METHODISTS. 



515 







And wfiereas, Said publishing-house is the property 

 of the Methodist Episcopal Church South a legiti- 

 mately organized ecclesiastical organization, and re- 

 cognized as such by the laws and courts of the United 

 States ; 



And whereat, It is the duty of said Church to re- 

 spond to said information ; and as the regular Gen- 

 eral Conference of said Church (owing to the existing 

 agitations of the country) cannot be held according 

 to the laws of the Church; 



And whereas, We, delegates in convention assem- 

 bled, and representing loyal members of several An- 

 nual Conferences of said Church, are, as such dele- 

 gates, fully empowered (in view of the disability re- 

 ferred to)," and do hereby, in the name of and for the 

 loyal members of Annual Conferences of said Meth- 

 odist Episcopal Church South, assert their right to, 

 and claim the possession and administration of, said 

 property for the purposes of the original foundation 

 of said charity ; therefore, 



Eesohed, That P. M. Pinckard, C. B. Parsons, and 

 S. D. Baldwin be, and they are hereby, appointed a 

 Board of Commissioners, with full power and author- 

 ity to assert the rights of the Church in this behalf, 

 and to do all things that may be necessary and prop- 

 er to be done to effect the same, and to continue in 

 the exercise of this power until a meeting of the Gen- 

 eral Conference may direct otherwise. 



The Convention also adopted the following 

 resolutions with regard to an order of the Sec- 

 retary of War, authorizing the Methodist Epis- 

 copal Church to take possession of churches 

 belonging to the Southern Church : 



Whereas, Under an order issued by the Secretary 

 of War, the authorities of another ecclesiastical body, 

 distinct from, if not antagonistic to, the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church South, "have been empowered to 

 take possession of the houses of worship belonging 

 4o said Church; 



Ah I 'Ve are informed and believe that 



said order does not meet the approval of the Presi- 

 dent of the United States; and further believing that, 

 in the judgment and enlightened Christian feeling 

 both of the officers of the army and many sober- 

 minded Christians, the order is regarded as unjust, 

 unnecessary, and subversive alike of good order and 

 the rights of a numerous body of Christians ; there- 

 fore, 



lce.d, That we do most respectfully protest 

 aijainst the execution of said order, and request the 

 President to restrain and prevent its enforcement. 



Jksohed, That the secretary be requested to trans- 

 mit a copy of the foregoing to the President and At- 

 torney-General. 



Bishop Kavanagh, one of the Bishops of the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church South, paid in June 

 a visit to the Pacific Conference of the Church 

 in California, and while in San Francisco was 

 arrested on the charge of disloyalty. As the 

 charge could not be proved, and* as the Bishop 

 declared his readiness to take the oath of alle- 

 giance, he was at once discharged. The Bishop 

 informed General McDowell, the commanding 

 general in California, that he, the Bishop, 

 advised that the designation " South " in 

 the official name of the Church be dropped. 

 From Missouri, it was reported that the mem- 

 bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, 

 were in the habit of dropping the word " South " 

 in their official designation. The Kentucky 

 Conference of the Southern Methodist Church, 

 which met at Maysville, Sept. 7, passed a report 

 on the state of the Church, asserting its inde- 

 pendence of the other Conferences of the Church 



South, disavowing its complicity with the reso- 

 lutions of other conferences or the rulings of 

 the Bishops, and reasserting its loyalty to the 

 Government of the United States. The Con- 

 ference also took the necessary steps to organize 

 itself as a corporate body, under the laws of the 

 State of Kentucky. The Southern Methodist 

 churches within the Federal lines had, at the 

 close of 1864, not a single denominational organ : 

 the Sentinel, a new paper which had been start- 

 ed in St. Louis, in the earlier part of the year 

 1864, being soon again discontinued. 



There are in the free and border States of 

 the Union two organizations of African Method- 

 ists, denominated the African Methodist Epis- 

 copal, and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion 

 churches. The membership of the former was 

 estimated, in 1860, at about 20,000; that of 

 the second at about 6,000. The war greatly 

 added to the membership of these two de- 

 nominations, for a large number of former 

 slaves, having become freemen, left the South- 

 ern Methodist Church, in order to join either 

 the Methodist Episcopal Church, or one 

 of the two African Methodist churches. In 

 consequence of this, the African Methodist Epis- 

 copal Church, at its Quadrennial General Con- 

 ference, held in Philadelphia, in May. 1864, was 

 able to announce that its membership had in- 

 creased from 20,000 to 50,000, and the Zion 

 Church reported for North Carolina, alone, an 

 increase of 2,000 members. The former re- 

 ported the number attending its congregations 

 as 300,000, and the number of children in its 

 Sunday schools as 100,000. The two churches 

 are annexing congregations in each of the re- 

 covered slave States, and Bishop Campbell, of 

 the African Methodist Church, is about to make 

 his residence in Xew Orleans. Both bodies, at 

 their General Conferences, discussed the expe- 

 diency of forming a fusion, and strongly de- 

 clared themselves in favor of it. A joint con- 

 vention of fifty delegates, of the two organiza- 

 tions (25 from each), which met at Philadelphia 

 on the 14th of June to consider the terms upon 

 which the two bodies could unite, had a pleasant 

 and harmonious session, and adjourned on the 

 16th. The "Christian Recorder" says that 

 they " ratified all their doings, and have arranged 

 it so that union is certain. All appeared to be 

 in the best of humor. The Bishops and su- 

 perintendents spoke very satisfactorily before 

 we closed, and all things went on wisely. We 

 may consider ourselves one, in a manner. "We 

 have four years to mature the whole plan in, so 

 that everybody will be satisfied." 



The General Conference of the American 

 Wesleyan Methodist Church met at Adrian, 

 Mich., on June 1. The members of this Church 

 showed themselves very favorable to a union of 

 the different branches of Reformed Methodists. 

 The Miama Conference appointed a committee 

 to correspond with similar committees from 

 other bodies, to agree upon a tune for holding a 

 convention for consultation. 



The Western Virginia Conference of the 



