was left to them to judge of the necessity, and their judgment is made final in the matter. And when the division is made, and the Church divided into two separate bodies, it is declared that ministers of every grade and office in the Methodist Episcopal Church may, as they prefer, remain in that Church, or without blame attach themselves to the Church, South. The whole Plan of Separation confirms this view. As soon as the separation takes place, in accordance with the first resolution, all the property in meeting-houses, parsonages, colleges, schools, Conference funds and cemeteries, within thelimits of the Southern organization is declared to be free from any claim on the part of the Northern Church. The general and common property, such as notes and other obligations, together with the property and effects belonging to the printing establishments at Charleston, Richmond and Nashville, and the capital and produce of the Book Concern at New York, was reserved for future adjustment. This was necessary on account of the restrictive article upon the power of the General Conference. * * * When the Annual Conferences in the slaveholding States acted, and organized a Southern Church, as they did,the divisionof the Methodist Episcopal Church into two organizationsbecame complete. And so would the adjustment of the common property between them, if the assent of all the Annual Conferences had been given to the change of the restrictive article. The failure to give that has left this part of the plan open, the only consequence of which is to deprive the Southern division of its share of the property dependent upon this assent, and leave it to get along as it best may, unless a right to recover its possession legally results from the authorized division into two separate organizations.”
The suit for a division in the Cincinnati Book Concern was brought in the United States Circuit Court for the District of Ohio, July 12th, 1849. The evidence agreed on by the counsel for both parties was the same used in the New York case. Justice McLean declined to sit in the case, because he had previously expressed his opinion that the Sixth Restrictive Rule could be constitutionally modified by the General and Annual Conferencesso as “to authorize an equitable division of the fund with the M. E. Church, South.”
Judge Leavitt presided, and reached the decision that “the General Conference possessed no authority, directly or indirectly, to divide the Church.” And that, as the Annual Conferences did not change the Sixth Restrictive Rule, the Church, South, could not recover; and dismissed the suit. He said, however, that the power to divide the Church “rested with the body of the traveling ministry, assembleden massein a conventional capacity.” This was fatal to his whole decision; for since the first delegated General Conference in 1808, the whole body of the traveling ministry had been assembling by delegation every four years, and, authorized to exercise all the powers of the entire body of traveling preachers, six clearly defined restrictions on its powers only excepted.
From the decision of Judge Leavitt the Commissioners of the M. E. Church, South, appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. That august tribunal was then composed of Chief Justice Taney, and Associate Justices McLean, Wayne, Catron, Daniel, Nelson, Grier, Curtis and Campbell. (Justice McLean did not sit in the case.)
The cause was heard in Washington City, in April, 1854, and the decision in favor of the rights of the Church, South, was without dissent from any of the Justices. Judge Nelson delivered the opinion of the Court, April 25th, 1854. The main points settled by that decision are these: (1) That the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States was divided. (2) It was not a secession of a part from the main body. (3)By it neither division lost its interest in the common property. (4) The General Conference of 1844 had the power to divide the Church into two distinct ecclesiastical bodies. (5) The six restrictive articles did not deprive the General Conference of the authority and power to divide the Church. (6) The proposed change of the Sixth Restrictive Rule was not a condition of separation, but to enable the General Conference to carry out its purpose. (7) The separation of the Church into two distinct parts being legally accomplished, the “Plan of Separation” must be carried out in good faith, and a division of the joint property by a Court of Equity follows as a matter of course.
By this decision of the Supreme Court the M. E. Church, South, obtained from the Cincinnati Book Concern, in money, bonds, Southern notes and accounts, about 893,000.
These facts have all been gathered from official documents, and will not be denied. If they serve to place before the public, in a succinct form, the true history of the division of the Church, and by so doing countervail the many misrepresentations and mischievous falsehoods that have led to the unprovoked persecutions of the ministers of the M. E. Church, South, in Missouri and elsewhere, the end will be reached and the labor will not be in vain.
As the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the above case is not accessible to every reader, it may serve the purpose of history, while it serves the cause of truth and righteousness, to put in convenient form, and as a befitting close to this chapter, that decision in full—except so much of it as was necessary to carry out the decree of the Court in detail.
DECISION OF THE SUPREME COURT.
“William A. Smith,et al.,vs.Leroy Swormstedt,et al.
“William A. Smith,et al.,vs.Leroy Swormstedt,et al.
“William A. Smith,et al.,vs.Leroy Swormstedt,et al.
“This was the appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Ohio, which dismissed the bill.
“This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of the record from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Ohio, and was argued by counsel. On consideration whereof it is ordered, adjudged and decreed by this Court that the decree of said Circuit Court in this cause be and the game is hereby reversed and annulled; and this Court doth farther find, adjudge and decree:
“1. That under the resolution of the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, holden at the city of New York, according to the usage and discipline of said Church, passed on the eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-four (in the pleadings mentioned), it was, among other things, and in virtue of the power of said General Conference, well agreed and determined by the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America, as then existing, that in case the Annual Conferences in the slaveholding States should find it necessary to unite in a distinct ecclesiastical connection, the ministers, local and traveling, of every grade and office in the Methodist Episcopal Church, might attach themselves to such new ecclesiastical connection without blame.
“2. That the said Annual Conferences in the slaveholding States did find and determine that it was right, expedient and necessary to erect the Annual Conferenceslast aforesaid into a distinct ecclesiastical connection, based upon the discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church aforesaid, comprehending the doctrines and entire moral and ecclesiastical rules and regulations of the said discipline (except only in so far as verbal alterations might be necessary to or for a distinct organization), which new ecclesiastical connection was to be known by the name and style of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and that the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was duly organized under said resolutions of the said Annual Conferences last aforesaid, in a convention thereof held at Louisville, in the State of Kentucky, in the month of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
That by force of the said resolutions of June the eighth, eighteen hundred and forty-four, and of the authority and power of the said General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as then existing, by which the same were adopted; and by virtue of the said finding and determination of the said Animal Conferences in the slaveholding States therein mentioned, and by virtue of the organization of such Conferences into a distinct ecclesiastical connection as last aforesaid,the religious association known as the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America, as then existing, was divided into two associations, or distinct Methodist Episcopal Churches, as in the bill of complaint is alleged.
That the property denominated the Methodist Book Concern at Cincinnati, in the pleadings mentioned, was, at the time of said division and immediately before, a fund subject to the following use, that is to say, that the profits arising therefrom, after retaininga sufficient capital to carry on the business thereof, were to be regularly applied toward the support of the deficient traveling, supernumerary, superannuated and worn-out preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, their wives, widows and children, according to the rules and Discipline of said church, and that the said fund and property are held under the act of incorporation in the said answer mentioned by the said defendants, Leroy Swormstedt and John H. Power, as agents of said Book Concern, and in trust for the purposes thereof.
“5. That, in virtue of the said division of said Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, the deficient, traveling, supernumerary, superannuated and worn-out preachers, their wives, widows and children comprehended in, or in connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, were, are, and continue to be, beneficiaries of the said Book Concern to the same extent and as fully as if the said division had not taken place, and in the same manner and degree as persons of the same description who are comprehended in, or in connection with, the other association, denominated, since the division, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and that as well the principal as the profits of said Book Concern, since said division, should of right be administered and managed by the respective General and Annual Conferences of the said two associations and Churches under the separate organizations thereof, and according to the shares or proportions of the same as hereinafter mentioned, and in conformity with the rules and Discipline of said respective associations, so as to carry out the purposes and trusts aforesaid.
“6. That so much of the capital and property of said Book Concern at Cincinnati, wherever situated, and so much of the produce and profits thereof as may not have been heretofore accounted for to said Church, South, in the New York case hereinafter mentioned, or otherwise, shall be paid to said Church, South, according to the rate and proportions following, that is to say: In respect to the capital, such share or part as corresponds with the proportion which the number of the traveling preachers in the Annual Conferences which formed themselves into the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, bore to the number of all the traveling preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church before the division thereof, which numbers shall be fixed and ascertained as they are shown by the minutes of the several Annual Conferences next preceding the said division and new organization in the month of May, A. D. eighteen hundred and forty-five.
“And in respect to the produce and profits, such share or part as the number of Annual Conferences which formed themselves into the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, bore at the time of said division in May, A. D. 1845, to the whole number of Annual Conferences then being in the Methodist Episcopal Church, excluding the Liberia Conference, so that the division or apportionment of said produce and profits shall be had by Conferences, and not by numbers of the traveling preachers.
“7. That said payment of capital and profits, according to the ratios of appointment so declared, shall be made and paid to the said Smith, Parsons and Green, as Commissioners aforesaid, or their successors, on behalfof said Church, South, and the beneficiaries therein, or to such other person or persons as may be thereto authorized by the General Conference of said Church, South, the same to be subsequently managed and administered so as to carry out the trusts and uses aforesaid, according to the Discipline of said Church, South, and the regulations of the General Conference thereof.”