Methodst Hstory, 24:2 (January 1986) CHURCH UNON DALOGUE N THE COME-OUTER TRADTON: WESLEYAN METHODSTS AND METHODST PROTESTANTS \; 1858-1867 WLLAM H BRACKNEY ;,: ~ ~ : " ~!~ :t~ ~!fl;,,tjf ~ lj[ :J ~ }5:" l~! ~ ~ lrt~ ~ ;ar,; h:t: ~ ;[; J ;r " ~ - ~~- -~-) n the wake of both the 1939 and 1968 reunons Methodsts, and later Unted Methodsts, felt a hgh degree of satsfacton about the regatherng of the greater part of the Amercan Methodst famly What lay behnd the untng conferences at Kansas Cty and Dallas were long perods of dscusson and debate whch eventuated n a trumph of hstorcal conscousness over sectaran dstnctves 1 n the offcal statements of present Unted Methodsm, we read much about those two events because each had a postve concluson; 2 what about the numerous dalogues toward unon whch have not succeeded, but whch have helped to dentfy other members n the Methodst famly? Ths paper s an attempt to recover part of the Methodst hertage n the "come-outer" tradton, one branch of whch s stll a dstnct group, whle the other s part of Unted Methodsm 3 Wesleyan Methodsts and Methodst Protestants learned much about themselves and ther hstorc dstnctveness (whch each mght have taken for granted otherwse) durng the eght years of unon negotatons Each member of the dalogue was forced to analyze the hertage, evoluton, strengths, and weaknesses of the respectve groups and ether make that poston adaptable to the 1 For a scholarly treatment, consult Frederck Masers essay, "The Story of Unfcaton 1874-1939" n Emory S Bucke, edtor, The Hstory of Amercan Methodsm, 3 vols (New York: Abngdon Press, 1964), Vol, pp 407-78 where the wrter concludes on a "trumphal note A journalst evaluated the 1939 unon as "a satsfyng and unfyng church order among three bodes wth a metculous attenton to detal" n "The Methodst Church," Chrstan Century, 24 May 1939, p 664 2See, for example, the dscussons of the EUB merger n The Book of Dscplne of The Unted Methodst Church, 1976 (Nashvlle: Unted Methodst Publshng House, 1976), pp 40-53, and Nolan B Harmon, Understandng The Unted Methodst Church (New York: Abngdon Press, 1977), pp 19-23 3The Methodst Protestant Church unted n 1939 wth the northern and southern branches of the Methodst Epscopal Church to form "The Methodst Church" The Wesleyan Methodst Church unted n 1968 wth the Plgrm Holness Churches and the Reformed Baptst Churches of Canada to form the Wesleyan Church A proposed merger n 1972 would have unted the Wesleyans wth the Free Methodst Church, but Wesleyan annual conferences rejected the proposal 82 \~ l f! 1-,, r tt t ~ ~~ 1~ ~ l o t :
f Church Unon Dalogue n the Come-Outer Tradton 83 possbltes of ncreased nterrelatonshps or clarfy and reassert the ponts upon whch there was no compromse The generally postve and searchng dscussons ~whch occurred between the Wesleyans and the Protestants between 1858 and 1867 ponted to the possblty that the two great reformng branches of Methodsm mght form a unted, non-epscopal Methodst body The dalogue was launched n conference sessons, offcal unon commttees, nsttutons, the relgous press and, of course, between local churches 4 After two quadrenna of consderaton, the talks broke off and ended n frendly falure More than the resultant falure, the dalogue s nstructve about the larger development and meanng of nneteenth century Methodsm The Frst Phase: Begnnng of Cooperaton A multplcty of Methodst sects s obvously not necessary nor desrable n ths country Ther dfferences are about such secondary questons, ther agreement s so thorough on all fundamental matters, that the common sense of the publc mnd spontaneously refuses to recognze any necessty for dvson or dscord among them A great waste of energy could be saved by ther consoldaton 5 Most Methodsts n 1858 would not have agreed wth the perceptve Abel Stevens, author of the above quoted challenge, to unte the many branches of Methodsm aganst a background of sectonal rft and extreme moral suason ndeed, the two larger reformng bodes had expressed lttle or no nterest n merger up through the early 1850s; as a Wesleyan wrter put t, "t s dffcult to ascertan exactly where a common lne s to be found, nto whch we can all fall and march and move on together to common vctores" 6 Yet, the tde turned and by md-1858, Methodst Protestants and Wesleyan Methodsts had found a common lne and were dscussng possbltes of cooperaton The Protestants and the Wesleyans were both reformer sects The former groups had "come out" of the Methodst Epscopal Church, they clamed only after expulson Followng more than thrty years of struggle for lay representaton and "mutual rghts," Methodst Protestantsm as a church was born 22 November 1830 at St Johns Church n Baltmore, Maryland By 1858, them P s clamed about 20,000 members n thrtyone conferences, wth the vast majorty of the membershp n the regon 4 am greatly ndebted to Roland Krcher, Lbraran at Wesley Theologcal Semnary n Washngton DC, for hs generous assstance n locatng orgnal records and publcatons of the Methodst Protestant Church whch are deposted n the Semnary archves also receved helpful suggestons from Joyce Moore, Houghton (NY) College Lbraran, n locatng Wesleyan Church materals and from Wllam Mller of Nazarene Theologcal Semnary n Kansas Cty for provdng copes of The Amercan Wesleyan 5 Abel Stevens on "Methodst Separatons" n The Advocate and Journal, 5 May 1858 6 The WM newspaper was orgnally The True Wesleyan 1843-50, The Amercan TVesleyan 1851-1865, and fnally The Wesleyan 1865-1883 1;
,_B&Dl~U&aUBDltlllllllllllll"llB*ll"B" MM"dlll"~"lllnmlfM FE--RZF--------- : ;~, ; " J &32 UDYMUMJDDfl#"M- - - - 1_- { 84 Methodst Hstory ~ t" J between West Vrgna, Pennsylvana, and the Delmarva Pennsula 7 The Wesleyans, on the other hand; reflected a moral dscontent wthn northern Methodsm over the ssue of the contnued toleraton of slaveholdng After them E General Conference of 1836 when the Bshops advsed slence on the subject of abolton, antslave actvsts began to organze and publcly crtcze them E Church for ts stance; consequently, many of them were removed from pastoral responsbltes n several conferences Followng a call to form a Methodst Church free from slavery and epscopacy, ths second body of reformers n February 1843 organzed the Wesleyan Methodst Connecton at Andover, Massachusetts t was estmated that by 1856 there were about 20,000 Wesleyans dstrbuted n eghteen conferences from New England to llnos to the Carolnas 8 The ntal catalyst for unon dscusson came n the form of a Wesleyan Methodst General Conference nvtaton to other churches holdng the same doctrne to engage n dscussons about church unon Further, the Conference apponted a Commttee on Fraternal Relatons whch was charged wth the responsblty of openng negotatons wth nterested partes What precsely the Wesleyans had n mnd n ther acton may not be known wth certanty; however, by nference, we can gather that the thrust of ther ecumencty was aggressvely moral As one edtoral advsed, we wll meet any smlar commttee from the branches of Methodsm, or any others, and make all reasonable efforts to agree upon a common lne or march, where we can move on together to the vctores of truth 9 t s not unfar to suggest that generally Wesleyans were by ther nvtaton seekng to enlst greater numbers n ther crusade to overthrow slavery both n Methodsm and the naton at large Specfcally, there was also a cotere of Wesleyan leaders who were deeply commtted to unonsm, even beyond the moral questons The Wesleyan Commttee, led by Lucus C Matlack, proceeded to take the next step on a regonal level Followng an announcement by the Northern llnos Annual Conference of the Methodst Protestant Church w \V 0, s~ f( s; n b \1 t a ( 7 The standard hstores of the MP Church whch also detal the complcatons of sectonal rft n 1860 are Ancel H Bassett, Hstory of the Methodst Protestant Church from ts Orgn (Pttsburgh: Robson, 1882), Edward J Drnkhouse, Hstory of Methodst Reform: Synaptcal of General Methodsm 1703-1898, 2 vols (Pttsburgh: MP Publshng House, 1899), and Bucke, The Hstory of Amercan Methodsm Bassett wrote from a northern perspectve, whle Drnkhouse was afflated wth the southern wng of the MP Church before reunon The statstcs quoted were compled by Douglas R Chandler, who actually wrote the artcles n the Bucke volumes See Vol, pages 666-67 8 Arthur T Jennngs, Hstory of Amercan Wesleyan Methodsm (Syracuse: \Vesleyan Methodst Pub Assoc, 1889) and ra F MacLester, Hstory of the JVesleyan!11ethodst Church of Amerca (Syracuse: Wesleyan Methodst Pub House, 1934) The statstcs were culled from MacLester, pages 63-78 passm 9The Amercan Wesleyan, 7 July 1858
Church Unon Dalogue n the Come-Outer Tradton 85 whch denounced slavery, Matlack and hs commttee met n sprng 1858 wth a smlar Northern llnos MP commttee to dscuss the possbltes of untng the two annual conferences nto one body By September the same year, smlar regonal dscussons were beng launched among the respectve church conferences n Mchgan, Oho, New York, and Pennsylvana The Wesleyan Commttee on Fraternal Relatons thus recommended n an nterm report of 10 October 1858 that a general conventon be called to brng together all of the forces- Wesleyan and Protestantwhch favored unon 10 n the meanwhle, mportant developments were occurrng wthn the ranks of the Methodst Protestants n recognton of the growng dsaffecton of MP sn the north and west over the ssue of slavery, the northern and western conferences of the church planned a conventon at Sprngfeld, Oho to amend the consttuton of the church to rd t of all recognton of slavery On 10 November 1859 n an atmosphere of "devout mpulse to meet a crss" forty-four delegates, led by Ancel Bassett and George Wllams, revsed the Dscplne (strkng all references to slavery), strengthened the stature of the church paper The Western Methodst Protestant, planned for Pacfc Coast mssonary work, and authorzed unon conversatons wth the Wesleyans 11 Upon hearng ths news, the Wesleyan : Commttee expressed jublaton and called upon the Protestants to meet them at a full, delegate conventon the followng year to proceed wth general unon detals Followng such a conventon, t was agreed that any plan of unon would have to be approved by the several annual conferences 12 There were also practcal consderatons nvolved n the MP unonst posture From the foundng of the Wesleyan Connecton, reports had been crculated about denomnatonal competton and Methodst Protestant membershp losses "All over the North and West," opned one conference presdent, "socetes and ndvduals have left us, and sought other church relatons, rather than be n church fellowshp wth slave-holders" Some conferences lost thousands of members drectly to the Wesleyans, as n Mchgan; one-half of the Vermont Conference plus the entre Champlan (N Y) Conference transferred to the antslavery Connecton 13 At them P General Conference sessons n 1858 the northern and western wngs of the church resolved not to contnue n fellowshp wth the eastern and 10 The Amercan JVesleyan, 10 October 1858 11 Bassett, MP Hstory,p 220, recounts the struggle over antslavery n Methodst Protestantsm from an eyewtness perspectve 12 Ths turned out to be an mportant procedural dfference between the two groups Protestants would act upon unon at the General Conference level, whle Wesleyans would take the more dffcult route of the ndvdual and hghly dfferental annual conferences See MacLester, We sleyan Hstory ;, p 77 13 Bassett, MP Hstory, p 188
~ - 86 Methodst Hstory southern conferences whle they wtnessed the dssoluton of ther church n the north Although the northern Methodst Protestants expressed a good deal of prde n ther lberated dentty n 1858, many lke Ancel Bassett recognzed that the present course of acton had only forestalled otherwse tragc results 14 The Wesleyans were less enthusastc and began n early 1859 to dvde nto two camps on the matter Very much n favor of a unon wth the M P s were several of the rankng leaders of the group: Luther Lee, Lucus Matlack, Leroy Sunderland, and Cyrus Prndle Each n ths group had been part of the Methodst Epscopal tradton pror to jonng the forces of Orange Scott n 1843, and none had any pror connectons wth Methodst Protestantsm Further, each was connected wth lterary or educatonal pursuts and was respected for hs ntellectual abltes Fnally, each was located n a regon where unon sentment was strong, and postve contacts had been made wth the Protestants 15 A second group, somewhat less well-defned, expressed opposton to unon at the local church and annual conference levels A great fear among them was loss of tnerancy to a congregatonal style of polty Snce most Wesleyan churches were rural and lacked great resources, t was mportant to mantan changng pastoral assgnments and crcut arrangements Stll others opposed unon on the grounds that a merger would destroy the publc confdence n the purposes of the Connecton and thus jeopardze the struggle aganst slavery Thrd, much Wesleyan opposton came from areas of the church where the membershp was su geners, that s, n Oho, western Pennsylvana, and New York, and the Carolnas where Wesleyansm had evolved wth fewer transfers from Methodst Protestantsm or any other sect 16 n these areas there was a deep sense of prde and ownershp n the name and the Connecton Apparently, Matlack, Lee and Prndle beleved the key to success of the unon proposals was postve publcty Matlack vsted most annual C( S( a1 c1 Sl g p u \ t r 14 Bassett, MP Hstory, p 190 ~ : 1 5 For basc vocatonal data on these ndvduals, see my artcle, "The Fruts of a Crusade: Wesleyan Opposton to Secret Socetes," Methodst Hstory, XV, No4 (July 1979), pp 239-52 Luther Lee taught phlosophy and theology at Adran College n Mchgan, Lucus Matlack taught and presded brefly over Wheaton (ll) College; both joned Leroy Sunderland and Cyrus Prndle n edtng the denomnatonal newspaper Ther orgnal Vlesleyan conferences were as follows: Lee- Mchgan, Matlack- llnos, Sunderland- Oho, and Prndle -New York 16 n one western secton of New York and Pennsylvana, Wesleyan Methodst work had grown strong from basc evangelsm and church plantng conducted n remote hamlets whch, other groups had neglected Church development n North Carolna was the drect result of domestc mssonary labor n the 1840s as the General Conference commssoned young preachers lke Adam Crooks to tnerate n the South (Durng the \Var, these assocatons remaned loyal to the Unon) See Elzabeth W Crooks, L1fe of Adam Crooks, AA f (Syracuse: Wesleyan Methodst Publshng Co, 1975), pp 115-17
Church Unon Dalogue n the Come-Outer Tradton 87 f conference meetngs n 1858-59, Lee wrote extensve artcles on the secret socety queston (whch dsturbed many n New York and Pennsylvana) and Prndle valantly defended the prospects of unon as edtor of the church paper Matlack probably absorbed more crtcsm than the others snce he was actvely advocatng the plan at publc gatherngs of both groups throughout 1858 and 1859 Hs most vocal crtcs were n W stetn Pennsylvana and Oho where he was accused of "beggng for unon" and wantng to jon hs church to another "at any cost 17 The frst general and formal meetngs between the MP s and the Wesleyans were held at the Frst Methodst Protestant Church n Pttsburgh, Pennsylvana, 18-20 February 1859 The Commttee of Conference, as t was called, brought together the two great spokesmen for unon, Ancel Bassett of the Protestants and Cyrus Prndle of the Wesleyans, who acheved a remarkable degree of unanmty n the jont plan they proposed Among ts provsons, the plan recommended combned efforts n revvals and quarterly meetngs, encouragement to nonresdent members to unte wth the geographcally closest church, fllng of vacant charges by the mnstry of the other church, and an exchange of fraternal delegates at regonal gatherngs of each tradton Fnally, and as an ultmate symbol of unty, a jont hymnal was proposed for publcaton n 1860 At the close of the Commttee sessons, t was decded to refer the plan to the respectve General Conferences whch were scheduled for 1860 18 The report from the jont meetngs at Pttsburgh met wth mxed results n the sx annual conference meetngs among Wesleyans n the sprng of 1859, there was unanmous support for "cooperaton" and contnued dscusson Observers noted, however, that small mnortes of opposton were qute vocal and ntended to fght what they thought to be "too quck a plan" Although an llnos Wesleyan pastor advocated the hew name "Unted Methodst Brethren," others to the east strongly ntoned the secret socety ssue as a pont upon whch there could be no compromse Further, the Book Agent of the Connecton reported that he could not recommend the new hymnal wthout the consent of the General Conference19 n response to Wesleyan backpeddlng, the Protestants recognzed that haste could jeopardze completely the overall plan and, therefore, delberated at ther 1860 and 1862 Conventons upon matters of fnance and educaton n 1860 plans were lad to expand the Book Concern and to hre Ancel Bassett as the permanent edtor; n 1862 concern ~ 17 The Amercan Wesleyan, 13 July 1859 18 A frsthand account of the Conference Commttee sessons s n Bassett, MP Hstory, pp 225-27 For detals on George Brown, MP General Conference Presdent and an ardent unonst who compled the hymnal, see George Brown, Recollectons of tnerant Lfe: ncludng Early Remnscences (Cncnnat: R W Carroll, 1866), esp pp 440-42 19 Bassett, M P Hstory, p 228
j 88 Methodst Hstory for collegate educaton domnated the dscussons, along wth flaggng recepts due to the general upheaval caused by cvl and mltary strfe n much of the Protestants terrtory 20 Most agreed wth Cyrus Prndle when he declared after canvassng hs consttuency, that "unon cannot be effected at present," n large measure due to the greater poltcal and moral!, ssues of the day 21 Thus, the frst phase of the unon dalogues ended wth the burden for contnuaton beng placed upon local and regonal cooperatve plans and nsttutons The Second Phase: A Unon of all Epscopal Methodsts ~ Let us remember the occason for these several secessons from our Church The Wesleyans left us because we were not antslavery enough; surely that s a dffculty no more The Protestants left us chefly because we had no lay representaton; but lay representaton s the manfest destny of our church the Free Methodst Church was a secesson on the ground that we had lost the fervor and smplcty of old Methodsm The ndependent Churches have generally grown out of local dffcultes and prmtve Methodsm would readly yeld to the gentle pressure We say, therefore, that we wll rejoce n the unon of non-epscopal Methodsm, for t s at least a step toward the unon of all Amercan Methodsm 22 As presumptuous as ths Methodst Epscopal edtoral sounds n the ears of the "come-outer tradton" t was not far from true n the mnds of some non-epscopal Methodsts followng the Cvl War Several Methodst hstores treat ths era as preemnently one of unon ~scussons because mportant communcatons were passed among the varous branches of Methodsm llustratve of ths trend, the two dvsons of Epscopal Methodsm unoffcally reopened talks, both branches of the Methodst Protestant Church dscussed jonng the regonally respectve branches of the ME Church, the Wesleyans corresponded wth the Unted Brethren, and fnally the dalogue between the Wesleyans and the Protestants entered a new phase whch would nvolve Free, ndependent and Prmtve Methodsts toward a possble non-epscopal Methodst Church Thus Methodsm n general would enjoy at least a bref perod of unprecedented famly good wll as the War between the States concluded Just as Cyrus Prndle pronounced n 1859 that unon was not yet possble between the Wesleyans and Protestants, another stage of seemngly postve relatonshps between them was evolvng n a Mchgan college, 20 Drnkhouse, Methodst Reform, Vol, pp 443-46, 450-54 21 The Amercan Wesleyan, 18 May 1859 22 Edtoral, "Non-Epscopal Methodsts" n The A1ethodst Protestant, 22 July 1865, n whch a commentary on the ME Church resoluton was presented as quoted from M E sources The Methodst Protestant, publshed at Baltmore, was the offcal denomnatonal paper for the Eastern and Southern Conferences The Western Methodst Protestant, edted by Ancel Bassett, served the same purpose for the Northern and \Vestern Conferences Fe\v ssues of the latter are known to exst "
Church Unon Dalogue n the Come-Outer Tradton 89 1 e y h d ll,, e s ll S S f e e e t t ~! Upon nvtaton from local townspeople n 1852, Wesleyan Methodsts founded Adran College and agreed to rase a substantal sum for ts endowment Although the college program moved ahead as planned, the fnancal stuaton remaned bleak; thus, n 1860 the college trustees (who were aware of the unon dscusson) requested assstance from the Methodst Protestants who were themselves searchng for a prme collegate locaton 23 The MPs responded by organzng a voluntary educatonal assocaton whch successfully oversubscrbed the endowment and ensured the future of the college Several MP trustees were added to the Board and a promnent natural scentst, also a Protestant, joned the faculty 24 Although by 1864 the college was judged to be solvent, the Wesleyan General Conference whch met that year n Adran expressed no great fondness for the merger plans, some delegates belevng that ther school had been stolen by the Protestants 25 What could have been a prototype of general unon eventuated nto a negatve catalyst whch strred up btter feelngs aganst any unon n the upper Great Lakes regon Followng a prelmnary conventon of non-epscopal Methodsts n Cleveland n June 1865 n whch Cyrus Prndle and Lucus Matlack were the prncpal actors, 26 the culmnaton of unon efforts came n the seven day meetngs at Cncnnat, 9-16 May 1866 As planned, the partes nvolved were the Methodst Protestants, Wesleyan Methodsts, ndependent Methodsts, and observers from varous other Methodst-related groups; numercally, the breakdown was as follows: Protestants, 138; Wesleyans, 38; ndependents, 6 27 n the perod between the Cleveland and Cncnnat Conventons, Hram Mattson, the leader of the ndependent Methodsts, had wthdrawn from the plans to rejon the Methodst Epscopal Church and B T Roberts of the Free Methodsts declned to jon the Cncnnat delegates for fear that the epscopacy would be restored eventually to the unted church 28 After all of the congenal woohg of 23 There are three offcal accounts of the Adran College saga, each wth obvous bases Compare MacLester, Wesleyan Hstory, pp 229-31, wth Bassett, MP Hstory, pp 238-39, wth The fvesleyan, 28 March and 18 Aprl 1866 wheren a complete account of the Trustee resolutons s prnted 24 Bassett, MP Hstory, p 239 The scentst (also an MP), John Kost, agreed to donate hs extensve natural hstory collecton to the school on the provso that unon wth the Protestants be permanent 25 Jennngs, Amercan Wes/eyansm, p 101 26 0n the Cleveland meetng, see Drnkhouse, Methodst Reform, Vol, p 463; The Amercan Wesleyan, 26 May 1866; The Methodst Protestant, 8 July 1865 27 Drnkhouse, Methodst Reform, Vol, pp 472-80, contans a dgest of the Cncnnat Conventon proceedngs whch he edted from orgnal manuscrpts, long snce lost 28 Hram Mattson (1811-68) who had been a well-known fgure among Methodst aboltonsts n New York Cty, surprsed everyone wth hs return to them E Church Predctably, Roberts stll vvdly recalled the lay preacher-epscopal struggles n New York whch had led to hs own separaton Hs vews on the present controversy may be found n an edtoral n The Methodst Protestant, 28 October 1865, wheren he compared the "come-outer" to "Lllputans" n the face of the "gant" Epscopals
r;;, ~- ~ J t ;, ~~",,;! ;; u :, 90 Methodst Hstory several other groups, the Protestants and Wesleyans consttuted the actual proceedngs Durng the week of meetngs, papers were read on several relevant subjects ncludng the cvl state of the naton, membershp n secret socetes, the makngs of a General Conference and a Dscplne One observer recalled that snce the Methodst Protestants outnumbered the Wesleyans, the Protestant artcles of fath bascally served as the foundaton of most dscussons of theology and polty 29 Ths would help to explan why t was the Wesleyans who debated most vocally the ssues where there seemed to be most marked devaton from ther own poston whle the Protestants were slent n the records On the ssue of secret socetes, the delegates resolved to leave the matter up to the ndvdual churches; t was further agreed not to vote by denomnatons on the Bass of Unon tself, and fnally, the name whch the Wesleyans proposed-a Unted Methodst Church-was defeated by the smple ttle, "Methodst Church" Commttees were set up to mplement the Unon n the respectve exstng General Conferences, to call the frst Untng Conference, to wrte a Dscplne, to nvte the partcpaton of the Prmtve Methodsts, the Unted Brethren and the Evangelcal Assocaton, and to correspond wth leaders of the ME Church concernng the Centenary of Amercan Methodsm 30 The Conventon concluded n all ~opes of ratfcaton by the Methodst Protestant General Conference and the several annual conferences of the Wesleyan Connecton When news of the merger plans reached the trustees of Adran College, they responded by arrangng for a fuller relatonshp wth the new ecclesastcal structure, thereby commttng the college to the proposals The basc reason for the seemngly premature acton of the trusteees was the acton of the Methodst Protestant Educatonal Assocaton n agreeng to support the school as ts prmary educatonal venture Although the promnent Adran faculty member, Luther Lee (a Wesleyan), worked hard to dspel the erroneous rumors crculatng about the role of the college to the MP s, Mchgan Wesleyans held an ad hoc meetng at Egypt, Mchgan to forestall unonsm n both the college and the Connecton 31 Adran thus became a cause celebre of the perceved losses whch the Wesleyans would encounter should unon be ratfed, 1!! ; ; 29 Drnkhouse, Methodst Reform, Vol, esp pp 474-75 for a report on the debates on secret socetes and other moral ssues The contemporary verson n The Methodst Protestant, 2 June 1866, omtted nearly all references to dsagreements about moral ssues 30 After a stff debate, the Wesleyans lost the battle for party n votng rghts, probably because so few of them actually attended the meetngs Protestants opposed the name "Unted, Methodst Church," offered by Cyrus Prndle, n order to leave open the opportunty for the Free and Prmtve Methodsts to jon later on an equal footng See The Amercan Wesleyan, 16 May 1866 The dea to correspond wth them E Church about the Centenary was undoubtedly Prndles also c " - ~ - ---llllll- llllll lllll "",lll - :,11 ~ : ~ ; ~ + : l
! l 1 Church Unon Dalogue n the Come-Outer Tradton 91 ual ant :ret )ne the dato ues ton :ret ual SS a st c- to s, d n by l e, w S 1 : : 1 { ) l!!! j Another threat to unon n 1866 was the growng mpresson among many Wesleyans that the proposals were a dsgused attempt to unte wth the ME Church A contemporary hstoran recalled that L C Matlack "gave ntmaton from tme to tme that wth three or four other promnent mnsters he was present to watch the course of events and to gve, f possble, a trend to the General Conventon that would commt t to general Methodstc Unon, as proposed by the last General Conference of the ME Church" 32 Further, t was known among the Wesleyans, that Matlack was vstng ME Church gatherngs to speak n strrng oratory about the possblty of rejonng the parent body The response to Matlack n The Wesleyan was ponted: "We wll not beleve that Epscopacy was not a reason for secesson from the ME Church and a reason for not returnng to t" 33 A thrd dffculty for Wesleyans was the secret socety queston n a seres of well-reasoned edtorals early n 1866, Luther Lee went to great efforts to demonstrate to hs fellow Wesleyans that the Connecton could not expect to prosper wth the contnuaton of a general rule aganst secret as socatons Lee argued that the Connecton had been organzed on a dstnct antslavery bass and not as an ant-secret socety fraternty Further, he ponted out that whle Wesleyans have opposed such socetes, lodge membershps had steadly ncreased Lee found the response to hs edtorals to be "so extreme, so volent and so censorous, that no peace can be kept wth my opponents" 34 Growng numbers of Wesleyans held that the ssue was not one to be dealt wth n a mnor statement of local church polty, but a deeply sgnfcant moral ssue What was more dffcult to dentfy than the problems rased by Adran College, hypothetcal merger wth the ME Church or secret socetes, was the subtle but defnte change n the ethos of the Wesleyan movement Undoubtedly, Wesleyans had from the begnnng perceved themselves as a soco-moral reform crusade; however, n the 1860s there s evdence that new leadershp became more ntensely and generally ultrastc and sectaran than the orgnators of the Connecton had ntended n contrast to Luther, : 31 Much more was made of the "Egypt Conventon" than actually transpred The "conventon" was an nformal meetng n March 1866 of those opposed to M P nterference wth Adran College; erroneous statements about the sale of college propertes were ssued and Luther Lee was targeted as one who was spearheadng the "unholy allance" Lees ponted responses are found n The Amercan Wesleyan, 28 March and 18 Aprl 1866 32 Drnkhouse, Methodst Reform, Vol, p 475 33 Adam Crooks, edtor of The Wesleyan, reported n the 28 March 1866 ssue on Matlacks address to the New York Cty Methodst Preachers Conference A strong denuncaton of Matlack and epscopacy appeared two weeks later n the 11 Aprl 1866 ssue as a letter from a concerned local preacher 34 Brackney, "Fruts of a Crusade," p 250; The Wesleyan, 25 Aprl 1866 Lees argument was tenuous at best, snce a rule aganst secret socetes had been part of the Wesleyan platform from the begnnng
~ ~,, 92 Methodst Hstory Lees poston that Wesleyans consttuted a "Connecton" or a moral conscence to nfluence the greater Methodst famly, others came to see Wesleyan Methodsm as a "permanent vanguard for God n moral achevements" The leader of the new ultrasm was Adam Crooks, a mddle-aged pastor from Cleveland who was elected Connectonal Edtor n 1864 n hs frst edtoral, he revealed a tendency toward the recent holness movement as he wrote: The prmal objects of the Amercan Wesleyan should be the success of Chrstan enterprse-the spread of scrptural holness over these lands-consstng of pety and purty, correct fath, genune experence, and correspondng practce Holness unto the Lord should radate from every ssue 35 At the tme of hs electon to the edtorshp, Crooks was a well-known Cleveland pastor who nveghed heavly aganst vce and promoted ctywde revval n the sprt of the holness crusades of 1858 Adam Crooks moved quckly to become the chef foe aganst the unonsts On prncple he was vehemently opposed to merger wth the M P s snce he had left that tradton on grounds of moral conscence several decades prevously Further, Crooks was convnced that the entre unon dscusson was productve of nothng more than dssenson and strfe n hs nstantaneous reportng of the Cncnnat Conventon (whch ncluded mnute detals of the debates of moral ssues), Crooks asserted that the gatherng "dd but lttle to conclate the convctons and wshes of a majorty of the mnsters and members of the Wesleyan Methodst Connecton" 36 Vvhen news of the Wesleyan opnons reached Methodst Protestants, the leadershp expressed dsmay and responded that Crooks accounts of the Conventon were premature and placed the most unfavorable constructon on the acts of the Conventon 37 As the fall annual conference meetngs were held among the Wesleyans, one regon after another expressed doubts about the wsdom of merger The ntal of these sessons, held n the Central Oho Conference, was probably the most sgnfcant: " after a full and free dscusson of unon wth other Chrstan bodes, we deem t our duty to adhere wth fdelty to our present organzaton" n yet another seres of hearngs, one of the Conventon delegates beleved that "manly the Conventon was made up of men of years and ttles whose battles are manly fought \ l 1 ] l j, 35 Elzabeth Crooks, Lfe of Adam Crooks, p 128; for a relable descrpton of the holness movement and the 1858 revvals, consult Tmothy L Smth, Revvalsm and Socal Reform n Md-Nneteenth Century Amerca (New York: Abngdon Press, 1957)j pp 63-80, and for a comprehensve bblography of the subject, Charles E Jones, A Gude to the Study of the Holness Movement (Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, 1974) 36The Wesleyan, 13 June 1866 37 The Methodst Protestant, 4 July 1866 Crooks was convnced that unonsm was a plot engneered by a few leaders and far from beng the spontaneous feelng of the Connecton: The Wesleyan, 30 May 1866 ī - ~, _(;
Church Unon Dalogue n the Come-Outer Tradton 93 1 they had come prepared to concede anythng for the sake of unon" 38 ncreasngly, the symbols of dstaste were clercal eltsm and the secret socety rule, whch for most Wesleyans consttuted a moral breach of the true law of Chrst The clmax of Wesleyan dvson occurred n October 1866 when Cyrus Prndle resgned hs admnstratve post as General Agent and Apam Crooks was elected hs replacement Prndle, Matlack, and Lee had become the targets for ncreasngly btter attacks n the churches and the press as the trad moved closer to advocatng not only a non-epscopal unon but possble reunon wth the ME Church n the north Apparently n response to personal overtures made to Prndle hmself, the Wesleyan reformer confessed to hs colleagues, "f the ME Church were to secure the Lay element n ther Conferences, there s no queston growng out of the Epscopacy as t s, that would consttute a fatal barrer to my unon wth her" 39 Followng the lead of Prndle, Luther Lee penned hs fnal edtoral on the secret socety ssue n whch he asserted that he was "not dsposed to be held longer n such relatons of vsble and terrble nconsstency, wthout one grand struggle to free myself" 40 But the mpendng loss of three of the leadng founders of the Connecton dd not daunt the moral crusade whch Adam Crooks and growng numbers of Wesleyans sustaned to bolster denomnatonal unty and contnuaton To the credt of the ultrasts, by November 1866, the queston of unon was permanently slenced among the Wesleyan Methodsts As one releved lay preacher put t, "hereafter The Wesleyan wll be welcomed to our homes freghted wth revval notces and such other relgous readng as wll encourage, strengthen and revve the droopng sprts of our people " 41 Eplogue - Reunon 1 l Especally we would rejoce f there could be a general unon of all Methodsts who agree n doctrne, and who are loyal to the General Government, and who are opposed to the evl of slavery, n the approachng Centenary of Methodsm, whch occurs n 1866 42 Accordng to the plan, the western and northern conferences of the Methodst Protestant church proceeded to reorganze as "The Methodst Church" At a fnal meetng of the MP General Conventon n November 38 The Wesleyan, 13 June and 20 June 1866 n the latter source there s an obvous age bas as another younger lay preacher attacked the "old guard" leaders, Matlack, Lee, and Prndle 39 The Wesleyan, 25 July 1866 40 The Wesleyan, 2 May 1866 41 Crooks and hs followng used edtorals, protracted meetngs and exaggerated accounts of nternal dssenson n the Connecton to buld ther case for rejecton of the unon proposals See The Wesleyan, 21 November 1866; for the nfluence of perfectonsm on Crooks, "Unon Among Methodsts," 11 Aprl 1866 42 The Bshops message was reported n The Methodst Protestant, 22 July 1865
~ 94 Methodst Hstory ; ~ 1866, the way for reorganzaton was cleared for the new church to become a realty 43 Whle much of the Wesleyan support was erodng rapdly, Luther Lee asssted n creatng a Dscplne as dd Cyrus Prndle n other matters of mplementaton t was generally beleved among the Protestants that eventually many Wesleyan congregatons would be brought nto the unon as a result of the postve nfluence of leaders lke Lee, Matlack, and Prndle The frst General Conference of the Methodst Church met 15-22 May 1867 n Cleveland, Oho at the Wesleyan church of that cty, n an obvous attempt to become more than a resusctated M P Church Of the forty-one delegates present, only seven were Wesleyans, wth but a mnorty pledged to the scheme n addton to adoptng a Dscplne and Artcles of Fath~ the delegates agreed to transfer most of the western M P 1nachnery to the successor church and to pursue new parsh and msson developments Sgnfcantly, Adran College was accepted as a specal educatonal concern and the delegates agreed upon educatonal standards for the mnstry whch ncluded examnaton by an annual conference and, f possble, a readng knowledge of the Scrptures n the orgnal language No rule on secret socetes was adopted as those present agreed to avod legslaton upon such matters 44 roncally, whle there was no certanty about future Wesleyan nvolvement n the venture, most observers beleved that a fnal and complete break wth the southern and eastern conferences of the M P Church had been effected 45 Three further General Conferences of the Methodst Church would be held untl n 1877 the Church reunted wth the eastern and southern conferences to become agan the Methodst Protestant Church At frst, the southern conferences had hardened ther own dentty and determned "to hold fast that whch s good" n vew of the northern/western shfts, but by 1871 fraternal messengers were beng exchanged and unon negotatons were under consderaton for both M P branches wth the Methodst Epscopal Church, South, North, and each other 46 n the };! ( ( ( ; r,; 43 Proceedngs of ths Conventon are detaled n Drnkhouse, Methodst Reform, Vol, pp 477-80 The delegates took the poston that all terrtory outsde the cooperatng annual conferences was consdered mssonary terrtory 44 Detals of the Conference are to be found n a separate publcaton, Mnutes of the Frst General Conference of the Methodst Church Held at Cleveland, Oho May 15-22, 1867 (Sprngfeld, Oho: Bassett, 1867), pp 3-20, 32-33 45 Bassett, MP Hstory, p 235; The Methodst Protestant, 7 October 1865; Drnkhouse, Methodst Reform, Vol, p 476 46 The Methodst Protestant, 7 October 1865; 19 May 1866 The expressed need of them P Southern and Eastern conferences at the close of the war was suffcent mnsters to fll " the open pulpts; thus, unon wth them E Church, South was proposed (26 August 1865) n 1866 an nvtaton to the Western and Northern Conferences "to come home" was tendered (17 February 1866) The later fraternal relatons are treated n Bucke, Chandler, et al, Hstory of Methodsm, Vol, pp 394-410
r-n r 1 ;- te r, :r ts te c, ty 1e Church Unon Dalogue n the Come-Outer Tradton 95 roughly ten years of ts exstence, the Methodst Church experenced a modest growth rate, enlarged ts publshng and mssons operatons and centralzed ts admnstratve dutes at Pttsburgh, Pennsylvana 4 7 The college program at Adran-the one tangble result of unon-was further expanded and legally held to be n the ttle of the Methodst Church The latter acton was strenuously opposed by most of the Wesleyan faculty at the school and the Mchgan conference of that church attempted on several occasons to wrest the school free from both the unon church and fnancal stablty Now under new soldarty leadershp, the Wesleyan Methodst Church tred unsuccessfully over several years to obtan a fnan- cal settlement whereby all mones whch had been contrbuted to Adran ty es by Wesleyans would be restored to that denomnaton 48 ) f the Protestants were dsapponted that W esleyans had retreated from the unon church, many were deeply chagrned to learn that those al : same Wesleyans who had promoted non-epscopal Methodsm had n fact js reunted wth the Methodst Epscopal Church! John Scott, an obvously, based observer, later recalled hs amazement at the course taken by Luther e Lee: d y d st s 7, y had been n correspondence wth Dr Luther Lee untl wthn a week of our General Conference, and he stll professed great devoton to the unon movement before our Conference was over, heard that he had returned to the Methodst Epscopal Church was never more shocked n my lfe had esteemed hm very hghly, but he dsapponted me sorely 49 d, Between February and June 1866 several Wesleyans had n fact returned n to ther orgnal church, among whom were Lee, Matlack, and Prndle t, At least part of the reason clamed for ther acton was the falure of the d Wesleyan Church to ratfy plans to unte wth the Protestants But, there,, r were deeper reasons c When the "pecular nsttuton" had been abolshed by law the orgnal ; e Wesleyan reformers felt no oblgaton to contnue a sectaran stance: "n e my judgement," reasoned Lucus Matlack, "all real antagonsm, between the parent body and ts branches, s cancelled, or s n the process of ad, justment And thnk there s no volaton of prncple nor of fraternal feelng necessarly nvolved n changng personal relatons" 50 To the quet l relef of the new Wesleyan leaders, t was reported that n lttle over a 47 Bassett, M P Hstory,pp 251-71; Drnkhouse, Methodst Reform, Vol, pp 499, 502 ndcates an overall growth to about 50,000 wth some dssenson n the West over msappropraton of the name, "Methodst" 48 Jennngs, Amercan Wesleyan sm, p 86, accused the Protestants of "actng lke men of the world" and thus teachng the \Vesleyans a btter lesson 49 Drnkhouse, Afethodst Reform, Vol, p 481, quotes John Scott, a longtme leader n the unon dalogue, as sayng that he was so dsapponted n Lee that he gave away all of the latters books whch Scott had prevously reled upon for nterpretatons of Methodstc theology
96 Methodst Hstory year, as by an nvsble but omnpotent hand Lee s settled n purpose to go nto the Unon, Matlack equally purposed to go to them E Church and Prndle s standng between these extremes hestant and awatng the openngs of Provdence " 51 Behnd all of the dscussons of contemporary ssues and doctrne, lay one other event whch spoke mportantly to those of a larger denomnatonal sprt The one-hundredth annversary of the arrval of the frst Methodsts n Amerca n 1766 was approachng and n an act of genune good wll, the M E bshops not only nvted the "come-outer" groups to consder the progress whch the mother church had made, but also to dscuss specfc unon possbltes at the regonal and annual conference levels 52 Whle ths nvtaton repulsed the more ardent reformers of the second generaton (prncpally the later Wesleyans and Free Methodsts), t actually served to nstll a new denomnatonal sprt among Methodst Protestants, now the Methodst Church, and those Wesleyans who had once served n the M E Church As George Brown, author of the MP /WM hymnal, reflected on ths "era of good feelngs among Methodsts" n a letter to the bshops of the ME Church, "No gentleman shall hold out hs hand to me and be refused a shake of mne hold these bshops and the members of the Central Centenary Commttee to be gentlemen They have held out ther hands, and hope we wll hold out ours, and talk over the possblty of a future unon" 53 A few of the leadng dssenters, Lucus Matlack, Luther Lee, and Cyrus Prndle, dd shake hands and agreed that the tme had arrved for each to rejon the evangelcal march of Methodsm Whle Wesleyan Methodsts and Methodst Protestants could not agree that organc unon was possble n the 1860s, they dd demonstrate that members of the greater Methodst famly have a deep sense of sngular hertage whch n the late nneteenth century drew them to dscuss commonaltes and cooperaton More than just a common polty (about whch the "come-outers" dffered greatly), Wesleyans and Protestants joned the parent church n affrmng the prmary relevance of John Wesley and the pecular admxture of evangelsm and socal concern characterstc of the Methodst tradton n keepng wth the one-hundredth annversary of N tl 50The other reformers mght well have agreed Compare Orange Scott, The Grounds of Secesson from the Methodst Epscopal Church (Syracuse: L C Matlack 1849), p 24, and Luther Lees Wesleyan Manual: A Defense of the Organzaton of the Wesleyan Methodst Connecton (Syracuse: Samuel Lee, 1862), wth Lucus C Matlack, Secesson: A Personal Narratve of Proscrpton For Beng An Aboltonst (Syracuse: np, 1856), pp 61-62 51 The Amercan Wesleyan, 3 Aprl 1867 Matlack joned the Phladelpha Conference, Lee the Detrot Conference, and Prndle the Oho Conference of them E Church For detals, of the ndvdual reunons, see the respectve annual conference mnutes for the year 1867 and Margaret B MacMllan, The Methodst Church n Mchgan: The Nneteenth Century (Grand Rapds: Eerdmans, 1967), pp 242-43; the latter deals especally wth Luther Lees "post-wesleyan" career
ll ; :, Church Unon Dalogue n the Come-Outer Tradton 97 Methodsm n the Unted States, a "come-outer" probably descrbed best the bond whch untes the hers of Mr Wesley: Methodsm s Gods most effectual method of savng the lost among men, and whereas ths s the one-hundredth year of Methodsm n Amerca we recommend celebratng t n the hghest relgous sense, wth prayer, thanksgvng, prase and good works 54 j : : ; 1 52 The Methodst Protestant, 9 June 1866; Bucke, Amercan Methodsm, Vol, pp 394-402 There was basc uncertanty about the exact date of the arrval of the frst Methodsts n Amerca TheM E Bshops desgnated 1866 as the Centenary Year and held a "Mssonary Annversary Conference" n Baltmore, and "to nvte all Methodst bodes to unte n the celebratons" See The Amercan Wesleyan, 31 January and 11 Aprl 1866 53 The Methodst Protestant, 9 June 1866 S 4 The Wesleyan, 11 Aprl 1866 j _t ~ J l, : o! -! ;!! ; ;!, l :