USA > Tennessee > History of Tennessee from the earliest time to the present : together with an historical and a biographical sketch of from twenty-five to thirty counties of east Tennessee, V.2 > Part 26
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"But that for which he was, in my judgment, more distinguished than for anything else, was the reverence, fervency and prevalence of his prayer, proceeding, as it always seemed to do, from a deep, strong, un- wavering confidence in God, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. With awe, with reverence and humility, and yet with great confidence, did he approach the mercy seat, feeling that 'Jesus answers prayer.' Infidelity may scoff, skepticism and 'philosophy, so-called,' may mark it as a 'strange coincidence,' but the fact remains to be attested by hundreds of witnesses still living, that time after time Axley has been known, at popular meetings in times of severe drought, to pray publicly for rain, with all the apparent humility, child-like simplicity and Chris- tian confidence with which he would have prayed for the conversion of a penitent; and rain came! So often did this occur in the course of years that it became common, when he publicly prayed for rain, for some wicked man to say 'Come, boys ; let's go on ; we'll get wet; Axley's prayed for rain."
In this I record but sober facts; and even at the risk of wearying the reader I must mention one case, known to several persons now liv- ing, who were present and witnessed it. It occurred at Muddy Creek Camp Ground, in Roane County, Tenn., twenty-four or five miles west or southwest of Knoxville. A drought had prevailed over that region of country for an unusually long time, and the prospects were becoming truly alarming. On Sabbath of the camp-meeting Mr Axley entered the palpit. Over him was a cloudless sky; around and beneath him was the parched earth. It had been remarked that during his stay on the ground previous to that hour he had been rather more than ordinarily serions,
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thoughtful and taciturn, as though something weighed heavily upon his mind. On his entering the stand his friends observed that his counte- nance was deeply overshadowed with gloom. He sang and prayed. In his prayer on the part of himself and the people he made general confes- sion of sin and consequent unworthiness, pleading the merits of a cruci- fied Redeemer, and implored pardon for the past and grace for the future. Then, among other petitions, devoutly and fervently he asked for rain upon the parched earth. The prayer ended, he arose from his knees, with a gloom still upon his countenance so deeply and clearly marked as to excite the sympathy of his friends. Instead of announcing his text and proceeding with his sermon, as was expected, he sang a few lines and again called the congregation to prayer. This time his entreaties for rain were strikingly and touchingly earnest and fervent, and the pleas put in differed from those of his first prayer. A second time he arose from his knees. Now his countenance was indicative of intense mental suffering. A third time he sang, and a third time he bowed in prayer. In this prayer he entreated God, for the sake of Christ, and in mercy to infants and unsinning animals, which had not abused His goodness. des- rised His mercies, blasphemed His holy name, desecrated His Sabbath. nor violated His commandments, to send rain and preserve them from the horrors of famine and want. This prayer ended, he arose, with a countenance lighted and calm as a summer's eve. He then announced his text and preached in his usual manner, without the most distant al- lusion to the unusual manner in which he had opened the services, or to the feelings that had prompted him. He simply went forward and did as I relate; giving no reason to any. But ere that sermon was ended, the darkened horizon and distant thunders announced the coming rain."
Another case of answer to prayer is given in the language of the Rev. Leroy H. Cage: "I will here relate a circumstance that took place at Edwards' schoolhouse, two and one-half miles northwest from where Gallatin now stands. A circuit preacher named Henry Birchett had an appointment at that place, the congregation was too large for the house, and he had to preach in the grove. The preacher, having sung and prayed, took his text and began to preach; a cloud arose, very angry, with thunder and lightning, the congregation became restless, the preacher stopped and said to the congregation: 'Be still, and see the sal- vation of God.' He dropped upon his knees and prayed that he might be permitted to preach that sermon to that congregation. The cloud be- gan at once to part, and a heavy rain fell all around but none reached the congregation. My father, Thomas Blackmore. John Carr and several others, who were there, report that the preacher's countenance shone and
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seemed to be more than human. It was further told me that on his death bed there were shining lights around bim, and they supposed that he heard unearthly music."
It was about this time, in the years 1811 and 1812, that the religous emotions and fears of the people were affected and awakened in a most remarkable manner by the earthquakes and other phenomena of those years. It is very seldom that earthquakes occur over a great extent of country remote from volcanoes, but these quakings were felt over an ex- tent of country 300 miles long and of considerable width. The surface of the earth not only trembled and shook violently, but broke open in fis- sures, from which mud and water were thrown to the height of trees. The comet of 1811 was of tremendous magnitude, and as such bodies were then considered harbingers of impending calamity, great consterna- tion was produced by its appearance. The aurora borealis was also that year exceedingly brilliant and beautiful, and many thought that in its rapid movements, the march of armies and bloodshed were portended. Besides all these things there was a prospect of war with the Indians and with Great Britain. All these impending calamities produced in many quarters a deep-seated and terrible feeling of fear among the people, who shook and trembled more than did the earth beneath their feet. The uninformed but pious mind has for centuries been able to discover at frequent but irregularly occurring intervals signs of the near approach of the consummation of all earthly things. Wars and rumors of wars, false prophets, and the "judgments of the Almighty" are seldom absent from the world, which is for this reason continually coming to an end. And at such times as those we are now discussing, uninformed but wicked people, conscious of the iniquity of their lives and of the impurity of their motives, flee to the church, the only refuge for them in the world. In the presence of the terrible comet, and of the earthquakes and im- pending war, men's hearts failed them, their knees smote together with fear, and they implored the ministers to preach and pray. The experi- ence they were then undergoing was altogether new. They collected to- gether in groups, terrorized and pitiful crowds. Similar scenes were witnessed in 1833, at the time of the occurrence of the great meteoric showers, or "falling stars," which produced a most profound and widely spread sensation upon the multitude. Men who for years had been per- sonal enemies, thinking the judgment day had come, made haste to be reconciled with each other, not waiting even for the dawn of day. Many instances are related by writers, who were eye-witnesses, which, when the danger was over, were exceedingly amusing, ridiculous or absurd. Only one instance of this kind can be here introduced.
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Peter Cartwright was in Nashville when the first severe shock of earthquake was felt. He saw a negro woman start to the spring for water. When the earth began to tremble and the chimneys and scaf- folding around buildings being erected began to fall, she raised a shout saying: "The Lord is coming in the clouds of heaven! The day of judg- ment! The day of judgment!" Hearing this her two young mistresses were dreadfully frightened and came running out of the house begging her to stop and pray for them. But she replied: "I can not stop to pray for you now. I told you how it would be. He is coming! He is com- ing! I must go to meet him. Farewell! Hallelujah! Glory Hallelujah!" and went on shouting and clapping her hands.
Such is the weakness of poor, ignorant human nature. When judg- ment is impending and apparently immediate and unavoidable, men are fearfully and tremblingly anxious to confess their own sins and to obtain pardon; when judgment seems indefinitely remote they are chiefly con- cerned about the sins of others and in denouncing against them the judg- ments of the Lord. Erasmus well said: "Quam religiosus nos afflictio facit!"* When history, philosophy and the natural sciences, the natural antidotes for superstition, shall become sufficiently familiar to the masses such pitiable exhibitions of human weakness will disappear.
The action of this conference at Liberty Hill, Tenn., in 1808, has al- ready been referred to. Some of the presiding elders and circuit preach- ers were strongly anti-slavery in their sentiments, and consequently were rigidly anti-slavery in the administration of discipline. This was the case with the Rev. James Axley and Enoch Moore. They not only re- fused to license slave-holders to preach, but also denied them the privilege of exhorting or leading in prayer-meeting. They even went so far as to denounce slave-holders as no better than thieves and robbers. The course of the conference in that early day is illustrated by the following en- try:
"Leven Edney, recommended from Nashville Circuit; his character ex- amined and approved, Lewmer Blackman being security that he will set his slave free as soon as practicable." It was, however, seldom found "practicable" to set free the slave. Notwithstanding the action taken by the Methodist Church in its adoption of rules for the government of slaves and slave-holders, the number of slaves held continued to increase. Generally speaking it was found impracticable to free the slaves, hence regulations adopted by the church, aimed at the institution, had but little effect otherwise than to create and foster a prejudice against the church itself. The Tennessee Conference which met in 1812, dealt with this ques-
*How religious atfiction makes us !
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tion with such wisdom as they possessed. It was provided that every preacher having charge of a circuit should, upon information received. cite any member buying or selling a slave to appear at the next ensuing quarterly conference, which should proceed to determine whether such slave had been bought in a case of justice and mercy, and if this were found not to have been the case, the person buying or selling such slave should be expelled from the church.
At the conference of 1815 this rule was voted to be unconstitutional and a report was adopted the substance of which was that the conference sincerely believed that slavery was a great moral evil, but as the laws of the country did not admit of emancipation without the special act of the Legislature in some places, nor permit a slave so liberated to enjoy his freedom, they could not adopt any rule compelling church members to liberate their slaves. nor could they devise any rule sufficiently specific to meet the various and complex cases that were continually arising. But to go as far as they could consistently with the laws and the nature of things, to do away with the evil and "remove the curse from the Church of God," they adopted two rules on the subject, the first being that if any member should buy or sell any slave or slaves to make gain, or should sell any slave to any slave-dealer, such member should be expelled from the church, except he could satisfactorily show that it was done to keep or place different members of the same family together; and the second was that no person should be eligible to the office of deacon in the church who did not disapprove of slavery and express a willingness to effect a legal emancipation of his slaves as soon as it was practicable for him to do so. At the conference held at Franklin, November 8, 1817, this question was again taken up for discussion with the result of the adoption of a very elaborate report. After a "Whereas" that the General Conference had authorized each annual conference to formulate its own rules respecting slavery, the following resolutions (in substance) were adopted:
First-That if any local elder, deacon or preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church should purchase a slave, the Quarterly Conference should say how long the slave should serve as a remuneration for the purchase money, and that the purchaser should enter into a written obli- gation to emancipate such slave at the expiration of the term of servitude, provided that emancipation were permissible under the laws of the State; but that if the laws of the State should continue to oppose emancipation, then the next Quarterly Conference held atfer the expiration of the term of servitude, should determine the futuro status of the slave.
Second-The same rule applied to private members of the church, but instead of the Quarterly Conference their cases were managed by a
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committee appointed by the preacher having charge of their respective circuits; and in all cases relating to preachers, deacons, elders or private members, the children of slaves purchased, born during the time of bondage or term of servitude, were to be manumitted upon arriving at the age of twenty-five, provided the law should then admit of emancipation : but if the law should not then admit of emancipation, the cases of all children born of purchased slaves were to be submitted to the Quarterly Conference or the committee, according to whether the owner was a preacher or private member. The portion of this rule which applied to the selling of slaves by a preacher or member is exceedingly interesting and curious. This provision required the preacher to submit his case to the Quarterly Conference and the private member to the committee. which Quarterly Conference or committee, as the case might be, should determine for what term of years the slave should be sold, and required the seller of the slave to record in the county court the emancipation of the slave at the expiration of the said term. This rule was to be en- forced from and after January 1, 1818.
Such was the legislation of a body of ministers with reference to a subject over which they had no control, provided the laws themselves did not admit of emancipation, which they themselves assumed to be the fact. Hence the adoption of a proviso which in every case, taking things as they were, either nullified the rule or made it easy for a member or a minister to retain his slave; for whenever he determined to own slaves it was easy to make it appear that it was in accordance with justice and mercy to retain those already in possession, or that under the law it was impracticable to set them free. Such legislation would seem to be sutti- ciently absurd, but it is amazing that an intelligent body of men should gravely attempt to compel a preacher or member to emancipate a slave at the expiration of a term of years after having surrendered ownership and control of the same. The only theory conceivable which can relieve the conference of the accomplishment of a solemn mockery is the supposition that they, having confidence in the justice of the future, must have be- lieved themselves to be anticipating civil legislation-that the legal emancipation of the slave was an event the immediate future must pro- duce. However, the attitude of the conference on this subject is of great historic value, bringing out into clear relief, as it does, the strong con- viction of the Methodist body of Christians that slavery was a great moral evil, the existence of which was deplorable, and to be opposed by every means attached to which there was any hope of its gradual abolish- ment. At the conference held at Nashville October 1, 1819, two persons, Peter Burum and Gilbert D. Taylor, were recommended as proper to be
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admitted on trial, but both were rejected because they were slave-holders, and a number of applicants for deacon's orders were similarly rejected. These rejections elicited the following protest:
"Be it remembered that whereas Tennessee Annual Conference, held in Nashville October 1, 1819, have taken a course in their decisions rel- ative to the admission of preachers on trial in the traveling connection, and in the election of local preachers to ordination which goes to fix the principle that no man, even in those States where the law does not admit of emancipation, shall be admitted on trial or ordained to the office of deacon or elder if it is understood that he is the owner of a slave or slaves. That this course is taken is not to be denied, and it is avowedly designed to fix the principle already mentioned. Several cases might be mentioned, but it is deemed unnecessary to instance any except the case of Dr. Gilbert D. Taylor, proposed for admission, and Dudley Hargrove, recommended for ordination. We deprecate the course taken as oppres- sively severe in itself and ruinous in its consequences, and we disapprove of the principle as contrary to and in violation of the order and discipline of our church. We, therefore, do most solemnly, and in the fear of God, as members of this conference, enter our protest against the proceedings of the conference as it relates to the above-mentioned course and prin- ciple. Thomas L. Douglass, Thomas D. Porter, William McMahon, Benjamin Malone, Lewis Garrett, Barnabas McHenry, William Allgood, William Stribling, Ebenezer Hearn, Timothy Carpenter, Thomas String- field, Benjamin Edge, Joshua Boucher, William Hartt, John Johnson, Henry B. Bascom."
This protest had considerable influence upon the church in the South. It was taken to the General Conference and by that body referred to the committee on slavery, but nothing definite was accomplished.
At the conference which met at Columbia in 1824 this question of slavery came up again in the form of an address from the "Moral Relig- ious Manumission Society of West Tennessee," whereupon the follow- ing resolution was adopted:
Resolved, That the address from the Moral Religious Manumission Society be returned to committee accompanied with a note stating that so far as the address involves the sub- ject of slavery we concur in the sentiments that slavery is an evil to be deplored, and that it should be counteracted by every judicious and religious exertion.
Thus it will be seen that the Methodist preachers admitted that slay- ery was a deplorable evil, and should be counteracted by every judicious and religious exertion. "What a misfortune," says Rev. J. B. McFerrin, * "that this sentiment had not always obtained! treating the matter in a religious manner, and not intermeddling with it as a civil question."
*** History of Methodism in Tennessee," to which this chapter is indebted.
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In 1832 mission work among the slaves was for the first time ear- nestly undertaken. South Carolina had set the example in work of this nature, and it was not long before there were scores of missionaries in the Southern States proclaiming the doctrines of Methodism to the bond- man as well as to the free. Among the blacks there were many genuine Christians and some excellent preachers. The decided and memorable impulse given to missionary work among the slaves was the result of a speech by Rev. (subsequently Bishop) James O. Andrew, which " car- ried by storm the whole assembly." So successful was the work of mis- sions among the blacks that in 1846 the board reported 20,430 colored members, besides the communicants in the regular circuits and stations of the church, while the general minutes give the total number of col- ored members in the same years as 124,961. In 1861 the board reported 69,794 probationers, and 12,418 children under religious instruction, the general minutes, in 1860, showing 171,857 members and 35,909 proba- tioners.
Without pursuing further in detail the action of the church on the important subject of slavery, it is now deemed proper to present a syn- opsis of the reasons for the separation of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States into two portions-the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church South. While there may be differences of opinion with regard to minor points of controversy, it can be positively stated that had there been no slavery there would have been no epoch of separation. The existence of this institution, the nec- essary connection with it of church members and its perpetual agitation in the quarterly, annual and general conferences, because of the perpet- ual and increasing agitation of the question outside of the conferences, was finally the occasion of the disruption of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which has been and probably ever will be a potent cause of re- gret to thousands of Methodists in both sections of the country, and probably to all except those who can clearly discern the hand of Provi- dence in all events, and who are settled in their convictions that " He doeth all things well."
The General Conference met in New York May 1, 1844. It was the most memorable conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church ever held in the United States. The first question of importance which occupied its attention was that of Francis A. Harding, who had been suspended by the Baltimore Conference from the ministerial office for refusing to man- umit five slaves belonging to his wife at the time of his marriage to her, and which, according to the laws of Maryland, still remained hers after the marriage. The action of the Baltimore Conference in suspending
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Mr. Harding is sufficiently set forth in the following preamble and reso- lution :
WHEREAS, The Baltimore Conference can not and will not tolerate slavery in any of
its members.
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* * * *
*
*
Resolved, That Brother Harding be suspended until the next Annual Conference or until he assures the Episcopacy that he has taken the necessary steps to secure the free- dom of his slaves.
With this demand Brother Harding failed to comply because, accord- ing to his plea, of his inability under the laws of the State to do so; but he nevertheless expressed a willingness to emancipate them and permit them to go to Africa or to any free State provided they were willing to accept freedom on those terms, but no evidence tends to show that any attempt was made to obtain their consent, or that their consent was obtained, and thus their emancipation was impracticable, for they could not live free in Maryland without violating the laws. But notwithstand- ing the impracticability of emancipation the action of the Baltimore Con- ference in the case of Mr. Harding was, on appeal to the General Confer- ence, after able arguments for the appellant by Dr. W. A. Smith, of Vir- ginia, and for the Baltimore Conference by John A. Collins, of Baltimore. sustained by the General Conference by a refusal to reverse it, the vote being 117 against reversal to 56 in favor of it, taken on the 11th of May.
Another and still more important case came before the conference on May 22, in that of Bishop James O. Andrew, of Georgia, who had, against his own will, become connected with slavery. Several years previous to the meeting of this General Conference an old lady had bequeathed to him a mulatto girl in trust to be taken care of until she should arrive at the age of nineteen, when, if her consent could be obtained, she should be set free and sent to Liberia; but in case she should refuse to go to Liberia he should keep her and make her as free as the laws of Georgia would permit. When the time came she refused to go to Liberia, and as emancipation and continued residence in Georgia afterward was imprac- ticable, Bishop Andrew remained her owner. About five years previous to the meeting of this conference, Bishop Andrew's wife's mother left to her a negro boy, and Mrs. Andrews dying, without a will, the boy became the property of the Bishop. Besides all this, Bishop Andrew, in January, 1844, was married to his second wife, who had inherited from her former husband's estate some slaves. After this marriage Bishop Andrew, unwilling to retain even part ownership in these inherited . slaves, secured them to his wife by a deed of trust. But with reference to the first two slaves mentioned the Bishop became a slave-holder by the action of other people. The General Conference, impelled to action by the growing and assertive anti-slavery sentiment throughout the North-
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er States and the Northern Conferences, took action upon Bishop Andrew's case by passing the famous Finley Resolution, which was as follows:
WHEREAS, The Discipline of our Church forbids the doing of anything calculated to destroy our itinerant General Superintendency: and whereas Bishop Andrew has become connected with slavery, by marriage and otherwise, and this act having drawn after it circumstances which, in the estimation of this General Conference, will greatly embarrass the exercise of his office as an itinerant General Superintendent, if not, in some places, entirely prevent it; therefore
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