478 History of Methodism 



according to the division of power made to them by the Constitution 

 of the Union and the constitutions of the several States, we owe and 

 delight to render a sincere and patriotic loyalty) there are several 

 which do not allow of slavery. There are others in which it is al- 

 lowed, and there are slaves ; but the tendency of the laws and the 

 minds of the majority of the people are in favor of emancipation. 

 But there are others in which slavery exists so universally, and is so 

 closely interwoven with their civil institutions, that both do the laws 

 disallow of emancipation and the great body of the people (the 

 source of law with us) hold it to be treasonable to set forth any 

 thing, by Avord or deed, tending that way. Each one of all these 

 States is independent of the rest, and sovereign with respect to its 

 internal government (as much so as if there existed no confeder- 

 ation among them for ends of common interest^, and therefore it 

 is impossible to frame a rule on slavery proper for*our people in 

 all the States alike. But our Church is extended through all the 

 States, and as it would be wrong and unscriptural to enact a rule of 

 discipline in opposition to the constitution and laws of the State, so 

 also would it not be equitable or scriptural to confound the positions 

 of our ministers and people (so different as they are in different 

 States) with respect to the moral question which slavery involves. 

 Under the administration of the venerable Dr. Coke, this plain dis- 

 tinction was once overlooked, and it was attempted to urge emanci- 

 pation in all the States; but the attempt proved almost ruinous, and 

 was soon abandoned by the Doctor himself. While therefore the 

 Church has encouraged emancipation in those States where the laws 

 permit it, and allowed the freedman to enjoy freedom, we have re- 

 frained, for conscience' sake, from all intermeddling with the subject 

 in those other States where the laws make it criminal. And such a 

 course we think agreeable to the Scriptures, and indicated by St. 

 Paul's inspired instructions to servants in his First Epistle to the 

 Corinthians, chapter vii., verses 20, 21. For if servants were not to care 

 for their servitude when they might not be free, though if they might 

 be free they should use it rather; so neither should masters be con- 

 demned for not setting them free when they might not do so, though 

 if they might they should do so rather. The question of the evil of 

 slavery, abstractly cousidered, you will readily perceive, brethren, 

 is a very different matter from a principle or rule of Church disci- 

 pline, to be executed contrary to, and in defiance of, the law of the 

 land. Methodism has always been (except perhaps in the single 

 instance above) eminently loyal and promotive of good order; and 



