Attempts were made in 1800 to make the presiding fcJilership elective in the Annual Conferences, to intro- duce the English method of making the appointments by requiring them to be read in open session, " to hear what the Conference may have to say on each station," and to aid the bishop in making the appointments by a committee of preachers chosen by the Conference for the purpose ; but they signally failed, though some of them were revived in subsequent years.
3. Earli/ Emancipation Movements. — The most vexing question of those early, as well as of later times, was that of slaveri/. The Methodist preachers of those days were thoroughly hostile to the institution. At the or- ganization of the Church they pronounced it " contrary to the golden law of (iod ami the unalienable rights of mankind, as well as every principle of the Revolution ;" and their enactments required aU members holding slaves to set them free, wherever it could be legally done, and forbade all future admission of slaveholders into the Churcli or to the Lord's Supper, while all who might buy or sell slaves were " immeiliately to be expelled, un- less they buy them on purpose to free them."* Could they have looked forward a century, and seen that either tlie Gospel or the sword must solve the problem of slav- ery, these men who believed themselves divinely sent to " reform the continent," would surely, with their clear convictions on the subject, not have failed to dis- cern that it was a part of their mission to destroy the great crime of the nation, and they would doubtless have maintained the high ground they had so firmly taken. But they compromised with the evil because of the great embarrassments attending the execution of their rules, which in six months were suspended, never again to be enforced. Yet the Clnirch was always anti-slavery. Its preachers, holding " the power of the keys," effected the liberation of thousands of slaves kept by those who sought admission into its fold. The Discipline never ceased to pronounce a condemnation upon the system ; and, from 1804, it perpetually aslvcd, " What shall be done for the extirpation of the evil of sla^'ery V" while successive General Conferences sought by legislation, addresses to the Church, and measures for memorials to the state Legislatures, to remove and abolish it.
4. Completed Organization. — The absences of Dr. Coke in Europe rendering an additional bishop necessary, Richard Whatcoat was elected to that office in 1800, as was William M'Kendree in 1808, the first native Amer- ican elevated to the episcopate.
The latter year is the epoch of the plan of a delegated General Conference, adopted to "preserve, strengthen, and perpetuate the union of the connection," and to render " the doctrine, form of government, and General Rules, sacred and inviolable." The " Council" devised by the bishops, composed of themselves and the presid- ing elders, had proved abortive after two trials, and the General Conference, as then constituted, practically placed the doctrinal and administrative systems of the denomination in the power of the more centrally located ministers. The new plan was conservative of every fundamental principle of the Church, and at the same
*The General Rule on Shivery certainly existed iu May, 17S7, and was pruhablti written by Wetiley, broufrht over by Coke, and adopted bv the Christmas Conference. El- liott so holds witliout the "probablv." Neither Articles nor Rules weie luiiited in the Discipline till ITSO, nor the Articles till ITim. In 17^:9 was issued the "fifth edition" of the "Discipline," "considered and approved" iu li84. That, of]T!)2 was "refWfif and approved." But the edition of ITS'.) has the Rule mi Slavery with Wesley's rules, and is dated "May 27,1787." In 1785 Asbury and Dickens changed "the order and arranirenient" of the Discipline. April 25, 17SG, Asbury read it in manuscrijit arranged In "sections ;" but it was not published till IMay, liSi, when it had received the sanction of Coke, who had been absent from June, 17S5, to March. 17S7.
METHODIST EPISC, CHURCPI 174 METHODIST EPISC. CHURCH
time gave to the remotest Conference equal power with | the most central, in proportion to its number of minis- ters. The first session, held in 1812, was composed of , 90 members, representing G88 preachers, and a member- [ ship of 195,357; the sixteenth, held in 1872, was com- I posed of 421 members, 292 clerical and 129 lay, repre- senting, according to the Jlinutcs of 1871, 9G99 travel- ling preachers, 11,382 local preachers, and 1,421,323 members and probationers. Taking a fresh departure with the adoption of this measure, the Church pressed forwards in its practical work with added zeal.
5. J)enominulionul Insliiutions. — The Book Concern, already (in 1804) removed from Philadelphia to New York, multiplied its publications, and scattered a vigor- ous Jlethodist literature through the circuits by the agency of the preachers. They were too busy to make books, but they could sell them, and thus educate a peo- ple trained in the truth as they received it. In 1818 the Methodist Mtirjazine was started — the beginning of the periodical literature of the denomination. It is now known as the Mct/iodist Qiutrterly Rcrieir, one of the ablest of the (luartcrlios, with tlie largest circulation of all. The first weekly, Tim < 'hrisliiin .1 dcocate, was is- sued in 182(), thougli /.ion'.-; Ih nihl. under the auspices of New Euglanti Meljiiidists, ]ircc(ilt'd it nearly four years, and in its second lialf-century it is full of beauty and jiower. A second luiblisliiim-house was established in 1820 in Cincinnati ; and depositories are located in several of the principal cities of the country. The in- crease of the business led in 1833 to a removal from Crosby Street, in New York, where it had been carried on for nine years, to Mulberry Street. The whole es- tablishment was swe[)t away by fire early in 1836, at a loss of at least a quarter of a million. New and better buildings soon rose on the same spot, which, with their subsequent additions, have been used as a manufactory of the house since the date of the removal of the princi- pal t)ffice to its present location (805 Broadway), pro- cured for it and the ISlissionary Society at the cost of about a million dollars. Its entire capital in 1873 was $1,052,448. There is also a " Western Methodist Book Concern," with a capital of S!4(J7,419.