THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
The report to this first conference showed the following constituency:
Traveling preachers. Local preachers White members . . . Colored members. . . Indian members ....
Total
1,519
2,833
327,284
124,961
2,972
459,569
In 1849 the Methodist Episcopal Church South entered suit, in the United States courts of New York and Ohio, for a pro rata part of the property
of the. Book Concern. That brought
2. Property in New York was decided in 1851 in
and Devel- favor of the claimants on every mate-
opment. rial point; that in Ohio was, in 1852,
decided adversely to them and the commissioners appealed to the supreme court of the United States, when the judgment was reversed by a unanimous decision. The conclusions of the court are thus stated:
" The division of the Church as originally constituted, thus became complete; and from this time two separate and distinct organizations have taken the place of the one previously existing. . . We entertain no doubt that the General Conference of 1844 was competent to make it; and that each division of the Church, under the separate organization, is just as legitimate, and can claim as high a sanction, ecclesiastical and temporal, as the Methodist Episcopal Church first founded in the United States. The authority, which founded that Church in 1784, has divided it, and established two separate and independent organizations, occupying the place of the old one. . As a division of the common property followed, as matter of law, a division of the Church organization, nothing short of an agreement or stipulation of the Church South to give up their share of it, could preclude the assertion of their right; and it is quite clear no such agreement or stipulation is to be found in the Plan of Separation."
By this decision the Methodist Episcopal Church South secured the printing-establishments in Richmond, Charleston, and Nashville. " To them were transferred the debts due from persons residing within the limits of their annual conferences, and in addition $270,000, in cash, the defendant also paying the cost nf the suit." The second general conference, held in 1850, showed an increase of 60,- 000, of which four-fifths were white. Two years before the meeting of this conference, California was ceded to the United States. The bishops, urged by southern emigrants, sent missionaries " to unfurl their banner in that distant and interesting portion of the great republic." Another large increase of membership was noted when the general conference of 1854 convened. New conferences were required, and Drs. Pierce; Early, and Kavanaugh were added to the episcopacy. The general conference of 1858, in session at Nashville, Tenn., permanently located the publishing-house, in that city. This " determined the future rank of Nashville as the ecclesiastical center of Southern Methodism." The general conference provided the organization of the Rio Grande Mission Conference, recommended the establishment of a mission in Central America, and requested the bishops and Board of Missions to organize a mission at such point in Africa as should be deemed expedient. New Orleans was chosen as the place for the conference of 1862. The historian Gross Alexander says, " Little did the delegates dream of the events and
changes that were to take place in the interval." During the war " halls were vacated, schools deserted, endowments swept away, hundreds of schools as well as churches burned or dismantled by use as hospitals, warehouses, or stables; mills destroyed, plantations and farms laid waste." " In April 1862, New Orleans was in the possession of the Federal Government, which was represented there by General Butler." Delegates were appointed, but it was impracticable to hold a conference at that time and place. Not till 1866 was a general conference held, which met in New Orleans. The Baltimore conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at the time of the separation had adhered to that church, but in 1861 a large part of it withdrew from its jurisdiction and maintained a separate existence. Now it was received into the Methodist Episcopal Church South. The statistics showed a loss of 246,044 members during the Civil War, " practically a threefold decimation." The Missionary Society of the church was $60,000 in debt, and the publishing-house practically in ruins. Of the 207,776 colored members in 1860, in the southern body, there remained at the close of the war only 48,742. Attendance upon class-meeting was made voluntary, and the rule requiring a probation of six months before membership, set aside. The pastoral term was extended from two to four years. The reconstructive spirit of this conference and the statesmanship manifested in the introduction of equal lay and clerical representation into the general conference, and a limited representation of the laity in the annual conferences, was a prophecy that the ravages of war would soon be repaired.
The government of the Methodist Episcopal Church South is still, in most respects, in agreement with that of the undivided church, but the general conference of 1870 initiated a constitutional
change of vital import, which the an-
3. Govern- nual conferences confirmed. It was,
ment and that when any rule is adopted by the
Activities, conference which, in the opinion of
the bishops, is unconstitutional, they may present their objections in writing, and if the general conference shall by a two-thirds vote adhere to its action, the rule shall take the course prescribed for altering a restrictive rule. The bishops' veto, therefore, in any case, delays the consummation for four years. In the first instance, if the conference should not by a two-thirds vote adhere to its action, it is made by the objection of the bishops null and void. Another feature of the government is that when a bishop decides a question of law in an annual conference, it controls for that time and place; but is not binding elsewhere unless the college of bishops approves it. The making of and dealing in intoxicants is treated unequivocally and laconically as follows: " If any preacher or member shall engage in the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors to be used as a beverage, let the discipline be administered as in cases of immorality." From 1845 to 1860 the church, as its members had been from the beginning, was much occupied with the instruction and conversion of the slaves. When the Civil War began, there were " 207,776 negro