484 History of Methodism 



the State Legislatures of any interference of a hurtful or insur- 

 rectionary tendency; and it was not deemed necessary to enact laws 

 to limit the right or privilege of the master to manumit his slaves 

 at will. In these circumstances our rules about slavery were com- 

 menced. Rules, of the character or tendency of which it is not my 

 purpose to speak; but which, whether good or bad, lax or severe, 

 were not begun, or for many years continued in a struggle between 

 South and North, slave States and free, but out of a common benevo- 

 lence, in States similarly circumstanced, and without contravention 

 of the laws. I cannot give date for the rise of our question of North 

 and South, but I will say again, that it must date later than the time 

 when the Northern slave-holding States were gradually and profit- 

 ably disposing of their slaves; and the Southern slave-holding 

 States, not yet apprehensive of the antagonistic interests that were 

 to arise between Northern free States and Southern slave States, were 

 comparatively indifferent about the course of things. The action of 

 the Church was not a Southern or a Northern action, but such as 

 was deemed admissible in the state of the laws where the Church 

 existed. 



It has been urged that Mr. Wesley was an Abolitionist. 



(Dr. Durbin : " I take the liberty to say that I never said that of 

 Mr. Wesley.") 



Dr. Capers: I presume you would not; and I do not think any 

 one could, on mature reflection. Mr. Wesley wrote strong things 

 against slavery. But he wrote equally strong things against repub- 

 licanism and the revolution. And yet, when these United States 

 had achieved their independence, who acted more kindly, or taught 

 more loyal lessons toward our government than Mr. Wesley ? And 

 I must say here that I am in possession of a piece of information 

 about his anti-slavery principles which perhaps other brethren do 

 not possess. The gentleman mentioned yesterday by Dr. Durbin (I 

 mean Mr. Hammett) was for some time my school-master. My fa- 

 ther was one of his first and firmest firiends and patrons, and a lead- 

 ing member of his society, first in Charleston, and afterward in 

 Georgetown, where for awhile I was his pupil. Owing to this, I 

 suppose, at the death of his only son, not many years ago, I was 

 given his correspondence with Mr. Wesley, during his residence as 

 a Wesleyan missionary in the West Indies, and afterward in Charles- 

 ton, till Mr. Wesley's death. The handwriting of Mr. Wesley is 

 unquestionable, and I state on the authority of this correspondence 

 that Mr. Wesley gave Mr. Hammett his decided countenance and 



