UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

vinced of the greatevil of African slavery, which
stillexistsin these United States.
Everymember of the society who sellsa slave
shall,immediately after full proof, be excluded
from the society, "c.
The Annual Conferences are directed to draw
up addresses,for the gradualemancipation of the
slaves,to the legislature. Proper committees
shall be appointedbythe Annual Conferences,out
of our friends,for the
KEY TO UNCLE TOM S CABIN. 207
whose abduction the State of Alabama had
of the most respectable
conductingof the business ; and the presiding offeredfifty thousand dollars.
elders,deacons,and travelling preachers, shall In 1840,the General Conference at Baltimore
procure as many proper signatures as possible to
passedthe resolution that we have
the addresses ; and giveall the assistancein their
power, in every respect, to aid the committees,and already quoted,forbidding preachers to allow
to further the blessed undertakingḶet this be colored persons to givetestimony in their
continued from year to year, tillthe desired end churches. It has been computedthat about
be accomplished.
eighty thousand peoplewere deprived of the
In 1836 let us notice the change.The rightof testimony by thisact. This Methodist
General Conference held its annual
Church
session
subsequently broke into a Northern
in Cincinnati, and resolvedas follows:
Resolved,By the delegates of the Annual Conferences
and the Northern Conference has stillin its
in General Conference assembled,That
they are decidedly opposedto modern abolitionism,
communion slave-holding conferences and
and wholly disclaim any right,ivish, or intention,
members.
to interferein the civiland political relation Of the Northern conferences, one of the
between master and slave,as itexistsin the slaveholding
states of this Union.
largest, the Baltimore, passed the following :
These resolutions
Resolved, That this were passedby
conferencedisclaimshaving
a very
any fellowship with abolitionism. On the contrary,
largemajority Ạn address was received while it is determined to maintain itswellknown
and long-established position, by keeping
from the WesleyanMethodist Conference in
England,affectionately remonstrating
the the travelling preacherscomposingits'ownbody
subject of freefrom
slavery.The Conference refused
slavery, it is also determined not to hold
connection with
to publish it. In the any ecclesiasticalbodythat shall
pastoral address
make non-slaveholding a condition of membership
to the churches are these passages
:
in the church ; but to stand by and maintain the
discipline
It cannot be unknown to you that the as itis.
question
of slaveryin the United States,by the constitutional
The following
compact which binds extract ismade from an address
us together as a nation,
of the
is leftto be regulated by the several state legislatures
Philadelphia Annual Conference
themselves ; and therebyisputbeyondthe to the societiesunder its care, dated Wilmington
control of the generalgovernment, as well as that
Del.,April7,1847 :
of allecclesiastical bodies ; itbeingmanifest that
a deacon or elder in the church,unless he
would give a pledgeto the church that he
would refrainfrom discussing thissubject.*
ation of its character,by circulating it,recommending
it to our people, or procuring
or
deemed
by collecting or
remitting
guilty of indiscretion, and
subscribers,
moneys, shall be
dealt with accordingly.
It willbe recollectedthatZion's Watchman
was
editedby Le Roy Sunderland, for
and Southern Conference. The Southern
Conference is avowedly all pro-slavery,
in the slave-holding states themselves the entire If the planof separation gives us the pastoral
responsibility of its existence, or non-existence, care of you, itremains to inquire whether we have
rests with those state
*
legislatures.
done anything, as a conference, men, to forfeit
* * *
These facts,which are onlymentioned here as a your confidence and affection. We are not
reason for the friendly admonition which we wish advised that even in the greatexcitement which
to giveyou, constrain us, as your pastors,who are has distressed you for some months past,any one
calledto watch over
your souls as they Inust givehas impeached our moral conduct,or charged us
account, to exhort you to abstain from all abolition with unsoundness in doctrine, or corruption
movements and associations, and to refrain from tyranny in the administration of discipline. But
patronizing any of their * *
publications, "c. we learn that the simple cause of the unhappy excitement
among you is,that some
suspectus,
The subordinateconferences showed the
affectto suspectus, of beingabolitionists. Yet
same spirit.
no particular act of the conference, or
any particular
In 1836 the New York Annual Conference
member thereof, isadduced,as the groundof
resolvedthat no one
the erroneous
should be elected
and injurious suspicionẈe would
ask you, brethren,whether the conduct of our
ministryamong you for sixt years past ought
not to be sufficientto protect us from this charge.
Whether the question we have been accustomed,
In 1838 the conferenceresolved for a few :
years past, to put to candidates for
admission among us, namely, Are you an abolitionist
As the sense of thisconference, that any of its ? and,without each one answered in the
members, or probationers, who shall patronizenegative,
he was not received, oughtnot to protect
Zion's Watchman either , by writingin commend- us from the charge.Whether the action of the
last conference on this particular matter ought
This resolution is givenin Eirney'spamphlet. not to satisfy any fairand candid mind that we are