"Resolved, That it is the sense of this General Conference that he desist from the exercise of this office so long as this impediment remains."

The discussion on this substitute continued for several days, such speakers as Stephen Olin, James B. Finley, Benjamin M. Drake, Phineas Crandall, Henry Slicer, W. D. Cass, George F. Pierce, A. B. Longstreet, Jesse T. Peck, A. L. P. Green, William Capers, John Early, Leonidas L. Hamline, Silas Comfort, William A. Smith, John A. Collins, William Winans, Peter Cartwright, Jonathan Stamper, Samuel Dunwody, John P. Durbin, George Peck, and others equally well known, taking part in it.

During the progress of the debate, Bishop Andrew addressed the Conference, giving a full account of his connection with slavery, and of his labors in behalf of the slave population. Bishop Soule also addressed the Conference; and the bishops, colleagues of Bishop Andrew, offered as a peace measure a proposition to postpone further action on the case until the ensuing General Conference. They say: "They can not but think that if the embarrassment of Bishop Andrew shall not cease before that time, the next General Conference representing the pastors, ministers, and people of the several annual conferences, after all the facts in the case shall have passed in review before them, will be better qualified than the present General Conference can be to adjudicate the case wisely and discreetly. Until the cessation of the embarrassment, or the expiration of the interval between the present and the ensuing General Conference, the undersigned believe that such a division of the work of the general superintendency might be made, without any infraction of the constitutional principle, as would fully employ Bishop Andrew in those sections of the Church in which his presence and services would be welcome and cordial."

The next day, however, June 1st, Bishop Hedding withdrew his name from the paper. He said he thought that the proposition of the bishops would be adopted without debate; but he was now convinced that it would give rise to much discussion, and he had since learned facts which led him to believe that it would not be a peace measure.

It was already rumored that the conferences in the slaveholding states would be satisfied with nothing except division of the Church. For this they were prepared; but the northern conferences were solid for union, yet were unalterably opposed to allowing any of the bishops to be in any manner implicated with slavery. The proposition of the bishops was laid on the table by a vote of 95 yeas to 84 nays. It was then ordered that the vote be taken on Finley's substitute, and it resulted as follows: Yeas, 110; Nays, 68. So Bishop Andrew was virtually suspended from all episcopal functions so long as his connection with slavery should exist.

As soon as this vote was taken, the minority gave notice that a protest would be presented by them against it, at as early a day as possible, that it might be entered on the Journal of the Conference.

On Wednesday, June 5th, A. B. Longstreet, in behalf of the delegates from the southern and southwestern conferences, presented the following declaration:

"The delegates of the conferences in the slaveholding states take leave to declare to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, that the continued agitation on the subject of slavery and abolition in a portion of the Church; the frequent action on that subject in the General Conference; and especially the extra-judicial proceedings against Bishop Andrew, which resulted on Saturday last in the virtual suspension of him from his office as superintendent, must produce a state of things in the South which renders a continuance of the jurisdiction of this General Conference over these conferences inconsistent with the success of the ministry in the slaveholding states."

This declaration, on motion of Charles Elliott, was ordered to be referred to a committee of nine. The resolutions of the General Conference of 1840, with reference to the admission of testimony from colored persons in Church trials of white members were, on motion, rescinded.

The protest of the southern conferences was presented and read by Henry B. Bascom on Thursday morning, June 6th, and the bishop presiding decided that it should be entered on the journal. Immediately a resolution was offered by Matthew Simpson, that Stephen Olin, John P. Durbin, and L. L.

Hamline be a committee to prepare a statement of the facts connected with the proceedings in the case of Bishop Andrew, and that they have liberty to examine the protest just presented by the southern brethren. The resolution was adopted.

The committee of nine, heretofore ordered, to take into consideration the declaration of the southern delegates was appointed as follows: Robert Paine, Gleezen Fillmore, Peter Akers, Nathan Bangs, Thomas Crowder, Thomas B. Sargent, William Winans, Leonidas L. Hamline, and James Porter.

The Conference directed that the name of Bishop Andrew be retained in the Hymn Book, Discipline, Minutes, etc.; that he receive his support as usual; and that whether in any, and if any, in what work he be employed, be determined by his own decision and action, in relation to the previous action of the Conference in his case.

The Conference having resolved to elect two additional bishops, on Friday, June 7th, Leonidas Lent Hamline and Edmund Storer Janes were elected. One hundred and seventyseven votes were cast, of which Mr. Hamline received 102 and Mr. Janes 99. Both were ordained to the episcopal office on Monday, June 10th.

George Lane and Charles B. Tippett were elected book agents at New York, and Leroy Swormstedt and John T. Mitchell in Cincinnati; George Peck, editor of the Methodist Quarterly Review; Thomas E. Bond, editor, and George Coles, assistant editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal; Charles Elliott, editor of the Western Christian Advocate; Edward Thomson of the Ladies' Repository; William Nast of the Christliche Apologete; Leroy M. Lee of the Richmond Christian Advocate; William M. Wightman of the Southern; John B. McFerrin of the Southwestern; William Hunter of the Pittsburgh; Nelson Rounds of the Northern; and Daniel P. Kidder of the Sunday-school Advocate and Sunday-school books. Charles Pitman was elected Missionary Secretary.

The report of the special committee of nine on the declaration of fifty-one delegates from the southern conferences was presented on Friday afternoon, June 7th, and laid on the table; but on the next day it was taken up and again read. The whole report was adopted, the several items being voted on separately.

The vote stood, on the average, 146 for and 16 against its adoption. This report is known as the "Plan of Separation," over which there has been so much controversy. It was under this plan that the southern conferences formed a separate ecclesiastical organization, known as the "Methodist Episcopal Church, South."

The committee appointed under the resolution offered by Matthew Simpson to answer the protest of the southern delegates, and to prepare a statement of the facts in the case of Bishop Andrew, presented their report on Monday, June 10th. Stephen Olin had been obliged to withdraw from the committee on account of illness, and L. L. Hamline was elected bishop after his appointment; accordingly their places were filled by the election of George Peck and Charles Elliott. The report was by a vote of 116 yeas to 26 nays ordered to be entered on the journal, and printed.

The general rule on Temperance was changed by a twothirds vote, so as to read according to Mr. Wesley's original rule,—“Drunkenness; buying or selling spirituous liquors; or drinking them, unless in cases of extreme necessity." This rule was changed in 1790, by dropping out the clause printed in italics; and though several attempts had been made to restore the original rule, they were hitherto unsuccessful. The bishops were instructed to bring the proposed change to the several annual conferences, so that, as soon as the necessary three-fourths majority in them should be secured, the amended rule might be inserted in the Discipline. It may be well to state here that the annual conferences almost unanimously voted for the change, and the new rule was adopted. It has remained unchanged ever since, so that the Church is, strictly speaking, a total abstinence organization-"touch not, taste not, handle not"-both for ministers and members. But it always was a temperance society, and the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage subjected the offending member to expulsion, as it does now.

It was ordered that a superintendent of missions to the colored population in the South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama conferences be appointed by the bishop presiding in those conferences. The cause of education was fostered, and

the subject of missions received special attention. The constitution of the Missionary Society was revised, and a more efficient and uniform plan of raising money for missionary purposes was adopted. The American Bible Society was commended to the Church, and various changes were made in the Discipline which George Peck, Nathan Bangs, and Thomas E. Bond were appointed to edit. The general rule and the section on slavery were left untouched.

Pittsburgh was selected as the place for holding the next General Conference, and a few minutes after midnight, on the morning of June 11th, the Conference adjourned.

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