178 



CIVIL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Part II. 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES. 



CONFE.IENCES. 



GENERAL CONVENTION. 



perliaps all of them, have stipulated in 

 their constitutions, that, when a labor is 

 prosecuted against a pastor or brother, a 

 mutual council shall be granted by the 

 church, if requested by the respondent, 

 before proceeding to final action. They 

 generally require that a majority of every 

 council shall belong to the consociation 

 in which it is called. There was originally 

 but one consociation on the west side of 

 the Green Mountains. This has been di- 

 vided and subdivided as the churches have 

 become more numerous till the number 

 amounts to five. Their bounds in some 

 instances are county lines. 



The following is a list of such conso- 

 ci<ations, with the time of their organiza- 

 tion : Rutland, including Bennington 

 county, January 6, 17'J7 ; Addison from 

 Rutland, June 13, 1804; Northwestern 

 from Addison, June 14, 180S; Chitten- 

 den from Northwestern, July 4, 182d; 

 Lamoille, October 27, 1840. A consocia- 

 tion was formed in Windham county, Oc- 

 tober 3, 17it7, which has never been con- 

 nected with those above mentioned. 



In several counties, in which are no 

 consociations, county conferences are or- 

 ganized, which possess some of the fea- 

 tures of consociations, and become to a 

 considerable extent a bond of union among 

 the churches. At their annual meetings, 

 like the consociations, they i-eport on the 

 state of religion and endeavor to give a 

 spring to the operations of benevolence. 

 Organization of county conferences : 

 Orange, October .'S, 1830; Caledonia, Oc- 

 tober 23, 1834 ; Windsor, September 17, 

 1840 ; Washington, November 29, 1837, 



Previous to 1795, three ministerial asso- 

 ciations had been formed. But there was 

 no bond of union betv;een them. Nor 

 was there any organized body to consult 

 for the general interests of the churches 

 now extensively scattered through the 

 state. An overture was made by the Roy- 

 alton association to the other two bodies, 

 which resulted, as the following extracts 

 will shew : 



"At a meeting of delegates from the 

 several bodies of ministers in the state of 

 Vermont convened l)y circular letters, at 

 the house of president John Wheelock, 

 August27, 1795, were present Rev. Messrs. 

 Job Swift, Samuel Whiting, Lyman Pot- 

 ter, Asa Burton and Martin TuUar. Mr. 

 Whiting was chosen moderator, and Mr. 

 Tullar scribe. It was unanimously agreed 

 that there be in future a general conven- 

 tion of ministers in the state of Vermont, 

 and that all associations and presbyteries 

 composed of ministers regularly intro- 

 duced shall be allowed to send two dele- 

 gates to said convention ; and in any coun- 



ty in the state, where there shall not be 

 more than one regular minister, he shali 

 for the present be entitled to a seat in the 

 convention. It was declared the general 

 object and design of the convention to 

 consult union and friendship among min- 

 isters, and the general interest and well 

 being of the churches. They agreed that 

 the first meeting of said convention shall 

 be on the third Tuesday of June next, at 

 evening, at tlie house of Mr. Whiting of 

 Rockingham, and that the preacher be ap- 

 pointed by the Royalton association." 



The first meeting was held in 1796 as 

 proposed, and a leading object of the con- 

 vention appears to have been the union of 

 the churches in consociations, and of the 

 ministers in associations. Their advice 

 was generally followed, except as it re- 

 spected the churches on the east side of 

 the mountain and north of Windham 

 county. These have never been conso- 

 ciated. Within ten years, however, most 

 of them have become united in county 

 conferences, which secure most of the 

 advantages, and, in their estimation, doubt- 

 less all the advantages of consociations. 

 Before the organization of the convention, 

 some churches suffered extremely by the 

 labors of ministers, who had come into the 

 state because they had been repudiated 

 elsewhere. The convention at an early 

 period appointed a committee to certify 

 the regular standing of ministers coming 

 into this state or going from it. They 

 thus, over all the churches that would 

 take the trouble to inquire, cast the 'segis 

 of protection.' 



Though the convention never claimed 

 any ecclesiastical authority, from time to 

 time they devised means or recommended 

 measures to awaken an interest or pro- 

 mote the welfare of the churches. In 

 1807, they commenced acting as a mis- 

 sionary society. This society, afterwards 

 modified, but always called the Vermont 

 missionary society, depended for funds on 

 the voluntary contributions of t'le church- 

 es, and continued to aid the destitute por- 

 tions of the state, till 1818, when its opera- 

 tions were suspended to' give place to the 

 Vermont juvenile missionary, now the 

 Vermont domestic missionary society, of 

 which the convention are now rx officiis 

 members. This society annually appoint 

 a board of directors, who receive the vol- 

 untary offeriiigs of the communty to the 

 amount of about two or three thovisand 

 dollars annually. This sum is expended in 

 grants generally of from fifty to one hun- 

 dred dollars, appropriated to aid the feeble 

 churches. 



' The convention in 1808 secured the or- 

 ganization of a tract society, which print- 



